#no spoilers btw; I can’t watch any episodes yet and I still need to finish Cleo’s Ep 4 </3

[neoflames]

Graphic design is his passion <3

[dipstar1489]

Star Wars Clone Wars ending and pilot Rebels Thoughts

TW: SPOILERS to both series, and slight mentions to Ahsoka and the last movie sega. Also, I finished Clone Wars the series yesterday and watched only the first two episodes of Rebels, so please don’t let my post discourage you to watch either show. BTW, please contact me through the comments on this post if there are any trigger warnings I should ask, because the only ones I could think of is beheading.

Clone Wars How exactly does the 66 chip work? Like we know it’s meant to force the troopers to kill Jedi, yet Ahsoka left the Order at the end of season 5, so are troopers post 66 able to identify a Jedi by memory and the chip focuses on the memories involving the force, or is there a subconscious brain waves happening when the chip activates. Also slightly fucked up idea, does Boba Fett have the chip too? And five bucks says he is going to need ten years of full time therapy to get over the fact that hundreds of thousands of clones of he and his father destroyed planets and are universally hated by EVERYONE. And what about the Bad Batch?

Another question, in the last three Star Wars movies, we are introduced to Finn, a Black trooper, even though all the original troopers and Jango Fett have a tanish skin, so why the physical shift in appearance for the troopers? Is Finn in a similar case as the Bad Batch where his skin tone was genetically modified for some reason? Did Finn get kidnapped as a child, and if so, did he get a similar chip as Order 66? Did Kylo get a new clone donor? Is it because Finn’s actor was actually good at his job? I hate the first two ideas, but I need to figure out the origins of the troopers Kylo Ren has under his watch, especially since the troopers in Clone Wars are, you guess it, clones, where the only physical differences between them if out of their suits are tattoos and hair dye+hair styles.

Rex, you are forever best boy, like he could have pretended to still have the chip activated and kill Ahsoka to save his ass, yet he chose to fight his brothers and protect his allies, risking his life for his friend. Also didn’t realize why people loved Ahsoka and Rex’s dynamic until now. Top tier dynamic!

OH MY GOD! Maul, I get you’re a badass, but you didn’t need to BEHEAD the troopers, even if they’re under order 66’s control!

I’m the kind of bitch who watches shows out of order, but I can’t tell if my thoughts are better or worse than the original, for I remember seeing helmets attached to sticks in Boba Fett and I originally thought it was meant to intimate troopers similar to how prisoners during 1300s London were beheaded and had their heads on a stick, but it’s actually serves as a headstone with a body underneath.

Just the way the scenes were positioned, it’s just incredible! Like the glass shattering between Maul and Ahsoka, Rex’s hand shaking and dropping his helmet, and Darth Vader’s reflection in a trooper’s helmet which was painted with Ahsoka’s face, it’s simply genius!

Also, anyone else find it interesting that the troopers were securing Mandalor? Cause the troopers’s clone daddy (I have no idea how to refer him) Jango Fett is Mandalorian, so technically Mandalor is defeated by their own people.

Rebels

Ezra, what character arc did you go through, cause I could forgive you for stealing fruit, but why harass the people who saved your life?! Also, I’m assuming you’re a older teenager, but stop changing your mind seconds later! Oh, and we got a bingo on the traumatic backstory!

Zeb, so far my fav, but we got some issues. I get your pissed with Ezra trying to steal your shit and having a moral compass, but where did the shift in pure glee to get rid of Ezra go when you left him behind, cause that’s indicating something deeper. Also, THANK YOU for shutting down Ezra x Sabine!

Kanan, cool guy, but he feels like someone who needs a life saving cup of coffee with two shots in his cup desperately! Also, COMPLETE BADASS when he revealed he’s a Jedi!

Sabine, how the fuck did you create that explosive powder without a fuse?! Also, please don’t be Ezra’s love interest, since I’m the type of bitch who watches series out of order and know you two said they had a sibling relationship! Also, realized you were living at Ezra’s place in Ahsoka.

Hera, you cool, but when did you get Ezra’s name? Also, maybe a little more info please???

The first two episodes are alright, though I feel like the show was finding its footing, for the dynamics between the characters lacks the build up.

[meimae]

Look at me, not being on time for my April Immersion Overview as is the usual. (・w・;

First, little blog updates to get out of the way:

I reached 100 followers! Got an influx of people checking out my 1 year update post, and got plenty of nice compliments on my data collection.

For those of you wondering just why I keep up with so much data, it's mostly because it can get really hard to notice how much you're improving in a language especially with something like immersion learning that for people who don't get it feels like a waste of time or a time sink.

Graphs showing consistency, improvement in reading speed, increasing vocabulary counts, and generally just seeing numbers grow turns language learning more fun and motivating for me, and if as a bonus, it encourages someone to try immersion learning then that would be cool!

With that said, whether you're here as a fellow language learner, graphs enthusiast (笑), or just want some Japanese media recommendations, ようこそ! 

Also, made a tiny DP change - it’s チト from 少女週末旅行. Pretty sure it’s the first manga series I ever finished in Japanese (not the first one I started since ちはやふる is still ongoing), and I always felt a bit of a ☆connection☆ with  her - between her book-loving personality and being a no-nonsense kind of person, there was no way for me not to enjoy her character. Great beginner anime/manga if you’re not into most beginner recommendations.

-☆-

April has been a pretty good immersion month, as I was able to dip my toes in a variety of media. A bit competitive, too! The club I joined has been pulling all the stops to get to the Top 20 Immersion Leaderboard in it’s first month. I was able to snag the 9th spot among a bunch of people of different comprehension levels (the majority being N1+ since they’re able to comprehend much more and in turn stand longer immersion hours). Lots of tiny complaints though of potential “whitenoising” content (”listening” and “reading” but not comprehending very well just to get a large number to post), but really what can you do? People lie all the time on the internet. Besides, it’s internet points that doesn’t do anything beyond being a little shiny I guess.

Enough about that, let’s get into the nitty-gritty details you came here for!

ANIME

フルーツバスケット

Might need to rewatch this one. Felt like I didn’t connect with the characters the way the rest of its fandom has. I’m kinda sad about it, since I normally love Slice of Life and Fantasy, and I know this is one of my friend’s diehard shows.

ラブライブ! School Idol Project S2

A filler anime to watch tbh. Nice and easy enough to follow for beginners. Pretty good songs. With regards to it being a show about music and moe, I still 100% prefer K-On! if I’m going to be honest, but for a show about non-toxic idols, it’s good!

魔法少女まどか☆マギカ

First read this as English translated manga when I was 13 or something. Mistakes were made. Let’s all just agree to throw キュウベえ into a pit of fire and never talk about it again. Great ending and a show that really reworked the magical girl genre. But seriously, I was traumatized by マミ’s death then and now, help.

四月は君の嘘

Already knew what was going to happen even before watching this so I didn’t ugly cry like I was expecting. Still got that awful sinking feeling though. 10/10 would recommend for a good cry. Also, I’m planning to read the manga, might enjoy that more, because I’ve always liked it more than anime actually. *shocked pikachu face*

ホリミヤ

Watched before I even finished the manga which felt like a mistake at first until I realized that it perfectly stops where I stopped reading. Nice and comfy anime, the kind I would have loved as a teen. Fun animation too, making parts very dramatic even though it wasn’t really that deep of an issue even in the manga. Just teens feeling feelings. Still salty that we lose bad boy styled 宮村, but I get why it had to happen.

AUDIOBOOKS

氷菓

Second re-listen. I understand it fine, but it’s very easy to drift off when you can’t catch all the words so I had to replay often. Will have to mine more from the anime/book.

君の名は

I mined from the anime, and was really pleased to be able to follow all 6 hours of this audiobook perfectly fine. Will need to read the book, because I realized just how seamless reading it would be after listening to it with hardly any issue.

BOOKS

キッチェン

Completed! Read my thoughts about it and see my stats on this post.

君の膵臓を食べたい

Still trudging on with this one. It’s not a bad story, it’s pretty well written actually, I just made the mistake of watching both the anime and live adaptation first, so I know exactly what’s going to happen and it’s killing my motivation to keep reading. I guess reading the book first before watching the movie still applies in any language with me. Really need to 頑張れ and finish so I can move on. 

三日間の幸福

Started reading towards the end of the month, mostly because I realized that every chapter is only 5000-15000 characters long, and I was able to read up to 40k in a day with Island most days. Only two chapters read so far though because I got distracted by manga, but it’s shaping up to be a really good plot and potentially a really sad one, too, so I’m interested.

DRAMA

花ざかりの君たちへ イケメンパラダイス

Heard this was a classic so I gave it a try. Loved 生田 斗真’s character in this one the most especially all his internal dialogue acted out. Also, 小栗 旬 in anything is bound to be a good watch. Simple and fun watch. They dragged the ending so much though lmao 

ごくせん

Look, I see 松本 潤, I click. Definitely the kind of show you should watch for some great life advice. Planning to watch the 2nd and 3rd seasons even if there is a terrible lack of 松本 潤, because I love my strong female protagonists, and man, ヤンクミ is such a great character. Need to read the manga, too, if I can find it.

極主夫道

Oof, this was kind of hard. The yakuza talk was throwing me off, but the rest of it was enjoyable. Not really plot heavy as I thought it was going to be. The comedy side of it was fun and predictable after the first few episodes. Overall, pretty good slice of life, family story with a twist.

MANGA

Read a bunch of manga this month, mostly because I am struggling to find the next vn to read.

おやすみプンプン

Read a couple of volumes (6-7). This manga is so good, but it’s so depressing I need to stop to take a breather every once in a while. Please don’t leave any spoilers. The club has been reacting to me reading this, and it has mostly been a lot of crying emotes. It’s both been enjoyable to see and really worrying. 笑

チェンソーマン

Club recommendation. Only read the 1st volume so far. I really need to get into more 少年 anime/manga. That’s currently my 苦手 genre which is awful because literally all the top anime/manga is 少年 help. I just can’t enjoy it much still even though it’s comprehensible to me.

ちはやふる 中学生編

Read Vol. 1, chill read to me at this point after reading 45 volumes of the regular manga. Look, it’s my favorite 幼馴染 manga in baby format, of course I’m going to read this! 太一 has been a flake way before season 3 confirmed. Don’t come at me たいちはや stans bc I also like his character.

約束のネバーランド

Volume 7. I’m taking my sweet time with this one, because I heard the anime for season 2 sucked, so I’m avoiding it like the plague. This is 少年 how am I enjoying this and not everything else what.

ヲタクに恋は難しい

Enjoyed the anime hated the movie why did they make it a musical that sucked (ps i normally love musicals hated this one) 

The オタク jargon is kinda hard to read suprisingly but I do enjoy this ship very much. It’s a lighthearted take to otaku culture which is great because seriously it’s scary out there.

ツバサ -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-

It’s my childhood ship, obviously I will read this again (read in English several years ago). Still as plot twisty as I remember it being (now at a bonus hard level reading it in Japanese 笑). Really enjoyed reading this one (I finished it this May).

-☆-

I’m starting to really dislike furigana in manga. It was a great help as a beginner, but now it’s like training wheels that you can’t take off. I feel like the gains I’m getting from manga is much lower than it was when I first started which makes me both proud of how far I’ve come, but also sad because I love manga. Sad that I might have to start choose VNs over it, because it’s not going to challenge me as much going forward. I mean it didn’t stop me from reading a lot of it this month, but you get the picture.

VISUAL NOVELS

ISLAND

Completed! See my stats and read my long spoiler filled post here.

ファタモルガーナの館

Picked up this VN and finished two doors (15 hours) before stopping. On the fence about it, because it has been kind of predictable so far, and I don’t particularly enjoy the horror genre. That said, this is more psychological than anything, so it’s probably not that that’s putting me off. The language is not exactly difficult, too - maybe some oddly specific words because it is after all historical fiction (which is one of my favorite genres, btw), and 敬語 is definitely interesting to read for once after encountering so many お嬢様 characters in anime/drama so far. 

I think maybe it’s the conversations that are kind of dull - dots (silence) every few clicks that keeps breaking the flow of reading. Probably judging it really harshly too early, because it’s rated so high everywhere, and I just have high expectations. Definitely not dropping it yet though, just taking a break and testing a couple of other VNs before I settle with whatever I end up choosing. It is, after all, going to be another 50+ hour read, and I just don’t want to not enjoy the process, because having fun with the process is a huge part of immersion learning.

Let me know if you’ve read Fata and if I should continue! 

-☆-

That’s it for this month!

If you have any suggestions on what to watch and read next, please send me a reply, especially for VNs because I’m struggling over here.

[curewrongopinions]

HeartCatch.

I just finished HeartCatch and I can confirm, it’s amazing! Spoilers ahead.

It’s not perfect, obv. What does it do best? Develop individually each character, create original characters who feel incredibly fresh even nowadays, have charming side characters.

What does it do worst? Relationships between characters tend to be slightly underdeveloped. Tsubomi and Erika got it best cuz main characters. Yuri, however, has only been shown developing with Tsubomi. I wish we could see her spending more time with Momoka, Erika’s sister. She doesn’t have important interactions with Erika and Itsuki (besides telling her not to lose Potpourri and doing Fortissimo with her, which seems to be an important detail according to Marine, but). Itsuki in general feels slightly underdeveloped compared to the other three; she’s more of a background developer; you see her evolve, but not on the spotlight. Erika and Itsuki, to me, have great chemistry with Erika being so full of energy and Itsuki being so relaxed, but they don’t really have many many moments. Tsubomi, trust me, has a crush on Itsuki. Nobody can convince me otherwise. Even after she discovers Itsuki’s a girl, she still blushes around her. They have a cute relationship.

Also... before starting HeartCatch I was used to Healin Good’s interactions between Cure and fairy partner, so watching this I felt that was weak. Potpourri and Coffret got their chapters having problems with their partner, and Coffret had an amazing moment with Marine during her last fight with Kumojacky. Chypre and Tsubomi didn’t have any of this, besides being... sweet towards each other? I don’t really know what’s Chypre’s personality is. They were ok, but I wish they had more moments. Fairies’ designs are incredibly cute, tho. Potpourri is one of my favorite fairies. We saw Cologne just for a little, but I really liked him, too. He looked like a serious and snarky character, and seemed like a good partner to Yuri (even if he couldn’t convince her to get teammates). And Coupe. Coupe is amazing. His design, his human form, his relationship with Kaoruko, his dynamic with her. Everything. He scared me when he started fighting in his fairy form. I love him. And he only talks one time. Characters don’t need words to be amazing.

Villains were memorable. I loved purified Sasorina being happy as a teacher, because I really cared for her. Kumojacky was incredibly interesting with his weird strength speeches and Cobraja was funny using his Snackeys as fans. Dark Precure. That’s all I have to say. Her. I cried when she died. She just wanted to be loved by her father. She just wanted to be her true daughter. Just... her entire dynamic with Moonlight is sooo enjoyable and charming. Sometimes, I wish she’d be purified. She’d make a good tragic Cure. Sabaaku was ok, he wasn’t interesting that much until everything was revealed and it all made sense. Dune really was cruel, making a father work against his daughter while creating her a little sister and making them fight. Dune wasn’t really something. His desing was good, slightly weird. His backstory isn’t shown, but novel’s one is ok and explains many of his twisted mind things.

Fights were very good. I liked their variety of attacks, but I wish they had more to do with flowers or with their elements (Sunshine’s good, tho, she uses sunflowers). I know some people dislike Blossom’s weakness, but I actually love it. She’s the pink Cure, she should be the powerful incredible one but instead she’s weak. Even after she starts changing, she’s still weak compared to the others. But she’s not useless; her words give her teammates the strength to fight (see Yuri after she realised who Sabaaku was), she always knows what to say and it’s a natural ability. Her ideals are great. Oh, and I love how she’s so shy, I relate to her a lot. I also feel like I’m the weakest of my friends because I’m not physically strong nor fast, and I’m very introverted. I loved every single time Moonlight fighted, she’s so graceful. Desertrian’s designs were fine, they were fun but not too ridiculous. I loved the mechanic of Heart Flowers and their meanings. Things like this make every season unique. Oh, and Snackeys were incredibly fun, they had so much personality! I loved the one that got stronger and started training their teammates.

Side characters were very, very charming. I truly liked Kaoruko, Momoka, Kenji and Nanami. Kaoruko, particulary, is one of my favorite characters and I love her Cure form. She’s pretty, strong, wise and interesting. Trust me, she’s great. Overall, I liked HeartCatch’s sidestories and “filler” episodes.

Music was bestest.

Attacks were fine, not my cup of tea. I prefer something like GoPri, having each character have very different attacks. Fortissimo was really original and gimmicky, tho. And Shining Fortissimo is just... nice! They literally mix their attacks. Props to Sunshine for being the only sun cure that actually creates something similar to a sun. Orchestra was nice, too.

Movie was very interesting, too. I enjoyed it and I really liked Olivier. I wish we had more with Cure Ange, tho.

HeartCatch is a great season. All of the four main Cures are interesting. Blossom is shy and introverted, she wants to change but doesn’t fing the way to do so until she meets more people. Marine is so full of energy that she sometimes doesn’t think about others, she’s envious of her sister but overcomes it after finding out that Momoka’s jelaous of her too, and I really love how she slowly matures while not losing her charm. Itsuki is a very calm character, her main gimmick is her strange relationship with gender; she believed she had to be like a boy in order to be strong, and she didn’t want to show her love for cute things because toxic masculinity standarts...; but eventually, she realised she could be strong and like cute things. She’s so soothing and cool, but she’s not usually on the spotlight. And Yuri’s just... very well done. She’s strong, serious, centered and focused; but she has a deep trauma that she can’t overcome, until she talks with her deceased partner one last time and finally lets him go. Her tragedy doesn’t end there, tho; her father dies and her mortal enemy is revealed to be something like a blood sister, and dies too. Yet she has the strength to fight as a Precure, using love instead of hatred (she needed to heard Tsubomi’s words first, tho). And she overcame her loner problems, too; she finally accepted having teammates. I just wish she had more time to develop with Erika and Itsuki. I believe Sunshine and Moonlight could’ve been a duo.

I know some people don’t like the designs, but I personally enjoyed them. Btw, Erika with a ponytail is so pretty.

Next I’m gonna watch Maho, I think. I want to see if it’s as boring as people tend to say. I love magical things and elemental themes so... Yeah.

[talesofafangirlwithadvr]

JULY PICKS!

