#me in s1: oh what intrigue! all these fascinating characters!!

[harbingerofsoup]

i’ve reached s2 of my turn: washington’s spies rewatch which means i no longer care about any of these characters because robert townsend has graced my screen

[renlyslittlerose]

Started season 3 of X Files and I figured I'd give my thoughts thus far, as I know there are a few people who were curious!

I'll admit that I was a little on the fence for the first season and a bit. Like, the show had all the elements that I really like, but there was something that I felt was missing.

Part of it was the lack of Scully in the first few episodes of S2, which I later found out was due to the fact that Anderson was pregnant and the post-partum for the first little while. Still, despite knowing this, I really think the first half of the season suffered without her. They'd set the ending of S1 up as Mulder and Scully as a team, up against the world and the rigidity of thought. And then in S2 there is this concerted effort to break up the band and sideline Scully as Mulder's sidekick, making her a passive participant in the story rather than an active player and a main lead. Again, I know why it happened the way it did, but it definitely knocked some of the wind out of my sails.

The other part that I thought the series lacked was whimsy. As a hardcore Buffy enjoyer, one of the things I loved about Buffy was it knew when to not take itself too seriously. It leaned into some of the more ridiculous aspects of its nature, and let the audience breathe now and again. I felt like the X Files didn't really do that, making it so I had to laugh at scenes that I felt really weren't supposed to be goofy. That was, until I watched Humbug.

Oh boy. I went from 'this is a neat show' to 'this show is great' from that one episode alone. It had that humour, that whimsy, that sense of tongue and cheek that I'd been wanting. It was written with love for the source material, and respected the characters and the world they'd created, while poking fun at some of the less serious aspects of the series. I loved the episode, and jumped back into the series with newfound excitement for what was to come.

I just finished the three episode arc that started with the end of S2 and the start of S3, and found myself enjoying the thriller aspect. Lots of 'don't trust anyone' combined with more mystery and intrigue. I like that the show can bounce between genres and tone, and is starting to do it better and better with each passing episode.

I'm still not a big Mulder fan, though he is growing on me so long as I view him as like, that annoying but still lovable older brother who gets a little bit *too* into the sound of his own voice. Scully is, of course, the best part of the series (I could listen to Anderson explain the art of toast making and I'd be thoroughly invested). I am also really liking Skinner, both as a foil, a sometimes antagonist, and one hell of a boss. I can see why they keep giving the actor some of the more physical scenes, because that man is built like a BRICK HOUSE. I am also enjoying Mr X more than Deepthroat. Mr X is both chilling and fascinating, and he commands any scene he's in.

All in all, enjoying it so far!! I hope for more Scully focused episodes in S3, though~

[thelioncourts]

your last reid along vid it’s great, so interesting, i would like to know your thoughts on lestat and nicki age gap, bc i agree it’s done for a reason and i have my thoughts, but i would love to how you see it, if your are gonna make a vídeo i will wait. I actually think lestat being way older than in the book is gonna affect his character in more than one way. Hope you are having a nice day!! ❤️

hi!! thank you for watching reid along stuff and listening to my inane rambles enough to know I've got Thoughts™️ on this and I would LOVE to hear your thoughts as well because I'm not entirely sure I have a concrete idea as to what exactly I think it all means, but I do have ideas and guesses and whatnot. and they will definitely be making it to a video at some point, perhaps when I have a more concrete idea of exactly how I feel/what I think, but ! I will ramble below and maybe that will help me make my ideas make more sense. and - again - I would love to hear what you think!

lestat being older was something that has had me soooo intrigued since the premise of the show came out in more detail following the first look at it because lestat's age is actually really imperative to where he is in his life. like louis' age never felt significant to his story, so him being a 33 year old man feels right on every level, but lestat being this 21 year old man, this boy, being so young and having experienced so much, is significant to who he is. and so making him this 34/35 year old man, adding almost 15 years of human age to him, changes everything.

I've maintained for some time that there are only two options for the show given this: 1) lestat stays in his village in auvergne much longer and more than likely has a wife 2) lestat goes to paris around the same time as in the books and is, in turn, in paris much much longer before magnus finds him and turns him.

now, I haven't totally sat down to consider the historical aspect of all of this as well because as they've adjusted the dates a little, lestat is 27 years old when the french revolution starts and is turned into a vampire during the revolution soooooooo idk what all that means, it probably has more significance than what I've sat down to consider atm so we'll ignore that for now and revisit later

going back to the two options above, where nicki fits in now changes significantly. I hadn't thought much about the nick*stat stuff in s1 because we hadn't seen nicki so my general assumption had been that he was around lestat's age. seeing him in s2 and seeing the obvious age difference, knowing the age difference in actors, idk it changed everything and made me have to rethink everything and oh ! oh boy

so 1) lestat stays in his village in auvergne much longer and more than likely has a wife: if lestat's time in paris is the same, if magnus finds lestat just as quickly as he did in the books, lestat won't come to paris until he's in his mid-30s. realistically, most men were married by the age of 26 in the 1700s and though lestat is a seventh son and his marriage wouldn't be quite as significant to the family, it would still be considered more normal for him to be married especially by his mid-30s. so him having a wife and possibly having children (👀🤨) wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility whatsoever. my general thoughts on this story is that everything in lestat's life is, in general, the same up to his twenties but the wolves are later in his life. him meeting nicki would not be the reconnect of two childhood friends/classmates but would be the town tailor's young son is in town with his tail between his legs after a failure in paris and lestat is taken by a very young beautiful boy and said boy is fascinated by this older man who wants to know about his time in paris. in turn their dynamic in auvergne is even stranger than it is in the books because nicki in the books who has always looked down on lestat in some way about his optimism and stuff will be even worse due to the significant age difference between them and it will be a strange power dynamic: older and younger, cultured and uncultured (which. don't entirely agree with that, I'm going with easy descriptors rn), rich and aristocratic, etc. what that also means is the scandal of them going to paris together, of lestat leaving a wife in the village, of the destruction to their names !!! oh my god. it also would make the paris bits insane because it would shift the powers again, much more in lestat's favor (as it happens in the book) and would make nicki even more resentful, even more depressed.

2) lestat goes to paris around the same time as in the books and is, in turn, much much longer before magnus finds him and turns him implies to us that lestat would get out of auvergne more than likely on his own. he would probably slum it a little longer in paris before finding success but it also opens up the possibility of seeing him explore other jobs whilst searching for success orrrr being a successful actor much longer than he is in the books. this changes a lot because it would mean that there was something slightly different happening with magnus if he's not laying eyes on lestat right away and it also means that lestat would probably meet nicki in the theatre with lestat already as a successful actor and nicki as a wannabe musician. and that dynamic is so crazy I can't even quite wrap my head around it. the responsibility lestat would feel for him, the lack of power nicki would have in the situation at all, the way he'd wield lestat's kindness and love against him............like I'm just imagining this young boy who wants to be a musician joining a theatre and the main actor is this man in his 30s who is sooooo gorgeous and older and talented and he's kind and listens to you and he's been in paris for a decade and you'll never be as good as him and he encourages you but won't pull too many strings to make you the orchestra star and how did he get here in his 20s and is soooo good but you'll never be that good everybody says so and your dad cuts you off but he takes care of you and you sleep in his bed and !! like it's so fucked up. so when he's taken and you lose everything but then he's sending you so much stuff and he comes back and he's different and he's a vampire and you guilt him to turning you and he does and you demand he buy the theatre for you as your hatred festers and when you die he knows that he was supposed to take care of you and he failed you in every way.

my general thoughts on them has always been that love is irrelevant to the story they tell. the love was never as strong as the optimism v cynicism, the love was never as strong as the power dynamic in paris, the love was never as strong as nicki feeling owed something by life and by everyone, the love was never as strong as the guilt. sam making comparisons during s2 of claudia's turning to nicki's turning, and the parallels we see in those even without sam's mentioning of it, only furthered the concept of guilt being the main player here because lestat is eaten up by the guilt of nicki. and I feel like the show has already made it clear that the loss of louis would so much more be rooted in love. "I hurt the one....I hurt the only one...." and I think the comparison of nicki and claudia is insane and wonderful, almost as insane and wonderful as gabrielle and louis comparisons throughout the text and show, and !! idk.

anyway, idk if this makes sense. I know I have more that I think, but I'm getting sloppy with my thinking because I'm tired so ! Please share your thoughts and I'll come back and add to this if I think of anything tomorrow

[anosci]

Media Thread

im making a list of media ive watched/played/etc this year with brief thoughts. its going to be far less featured than my music list, but still a bit long. again mirroring twitter except this time because fuck twitter.

list below the cut

～January～

1/ Princes Arete (2001) I was sold on this movie under the premise that it's similar to Kino no Tabi. and… it is. kinda. Kino and Arete would be cool pals. Every character is interesting, which seems rare(?) Only real drawback: the hostage situation kinda really sucked.

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2/ Time of EVE (2008/9) the classic tale: androids indistinguishable from humans as an allegory for racism. but unlike DBH, this is actually really good. its a story that feels like a single thread in a vast tapestry that'd be fascinating to explore, but too bad: you only have 6 eps

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3/ Spice & Wolf (2008) i remember loving this show. i don't remember understanding the economics. I took notes this time. I still struggled. (spoilers for ep3) regardless: wow this is a good show. weirdly, I saw myself in the relationship portrayals. I guess that means its realistic?

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～February～

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4/ Spice & Wolf II (2009) i feel like this kinda fell off? :( like it tried too hard to be action-packed. and that worked sometimes. but that first arc was just… :( it feels like a case of "just needs an editing pass. needs a bit more focus" i'll treasure S1 more, after all

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5/ Double Fine PsychOdyssey (2023) absurdly captivating. i say that it's a miracle that any video game gets made ever. this shows that Psychonauts 2 was several miracles in succession. it's simultaneously illusion-shattering and inspiring.

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6/ The Owl House S1 (2020) finally sat down to watch this. it's GOOD. lots of worldbuilding to chew on, and then it picked up quite nicely. im immediately pouncing on S2 and feeling glad i was late enough to be able to marathon

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～March～

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7/ The Owl House S2 (2022) stumbling down the boulderest mountain and hitting every rock on the way down. the rocks represent engagement. i am engaged. i adore this show. it is a little weird to suddenly freeze mid-tumble.

