#not spoilers for the new ep btw I haven’t seen it lol

[beckyblah]

I think Muffet and Ylfa should become BFFs honestly

[inevitably-johnlocked]

(was originally an ask, then i rambled a crapload, so if u wanna skip through, just go to the bolded questions)

i am new to the fandom & just found your blog, just wanted to say DAMN its so detailed and everything, i cant wait to read it all! also i was so relieved to find that the fandom is still alive <3

side note im just rambling here, i binged sherlock all really quick and everything is like a blur (idk if im in a state of shock or something, but i do know i was super invested at s1 ep 2, then i finished s4 at 4am one day and i had to read me some johnlock fics to comfort myself and i really dont know how i feel about anything yet just that well, johnlock and i cried during sherlocks fake death even tho i already accidentally read spoilers, and i also cried when they just went to hang out at bars together and hhh and during sherlocks best man speech and sherlocks goodbye to john (…maybe goodbye should be plural)…also i was v mad at eurus and s4 was a hell of a rollercoaster gd), so just wondering, how many times have you watched sherlock? how was the experience each time? (can be about any season or eps or anything, also any snacks u liked to eat while watching or anything of that sort? just curious and thought that might be fun to answer)(apologies if you answered this already i tried to look for it but i got a bit overwhelmed)

btw u are amazing ^^ (also nice timer even tho it makes me sad) and MAD RESPECT for answering so many asks and like SO DETAILED-LY? (i cant grammar) and god ur metas and stuff?? absolutely fantabulous. im legit crying im so glad i found your blog. i know how much work asks take (and like i procrastinate on them for so long…mm months old esp for fic rec lists bc i know those take WORK) so like again, SO MUCH RESPECT thank you for all your hard work!! you are absolutely fantastic and awesome :D please make sure you take care of yourself too <3

ALSO you have a great profile picture + background pic (forgive me i have half a braincell (actually lets make it .7437 gave myself a tiny upgrade even tho i didnt do anything) i forgot what its called…background thing?? idk) i love them!!

if u read through all that tysm, if not thank u anyways for being so amazing, i have a habit of rambling so pls bear with me ^^

(also would it be possible to make this anon? if not feel free to delete this line ^^)

(Submitted by Anonymous)

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Hi Lovely!!

Always can make something Anon if y’all ask <3

First of all, SORRY for how long it took me to get back to you with this one. I’m a giant heap of trash and I’m surprised people still come here LOL

Secondly, WELCOME TO THE FANDOM! We love having y’all here, and I’m honoured that you enjoy my blog and content! Also will comment on your praise on my meta here: THANK YOU. I’m very proud of my meta, and especially the SHEER AMOUNT of it I have produced still boggles me mind. Y’all remember when I was creative and thoughtful??? LOL S4 dragged me hard hahah. I still try to write S4 meta, just not as much as I used to. I like speculating, I truly do, but I have so little free time these days because of the nature of my full time job, so I tend to just... do nothing LOL. I find Fic Reccing really relaxing when you have nearly 800 bookmarks. I’m worried I’m becoming stale though. Oh well. I’m just trying to leave my mark here. <3

Thirdly, HAHHAH Thank you for your compliment about my replies to my asks; I genuinely wish I could get more asks finished every day, but I tend to ramble, as you can see, and I just... don’t finish them in a timely manner. Honestly, it’s a relief when I don’t know something because I can then get the community involved to help me out AND I also get new fic recs that way too LOL. I also draft a TONNE of asks and when I do that, I tend to just keep adding MORE and MORE and MORE so I have to post them, LOL. 

And finally: My fave episode is TAB; it was the episode I studied the closest and my analysis of the trailer is my “claim to fame”. I just love it to bits. It’s the episode I’ve watched the most. S3 is my fave season, and it’s the SEASON I’ve watched the most, no less than 30 or 40 times. Season 2, then 1. I have only seen S4 like 5 times in full total, and horribly enough, TFP is the most-watched episode: I watched the Leak, the airdate, and I went and saw it in the theatres because I already bought the ticket before it aired so I just... didn’t care. And then at least 3 more times in Watchalongs. So yeah :| I still haven’t watched the BluRay I bought, but I hated having an incomplete set so I bought it when it went on sale fore 10 bucks LOL.

But yeah, S1 and 2 I watched together, and I LOVED the show. I joined fandom the summer before S3 aired, and S3 is when I REALLY got into the fandom. I’ve been pretty much here since then, about 7 years I think now. When I saw S4, it was incredulity and disappointment with it. That’s really it. I’m still a fence sitter these days about the series as a whole, but I’m leaning more and more to “no S5 for at least 3 more years” kinda thing. Just... everyone involved seems so disinterested in the show these days, minus Mofftiss to keep pushing the Sherlock™ Brand to make money.

ANYWAY. Thanks for writing to me!! This was such a joy to read when I first got it, and I just... have been really overwhelmed the past few weeks that I just have only been sticking to shorter asks. But I had some free time tonight when I’m answering this, so THANK YOU. 

I hope you’re still around, and I hope you still enjoy your time here! Don’t hesitate to ask me anything else!! <3 <3

[donnieluvsthings]

anyway the new rise of the tmnt eps only increased my love for donnie wow. spoilers all over this post btw!!!

donnie yelling “fibonacci” and various science/math things as battle cries. my HEART. and his whole apology and him and april teaming up just A+++

raph’s one with the 2012 tmnt voices as those random thieves?? i’m embarrassed to say i recognized the voices instantly lol. also stan raph-as-leader and his mystic powers.

and then the mikey-splinter-draxum episode?? amazing fantastic brilliant i applaud you. mikey literally called them his dads and then draxum said “OUR son.” enemies bonding over shared children!!!!

and THEN my tv didn’t record leo’s so i haven’t seen that yet and i am Mad but its fine its fine

[frumfrumfroo]

What are your favorite movies and TV shows outside of SW? I’m looking for new things to watch since SW was so disappointing

My tastes are pretty eclectic, so I will stick to just things that are either similar to sw or are in the reylo-esque romance wheelhouse and have happy endings:

Chuck. It is a goofy, light-hearted action-adventure show with extremely endearing characters and a very prominent central romance (seriously, heavy romance and there is a lot of payoff for it, you will be FED- it's kind of slow burn but also shockingly NOT slow burn, they are deep into it pretty much immediately). The main couple is the classic Stoic Badass gradually softened by an innocent they have to protect who is a liability in battle but full of the Power of Heart. Chuck is The Heart btw. He is of that vanishingly rare male Beauty (of B&tB) type. He's incredibly generous and open, Sarah is prickly and closed-off. It is Quality. Very much a gender-swap of your typical cliche anime couple lol. I would recommend stopping at the mid-season finale in season 4, because it's downhill from there. The beginning of season 3 is very rough, but it's definitely worth it to stay for the back half, imo. There are several great endings to choose from before things go to shit, so we don't need to talk about the finale. Probably the most tonally similar to SW thing possible without being high/space fantasy. More humour, more silly, but definitely has a spiritual kinship. Has the best THE BEST 'secret revealed' scenes I have ever seen in anything. If you're into that and were hoping for that in ep IX, you need to watch Chuck.

The Shop Around the Corner. 1940 romance/drama film. You've Got Mail is a remake of it. Jimmy Stewart being profoundly adorable, Frank Morgan (aka the Wizard of Oz), various amusing side characters, and an absolutely deathless double blind 'secretly in love with the workplace nemesis' plot that can and probably has been a great reylo AU.

Mirromask. Fantasy/coming-of-age film. Touted as a 'spiritual successor' to Labyrinth by the filmmakers (one of whom is Neil Gaiman) and let me tell you, that is extremely apt. Beautiful, magical, laden with symbolism and Mask Discourse, and has a great ship. I quote it regularly.

Speaking of which, I'm sure you've seen Labyrinth? If you haven't seen Labyrinth, drop everything and watch Labyrinth.

Legend (the Ridley Scott director's cut, not the theatrical cut). Sumptuous fairy tale, runs on proper fairy tale logic, stunning to look at and overall captivating. Tim Curry. Tim Curry as a lonely tragic lord of darkness who tries to seduce the heroine and has drippingly overwrought monologues.

Howl's Moving Castle. Fairy tale adventure/romance film. Beautifully animated, has the ending you want.

The Silence of the Lambs. Thriller/drama film. Actual masterpiece. Use it as a gateway drug to read the books and rejoice that Clannibal is canon and it is spectacular. Just SotL and Hannibal, you don't need to read the other two. Stan Clarice Starling and revel in that ending. Most triumphant 'villain'/heroine ship of all time (he is not technically a villain but for shorthand's sake).

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Terry Gilliam 1988 fantasy/adventure film. THE TRIUMPH OF IDEALISM OVER CYNICS I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW HEALING IT WAS TO WATCH AFTER THE TROS BULLSHIT HIT. Jonathan Pryce's spiritual villain is basically Chris Terrio and it is cathartic to see imagination and sentiment conquer him.

Sabrina. 1995 romance film. Modern fairy tale with Harrison Ford. Rejecting what you thought you wanted all your life for the thing you actually need, growing up but still believing in magic, beautiful character development across all the leads. Could be (and is irrc) a fantastic reylo AU.

The Scarlet Pimpernel. 1934 adventure film. High romance, secret identities, play-acting, people who aren't at all what they appear to be, falling in love with your own spouse, Big Heroism, guile and wit and audacity. It makes me do little kicks like a happy baby. This is one of the 3-5 films constantly tied for my favourite film of all time. There is a good quality rip free on youtube. Watch it and fall in love with Leslie Howard (this is possibly my favourite acting performance of all time).

Oh, related note. Pygmalion 1938 or My Fair Lady. (The musical is based on this film and borrows from it heavily, including its much more romantic ending compared to the original play.)

The Mummy. 1999 action/adventure/romance film. Very tonally similar to sw. A fucking great time, A+ characters.

EVER AFTER. 1998 romance film. The flawless and perfect and best ever Cinderella adaptation. This is the most satisfying film in history, maybe, the ending is so good it is amazing it exists. Also, it has Richard O'Brien being slimy. Huge selling point. Grapples with identity and stewardship, is brilliant.

Fruits Basket. drama/romance anime. I haven't watched the new version yet, but it's following the manga so I know the story. The original anime didn't do the whole plot (because they caught up with the source material) but it's wonderful and I still recommend it. The central ship is (spoiler.........) a B&tB type where we eventually discover the main love interest both feels like a figurative monster and turns into a literal monster. He has an incredible speech about his relationship with people's fear, it makes me weep. I called the endgame from the first episode and always thought it was obvious, but there is a red herring love triangle dynamic. It's really not annoying, though, because it is a red herring. (I hate love triangles)

I am Dragon. Russian monster romance film. Beautiful, simple fable with a really great heroine.