You heard me correctly, I said JULY! Whoosh, this year is going by fast-but not in a good way if you know what I mean. This will be my last monthly wrap up where I am strictly staying home in quarantine as this upcoming week I’m heading back to work in person. Wish me luck!

We had quite the range this month from newly released, reality, musical and then some favorites from last month that I’ve continued watching. Without further ado here we go....

There’s going to be PLENTY of SPOILERS this go round. ESPECIALLY with my first pick of Stargirl. You’ve been warned!!!

DC’S STARGIRL

I need to talk about 1x10 or I’m going to burst!!! As stated above there will be A LOT of SPOILERS IN THIS POST!! So scroll down to the next picture if you don’t want it to be spoiled. 

You’ve been warned...again.

IT CANNOT END LIKE THAT!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? Henry! Wow! 1) Epic fighting 2) The backstory and how he wasn’t going to give up on his dad AND THEN how he wouldn’t give into his dad. 3) HE DIED RATHER THAN JOIN HIS SIDE OR PRETEND (which I honestly felt was going to happen). His character arc and I can’t believe it’s over!!! 4) His speech at the end: *weeping.* I knew Brainwave was going to say he killed his mother. It just felt like the build up. Brainwave Jr. would have been a GREAT ADDITION TO THE JSA! AND OMG THE WAY THE REST OF THEM FOUGHT FOR HIM! I loved how they framed it so you could still see them in the back when Henry spoke to his father. Super heartbreaking. Man, it feels like a lot of people have been killed off this first season (or am I just still thinking about Joey?) 

Side note: Check out the Instagram Live between father and son Brainwave on Stargirl’s CW page. Jake Austin Walker did an AWESOME interview in his take over.

This was one of the strongest episodes overall and definitely one of my favorites so far. I agree with many others that while it is SOO GOOD and I want to rewatch it again, I don’t know if I can emotionally yet. I can’t remember the last time I felt that way about a show. 

Some other thoughts this episode: WAY TO GO BARBARA! Way to record them to translate later (such an awesome app btw, how do I get it?). I’m glad her and Pat came more to an understanding because I love them especially with that glimpse into how they met. Jordan’s parents give me the creeps, like the couple from The Visit vibes. I feel like Mike’s got to find out ASAP, especially because he’s spent time in the garage. Something’s got to show him the truth; because I’m really feeling he figures it out rather than being told. Very curious to see what his reaction will be. SOLOMON GRUNDY. Thank God Beth talked Rick down. She really is like Chuck in being the voice of reason. She did really well in the cafeteria too. While I still don’t believe Starman is Courtney’s dad, how cute was it when she put together her and Henry were cousins? Speaking of Court’s dad, who else didn’t feel like Starman was her dad until they saw that upcoming promo? I don’t know who that impostor is but he is not her dad. Something’s fishy.

Loving this show. So happy it’s renewed for a second season!! 

THE 100

From a show I can’t get enough of to one whose final season is a disappointment. I’m not going to spend too much time talking about The 100 because I feel I’ll just be repeating myself from previous posts. However, I did want to include it because I haven’t spoken much about the previous 2 episodes that I wound up watching back to back and I didn’t overly dislike them. 

As many have complained, when you have a final season you shouldn’t introduce SO MANY new characters and just push aside your originals (or the ones who are left). You also shouldn’t include so many confusing plots that are making it look like were the main points overall (like this many world concept was around since the first grounders) and playing with time in so many episodes is hard to keep up with too. Having so many people separated makes it difficult to remember what just happened to this specific group because I haven’t seen them in forever. ANYWAY, I did promise some positives. I didn’t except to like 7x08 because of it being a flashback episode with brand new people that was just going to feel like a potential spin-off pilot. Well...I actually really enjoyed it and the concept that the bunker was used before One Crew. The characters were easy to like and it was cool seeing Allie again (and this time not as the villain). While it felt forced including the orb (is that what it’s called? If not that’s what I’m calling it), but I liked how all the other pieces fit together (ex: the flame, the grounders’ language). Honestly, I surprise myself to say this, but I’d watch another episode. For 7x09, I liked being on Bardo and watching Octavia, Echo, Diyoza and Hope slowly get “brainwashed” I mean trained. We all knew it wouldn’t work for Hope and if I was them I would rather be on Sky Ring than Bardo (but then I guess I’d go crazy, so...) I enjoy the Octavia and Levitt relationship and would love them to work out, but if this show taught you anything it’s to be skeptical. I also want to shift to the Primes plot, just to showcase John Murphy for a second. THAT MAN! What a character development he’s had on this show. From the first season where I was like come on Murphy to now me awaiting his scenes. From cockroach to someone who won’t view himself as a hero. So good and something that is fantastic about this final season. They might have forgotten about other characters, but they’re doing it right by Murphy. 

Well, that was more than I was expecting. ;)   

THE CIRCLE

It feels like I haven’t watched a lot of reality TV this year, which makes sense because of our quarantine situation (but then again I’m watching World of Dance, but that’s a different because it’s more of a competition/dance show. I’ll stop rambling). The Circle is a reality ‘game’ show that could be easily completed during quarantine and social distancing because the contestants do not see each other in person. They each have an apartment in this complex and only communicate with each other on a social media platform called the Circle. The objective is to become the most popular and an influencer who gets power over who stays and who goes in the competition. There’s some side contests throughout, but most of the show is just people chatting through an insta messenger and trying to learn as much as they can. Alliances are formed and cat fishes try to thrive all for the grand prize of $100,000. (Wow, that’s a lot!) It is SUPER addicting and very funny. Having a voice-over narrator really makes it even funnier because she says what we’re all thinking. Just about every episode a contestant leaves and then is able to meet one other person in their apartment. It’s been cool seeing their reactions as oftentimes it’s someone they did not expect AT ALL. I can’t wait to finish it. If you’re a fan of Big Brother than this is definitely for you. Looks like there will be a second season, which I am excited about.  

THE BABYSITTERS CLUB

Jumping from one Netflix show to another. Released on Netflix on July 3rd, I tried not to binge it all in one day because then it would be over (and we still don’t know if there will be a second season yet). This is definitely my feel good watch for July. If you want something that’s a quick watch and just wholesome and fun to escape our current world than this is for you. I always felt so happy after watching and couldn’t wait to watch another. While I was familiar with the franchise--the 90s movie and of course the books (although I was more of a Babysitter Little Sister fan, so I was very excited to see Karen), you don’t have to have any knowledge of the Babysitters Club to enjoy this show. I was hooked just about right away by this new series shown by me watching the first three episodes back to back. I really like how they set up each episode with one girl as the main focus (just like in the books) where she takes over the voice-over narration. Great representation and made modern to fit in with our current times. The first example that comes to mind is when Mary Ann babysits Bailey who is transgender. I liked how Bailey says those are her old clothes while they’re playing. It’s shown in a way that explains the situation without feeling like a lecture. It fits so naturally into the episode. And then Mary Ann’s speech at the hospital is super powerful for both Bailey and herself. This is just one example of how well represented this show is. Extremely strong cast and actresses who are the proper ages. I also love the adult casting and how they threw in a Clueless reference from Alicia Sliverstone (who plays Kristy’s Mom). As someone who is writing for this age group, I really liked hearing and seeing how authentic this show is. 

FEEL THE BEAT

A Netflix original movie that has been on my list for a while that I just got around to watching. It didn’t come out too long ago. In the film, Sofia Carson’s character is a dancer who is a perfectionist. She gets on the bad side of a big NYC producer when she not only leaves her in the rain as she steals her taxi, but also knocks her, accidentally, off stage and becomes a viral video-this basically blackmails her in Broadway. This all happens within about the first 10 minutes of the film and the majority takes place back in her small home town (very Hallmark-like) in Wisconsin. While there her old dancing teacher wants her to share her Broadway wisdom with her young students. Meanwhile Carson has only been a chorus girl, so she doesn’t really have any. What draws her to helping the young girls is the chance to perform in front of a big choreographer that could get her to be the star she always dreamed of. The catch is that it’s the teacher dance in the childrens dance competition. While this might sound like a movie you’ve watched many times before, it was still worth it and a really fun watch. I think the kids really make the movie. They are adorable, funny and super talented. You feel connected with them really fast and want to see them succeed. I loved Dickie and how he joined the group. I think he was my favorite overall. I loved how inclusive the cast was here too (just like BSC) from a mixed race family, to single parents and even a student who was Deaf. It was great seeing the other actors sign to her. Carson’s character, April, can be annoying at times, but you understand it’s her character and something she needs to overcome. As I said before the plot may seem familiar, but the ending was something I didn’t see coming. Overall, wholesome, feel good and fun for the whole family. You can consider to watch while babysitting. (See what I did there??)  

VIOLETTA SEASON 2

She’s back! I know last month when I included Violetta it was mainly me being excited to see the second season FINALLY streaming on Disney Plus. I had watched a few episodes (remember there’s 80 altogether, so even if I watched 20 that’s still very early on and just a dent in the season) and was still getting used to this season. Well, now I’m happy to report I am in the 40s and more than half way. For a bit I was watching many of these episodes a day, which told me that I was loving it again. Recently, I feel I need a little more of a push to watch, but it’s mainly because of certain story-lines that feel like they’re dragging. (For example: Violetta’s voice. One minute it’s fine and the next she’s like dying). For this section I have two words: LOVE TRIANGLES. And I’m not just talking about Violetta, Diego and Leon. For a bit it felt like each character had their own love triangle, which honestly I was loving. These characters have definitely developed a lot from last season, which allows this to happen. Olga was in a love triangle, which just recently got resolved. I think German is still in one because of his alter ego Jeremias. Jackie was “kind of” in one. For her it was more of a misunderstanding, which is very classic on this show. Lots more secrets have been uncovered in these episodes as well as songs! You know how excited I am for those. Overall, I think I’m still enjoying season 1 songs more (which get referenced enough in this season), but some of the season 2 ones are really growing on me. Specifically Leon’s Entre dos mundos and when he sings with Diego Euphoria in English. Also, Yo Soy Asi has been real catchy. I know Frederico will be coming back soon and I can’t wait to see him again!  

HAMILTON

Like many I watched Hamilton this month-actually on the day it came out. It’s been a musical that I’ve been intrigued by, but never thought I’d get a chance to watch because of how popular and expensive it is to see on Broadway. So, I was very excited to hear I’d get the chance when it was to be released in theaters for a special event. Then because of Corona it was released to Disney Plus, which was EVEN more convenient and exciting. I really enjoyed it and watched it twice within the same week. I immediately downloaded the playlist and started singing it around the house. I do this a lot with many of the plays I see, but depending how good they are is shown by how long I listen to the soundtrack. (Some of my top ones are Bandstand, Once, Newsies and Anastasia.) Because there are so many songs in Hamilton it is taking me a little longer to know all the words, but I feel pretty confident with the first act. It was the perfect timing for this to be released on Disney Plus. Not only because it was July 3rd, but also because of the world we are living in. Lin’s diverse cast brings to life the world of 1776 and the revolutionary war (as well as the time after it), but it’s such a strong commentary on our world today. This is something I am continually noticing with historical dramas/pieces being released within the last 5-10 years. It feels like there’s more we can say in this genre than in a commentary piece. I also like all the analysis videos I’ve seen popping up, which just make it even more powerful. (Like it being Eliza’s story and her putting herself back in the narrative. That the play Hamilton is named for both her and Alexander.) I don’t know if all of what I see were intentional, but  either way well done. I hope it doesn’t leave Disney Plus soon. 

1917

And lastly, 1917. I promised quite the range this month and you can see that’s definitely the case. I always enjoy watching war films and with 1917 there was so much hype (both before it came out and after) that I was interested to give it a watch. Giving the movie to my dad for father’s day felt like the perfect excuse to be able to watch it. Even though our DVD stuck in a few places (still don’t know if it was the player or the DVD itself), the film was very entertaining and I would suggest it to anyone who is a history/film buff. Taking place in WWI, we follow two British soldiers as they attempt to deliver a message about an upcoming ambush that could take countless lives. I feel that I often watch more films revolving around WWII, so it was very interesting to be immersed in the first great war. After watching I am not surprised that the film was up for so many Oscars. While cinematography is the first thing everyone discusses when it comes to this movie (and it should be because the one shot/long shot is sooo impressive and beautiful to watch. It really brings you into the scene and has a way of making you feel like you’re there too. There’s a realness to it that’s raw and new compared to other war films I’ve watched in the past), there’s so much more to this film too. First, I like how it connects back to Sam Mendes’ grandfather, so while it’s not a true story it has real facts in it. I LOVE the score and music to this film. In the scene where George Mackay runs at night through those ruined buildings I could really hear how well the music worked with the action. Because of this I made sure to listen to some of the soundtrack and now I’ve added some of the songs into my writing playlist. I have chills just thinking about it. The other point I want to bring up is the cast! While there are SO MANY big names in this film from Colin Firth to Benedict Cumberbatch, the two main characters are played by George Mackay and Dean Charles Chapman and they are the ones with the most screen time. If their chemistry and acting wasn’t so great then the movie wouldn’t be as successful as it is. Because of this I have been watching non-stop YouTube interviews of the two of them for this film. 

They are so well-spoken, stand-up guys and I can’t get enough of their dialogues with each other and others. (You should watch these interviews too). While familiar with Chapman’s time on Game of Thrones, I haven’t seen him in much else, so I’m excited to see what he’ll have in the future (as well as checking out his IMDB page). For Mckay, I’ve seen him before when I just watched Ophelia earlier this summer so that was my first time watching him act. After that film I was curious what else he was in, but it was only after 1917 that I started doing more research. So far, I’ve only been able to watch the short film he was in called Infinite. While only 17 minutes it was very strong and deep. I highly recommend. As I’ve shared on this page already, in another post, the more I hear him talk the more of a crush I am developing. It’s been a long time since I’ve experienced a celebrity crush this strong so soon. This quarantine has to end so I can make it to England to just casually bump into him like one does. :) 

[inessencedevided]

The Untamed, episode 14 - watching notes

Little note on the last ep: I love how everyone finds wwx in his inner robe absolutely 🔥🔥🔥 I mean, I agree! but it's just one less layer! It's still covering his entire body! 😂 but still, it's somehow the hottest shit any of us have ever seen :D

So, off to ep 14 *bangs head to opening melody*

He put the headband back on because he fears that lwj is nervous without it 🥺🥺🥺

How can they be so soft with each other???

And lwj's almost-smile :')

Can't write much about the arrow picking except that I honestly love how this scene is shot. The lightening, the music, the sound of them working. It all works brilliantly to build up the tension

Wait? Was that weird lightening that lwj shot into wwx head something to let them communicate by thought? The potential! 😲 My mind immediately went to thought-sharing-smut fix but then I remembered that there might even be hope for that in canon!! 😱 (or at least, some version of canon)

That's vaguely disgusting (The inside of the shell, I mean)

I'm surprised the turtle doesn't notice that there is someone walking around inside her shell

So wait ... what? There is a sword there which traps the turtle. Meaning, someone has been there before and maybe purposefully trapped it there, meaning this whole excursion was completely unnecessary. They could have just left it there and it would never have bothered anyone outside that cave. Then again, Wen chao doesn't strik me as someone to think such things through ...

Quickly, Wei Wuxian! Stab the diary with its tooth! ... wait, wrong fandom

Maybe it's not though ... there's very horcrux-like black goo coming out of the sword 😳

Tf is happening to wwx? He's hurting 🥺

Now he's... not. And he's somehow controlling the black mist and the swords ... I'm confused. Is this where the "demonic cultivation" comes in

Worried lwj is my new favourite thing on this show

Why is there random fighting in the throne room of the wen sect???

Wwx looks mildly traumatised :(

Oh wow ... I'm continuously in awe of the music choices. During this talk, you can hear the main theme (wangxian's theme, I think) in the background. But for the first time, it's played on deep, melancholic cellos. That alone gave me chills! Just, endless kudos to whoever was in charge of the soundtrack for this show!

Apparently, worried lwj is also wwx's favourite thing :')

Seriously wwx!!! He is helping you and NOW you decide to throw the "boring" back at him??

Are these two idiots allergic against genuine, heartfelt moments???

Oh god, no I take it back immediately!!!!

"Can you sing a song for me?" 😭

Hughn ... you don't understand!

There's NO trope I love more than one part of a couple singing to the other (maybe it's because that's how I like to show love. Sorry, tmi)

I'm weak guys ... 😭😭😭

He's doing it .... OMG HE'S DOING IT! and his voice is so nice and deep and ...

Okay ...line break ... I'm actually crying. I legitimately have tears running down my face

I just watched this sequence three times and I couldn't type while I watched because I COULDN'T MISS THIS!

Also I'm crying. It was hard to see anything

Just ...

...

THEY DID THAT

They did a straight up compilation of their love so far

And the song! THE SONG!! THE SONG!!!

I had suspected so before, but it's actually their love theme

And ... hugh ... lan wangji sang it ... for wei Wuxian

Apart from how f*cking meta that is, that's just... the most romantic thing you can do for mesomeone (have I mentioned that I'm weak for this ...)

And and and the compilation ...

They really know how to play a fandom, right? Like, they know

I'm speechless...

Just the fact that they do this and then they have to pretend that nope, this is completely straight, nothing to see here is absolutely bewildering to me

Hugh ... I need to calm down... I'll watch it a third time

The lantern scene was there, tooooooo!!! 😭😭😭

No, no I'm concentrating again

"What's the name of the song?" What's the name??? What is it?

(If you know, please don't tell me! I just ask these questions to get my feelings out, not because I genuinely want to know spoilers ;))

They got out. I'm almost sad. With how things were going, a few hours more in that cave and they probably would have straight up cuddled :D

Jiang Cheng allows himself to show 1, ONE second of genuin concern for his brother, before he starts acting all tough again 🤦‍♀️ *sigh*

Noooo, why did lan wanji leave??? :(

Okay, that's a good reason

Yay! They finally decided to do something about the Wen clan :D

God I love Lotus Cove :)

Again, this reminds me so much of lotr and particularly the elves. The way the camera pulled from a light background to wwx, just waking up in bed after being injured ... the only thing missing was Elrond's head floating above him :D

Woahwoahwoah, hold a second. I had to go back and pause ... is that two men kissing on the bed frame??? Is this the show's way of telling us "yes they kissed, no we couldn't show you. Here, have some heavy-handed subtext so you won't miss it"

It's senior sister :,)

And even Jiang Cheng is caring eith him, bringing him soup ... I have feelings!