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8/ Broken Age (2014) (Dr. Mick's LP) delightful start! brilliant, even! then the big bad is revealed and…. meh. I watched Dr. Mick's playthru tho, and holy shit that's some really cool commentary.

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9/ Double Fine Adventure! (2015) its a little unfortunate that the nature of gamedev means that the ending is kinda anticlimatic but good lord what an amazing journey. i'd watch a million of these.

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10/ Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) ok ok fine ill [finally] watch it …oh its good. like really good. its rly funny but in a way that fascinatingly beside the point? yeah I can see why some ppl didnt like this but i think its super fun

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11/ Nichijou (2011) a nice and cute slice of life thing… that occasionally breaks out some quality jokes. though only half of them landed for me. i feel like i would've gotten more out of this if I caught it at the time.

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～April～

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12/ The Owl House S3 (2023) i had a lot of reservations about the collector initially but having seen the entire arc: that came together nicely! still sad that it's The End, but like. good overall!

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13/ Penguindrum (2011) i DONT think i followed 90% of the themes and their connections. that said, i DO love the way metaphors are treated as "literal". confusing maybe, but i adore the idea of "paint what you feel not what you see" applied to storytelling.

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～May～

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14/ From the New World (2012) this has a mess of an opening (several) episode(s), but it eventually found its footing and became quite a cool action adventure… thriller i guess? i do take some issues with bits and pieces but it was a good watch overall.

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15/ GinGitune (2013) fluff. the lightest, fluffiest of fluff. melts in water. there are several elements that couldve been mined for drama and intrigue but they were all treated as background elements. (this isn't a bad thing, but it's not what you might expect.)

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～June～

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16/ Space Dandy (2014) dropped after ep4, but on good terms i guess? fun animation, funky vibes, sometimes even funny! anime johny bravo…or I think i saw a Dirty Pair comparison, which feels right. but im not meshing with the silly wacky high nrg antics rn. maybe another time.

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～July～

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17/ Death Parade (2015) rly misleading intro (i was ready to drop lol) rly rly promising setup by ep4 RLY good development and mildly biffed ending, but hard to fault considering its a 12ep. i love the aesthetics, worldbuilding, characters. overall i really really liked this!!!

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18/ One Punch Man S1 (2015) i forgot how fun this show is! and the great worldbuilding! i dont plan to move to the second season again tho. i thought about grabbing the manga instead but good lord it's way longer than i thought. oh well.

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19/ Flying Witch (2016) slicest of life with a la croix touch of supernatural. the normal slices didn't do much for me 90% of the time. but the supernatural slices? choice. (…mostly.) tbh i just want an entire season of that cafe.

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～August～

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20/ Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto (2016) i was skeptical, but this actually worked rly well. for moment. a short, beautiful moment. most of the potential here was stifled by trying to add high school drama/plot. the comedy tho, at its best, had a vibe i havent felt since hayate

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～September～

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21/ Saiki Kusuo no Psi Nan (2016) it is VERY EASY for a comedy show to slide from "absurdity = funny" to "this is just annoying". somehow, this never crossed that line, which was weirdly refreshing? not always a winner, but overall a good mix of laughs and superpower exploration.

21b/ edit to add: oh this was right after Sakamoto! Man. The two feel kind of kindred but Saiki is leagues better at staying fresh.

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22/ Viewfinder (2023) short but very sweet mind-bender puzzler thing. the story had a cool foundation but fumbled in execution imo. but the gameplay? top notch. felt great through and through. never too difficult. beautiful idea and beautiful execution.

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23/ Flip Flappers (2016) uncertain about the show at first, and then, after watching… im still uncertain. i did enjoy it, but I also felt outside the audience ig? a case where I can imagine a version of this show that knocks my socks off, but as-is it's just a fun ride

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24/ Fionna & Cake (2023) my expectations were very low and they were VASTLY exceeded! think this show is at its strongest when exploring characters w short stories, which was most of this. the ending felt slightly fumbled…i think it couldve rocked me but instead it was just :).

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～October～

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25/ Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye (2021) i already played and loved this game, but happened upon About Oliver's playthrough and fell in love again. truly that is The Most outer wilds playthrough. good lord.

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26/ The Amazing Digital Circus (2023) interesting and filled with style… but not for me. i'd list complaints but basically all of them are strengths and favorites for someone else. yknow?

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～November～

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27/ Little Witch Academia TV (2017) as the credits roll, i find myself with two thoughts: croix was done dirty and wow this is SPECTACLE. aptly magical. oh also! it was quite fun to follow along with contemporary discussion

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～December～

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28/ Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023) oh it's like. really good. i dont remember the movie so i cant compare but this stands well on its own and i love the character exploration, even if i dont like some of the uhh… what would you call that? scifi jokes? (spoiler territory soz)

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29/ Land of the Lustrous (2017) FLOORED by how much I loved this. qualms about the CG turned into admiration, the shading drawing me into the world. worries about annoying characters melted away to find admirable layers. THE USE OF SYMBOLISM kept me SO well fed. and the pacing!

29b/ cont: my only complaint that isn't a nitpick: i hate how it left so, so, so many threads loose. i faceplanted my dashboard during the decelerating pace between the first 10 eps and the final 2. i get that it's from an ongoing manga but that still felt maximum bummer.

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30/

[greenleaf4stuff]

Hi @itwillbeourswansong and @valar-did-me-wrong thank you for tagging me! <3 We are choosing sadness today, I see. T_T

Your most wail-worthy Adar moment of TROP Season 1

Ooof there are so many - I think it might be the way he looked so unsurprised when Galadriel threatened to kill all of his children and spare him for last, it seemed to me as if he was expecting something like that, as if he's heard similar sentiments before. How awful, as a father and leader, to hear someone else threaten all he is fighting for and caring about in such a way?!

Other wail-worthy moments are him standing in the sunlight while the other uruk have to wear cloth to protect themselves, effectively setting them apart, and how sad he looks while considering all this. And also the tiny almost-smile after he's blown up the volcano and created Mordor - this feels like the biggest moment of 'joy' he's had, not just in s1; finally being able to give his children a home where they will be safe from sunlight, and as he hopes, from being chased off again. All his efforts had finally come to fruition, but it also meant he might not see the sun again (as he likely thinks, at that point).

The detail/headcanon about Adar that keeps you up wailing at night

Tying into the first answer, I think just the fact that he was in such a difficult position; he cares about the uruk and their wellbeing, but they are universally hated, as is he just for Morgoth's corruption. Everyone (at first) assumes him to be Sauron, a being he hated and killed. Him and his children have nowhere to go, and have to fight with everyone to survive.

Whatever his feelings are about destroying nature, or erupting the Orodruin, he did it to protect his children, and he did not have much choice it seems, since he loves them so dearly he cannot abandon them or leave them to their own devices, it's not possible for him.

At what point did you realize that you had become a hopeless Baddydaddy Devotee and lost control of your entire life?

I came to the fandom relatively late; I did have some interest in S1 and even back then, Adar and Joseph Mawle's performance fascinated me the most, but neither TROP nor Adar really fully "gripped me" back then. Come season 2, a friend of mine on here was watching and blogging about the series, so I checked it out. I thought I'd be in for the silvergifting, and then got curious about how the re-cast Adar was doing.

I even had a brief moment post-season thinking "Phew, I feel so sorry for the people who love this character, they must be in hell rn." But I already had a gut feeling then. 3-4 days later and I said there going. "Oh shoot." Because I was now one of those people as well.

The character's design, Sam Hazeldine's performance, the storyline they gave the character, and also I think the timeframe, it all fit very well together to intrigue me about and endear me to Adar. (It didn't help that he is incredibly shippable, too.)

And now, here I am, 4 months deep into the obsession and no end in sight. I think I am realizing the loss of control each time I look back and realize I am still in the middle of it, tbh. XD

Zero pressure tags: @varda-star-queen @dobriy-nunciy @withallthatisleftofmyheart @gauntletgirlie @iwanderbecauseimlost @wowstrawberrycow @saffronstories @zaldritzosrose @plotdesigner @eowyn7023 @themalhambird @janacariad @thephoenixandthecrocodile and anyone else who wants to play! <3

anybody in the mood to wail about Adar??

BECAUSE I AM

[skylaryozora]

Hey!! I know my question will be basic, but if you had to rate winx ships (Musa&Riven, Flora&Helia, Stella&Brandon, Tecna&Timmy, Aisha&Nabu, Bloom&Sky) in a scale from your favourite to your least favourite, how would it be?? I am just curious haha. By the way, your art is so amazing!!

Hello anon! Oh, no, it's not basic at all, I think I have actually never rated Winx ships before, so maybe it's high time for me to do a personal ranking. And thank you so much for appreciating my art!

Musa and Riven - I mean, it's not a shocker if you've been following me on IG or here on Tumblr. They have always interested me the most, for numerous reasons. I sometimes like to think they are the example of "she fell first, but he fell harder". It wasn't obvious they will become a couple in S1, but already then Riven was given a chance to face his demons which was intriguing to see since he's a secondary character after all, but it showed a side of him which then foretold his development later on in the series. In S2 they have a slow, gradual progression which ends with a dramatic, emotional kiss. In S3 and S4 they do have ups and downs which seem to stand out, and because of that people tend to focus very often on the downs. Unfortunately, the show's writing leaves a lot to be desired, and it did them dirty because I'm of the opinion that Musa should have realized she also needs to work on herself to ease the unnecessary tension in this relationship which more often that not stems from poor communication. Riven does have a substantial character development in S4, and I'd love Musa to grow too and understand that she could become an emotional sanctuary for him. If I were to try to sum up why I am particularly fond of them, it's because of this special depth and potential in their relation: two emotional wrecks with tough childhood and traumas subconsciously feel they would understand each other very well, but instead clash due to communication issues, and yet they crave each other and so should make an effort to understand each other better, in order to create a one of a kind, thriving relation. Of course I do have my headcanons which have an impact on my view of them, and I would write a lot of things differently (I constantly come up with something while rewatching). Anyway, watching a seemingly unadjusted couple becoming well-adjusted to each other over time is simply something that fascinates and satisfies me.