Jane Eyre. 1943 Gothic Romance film. It's Jane Eyre, byronic hero x sensible heroine love story with much atmosphere and Gothic drama. I stan this version because I am an Orson Welles fangirl and I'm also not convinced it can be improved upon. Elizabeth Taylor's film debut btw.

Hellboy. 2004 action/adventure/romance film. Defying destiny, reconciling identity, monster romance. The complete package and a great time. Tonally similar to SW and probably thematically closest to it out of this whole list. Don't watch the sequel.

Beauty and the Beast 1987 tv series. Exactly what it says on the tin. Deals with the classic B&tB themes, but in a different way. He's not cursed and will never transform into an ordinary man. The first season is very episodic and 'case of the week', but the second season gets more into character drama. It's dated, but if you give it a chance you can get past some of the cheese factor and it's really a unique experience. Its concerns are SO atypical that it feels like something fandom would make rather than a mainstream network show. It was so massively, insanely popular with women at the time that a record of Vincent (the beast) reading poetry topped the album charts. Also Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton. Stop at season two. Point of interest: George RR Martin wrote for this show.

Stargate (the movie not the series) sci-fi fantasy about a nerdy guy who accidentally a hero.

Possession. 2009... mystery/supernatural/romance. Okay. This is a whole thing. Lee Pace and Sarah Michelle Gellar. It's based on a Korean film I've never been able to find for some reason, but being Hollywood they ruined the romanticism and nuance of the original in the theatrical cut to make a shitty punative ending. However. If you buy it on dvd and go to the alternate ending (which follows the original story) with around 20 minutes left (scene after Lee Pace's character wakes from a bad dream-go to deleted scenes and select the alternate ending), you will get a very, very interesting character study/thriller/redemption about sincerity within deception, compassion, and a major question about second chances with a positive answer. It's kind of dark and kind of astonishingly idealistic at the same time. The heroine makes a very powerful choice, twice over. It's fascinating. If you're into the conflicted and uncertain period in reylo, the part where he is most ambiguous, and you wanted more of that and much darker shades to it, you might be really into this. Also, it should be noted, there is a MASSIVE height difference and they show it off. The film is flawed (and the seams show on the Hollywood rewrite) but idk, it's fascinating. Shocking to me that they even got to shoot the original ending. It is pretty balls to the wall with its themes on forgiveness.

I would recommend getting into kdramas because there is a wealth of female-gaze tropey amazing content, but always check the ending before getting invested. My all-time fave is the 1st Shop of Coffee Prince, but it's not sw related at all lmao. It has a happy ending with all the elements you'd want, but it's not satisfying in execution, so that's it's major flaw and I find that pretty common with kdramas. One that is maybe more relevant is My Love from Another Star, which has a hero who is a little bit like Ben in personality. The heroine isn't my favourite, though. It does have a decent ending.

Oh yeah- brain fart. Kurosawa films and classic westerns were both very influential on SW. Or you can combine both and watch The Magnificent Seven.

[astrologista]

so that was An Episode.

SPOILERS SPOILERS MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD

DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN S3E1 THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING

i’m sorry but i have to write these down right now before the thoughts go out my mind. i swear to my lord i it’s 4:17am and i’m compromised here we go

where do i even START.

so cass. that was definitely. not what i expected. or what i wanted, really. i feel that this origin is somewhat low-hanging fruit in my opinion just based on the context of how it was explained and cass’s positioning within the narrative. at the same time i completely understand it, and it was executed very well and heartbreakingly. the song was in-cred-i-ble. and tbh i’m glad they got the heck out of the dark kingdom so quickly, because it would have crippled the ep time-wise for them to stay even a few seconds longer.

adira is 100% going after cass now and nothing can change my mind

i imagine edmund will prolly team up with adira

HERE’S THE THING THOUGH HERE’S WHERE I GO OFF

when they showed that emblem of saporia, i honestly freaking thought they were gonna give us the ol’ tee-hee again and that we weren’t going to see any varian in this ep.

well.

i am glad to be wrong. because DAYUM.

varian has a beautiful new outfit. it’s like a steampunk cosplayer with sort of a pirate alchemist motif. it’s really nice. he’s got some thanos gloves and this amazing little bandanna he wears that has a print of an evil looking smile with sharp teeth. very fitting for him.

he also had a goatee which i in my infinite hubris actually thought was like a real goatee that he had somehow grown lol because puberty. but actually he just scribbled it on his face with a marker. that’s such a varian thing a ha. WHY’S HE SO CUTE

so andrew said they were CELLIES OH GOD I KNEW IT. I KNEW IT. if that’s true it means king frederic threw him in gen pop jail. good goin’ fred.

now quite honestly i never thought that varian is the type to team up with other villains. and i was right, because he did have his own plan going and was ready to betray his whole gang as soon as he felt like it. but it does seem like andrew was super playing into varian’s affection-starved side lol and was doing a BAD job of trying to play big brother. like. he tried it lol. and i need to know more about this. i’m hoping to god more will be revealed.

varian named his new compound quirinium. so now no one will ever forget.

but oh wait. actually everyone’s gonna forget. because his plan is to pump out gas to literally make everyone forget everything he’s ever done because he’s got a GUILT COMPLEX THIS CHILD HAS A GUILT COMPLEX THE SIZE OF TEXAS Y’ALL

and i know i missed a bunch of details and i have to go back over it but now i understand. I UNDERSTAND NOW AND I’M SO SAD... the way he was listing off offenses on his fingers it’s like. he must have had a long time to think it over and he’s been rolling each one of those around in his mind for basically months. we need a flashback. give us a flashback.

i’m 99% sure the group of saporians hanging out with andrew are commies and also possibly meth addicts and i don’t think they’re a great influence on varian. not just because they’re villains but because they’re so low-tier he’s beyond them really. i get the sense he could do better.

i really honestly wanted this arc to happen... slower. i wanted there to be more time, more of an organic change, more of everything. but how it turned out, i’m glad. varian is a variable character, and just as quickly as he can turn villainous, so too can he turn to the light, as long as there’s someone there who cares about him. he still don’t give a darn about morality, he just happens to be on the side of good again? yay?

someone needs to cap that scene when they’re in the jail cell and varian is just sitting there looking like a sad, kicked puppy because that shit gave me a Feel.

when lance wiped off that magic marker goatee all of my crops were miraculously watered. oh varian.

and then i watched it again and became sad because he just looks so shocked and then DEPRESSED like “well. there is goes. what’s left of my manhood. gone in an instant. it’s over” also i think he looked a tad scared of lance because. he’s a big guy. who reminds him of his dad

don’t TALK to me about how sad he looked when eugene didn’t trust him oh MY GOD eugene i know this kid almost killed several people... and kidnapped the queen and went berserk... but like. look at him. how can you not trust him. he wants to be trusted. TRUST HIM EUGENE

by the way speaking of TRUST oh my GOD. HE REALLY WANTED THEM TO TRUST HIM AGAIN TO THE POINT WHERE HE WAS WILLING TO ERASE EVERYONE’S MEMORIES. varian. baby. you don’t go around erasing peoples memories to reinstate your social standing in the community. whatchu doin. i think we established that mass mind control is a big no-no

RAPUNZEL COMPLETELY TRUSTED HIM SHE IS PURE. SHE IS PURE.

blah blah some action scene with some cute/funny moments

varian be making BATH BOMBS good god. lush could never. someone get on manufacturing those for purchase.

where the F IS RUDDIGER OH MY GOD

ANDREW WENT IN FOR THE KILL LOL DISNEY. y’know FOR KIDS. but seriously this cements my hatred of andrew/hubert forever and ever. amen. not only is he a d-bag, he also tried to kill a kid. a kid who trusted him to some extent. nice

VARIAN ACTUALLY TOOK RESPONSIBILITY FOR SOMETHING. i’m gonna cry. he’s BECOMING A MAN. proud of him.

and THEN i freaked it. because um. YEEEEAAAAAAHHHH.

so i honest to god was NOT prepared for quirin in this episode. i was not at all prepared. i was gearing myself up for that close to or in the finale. but no. no they hit us right in the FACE, friends. they simply did not wait.

yknow i could say i wish they had extended this scene, and i do, because it could have used a little more, but the way it was executed was REAL GOOD like i LIKE liked it. i have 2 think it over a little bit more but quirin’s VA did THE MOST too. he was GOOD you can really hear the emotion in his voice and i’m crying now ha ha

oh yeah btw VARIAN JUST HEARD EXACTLY WHAT HE’S ALWAYS WANTED TO HEAR and that makes me sad in a way because to me, that essentially completes his arc. he will appear in more episodes but his arc is like, done because QUIRIN SAID THE THING! THE THING! AAHHHHHHHH HE SAID THE THIIIIIIING

he said the thing

and also i’m kinda glad that they didn’t wait any longer to yknow. free him. varian’s been jailed for a long time at this point and it’s just not good for him to make him wait any longer. HE NEEDS HIS DAD AAAAAAAAHHH

as an aside, i’m 99.9% sure that that note said WAY more than just “i’m proud of u son” but quirin was NOT up to having that convo in that scene so he just made shit up lol. good ol quirin still lying as usual lol. but this leaves something to be said here because VARIAN STILL DOESN’T KNOW THAT HIS FATHER WAS A FREAKIN GENERAL IN AN ARMY THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY HELLO???? hello.

in closing i am so glad varian & quirin showed up for that last song because it looks like they may actually be getting re-integrated into the community and none too surprisingly, it didn’t look like any coronans were going for varian’s throat. because he’s paid his debt to society. he’s good now. he learned that you always win when you are good. or something. idk about how they left this. the end of this ep really feels like the end of s3 except. we still have a whole freaking season ahead of us. and the main lingering plot point other than the king and queen’s memory loss is cassandra. because andrew & co. are jailed, remember?

this episode is full of plot holes some of which will be addressed in this season and some of which we will never receive full disclosure for. i understand why they did it, and fwiw the way this episode was implemented in EXECUTION is VERY satisfying to me and i enjoyed it like a LOT. but at the same time a lot of people are gonna be crying foul about wanting to see a more developed varian arc and cassandra’s origin and what was going on with varian and andrew and uhmygod. this is too much for me to process and it is now 3 minutes to 5am, and i need to get in a 30 minute nap before a full work week. so i have to end it here but i am NOT done talking about this you guys.

i know the storyline for this season was set in advance but something about this episode makes me feel like they made a few adjustments based on things people said? that’s probably not the case but idk i wouldn’t mind if it was.

so in short, 10/10 great episode you guys. it all really happened. tune in tomorrow for more. ahhh

[codedredalert]

Heeey ^_^. I hope youre doing well and keep up the great hustle on Inktober. I was wondering, who do you ship more? Drakelaw or Lawkins? Those two are popular supernova ships with Law besides Luffy and maybe Zoro. Also who do you prefer as a character? Drake or Hawkins? Personally, Drake is such a fascinating character with the new info we got and Law might actually be apart of Drake's plan. Poor Hawkins can't stop being betrayed, first Apoo and now Drake lol. Btw did you watch the new anime ep?