And now the whole family is here *sniff*

Okay ... f*ck. I see. Jiang Cheng did so mich, wwx even tries to pull attention to it and their father/uncle still only pays attention to wwx :/

Argh, I forgot that there's still one more member to this family 🤦‍♀️

Oh f*ck her!

Just ... ugh ... that's all I'm saying about that

wwx and jiang Cheng! 😭 - they're both such emotionally constipated idiots (especially jc), but this heart to heart felt so real, you know? Like it could happen between any two brothers in their situation :')

And honestly, it's so tragic. Both of them are definitely NOT at fault for their situation, yet it always hangs over their relationship. I hate it when,in a story, the parents' baggage is transferred to their children, mostly because that's sadly how it goes most of the time

Episode finished... Going back to the song part, so I feel good again :D

These past two episodes where ... hagh ... heaven for my hurt/comfort-loving heart 🥰

And in general, I think, this one was my favourite so far!

@sweetlittlevampire @fandom-glazed @elenirlachlagos @allhailthedramallama @luckymoony (please excuse my typos, btw. I'm sure there are many) 😅

[skaylanphear]

I guess I’m not surprised? Voltron thoughts and spoilers.

Review for season 7: Eh?

Honestly, I don’t understand how Voltron can be so well-written one season and so poorly written the next. I think season 7 was worse than season 4. I haven’t yet watched a season where I was concocting my review before I was finished watching, but I was honestly waiting for it to end by the time I was halfway through. 

I didn’t know I could be bored through an entire season. 

Like, I was literally just waiting for the end, hoping for something amazing to happen. I was literally like “wow, maybe all the paladins will die and then they won’t have to be subjected to poor writing like this anymore.” 

I just... I don’t get it. Season’s 5 and 6 were great. So what is this pile of shit? 

The first half is basically filler episodes full of stupid idiotic antics and literal fun-poking at Lance that is never addressed. I mean, he was literally called dumb over and over and over again and it was never addressed again. I mean, he was hardly in the season, frankly. 

Keith was... Keith was an asshole. I mean, Lance is generally annoying, but this hit whole new levels of annoying, and Keith was an asshole to him the whole time even when Lance was being nice to him and trying his best. 

Hunk’s arc... wasn’t an arc at all. They gave us a snippet of character recognition in the beginning and then a start to some kind of arc that was eventually not realized for Hunk on a personal level because it was taken over by these overly elaborate battles that I couldn’t even tell you about despite the fact that I just watched it. 

Pidge was... there. Though her father got the most airtime out of everyone. 

Allura was also around, but her character got nothing aside from some shoehorned in crush she now has on Lance? Despite the fact that he’s been basically useless the entire season and done nothing to change her opinion of him? Despite the fact that Allura is just as exasperated as Keith is with Lance most of the time? 

I mean, I love Lance. I love how he started and I love what he could be, but he’s annoying as fuck due to lack of development and it makes no sense that Allura would have feelings for him now. I’m down for some Allurance if it’s written well, but this was exactly what I was afraid of--Allurance being poorly written, Allura magically developing feelings for Lance, and Lance being the “nice guy” who somehow gets the girl despite that making no logical sense. 

And I am still baffled over why Keith was such an asshole to Lance the whole time. That bullshit about how Lance better not miss his shots, as if Keith and Lance didn’t fight back to back through season three. It’s bullshit and an insult to both their characters. 

And don’t even get me started on the Adam and Shiro thing. We didn’t even get to meet Adam before he fucking died, so thank you Voltron for doing as all media does and killing off your LGBT rep, and in record time too, btw. Instead of getting, at the very least, half an episode dedicated to their story, we got a whole bunch of Shallura stuff that doesn’t even make any sense because Allura likes Lance now? For some reason? 

The only moment that stands out to me was when Hunk and Keith had their little heart to heart, but even that seemed forced because it was like the writers were just “oh, Hunk needs a moment because we don’t know how to write his character so we’ll just shove this stuff in here about his parents despite the fact that it’ll never go anywhere.” 

Oh yeah, and the other moment I remember--when the Atlas somehow magically turned into a giant fucking robot. Because I literally said, out loud, “well that’s fucking stupid.” The hell? Humans aren’t alteans. The Atlas was inspired by altean tech, but it was not made using alchemy. It was created by humans, who have no magical inklings. Are you telling me the power of Shiro and the castle-ship crystal just... transformed it? Because, again, that’s fucking stupid. Also, the Atlas’ design is... not good. And it looks really, really dumb as a robot. 

But moving on. What the hell was up with Acxa? So she... changed sides, alright, and has a crush on Keith? I still don’t think that’s the case since she showed up at his Dad’s grave at the end, but it’s still poorly put together. 

A lot of which just comes down to how poorly written this season was. I mean... the writers literally did... just about everything you’re NOT supposed to do. 

There was no emotional weight because none of the characters interacted in a personal manner, aside from Keith and Hunk for two seconds and then Keith being an asshole, again, when they were stranded in space. We see Lance’s family, but we don’t meet them. The only one we do meet is Veronica and since we didn’t learn anything about her and Lance’s relationship or history, I literally couldn’t care less about her. Keith’s mom fucking leaves, which she said she would never do, which undos that nice little character bit. Hunk never actually rescues his family, they’re just... free as a result of... fighting? Pidge is just there, whatever, we hardly see her interact with her mom. Allura and Coran do basically nothing. There’s no one there to welcome Shiro back. Shiro, who got to fight Sendak and, yet again, take spotlight from what could have been an epic moment for another character before, again, being rescued by Keith. 

And then, we get half a season introducing us to characters we don’t know, doing stuff we don’t care about, making plots and battle plans far more complicated than they have to be just to show off these character that I don’t care about. The only new character I cared about seeing--because he had a personal connection to one of the main characters--died two minutes after being introduced in a fight that meant nothing. RIP Adam. 

I literally don’t care about any of the new pilots and they took up, like, a third of the season. They were cool at first until their pointless airtime quickly came to overlap that which could have been used to develop the characters we already love. 

The entire season was plot driven instead if character driven, because the main characters hardly felt like they were in it. Much like when the paladins were piloting the lions while being held prisoner, their minds and bodies felt like they were separated. We watched their bodies, but we didn’t get a whole lot else. 

AND THEN the end was filled with fucking mcguffins that were downright laughable. Sendak is killed by Keith, because apparently Keith and Shiro get to do everything cool, and then some random-ass robot with no ties to the season shows up. Oh, it’a Haggar? Okay. But we don’t know anything about it? Alright. More powerful than anything yet faced despite the fact that the battle against Lotor’s giant robot was way more intense? Sure thing. So now we’ve got two giant robots, again. Only for some stupid-ass third one to show up that is so huge you can’t take it seriously. It comes in and basically does nothing, before our paladins make a sacrifice that, really, doesn’t even matter because there’s no emotional investment in what they’re doing. They might die? Well maybe that would be more exciting than the last bore-fest I just spent 6 hours watching. 

It’s like they don’t know how to develop their characters, so they’ve just decided to stop and instead shove as many giant robots into our faces as possible. And try and distract us with love stories that have no weight because they have no development, rhyme, or reason. 

It’s the worst season I’ve watched yet. I was ready to go back to bed halfway through. I kept waiting for something, anything, character-wise to happen and instead all we got were a bunch of dumb robot fights that didn’t mean anything. 

The reason the fight with Lotor was so weighted was because of his and Allura’s background and his past. The reason the fight between Shiro and Keith was so weighted was because of their history. 

We got none of that. Veronica almost died, like, twice and I was like “whatever” because I know nothing about her and I’ve barely seen Lance around anyway. 

And I still do not understand why Keith was such a fucking asshole? It’s so out of character! I don’t... Ugh!

And all the queerbaiting from all the different sources from creators to Netflix, only to leave us high and dry on everything. If someone were watching this show without the assistance of things the creators have said, no one would realize Adam and Shiro were an item. It wasn’t explicit. They could have been best friends or brothers or literally anything. 

I just... I don’t understand how it could be so poorly executed. No wonder they want to finish Voltron this year--get it over with if this is what we have to look forward to. Lance and Allura can get married despite having little to nothing in common and having no development within their relationship. Throw Keith and Acxa together because that’s even better than Lance and Allura. The most they have in common is a knack for saving one another, let alone any personal interests. 

And don’t even bother with Lance’s family. We don’t know them, so they might as well not exist. Let’s make Commander Holt and Pidge’s family the main characters--they’re clearly the most important family unit aside from Keith and Shiro. Keith and Shiro, who do the same thing every single season. If I was a Sheith shipper, I’d be pretty bored at this point, personally. They have as little development as everyone else. 

Literally everything about it was either underdeveloped, boring, filler, mcguffin, or other characters that literally no one cares about. The high ranked lady dies? I don’t care, she was annoying the whole time, why are we dedicating so much time to her death? 

And why the hell was the entire season based around defending Earth? The paladins defend planets all the fucking time. I get that it’s Earth and we’re supposed to feel personally connected, but I didn’t see settings that would illicit an emotional response. We hardly saw any of the humans that were captured. It might as well have been another planet. Yeah, I wanted Earth to be attacked, but I didn’t want the entire season to be focused on defending it. That’s just... 

It’s everything I’ve said above, that’s what it is. 

They said a lot of people would be leaving the show after this season, as if something huge would happen that would make the fandom angry and cause people to leave. 

But that’s not why people will leave the show. They’ll leave it because it was poorly written, made promises it couldn’t keep, and kept the characters going in circles or even going out of character for no defensible reason.   

And that’s not something to be toting around as though to be proud of it. As if you made some hard decision that was going to anger your fans. You think ships are going to break up your fanbase? If you wrote them well, that wouldn’t happen. If you wrote a good story, people would stick around for that no matter the ships. Ships aren’t the problem here and they’re definitely not what’s going to have people leaving the show. 

What’s going to have people leaving the show is that this whole season was horrible on every level, ships aside.     

What a waste.

[almaasi]

reaction post typed while watching Good Omens (ALL OF IT)

my favourite novel is now my favourite mini-series and IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL

under the cut: a very long, spoilery six-episode reaction to MY NEW FAVOURITE THING EVER

--

may 31st 07:36pm nz

i posted my episode 1 reaction a couple hours ago but that got ZERO NOTES so i assume people are either avoiding spoilers or aren’t interested, which is fine, but i’m just gonna put all my reactions in one big post so anyone who IS interested doesn’t have to read 6 separate posts c:

edit june 1st 04:08am: btw i watched using a free trial on amazon prime, which i’m pretty sure is worldwide. soooo if yOU WANT TO WATCH THIS, YOU CAN, FOR FREE

--

EPISODE 1: In the Beginning

--

04:03pm

idk how much i’m gonna type, whether i’ll post a reaction to the entire thing in one post....... or how much i’ll end up watching right now

kinda want to spread it out and save it as a treat for after i’ve done some writing

but right now i wanna watch before writing

so maybe i’ll do one ep, write something, then return to this?

edit: aahhaha that didn’t happen

-

04:04pm

I’M SO EXCITED

I’VE BEEN WAITING SO LONG

well... since 2011 when i first read the book

but regardless it’S BEEN 84 YEARS

-

04:05

okay first off i did not know amazon prime did adverts at the start of their videos. so i was like SINCE WHEN WAS CHILDISH GAMBINO/DONALD GLOVER IN GOOD OMENS

and then

yeah

no

either way i thought it was a good opening

-

W A R

NING

cool cool cool cool cool

-

omg i’m used to where the netflix full-screen button is, and on amazon prime that’s the “next episode” button so i gotta be real careful

-

dear god my video quality is TERRIBLE

i.......... i might torrent this show and watch it offline

this is horrendous i can’t see a damn thing

i have never seen pixels this big

-

04:11

okay the quality calmed down after a minute

i loooove the intro, i love that it’s basically word for word from the book

i feel like i’d find it funnier if i hadn’t read the book 3 months ago

-

also? god is a woman? yes

-

04:13

is it just me or does the snek have a slightly david tennant-esque quality about it

-

i’m so happy adam and eve are black

-

04:17

omfg. aziraphale said “ineffable” and now CRAWLEY’S CHECKING HIM OUT TRYING TO SEE IF HE HAS ANY JUNK

WOW

...or y’know, looking for a flaming sword. SAME FUCKING THING.

-

also i looove how FLUFFY azi is

-

azi: “do hope i didn’t do the wrong thing”

i fucking love them both uhrgughhhuhuhughuhhh

-

04:21

small sob for cuteness

umbella wings

-

04:23

in the opening titles, crowley just stopped a spaceship and aziraphale turned it into fish

i feel like that was a douglas adams reference and i’m on board

-

04:25

the entire time i read the book, up until i saw video promos of this show, i thought “crowley” was said the same way as spn’s “crowley”, as in “crahwlee”

not “crOhwlee”

i definitely like that they’re different though

both probably named after aleister crowley tbh. all of whom are queer.

-

THOSE SWAYING HIPS

i haven’t found david tennant attractive in about 9 years but WHOOOP HELLO AGAIN

somehow attractive for entirely different reasons than before. like. my taste changed but tHEN

-

i’m on crowley’s side, taking down a cellphone network is VERY ANNOYING

-

04:35

crowley: shitshitshitshithsit

:D

i can’t wait for aziraphale’s big swear

-

04:37

i miss eating sushi

sushi was great

-

04:43

this baby delivery thing is sTRESSFUL

“aaaaurthurrrrr”

nooo

poor lady

-

04:45

“little toesie woesies”

where’s the sister mary loquacious fan club and where do i sign up

-

i’m glad they colour-coded the babies and did the playing card explanation because this part of the book always tied my brain in knots

-

05:00

this is reminding me how utterly gross england is

-

“MY POINT IS............. DOLPHINS”

YES

-

05:06

see in the book

i never once realised that the nanny was crowley in disguise

-

05:11

digging the snake tattoo sideburns

-

05:14

and yeah the short hair looks good

-

05:15

fINALLY crowley called azi “angel”

-

05:17

crowley: “oh no no don’t do your magic act, pleeease”

the magic act scene is one of my fave parts of the book <3

-

05:20

aw man they cut out the best part

i mean i get why

the kids shouted a bunch of gay slurs at aziraphale

and there were no secret service people with guns

but aw mannn

AND THEY CUT OUT THE BIT WITH THE DEAD DOVE AND CROWLEY BRINGS IT BACK TO LIFE FOR AZIRAPHALE

THAT WAS MY SINGLE FAVOURITE BIT OF THE BOOK

AND IT’S GONE

;C

-

OH WAIT

THERE’S THE DOVE

OH GOOD

-

aw man aziraphhale just brought it back himself

i liked it better in the book

they sat on the steps outside and crowley comforted azi and took the dove and fixed it for him, and then it flew off

idk i just had such a perfect image of that moment in my mind and this was..... good but not the same at all

could be gayer

-

05:27

good dog

-

05:28

crowley: *snifsnif* something’s changed

aziraphale: “oh it’s a new cologne, my barber suggeste--”

crowley: “no no i know what you smell like”

gayyyyyyyyyy <3

-

05:31

okay that’s ep 1 watched!!! i’ll watch more maybe later tonight :D

ENJOYING THIS SO FAR

not as gay as expected ........YET

needs 400% more “angel” and “dear”

--

EPISODE 2: The Book

07:42pm

pillar of salt guy: “something smells evil”

the fact crowley smells evil and yet aziraphale likes his company regardless says a lot

-

07:49

fully expected crowley to say “i didn’t fall, i sauntered vaguely downwards”

-

07:50

iiiii’m finding the narrator a little annoying

maybe it’s because i read the book so i know what’s going on

but saying “he has four items to deliver in his van. he works for this postage company and he’s making his first delivery in a formal warzone”.... idk i feel like all of those things could be shown visually? saying it rather than showing it probably saved seven seconds of airtime, but damn

-

07:56

i wonder if the narrator was a later addition to this, for new audience clarity? the script for god just seems a little stilted, idk

edit: i kind of got used to it, but it was still jarring, which i’m sure was the opposite of the intended effect

-

08:09

the saddest newt

-

08:13

she’s kind of exactly how i imagined her in the book

and definitely my fave next to aziraphale and crowley

-

08:17

i feel so bad for crowley’s plants

poor babies

-

08:19

for some reason i imagined her as a redhead. kind of more like mrs weasley

-

08:33

these wee children......... so soft.......... so smol

-

08:25

v happy with the casting for pepper

tiny downside is that we lose another redhead

-

08:29

i find the kids’ conversations hilarious because they’re the same age as harry potter when he goes to hogwarts the first time

idk if this is what eleven year olds are like in real life, but when i read the book i did feel distinctly like they spoke like eight year olds

-

08:35

crowley: “i like spooky. big spooky fan, me”

he just sounds like the tenth doctor

-

08:36

YEEE FINALLY CROWLeY DOING NICE THINGS FOR AZIRAPHALE

-

08:48

"you know, crowley, i’ve always said that deep down you really are a--”

“SHUT IT”

DON’T YOU CALL HIM NICE YOU PRETTY BASTARD

-

loquacious: “sorry to break up an intimate moment”

-

08:45

i imagined anathema’s tripod thing to be about 5 feet tall, not a cute little knee-high thing

-

08:48

freddie mercury: BIIIII CYCLE

BIIIIIIII CYCLE

yeah i was waiting for that

-

crowley: “get in, angel”

HE MURMURED

DON’T MURMUR YOUR TERMS OF ENDEARMENT noo

-

09:00

end of episode 2!!! i freaking loved aziraphale vs the book <3

-

the credits for this ep credit konnie huq as someone named pam but idk who that is? i had a crush on konnie huq as a kid when she was a presenter on “blue peter”

OH WAIT RIGHT the lady on the breakfast show on crowley’s tv. aw such a small part. hoping we’ll see her again later

edit: nope. might rewatch that part to pay more attention. obviously i didn’t even recognise her after like.. 15 years

--

EPISODE 3: Hard Times

09:05pm

brb gotta get some food

-

09:14

and now i wait for food

EPISODE THREE LET’S GO

is this the one that’s just crowley and azi’s backstory?