Aisha and Nabu - Another interesting one, and also not so obvious at the beginning. What makes them similar to Musa and Riven is that they also seem to have lonely and sad childhood. Single and happy throughout S2, Aisha was devastated to know she was supposed to end up in an arranged marriage with a guy she doesn't even know. At that time her animosity towards men is even more intense, and her relation with Nabu started... unpromisingly, because Nabu was spying on her. Of course the spying was without malicious intentions, because he wanted to see and learn something more about his future fiancee before approaching her, but that still left a poor first impression, especially because he was exposed in the public. As S3 goes on, Nabu turns out to be a trustworthy wizard who also eventually confesses to Aisha about his fleeing from Andros and reveals his real name, and admits how wrong it was to spy on Aisha. All of that makes her soften and she develops strong feelings for him. In S4 they don't stir unnecessary drama when it's revealed guys went to Earth to provide additional protection for Winx, but they cherish their time together to the fullest. I noticed that this relationship made Aisha go from being in masculine energy (S2/23) to more feminine energy (S4). I dare say that if it hadn't been for Nabu and if she had been single at the beginning of S4, I'm pretty sure she would have also lashed out at guys for "not trusting them that they're fine on their own". Instead, when guys arrive once again to help them, Aisha radiates pure joy and shouts "NABU! I'm so happy to see you again! (...) It's all good now that you're here!", which shows how much in love she's with him, and that she has no problem being dependent or receiving help from a guy anymore. They had quite a lot of screentime in S3 which made me attached to them, and in S4 they're the strongest ray of sunshine among all the couples in my opinion (I won't talk about how this relationship ended ;-;).

Stella and Brandon - Their S4 drama left a scar on my view on their relationship, but apart from that they're really precious and do have potential to be like Morticia and Gomez Addams, who are often referred to as couple goals. They are both flirtatious and deeply in love with each other. Stella doesn't give a fluff about Brandon's lower social status, and she's always happy to see him. In S2 she was dead serious about rescuing Brandon whatever and however long it took, while Sky (Brandon's best friend) didn't seem to be concerned about him at all... In S3 Brandon made her realize he and other people love her for who she is, not for her looks. There are probably more things I want to say about them, but can't remember them now, so let me just say that in my eyes they ooze an aura of lightness and authenticity which I guess is what makes them pleasant to watch.

Tecna and Timmy - Some say that the majority of Timmy's personality is centered around being Tecna's boyfriend, and I kinda agree with it, because again we know little to nothing about Timmy's background. Surely he has a lot of common with Tecna, and that's basically their passion towards IT, computers, logic, and all of that. We fortunately got some insight into how Timmy feels about Tecna when she was gone for a while, and Timmy's tearful confession about Tecna's being his best friend made my heart melt. While watching S4, I noticed Tecna softened a lot since she's with Timmy, and contrary to expectations, they are fine with public display of affection. I don't have a lot more to say about them, but I do think they are interesting: a serious, overly-logical tech geek meets an awkward, shy tech geek, and there we go, a relationship blooms. You could say that common passion brought them together.

Flora and Helia - These two are both very romantic and they match aesthetic-wise, but ngl due to little screentime, they are quite forgettable to me XD at one point I seriously forgot that Helia exists even though he already was Flora's boyfriend. That notwithstanding, I do like their first encounter which highlighted the fact that Flora noticed something about Helia's drawing which other people overlooked. She also gains her Charmix thanks to mustering enough courage to confess her attraction to him. But then again, Helia isn't much more than just Flora's boyfriend when you think about how the show is written, and as any other guy (maybe apart from Sky xD) deserves to have his background and personality explained more.

Bloom and Sky - Well, I think I'm just tired of them. In the series they have a lot of screentime (two first movies are basically centered around these two), but I feel like despite all the spotlight they got little development. I certainly don't like that Sky likes to invent problems and disappear out of the blue, ghosting Bloom and giving her emotional rollercoasters, while she acts naive and too forgiving towards him. I do find them overly sweet to my taste as well. They do have their good sides too, of course, (e.g. Sky does support Bloom a lot when she feels down, provided he's by her side at the moment), but in my eyes there is just too much of them.

And what's your ranking? Comment below!

[kinetic-elaboration]

September 1: 3x06 Spectre of the Gun

Okay so, it might be a little early to declare myself a S3 apologist, since there are still a lot of eps I’ve never seen, but I feel like I’m pretty close..

This ep was so good!! Honestly I think it’s one of my faves. And perfect to usher in Spooky Season.

Honestly, this show really is my happy place. Just all the characters together on the bridge, on some kinda adventure, looking at weird space buoys and investigating stuff.

Again, this buoy looks like a Windows 98 screensaver.

Kirk keeps referring to Spock as “Science Officer.” Is he mad at him? Full of some particularly intense longing that requires him to put extra distance between them?

Excuse me, you address US as aliens? YOU’RE the aliens.

Hmmm, so it seems they’re not friendly.

It’s addressing them in different languages!!! I love it. Love the reminder that Uhura’s first language is not English,also.

“True telepaths are dangerous.” As opposed to fake telepaths like Vulcans lol?

The Melkotians withdrew immediately. They invented space travel, they saw space, and they said “not for us” and they turned around and left. McCoy would like them; they’d have a lot to gripe about together.

The welcome mat is NOT out.

“Unlike Mr. Scott’s transporter, this unit is not functioning.”

It legit looked like Spock put his hand on Kirk’s back there. Like he clearly raises it, but not far enough to be seen above Kirk, so like.. what was the point? Where did it go?

LEE CRONIN--oh no, flashbacks lol.

“We come in peace”--immediately pulls out gun.

I should have watched this when writing my Western fic.

Just bits and pieces of a Western town... and a completely red sky...

The guns are “crude but dangerous.” If only Sulu were here; he’d love this.

An announcement with a specific time and place on it--that’s a very precise detail to just pull from their minds. Must have come from Kirk’s, that nerd. Maybe Spock. But probably Kirk.

“Because my ancestors pioneered the American frontier.” I mean did they really get to the frontier? Or just... the Midwest?

Maybe it’s actually because he’s a cowboy at heart?

Aliens using his own ancestral sins as the pattern for his own death for breaking their law IS a great (possibly partially unintended) idea. Oh also, if they think that Kirk and co. are here to ‘tame’ or colonize them, then the Western setting makes even more sense--you’re no different from your ancestors, you came somewhere new and brought lawlessness and violence and death, but not this time!

Can you believe Kirk knows all of these details about the OK Corral? NERD.

Spock is so proud of himself for knowing the phrase “had it out.” Look, I used slang correctly!

These are some creative aliens.

“We know death is real here.” Or is it? They’re literally telepaths guys.

Hmmm, this building doesn’t need a roof I think. - The aliens probably

Can’t believe Scotty thinks his usual is his actual usual lol. You’re going to drink bourbon and like it!

Kirk and Spock look so good together.

They’re obviously Chekov’s disapproving parents.

“The day is still young, Ensign.” I don’t remember the exact context of this but Spock is SO judgmental.

What is Kirk doing? This guy is a hallucination; he won’t be convinced by touching some cloth. There’s nothing to convince! He’s only a Concept.

“Have you seen clothes like this?” / “Yes.” / “Where?” / “On the Claytons!” Comedy gold.

Kirk really thinks he can charm his way out of anything. Hmmm, maybe if I just talk nicely to the Earps, they won’t kill us.

“In small amounts, it [bourbon] was considered medicinal.” Lol.

Scotty is becoming a bourbon guy!

“Mr. Chekov is inVOLVed” lol. Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

“A lot of people and things have tried to kill me.” No need to brag.

THAT’S how you make a city limits sign. Put a dead animal skull on top. I live quite close to a city limits sign and I think it could use a cow skull.

Western Cossacks!!

Poisonous snakes and cactus plants. That really distills the Aesthetic down to its core.

This is a good Kirk episode. He’s really being a good Captain: coming up with different ideas, being creative, pushing his crew to brainstorm.

Bones and his tranqs again.

Bones meets his old nemesis: Old Timey Medicine.

Why was Doc Holiday just...chilling in his own dentist chair? (My mom suggested: power nap. Let’s go with that. Power nap + ability for optimally dramatic entrance.)

Also I can’t believe McCoy just goes into this guy’s practice and starts helping himself to all the serious drugs.

Chekov definitely isn’t the marrying kind.

RIP Chekov.

Bones does not sound very sympathetic here. Jim, get over it, he just died, whatever.

And then two seconds later he turns around and tells Spock he’s not sad enough! You can’t win.

“We all knew the risk when we joined the service.”

“My feelings are not a subject for discussion.” !!!!!!! This line!!

“You worked closely with him.” Yes! Chekov is his protege!

“Bones, Scotty, stop bullying Spock.” <-- not an actual quote but it might as well be.

If this were AOS, Spock would already be choking Bones out.

Whoops, no one told Chekov he wasn’t supposed to die!

“Let’s organize! Let’s form an anti-Earp union!”

“I can’t kill them!” he says in a mad rage.

I mean, it is important, though. That’s not what he does.

Kirk is /disgusted/ by lawlessness and frontier justice. What a Rebel TM.

I feel like Bones was waiting for the gotcha moment when Spock compliments him. “Saying nice things about me? That’s not how this relationship works!”

“Nothing can go wrong.” / “Up to now, everything has gone wrong.” He has a point.

That pause before Spock admitted it hasn’t been tested lol--they don’t want to admit it.

“[The bourbon’s] for the pain.” / “But this is painless.” / “You should have told me that before.” The unexpected comedy stylings of Scotty and Spock.

It doesn’t work--guess Spock��s got to take back that compliment now.

“Captain, you don’t understand--they’ve been telepaths the whole time which we already knew!”

“We’re not going to move from the spot.” * is immediately in a different spot * Well I mean at least he’s trying. He’s doing his best!

Love the OK Corral sign also. Weirdly creepy. With its accompanying horse.

Spock doesn’t have any hips for the holster to rest on.

“What did Chekov die of?” / “A piece of lead in his body.” That would do it.

If the tranquilizer should have been effective, does that mean Scotty is actually passed out right now?

Honestly, this is all so spooky. TRUE Western Horror Ghost Vibes.

Also very trippy. If you don’t believe it... it’s not real... some kinda weird chicken and the egg argument regarding our belief in the truth of physical laws idk but it sounds good. Spock brings it home.

Even with the wind whipping around him, Kirk is SO in love. His absolutely adoring expression... So soft...

“Very well, Sir, I’ll meld with you again. Not that I particularly want to. It will be a sacrifice. But I’ll manage. Even though you’re such a dynamic individual haha ha I’m fine I’m cool.”

I feel like Scotty is NOT into the mind meld. He looks terrified. Maybe he should have saved the bourbon for this occasion.