Awww thanks so much! 💛 I’m a lil not so goodbut I’ll recover soon 💪💪🤞Iappreciate the encouragement and I’ll do my best with inktober (so much debtgahh 😣)

Hahaha Lawkins a popular ship???? the ao3 which is barrenbut for 4 short fics, one of which is mine and two of which I lovingly harassedout of a friend. Thank you for saying it’s popular though,,, my life’swork,,,,,  is complete,,,,,,,

Jokes aside, I have to say Lawkins. I have to, y'know? I clowned myself and made fun of Hawkins until I actually fell for him… Damn his beautiful hair and pretty little grooming habitsand delicious sad/ pained expressions. 

Lawkins just hits a range of Law ships which other pairings just can’t give me—a reservedbut insecure partner who Tries. They could have been, but it was the wrong time and wrong fit even though so much else did fall into place. The Tragedy. 

Then add the North Blue customs and culture worldbuildingand the cautious slow burn of potential sort-of allies. And the complexity ofthe fallout. The commentary on fate and pre-destiny. Bitterness being a sort oftwisted love-hate which they can’t get over?? The long-standing impact theyhave on each other? The RANGE my dude. 💛💛💛👌It awakened something in me. No other Law ship covers all this particularground.

I do like Drake though. His past intertwines beautifullywith Law and it suggests a man of Character and boy is that promising. Also, hehas the better body and the less offensive pants. Sorry, Hawkins. I can’t forgiveyour golf pants. I tried and I just can’t.  

Latest episode… lol is this about Law’s legs? I haven’t seenit but I see everyone going wild over his kimono revealing his legs and that’shilarious.

I’m kinda on a soft media ban for one piece bc I’m tired ofthe rush and spoil culture. I think it’s really unhealthy and harmful to theindustry and I just can’t keep up. My personal definition of spoiler is kind of wider than most people in this fandom it seems, haha…. I’ll wait for wano to advance significantly then catch up all at once.

[aesthetic-survivor-of-twd]

Episode 4 Trailer Analysis

Okay so first off, because Tumblr has a maximum of 10 screenshots per post i’m only going to be able to show the images that I feel are most important to show with a visual reference, and then explain the other scenes purely with text (so you may need to rewatch the trailer to understand wtf i’m referring to at some points, my apologies for that).

I’m gonna do my damnedest to keep everything in order, so let’s begin.

(This turned out to be really long, so i’m hiding it under a spoiler bar - my apologies ^_^;)

1) The Beginning

Okay, so in this picture we see Clem and AJ running from the boat which seems to have somewhat crashed into the dock after the explosion. Which makes sense given the proximity.

The reason I believe this image to be important is because it debunks the theory that any of the characters (at least Clem and AJ) end up falling overboard into the water after the explosion.

It seems that the episode is going to start with us directly after the chaos of episode 3 and we are going to need to QTE our asses out of the ship in Act 1 where we will be thrown into action right away.

You’ll notice that we can’t see Tenn, James (if he survived), ect with us during our escape. 2 people that most likely would be running out with us given that we were within the same location as each other during the explosion.

So I feel like they either were in front of us out of frame here, or they maybe did fall overboard and when we see them later on it’s because they’ve washed up on land.

Some people believe this to be a bridge Clem is jumping over, but i’m personally skeptical about that.

If anything, I think this is a hole created on the ship after the explosion which we need to jump over to escape. The wooden flooring has been broken away by something that must have exploded, because it doesn’t look like a normal hole created by rotten wood throughout the years. Plus, if you look behind Clem, there is a wooden structure with panelling that seems similar to the walls within the ship.

Also, notice how tall the bridge must be after this scene when we get a bird’s eye view of Clem leaping over the hole and seeing the water beneath her.

If you look back to previous episodes as well as the map Marlon shows us in episode 1 (which I would provide here if not for the 10 screencap limit) you will notice that the only bodies of water other than the ocean/bigass river off the edge of the map, is smaller bodies of river or streams.

Any time we have seen a bridge in this game it’s been a small one above a stream of some kind (even the title screen for ep4 with Clem’s hat seems to be a small bridge like the one near the fishing shack).

To have a bridge this big, we would have to travelling far off to the left side of the map beyond the ship, and I can’t see any bridges in that direction given how big the body of water is there (or maybe Marlon is just shit at drawing water to scale lmao).

Also you can see land in the background that seems similar to the hills Clem, AJ, Willy and Louis/Violet were spying at the Delta from.

Okay, so this one does seem to give more of a bridge vibe with the metal structures (reminds me of S2 Ep2), but i’m still going to assume it’s the ship for now since we haven’t really got any other reason to assume it’s a bridge beyond a bridge being a focus point in the title screen (which btw, I wouldn’t get too heavily focused on since the previous title screens haven’t been too literal either with their subject matter and have mostly been used to represent the episode in general - like ep3 being a view from a porthole in a boat to represent the Delta ship, ect).

Notice the reflection of the water is bright orange as well.

That’s not just a reflection of a setting sun or something, that’s a light source close to the water - something on fire.

And there’s no way a shit ton of walkers would be crowding the middle of the water unless they were drawn to a loud noise. Like they are determined creatures, but there has to be something big that happened in order to provoke them into water where they can barely even move.

Okay so more related to Act 1 which I can’t drop screenshots for (so you may need to watch the trailer again.)

Okay so this is the point where my huge wall of text from above may fall flat, and I could be 100% wrong depending on the context of this scene (In which case if I am, then i’m gonna do my best to forget this analysis ever happened after the episode drops lmao).

At the very beginning of the trailer we see Clem waking up from where it seems to be the dock instead of the actual boat itself.

This implies that the beginning of the episode actually happens OFF of the boat as opposed to on it like I mentioned above (which could also make sense given Clem was literally near the railing of the boat when the explosion happened).

BUT typical to the usual Twdg trailer fashion, we can’t 100% assume that’s what actually happened since the person making these trailers is insanely good at piecing stuff together in a way that fucks with your perception of events.

So it could mean practically anything. Here are a few basic theories:

1) Clem wakes up on the dock at the beginning of ep1 and then rushes back on the ship to find AJ or something. Because there has to be some reason her and AJ are running from the boat that close - because Clem definitely didn’t wake up that close to the boat as if you rewatch the beginning of the trailer, when Clem looks up to see the walker the ground isn’t wooden - it’s gravel. And if you look at my first screenshot you will see it’s the EXACT same terrain outside of the dock. Which means Clem is on the ground at the start of the dock.

So either Clem went BACK to the ship, or she and AJ already escaped from it which means:

2) Another explosion happens (either the boat or a grenade) and Clem gets knocked to the ground not long after her and AJ flee the ship. You’ll notice that Clem doesn’t “wake up” from the explosion as if she passed out and that the scene is shot in a way as if she just toppled over from impact and is now looking up directly after it and seeing the smoke.

What helps make this more credible is that the split second before the trailer cuts away from the scene of her and AJ running from the boat, you’ll notice that the explosion catches up to them at the exact moment Clem makes it from the dock to the gravel area of the ground (where we see her “wake up” at the beginning). 

You can see Clem reaching for AJ but not exactly grabbing him in time as it happens - which is why AJ isn’t there at the beginning with her.

LILLY APPEARS!

Okay so obviously this is determinant depending on your choices from the previous ep (AKA, why i’m fucked this episode lmao). But as you can see in the trailer, we get a bit of a showdown between her and Clem.

I think it’s safe to assume that this takes place near the boat in Act 1 as well, however you can see AJ right next to Clem so it can’t be directly after the beginning of the trailer. It must be a good few minutes afterwards when we get AJ again.

Not really much else to say about it, besides the fact that episode 4 definitely seems to be throwing us into frantic QTE spamming at the very start for a change of pace.

Our baby boys, Tenn and AJ have been caught within the sight of walkers and shit’s getting more real.

This in my opinion, seems to be happening a little bit more to the side of the dock (so close to the boat still, but maybe closer to where Willy went sailing with the supplies if you told him to take them).

I feel like this all happens AFTER the (potential) Lilly confrontation and when we are now just trying to high tail it out of the dock and away from the Delta.

AJ at some point seems to run up and stick with Tenn to protect him and it seems that the both of them only now just realize how many walkers are getting drawn to them.

At this point, this is probably where we as Clem have the moment of using the bow and arrow to shoot at them OR this is where Minnie steps in since her brother is in danger (which might lead to a potential Minnie redemption that i’m not entirely certain of given how a lot of the Delta still seem alive - so she might still be after us, especially if this is Act 1)

You see a few shots of the Delta members still alive, but the thing I find interesting about this screenshot in particular is that it’s the area from which the docks/gravel lead to the woods.

This also seems to be from a similar location where the grenade gets thrown and Clem protects AJ as a barrel explodes.

I think this either might be closer to the end of Act 1 or at the very least, the end of the “boat area” as we are nearing the woods, where the rest of the trailer seems to be located.

So I think this entire scene is literally us escaping into the woods OR where we end up in that cave together which explains why we have Tenn with us (as well as James potentially). The cave would make most sense as well given that the only rocky area where a cave could work is near the dock where they have those big rocky cliffs.

I think what backs up the possibility of the cave being close is that you can see behind the walkers some trees (so it’s in the woods most likely but I don’t think it’s too far from the docks).

The 3/4 of us most likely run into this cave to avoid the Delta, but the walkers sniff us out and end up following us in here as well.

So now we have Clem, AJ, Tenn and James(?) running through the tunnels of the cave most likely (assuming it IS near the cliffs, then there is a good chance that much like in real life there will be another passageway further into the cave that leads out somewhere.)

I’m not gonna post the picture of James since we’ve all seen it and I need to save screenshot space lol but the cut on his hand definitely isn’t anything like a walker bite or anything. I think everyone is theorising about it and honestly, I don’t really have anything new to add to it ^^;

BUT something not many people have mentioned yet is the scene of him dropping his mask to the ground.