-

09:16

i can’t even put my finger on why but he’s getting more attractive

-

09:21

ah yes

aziraphale is eating shellfish and trying to tempt crowley

“oh... that’s your job”

i love this part of their dynamic

-

09:29

i adore when crowley makes aziraphale smile <3

-

09:43

SAUNTERED VAGUELY DOWNWARDS

YEE

-

i like seeing how crowley’s sunglasses differ throughout history

-

09:36

“if they knew i’d been... fraternising”

this is such a forbidden romance i love ittttt

-

09:49

CROWLEY SAVED THE BOOKS

and SOFT VIOLIN PLAYS

THIS IS A FUCKING LOVE STORY

k this is my favourite part of the show so far <3

-

09:50

this angel just fell in love

right in that moment

i see cartoon hearts around him

-

09:54

just had to pause for a second bc there was some broccoli in my tea :c

-

09:56

awwwwwwwwwwwwww 

he got him holy waterrrrrrr

-

UNIVERSAL ANGLE OF HETEROSEXUAL LONGING

-

definitely feeling a lot of “NOW KISS” right about now

-

09:59

LAUGHING BECAUSE THE OPENING CREDITS ARE LITERALLY HALFWAY INTO THE EPISODE

-

10:03

throughout the entire book azi just came across as the kind of person who wore glasses even though glasses were never once mentioned

I AM GLAD TO SEE GLASSES

-

10:12

i like this colour palette and the gold in their makeup

-

10:27

“we can go off together”

omg the world’s ending and crowley’s all RUN AWAY WITH MEEE

-

10:31

okay then

good eyelashes

edit: i also like how their relationship was explained with a simple tap on the wrist: hurry up, you’re on the clock, i’m a sex worker, finish your call because i’m leaving

-

10:32

episode three DONE

these eps don’t feel long enough

maybe that means the pacing is just right? who knows

i feel like i should be doing something other than watching this but..... why

--

EPISODE 4: Saturday Morning Funtime

10:48pm

aziraphale is SOFT and he’s perfect like that <3

fuck u gabriel and your body shaming

-

10:53

i want delivery guy to be okay BUT I READ THE BOOK

so............... i know he will be...... eventually

-

10:55

how did they get photographs taken in the 1600s

-

oh gabriel’s eyes ARE purple, i thought i was seeing them wrong

-

11:02

“maud i love you”

noo ho hoooo

-

11:09

a little douglas adams, definitely

BUT NO PEPPER POT DALEK

AWW

-

11:10

the season is very much jumping between summer and autumn

though i suppose that’s the point, tadfield is just perfect

-

11:12

“which the internet has begun to refer to as the kracken”

i wonder if good omens inadvertently inspired me to write The Wireless a couple of years back. wouldn’t be surprising

edit: no, couldn’t have, because the internet wasn’t much of a thing (or a thing at all?) in the book, given its publish date

-

11:20

that’s a v nice dress/top combo

gosh she’s so pretty

-

11:30

crowley: “we can run away together!!! alpha centauri!!!”

aw baby

-

crowley: “i’m going home, angel! i’m getting my stuff, and i am leaving. and when i am up in the stars, i won’t even think about you!!”

THAT WAS A V SAD BREAKUP NOOOOO

why has there not been a single “dear” yet :c

-

11:37

oh no, this part

i loved this in the book but i am NOT READY for maggots

damn you gaiman

-

11:39

he’s so cute

and so gay

-

11:42

uriel: “don’t think your boyfriend in the dark glasses will get you special treatment in hell”

he looks kinda delighted uriel called crowley his boyfriend

i would say he looks worried but this shot was used without context in the trailer and it came across as genuine joy, i actually thought he was looking at crowley

-

11:46

i thought it was a strange throne before

a spider at the centre of a web

dark halo

yeah

-

11:51

oh now she’s a redhead???

-

also i’m glad they implied newt and anathema just kissed because the sex thing was weird in the book

-

okay never mind

hmm

-

12:05

aziraphale: “oh.................ffffUCK.”

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH

-

12:07

oh no

it’s happening

oh no

i hate this part but i love what happens because of it

-

12:29am

i have eaten and now i have tea and i am back from MORE BOOKSHOP FIRE

-

EPISODE 5: The Doomsday Option

12:31

nuuuuuuuuuu

and “you’re my best friend” playing while crowley’s tryna call azi

nuuuuuu

-

“somebody killed my best friend”

jfhsdfjsdj

/sobs

-

12:36

freddie mercury: “somebody find me somebody tooo ooo looove”

edit: the narration WRECKED this. it was so dramatic and visually emotional but the voiceover completely screwed with it and it was SO UNNECESSARY.

-

12:46

crowley: “i lost my best friend”

he says, while crying, while talking to that friend

-

THE ONE BOOK HE WANTS IS THE ONE CROWLEY SAVED

THEY’RE SO FUCKING BEAUTIFUL TOGETHER

-

azi wanted to share crowley’s body

and then said they had to get a wiggle on

-

12:52

they cut out the hell’s angels / lesser horsemen

i figured they would, but still a shame

-

1:54

in the book tracy’s “spirit guide” was native american but daaaaaamn that part really needed to go

now she’s irish which is... better, probably

-

01:01

ron: “SHUT. UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP”

this guy’s having the time of his life

-

01:03

he wave

-

01:05

1926 bentley; sexiest car right next to the ‘67 chevy impala

-

01:08

omg gotta translate and explain the road

-

01:13

OH NO the maggots are about to happen

they changed the placement of this but it worked for the pacing

-

OH NO

-

k well the maggots were gross but not as bad as i imagined

-

01:31

omg the dog turned upside down rather than be picked up

i wonder if that was intentional

dog: I DO NOT WANT UP

-

01:34

pfff he’s reading “american gods” by neil gaiman

-

01:44am

10/10 flaming car

-

EPISODE 6: The Very Last Day of the Rest of Their Lives

01:51am

here we go...

-

01:55

azi so happy that crowley said the dress suits him <3

-

01:57

rip bentley

-

01:59

aziraphale: “we are here to lick some serious butt!!”

crowley: “kick!! kick, aziraphale, for heaven’s sake”

-

02:06

i freaking love the parallel between the Them and the horsemen in the book

and i love that they did face shots to show the parallel

pepper = war

wensleydale = famine

brian = pollution

adam = death

the parallel is less clear for brian and wensleydale, at least in the show. was more obvious in the book. but at the same time i kind of got confused between them a lot, brian was always eating, but wensleydale was named after cheese

-

02:14

pepper: “i do not endorse everyday sexism”

/STOMPS ON WAR’S FOOT

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

-

02:25

shadwell: “anyone who wants ta get ta the hoore of babylon will have to get past me”

earlier anathema said “boyfriend”

may i point out that all the adults are paired up

shadwell & madame tracy

newt & anathema

......and....

aziraphale and crowley

-

0:28

crowley: “we are FUCKED”

these two need a holiday

-

azi: “come up with something... or.... or i’ll never talk to you again”

he knows crowley loves him aww

perfect blackmail material

-

02:32

they went from trying to kill him to being his gay angel parents real quick

-

02:35

thought they were holding hands for a second there

edit: regardless, a whole damn airfield and they’re 2cm apart

-

02:39

happy ending for the postman, hooray~

-

crowley about the bookshop, softly: “it burned down. remember? you can stay at my place”

awwWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

-

02:42

CROWLEY GOT HIS CAR BACK AND YET HE TOOK A TAXI

-

02:45

anathema: “why is your car called dick turpin?”

newt: “dick turpin is a famous highwayman. it’s called dick turpin because everywhere it goes, it holds up traffic”

i laughed

this wasn’t in the book and i always wondered

-

02:51

i wonder if holy water wouldn’t burn him because he’s too good

-

03:00

gabriel: “don’t talk to me about the greater good, sunshine, i’m the angel fucking gabriel”

really enjoying these swears

-

03:03

i thought so

-

03:30am

paused for a bit to get ready for bed

i thought it was after 4am but nope

-

“there would be other summers, but not one like this. not ever again”

that genuinely makes me emotional

i think that’s why it’s my favourite book, i can relive that summer with them

-

03:35

omg

-

OH MY GOD

WAIT

THEY

OH MY GOD

THEY WEREN’T IMMUNE, THEY JUST SWAPPED PLACES

HOLY SHIT

edit: THIS WAS NOT IN THE BOOK AND IT’S BRILLIANT AND I’M GLAD IT’S HERE

-

crowley: “let me tempt you to a spot of lunch?

azi: “~temptation accomplished~!”

THEY’RE SO STINKING CUTE

-

“just enough of a bastard to be worth knowing”

perfect

STILL NO USE OF “DEAR” THOUGH AND IT’S KILLING ME

-

that ending with the bird made me teary-eyed

-

credits: BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH AS SATAN

WOW

OKAY

AKSFJDSF /snorts

-

the end credits and the song i just wanna bawl my eyes out

i loved this so much and i’m so glad it was GOOD

i loved that they added so many people of colour. in the book i imagined crowley played by alexander siddig (star trek: deep space 9 era) but i guess david tennant makes a pretty good crowley too

i’m trying not to be upset that my favourite scene with the dove and aziraphale’s affectionate use of “dear” was taken out

but 

this was damn good regardless. even gayer in places than in the book

-

this nightingale song is my new favourite song

i never got the reference before

“and as we kissed and said goodnight, an nightingale sang in berkeley square:

GAY

SO GAY

i love

-

the end of the credits “For Terry”

ACTUAL OUT LOUD SOBBING

TERRY YOU WOULD’VE LOVED THIS

NEIL DID YOU PROUD

-

oh this was so beautiful

i’m gonna watch it again with my family probably within the week. i’m so emotionally tender now

azIRAPHALE WAS SO FLUFFY AND CROWLEY WAS SO NICE ABOUT THE BOOKS

ugh i love them more than ever

anathema...... i don’t know if i relate to her, want to be her, look up to her, want her to mentor me, live with her, or find her attractive. maybe all of the above. but she was freaking PERFECT. PE R F E CT 

the casting was so... just right. thank you casting people for anathema.

like... i also didn’t mind the newt/anathema thing so much now. it was hard to tell in the book how much of a relationship they had after, but that smile she gave while lying in bed the morning after, that worked, it said a lot. and i like that it was her choice to burn the prophecy sequel rather than newt’s suggestion

gabriel was amusing. like.. i’m glad he wasn’t in the book. but he was great here. also really like michael and uriel. uriel was so damn beautiful.

i also would really have liked to see a mention of the fact crowley and aziraphale are both agender and potentially asexual. not even a hint of it here. buuuuuut it guess i know from the book. so.

my favourite episode was of course episode 3 with crowley and aziraphale’s 6000 year backstory. especially the 1940s bit where crowley saved the books <3

this show was was less confusing than the book too. ugh it was done so well

OH

we didn’t see where the soldier guy went when aziraphale zapped him away!!! in the book he reappeared safely back home and went out to see his family. to be fair i don’t know whether he died and went to heaven, but it was a nice thing to happen

and they took out the Them’s bully/rival gang, who was led by the third baby from the baby swap, and who won awards for his tropical fish. at least that’s what i remember. which meant the parallel about heaven/hell being rival gangs was lost here. but the parallel between the horsemen and the them was stronger than ever and i loved that.

look, i mean, 10 out of 10, EASY.

favourite thing? yes. yes, absolutely.

--

shoutout to the one time i wrote a Good Omens/Destiel crossover fic The Angel Cake Challenge

IT’S 04:02am THIS TOOK ME 12 HOURS

04:40am AND FORTY MINUTES TO EDIT

congrats if you made it to the end of this!!! thank you for reading <3 AND GO WATCH THE SHOW IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY

[adecila]

Hi. Are you going to do the 2nd ep preview post? I would like to read your opinion.

Hi anon, thank you for being so patient. I watched the promo a bunch of times and I also saw the stills from the episode. Now, in case you avoid spoilers, I am not saying I have them, but I am not sure which information was confirmed by the show runners in interviews by now. I don’t count trailers, promo pics and still as spoilers. If the information comes from an interview, trailer or other official sources, it ain’t a spoiler. 

Moving on..

1. Jaime vs Dany ... 

I have seen some people are talking about Jaime’s trial in episode 2 but I was very confused. I was telling a few friends last night - nowhere have I seen it confirmed. I think someone speculated Jaime is on trial and the entire fandom ran with it. Happens a lot. No, we haven’t had any confirmation this is a trial. And I know people think this is the case because he is standing, you have armed guards behind him somewhere, you get a Dany table and a Jon table... well... no. I disagree. 

Is this meant to somehow parallel the Tyrion trial(s)? No... I don’t think so. Mind you, Jaime is not in chains. This to me looks a lot like a petitioner to the court would be received. You have the monarch (in this case the alliance - Dany in the middle, flanked by Jon and S.nsa), and then you have the rest of the court. Plus, it has been established the North side doesn’t like the Dany side, hence the two tables, hence they sit separately since the Northern Lords are like YoU cAn’T SiT WiTh Us. The guards would and should be there by default. Jaime is standing because he is addressing the Ruler. 

Keep in mind, the previous episode finished with Jaime arriving in incognito mode in WF. Maybe Bran calls the guards and Jaime is taken into the Great Hall to explain himself - not only is he arriving in non Lannister colours, he is also arriving by himself. He’s got some explaining to do, since last these people have met, he was to march to Winterfell with an army to aid in the fight against the Army of the dead. 

About Dany’s discourse - Dany and Jaime haven’t officially met. He tried killing her on the Field of Fire 2.0 and he almost got roasted by her baby Drogon (*pets* the best son ever). They also crossed paths in the Dragon Pit Summit (LMAO idk why I am calling it that; I guess it’s because fake truce or armistice is too much; oooooh let’s call it a parley). But they haven’t actually spoken. And Dany has some things to say to the man who killed her father. In my opinion (but who the fuck knows anymore since the writing is killing me and after episode 1 I have so little faith), Dany will have her Queen mask on, she is angry because quite frankly WHERE THE FUCK IS THE ARMY BITCH. Like ofc this means Cersei betrayed them, you don’t need a genius (*cough* S.. *cough*) to tell you that if he is travelling low key and alone. 

Dany needs closure. She will probably tell Jaime - listen, my brother told me all about you; because you killed my dad we had to flee; because you killed my dad we were poor and starving and on the run; the only thing that made us keep going was fantasising about all the ways we would kill you to avenge our father. I don’t blame them, tbh, it’s quite normal, considering what Viserys was feeding her. But! Dany knows now that Viserys was lying; that her father was a mad man. She knows this from Barristan Selmy. So I am REALLY hoping that heavy and meaningful speech that is making Jaime shit his pants (fo real look at his face lmao someone gif it pls) and Tyrion to look 10 years older is ending in something along the lines of “My daddy was cray cray; you did good; you can live; but try to kill me again and you die.” 

Why? Because it makes sense, and because we have seen Jaime fighting in the trailer, so we know he survives this meeting. 

On the other hands, the Starks also have beef with Jaime fookin Lannister - honestly get in line. 

Now... do I think Bran Starkashian the drama queen (present at the meeting) will drop the bomb that Jaime pushed him out the window? Hmmm... I cannot make up my mind. My issue is that if he does, then it’s gonna create more drama, and after episode 1 I think the writers can bring it up and just gloss over it (ugh remember how they dropped the Viserion is a wight news?). But, I also think that since Bran isn’t Bran anymore, then what does this matter to him? If this were still Bran, sure I could have seen a point in revealing it. They could also just do a Bran vs Jaime scene in which Jaime goes to apologise and Bran just says some trippy shit. 

2. S.ansa vs Dany in the Library (sitting in a tree K-I-.. neah we’re not there yet)

So, as it’s framed, I am guessing Sansa says something to Jaime, hence the look Dany has on her face at the table in the Great Hall - must be something surprising. Then I guess we get their private meeting over how y’all bitches should have never trusted Cersei. I guess S.ansa is at least directly talking to Dany not instead of, ya know, AT HER or ABOUT HER. We also have a still with a fake Dany smile, but I am hoping for some meaningful dialogue here. Dany and S.ansa have quite a lot in common so I really want some meaningful chat here so we can move the fuck on from the train wreck that was the episode 1 welcome. Will this be the episode the writers let S.ansa actually use her brain? We’ll see in 80-ish hours. 

3. Jorah x Varys x Tyrion and then some Sam and some Gilly stills 

I think this is either before or after a joint small council meeting. But since Dany is in her white outside coat again, then it must be after Tormund x Edd arrive. They look intense so maybe it’s more likely afterwards. Maybe something happens in that meeting. 

Also the stills of Jon x Arya and the one of Sam x Jon look from the same place. Sam’s intense look shows me that he might have some residual tension with Jon after that shit reveal. Jondry 5eva.  

The still of Sam x Gilly x Little Sam on the bed is so cuuuute. I hope this is post the crypt discussion with Jon and it’s when GIlly knocks some sense into it. Alternatively, it can be the night before the war for some more extra feels. 

4.  The Forge x Arya 

Guessing Arya is going to Gendry to pick up her new weapon and to deliver her Many Faces speech. Is she saying it to Gendry? I think so. Guess this is also where we gonna see sexy Gendry hehe *Gendrya intensifies*

5. And then it gets weird to me... two battle scenes? MAYBE? WHO THE HELL KNOWS ANYMORE

When I first saw the troops moving in the day, I said cool beans, so maybe preparations. But then I see a catapult going off during the day? And more stress? And more people moving. Tormund x Edd arrive during the day too. And we know they are technically behind the dead, since Last Hearth, where Ned Umber was supposed to be was already passed by the dead (since we got the message) so they can’t be arriving before the dead, can they? So how come they arrive and deliver a “they are coming message” and Jon asks how long do they have? How can they be moving faster than the dead? These aren’t slow zombies and Tormund x Edd don’t have a snowmobile laying around. Do they? 

But then you have night battle scenes or rather preparations: Missandei x Grey Worm kiss, Jorah with Heartsbane I hope (I hope this is Sam’s token of I have been a shitty boy to your Queen pls say sorry), Arya with a bow (I am so turned on btw), Jorah riding with the Dothraki, Tyrion on the battlements, Jon on the battlements, Lyanna Mormont in armour!!!! So something is happening as night too. Is this a continuation from the day prep? Is this something else entirely? Then why fire the catapult? Is it a test? Am I overanalysing? Certainly. 

What is sure though is that we won’t get a battle this episode, we will get the build up to it and everything in between. 

6. Jonerys in the crypts 

Ah again some actual leak info I have from when Friki was still allowed to talk (nothing new, just something he has already said), but I’d rather say in a different post. So this is clearly not following the Sam x Jon chat, since here Jon has his furs, and Dany is dressed again in her outside white fur coat. My bet is this is just before the battle, and Jon went to pay his respects to his dad (and mom?) one last time, because he is an emo sad boy. 