I know the mind meld is supposed to be a replacement for on screen hypnotism...but is this not hypnotism? Like even more than past uses? In this case, Spock is leaving them with suggestions that he wants to continue AFTER the meld, as opposed to, like, efficiently sharing information or giving immediate suggestions. And the scenes themselves are very creepy and...hypnotic.

Kirk’s patented move: WHOLE BODY ATTACK.

Well, we wrapped that up right quick.

Did they... never actually leave the bridge? Or even navigate past the buoy? This actually brings up a lot of questions as to when the aliens started the hallucinations, what their bodies looked like to the rest of the crew, and how they woke up--since there’s obviously been a bit of a time skip, as Bones is already examining Chekov.

Lol at Chekov, saved by horniness. “Nothing but the girl was real to him.”

“A vast alliance of fellow creatures who all believe in the same thing...”

Kirk’s vision of the utopian future is so powerful, he’s effectively gotten the welcome mat put back out.

A personal question? Kirk is intrigued.

Ah, but it’s just another excuse for Spock to be a hypocrite--how did humans survive? How did VULCANS survive? And for the show to remind us of its utopian vision of the future... we will move past violence, we will prove ourselves attractive to and worth of new alien friends.

Then McCoy walks out so Kirk and Spock can have their Moment. He undoubtedly knows what’s up.

So this ep was shown one day before the anniversary of the shootout at the OK Corral AND on Halloween week. It is very much a spooky season episode. So surreal and strange. Ghostly.

I know using sets rather than on location shoots, and not even building whole sets, was a budgetary issue but tbqh I think it worked in the ep’s favor. It added to the alien feeling of it and was an accidentally creative way of showing that these images were pulled from Kirk’s mind.

This felt like a very Classic S1-ish ep to me. I think it’s because Kirk was foregrounded as the Captain/hero and we get to see not just his intelligence and creativity and leadership but also his compassion and his moral core. He IS the values of the series, personified, and that was clear here.

But we also got to see lots of him and Spock, casually working as a pair, and the use of the rest of the landing party crew was very deft also. I loved that there was time to mock Chekov’s horniness, to talk about Spock and Chekov’s professional relationship, to joke around with Scotty, to show more of the Spock and Bones dynamic.

Again, great sci fi concept. I think this would have been another possible inspo for my Pirate AU if I’d seen it in time (although I think I picked a good mission-concept ultimately). I’m fascinated by the Melkotians: who are they? What do they really look like? Do they communicate any other way but telepathically? Are they corporeal? What is their planet like? And most importantly, what experience lead them to be so isolationist? They specifically refer to the aliens as “disease” coming into their home. And it’s when Kirk shows himself to be fundamentally nonviolent even in the face of his own death, they let the Enterprise through.

Basically, I always enjoy hints of alien societies that bring up more questions for me than answers. I love speculating about it.

The next two eps I’ve seen and remember well and I know they’re classics. I’m really looking forward to them!

[prince-toffee]

I don’t care if the character is good. I care if the character is interesting. I don’t know where the morality police came from, I don’t know why people try to justify actions of villains, I don’t know why all characters need to be good. I don’t care if they’re justified, or right. ‘Do I care when they’re on screen?’ is the right question. The character can be a pure saint, but what does it matter if they’re pure good if they’re boring to watch? I love villains, love, love, love villains, but if a villain is just... boring, then what the hell is the point of even showing them on screen?!

For me spop is a prime example of this. I’m sorry, I really am, but I don’t care about... anything in that show, except for Hordak, Entrapta, and maybe Shadow Weaver. The Princesses do nothing for me. This one’s the sassy one, this one’s the hippie one, this one’s the blue one, again. I don’t care. I’m sorry. We learn nothing about them! We have no flashbacks, no lore, nothing! Show me Mermista’s father. The Whispering Woods are apparently sentient, can Perfuma talk to it? Show me how Frosta’s parents died, and give her a consistent personality. In her bio it says Netossa doesn’t have a kingdom, why? Show us Spinerella’s kingdom. Show me Entrapta’s backstory, her parents, her childhood, explore her kingdom! I’m interested, show me more! Show me The First Ones, they’re evil or something right? That was the plot twist, right? I think? Why weren’t we shown a satisfying and fulfilling climax where Adora kicks their asses? Show me George’s past battling against the Horde. Angella is immortal according to her bio, maybe. Show me that!

This show is bone dry! No meat! This show somehow manages to be empty and slow and drag while also going at break neck speeds. The only character I can’t complain about, who is my favourite Princess is Glimmer. Glimmer is great, I love Glimmer. Not s1-3 Glimmer, s4 Glimmer. Compromised Glimmer. For three seasons Glimmer was just another Princess, Adora’s best friend. But after Angella dies, then it gets fascinating. Glimmer has the responsibilities of Queen thrust apon her, and all those lines spoken in season 3 are paid off, Glimmer slowly becomes her mother even though she doesn’t want to be, she doesn’t want to be a coward, she wants to be at the frontlines helping her friends. And that pressure forces her to consult Shadow Weaver and go down a darker path. Her rise to power paralleling Catra that season, and then her descent catalysed by desire for power paralleling Shadow Weaver who forges the same relationship with her as with Micah, it’s all great. Glimmer wants to, is responsible for, protecting her kingdom, the whole world and as the Horde grows in power she feels the need to use increasingly more drastic measures to protect everyone.

Glimmer isn’t at her best in this season, but she is the most interesting at this point. And then in s5 she likes Bow I guess. The Mara Razz stuff is also pretty interesting, but that was in s4 and by that point I was just turning off my brain. I kinda feel like s4 was a filler season.

And then, when I’m given so little, we get to Hordak. And he, I cannot stress this enough how much this means to me even though it is the bare minimum, he has a flashback, an artistic, stylised flashback! With a thematic colour palette. With a tease that will be paid off, of our endgame bad guy. A flashback that tells us about the character’s backstory, about the lore of the universe, about themes that are relevant to the whole meaning behind the character and to the conversation he and Entrapta are having in that moment. We see the world from his perspective, we don’t agree with him, but we understand him. And guess what? That scene wasn’t even originally meant to be apart of the episode! Because of course it wasn’t! Because spop is the definition of white bread!

Fuck! Shadow Weaver does it even better! She has an entire episode dedicated to her, and it’s all a flashback, it’s amazing, we see her younger, we see what makes her go down a darker path, we see a meaningful relationship between her and Micah, we see LORE, LORE, LORE, I LOVE LORE, it’s lore that makes no sense timeline-wise, and complicates everything even more without expanding or explaining anything, and not paying it off later, but at least it’s something. I love Shadow Weaver, from her design, which is perfection to her voice which is gorgeous to her actions and writing which is marvellous. I love this irredeemable pure evil disney stepmother because she’s interesting, she’s fascinating! She steals every scene she’s in! Shadow Weaver is the best character in this entire show. I can’t stress how amazing Weaver is, and we all slept on her. I swear she’s like the only competent character in this entire show. She’s refreshing.

And to show you that I’m not just an edgy loser that hates heroes because they’re dumb and villains rock, I’ll say this. Not even Horde Prime is as interesting as those two. He’s this universe conquering monster that is pure evil and that is right up my alley, I should love him.... but I don’t. He sucks. He’s nothing. I feel nothing. I’m not intrigued, not interested, not captured. You know why? Because he’s a reskinned Princess. He’s not important, he doesn’t matter, he’s a cardboard cut out. He alludes to somethings that may or may not have happened in the past, we never see any of it. He’s like a weird Catradora shipper for some reason? He’s this super powerful monster that destroyed planets, he conquered half the universe, he brainwashes half our main cast, and the planet, and yet... I feel nothing... because deep down you know... that this is the last season and the hero will win and there will be no lasting ramifications, and if there will be we won’t see it. Oh no he couldn’t trace them because the ship blah blah blah. Fuck you. Sucks. The heroes are untouchable, he’s not scary, he’s incompetent, oh so you can just mind control people? and you didn’t do that right away, why? He’s stupid. And yeah Hordak is stupid too, but Hordak has a backstory and a love interest and thematic meaning, unexplored, but it’s there. Prime has nothing. I don’t know who or what he is. He’s an after thought. And what contributes to me not giving a fuck is the fact that s5 as a whole is terrible and it rots my brain, and I turned off my brain as I skimmed that season, I blacked out.

Anyway back to Hordak and Weaver. It’s strange when we get to them, because Hordak, in particular, is so unimportant and is so separated from the rest of the show, it feels like he’s in a completely different show from the rest of the cast. Even Weaver is important, she’s directly connected to Adora and more importantly Catra. Hordak? Sure his actions matter to the plot, his backstory and his lore matter to the plot, but he himself doesn’t matter. Sure the portal is the catalyst for the s3 finale and it calls Prime, the clone trauma is important to Catra’s arc in s5, but Hordak the person, is unimportant, Hordak the individual doesn’t matter. He’s less then a side character. He’s so disconnected from the entire show. He feels like he’s in a completely different show. Which strangely enough was welcoming for me. It felt like I could just like Hordak and Entrapta in that small corner of the fanon over there, away from all the drama. Hordak, from his design to his personality to his existing backstory, was so different and stood out from amongst the crowd.

At first it was wow this guy looks cool I’ll proceed to theorise what he’s about, and then when we actually got a story behind him at first I was disappointed, but I quickly began digging into the potential of it and you couldn’t stop me. An exiled and shunned clone with a genetic disease who wishes to prove himself to an uncaring god, his mental state is so fascinating to pick apart, don’t tell this isn’t the most interesting thing in this show... I don’t know what the conclusion of this cluster fuck is.

i hate wrong hordak

[k-s-morgan]

Hi Katrin! I’ve been reading all your posts about Hannibal and it’s so intriguing. I’ve never watched the show since I can’t take too much angst but would you still recommend it and is Will a morally grey character or does he suddenly become similar evil? I’m asking cuz that trope is a real turn off for me. I can’t decide whether I should start watching because your posts are so interesting and I really want to understand the subtext too 😖

Hi! Oh, it’s great that you felt interested in the show just from reading posts about it :D ‘Hannibal’ is definitely unique, endlessly beautiful, and very, very complex. Will is one of the most complicated characters I’ve ever seen, and he can be studied over and over again.