I don’t know if I 100% buy him sacrificing himself by cutting his hand to attract the walkers to him or not, but if that IS what’s happening. The dropping of his walker mask would also be a nice way to subtly symbolise that happening as well.

Alternatively, maybe he drops it to the ground as we all sit in the cave and take a short break from all the madness.

I feel like this will be the moment where James goes off about AJ killing Lilly and where we might get a little bit of team drama going on - which then later gets cut off by the walkers entering the cave and us needing to escape.

(ASDFGHJKL MY HEART)

Okay so this is very clearly set in the woods.

I think this is when we escape the cave and we end up travelling through the woods keeping a lookout for the Delta.

If you chose Louis, then we will bump into him now and as you can see from the animated clip, that it seems like AJ goes up and hugs him first and then Clem hugs him (ayyy ninja family hug).

I have a feeling that Louis might actually be alone here.

Given that Omar is probably still sorta injured, I wouldn’t be too surprised if Aasim took him back to the boarding school (which would also make sense since in Violet’s route we also have an injured Louis with them - so it would only make sense for Aasim and Omar to be gone at this point either way).

I have a feeling that when Louis, Aasim and Omar left the boat, Louis probably told them to go on ahead while he looked for Clem. Especially since in his route he seems really hesitant about Clem going off to save Lilly herself after they all escape from their cells. I can’t see him at this point in time just leaving her, regardless of how badass Clem is.

(Unless Aasim and Omar are just out of frame - but I doubt it).

Also, not that anyone probably doubted it but I intentionally took a screenshot before Clem hugs him just to show that this scene is definitely during Louis’s route since in the screencaps where Clem hugs him you can’t actually see Louis’s mouth (where he would be bleeding if it was Violet’s route).

OKAY SO THIS IS OUT OF ORDER.

This scene should technically be near the top since it seems like the boat has sank even further at this point and we can see Clem and Violet near it.

Okay so, i’ve been seeing some people say they think this is Louis’s route because Clem isn’t wearing her badge Violet gave her (I can’t remember where it’s meant to be so I can’t really tell ^^:) but personally I still think it’s Violet’s route.

It would make sense for it to be Louis’s route if we assume the trailer is from 1 gameplay of the episode (since the wood’s scene is deffo Louis’s route), but I don’t know if I can see them not having at least one scene from a Violentine playthrough here. Especially since it’s the final trailer and how much the fans have wanted equal screentime between both characters.

In my opinion, I feel like Violet in this scene is just upset over everything that’s happened (she might not know if Minnie made it out since the explosion could have sent them flying in different areas) and Clem is comforting her.

I don’t think it’s to do with Violet distrusting Clem or anything like some people brought up.

I feel like if this was LouisRoute!Violet then she wouldn’t be as calm here with Clem, at least I think the body language would be different.

(I could easily be wrong though, i’m actually sure about this screenshot the least tbh)

The only question I have about this scene is that if it’s at the beginning, then where is Violet during the cave scene? does she just try to look for Minnie? I don’t know... I feel like there is a lot of ways this scene can be perceived both from the trailer clip and whatever the heck happens after it before we end up in that cave.

This is definitely our McCarroll Ranch flashback.

Her hair is shorter than what it is in the present (and it’s not just a weird perspective, that ponytail is definitely short).

Also, notice that we don’t get to see her outfit much?

And we also get the return of the ominious red lighting from the nightmare she had in episode 2.

Finally we get daylight! (look at the gaps where there is sunshine).

This is the morning after the shitstorm, and it seems that we end up in a barn given the hay and structure of the building (maybe James’?)

Yet again we get attacked by walkers as in another scene in the trailer we see Clem trying to block a door with walkers trying to break in, that’s also set in the daylight with interior similar to this screenshot.

ALSO, unrelated to this screenshot but we also have another small scene set during the morning where Clem and AJ look at eachother in fear/”Fuuuuck” which i’m assuming is what lead to them ending up in the barn.

Okay so this is the winning shot of the trailer where everyone freaks out and thinks Clem is probably gonna die or something.

I’m gonna treat this screenshot with skepticism like I did with the other scene of her in episode 3′s trailer holding her hand where everyone thought she got bitten for some reason, because it looked so dramatic.

I’m not saying that it’s not something serious that’s gonna happen (especially since every trailer has a clip from the end/final act of the episode and we haven’t seen one for this yet which i’ve noticed). But i’m not going to assume it’s 100% major either since I doubt they would be this obvious with it.

What I will say however, is that wherever Clem is dangling off of, I genuinely can’t see AJ pulling her up to safety. Like for AJ - a 5 year old, to successfully pull up Clem is nearly “Season 2-Clem-kicking-down-the-solid-trailer-door-in-ep4″ levels of insane strength right there. 

Clem is gonna fall and maybe pass out (maybe that’s how we get our Clem nightmare?) and we will need to find AJ again, most likely.

What’s worth noting however, is that it’s set during night time.

And given how time passes in these episodes i’m willing to be it can only happen either:

1) In act one where all the insane shit with the boat happens

2) In act 3 since it turns to daylight at some point for Act 2

-

ANYWAY THAT’S ALL I HAVE FOR NOW.

Sorry I took forever posting this, I got carried away.

(Just wait till episode 4 proves me completely wrong with everything lmao)

[dangerliesbeforeyou]

my top 10 series of 2019~

aka i gush about shiz i watched this year for waaaaaay too long lol... 

i watched a lot of stuff this yr (well... it felt like a lot? there’s a lot more i wanted to watch but i’m terrible at time management lol...) so let’ssss explore that in a ~numbered list~ lol

(spoilers - there’s a lot of gay shit here lol... what can i say, twentybiteen really pulled thru lol)

10 - Stranger Things (series 3) 

i know some people didn’t like this series, but i legit thought it was really good lol... i felt it had gone back to the style of the 1st series a lil more? (whereas series 2 had felt a lil disappointing in a way??) & i loved all the new characters introduced (robin is a personal fav, obv), & the whole splitting off into the lil groups was really effective in not just feel like it’s always the same group together, and it also allowed for some interesting character moments!

visually, stranger things always looks amazing! but i thought the whole summer/july 4th vibes really made it especially stunning tbh... as most things on this list, i’ve only seen it once, so i would like to rewatch it at some point (actually wanna do a full stranger things marathon tbh i was trying to explain what had happened in the show to my friend who stopped watching it early in series 1 & it was so difficult to remember exactly what had happened in it lool... ) 

there were obv things about it that i wasn’t as big on, like the whole evil russian-invincible guy was v cliche and kinda silly, & some of the actions scenes were a bit awkward(?) feeling... but i’m a sucker for any 80′s style media so those things just reminded me of the goonies or some shit lol

9 - Ghosts 

actually the funniest & cutest series ever tbh!!! as someone who grew up with horrible histories with the original cast, this just made me immensely happy to see the whole team together again! the humour style is v similar to horrible histories too btw, though i feel they let themselves have a lil more ‘dark humour’ than in that (since this is more a general audience, whereas hh was definitely more aimed at kids tbh... tho they still won a comedy award for it lol! actual legends lol anyway...)

only downside is that it’s only 1 series atm & it’s pretty short... but i know there’s gonna be a new series at some point so i’m v excited for that!! i feel there’s sooooo many places they can go with the concept (i.e. exploring how/when the other characters died (like kitty!!! i need to know her story lol i love her!), maybe introducing another character who can see ghosts?? like a medium/psychic or something/etc ...) but legit, please watch this if u haven’t!!! 

8 - Good Omens

this pretty much took over the internet this year lbr lol & tbh i’d def say it was worthy of the praise!! ineffable husbands aside, the main story is super engaging and enjoyable, with some really awesome side characters (& some of my fav character designs in anything ever tbh!!) but definitely the biggest draw was the ‘6000 years mutual pining’ romance which they did so well lol & it was something that was genuinely so lovely to watch tbh!! i also really loved the ending message of the show! i really hope to rewatch this next year when i think it’s gonna be aired on british tv at last????

downsides would be that the plot can be a bit confusing at times? but maybe that’s just me being dumb lol... but i imagine it’s a lot easier to understand if u’ve read the book lol?? i don’t have a problem w/ aziraphale & crowley not being “explicitly” gay or whatnot (i know i’ve seen some people annoyed with this?), since the whole idea of their relationship is so much larger than just them bonking or whatevs lol? (in general i think more media should have less focus on kissing/intimacy as an indication of love/romance... which is something i’ve already talked about lol)

oh, and the title sequence is INCREDIBLE lol i seriously loved it so much!!

7 - Killing Eve (series 2)

finally finished this the other day & it was so good!!! i really love the dark comedic tone of the show tbh & i def feel there was more of it in the 2nd series then the first! i also liked the further development of villanelle & eve’s relationship, which is obv the highlight of the show tbh! there was also a nice lot of twists tbh, though i’d say it was a lil less intense than the 1st series? (overall i’d say i prefer the 1st series, but the 2nd was a fab continuation... btw i also watched the 1st series this yr lol)

negative points are that the plot wasn’t quite as interesting as the 1st series... i think cos the focus of the murders was taken off of villanelle that we lost some of that drama from the 1st? i thought the ghost was gonna be a more integral part but she was kinda weirdly pushed aside once we learnt her identity? & the creepy son dude just annoyed me lol (but i suppose that was the point lol...)... so like yh there were lil things that didn’t engage me as much as the first, but overall i still really enjoyed it lol

this is def fulfilling the hannibal-shaped hole in my heart tbh... (another series i finished this yr...)

6 - Dark Blue Kiss the series

look, it’s no surprise this is on my list lol... i was hella hyped for this series when it was announced last yr, even though my expectations were VERY LOW after kiss me again the series (which, lbr, is a massive mess lol... like it’s My Mess tho)... but for real, this series really exceeded all my expectations... & then some! like i’m legit shook at how good it was ngl! especially morksun’s storyline, which was by far my fav in the show (as much as i’m petekao trash lol...) also, i was surprised by how genuinely pretty this show is! esp in comparison to kma (like i know i keep going on about the goddamn bruise makeup but it is so ugly in kma, but they really did a great job in dbk tbh!)

ok so there’s a lot of flaws lol... like... a lot (i’m already complained a lot so i won’t bore u with that rn lol...) but for real, the thing that i love the most about this is the discussions of coming out/homophobia/general young people struggles/etc etc which is so refreshing to see in these series! like i love that despite the cheesy tropes, it still knows when to be serious & genuine...