Is this about the reveal? Hmmm not so sure. It is very reminiscent of the Dragon Pit when Jon was sad he had fucked up with Cersei and Dany went to console him. Maybe this is post small council and Dany also goes to console him (she is wearing the white coat there). 

7. More small stuff from the stills that we didn’t get from the promo

Tyrion drinking in front of a fire - maybe he is with Bran, since he is also pictured close/next to a hearth. 

Sansa eating - she could be in the Great Hall. She looks quite relaxed so idk maybe this is in a more informal setting. Maybe it’s the same as the one with Tyrion. 

Bran in front of the Heart Tree during the day - I am hoping one more vision. Maybe this is before Tormund x Edd arrive? Or after? Is Bran trying to see the NK again? 

Gilly outside - maybe she is talking to Davos who seems to be in similar setting in a different still? 

I think I might have skipped some stuff, but feel free to ask :)

I have quite high hopes for this episode. I am hoping it will end the fucking drama once and for all and I am hoping they let Dany speak for herself more, since she was really toning it down in episode 1, in hopes of appeasing the North. But since that didn’t work, I am so fucking ready to see the Dany we know and love. The Queen we chose. 

[moviestorian]

Les Mis BBC final thoughts

Alright, on monday I finished the 6th and last episode of the most recent, mini-series adaptation of Les Misérables. I was slightly hesitant about posting my thoughts (mostly because of the tag being largely dominated by negativity; any effort to post anything else seemed kind of pointless to me), but I eventually decided to go for it. I still wanted the entire show to sit in for a while (I also want to do a rewatch, because I can't guarantee that my feelings remain the same; I might just as well change my opinions completely). But let's begin!

Tldr; Also, unpopular opinion alert: I actually enjoyed it. A lot. I genuinely liked the miniseries. Yes, there were some choices and things I wasn't exactly fond of, but I have the same thing about literally every single adaptation I have seen so far (mostly thinking of the stage musical and 2012 film). Cause you know, you can like something and still see its flaws, and the other way round - you can dislike it and yet admit it is not inherently bad.

Now, the longer "review" comes in. It's gonna be reaaaally long. Also: spoilers.

The negatives/things I'm indifferent about/what could have been better:

- I'm following the popular trend of disliking that font. I care a lot about cinematography and visual parts of films and shows, so I wasn't satisfied with this particular choice. They could do better, honestly.

- For most of the time, the music was a bit meh. Nothing really striking or to hate, but compared to the War&Peace 2016 soundtrack (which was amazing!), this one was very undermining. There were some individual songs I liked a lot, though.

- The overall cinematography was ok. Again, nothing super special, but there were some pretty nice shots, too. I had some minor objections about cgi in a few scenes, but let's that the 2012 film wasn't exactly flawless in this aspect, too... If not worse.

- Ok, confession time & another unpopular opinion alert: I genuinely think the script is not half as bad as some people on this site try to tell everyone and the majority of their issues is either exaggerated to an enormous extent or comes from a huge prejudice. Or a general but pretty clear misinterpretation of certain scenes. Having said that, I had issues with the script, too. Davies did a waaay better job with his W&P, really. Although I actually like some of his changes or narrative choices, there is one thing I can't exactly ignore: how certain scenes were pure exposition. I think it got better in the later episodes, but I spotted at least two(!) examples just in episode one alone. Davies, being the experienced author as he is, should really know that it's not a good way to write scenes, especially in the first episode (which is supposed to encourage the viewers to keep watching). There's nothing more annoying to me than being treated, as a viewer, as a person who needs a straight-in-your-face explaination of what’s happening on screen.

- Another fairly popular trend: the brothel & the wet dream sequences. Even though I expected both of these to be A LOT worse, given what the fandom was saying (exaggerating again), and I don't think they are "out of character" or unrealistic in terms of the setting, I tried to cut these out from the episode (in my head ofc). And I think we could do without them; the brothel scene could remain in the final cut, but I would make it way shorter.

- What I REALLY disliked: a minor thing, but it bugged me a lot. I mean the main dialogue being in English, and the background dialogue in French. Christ, how I hate when they do such stuff in the movies...(thankfully the main characters didn't try to pull off their fake French accent, that would be even worse) Either you do it in French, or in English. One has to be consistent.

- The pissing scene in ep1 was...weird.

- Valjean being mean to Gavroche.

- The timeline was sometimes a bit odd, if not crazy, but could’ve been way worse (nothing can surpass P0ldark and its weirdly ageing children and even more weirdly, or not at all ageing adults)

- Valjean firing Fantine left me with very mixed feelings. On the one hand, I think it makes sense narratively, in this particular adaptation, it’s also not the first one who makes Valjean responsible for Fantine’s misery (to a smaller or bigger extent). On the other one, it’s not a choice I’m super happy about so...

Now, let's move on to the positives!

- Excellent choice in casting. I think all of the actors did a solid job. Obviously they had some veteran, experienced or acclaimed actors like Bradley, Sumpter, Jacobi, Colman, West... You couldn't expect any less from them. BUT there were also some younger and fresh faces, who's interpretations of their characters I really loved - Lily Collins, Erin Kellyman, Reece Yates, Josh O'Connor. Liked Joseph Quinn and Ellie Bamber a lot, too, especially the former. Obviously, I cannot NOT mention David Oyelowo! He was particularly impressive in the last episode.

- You have no idea how grateful I am for the entire Pontmercy storyline, honestly. I have so many feelings about Georges Pontmercy it's not even funny. Also baby Marius!!! Huge props for the Marius/Guillenormand dynamics.

- Fantine's storyline. I love the focus on her in this adaptation, and instead of merely showing her "downfall", we got to see her entire background story and many faces of her character. From naivety and joyful innocent to her determination to survive, and, finally, her desperate attempts to feed her daughter. I love that we got to see a glimpse of her relationship with Cosette. I love that, heartbreaking as that scene was, we got to see the moment of her leaving her child with the Thénardiers. Loved that she was also outspoken at times. I really felt for her in this series. Naturally, I always do have tons of empathy for Fantine, she's one of my favourite characters in general, but I found Lily Collins' version to be particularly relatable.

- Btw: I disagree that Fantine and Cosette were overly "sexualized" or fetishized. And don't even get me started on the supposed "sexual undertones" between Cosette and Valjean, cause this is utter bullshit.

- I actually liked the relationship between Cosette and her Papa, especially when she was little!

- I loved Gavroche in this adaptation. I'm usually not a huge fan of his, but Reece was so charming and impossible to resist!

- All the side characters (good or bad) we finally got to see at least for a while! I already mentioned the Pontmercies, but I also mean: Petit Gervais, Tholomyès and his gang (+Favourite and Zephine), Azelma, Gavroche's little brothers, Mabeuf, even Victurnien. And Sister Simplice, I love that woman. And Rivette. 😁

- Huge thumbs up for portraying the Thénardiers as the evil/malicious people they were (but not one-dimensional, esp. Madame Th.) instead of as some comic relief only.

- Contrary to the popular opinion, I count Les Amis as the positives. I actually think that narrowing down the number of the students to focus on was a good choice (like, excuse me, but giving a few lines to a character in an ensemble song is not enough to give them personality. Even in the book some hardly had one). And guess what? I legit cared more about this Enjolras or this Courfeyrac than in other adaptations. I liked Quinn's version of Enjolras more than I like Hugo's original character. This is obviously a personal preference, but to me personally Quinn's slightly toned down version, sort of a hybrid of Enjolras and Combeferre was way more appealing (I also think Quinn had more innocence and wide-eyedness in his eyes and face than some most popular actors who have played the role. To me, the accurate hair colour is the least sygnificant thing, honestly. Especially that some of the fans' favourites hardly fit the book description in that aspect).

- The Enjolras/Grantaire execution scene.

- Small interactions between Enjolras and Courfeyrac. Especially the ones in the final moments of the resistance. Oh my...

- Overall, the barricade scenes were very good.

- I liked Marius a lot, which is quite a thing! I loved that we got the awkward, but still adorable side of his. I had seen Josh in The Riot Club and I remember him being good but not memorable; I was impressed with his performance in Les Mis, he was so different!

- Erin's Éponine broke my heart. Especially in episode 5, she was fantastic. So many expressions in her eyes; I loved her fidgety hand moves, too!

- I appreciate that they started the show with something other than the galleys/bishop Myriel. That was a nice and quite refreshing take.

What else do I like about this adaptation? That it revived my passion for Les Mis; that it made me want to reread the book (or certain chapters at least), rewatch the 2012 film, listen to songs from the musical, check out other adaptations. That it’s gonna bring new people to the fandom. And, whether you like it or not, it DOES offer new interpretations of the characters and actually does give a fresh take. Every adaptations gives us something new to discuss, this one included. I also don’t believe it’s the worst thing that ever happened to Les Mis or whatever; I happen to think it actually is a good adaptation overall. Is it flawless or 100% accurate in everything? No, because it’s impossible to turn such a huge and detailed book into a 100% faithful adaptation; also it’s really not what the adaptations are for. I too would have added/cut out some stuff from various versions of Les Mis, but this is because it’s my interpretation; the fact that we imagine some things differently does not mean that other people’s interpretations are bad.

Since films and tv shows belong to the visual media, I think that Les Mis BBC could have done better in that aspect - I wasn’t exactly satisfied with it, as I wasn’t exactly over the moon about some choices in the script. It’s not a masterpiece, but I never expected it to be one; neither it is a “piece of shit”. Despite its flaws, I still found the miniseries to be very enjoyable and I will gladly rewatch it in the near future. I feel that it might even become one of my favourite adaptations(I will decide once I’ve seen them all, or most of them!), save for the interpretation of JVJ, which could’ve been better tbh. For me, it’s a nice 7,5/10

[review-duck]

Life is Strange : Before the Storm Episode 1 : Awake

Repost from previous blog. Warning, Life is Strange and Life is Strange Before the Storm spoilers (not huuuuge spoilers but still, so you do you.)

Last night I was fixating on my ps4, watching the countdown, waiting for midnight croissant-time (Paris GMT) to be able to play Life is Strange : Before the Storm that I pre-ordered (Deluxe version that allows you to have bonus outfits, mixtape mode and a bonus episode at the end with Max). So the clock stroke midnight and I played until 3.30am.

You have to know that when I play, I go everywhere, I talk to everybody, so if you don’t, I guess you can finish it in 2h30.

I was really nervous as I hit « New Game » as I was really expecting it, to learn more about Chloe and Rachel, but knowing it was from a totally different studio and that the Chloe I fell in love with in Life is Strange wouldn’t be the same as her voice actress, Ashly Burch (a.k.a the best voice actress ever, sorry not sorry but a 71hrs platinum of Horizon Zero Dawn and a platinum in the first Life is Strange will do that to you. And Borderlands. And I mean I saved her grandpa and fought Baba Yaga for her in Rise of the Tomb Raider so…) wasn’t able to come back as Chloe. I didn't know that when I pre-ordered it, and knowing the reasons why I kind of regretted giving them money. Link if you want to know more.

So in a mix of fear and excitement I started to play and didn’t stop for almost 4hrs (except for some screenshots and pitiful tweets)

Story

No mosh pit for you shaka brah.

The story begins with Chloe wanting to go to a concert, kind of a playground intro as it shows you the ropes. You make your first graffiti (Chloe’s version of Max’s pictures), you talk to some people, you ponder in front of the fire to think about your shitty teenager life and when you try to enter, you have your first « Backtalk Challenge » which is a list of insults/arguments to help you talk your way into what you want.

So you enter the concert and then you meet your angel, Rachel Amber. And it goes really fast from there.

Basically it’s love at first sight for Chloe, and the next day you ditch school to spend it with Rachel, flirting with her like crazy (if that’s your choice -even if I feel that no matter your choice you end up making a fool of yourself) and that’s basically it. The core of the episode -minus some weird dreams about your dead father and some family drama- was Chloe trying to please Rachel Amber and Chloe falling in love with her and Rachel kind of returning those feelings but when you’re 16, nothing is simple.

Although I liked it, it felt really fast for me. I do believe in love at first sight but this story happening 3 years before the OG Life is Strange, I’m wondering how long the girls are going to spend together before Rachel goes missing. The short life expectancy of the game, being a 3 episodes game, is probably the reason why it’s all happening so fast. I’m kind of wondering if it’s not just a « let’s give the gays what they want right away » as we already know Chloe had a special bond with Rachel. Maybe I would have preferred a slower burn. Even William is on it.

The ending of this episode was kind of predictable, with a question that I read a few times « Did Rachel have powers? »

I stayed away as much as possible from trailers, theories and all but I think it was a legit question to have about DeckNine implementing a supernatural element into Before the Storm or not.

Dialogs

Ugh. Okay.

First of all, the writing.

I know we are playing a 16yo who lost her dad, but some of Chloe’s lines were so cringy it made my heart ache. In the first Life is Strange Max had some « loser-Max » lines that I thought were really funny but in Before the Storm, it looks like they are trying too hard for her to be emo. We know, Chloe is a rebel. But shit.

And in another hand, some lines made me burst into laughter. The scene with Rachel where they invent people’s life was really funny, Chloe’s « flirting » skills felt real and spoke to the 16yo me, and that tabletop game session was one of the best thing I’ve seen in a while (I suspect someone with A.B initials helped write that but I obviously don’t have any proof of that.) written by Christopher Means.

…

Some prime Chloe Price as « People can eat a dick », her love of booty and of course her first mention of « hella » were mandatory but the delivery of those lines. Man.

I’m not going to compare the actors with the previous ones (not only Chloe’s voice actor changed but basically all of them -although I have doubts about Chloe’s mom but she doesn’t have the same Southern accent so…) because it wouldn’t be fair. But in my opinion Chloe’s voice actress, even though I’m sure she did the best she could, was flat. Her delivery was pretty monotone and even if sometimes I was hearing the old Chloe in the musicality of her voice, it wasn’t it a lot of the time. Rachel’s voice was a lot better than I expected for the few images I saw before, but in the end it was really a shame that seeing the characters you once knew and loved/hated meant you wouldn’t be able to hear the characters you once knew and loved/hated.

There was also another problem in the rhythm of the dialogs that were in « cutscenes » (meaning you don’t have a say in them) as there was some latence at some points, like a silence before the second part of a sentence or when someone answers to someone else. I guess it could be fixed to make it a bit snappier and more real.

Characters

Chloe Price

As I said before we meet a younger natural haired colored Chloe, and the roles are kind of reversed with the OG Lis. In Before the Storm, Chloe is the one trying to follow Rachel’s idea, trying to please Rachel, to be cool with the most popular girl in Blackwell. She’s not the alpha to Max’s beta anymore. She lacks confidence, she doesn’t have friends and it pains her.

Rachel Amber

Aaaah Rachel. Rachel Rachel Rachel. We heard so much about you. Blackwell’s most popular girl. You didn’t disappoint. Witty and sassy and sexy. Just like Chloe. It’s kind of difficult to trust her, knowing what we know from the OG Life is Strange, so I’m not giving her my heart just yet (you know, the pics in Frank’s trailer and stuff). Even though the choices were pretty easy to do as we know Chloe loves her (asshole).

Old Faces

Funny to see Nathan being bullied, Victoria being Rachel’s kiss ass, the science teacher and the skater we knew Chloe was familiar with in Lis. And Frank I hope you’ll have some beans.

New Faces

I decided that Eliot is the new Warren. Except he may be Chloe’s bf ? Ex-bf ? He left a note about a two month anniversary and Chloe said her v-card had been punched (that was hilarious btw).

I really liked Stephanie, she was really something. Can I please date her instead? Even if she crushes on Rachel.

We got a new bully, a guy named Drew who bullied Nathan (whom we learned bought his way into the team) and we have a new security guy who makes really good music.

Choices

Before the Storm works on the same mechanics as Life is Strange, meaning you have choices to make. The ones you faced in episode one seemed pretty inconsequential, but I guess the game being a prequel doesn’t give you much options to change the story. Unlike Max, it’s really nice that they don’t torture us after every choice, knowing you can’t undo them. (I’m thinking about the paint on Victoria’s face, whether you chose to take a pic or be nice to her, once you did what you did Max automatically say she should have chosen the other option.) Although you have a very easy way to go back with the « Load last save » option which is an easy way to explore other dialog options or other choices.

But it’s kind of hard when you know what you know. I chose to help Nathan, but it won’t change what will happen in Life is Strange. And I was kind of nice to David even though you can’t betray LiS Chloe as it wouldn’t make sense to have her being super nice to him and then angry in the sequel.

But honestly, the best option of the game was probably being able to pet the dog.

Life is Strange legacy

There were a lots of elements reminding me of Life is Strange (as it should) with a lot of mentions of Max that freaking broke my heart. You are able to see Chloe’s texts and Max not answering (freaking bitch) and you had some nods to the LiS plot as Rachel saying she could just leave at any given moment without telling anybody.

The soundtrack is in the line of the first one but a little bit more rock to fit Chloe’s taste, and the bonus outfit with the design we knew as Max’s was a sweet idea. Some line as a guy wanting Rachel to pose for his portfolio. (I’m obviously not going to list everything)

Chloe is also keeping a journal that she dedicated to Max because she doesn’t want to risk her not answering and damn, my heaaaart. There are a lot of little things screaming « Chloe is gaaaaay » and I honestly wish it was a little more subtle (but nice Blade Runner dream Chloe.)

It’s also difficult as a Pricefield shipper to be totally into it, because in my heart Chloe belongs with Max, someone that truly appreciates her, never used her and because we were Max. So we wanted her to be happy. Even if we knew Chloe loved Rachel. But without Rachel there wouldn’t be a blue haired Chloe Price so I have to put her needs and her young love before my own agenda.

Next episodes From the pictures presenting the two next chapter, we can assume that the girls will go on a roadtrip, probably to try to leave Arcadia Bay. And in the last pic, Chloe is wearing a flannel we all know as the “ready for the mosh pit shaka-brah” shirt and her legendary tri-bullet necklace.

So yeah, it’s a prequel to Life is Strange, from another studio, with new actors, but overall it was pretty decent and I’m looking forward to the next chapter (even though they lose points for using Comic Sans a few times.) I really got the feels at some point, I laughed, I got really emotional during the junkyard scene with the car, and even though it wasn’t perfect, I still want to protect Chloe Price at all costs. So that’s a win. Not a huge win. But it’s one. Quack - Monotony of Chloe’s voice Lots of loading points Things moving too fast between Rachel and Chloe Dialogs lacking rhythm Lines that make you want to stab yourself The graffiti are really easy to find You can’t skip forward in collector mode Too much gay (not subtle enough) Most of the small choices you make just change one line of the other choice Use of Comic Sans The time I had to pause the game because my cat was playing with the biggest spider I’ve ever seen.