To answer your question, Will starts out as a morally grey character. He has darkness, he admits he enjoyed murdering a person at the very start, but he’s determined to be good and normal, to correspond to the society’s views on what is acceptable. As the show goes on, he is more and more accepting of his darkness, and by the end of S3, he’s pretty dark. I wouldn’t call him evil - but I wouldn’t call Hannibal evil either. Morality is a layered thing in this show, and if anything, Hannibal has a more specific formula of killing than Will, who acts chaotically at times, unable to decide on which side he belongs.

Many these nuances become clear only upon re-watch - and that makes ‘Hannibal’ is even more fascinating. 

It has a ton of angst, but the good thing, its ending is more or less happy, so everything was worth it.

This is a cool trailer for S1, you might want to take a look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDTzn8y-5kM.

And this is the video that made me watch the show. It’s amazingly beautiful. It has many spoilers, but from experience, you don’t understand them properly until seeing them in the show, and since you’ve already read different posts, you’ll hardly find something new there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u0IYzxJZdw

[serendipitous-magic]

Hey, I just wanted to ask, while we wait for the completion of the first chapter of the season we should've got, what is your primary reason for writing this project? Is is it because of the lack of certain relationship dynamics, or maybe presence of certain ships? Or is the writing quality of season 3 in gerneral just that subpar and poorly executed?

My primary reason for the fix-it rewrite is simply this: I do not believe that the S3 we got did justice to the story or characters at all. And I want the characters, the story, and the fans to have the S3 that the story should have gotten. (That sounds very pretentious, looking over this, and I’m not trying to be like, “Oh, I can write the story that we all deserved, no problem, let me just bust out my magical writing skills since I’m clearly the only one able to fix this mess (adjusts monocle and swirls a martini).” That’s not what I’m trying to say lol. I would simply like to try my damndest to give us that, whether I entirely manage it or not. And hey, shoot for the moon, right?) 

Let’s just forget ships entirely for a second. Hell, let’s forget the audience entirely. Regardless of what fans wanted, let’s consider this: the canonical seasons (1 and 2) were fantastic. The characters were complex and well-developed, and they felt like real people. The plot was fascinating and the storytelling was top-tier, with enough complexity and symbolism and background details and authenticity to captivate a huge fandom. The acting was on point. The writing was great. The whole show (the canonical seasons, that is) felt real. It felt like we were watching real people struggle against real events, and that authenticity and emotional connection was, I think, a lot of what made the show so great.

My main reason for my rewrite, honestly - more than being for the fans or even for my own satisfaction - is that I feel like the characters and story that we all know and love deserved better. The characters themselves, as characters, deserved so much better than (gestures angrily) that. (I won’t go into a whole ‘nother rant, because y’all know what I’m talking about.) The story deserved better. The writing was just... bad. Like, straight-up, it was just bad writing all the way around. It all felt like an over-the-top, cheesy B-list 80s movie, and not in the good way. While the dialogue of S1 and S2 felt like we were seeing and hearing real people talk and interact and react to things, the writing of S3 felt like a stageplay written by 13 year olds. Nothing against 13 year olds - it’s just, a professional TV show that was that good in the first two seasons really should be better than that, you know? So much better.

There were so many loose ends that S1 and S2 left hanging that S3 just straight-up ignored. There were so many wonderful, authentic, intriguing relationship dynamics - positive and negative - that they could have explored. There were so many aspects to the characters and their lives and their struggles (as a result of the events of S1 and S2) that would have been so fascinating and emotionally impactful if they had taken the time to address and explore that. And they just... didn’t. S3 completely abandoned any and all emotional connection with the characters - both between us (the viewers) and the characters, and between the characters themselves. The entire plot was driven by empty drama and meaningless action, with very few moments of real emotional connection anywhere. I’ve said it a lot and I’ll say it again: S3 is not the same show as seasons 1 and 2. It’s a completely different thing. The atmosphere is different. The aesthetic is different. The themes and morals are different. The acting is different. The writing is different. The characters are completely different people (I’ve beaten the phrase “paper-thin caricatures” to death, and I shall continue to do so). The construction of the plot is different. It’s a completely different show. From a storytelling perspective, it really does seem like we never actually got a Stranger Things Season 3 - what we really got was a show of the same name, with characters loosely based off of the ones we know, but the thing we got? It wasn’t Stranger Things. It just wasn’t.

And speaking of, I’ll touch on ships now: yes, of course I’m completely dissatisfied with the treatment of... uh... all the ships in S3? I mean, that’s an entirely separate rant in and of itself, but I’ll just say: it’s not just byeler. Ofc I’m gonna be writing byeler into my rewrite, because (gestures at my blog) I’m a byeler shipper. So. Yeah, of course. But besides byeler, S3 treated all the ships so badly tbh - even the ones that were “together” during the season. Even mileven! I don’t ship mileven, but I was pretty disgusted with how S3 treated that relationship. They played mileven for empty drama, and they didn’t even do a very good job at writing their relationship. (Again: that’s another rant.) And Jopper? WTF was up with Jopper? Who wrote that? No, seriously, who wrote that script. I just want to talk. Even Lumax, who were arguably the most stable and better-written couple in S3 - even they were very snippy with each other and apparently broke up and got together like 5 times in the span of half a year, and... It just seemed like all the ships were written so poorly, even the ones we were supposed to root for.

So, yes: another reason I wanted to rewrite S3 was to give the ships what (I think) they deserved. A respectful relationship built on teamwork and friendship for Jopper (which is definitely heading towards romantic, though it’s stalled a bit by both of their stubbornness and by Joyce’s mourning for Bob). An arc for mileven which allows them to see the negative aspects of their relationship, both grow as people (especially El, who really needs space to develop as a person), and retain their (amazing!) friendship. An arc for byeler that acknowledges and addresses their lifelong friendship, the bonding they went through last season, Will’s sexuality, Mike’s sexuality, etc. And so forth.

Reason #3(ish): the plot of S3 felt sloppy, based on empty drama and action (as I’ve said repeatedly lol), and it did not address many of the interesting loose ends left by S1 and S2, and I would like to address that in my fix-it. What happened to all the (many, many) hints about Will having powers? What happened to the Mind Flayer being a terrifying and fascinating villain/monster (without turning into a goo-monster for CGI flexing)? That guy said that Brenner is alive - is he? What about that Party trying to grow up too fast to escape and leave behind what happened to them as kids (except for Will, who’s trying to cling to the childhood that was stolen from him)? (We got a little bit of that in S3 but it was like... never addressed? Never resolved??) What happened to the Upside Down - like, the physical place itself? Why did we need to introduce Russians (like, literally just “Russians,” as a vague, stereotypical concept) as a villain when they already had good, solid villains established? Why the sudden “MURICA, CAPITALISM IS GOOD, RUSSIANS AND COMMUNISM BAD, DID I MENTION MURICA??” theme? Why? Why did they drop all the interesting loose threads from the canonical seasons only to shove in completely unnecessary new villains and drama that frankly just bloated the plot and didn’t add anything to the story that had been established in seasons 1 and 2?

Look, I could go on and on and on. 

TL;DR: My reasons for this re-write project are as follows:

1) I felt that the story and characters themselves deserved better, and so did we as viewers and fans. S3 did not even feel like the same show as S1 and S2, and I wanted to at least try to write a story that would do (better) justice to the story and characters.

2) All the ships were treated terribly in S3, in my opinion, mileven included, and I wanted to a) treat them better in my rewrite, and b) yes, make it gayer. A lot gayer. Because I’m gay and I can. So (throws confetti).

3) I wanted to address some of the interesting loose threads left by seasons 1 and 2, and cut out a lot of the bullshit that was shoved into the plot unnecessarily in S3.

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

Yooooooo I can't believe there's someone else who's considered skektek x brea! I've become a little disillusioned with skekok and brea ever becoming close even in fanon (specifically because of the stonewood battle scene where he literally tries to cut her down ^^') but i still think skektek and brea is an intriguing concept

first of all, AYYYYYYY ANOTHER BREATEK SHIPPER, HI THERE, i’ve been talking a lot to friends about it on discord but wow i didn’t think i’d find one anywhere else :D

[Long Post Incoming, Oh Boy]

that’s valid about breok! i have a lot of thoughts about how bad the skeksis got by the end of s1 compared to where they were at the beginning; how much the essence was responsible for; and how far gone they were beforehand; and i do think the plot of the show significantly changed the would-be dynamic between them by the time he tries to kill her. (especially considering that skektek also tried to kill her and her at-the-time remaining family, whoops.) 

but also i agree, it would be vanishingly unlikely for breok to have a dynamic that wasn’t dubious as hell at best, even if the series hadn’t happened. it would take either an au version of skekok that’s enough steps left of canon to end up on a different continent, or an au where a miracle happens and events work out so that everyone involved–especially skekok–works hard as fuck for their happy ending. and only manages that much because the messy, painful character development happened before any of the opportunities for him to jump off the slippery slope show up that he would have taken otherwise. any soft, fluffy breok content that i like otherwise appeals to me a lot because of how unexpected it is in the context of, and how it contrasts with, everything else that’s Really Fucked Up about the situation just under the surface. 

BUT! more about that is a subject for other posts. in the meantime, breatek! 

first off, obviously, i like this ship a lot because they’re Nerds, and also because brea has Big Top Energy and that’s kind of what he needs in a partner right now which is something i’d go more into detail with on my nsfw fandom blog, @stricklanderpls, if you want to hit me up there.

they also both come across as different flavors of autistic to me, so they would find a lot of Same Hat in each other that they tend not to get from other people. they fully understand each other’s sensory issues and how to listen to each other to learn to accommodate for them (even if they don’t share all of the same ones), they’re both pretty blunt and straightforward and not given to pretense (unless it’s learned things like skektek’s cowering from the emperor), they’re both strongly drawn to nonsapient or non-humanoid things (skektek’s animals, brea and lore), the obvious special interests they have (which are devalued and derided by other people in their lives, skektek especially), being highly analytical and focused on Finding Solutions (’every problem has a solution,’ anyone?), the list goes on. they’d click surprisingly well over a lot of things that other people look down on or just Don’t Get.