5 - He Is Coming To Me

another thai series, i believe this has the same director as dbk? (don’t hold me to that tho...)... legit one of the best, if not the best, thai series i’ve ever seen tbh! so adorable, so well acted, so funny & heartwarming like... legit it’s so good!! i was already excited about it from the trailer, but the way it really delivered on the emotionality, whilst keeping it lighthearted, was truly wonderful tbh! the main actors did a brill job i gotta say, and all the side characters were amazing too (there really wasn’t a character i didn’t like i’d say tbh? i need to rewatch tbh... there’s a lot i’ve forgotten since this came out p early in the year lol)... also, visually it’s so pretty!! i swear the cinematography in these thai series just keeps getting better & better & it def improves the watching experience tbh!

a down point would be that the first ep is a bit slow/awkward to get in to... & i think it def could put someone off? but i’d say to stick w/ it since it just keeps getting better & better! i’d actually say there isn’t really anything else i didn’t like about it ngl? it’s just so good guys... u really need to watch it!

4 - Russian Doll 

probs the only series on this list that i actually actively went to rewatch straight away lol (didn’t do a full rewatch btw)... it was SO good for real! i already loved the premise lol (it’s basically groundhog day, which is already such a great film, but they explored those ideas even more in this which i loveeeed) the leads are fantastic, and the story is generally so interesting!  plus the editing & song choices are really brill tbh... 

my one complaint would probs be that the series loses a lil momentum at certain points (esp later in the series), but it still keeps ur interest, and the ending is really well done too! i know there’s gonna be a 2nd series, so i’m really hoping it’ll be able to live up to this one, and also explore more of the characters/concepts/etc! i’m def hyped for it tbh!  

i feel like this series is simultaneously underrated and also v well known lol?? like i know everyone sees that ‘thursday! what a concept’ meme but i feel like i didn’t see as many people talk about it as much as other series this yr??? 

(for my top 3, i’d say i love them all equally/for different reasons... so the order they’re in is changeable lol)

3 - Gentleman Jack

one of the greatest bbc series of the year, maybe even the decade lol! actually a masterpiece of cinematography, incredible acting, gorgeous costumes, beautiful depictions of love and intimacy, hilarious characterisation & just generally a wonderful series!! like i can’t praise it enough! it’s literally everything i could ever want from a series, and more!!!!!!! like everytime i think about it i just feel like ‘!!!!!’ constantly lol... like... what did we do to deserve such a series for real?? something that i esp loved was that i vividly remember not that long ago w/ people complaining about the bbc for having minor lgbtq characters in things, so to have a actual main lesbian couple series be on prime time bbc telly is kinda mind blowing lol... like.. i know we’ve got a long way to go, but it does make me immensely proud!! 

i have no complaints lol... other than - needed to be longer (i think we’re getting a 2nd series right???? i hope so tbh!!)

2 - The Untamed 

look, i don’t make 15 piece series’ for nothing lol... this show really got to me ngl... like i knew it was gonna be amazing from seeing tonnes of mutuals start watching it & praising it.. .but ohhhhhhhh boy i wasn’t reading for the angst and heartbreak and just generally how invested i’d be in all the characters lol... like genuinely there’s so much to praise about this show! it may not be as super ‘polished’ as some of the other shows on this list, but it really has so much heart and hard work and dedication put into it which really shows in the final  product!

there’s obv issues with it, but i feel like it’s kinda unnecessary to go over them lol? there’s so much more of this series that has brought me genuine joy, the biggest being the fact they were still able to depict a really beautiful, loving and /romantic/ relationship despite the strict censor is truly incredible lol!! like w/ good omens, it just shows what you can do to depict love/romance without having to over-sexualise something...

i feel like i’m saying less for these top 3, but it’s just cos i’ve already gush to high heavens about how much i love them lol... 

1 - HIStory 3 - Trapped

you - *pretends to be shocked that this is my number 1*

yeh... no surprises that this is in my top 3 lol... what can i say that i haven’t already screamed about for months??? this series truly surpassed any expectations i could have had for a HIStory series... the story line is complex & pretty well done (it’s not perfect... but nothing is so....), the characters are wonderful & also brilliantly acted! i think the thing that i love the most is that the director wanted to create a series that wasn’t just a cheesy gay series (don’t get me wrong, i loVE cheesy gay series’ lol... ) but also would have a more interesting, well developed & more ‘mature’ story line (i think esp in comparison to other HIStory series’ which are usually school/uni based)... it’s also one of the few lgbtq series i’ve seen that isn’t just about ‘first loves’, and doesn’t place a big emphasis on a sexuality/identity crisis... it’s just so unabashedly a mystery-romance drama, which is just so refreshing to see! & i genuinely hope we can see more series like this, where gay characters don’t need to ‘prove’ themselves in order to be in a series or to be in relationships (which it often feels like, where writers need to explain /why/ characters are gay...)...  

phew... that’s a lot of text lol, just like w/ the untamed, i feel like i’ve already talked about the negative points of the series (plot holes, awkward moments, weird editing/sound choices, bad tropey plots), but the positives of this series seriously make it worthwhile, and i’m just so so SO happy this show exists lol...

all 3 of these series have a special place in my heart of inspiring lots of my own exploration of art, as well as writing, which has been really crucial in me understanding what i wanna do with my life (i know that sounds kinda weird, but at the start of the year i really didn’t know what i wanted... and i wasn’t even sure what i was good at lol... so thru these shows i was able to discover a lot more about my own style of working & thru all of them i was able to meet some wonderful new people on here which has made 2019 actually one of my most enjoyable years on tumblr! 

this has been an...... interesting year lol... but definitely these shows made it just a lil bit better!!! 

Happy new year to anyone who actually read thru this & let’s hope 2020 brings us even more brill shows ~~~

[vaguely-gestures-to-the-void]

Hindsight: My thoughts on Loki (2021)

Spoilers below. Please correct me if I slip up. I am in no way shape or form educated on ANYTHING to do with the making of films, how to critique this stuff etc, this is all just my opinion. If I haven’t covered a scene, it’s probably because it’s already been covered much better than I can. This is my extended episode 1 review.

Episode 1: GLORIOUS PURPOSE

Pre-title scene

The scene titles looking like a train station combined with the scrolling through time is such a cool stylistic choice.

The music is familiar, but followed by an alternate shot of Loki as Cap. A different perspective of something known, how fitting. FYI, I’m going to mention music a lot.

Love how no one questions the Hulk terrifying people.

This is the last time Loki will hear Thor call his name, or speak to him. Oh darn, I made myself sad.

Marvel studios logo

The Marvel logo changing colours + Loki theme finally taking the centre stage. I love it.

The comments made on Loki soundtrack videos saying ‘I see that the Mandalorian soundtrack has become a genre’ are so accurate it hurts. Shout out to Ludwig btw, he deserves all the awards for his soundtracks.

My thoughts so far: This part is setting up the general shift in tone from what we’ve seen in past Marvel projects, even the other shows. It reaffirms the audience’s subconscious that whilst we are familiar with the characters, there’s new twists up ahead, subtle hints to oncoming mischief. Props to the entire team behind the series.

Gobi Desert Scene

As much as I liked the opening bug crawl, the following interactions look a bit CGId. I’m being picky, they really are gorgeous. It’s also difficult after having seen the Mandalorian, but that show really paid attention to scenery as it was an instrumental part of the story, whereas here it’s just one scene and all the others are stunning.

The parallels to Tony in the desert. Loki immediately rips off the muzzle (?).

I just watched the scene and yes, Tony rips off the mask immediately.

Also I think I would have definitely had a crush on young RDJ.

And Gwyneth Paltrow (GOOP LADY) if I didn’t know her now.

Props to Tom Hiddleston’s acting. Loki’s face when he sits up is just pure confusion but with the signature hint of indignation that I’d expect from his characterisation at this point.

The rock lmao.

THE MUSIC WHEN B-15 (MY QUEEN) APPEARS. HELL YEAH!

Also props to the supporting cast of minutemen, where does Marvel find these people? They’re so well choreographed, they all move perfectly and it’s a joy to watch.

Love the time doors honestly.

I couldn’t have been the only one who thought that the temp pads were Samsung phones for a sec right?

Lol is that unintentional foreshadowing about the TVA? Jk I’m just clowning.

Has anyone spoken about what the Temp pad showed?

My theory is that ‘Units’ refer to a predetermined rate of change [e.g. m/s] where one unit = one increment of change.

The steady rate of change here is interesting. I’ll talk about it more at the end of the next episode.

I love the music, just the slow ticking increasing in pace and the dramatic flares brought on by the strings (I think), simply divine. Natalie Holt got it spot on and props to Tom Hiddleston and literally everyone involved for understanding the importance of good music with this series. I’ll talk about this in depth in the next episode, just wanted to mention it when it first started that I noticed.

In retrospect, I can definitely retract my critique of the background in the scene. It holds up well now that I’ve rewatched it.

B-15 doesn’t get enough love. Shout out to Wunmi Mosaku, she’s a trooper and I’m here to hype her up.

Also y'all I just checked the cast list and ???? Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner and Tessa Thompson are on it?????? MARVEL TF IS THIS WHAT TOM MEANT BY EP 4 BEING WILD I-

Tom’s acting chops: The face moment. You know the one. It’s pretty incredible.

Theory from me: the reason that Loki doesn’t see the hit coming is because B15 was moving unnaturally fast.

It’s the immediate change in the music to reflect the audience’s reaction at the standard fight scene taking a strange turn for me lads.

B-15 doesn’t smile, which I think is in character for her.

She’s seen this shit wayyyy too many times.

We’re not even five minutes into the first ep and a) I’ve waffled this much, Gods, and b) the music has changed at least 3?? Times to reflect what’s happening. I love it.

My theory about resetting the timeline: the reset charges get rid of anything in the immediate vicinity of the branch, pretty much a mini-apocalypse of the timeline. If everything is erased, none of it matters. Does that make sense?

Taking away the Tesseract while yes, it serves a purpose with showing Loki the might of the TVA later on, also reflects how nitpicky the TVA are about their time-keeping. They do everything in a very orderly fashion, but as we see later, the outdated nature of things is very human.

The TVA - the elevator thing

Man I love the TVA’s look. Someone (and I’ve heard that Kate Herron was also very particular about the set design) went to extraordinary lengths with every single scene, not just this one, but the one before as well.

Heck I just want to appreciate how much of a visual feast this series is. Good on ‘em.

The shots changing angle is also very interesting. They switch it up between one-takes, close-ups of differing extremities and it just keeps the flow fast-paced, ya know?