Quack + Legacy of the first LiS respected (ost, graphics, nods in the storyline) Better graphics than first game but still in that same line Some hilarious lines The tabletop game You can pet the dog All the gay

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Shadowhunters Season 2 Episode 15 -- A Problem of Memory -- Review/Discussion

I’m back again with another Shadowhunters review. I feel really bad about being so late on these. I’m not getting a whole lot of inspiration with these episodes lately. But oh well. This time we have Shadowhunters Season 2 Episode 15 – A Problem of Memory. I found myself very satisfied with this episode. By no means would I say that I liked it. But I was satisfied with it.

This is going to be an honest review of my thoughts and feelings regarding this episode. If you’re the kind of Shadowhunters fan where you only want to hear positive things about the show, this is not the place for you. If you decide to stick around and get offended by what is said, then that’s on you. I warned you. Just know that if you send me any rude comments or messages, I will 100% ignore you. I find that’s the best way to deal with bullies. I work 14 hour days. Do you really think I want to waste my incredibly valuable free time dealing with derogatory comments? Hell no. This review will consist of my honest opinions. Opinions are never right or wrong. I’m not telling you how to think and feel. So please, let’s discuss with dignity and respect. If I’m critical about the show, it’s only because I want it to get better. There is, in fact, a difference between hating a show and being critical of it. I do not hate Shadowhunters; I am being critical and analyzing the flaws as I would with any other show. There are positives but there are also negatives. It’s great if you want to promote positivity with this show (and I encourage you to do so) but that doesn’t mean you should acknowledge the things that are legitimately wrong with it. Also, keep in mind that despite the fact that I do love the books, me being critical of this show has nothing to do with my love of the books. I don’t really care if the show deviates from the source material as long as it’s good and it makes sense. My problems with this show are problems that I would have with any show or book for that matter. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to take issue with a show that has plot holes, shoddy world-building and inconsistent characters. There will be spoilers for the books and movies.

Alright, so ultimately, I was pretty satisfied with this episode. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I liked it but it was moderately entertaining. There were stretches within the episode where I was legitimately bored, though. I watched this episode on Tuesday after it aired, which was my birthday, and I was far more interested in the game of Scrabble I was playing with my friends. I play a mean Scrabble, btw. Obviously, I didn’t feel too strongly about this episode considering how late I am in writing this. I feel like this has been happening a lot with 2B. The episodes have been leaving me with a general feeling of apathy. The episodes are satisfying but they’re also not dragging me into the story which is a very disconcerting feeling for me. Supernatural/fantasy type shows are my catnip. I typically love these kinds of shows and I want them to last for a good amount of time. I am sad that The Vampire Diaries has finished. I am sad that we’re almost done with Teen Wolf. The Originals is always one foot away from the chopping block (although I am hoping it sticks around for a little while longer so that Klaroline has a chance to grace my screen again). Pretty soon, I’m not going to have that many more fantasy type shows for me to cling on to. I guess we’ll always have Supernatural, though that is one fantasy show I wish would end. It has gone on for far too long in my opinion.

More Love Triangle BS

So we got the love triangle stuff with Jace/Clary/Simon still going on. This was kind of where my boredom was starting to surface within this episode. I don’t think there’s a word in the English vocabulary that epitomizes how much I don’t care about this love triangle. I barely tolerated it in the books and in the show, it’s completely insufferable. The only saving grace this plot point has is that it’s finally going to push Simon into some plot arcs that don’t center around Clary for once. At least I hope so. Simon, throughout his character arc, has always been following Clary’s plots around like a lost puppy and I’m interested in seeing where the story is going to take him now. Speaking of which, I got a little excited in this episode when Simon finally blows up at Clary. That was great. I think I enjoy it a little too much whenever people do yell at Clary. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I get super happy. It’s like a drug for me. And I’m sorry to you Show Clary fans who adore her but I cannot stand her. Any scene that she’s in, I want to skip past. I just do not care about her at all. Which really shouldn’t be happening with a main character but what can you do? And I actually recently had an epiphany on why I don’t really like Clary. And it’s not for any of the shallow reasons that some people dislike about her i.e. her always needing to be saved. It’s nothing like that. I’m actually in the process of writing a post about my dislike of her character in the show. So if you follow me, you’ll have that to look forward to. But anyways, I’m not a fan on how the show is doing this love triangle. I think it was a mistake to portray Climon as this great epic love. By the show doing this, they wrote themselves into a corner because now there’s really no way to finish out this love triangle story without it turning into a cliché teenage melodrama. I was a fan of Simon in this episode. He treated Clary exactly how I wanted him to. Clary is being her typical selfish self by blaming everyone but herself. I have no sympathy for her. I did see this one post where the blogger had talked about Simon being overly dramatic and that he doesn’t really have a right to be angry with Clary. Clary didn’t ask for Simon to be in love with her and all that jazz. Now, that kind of talk I would find acceptable with Book Clary and Simon. Book Clary was fairly obvious about her feelings being different from the feelings Simon had. However, this argument doesn’t work as well in the show. Because Clary had given no indication whatsoever that she wasn’t all in for Simon. In fact, she was telling Simon the exact opposite. Jace revealed they weren’t really siblings and she straight up didn’t care. She even reassured Simon that she wanted to be with him (Simon). That is straight up leading him on even if it may have been slightly unintentional. But anyways, Clary was trying her hardest to get Simon to take her back and forget what all had happened but Simon’s not having it. I don’t know why she thought that would work. Clary is trying so hard to preserve this relationship but she’s not stopping to think and ask, “What does Simon want? What does Simon deserve?” He deserves to be with someone who loves him as much as he once loved Clary. I really like what Simon says to Clary when Clary tells him she loves him. “Stop! Don’t say that because you don’t mean it like I mean it.” I’m glad that Simon is showing Clary that she needs to hold herself accountable for her actions (something she never does in the show) and that not everything can be so easily forgiven. I’m glad the show is finally starting to do this with Clary’s character. One of my biggest gripes with the show is how willing the show is to forgive Clary for everything and no one ever holds her accountable for anything. I hope the show tries to do more with that.

Simon had his own plot arc going on in this episode which I kind of enjoyed. I did have a couple of issues with it, though. First issue was that it’s such a predictable plot. I can’t tell you how many shows I’ve seen where I’ve seen this plot point used. Never for a second did I actually believe Simon killed that girl. Why was I so sure? Because despite Freeform’s best efforts in making this show “edgy and racy,” they can’t help but to play it safe. Freeform is too afraid to go into something really dark like actually having Simon accidentally kill someone while he was under this blood-induced euphoric state. I think that would’ve been a really interesting direction to take his character. It would’ve been interesting to see how he dealt with that issue. I really wanted them to do it but ultimately, they fell back on bad habits. I know, Simon killed that vampire who framed him but that’s hardly the same thing. The emotional response we could’ve gotten from Simon would’ve been so much stronger if he had accidentally killed an innocent girl who put her trust in his ability to control himself as opposed to killing someone out of self defense. Disappointing but what can you do? I could write a book on all of the missed potential this show had with its plot arcs. I am a little upset that the show seems to be kind of writing off Izzy’s addiction too. They’re just saying she’s going to meetings to help with her addiction issues but we haven’t seen anything that shows she’s really struggling or anything that shows where she’s currently at in the recovery process. Which brings me to my second issue. When the vampire brings Simon to that club to feed on willing humans, I had a hard time believing that Simon would actually want to do this. Particularly since he knows about Izzy. It probably would have worked better if Simon hadn't known about Izzy’s problem and was just finding out that it’s possible for people to become addicted to vampire venom. But the fact that he knew about Izzy’s struggles and yet he was so willing to give this a try didn’t really sit well with me. I guess he was already intoxicated from that plasma shot he had maybe. I don’t know. It also confused me on why he didn’t realize that these kinds of dens may exist after Izzy confessed to him that she’s addicted to vampire venom. Did he never question where she was getting her fix? Obviously, she never went to one of these dens but Simon doesn’t know about her relationship with Raphael. And on the other side of things in 2A, why did Izzy risk being killed by Blondie Vamp when she could’ve easily gone to one of these dens? Ugh, so many plot holes once you start actually thinking.

But ultimately, I could get behind this plot point because it’s finally showing Simon trying to find his own way in the Shadow World instead of clinging on to Clary. It’s about him trying to figure out who he is and where he belongs in the Shadow World. He has ties to the mundane world, the shadowhunter world, and the downworld but yet doesn’t fit in completely with any of them. I’m really excited to see where this story is going to take him. This plot definitely had its flaws but the idea of the plot is what sold it for me. But that’s Shadowhunters for you. They always have really great ideas; it’s the execution that’s the problem.

Luke’s partner was also featured pretty heavily in this plot point too and I wish they would just drop this character. I don’t know what’s going on with her and what part she’s actually going to play but she’s completely unnecessary. This show has waaaaaaaaay more characters than they know what to do with. I really hope this show gets to the point of her as a character soon because she absolutely bores me whenever she’s on screen.

Aline Is Here

Aline has also made her debut into the tv show. I’ll be honest. In the books, I never really understood the fandom’s fondness for Aline. She’s not a bad character or anything. I don’t hate her, I just don’t care about her. We don’t spend a whole lot of time with her in the books and she never left me with any sort of impression. She was there and she and Helen are kind of cute, I guess, but again the books never spent a lot of time with developing Aline and Helen. So when people were badgering the showrunners about when Aline is going to show up, I really didn’t care. She showed up in this episode and I liked her scenes but ultimately, I still didn’t really care. I’m interested to see her in future episodes. The dynamic that she appears to have with the real Sebastian Verlac was nice to see. I’m definitely interested to see how Helen is going to pop up in this show and what the show does with her and Aline. Aline and Izzy also had a really nice relationship. I was beginning to wonder if Izzy was friends with anyone besides Clary. She doesn’t seem to socialize with any of the other shadowhunters at the Institute. Seriously, did Izzy have any friends before Clary showed up? But I’m always happy to see positive female relationships. I know this fandom has a pretty big Romantic Clizzy fanbase but I hope the show doesn’t go there. And before anyone jumps down my throat, no, it’s not because I’m bigoted and I don’t want to see a lesbian couple. Obviously, I don’t feel that way since Malec is one of my ultimate OTPs. TV these days really needs more supportive female friendships and that’s what I like about Clizzy. That’s what I liked about Aline and Izzy. And I want to see the show continuing on with that. Not all chemistry is romantic, guys. Sometimes there’s chemistry that works better as friends. And not all chemistry should be romantic.

We also had Will Tudor being his usual awesome self. This time he was playing both the real Sebastian and Jonathon. The talent this guy has, he has far too much talent for this show. Every scene he’s in, he outshines everyone else. Which is what makes the reveal at the end of the episode a little saddening. Jonathon finds a way to spring Valentine from the Clave and when Valentine is brought before him, Jonathon reveals his true self a la shapeshifting rune – a burnt, walking talking corpse, apparently. I really hate that rune. When I saw that reveal at the end of the episode, though, I burst out laughing. I think the last time I laughed so hard in this show was back in 2A when Jocelyn showed Clary the vision of Jonathon as the demon child where he made a flower wilt. I laughed pretty hard in that scene and laughed a lot in this scene. It’s just such a Disney thing to do. Of course, the villain would turn out to be this burned corpse because you can’t be attractive and evil at the same time. I can’t say I’m surprised though. Freeform is owned by Disney. Again, like I said before, it’s a very safe way to go about the series. Now, before anyone tries to claw my eyes out or anything, my problems with the reveal have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with the fact that this is different from the books. That’s not my issue. I just think Jonathon being this attractive character but gets so progressively evil that his soul kind of warps into that of a demon’s is a much more interesting theme to explore than having him be this burnt up corpse. There is evil in beauty. That and it means Will Tudor as Jonathan has a time limit which is sad. He’s so fantastic as an actor that I literally could watch a 40 minute episode of Shadowhunters with it just being Jonathon formulating his evil plans. I’m sure Shadowhunters has a plan on where they’re going to go with this burnt corpse idea. I just hope it’s not going to be cliché Disney villain plot point. I’m sure this plot point was also taken so they could better explain why no one is noticing that Sebastian Verlac is not the real Sebastian Verlac. The Season 1 writers really wrote themselves into a corner when they made shadowhunters compatible with technology. The current writers really had no choice but to use the rune in this instance.

Malec This Episode

So Malec was pretty great this episode. We actually got scenes that lasted for more than thirty seconds this time around. Alec can tell that something is wrong with Magnus but Magnus is refusing to open up to Alec. Magnus is having problems dealing with his mother’s death and the repercussions of this death but he’s refusing to open up to Alec about this until Alec finally convinces him to talk about it. An excellent use of throwing Magnus’ words back at him. Magnus once told Alec that when things get tough, to not push him away. And here, Alec tells him the same thing. I was glad to hear it. Magnus comes clean that when he was tortured with the “agony” rune (I still can’t say that with a straight face – it makes no sense for why such a rune would exist) he was forced to relive the memory of him finding his mother after she committed suicide and his father lashing out at Magnus about it. Magnus uses his magic to kill his stepfather and admits to Alec that he had full control of his powers back then; he wanted to kill his stepfather. Magnus tells Alec that he wanted to keep this from Alec because he didn’t want Alec so see this “ugly” side of him. In which Alec responds with understanding. “There’s nothing ugly about you.” Alec accepts him for exactly how he is. He doesn’t have any kind of romaticization about Magnus. He intends to find out about the darker parts of Magnus. He doesn’t just want to be with the light parts. It was a really great moment for Malec.

Now, I am a little torn on how I feel about the show changing Magnus’ past with his mother and stepfather. But after going back and forth on it, I don’t think my problem is that I liked the story in the book better  as much as that I felt the show could’ve spent a little more time on this flashback. We didn’t get to see a whole lot of Magnus’s stepfather and we certainly didn’t get to see what exactly the man was saying to Magnus. The tone wasn’t really working.  In this instance, tone is everything and I don’t think the show got the tone right. The flashback could’ve been really great but the show did the bare minimum and in doing so, messed up the tone a little. Now, I have heard people say that they think the scene in the books is a little overdramatic in the sense that Magnus’ mother hangs herself out of shame in finding out she had laid with a demon and the stepfather trying to drown Magnus. I disagree on that assessment. Magnus was born in a time where if you were different, you were seen as evil. Anything that was different was seen as the devil’s work. So it would make sense that Magnus’ mother killing herself over finding out what her son was and his stepfather trying to drown him makes sense in context. I am a little sad the show didn’t go with this story but I understand the story the show is trying to tell. It works in its own way. The story in the books wouldn’t have worked as well with the theme they were trying to implement here. Like I said, it works, I just wish we had gotten a little more in the development of this flashback.

I also saw a few posts where a blogger was talking about how rigid Alec looks in the Malec scenes. That he doesn’t really look comfortable. He very much had a military like stance when dealing with Magnus in this episode. I think this was more of an acting decision. For me, Alec is feeling insecure about their relationship. Magnus is refusing to open up and it’s making Alec a little uncomfortable. So I was fine with the rigidity he might’ve been having these past couple of episodes. It makes sense based on what Alec is feeling.

I would probably give this episode a B. I definitely felt it was better than the previous ones. As always, there are still things the show can improve on. For one, executing their ideas better. As I’ve said many times, the writers have a lot of good ideas, the execution is what makes them fall a little weird sometimes. I also can’t help but feel like the writers may be writing with their dominant hand being tied behind their back. I mentioned it earlier in this review but I’ve been starting to realize that the writing in this show has been very “safe.” The show scaled back on the incest plot because it was controversial. We’re never really sure what the show is trying to do with Malec as a couple because the show doesn’t feel comfortable with how much they can get away with in that relationship. They went for the obvious plot point of Simon being framed for a murder instead of going dark and having Simon kill someone while in his drugged state. They’re certainly scaling back on seeing us watch Izzy with her recovery probably because that’s controversial as well. In the 2A finale, they had all of the main downworlders in one spot but yet none of them were harmed by what happened in the finale. They all conveniently were able to escape from the massacre. They did kill Jocelyn but Jocelyn was also a character a majority of the fanbase didn’t care about so her death was an “eh, whatever” thing. One of these days, I would really like to see the show just go for it. They’re trying to be dark and racy but at the same time they’re still afraid to. They don’t know how much they can get away with and I look forward to the day when they throw caution to the wind and just go all out. We don’t live in a pretty world and the shadow world certainly is not a pretty world to live in. It is dangerous, these people lead dangerous lives and it would be nice to see just how cruel and unforgiving this world can get.

That’s about all I have for you guys. Again, sorry I’m late. But better late than never. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the show. Did you love it? Did you hate it? Do you agree or disagree? As always, be respectful of mine and everyone else’s opinions.

[you-did-well-my-love]

Drama Review: Introverted Boss

I don’t think I have ever been so satisfied with the ending of the drama.

Rating: 4.5/5 I was going to rate it a four, but that last episode was absolutely amazing.

OST: Most of the ost is pretty typical but like I have had B1A4 Sandeul’s song on repeat since it ended like shit it’s so good. 

Genre: Romantic Comedy, Business

Synopsis: Eun Hwan-Ki is the CEO of a public relations company, but he is extremely shy. Due to his personality, even his employees do not know him well. Chae Ro-Woon begins work at Eun Hwan-Ki’s company. She is very energetic and receives recognition for her work, but her only interest is in CEO Eun Hwan-Ki. She plans to reveal who Eun Hwan-Ki really is. (source: asianwiki)

Trigger Warning: This drama deals heavily with mental health. The opening scene is a woman committing suicide. (I was honestly surprised at how graphic it was. Obviously it’s nowhere near 13 Reasons Why, but they showed more than I’ve ever seen in a drama outside of Let’s Fight Ghost which was about dead people.) The main lead has social anxiety. A character has depression. Visual self harm. etc.

Thoughts/Review: (no spoilers)

It’s been so long since this drama ended so this review is going to be scattered, but my GOD did I love this drama.

I wasn’t even going to watch this drama. I had it on my list, but the initial response to it was so negative, I took it off. But then I saw this one gifset of the male lead stroking the girl’s face while lying in a bed and I felt so much tension just from those gifs, I was immediately taken.