(also, i headcanon seladon as autistic as well, and i think on some level brea feels drawn to skektek because he actually reminds her a lot of seladon. she feels guilty about a lot of things in her relationship with her sister, and in many ways skektek feels like an opportunity to make up for that by being there for someone she can actually stand in the ways that she just can’t do for seladon.)

also… honestly… they bring out the sweet in each other. brea is just. so open and affectionate and full of wonder, and she will say so just as much as she will speak her mind about anything else. when she’s fascinated by the things skektek makes, when she praises or compliments him, when she enjoys his company, it’s all genuine. her excitement when he gives her some strange little gift he made is genuine. her throwing herself at him for a hug, or pulling his snout down to kiss his nose, is genuine. skektek is starved for appreciation, validation, and affection, for connecting to another person, and brea is so absolutely overflowing with that that he barely knows what to do with it except soak it all in, and do everything he can to make her smile.

meanwhile, brea not only finds it a huge relief to be able to connect with someone who she can understand and who can understand her, but someone who shares and appreciates her thirst for knowledge, the things that she loves. to borrow terms from fandom, she’s more curative about knowledge, and he’s more transformative about it, but they share that joy in it just the same. on top of that he can be surprisingly kind, sweet, and meek for someone who’s as grouchy as he is most of the time, and she treasures that he shows that side of himself to her with the same wonder as every other hidden thing she seeks out to see for herself.

the affection she shows him he returns ten times over, and vice versa. they just love each other so much, man, listen 

there’s a lot more, and also BOY that’s before you get into all the issues to unpack, lordy. but breatek makes me smile a whole damn lot and i will gladly drag as many other people as possible into it with me as i can

[simplylove101]

Delena

1) when they first intrigued me

Another case where it was the first scene I think. By this point, I was still just giving this show a chance. I wasn’t shipping her & Stefan. The other characters were interesting but Damon adding his chaos made it obviously more interesting. I didn’t ship it right away since it’s not like there was much to the scene but yeah, when Delena meet for what we assumed for the first time in S1. With how they were painting Damon early on, cuz let’s be honest dude wasn’t great, there was a lot of room left for them to grow before they could be romantic. That intrigued me cuz I wanted a slow burn. Also, the hand kiss & him admitting she has spunk. I was a Spike girl when it came to Buffy & a Eric girl when it came to True Blood so I guess it was inevitable. The “bad boy” vampire always seems to catch my eye first.

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2) when I started to ‘ship’ them 

I feel 1x03 was an episode that did a pretty good job setting up the Delena dynamic that we would come to know. During this time, Damon is being the absolute worst to Caroline. I know he was. That didn’t stop me from seeing the connection Delena were starting to form. The kitchen scene where they’re talking about Katherine has a moment where Elena says that she’s sorry, that he lost her too & you can see Damon is kinda taken aback that someone actually cares about his pain. By this point, Damon was already amusing me but now I was starting to care about him too because of this moment. And then you have the scene later where he tried to compel her. When she smacked him & told him to go to hell, I was speechless. Them showing this spunk that Damon spoke of. Going forward was the start of what one can only call the Delena snark. And then the last scene is one of those great ironies - Stefan saying Damon has no humanity while we the audience see Damon at Elena’s watching her sleep & stroking her face. It might have come off creepy to people but it shows that he was fascinated by her. Beyond her looking like Katherine. That’s when I really let myself admit I was ready to ship.

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3) when I knew they were OTP status (as in there was literally no other ship for them I would want)

Now I’m kinda cheating here by giving two answers. lol First, by 1x11 it was obvious for me that Delena was my ship. I still hadn’t warmed up to Stelena. They had felt rushed to me. At least to being this epic love we were expected to believe by 1x10. Which is why when we got this goldmine of an ep of a Delena road trip (which ended becoming one of my fave tropes of theirs) I was ecstatic. The chemistry was there at all times. Drunk Elena was fun.I loved that episode so much. But the episode that really sealed the deal was 1x14. It gave us two of the most iconic early Delena scenes: the “I wanted it to be real” one & the hug. This episode is centered around him getting Katherine back but it’s also the start of him starting to let her go as well. His connection with Elena was growing. 

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4) Favorite quote

“I somehow always find my way back to you” Honestly there were so many other quotes I thought of before deciding on this one. Lauren pointed this scene out to me & you know this quote really suits them. She really was always finding her way back to him. :’)

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5) Favorite scene

Oh man, this is a hard one. I think I’m gonna go with a scene though that is purely because everything about it was perfect. Their last dance. Everything about it is just beautiful. The two of them dancing so elegantly while the song Hunger by Ross Copperman plays (god I love that song) where they first met. This could have been so cheesy but they did it so beautifully. I can’t with that editing.

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6) Scene that made me cry

Okay, this is the scene I thought of first when I say cry. The Season 5 finale where Elena finds out Damon is dead & stuck on The Other Side. I was crying my eyes out. At the time, it felt so final. Like they weren’t gonna be able to get him back & his goodbye to Elena hurt. She had that ugly cry going on. Nina wasn’t holding back. And well I didn’t watch any of S6 when it was going on so I guess you could say the show scarred me a little. lol

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7) Scene that pissed me off

Oh man, where do we start with these two? Okay, in the season 3 finale when Elena calls Damon to tell him she’s going to Stefan. Which broke Damon’s heart & once again made him have the “it’s always gonna be Stefan” mantra drilled into him again. All while we know he’s actually the one she met first. But also the fact that they made Elena forget who Damon was. I get she was hurting but my goodness, why did the writers have to go there? I feel like there’s more obvious ones I’m not thinking of but honestly, these two were a roller coaster.

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8) Favorite underrated moment

Hmmm.. I have so many with these two. A lot of them in the earlier seasons that I remember better. Like Elena being the one to get Damon out of the tomb just by calling his name & he listened. Another moment was when Elena declared she was in love with Damon to everyone when Rebekah compelled. I’m sorry but when everyone was shouting “SIRE BOND” when Delena got together I was like “Ughh” and then this moment happened & it was confirmed that uh, no she chose to be with Damon. She fell in love with him. Haters to the left. lol

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https://twitter.com/WoahDeIena/status/829825491053993984 also this is a lovely thread everyone needs to check out  lol

9) Song that makes me think of them

Of their songs, Never Let Me Go always & forever because that hotel kiss was so beautiful & All I Need because I can’t not think of their iconic S1 dance. But a song I wanted to vid them to once upon a time was More Than I Could Say by Civil Sound. It just fits them from Damon’s pov. It’s also incredibly beautiful.

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More Than I Could Say

10) Favorite video of them

This is so beautiful with so many parallels!!!

[cosmic-llin]

For the ask, Michael Burnham! ♥

How I feel about this character

Oh Michael! <3 I love her, I’m fascinated by her, I think there are so many dimensions of her still yet to explore, and also she deserves as many hugs as she wants.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I don’t have any major ships for Michael, and in fact I haven’t particularly been drawn into shipping the Disco characters together generally (Philippa/Afsaneh doesn’t count because only one of them is actually in the show!) Perhaps that will change with time? I don’t mind her and Ash, and I think there’s a lot of potential to explore there given that they’re both children of two worlds in their ways, both sometimes feeling torn between a culture of origin and a culture that they’ve lived in. (Although for Ash it’s unclear which is which and where the lines are). So yeah, I think there are interesting things to be done there, but I felt like S1 needed another episode or two to establish their chemistry, it felt a little rushed to me.

I’m also not averse to Michael/Tilly but I’m more into it as a friendship.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Oh gosh, so many?

I LOVE LOVE LOVE her and Philippa together. I understand why they didn’t give us seven years on the Shenzhou (even if I don’t 100% agree) but I would have watched that show SO HARD. Michael getting less scared of her emotions, slowly realising that sometimes the human way is pretty effective. Philippa learning to accept that Michael is her own person, and a stubborn one at that, and that sometimes her Vulcan way of doing things really is the right way for her even if Philippa doesn’t totally get it. The gradual way Philippa begins to trust Michael with more and more responsibility... GAH, it could have been so beautiful.

But then I’m also really intrigued by where they’re going to take Michael’s relationship with Emperor Philippa. Like, there are a LOT of layers there to explore, so much baggage on both sides, such interesting tension.

Also I just love Michael and Sylvia, like, I think they’re so good for each other and I’m really glad they found each other. I think Michael really, really needed Sylvia’s hopefulness and goodness at that moment.

Also she and Stamets are the BEST GRUMPY SCIENCE BUDS.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I don’t think I have any! At least not that the sensible corners of fandom that acknowledge her greatness would consider unpopular. (Oh wait you know what this only just barely counts but I don’t really like the Alice books and I wish they’d picked something else, even though I can see why they went with that because it works so well with the overarching themes and motifs.)

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I would like to see more about her relationship with Amanda. Also I think she should get to be at the centre of a fun shenanigans episode. S1 was a really tough time for her and I’d like to see her get the chance to relax a bit.

[lightsandlostbells]

Skam Italia episode 8 reaction

there was a Brand New Scene in this episode and it made some people very happy

Episode 8

Clip 1 - Don’t talk to me

The setting really is gorgeous and the music added some good notes of tension.

Tbh, I think Skam Italia’s visuals are usually quite impressive but I found the camera angles here more distracting and show-offy than aiding the content of the scene. I guess they were trying to make the scene askew to represent that everything was messed up and out of order, but instead I felt detached from the characters during what was a really emotional scene. I really wanted to see all the anguish on Eva’s face and the ambiguity on Martino’s but the camera kept cutting to angles that made it hard to see.

I still think Norwegian Eva is far and away the best actress of the Evas, and I’m gonna be honest, I’m not as sucked into Italian Eva’s acting on a realism/believability level (like this scene did feel like Acting, personally); however, I do still really like her and find her sweet and easy to root for, so I did not enjoy seeing her cry.

Also Martino felt noticeably muted/detached when previously he has felt more energized and easygoing in his scenes with Eva, which I’m sure was because of this crappy situation and his own guilt.

Clip 2 -  Caught in a bad romance

Awww, poor Eva has to be in class with Gio and wait until he leaves until she can get up. That’s gotta be the worst. 

This song choice kind of fascinates because listening as an English speaker, the lyrics seem more from the POV of the person who’s been wronged over and over by their partner and has reasons to leave, when Eva is currently the one who’s done wrong and is on the opposite side of the situation, and it kinda threw me. But this is not a scene in an English-language show (though plenty of Italians understand English, to be clear) so what seems most important is the melancholy and regretful tone that serves the emotional and visual content of the scene, rather than literal adherence to the lyrics. And obviously you could say that about any soundtrack, including ones where the languages line up. Anyway, not to be trite about this rambling observation, but the various Skams have made me think a lot about the different ways film/TV can use music to enhance a scene (and sometimes how music can be used poorly though I’m not referring to this scene here).