Watching Loki run was hilarious.

“Sounds dumb.” - Casey, Null Time Zone.

This weird robot is what I think of when the TVA is mentioned. Advanced tech mimicking a retroistic 70s feel.

The cat’s adorable.

The clock. The cup. The placing of props. Impeccable.

The clock’s hands don’t move whilst they’re on screen.

The realisation on his face when he eyes the stack of papers.

Why is the wall so badly scratched???

I love that the signature is in character. I have a huge thing for attention to detail lmao.

Again, why are all of the walls so scratched? If they could talk, I’d presume it’s just a set design choice but it’s interesting that they did that.

Does anyone else want a TVA sweater vest?

Tickets

The opening zoom in on Loki combined with the consistent brown-orange colours of the set makes the room look uniform and encompassing. I love how the lights are always placed in a repetitive manner so rooms are given the illusion that they go on forever.

Lighting here creates depth, but whilst the lights form a ceiling, we can’t actually see how they’re suspended and I think that’s neat.

The posters. Yes.

This is the first time I noticed the different minutemen uniforms. This one’s half orange-red and black. Pretty cool imo.

Shout out to Tara Strong and the entire animation.

The butterfly was a nice hint to the butterfly effect, and the music is perfect as always.

The wooden walls in the background of this shot. How very 70s.

The reflection showing the guy getting pruned is pretty cool.

Again, another clock with no movement on the wall.

The first 11 minutes are up and we’ve made it to the title! If you’ve read this far, congrats.

1549 Aix-en-provence, France

Just speculating, we’re in a church with an initial high-angled nearly bird’s eye view and then a cut to one looking up at Mobius. I guess it means even if we think as viewers our perspective is omniscient, we’re not spared from the mystery in this series.

Who’s in the stained glass window?

I love how they tie in a detail as small as the gum. It just goes to show when you haven’t got much time, every character interaction is meaningful.

Props to Owen Wilson, he really sold Mobius to me.

Mirrors in a church showing the devil behind Mobius. Or on his side.

Time court 37

The time court 37 really reminds me of train stations.

The chairs remind me of pews. They sure are reverent of the Time keepers.

The lighting is a cool, bluish tinge for the first time I’ve noticed. Especially on Ravonna (MY LOVE!).

B-15 knows Loki’s clowning lmaooo.

Ravonna isn’t here for it either.

Ravonna’s nailpolish is a very nice shade of brown.

Theory: Resetting is ‘being brainwashed for the TVA’. Not very original, but it’s interesting that the TVA thinks that Loki would be useful as a worker, unlike the guy who got pruned earlier.

The TVA exterior is amazing. It also extends forever in all directions, even down.

Time Theatre 25

What is that elevator music??

“I thought you didn’t like to talk” Ragnarok, anyone?

Loki reading the ‘Time theatre’ sign whilst rambling. Gotta give it to him, he’s always aware of his surroundings.

The little TVA logo on Mobius’ shirt.

Shout out to whoever did the costuming. Personally, I liked the shirts with no collars, and the armour of the minutemen and Hunters came off to me as practical but not ignorant of the branding that the TVA likes.

Theory (bear with me): Once you’re a part of the TVA, you’re not collared anymore, though there is an appearance of that on the shirts.

Seriously tho, what are those shirts like? Mobius doesn’t have a collar.

Why do the ties just… end?

Neat details:

Holo projector 35.

The lights being reminiscent of skylights but still leaving the characters in the dark. “The sun will shine on us again, brother.” Not yet.

The reflection of the projector in the table/on the ground.

Loki: *turns away.*

Mobius: *sips Josta.*

Seriously, the lighting is great. Loki moving in and out of the shadows? Great way to show his mistrust/ unease of the situation.

The illusion speech is the last time we really hear 2012 Loki in my eyes, mainly because Mobius really gets into the cracks of who Loki is and then there’s action.

The ‘I was- I am” Freudian slip is perfection.

Side note the music’s changed yet again. It’s definitely setting up the more mournful tones for seeing his mother’s death.

I find it interesting that the door is partially in the shadows.

Doors are symbols of opportunities, barriers and both death and birth from what I remember of high school English.

From what I know in interrogations the person being interrogated is allowed to sit with their back to a door. Initially, both Loki and Mobius are sideways, equidistant from the door. When Loki wants to run, he edges closer to the door, even if it is just to make a point. Excellent blocking in my eyes.

Oh man, Mobius’ little gestures.

“Always so perceptive about everyone but yourself.” I really don’t have to talk about the significance of that line, do I?

Frigga being stabbed in the back. Little solace to a dead man? Ouch. That hurt me too.

Loki’s wounds heal unnaturally fast, because he’s no mortal.

Mobius really drives home the last point. Who says ‘like you did your mother” ??? Owen sold how Mobius can influence Loki's mind.

The ‘best versions of themselves' line and showing Thor must have hit Loki hard. He spent two movies trying to prove who he is, measuring himself against Thor. And then he sees them both working together and being equals.

Loki’s escape

Wunmi and Owen’s line delivery is unforced and charged, completely in character.

Mobius looking under the table is hilarious to me.

The music.

The tidy cubicle = healthy timeline is a bit contradictory because they’re supposedly in the null time zone but okay.

Is no one going to mention the taxidermy ferret?

Loki just had an identity crisis. His ‘gut you like a fish’ seems in character.

The dude’s really questioning everything he knows lmao.

Casey’s ‘what’s a fish’ was really our first hint that not everything is what it seems to be at the TVA.

It amuses me that Loki’s on his knees when he gets the Tesseract.

I’m sure someone’s pointed it out already, but given that Loki takes back the Time Twister, it’s possible he could have stolen an Infinity stone.

Again, point’s already been made but Loki seeing the Infinity stones is what sells the power of the TVA.

Please, the rest of the office not giving a damn when one dude’s having some drama is hilariously on point. They really said ‘not my problem’.

Loki’s future

The screen on the table showing what he’s rewinding as it happens.

Btw if you pause any moment during that, you’ll see a scene.

A quick note on Loki’s characterisation:

He’s been through a lot in a very short period of time, quite literally finding out that his actions don’t have any consequences. He’s lost all autonomy, especially as a god who probably believed he was not as restrained as mortals. More on this in later Eps.

I really liked Ragnarok because it showed Loki and Thor’s maturity; they had to step out of legacies that were thousands of years old and come to terms with a universe that was much bigger than them. It also fleshed out their relationship as brothers, but not at the expense of who they were. Loki still is a schemer, and he talks more because he has less to hide in my eyes. He’s no longer just a villain, and that can’t be shown by just actions, especially in his own tv show.

Loki’s little laugh when Thor talks about giving him a hug. Man that was sad.

What shouldn’t be forgotten is that Loki doesn’t know how it ends. He doesn’t know whether Thanos gets defeated. For all he knows, he died in vain and left behind a brother with no family.

The collar says DANGER.

This is the scene that really nails it home to Loki that his purpose in life was to cause pain. He found out his glorious purpose in that timeline, he’s conflicted as Sylvie points out in Ep 3.

When Loki talks to Mobius, they’re both in medium shots. They’re on the same page.

Loki’s delivery has changed when talking about the 'illusion' but Mobius hasn’t. That may change in the later episodes.

1858 Salina, Oklahoma

Others have covered this better.

Sylvie’s theme is similar to Loki’s but not identical.

It’s got sinister tones which change throughout the series.

I love how you can see the images of the minutemen’s past and future as they walk through a time door, they literally step through time.

I’ve got a whole other post on the end credits scenes. Cheers if you read this all lads.

Ep 1 review

All in all, this was a scene-setting episode. One of my friends texted me and said ‘Loki really went through ten years worth of character development in minutes’ and I think that sums it up pretty well. It’s a great set up, but the next episode is where the plot begins to progress. Really enjoyed it. There’s not too much that was aided by what we know from ep 3 besides Casey’s fish from what I caught.

See y'all next time, if there is anyone reading this. Look after yourselves!

[boystownbirdie]

LMWTV4U: GOT S7E5

Welcome back! In case you’re new, this is “Let me watch TV 4 U,” the blog where I watch TV so you don’t have to. I’ll be recapping Game of Thrones, Season 7 Episode 5 and SPOILERS ABOUND SO PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

Tonight’s episode was titled “Eastwatch” but a more fitting title would have been “Don’t I know you from a few seasons ago?” If you’ve been following GoT for awhile, you might know that “unlikely alliances” is one of George R.R.R.R.R. Martin’s go-to-setups. He really gets off on taking 2 characters who are TOTAL OPPOSITES on paper and watching them learn to get along, just like the premise of all sitcoms. Well all of these unlikely pairs have been meeting, forming bonds, and saying goodbye for the past 7 seasons and NOW we’re apparently at the part where we have to watch them meet back up again. It kind of sounds like a kewl idea but idk about you, it just turns into a mess as a viewer because you have to remember how/when/where everyone met before. It’s like watching a livestream of a very tense high school reunion.

All that being said, some shit went DOWN tonight, so let’s go!

First of all, we get a new location on the map in the beginning, Eastwatch! If you’ll recall this is the place where Gingerbae (my fave wildling and #2 crush after Bae- Jon Snow) went to guard the wall at the behest of Bae a few eps ago.

Our first scene takes place right after last week’s epic dragon battle...

We learn that Jaime and Bronn are both still alive and we have to watch Jaime spit up seawater and I’m like who do you think you are, Euron Greyjoy?!? (lol that joke only works if you watched last season, sorry). Bronn is like dude, do you have a death wish? And Jaime is like kind of… cuz my sis Queen Pixie Cut (QPC) is a “shoot the messenger” type and now I have to tell her about all this dragon business.

Speaking of, we get some more hot-dragon-action (and I meant hot as in temp-wise, not sexual...yet...wait til Bae gets his fingers on a dragon). Tyrion is looking around at all the hell Khaleesi hath wrought and seems pretty sad about it. Remember he is a Lannister, so a lot of people who got burnt up were his home-bois.

He walks over to Khaleesi who has rounded up the surviving Lannisters and is looking FLY  AS HELL post-battle scene. Seriously, who does her hair? Probs a Dothraki cuz #goodatbraids. Khaleesi tells all the captured soldiers to kneel before her and declare loyalty to her or get killed. Sams mean dad (SMD) and Sam’s Bro Dickon (SBD) refuse to kneel because they’re #tooproudtobeg and Khaleesi is like, srsly guys? But they are truly #tooproud, so they both get burned up by the dragon, per Khaleesi’s orders. All of this is very not cool with Tyrion and he makes that pretty clear.