And honestly, Hwarang was so dry I was like dying of thirst and when I saw that gifset just drenched in chemistry I was sold.

I could see where the negative reviews came from. The editing was very jumpy - jumping back and forth to the various different things going on but, like, I couldn’t tell what was going on.

The transitions were really weird. The writers were awkward with introducing the characters. And then the drama started out with a woman jumping off of a building, and it takes you forever to find out who she was. JUST FYI that scene took place three years before the rest of the drama. They should have put “Three Years Later” at the bottom of the screen, no clue why they didn’t.

They could have used a bit more depth in setting up the characters. Whereas most dramas take two to three episodes to set up the plot, this drama just dived right in. Pretty much “everything” was set up in episode one. And I say that in quotation marks because of the episode 5 situation (explained below).

BUT once everything started to make sense, I was really intrigued. They had a really good story, it was just a rocky start. Get past the rocky start!

Much of the controversy was surrounding the female lead Park Hye Soo’s acting. I can’t argue with it. She wasn’t awful, but it seemed like it was her first lead role. She seemed like the type that can act well in minor roles, but something felt off with her line delivery... it felt almost forced. I think part of it was the weird script, because it got better after episode 4. Obviously it didn’t bother me enough to stop watching the drama, I stopped noticing it much the later I got into the drama. I guess the experience did well for her.

For those of you who don’t know or don’t remember when the news broke, the drama skipped a week to rewrite the script. This happened after episode 4. If you are watching and you’re not really feeling it, my advice is to wait and watch episodes 5 and 6 because that’s where a lot of things are fixed, everything gets explained, and the plot picks up.

NOTE: From what I gathered when watching, the writers changed the central conflict. There are a few continuity errors, but it’s understandable considering they film these dramas while they’re airing.

It was really quirky. The bright colors, the tone, the dialogue. It reminded me a bit of the extra-ness of jdramas. It had that lighthearted, fun feeling like Sassy Go Go, Surplus Princess, Marriage Not Dating (from what I’ve heard), Cinderella and Four Knights, Shopping King Louis, etc.

However, the deeper you get into the show, the more things appear to be not what they seem. So while “everything” is explained in episode 5, aside from the personal conflicts and episodic conflicts, there was this mystery brewing. A sort of underlying sketchyness that kept growing until the end.

I absolutely adored this drama. From the comedy (which was golden btw) to the use of irony to the characters to the romance. It is up on my list of top dramas for 2017.

The comedy: there was a lot of witty dialogue and utilization of each of the characters’ little quirks. The actors did amazing, a lot of it was expressions and motions tied in with dialogue that wouldn’t have been nearly as entertaining if the actors delivered it badly.

Yeon Woo Jin did such an amazing job as Eun Hwan Gi. He made this character come to life in such a raw and realistic way, I am truly impressed. I’m looking forward to seeing him in his next drama. I, someone with a social anxiety disorder, relate to Eun Hwan Gi so much it’s frightening. But that’s what made me love the drama even more. It made me feel a deeper connection to any kdrama character I have ever felt, and his thought process was so much like mine (always overthinking things) it made me root for him that much more. 

I felt so much for him seeing him make the efforts because I know from personal experience how hard it was for him. He was unable to do the mean thing despite it being the right thing because it was mean. He was so not the typical male kdrama lead, and he broke a lot of gender stereotypes. Plus he was freaking adorable. He had all these charms; his drunk habit for one lol, + he was caring, he watched over everyone, and when he did succeed in conquering his fear step by step as a viewer it fills you with so much warmth.

He’s just such a wonderful person and it brings you unbelievable joy as a viewer to see the rest of the characters slowly realize this too.

ALSO HE WAS LIKE HEALER’S BONG SOO ALIAS EXCEPT IN REAL PERSON FORM AND I LOVED IT.

And then when we finally got to see his frustration. Social anxiety is not this cute introvert nerd, it’s a pain in the ass and I am so glad/proud/thankful that the writers showed this side of it.

I want to take a second to mention the symbolism. I adored the symbolism behind his hood and what it meant for him to take it off/put it on. It was just one more key to understanding the character + it made you feel all the things when he was comfortable enough to take it off.

Chae Ro Woon... It was hard to judge her change because it was so sudden, but I thought her change was for the better. Yet there were still some things that annoyed me. A lot of time the writers used her inappropriate(?) behavior to move the plot along, but there were still instances I thought she was way over the line. However in my opinion, a lot of the hate towards her was out of line because her main goal was revenge and it seemed like people kept forgetting that. Especially later on, I thought Chae Ro Woon was just absolutely amazing. She was so understanding of Hwan Gi, even though it took her some time (which is realistic), and she was accepting of him. She didn’t push him too hard to change, she gave him space, and did what she could to make him comfortable. I loved it.

I was also a little disappointed with what the writers did with Hyo Sung’s character, specifically the way she treated Hwan Gi, but I’m going to attribute that to the story change and that if the writers could they would go back and take out that one scene from episode 2(?) to make her character understandable.

I’m not going to mention how I feel about Kang Woo Il, or Eun Yi Soo for that matter, because everything surrounding them is a spoiler. They’re complicated, especially Yi Soo. While I may not have been fond of them, I understood them. Especially Yi Soo. Which is what I believe is the most important when it comes to a character.

I LOVED YOO HEE. I don’t know if either of you have seen the Taiwanese drama Refresh Man, but it was another office romance and there was this older woman who saw the main character’s feelings for the girl and tried to set them up. I loved it. And the same thing pretty much happened here. It was hilarious.

Yeon Jung, usually I hate characters like her, but she was so amazing. She was annoying as a love interest but necessary as a friend, and I am actually glad a character like her was in the drama.

The romance. The sexual tension between Eun Hwan Gi and Chae Ro Woon was tangible. I loved how he slowly opened up to her, and it was symbolic in his hood and the way his voice became louder the more comfortable he became. Spoiler: they kiss a shit ton of times. I loved every second. 

The drama did a lot of things I didn’t expect. There were really straightforward conversations (the how-far-have-you-gone one), admissions of wrongful actions, actual apologies from multiple characters (all the characters that needed to imo) that I didn’t expect to happen, girls telling people off and breaking every drama stereotype.

A little thing I really liked was how, you know when dramas are like “we’ve wrapped up the plot but still have two episodes” so they create a conflict which is usually super random and off topic? This one tied back to the original roots of the plot and it fit so well with the theme of the whole drama. There was a huge presence of family in the drama, both Ro Woon’s and Hwan Gi’s, and I was very appreciative of how they wrapped up.

And, hun, while I stumbled over the time jump in the last episode, that ending was FANTASTIC. I don’t need to say anything else. Just that it was so damn satisfying.