Eleonora coming through that crowd like a beautiful striped high-waisted angel.

That was a necessary hug girls, thanks. The gossip, not so much.

Clip 3 - Eva and her mom

Small thing, but I appreciate that they showed Eva having her period and changing her pad as a casual occurrence, considering that so much media treats periods as nonexistent. I don’t know if Italian media is more frank about this than American media, but I usually only hear periods mentioned if it’s a big plot point. The dramatic first period in a coming of age story, the missed period that signals a pregnancy, etc.

But also, she has to deal with all this and she has her period? To hell with that shit.

And the graffiti was there just to ruin even the most mundane, private moment. She can’t escape.

Speaking of music in the previous scene, I liked how quiet this scene was. Sometimes I prefer the absence of music to its presence.

Well, Eva is right, she was not the initial attacker and she didn’t fight back. She shouldn’t be getting blame for it because even if the cheating was motivation, Alice chose to smack her.

Hmmm, how distant is the mom according to Italian cultural norms? She brings her daughter cake in the morning and we’ve seen her invite Eva to do things with her (I think the movies and the market? Something like that). I get there’s some distance but it’s not like Eva doesn’t have a role in this, like I’ve seen Eva scrolling through the phone at the dinner table while the parents are there. Seems like everyone in this family is doing their part to shut each other out.

I’m glad the mom tries not to let Eva shut her out although I guess it didn’t work for very long. 

Clip 4 - Eva and Eleonora, Ed Edd and Eddy

Silvia nooooooo stop thinking about Edoardo all the time even if you’re trying to make him regret the way he treated you. That’s hardly better than thirsting over him.

Lol, Eva, it’ll help if you can go somewhere where Giovanni isn’t in your direct line of sight and you can brood in peace.

Eleonora is giving it all with her singing, like she is going to get Eva to smile no matter what. When Edoardo shows up she seems rather bashful.

We saw one of Eleonora’s manipulation techniques earlier this season when she rescued Eva from the overeager theater kids. 

Plot twist: Eleonora is a spy posing as a new student, hence her knowledge of manipulation. What is her mission? Infiltrating Eva’s heart.

Clip 5 - My fault

This is one of my favorite scenes in the original show from S1, so they had a high bar to meet. I think I didn’t respond to it as strongly in large part because I don’t care for Giovanni much, and I don’t root for him and Eva together at all, so my reaction is mostly feeling bad for Eva and feeling fine about the breakup if not the way it came about. But it was another nicely shot scene.

Giovanni definitely has a hand in creating this situation. Obviously he didn’t like, push Eva’s lips to Federico’s and make that happen, that’s on her. But when he talks about the irony of her thinking he was cheating when it was her who did … he DID make her paranoid by lying to her.

“If you had told me the truth this would have never happened” - I mean, she’s right? She needs to take responsibility for her actions (which she did) but he’s got to realize he fueled the situation that caused this. (Though I mean, you could say this of all the Jonases, not just these two.)

Giovanni’s whisper acting was getting on my nerves, I know he was supposed to be upset, but it came across as unsettling, which was likely not the intent at all.

“The problem is not that you kissed some guy …. the problem is who you kissed.” Ummmm well, it’s nice that Giovanni acknowledges that these guys are assholes who treat women like crap. That’s good.  I’m calling bullshit on the whole “I don’t care that you kissed a guy out of anger, I care that you kissed an asshole” thing. Lol, if Eva kissed Martino because she was mad at Gio, I’m sure Gio would have a problem with it.

But I don’t know what to think about this dialogue change. What does it mean for Eva’s character arc? Jonas pointed out an issue with Eva’s personality that, agree or disagree with him, was an issue with her. He didn’t understand her because he thought she was changing her personality and not thinking for herself, and yes, some of that is Jonas’ perception of her, but we did see her be insecure and rely other’s opinions, and her ultimate conclusion in the season was to find out who she was on her own. It’s also a devastating thing for him to say to her because it’s so personal. What Gio is saying seems more like his problem. She’s doing stuff he doesn’t like, going to parties for people he doesn’t like, he’s got insecurities about it. And he doesn’t know who she is anymore, but ... going to the parties of asshole dudes is not inherently a character flaw for her? She’s mostly doing it for her new friends, anyway, and you might say that’s the flaw, being a people-pleaser, but I don’t know if that’s the intent.  Not to mention that Gio himself has been an asshole, and some of the people he hangs out with are assholes, so ... shut up, Gio.

There’s some questioning of who she is toward the end of this scene but it feels like it’s being framed by which guy she wants to be with. I can think of a few ways they could redirect this arc - Eva saying fuck off Gio, don’t judge me for what I’m doing? Eva realizing she doesn’t like all these parties with the asshole Villa dudes? It just feels a lot less personal. I guess it’ll be easier to judge when the whole season is out, to see what point they’re ultimately going to make with her.

It also doesn’t help that we haven’t gotten the reveal scene of Eva’s past with Laura, which was in Skam prior to this scene, so we’re missing a crucial part of her characterization that explained why Jonas felt this way about Eva not having her own opinions.

Clip 6 - Edoardo (!) gives Eva (!!) a ride to school (!!!)

A totally new scene? With two characters who never interacted in the original? What madness?

Sooo let’s break this down.

this was a helpful act of random kindness from Edoardo

also nice that he made polite small talk with Eva about her test

then he drops the line about how he really saved her by offering her a ride and that’s either him responding generally or him making sure she knows that he’s doing her a massive favor and she probably owes him

which becomes evident when he asks for her friend’s name and number

which she realizes and asks whether he’ll kick her out of the car if she doesn’t give him Eleonora’s number

he doesn’t reply as if this is an absurd suggestion and he would never do that, but he also puts down his phone and doesn’t kick her out of the car

because he says he’ll find Eleonora on IG anyway

he gets her to school on time and she thanks him

I was not nearly as excited for this scene as like Eleonora/Edoardo shippers, but it was at least a change of pace, and I appreciate getting new material no matter what. Personally when I saw what this scene was going to be, I was way way way more intrigued by the prospect of seeing the William character interact one on one with anyone besides the Noora character, than the shipper material. Did we ever see him have a conversation with anyone from the girl squad except for when he’s telling Vilde she’s not worth it? Someone from the boy squad? Not even Penetrator Chris, for the most part. Oh, I guess there was the time he broke up the P-Chris/Jonas fight but he didn’t exactly talk to them except telling P-Chris he done fucked up. Every other time I can think of, it’s William in the company of Noora. And this is pretty vital because, while Edoardo is still an asshole, if you want to redeem the asshole, it’s necessary to show him being a non-asshole and doing nice stuff for people that he doesn’t want to fuck. Even if it’s still about who he wants to fuck.

So of course the question is, would he have bothered to pick up Eva if she did not have an attractive friend he wanted to pursue? They could have added little bit more non-Eleonora related small talk just to make him seem less manipulative, but I guess that was the point. He still needs to be shady at this stage. 

He and Eleonora will bond over studying the same manipulation techniques. 

I’m not going to say he’s a great guy based on this scene, because yeah, he had an ulterior motive in mind, but at least they gave me something to work with toward seeing how he interacts with other characters rather than other characters just telling me he’s a great guy, so another small point toward Skam Italia.

I don’t speak Italian so if I misunderstood some context, feel free to correct me.

If you got this far, thank you for reading!

[psycho-alchemist]

Hi so first of all you seem really awesome and your blog is amazing, I always love seeing what you've reblogged on my dash. Second, I was wondering if you had any anime recommendations of like your all-time favorite animes or series you think everyone should watch? I just finished a Fullmetal Alchemist rewatch and I'd love to find some new shows to get into. Thank you!!

Oh wow thank you, that’s so sweet of you!! <3 And YES, thank you for asking, I do have just a couple anime I think everyone should watch!! And I’ll throw in some more genre-specific recs too!

Three anime everyone should watch (not including FMAB, since that’s a given and you’ve already seen it):

Steins;Gate - Not many people talk about S;G anymore, but the people who have watched it pretty much unanimously love it. It’s about a man named Okabe and his friends who discover how to send messages to the past. But in doing so, they start to change their world too much, and suddenly all of their lives are in danger. Okabe has to undo the mistakes he made to save his friends’ lives and change the world back to the way it was. It’s a really cool time travel show! From what I have seen, most people who dropped it did so because it seems to move pretty slowly at first. I actually nearly dropped it too during my first watch, but upon rewatching I noticed that there are a lot of subtle hints dropped during the “slow” episodes that something horrible and tragic is about to happen. There’s this very faint, ever-growing feeling that something isn’t right, and suddenly it’s too late to fix anything.Time travel is a very very tiny theme in media, but I love it because it’s a great opportunity for pseudo-science and angst. The helplessness a main character feels as they try to fix things in a fucked up world when no one else around him even realizes how fucked up it is? 👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽 Steins;Gate handles the angst and plot twists really well, and it also manages to avoid all the plot holes that often come with badly written time travel stories. I am usually of the mindset that if I need to wait more than 4-6 episodes for an anime to “get good,” then it’s not worth it. Steins;Gate is a very rare exception to that rule, and I think everyone should watch it!!

Barakamon - I am not a fan of children, so an anime about a misanthropic twenty-something-year-old spending a summer on a rural island with a bunch of country kids is not something I would typically even glance at. When I originally saw it on the Summer 2016 roster, I wrote it off instantly. But during the first week of the new season I had finished all my other anime, so I watched it out of pure boredom. And boy, was I FLOORED.Barakamon is a surprisingly charming and hilarious story. Handa, the main character, is relatable to the average dramatic grump like me who would prefer to stay indoors during the summer, away from the bugs and sunshine and nature in general. The children are actually realistic, unlike a lot of the children or children-passing lolis we often see in anime. They’re a tiny bit bratty and very mischievous, but it’s actually really refreshing and endearing. The situations they get themselves into are ridiculous and hilarious. And despite Handa avoiding them at first, he ends up getting very very attached to them, and them to him.I was very reluctant to like Barakamon, but the first episode completely charmed me, and every episode thereafter. The humor was rarely an overdone punchline, it was situational and felt very authentic. I still laugh a lot just thinking about some of the scenes!