Next, we pop over to King’s Landing where Jaime is about to drop some #truth on QPC…

He tells her things are not looking so hot (or are they looking VERY HOT? Get it? Cuz dragons...sorry I’ll stop now) and that the Dothrakis (Khaleesi’s horse people) and dragons will kill them all. QPC suggests they hire mercenaries but Jaime is not feeling it. Then Jaime drops truth bomb #2 and tells QPC that he recently got the scoop that Grandma Tyrell admitted to killing their son Joffrey. See QPC was CONVINCED that Tyrion killed Joffrey which is what eventually led T to flock to #teamkhaleesi. Jaime is maybe able to convince her of this fact and that they might have to surrender to Khaleesi. She’s basically like well, damned if you do, damned if you don’t, ya know? The theme of this scene is TROUBLE IN PARADISE.

Now to the Bae-on-dragon action I promised…

Bae is waiting at the arrivals gate for Khaleesi and #1 dragon like a sad little chauffeur when Mr. Dragon lands right on his toes. Rather than giving Mr. Dragon a wide berth, he walks right up to him and TOUCHES HIS NOSE like he’s friggin’ Moana (Moana fans where you at?) Mr. D is like about to bite at first but then he’s like, naw, you’re cool. Probably because Bae is secretly a Targaryen and they’re all about dragons. Bae asks Khaleesi about her business trip and she’s like I TCOB’ed if that’s what you mean and says “sometimes strength is terrible” but that as leaders, they have to be strong.

Khaleesi then starts to ask Bae about the knife-in-the-heart comment that No-Knuckles (NK) made a few weeks ago and before Bae has to uncomfortably describe his weird Lazarus-situation to her, Stoney shows up, fresh off being cured of his stone disease by none other than Bae’s bestie Sam. The artist formerly known as Stoney (but let’s just keep calling him Stoney for now) is like will you still have me, Khaleesi? And she’s like DOI, OF COORS. And Bae is like oh I knew your dad he was a kewl dude he gave me this sword.

We get a brief interlude with everyone’s fave sooth-sayer, Brandon Stark! He hops into the eyeballs of some birds who fly North to get an update on the ice-zombie-army. As we all suspected, the ice zombies are CLOSER THAN EVER and headed to Eastwatch. This should not be a surprise because every time we check on them they’re just walking further South and unlike humans do not need to stop to eat or pee or get their hair intricately braided.

We pop into Oldtown, where Sam hears about Bran’s report. He tells all the other Maesters that they should listen to him but they, as always, are like naw this shit can’t be real. Also Maester-Jim-Broadbent is like BTW, Sam’s dad and bro just got burnt up but don’t say anything to him.

Back to Dragonstone…

Where  Tyrion and sleevey recap sam's dad and bro getting killed and agree that it was not cool, bro. Sleevey helpfully recalls a time when Khaleesi’s dad was always burning people alive. Sleevey reveals that Bae got a letter in the mail and yes, he did read it which is a FEDERAL OFFENSE, SLEEVEY! You can’t afford to go to prison!

Bae gets his hands on the letter from his bro Bran and learns A LOT. A. Bran is alive. B. Arya is alive. And C. The Night-King (leader of the ice zombies) is coming to Eastwatch. Again, this should be a surprise to no one. He talks things through with Khaleesi and co. to devise a plan and everyone has something to contribute, you guys! Here’s the plan

Tyrion will talk to his bro to try to convince him that ice zombies are real, who will then convince QPC.

NK will use his smugglin’ skills to smuggle T into King’s Landing (at this point it should really be Queen’s landing, right?)

Bae will head up north and capture an ice zombie to bring to everyone for proof. Stoney will use his battling skills to help with this.

Khaleesi is not about to let Bae go, though, probs cuz she wants more hot cave-action. But Bae is like sorry G2G!

Back in Winterfell and trouble is afoot!

Sansa is sitting at her in-charge-table and all the “Northern Lords” (although everyone’s fave 11-year-old-kween is nowhere to be seen) are still griping about Bae being down South with Khaleesi. Sansa doesn’t accept their offer to basically put her in charge, but she doesn’t defend Bae too much either. Arya, who was always besties with Bae when they were all kiddos, is not ok with that. She calls her out on it and notices that Sansa is staying in their mom and dad’s old room. She’s like ummm… you always liked nice things. Which is such a classic Winterfell-burn.

They chat and learn that they have very different views on uniting people and consolidating power. Arya is little more murder-y but Sansa is a little more scheme-y. Which better? IDK I haven’t read “The Art of War.” Basically, Arya knows that Sansa is still a bit power-hungry and calls her out on it. But I did read “Lean In” and I’m like, is that so bad?

Later, we pop back into King’s Landing where Arya is tailing Littlefinger cuz #shedontlikethelooksofthisguy, He’s being shady, as always, handing out poision, scheming with the Northern Lords, and then she sees the Maester give LF a piece of paper and she’s like oooohh I gotta get my hands on that. LF hides the paper in his room but, bitch, didn’t you know Arya is a trained assassin from the face-swapping-cult now?

She finds the paper which looks like this letter that Sansa wrote back in Season 1 when she was being forced by QPC. It’s basically her asking #teamStark to swear loyalty to Joffrey, all of which is irrelevant because most of Team Stark, along with Joffrey, is dead. Then we see LF behind the scenes looking all satisfied. Why you may ask? Well it seems like LF is trying to drive a wedge between the sisters by making Arya distrust Sansa even more. IDK I don’t condone violence but I really just want someone to stab LF.

Back to team Khaleesi, Tyrion and NK roll up on Queen’s Landing…

Tyrion reminds us all that the last time he was here, he killed his dad. NK is like well the last time I was here, you killed my son! You’d think there would be some sort of resolution with that but nope, NK was just throwing it out there! Tyrion heads off to see his bro and NK heads off on a secret mission that IS VERY CUTE, just wait and see.

Bronn sets up a meeting between Tyrion and Jaime, who haven’t seen each other since Jaime saved Tyrion from getting killed (per QPC and their dad’s orders). T proceeded to shoot their dad to death on the toilet, so Jaime is understandably a little peeved. Tyrion explains why he came and asks if Jaime could ask QPC if she might possibly be into checking out an ice zombie if they can get one. Jaime is still peeved but considers this helpful offer.

Meanwhile, we get a reunion of 2 of our faves, NK and Gendry!!!! So non-GoT-watchers, Gendry is this dude who is secretly the son of Robert Baratheon, QPC’s ex-hubby and the former king. Only a few ppl knew this, and to protect him from QPC, he got sent North to the wall with Arya. He and Arya developed a cute lil’ friendship and then he met up with some Lord-of-Light (LOL) worshippers, the same ones who the Hound (remember from ep 1 of this season) is now traveling with. Then the red witch lady came and took him to Stannis to have leeches eat his blood but before the red witch could kill him, NK set him free and sent him on a rowboat back to King’s Landing. So here we are…

They reunite and it’s adorbs, since Gendry is like thanks for saving my life, you were right I ended up being safe here. And NK is like oh good, so I have a favor to ask, will you come with us? It’s for- and before he can finish Gendry is like NP my bags are packed let’s go. And NK is like do you want more info...or… and Gendry is like nope this place is the pits, let’s go, lemme get my hammer. And I AM FEELING THIS HAMMER y’all, Gendry is basically Thor of GoT now. And he shall henceforth be known as New-Thor.

NK and New-Thor head to the boat to leave Queen’s Landing and encounter some guards who aren’t gonna let them off that easy. Just when they bribe their way out of there, Tyrion shows up and the guards are like...you look familiar? So New-Thor kindly uses his hammer and demolishes those dudes, leaving T and NK both stunned and impressed.

While we’re still at Queen’s Landing, we see Jaime knocking on QPC’s door, but she’s busy with Maester Qyburn, having some deep discussion. We also learn Qyburn is the hand-of-the-queen (did we know this before? It was news to me). Jaime is like what we’re y’all talking about, and QPC is like I’m sorry, HIPAA, I can’t tell you. Then she tells him that she knows he met with Tyrion and that he should punish Bronn for setting that up. She also hints that she’s willing to do a collab with Khaleesi but then she’s like “we will defeat whatever stands in our way” which doesn’t sound very collab-y to me.

Then, in a major reversal, SHE DROPS A TRUTH BOMB ON HIM and tells him she’s PREGNANT and the baby is HIS. He is shook but also very happy because he loves her a lot. He’s like who you gonna say knocked you up? And she’s like it’s 2017, bitch, I’ll say it was my twin bro cuz #hatersgonnahate. Do we believe she is really preggo? I do not. Classic desperation move when you see your man starting to slip away. But nonetheless he is happy about it so there’s that.

Next, we head back to Dragonstone...

Where Bae meets New-Thor in Bae’s fave place, a cave! They reminisce about how their dads were friends and New-Thor calls out Bae on being a little shorty-pie. We think Bae is gonna be like “ah hell naw” but instead he’s like LOL you’re right bro. New-Thor offers to head North with Bae to kill some ice-zombies with his hammer. NK is a little peeved because he told New-Thor not to tell anyone who his dad was and not to get himself into trouble. NK’s like well don’t mind me, I only lived to be an old man so what do I know about surviving? It’s a very cute scene and it all plays out like a dad playfully chastising his sons for picking a college that’s too far away.

On the shore we get some goodbyes. Tyrion and Khaleesi both say goodbye to Stoney and Khaleesi is especially sappy about it. Then she says goodbye to Bae, who is busy loading up his boats with zombie-killing-rocks from the caves. She’s like, so…I’ll call you next week? And Bae’s like umm….maybe? But you know they’re both fighting the urge to pop into a cave for a quick makeout sesh.

Next, we see Sam and Gilly in Oldtown reading books…

Gilly happens upon the MOST IMPORTANT INFO EVER in a book, which Sam, in a very-un-Sam-like way, completely ignores. It’s infuriating. Basically she finds out that Bae’s real parents, Rhaegar Targaryen (Khaleesi’s bro) and Lyanna Stark (Daddy Stark’s sis) were legit married when she had Bae, which means he is the ONE-TRUE-HEIR to the iron throne or whatevs. Sam, however, is too peeved about the Maesters not listening to him (or Bran for that matter) and gathers up some of the best books in the library (and he is in for the late fee OF A CENTURY cuz you know he won’t return ‘em) and heads out of there.  It’s a frustrating scene. I just..can’t...

Finally, we make it to Eastwatch...