Someone get me an Eun Hwan Gi please and thank you.

~~~

Finished 3/14/17

[glitter-masterbane]

So hear me out....

Correct me if I’m wrong here ok, I’m about to finish book 2 (yeah I’m WAY FAR BEHIND on TMI books -I’m currently reading Aristotle and Dante and CoA.. so... yeah) and I’m up to date with the series; I have a theory(??) regarding Raphael and his treatment of Simon and I kind of want to know if I’m reading too much into it or not...

BUT this will have spoilers~ if you aren’t up to date with the new season that is~ (or if you haven’t read all TMI books yet like me) so read at your own risk(???)

Ok so I’ve been thinking about Raphael Santiago a lot since last Monday’s episode.. well since S2E02 actually.... so here is the thing, he basically ordered the clan to kill Simon in S1 right? And then he comes, very chummy like(??) and basically talks to Simon so.... calmly and (I don’t want to get into Saphael here) looks at him so differently than before... IDK it feels weird(?) like I don’t get him, I don’t get where the series is trying to go with Raphael, he’s SO cryptic and treating Simon so differently and I know it doesn’t have to do with the Clave “breathing” down his neck ‘cause when has that stopped Raphael before???

Then again, in S1 we really didn’t see much of Raphael and how he is... and I feel like book!Raphael is very different from series!Raphael... oh though I really haven’t read much about book!Raphael (I did pass the part of the turning of Simon) but I did read about him on wikipedia.... (plz don’t kill me... I do that when I want to know things really fast) and from what I got, he really isn’t like series!Raphael which it’s a version I ADORE~

So watching S2E03 got me thinking even more about Raphael and his overall personality towards Simon. At first I was a bit angry at Raphael because he’s just using Simon to get Camille (totally justified I get it) but then the whole Simon’s mom thing and lying to her about the tour and stuff like that (leaving out the part where he basically threaten her life in order for Simon to do “his job”), got me thinking like “well maybe Raphael didn’t get a chance to actually have closure with his family so maybe he want’s Simon to do it now that he has time to do so....?” and that’s why his being “nice” and lenient with Simon and isn’t trying to kill him but is actually trying to help him as his substitute sire, like he was already doing so like two days before(???) (remember, in past interviews the cast has mentioned that technically S1 is only like 11 days or so “irl” for the characters and S2 picks up like an 1hr latter after Jace is taken by Valentine. Which means that Simon has been “banished” from the clan for like two days.) and that warmed my dark little heart, thinking that in the end Raphael might still be pissed off by what Simon did regarding Camille but he’s also trying to get him on track and help him be a better vamp and get his shit together and maybe get him back to the hotel.

So.... is he looking out for Simon, while teaching him one of the hardest lessons for a vampire regarding letting go of his family.... or is he just using him and being gentle(???) about it.... like I understand that fucking Aldertree is pushing Raphael because of the vampire den that Camille left behind and because he’s the head of the NY vampire clan so it’s his job to make sure rogue vamps don’t do what Maria was doing with the mundanes and the vamp den, though I don’t think Raphael really cares about the dens at all...

So I’m trying to get my mind out of the Saphael gutter and trying to see this normally(????)... like I think Raphael is trying to be patient, something he isn’t(???) with Simon; trying to get everything under control.

But like I’m still waiting for Simon to ask Raphael to forgive him for what he did but I’m sure that won’t happen (Saphael gutter sorry) so that brings me to the word that Raphael uses when Simon is desperate to find his mom:

“Family”

Does that mean that Simon is still part of the NY vamp clan? Because Raphael tells him “we are your family” and how long has it been since he told the clan to kill Simon? Two days? Is he going back on his word/order to kill Simon and does that mean he can come back to the clan then? Or again is he just using him to get Camille?

Because then there’s the whole scene regarding a future episode where we see Raphael and Simon fighting while Magnus tries to mediate their meeting (which inspired a fic I’m still trying to finish writing btw) that scene and the little bit of info we got from one of the videos BTS that they posted on YT a while a go, regarding the warehouse where Simon currently lives in; basically saying that Simon would be making that place “his home” i.e. meaning he isn’t going back to the Hotel Du Mort (nor is he living with Magnus like they had mentioned/rumored) so Raphael hasn’t welcomed him back to the clan then and like I thought first, he is just using him, like Clary (and indirectly Simon) used Raphael before to get what Clary “needed”... here is where I might be wrong since I haven’t really read book 3 and to my crazy theories I feel like S1 was book 1 and 2 sliced and re-written and S2 is book 2 and 3 sliced and re-written... am I right, has anyone thought it like this?

If so then I guess I’m missing a lot of information regarding book 3 (which I hope to read asap) specially regarding Raphael and Simon... but then again the series is book divergent so I could just be reading to much into it and maybe things will work out for the best... like if my memory doesn’t fail me, and I remember correctly what I read on wikipedia about Raphael, he basically dies saving Simon..(???) or helping the group escape from somewhere(???) but can’t tell how the series will manage that and if that’s even going to be in this season (since I don’t remember in what book does Raphael die).

In conclusion(???) is Raphael just using Simon or is he being Simon’s much needed sire/guide and trying to help him while pushing him to fix the mess he help make and get it done by himself, with no help from Clary or any Shadowhunter, without the help of Luke and eventually not even with help from Magnus; so that Simon actually asks help from the vamps that are now his family and should be his #1 priority.... 

My Saphael mind tells me Raphael is still pissed with Simon but is also missing him really bad and is trying to get him to see reason and understand that he was wrong and that now he’s a vamp and should stick to vamps and there fore go back to Raphael (that look Raphael gives Simon in S2E02 wasn’t a “normal” the-clan-leader-is-ordering-you-to-do-your-job type of look, it was more like a cant-you-see-I'm-trying-to-tell-you-something-here-pay-attention type of look) and fix their issues and get their relationship on track again (whether you ship them romantically or platonic) and eventually be back at the hotel and the clan...

IDK what do you guys think...

[whydoyouthinkileft]

aos spoilers

having my breakfast - at 12:30 and so excited about this ep because of reasons so let's go

-btw watching the previously I just remembered Kasius and the other alien lady having their talks (Because he wants to leave that planet) and trying to top each other while also trying to sound like they don't hate each other's guts?  It was hilarious to me, it was like watching ANY conversation between people in my town ever (incidentally, my town if you live in it long enough does give you the feeling you are trapped underground waiting for giant roaches to suck the life out of you)

-oh hello lil cute boy -how old is he? is it me being weirdly old if I say that?

-oh even the white slave-owner guy has a soft spot for him?

-NO HE DROPPED THE FRUIT

-I feel like I'm too invested in him eating already

-senator Gaius whatever is also someone I could see living in my town

-thaaaaat's the scene from the promo. also can you imagine if ALL the people there are lying their asses off to look more evil?

-he looks soooo fantastic to me, I love cowboy in space clothes

-OOHHHHHHHH -the look on his face and lack of breath -I died fifty days over it -Kasius should have just been in something like Desperate Housewives -also I'm starting to find funny how he reads what Sinara says just from her expression and she never has to talk -Jemma looking at space and being deaf OH MY GOD FITZ. IS HE GONNA TALK. IS HE GONNA GO ALL I LOVE YOU I WANNA MARRY YOU HAVE MY BIOCHEMENGINEER BABIES and she's gonna walk away? -oh my god. He realized the universe can't stop them, they are stronger than curses. Now that she's deaf. He needs to repeat it. And then let her make fun of him for the curse thing for other 74 years -I FUCKING KNEW IT. I KNEW HE'D PROPOSE -nooooooooooooo the deaf thing -'oh are they' Fitz would love to kill him, wouldn't he -OH MY GOD HE'S TOUCHING HER FACE IN FRONT OF FITZ -Of course Kasius would appreciate that sentiment from Fitz. If all he's going to use from the Doctor is talking about bullshit and pain like a villain would, give those speeches, while he doesn't believe in a word he says and the actual bad guy there is like 'uuhhh this is my new friend' I'm here for it. This is basically high school and becoming popular. -Also still here if Jemma wants to break a pitcher on Kasius's face though -I am worried though because Jemma wasn't 100% chill when she saw Fitz's face -oh my god the look on Fitz's face after Kasius walked away -Tess just quoted me with 'soft spot' for the kid. I'm Tess now. -Flint 'if I turn I won't have to beg around' yeah well he's NOT WRONG, mind you -is Jemma going to mother this one too and then Daisy will train him? -AAAHHHH FITZ AND JEMMA -the hatred on Kasius' face whenever he speaks to all people who are supposed to be on his same level or higher makes me laugh, I'm so sorry -they are just so... mundane about 'uhhh your daddy gave your big brother the big job and you are stuck in here lmao' -evil eyes of hatred- -I'm glad Daisy is befriending the mind-reader, he's adorable -also he didn't expect her to go all 'I'm sorry' and he's even more adorable -no seriously they seriously could be living in my town -Fitz. Fitz don't fuck this up, my boy. -the almost smile when he describes it tho, that kinda sells it as him being a bitch so... good -what is that snail thing, also I TOO FIND MOIST CREATURES (and stuff that changes from hard to soft depending on the bite, and really most meat) DISTASTEFUL BUT NOBODY LAUGHS WITH ME WHEN I SAY IT AND REFUSE TOT IT, THEY CALL ME SPOILED. ALSO I RAN OUT OF THE ROOM IF THERE ARE SNAILS BECAUSE NO. Next fucking time we have a dinner with other people I'm going to talk with that attitude and slam the food on the plate and wait for someone to laugh. I'll instruct my little brother to laugh and make other people feel like they have to laugh -sidenote: the jackass who brought it up attempting to laugh along not sure of what's happening is amazing. I don't know which one of those guys is really the loser in the real tvshow that is going on in there. Kasius, cast away and trying to climb up the ladder and become a Big Shot, the snails guy who is soooo loud and soooo friendly and everybody knows he's just desperate to keep being in the inner circle, or what -HAHAHA the Kree discussing why the kid disappeared like. Even before they looked around like 'did we crush the kid' 'how did he disappear, what did we do wrong? look under your shoes' and now 'maybe his power is to disappear' 'nah' I can see these Kree driving a car and talking why they stopped -lmao 'you mean this guy?' 'no he's just cool' -Mack looks proud of himself- you are cool, Mack. You are big enough you don't need superpowers -at this point Kasius and others are just courting Fitz -MAY, IT'S MAY. MAY WILL FIGHT HIM. GET THE HELL OUT. also he KNOWS Jemma and Daisy were laying and how the ell idd he find out her name is Melinda May -Melinda and Fitz looking at each other like that, oh my god. And she hasn't seen what happened of Jemma yet after she let her go -is... Fitz... bromancing Kasius to trick him? what is this episode?? this is also perfect because Fitz's superpower since s2 has been to befriend EVERY person he met and get a circle around him super fast, first Hunter and Mack and then Hunter and Coulson, then he grabbed Bobbi too, befriended Radcliffe super fast, like, of course he can use his 'father's memories (with Jemma watching like a hawk - with impared sight) to get to Kasius. Fitz in this episode is me in high school, I'm not even kidding anymore. You gotta fit in to survive, so fit in in a way that will make people fight to sit next to you without even lying -is telepath boy going to tell May how to behave because he SHOULD -lmao May hitting him without thinking and succeeeding, bet he didn't see that coming -if it wasn't for her leg he'd in a world of trouble -LMAO KASIUS' FACE when Fitz went 'this fight bores me' -he just insulted May's age and just... her face. -the horror at Flint not knowing what tacos are -we finally know Elena's terrigen story lol -oohhhh my god white guy needs to die -he's about to kill him because he lied, oh my god, OH MY GOD, BEN. NO. NOOOO. DON'T DO THIS. -FITZ, don't try to control Kasius too hard, he'll know -one more death in Daisy and Jemma's conscience oh my god are you kidding me poor sweet Ben -oh the white guy had a second when asking about the prophecy and he might buy it later -aw Jemma and Daisy, with Jemma being able to hear -'there was nothing you could do' 'I have to kill him' 'you'll have to get in line'  just... Jemma, of all the people, always reassuring others that it's not their fault, but also REALLY, let Jemma kill at least one person who humiliated and hurt her instead of having her fail and get someone else to do it? -I KNEW IT. I KNEW JEMMA LIKED THE CARDIGANS, PREFERRED THEM. I'M THINKING OF S2. THEY WERE SO SOFT LOOKING -I love that their having girls talk in the middle of this too because oh god they are 29-30, and yes, they have been through hell, and in situations like this people don't necessarily act like super efficient zombies, they find humor, they find reasons to chat with friends, they still smile, and I always found unrealistic when in tvshows, including aos, they were only shown super serious ALL the time. -Daisy the shippers is back. Which I don't know why people don't like or find weird because honestly, I ship my friends with their loved ones when they are so in love -Jemma has a knife. Jemma KEEPS STEALING KNIVES AND WILL STAB PEOPLE, YES -Elena being tortured twice now -uh oh controlling rocks. BREAK HIS HEAD. CRACK HIS HEAD OPEN. YES FLINT -also the loooook between Jemma and Fitz was so lovely, they almost got to talk -Kasius is peacocking so much over his brother -oh they have a plan B, alright -oh wow Kasius' brother is such a sweetie, 'there is no honor to be found in this human cesspool'. that's kinda my attitude when they force me to go out for holidays. -oh yeah, Kasius 'pleeease Sinara fight for me' and then trying to talk her into not being mad at him lol. Also yes for Sinara dying. Fuck you.  You kept killing people with your stupid-ass balls. Your turn now. -jesus for a second I thought they had hung Tess for her neck -IS SHE? DEAD?? NO??????!!! -Daisy's look is so cool tho -KILL SINARA. KILL HER, KILL -aw shit they have a barrier -break her neck, break HER NECK -NO KILL HER. KILL HER FOR REAL. -JEMMA FUCKING SLIT KASIUS' THROAT I'M SO ALIVE FOR THIS, ALSO FOR DAISY FLYING UP LIKE THAT OH MY GOD -OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK -THEY HAD A REUNION KISS FOR FUCKING ONCE -JEMMA PROPOSED TOO AND HE ZFHAADSKJHFKDF -THEN THEY PICKED UP DAISY I'M SO -AND FITZ TALKING ABOUT HOW HE PROPOSED EARLIER THO I'M GOING TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK -honestly I said that I didn't want them to propose and get married until they were a little healthier but that can be solved writing fanon, when it comes to canon, if... Fitz managed to somehow work through his doctor issues and just needed one last push from Hunter (maybe that's also what happened in those six months) and to not be holding back on his love for Jemma anymore because he's completely there and not worrying about the cosmo... then I guess it's fine? honestly, I'm a sucker for this sort of thing so I'll just accept it in the show and then write 59494864 things in which they process things slower after the proposal, they'd have been together anyway -I CAN'T HELP IT OKAY I'M JUST EXCITED -ENOCH LIES THE WAY JEMMA LIED IN S1 OKAY, I LOVE HIM 'hello friend' 'who are you' 'I am a Kree as I've always been, brother' -I love everything about them dividing tasks and Jemma finally getting revenge on Kasius and Fitz finishing Sinara after Daisy did her fighting and also Daisy is there to listen to the proposal, I'm laughing oh my god

[chelecooke]

13 Reasons Why Not

I am late to the party. Not only did I not read the book, but I watched the series later than most people, only finishing it yesterday. There were things to love in this series (namely Jeff,) and some excellent performances. I applaud the actors involved.

However, I also had some serious reservations about the show, and I can’t seem to stop thinking about them, so I’m going to try to unpack my thoughts and explain where the problems fall for me. And, because I like the symmetry, I’m going to do it in 13 reasons why NOT.

BE WARNED: There are LOTS of spoilers ahead, and there are also a lot of triggers. If you have been avoiding this show for because of triggers, proceed with caution.  However, know that if anyone is struggling, or needs to talk about anything brought up here, my inbox is always open. You don’t need to know me personally, I will listen! I am here for you. So, here they are, 13 Reasons Why Not

 #1: The Magically Forgotten Crime Scene Let’s start off light with a continuity error. In Tape 4: Side B, Tony asks Clay whether he’s ever seen a crime scene, if he’s ever seen a dead body. Clay tells him that he’s been to funerals, but Tony says it isn’t the same. He then goes on to explain about how he saw Hannah after her death, and everything was quiet. The problem here is that, only a few episodes later, we learn that Clay saw a crime scene incredibly recently, he was the one to find the crash, to find Jeff. Now, there is an argument to say that Clay hadn’t processed that death, with Hannah’s coming so soon after. However, it leaves us with two options: Either Clay is lying to Tony, or that it’s a continuity error made only to make Tony’s story more horrific. By the time we see Clay find Jeff, an all round nice guy btw, we’ve almost forgotten how harrowing Tony’s story was made. So, yeah, I’m still not sure which this is, but if Clay had been lying to Tony, I feel it should have been addressed after Tony learns Clay found Jeff’s accident.

 #2: No Note For how much time Hannah spent making the tapes and planning, I find it completely unimaginable that she did not leave a note for her parents. This, to me, is end of the rope plotting. Hannah was close enough with her parents that she would not have left them without anything to hold onto, where she spent days recording tapes for those who had wronged her. To me, this feels like the bad plotting to shoe-horn in the law-suit and drama surrounding the parents, and therefore the stressers to the rest of the teens who have heard the tapes. Even with a note, the law suit could have taken place. Again, it feels like an attempt to make this even more horrific than it already is.

 #3: Mr. Porter Mr. Porter should not be listed as a Reason. Bear with me on this, for I know people will disagree. That tape was supposed to be Hannah trying again. He was not on her ‘list’ of people who had destroyed her life. He was an afterthought, and I think it’s wrong. Now, did Mr. Porter say some insensitive things? Yes. His questioning over whether she consented to something she regretted was cringe worthy (and in my opinion, completely ham-fistedly written, as I don’t believe a counsellor would question a girl like that, knowing how upset she was.) but he didn’t tell her to ‘get over it’ as some people furiously claim. He gave Hannah the only two options she had: Tell someone what happened and who did it. Or try to find a way to move on. If she wasn’t willing to tell someone what happened, or who was involved, what real other option could he give her? Is there a third option I don’t know about? I am a big supporter of anyone who comes forward in these cases, and to those who decide they would rather not. But those are the options! We can’t know about how he would have followed up, trying to make her come forward about the attack, because we know what happened next. There was no time for him to give her in coming to terms with what had happened and how to move forward. Also, people say he should have told someone, he neglected the concern for Hannah. But… WHEN? And to who? Hannah commits suicide mere hours after she saw Mr. Porter. Even if he could have alerted others to how depressed she was, he didn’t have the time. He wasn’t sitting on this for weeks, or even days. It was hours, hours probably out of school time when he didn’t have the resources. And WHO was he meant to tell? Counselling sessions are private, he is not allowed to share things unless he has reason to believe that Hannah is an immediate danger to herself. He can’t tell the police, he can’t share personal details with her parents. When he asked what she meant by making life stop, she said “No, I didn’t mean that.” He has no legal reason to believe she is an immediate risk of suicide, and therefore inform people of what she has said to him in a private meeting. Even if he could have told other teachers to keep an eye on her because he is worried: there wasn’t time! Clearly, looking back, he held tremendous amounts of guilt over what happened to Hannah, but I honestly don’t believe he should have had a place on a tape.

 #4: Jeff! I’ve already mentioned Jeff, and Clay’s selective memory of crime scenes, but I want to talk more about the massive plot hole that is Jeff’s death. It was clearly done for plotting purposes, by the fact we don’t know about it for so long. However, it is completely unrealistic that there is ZERO mention of a second death until over half-way through the series. Everything is Hannah, Hannah, Hannah… even from Clay, who saw Jeff’s crash, who was friends with Jeff. No one ever asks him how he’s doing about Jeff’s death, only Hannah’s. We don’t hear about the ‘Drunk Driving’ posters until after we know about Jeff’s death, as if Hannah’s death completely outweighed it. There was no public memorial in the halls to a very popular boy. The drunk driving posters were all removed and exchanged for suicide posters, as if one tragedy cannot exist in the space of another. NO ONE mentions Jeff in the present day scenes, despite him clearly being a well-liked guy who died tragically within weeks of Hannah’s suicide. Again, plotting for drama and reveal where it doesn’t make sense to do so.

 #5: Jessica’s attack and Justin’s lies. Now, you may think this is a reason against Justin, but you’d be wrong. Don’t mistake me, Justin was utterly horrific for lying about the attack, but actually, this reason is against you, Hannah. After Jessica’s party, there was a lot of grief on all sides. Hannah only makes one attempt to tell Jessica what happened to her, someone she considered at one point, a best friend. She makes NO attempt to get Justin to come forward. She makes no attempts to tell an adult what she witnessed. She warns no one about Bryce and the danger he poses. She knew Jessica was completely out of it, that it might take time for her to come to terms with it, but she does nothing. I find this unforgiveable.

 #6: Zach I feel truly sorry for Zach. He did something stupid and petty. But, you know what… he went out on a limb and was publicly humiliated. Haven’t we all done stupid things when we’re hurt? When someone humiliates us? On the night of the date between Hannah and Marcus, Zach publicly leaves his friends and goes back to look after Hannah. In the cafeteria, he told his friends to shut up, and went to ask Hannah out… where she loudly and cruelly rebuffs him. He opened up to Hannah about the fact he’s not received any ‘compliments’ himself. Even Hannah admits in her tape that she believes Zach is lonely. To me, Zach is a popular boy who actually probably feels like he has no one. Who is constantly surrounded by people and is still lonely. That is a horrible state to be in. To not receive these compliments because people assume his life is perfect and he doesn’t need them. It’s clear Zach is struggling, and he acts out. Did he act badly? Yes. There is no denying that his revenge was petty and mean. But did he stop the moment Hannah wrote the letter? Did he stop when he realised how much damage he was doing to her? Yes. Hannah constantly asks Zach “Why Me?” but you know what, he can ask the same question. Why was he the one Hannah publicly humiliated? Why was he ignored and rebuffed when he honestly extended a hand for help? Why Zach?

#7: Ryan I think people might be starting to recognise a pattern here. Ryan did something stupid. Let’s get that out of the way. He broke Hannah’s trust by sharing that poem, I’m not denying that. But the way it is portrayed in the show is misleading, and again, clearly done to forward the plot. Ryan did not share the poem maliciously, he did not out Hannah to the world. He kept the author anonymous, wanting to showcase talent and something real and raw that he thought his classmates would identify with… perhaps even help someone going through the same troubles as Hannah. Even when people started discussing it, when teachers wanted to applaud the writer, he kept her secret. Hell, Ryan even admitted that he shared Hannah’s poem to boost her, to show her how talented she was. He broke her trust, yes. But Hannah had a chance to accept his apology and his meaning behind it. All she saw was her own ‘Truth’. She refused to see his.

 #8: Clay Clay should not have been a reason. He should not have been on those tapes at all, Hannah admitted as much. He did absolutely NOTHING wrong, and yet he got put on those tapes for the sole purpose of making him listen to them. The author needed a likeable character to hear the tapes, and this was the only way to do it, to put him through unimaginable stress and hurt just so we, as the readers (and viewers) had someone to root for. The fact he was put through something incredibly painful just for a sympathy kick makes me angry.

The way Hannah speaks about Clay leaving the party, as well, gives voice to one of the other problems I find in this series: the Somebody Stop Me of it all. This aspect of the story bugged me. Hannah frequently points out on the tapes that ‘I wanted you to stay’ or ‘I wanted you to come after me’, and uses those lack of actions as reasons to blame them for her decision to take her life. Clay was in an absolutely horrid position. He clearly wanted to stay, but was being screamed at to go. He decided that the best option was to respect Hannah’s wishes, but was then vilified for it in Hannah’s memories of that night. She doesn’t blame herself for screaming at him to go, to not accepting his help, she blames him for not offering staying after making very clear she didn’t want him to. Then, the same happens with Mr. Porter. She tells him multiple times that she wants to go, that she’s fine. And then immediately blames him for not coming after her. His phone has been attempting to ring off the hook, and when he takes a minute to answer it after she has claimed the meeting is over, she blames him for doing exactly what she asked him to do. We all know teenagers are not always rational in their thinking, but don’t try to play it off as completely rational blame and expect me to be on board.

 #9: Blame I have a serious issue with the blame mentality used in this story. In fact, originally, I wasn’t going to watch it because, even before starting episode one, I knew I would have a problem with it. I watched this series to keep myself informed, so I would know why there were such a serious range of reactions. So, I’m going to put this out there…

No one is to blame for Hannah’s suicide. You can’t put the blame onto 12 people (yeah, Justin had two tapes, that bugged me.) You can’t even put it on one person (Looking at you, Bryce.) You can’t even blame Hannah. Some people say that the meaning of this show is that people should be nicer to one another, and yeah, I agree, people should be nicer. However, that doesn’t mean that you can blame people for not being nice when there are a million contributing factors to a tragedy, because take away these twelve people, and maybe Hannah still would have done what she did through a set of different traumas. What some of these people did was horrid and, in one case in particular, unforgivable. However, they were one cog in a very large machine that caused a tragic suicide. Hannah, at no point, recognises her own part in that machine. That is not to say she is to blame, but she is a cog. You know what else is a cog… EVERYTHING! Your brain chemistry is a cog. The chemicals in your body is a cog. Victim blaming is a cog. Sexism is a cog. Trauma is a cog. Society is an effing cog, for Christ’s sake. And to not point out any of that is neglectful, and in my opinion, dangerous.

 #10: Sheri What exactly did Sheri do that makes her deserve a part in the tapes? Now, you may be looking at me going ‘Whuuut? Did you miss that whole episode?’ but hear me out. Sheri did absolutely nothing against Hannah. She made a mistake which contributed in a crash that killed a boy and injured a man. But how does that make it a reason for Hannah to take her life? This is the thinnest of plot threads tied up to injure Clay when he realises a girl he likes is on the tapes, and at this point, the tapes become less about blaming people for Hannah’s crumbling mental health, and more about spilling secrets to make others suffer.

 #11: Other People’s Lives I think the story did do a good job of pointing out that you don’t always know what’s going on in other people’s lives. Unfortunately, it didn’t show any sort of recognition that these things will change the way we behave, that we do stupid things, and that we can’t always be the cast to someone else’s story. Through the story, we realise that Zach is lonely and under pressure, that Courtney is being pressured into being perfect and is scared of what her truth will do to that, that Tyler is under intense bullying himself, that Alex has a difficult relationship with his dad, that Justin is being physically and emotionally abused and is constantly on the verge of being homeless, that Clay has been suffering with his mental health. These people are putting up with their own whole worlds of crap. Does it suck they weren’t better friends? Yes. Does it suck they made mistakes? Yes. Does Hannah ever attempt to help any one of them? I’ll let you think on that. Does it make Hannah’s problems somehow worse and more worthy of recognition than the ones they’re already dealing with? Does it mean that single incidents (as it is in most of these cases,) should define the rest of their lives as guilty of driving a girl to suicide?

 #12: Hypocrisy The whole story is based around teaching these people what they did wrong to Hannah, to apparently showing them how they should be better people. And yet, there is absolutely NO realisation of the damage Hannah has done to their lives in making these tapes, in putting this immense blame and guilt on them. She turned Tyler’s life into even more of a living hell by announcing what he did to everyone. She made him a target the same way others did to her. Is she any less responsible because ‘hey, it was done to me first’? Hannah tells everyone that Courney is gay! By the time Courney gets the tapes, you’ve already had 4 people, none of whom are known for keeping their mouths shut! She outs a girl who has made it abundantly clear she’s not ready to admit that to everyone. Hannah blames Justin for a rumour enough to put him in tape 1, and yet she openly admits secrets about Courtney which she knows will do damage. Alex attempts suicide, and while I believe there were a lot of factors in Alex’s life that pushed him to see death as his only way out, one of those undeniable factors is the tapes! So, if you’re going to claim that people can drive someone to suicide, that they can be held accountable for their death: you have to also recognise Hannah’s influence in how she destroyed other people’s lives. Playing her as the innocent victim is wrong when she does the exact same to others.

 #13: The Emotional Abuse of Jessica You may think this is a post about Jessica’s wrong doings. You’d be wrong. This is another, and final tape for Hannah. I’ve already pointed out that I think the lack of contact after Jessica’s attack is unforgivable, but this is about the tapes and the emotional abuse Hannah inflicts on Jessica through them. Jessica is number 2 on the tapes, meaning that she got them very early on. Only Justin had them before her, and the emotional abuse that comes out of those tapes is horrifying. Let me explain… By the time Jessica gets the tapes, she has already been put through the ringer (even before Bryce’s attack.) She is raped, her semi-friend (used because they have a complicated relationship, but even I wouldn’t say they weren’t friends) has tried to force her to come forward about something she doesn’t fully remember or understand yet, a friend on a beer run for HER party is killed in an accident, and then semi-friend commits suicide. The amount of emotional turmoil this girl is going through is enough to make anyone break… so let’s pile on more. Yes, Jessica and Hannah had a very complicated relationship, but friends falling out is hardly newsworthy. The fact Hannah piles her grievances of year old drama onto Jessica, a girl who, as noted above, is in serious emotional turmoil, is cruel. But not only that, but this becomes full on abuse of a girl who has already been sexually assaulted. If Hannah was lying about the rape (which obviously Jessica first believes) then it’s a horrific rumour she will have to denounce for the rest of her high-school life. If Hannah’s telling the truth, it’s airing a traumatic secret that Jessica isn’t ready to come to terms with. Either way, Hannah gives Jessica NO choice or time to deal with this. By Hannah’s rules, either Jessica hands on the tapes to the next person, spreading the story of this awful event in her life, or it is spread publicly by Tony. The fact that Bryce, Jessica’s attacker, is on the tapes, means that should Jessica not want the world to know, she is being forced to hand on tapes in a chain that eventually reaches her rapist. Bryce may have been the one to rape Jessica, but it is Hannah who serves her the worst emotional abuse.

 So, those are my 13 Reasons Why Not. I know this was long, and honestly, I could have gone on for a lot longer. Even if you don’t agree with my opinions, I hope you took the time to read through them and see how the other half feel. After all, that was the whole point of the story, right?