Psycho Pass (season 1) - This is only regarding season 1. Don’t bother watching s2 or the movie. But Psycho Pass was a special show for me, not just because of the very fascinating world-building but because of the way it makes you think about how morality works. How do we decide what is good and what is bad? How do we determine if someone is guilty or innocent? How do we make the judgment on whether someone deserves punishment or forgiveness? Psycho Pass made me think about those questions in a way I never really had. It actually made me agree with the psychopathic villain for once, which had never happened to me beforehand. (I’m pretty black-and-white so I usually side with the good guys and hate the bad guys without questioning it.) I understood and agreed with the villain’s philosophies, and it was really intriguing to consider that anyone could become a villain if they twisted their thinking the wrong way. In addition, Psycho Pass also brings up an interesting point of what would happen if humans didn’t go through any kind of stress or hardship. It suggests that perhaps stress and trauma are...not good exactly, but perhaps essential to the human experience.In short, Psycho Pass made me think about humanity and morality in a way I never had before. Again I am only speaking for s1, since s2 and the movie fell off that trend, but s1 was a fantastic watch and perfectly fine as a standalone series.

Those are the two I recommend to everyone, regardless of what genres they prefer. Here are my other favorites: 

Haikyuu!! - If you’re a fan of sports anime, or would like to watch sports anime but don’t like the overdone sports moves, Haikyuu!! is a great watch. It’s funny, it’s inspiring, and the sports actually don’t defy the laws of physics. The characters are all very lovable and have a great dynamic.

Hunter x Hunter - If you’ve been looking for a fun action series, HxH is definitely worth it. It’s got great action and really cool storylines, and it has a fun shounen feel without being overbearingly so. It’s a pretty long one at 148 episodes, and I definitely understand how intimidating that can be, as someone who hesitates to watch even 2-cour series. But Hunter x Hunter was worth every single minute, and I cannot stress that enough. It’s so much fun to watch, the characters are so unique and interesting, and the last two arcs are Angst Central if that’s what you’re into. It’s got someone for action fans who love fluff and those who love angst, and I am so so glad I decided to watch it despite its episode count looming over my head. 

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! - If you love a good rom com, definitely check out KWMS! The animation is done in a way that brings out each of the characters’ charm and really adds to the energetic, cute feel of the show. I’ve rewatched it more times than I can count, and it never gets old!

Kimi ni Todoke - If you love rom coms but want a slow-paced romance, KnT will do that for you. It’s still really funny (first anime that made me laugh so hard I couldn’t breathe!), but the romance is slow and steady. Some people have complained that the romance is too slow, and while I won’t disagree, I think the show still did a great job showing a very shy girl slowly establishing deep relationships, both platonic and romantic, with kind people. 

Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou - Technically a rom com, but don’t expect too much romantic development! It’s more like a comedy anime with a side romantic plot. But there’s nothing wrong with that! I love the characters; they’re all super eccentric but go together perfectly. And don’t get me started on Brain Base’s gorgeous animation and the lovely soundtrack! Overall this is just a really pretty, aesthetic, feel-good fluff show. Perfect for casual laughs!

Hopefully this helps you! :) If you would like recs from one particular genre, just let me know and I’ll tell you what I like!

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

you’ve talked a little bit about this wrt dan, but i’m curious: what are your favorite seasons/arcs for the main gg characters? (serena, blair, dan, nate, jenny, vanessa) cause everyone’s personalities tended to uh, shift a bit from season to season and storyline to storyline, and i’m wondering which eras of those characters were your favorite?

oh, so i sat on this question for a very long time, and spent a ton of time thinking over it. here we go! 

i loved the way serena was written in s1 and s2. she was so full of joy despite all the difficult things she’d endured, so bubbly and warm and... lively is ALWAYS the adjective that comes to mind for serena, despite how it’s a terrible pun. but yeah! she had an energy to her that was very childlike & genuine, and i loved that about her - despite the things she’d endured, she was so full of light (?? how do i describe this.) i know that serena’s arc gets notably more tragic s3 onwards, but i feel like the way she was written lost a bit of depth s3 onwards as well. she had a sharp wit, and a good sense of humour, she was playful and... most notably, she had this little giggle? that she literally NEVER does in the later seasons, which makes me sad?? she stopped laughing like a child at the age of, what, 19?? idk. in s1 & s2 serena had so many layers, and i feel like as the seasons went on they tried to, uh. keep only the surface layers? they didn’t really do justice to the character they started out with.

my answer for vanessa is actually the exact same, with slight modifications. vanessa’s energy in s1 and s2 was unparalleled. literally the best. i loved her and the way she was critical of everything and YET so ready to learn. compared to all these rich, privileged, white people... her presence was just SO good and so important to me, because the way she was so critical of the uber rich was something nobody else really was, and i think that perspective WAS valuable and should’ve remained, haha. idk what it was about s3, but i feel like they didn’t keep the crux of who vanessa was? it wasn’t a BAD vanessa season as much as an incomplete one. i felt they could’ve done so much more with a character like vanessa.... she’s so vibrant and full of life! and the way s3 was for her was very surface. and then in s4 they just demolished her character entirely. i’ve said it before, i’ll say it again: what jenny, juliet and vanessa did in 4x09 was TOTALLY out of character for vanessa. she would never, ever do that. and by the time s4 came around... someone else said this, i don’t remember who. but they said that vanessa was basically being used as a plot device more than as a character. notice how she’s always in the right place at the right time to overhear the right thing? it’s a travesty, because vanessa was just..... so significant to me. like her being there added so much value & even changed the tone of the show imo.

my blair feelings are very complicated. i think she’s fascinating, and i love leighton & her performance. i love book blair so much more than show blair, and idk why or how to explain it. i mentioned this in that post where i ranked the characters, but while watching blair in high school specifically i can’t EVER forget that she would probably hatecrime me, and even when she’s out of school she is still supremely racist at times. i actually liked blair best in s5 - and i know she was going thru ~tragic~ stuff (i think they dialled the tragedy too high actually, like, blair had TOO MUCH on her plate and from a storytelling point of view it was... ambitious, to say the least, to hope to bring all out of that out on tv) but like, keeping her tragedy aside. her capacity for kindness and care really shone thru while she was with dan, and i liked how the d/b relationship took her out of her comfort zone and her “but im a Waldorf!” bubble and let her, idk, be a person. i liked her in s4, too. i feel like blair is a really good, nuanced, fleshed out character as blair, and the way she clung to being a waldorf combined with her rich-white-girl privilege got kind of boring after a while because like. she’s not like louis? her character has so much depth. her character doesn’t need to be reduced to a title, because she’s SO much more than that.

i feel like i need to do a lot more rewatching when it comes to dan because i CANNOT be objective about him. he reminds me far too much of myself!!! down to his flaws and his mistakes and his issues –  i was a precocious little shit in high school at times in very similar ways to dan, i like to think i’ve grown out of that (& am perpetually making an effort TO grow out of falling into those patterns) & that’s what i want for dan, too. dan’s arc feels real to me, because a lot of it is my arc, too. feeling lonely, out of place & unaccepted in high school --> being a popular kid in college… that hits really close to home. s1 & s2 are important seasons to me because i’m extremely protective of awkward, trying-his-best high school dan (he can be awful at times, but he can be earnest and sincere, too!) i feel like s4 is actually the best dan season – took me a while to get here, but halfway thru my s2 rewatch that’s how i’m leaning. but dan’s arc was very interesting to me, and i wish they’d kept his heart. trying to retcon him as evil fell absolutely flat to me, like. who are you convincing! one of my friends and i were joking about how georgie blackmailed dan into pretending to be gossip girl (she obviously has dirt on him that nobody else does.) anyway. dan’s arc felt pretty true until the end of s4. i wasn’t a big fan of how he was written in s5, i felt like something had been taken away from his character, but i don’t know how to say it better. you’re right though, i have gone over this a lot! so i’m not going to break my head over it, ‘cause we’re already a thousand words in and i still have nate and jenny to go.

speaking of jenny, though: i think dan’s storylines REALLY needed more of a big brother arc. the way he was characterised, especially in s1, was very “i would kill a man for my baby sister” and i have NO idea where that went or why they got rid of it. (actually, i do have some idea. fucking chip wiskers apologism & elevation of chair over literally anything else. sigh)

okay, now speaking of jenny in terms of jenny. i liked her s1 arc, like, her trying to make friends with these people & trying to keep her morals and realising she can’t do both was interesting. i think that should’ve been that with her clashes with girls in constance, though. and afterwards, either nothing happens, or she transfers out of constance, etc. jenny’s s2 arc makes me sad – she was exploited and treated like dirt in so many ways :( the jenny/agnes was interesting in s2, though, and there’s no way to interpret it that ISN’T lesbian. i’ve always felt like jenny’s feelings for nate in s2 are very comphet. jenny’s s3 arc made me even sadder than her s2 arc- she was alienating all her friends one by one, making everyone hate her, and just…… spiralling. she really needed a better support system. her s4 arc made no sense. like. why did she come back in the city to fuck with serena like that? it didn’t feel right.

yeah, all that said… i feel like there are many super intriguing elements of jenny’s storylines and arcs, like, even within canon events if things had been executed differently, it could’ve been actually good/empowering. but the writers hated jenny. and this show was never a feminist show.

ah, so… nate. he started out as a flake in s1 & s2. that’s his whole thing. he doesn’t know who he wants to be / how to get what he wants / how to get where he wants. he takes people for granted. he isn’t dependable or reliable, he lets people down (most notably, blair & vanessa.) and he means well, sure! but his life is like amber and he’s trapped in it. he doesn’t follow his heart, he’s too busy trying to please the wrong people, etc etc. in s3 he’s suddenly so ready for commitment, which always breaks my heart because vanessa!!! but anyway. s3 has a shift in his character, possibly him getting dumped at prom and realising that high school is over and one thing that tethered him to his family (being a kid, being a high schooler, being a minor, whatever) –  one big thing that held him there is gone. so it makes sense that he starts trying to be his own person. i like s3 nate, and s4 nate. we see nate sort of gradually try and be a moral compass, and it’s interesting to me. when i write d/n fic something i really focus on is dan finding nate dependable, and i think that’s a value that builds in nate over time. nate of season 1 is not dependable, nope, no way. but nate of s4 seems like a decent friend to have. in s5 and s6 they more or less threw his entire arc to the wind and gave him so many shitty storylines (sage spence, wtf? nate would not do this. he’s been on the opposite end of this before, he would not carry the pattern forward, ffs.)

idk. this almost hit 1.7k, LMAO. i hope it made some amount of sense!