Where we get to check in with Gingerbae my #2 boo. Bae tells him the plan to trap the ice zombie and bring it back as proof and Gingerbae is like you are cuckoo. NK is there to confirm that yes, Bae is cuckoo, and no, he’s not going North with them. But on the docket we do have New-Thor with his hammer and Stoney with his un-stoned-hands and arms to help! Gingerbae is like well I know some other dudes who want to get up there...cut to…

The Hound and his LOL-ers Eyepatch and Gingerbun (am I the only one who finds Gingerbun kind of attractive?) are in Eastwatch-prison, doing a very poor version of Cellblock Tango from Chicago, the musical. This is the scene where the whole-don’t-I-know-you-from-somewhere gets really messy. No need to dive into all of it, the point is, these people have HISTORY with eachother. But Bae reminds them that since they’re all humans and not zombies, they’re on the same side. So they head out into the deep, cold, winter to trap and ice zombie. And we’re left there.

Let’s recap:

Biggest surprise this ep: QPC IS PREGNANT?!?!?!

Biggest letdown: Seriously Sam. You could not listen to the most important news ever because you were distracted?

Important fashion moments: Khaleesi lookin’ so fly fresh out of battle, Sansa is really rocking those fitted armor gowns

Who died this ep? Sam’s Bro Dickon (RIP) and Sam’s Mean Dad 

Thanks for reading! Tell your friends and subscribe!? 

[priparaplayer]

i☆Ris, King Of Prism, and some really good Ramen

Sup. This is my report on this weekend. It was pretty cool.

Huh? You want more than that? Okay

This was my birthday weekend. Coincidentally, Pride the Hero was coming out. And there was an  i☆Ris concert an hour away. And those were on my actual birthday. The initial plan was to see Pride the Hero in the morning before the  i☆Ris concert (and obviously go to both sections. It was my birthday, after all). However, when I saw the 5.5 hours (!!!!!!!!!!!) Pride the Hero midnight showing I knew I had to go.

So, Friday I had the most incredible King Of Prism/Pretty Rhythm experience. Saturday I saw i☆Ris again. Sunday I planned to go to Akiba to play some DFC and go to a cheering section that night. 

In this post, I’m gonna start by talking about fighting games because it’s short. Then I’ll talk about  i☆Ris. I’ll finish with KoP. That way the KoP spoilers will be below everything else.

EDIT: This came out way longer than I thought it would. My b. If any of you actually read this whole thing, ty <3 I really appreciate that you care enough to do that <3

After going out two days in a row I decided to skip going to Akiba and just stay home until the cheering section. I ended up playing Xrd netplay with my American friends. I’m not a huge fan of Xrd (See me in +R though), and the connection with America on my trash LeoPalace wifi was pretty bad, but it was still fun to play my friends and talk to them on voice chat. I’m playing on my keyboard, which kinda sucks. It feels okay though because it’s buckling spring. I was planning to build a stick after my next paycheck, but I also want to buy a ton of PriPara and KoP and i☆Ris merch, so that might have to wait lol. Priorities.

i☆Ris  was amazing, as usual. Before coming to Japan I’d seen all their concerts on blu-ray. Seeing them live on April 9th (right when I got to Japan) was the most magical experience. This time was pretty different, because I’d already seen them once, and I’d been practising the calls with the blu-rays. This meant I was focused on them a lot rather than on actually watching and enjoying the performance. Fortunately I fixed this in the second performance.

I left early enough to play a couple of games of PriPara at the station and then get to the concert an hour early to pick up some merchandise. Didn’t get anything cool when playing PriPara. Still need Yume rare accessory and shoes... And the onepiece for the June bride coord... So I can do pair play with me and Laala wearing it...

Unfortunately, there were a ton of delays on the Yokohama line (apparently due to signal inspection?) and rather than arriving an hour early, I arrived two minutes late and came in just after the start of the first song. Fortunately my seat was in the back row of the first floor so I didn’t have to make anyone move to get in it. Just jumped over the back. Unfortunately I couldn’t pick up any merchandise before the first showing, but I already had most of what I wanted from the April 9th show. I never took photos of it back then, so here you go

After the noon showing I picked up the other stuff I wanted. Got the pamphlet (I was curious what it was about)

It wasn’t really that interesting though. It had various photos of them, and talked more about the photo shoots. It also had short interviews. The fan club magazine was a lot more interesting and also had some photos from the photo shoot for the pamphlet. Overall not worth getting the pamphlet. Fan club magazine is pictured below because I wanted to take a picture of it.

The main thing was about a foreign fan named Julian meeting them (idk if he was actually a fan, but it said he was). All that really did was make me super duper jealous of him. Does he have any idea how much many I’ve spent on Skyping with Himi? And he just gets to hang out with them? Granted, I “justified” it by saying it was my way to practice Japanese with a Japanese speaker. But we all know that isn’t why I was doing it.

I also picked up a Himi B2 Tapestry (they didn’t have these at the performance in April)

None of you are probably aware of this, because I don’t really talk about it much, but I think Himi has the most beautiful singing voice I’ve ever heard. Ever. And I’ll probably never stop believing that. (She’s also incredibly beautiful, which is nice too). I mean her actual voice btw, not her Laala voice (although I do also enjoy her Laala voice).

In between shoes I wanted to play PriPara, but couldn’t find any machines in walking distance. I used this time to read the pamphlet and then play Golden Sun (yay Japanese practice). Overheard some guys talking about how they haven’t seen someone using a Gameboy Advance in ages lol. Glad I’m positively influencing the Japanese. Eavesdropping is also really good practice... as long as you’re not eavesdropping on Menardi and Saturos...

Both performances started and ended the same way. Got their usual songs, and got a few different ones than in April. I hurt my leg in one of the jumps during Make It. Oops. But it was all super incredible. I can’t believe how amazing iRis is.

The lunch section had small ensemble performances. They did a lot of covers I really enjoy (e.g. 1000% sparking), and also performed some of their regular songs in the ensembles. It was all super great.

The evening section had solo peformances. Some of these were the same as April (Himi doing her polka dots song and Yuu doing Voice for You), but the rest were different. Saki wore the same dress as in April, and it still looked incredible on her.

After the performances was the encore. It was the same both times. They did the standard hachamecha strike. Also had the new song Saki, Yuuki, and Azuki are doing together (title TBD). Saki put on her Sion voice and made a joke about them being Dressing Pafe. The song was pretty entertaining though.

Overall, it was an amazing experience. I’m glad I went to see them again, and glad I went to both showings. Definitely glad they were so close by. Although let’s be real here, I’d probably travel pretty far to see them on my birthday if I needed to.

KING OF PRISM

PRIDE THE HERO

LOTS OF SPOILERS BELOW

PROBABLY

I HAVEN’T WRITTEN THEM YET SO CAN’T CONFIRM 100%

BUT PROBABLY

I took some photos of the theatre on the day, but took some better ones when I went back tonight. Here you go.

Some of you might remember I came across a stupidly good 90% off sale on King of Prism goods in Akiba in May. Although there wasn’t any Alec stuff, so I just picked up a Kazuki bowtie. Obviously I wore it to both showings I went to. Here it is, pictured on my shirt.

There’s an arcade right next to the theatre,so I had time to play PriPara and Dream Festival before the Friday showing and after the Sunday showing. I think I’ve mentioned this a few times, but wow, I really love the Dream Festival music. Wow.

Anyway, a bit about me. To provide some context. I love PriPara. So so so much. Although you probably know that already. I got into PriPara because I liked idols and loved purple, and saw it was an idol anime where the main character had purple hair. Also my friends from the anime fgc told me they were enjoying it a lot. I downloaded it and started watching on the bus to AGDQ. I watched episode 1, and was completely hooked after episode 2. I had planned to sleep on the overnight bus ride, but that didn’t happen. And I haven’t looked back since. Also my friend Puncay won the Super Mario 64 race that year (I think it was that year anyway) and we played DFC together. Good times.

After getting hooked on PriPara, I wanted to learn more about Pretty Rhythm so watched King of Prism. I’ve always been a fan of male idols. Part of this is because I love male singing voices, and part of this is because I had two dreams growing up. One was to be a video game programmer in Japan, and one was to be a male idol. I suppose it’s obvious right now which one of these I ended up pursuing, and which one I ultimately gave up on. But when I was younger I really thought it would be the other way around. I joined the dance club in primary and middle school (I was the only guy). At my high school music was required for the academically accelerated classes, so I ended up doing band instead of dance. I learned to play the Euphonium (which I think I got pretty good at), French Horn, Flute, and obviously learned some singing (can’t be an idol without singing after all). Anyway, a part of seeing King of Prism definitely lets me fulfill this childhood dream. After watching and loving it (especially the EZ DO DANCE battle), I watched Rainbow Live, which was also really good. To this date I’ve only seen a few eps of Aurora Dream and haven’t seen Dear My Future, so there’s probably context stuff I’m missing out on because of that. Really need to fix that some day. Some day soon.

So back to KOP. I’m so glad I watched Rainbow Live after watching the first KoP movie. Because wow, this was a real sequel. Full out. And it nailed it in almost every way.

Getting to see rainbow live again was fun. But wow, it felt weird to go through it that fast lol. 3 hours and suddenly we’re at the last episode. It was great to see Prizmmy again. Although have you seen them these days? Mia looks so beautiful now that she’s grown up. I made an Instagram account just to follow her. I’ll probably never follow anyone else (unless Himi makes an Instagram).

I don’t really need to spend a lot of time on Rainbow Live. It’s Rainbow Live. It’s great. Watch it. I didn’t know I needed to see it in a theatre on blu-ray, but now that I’ve seen that I know there was a part of me that always needed to.

I felt more invested in the Pretty Rhythm characters during KOP than I did when I went to see it on June 6th. I guess that’s because it was so fresh. Not much to say. It’s KOP. It’s also great. Watch it. EZ DO DANCE!

Back to KOP. Thoughts aren’t really gonna be in order they appeared during the movie and more in the order I think of them.

During the cheering section I was careful to not show my bias at all. And by that I mean my second cyalume was only set to purple and I pulled it out of my bag every time Alec showed up. What bias? I don’t see any.

I bought my seat online and picked row H. I ended up being with no one in front of me in the cheering section lol. This sucked, because I wasn’t confident what colours to use for the new characters. Everyone else in the audience had clearly been to a few of the cheering shows already, and they were far more organised than I expected. There were a couple other guys, so i wasn’t alone in that regard. Although obviously no foreigners. A lot more guys at the midnight showing. Anyway, i need to remember that A is the back row. Instead of the front row. I don’t know how that makes sense.

The movie started with pride. It was incredible.

Actually it started with a short drama with Kakeru and Shin. It was entertaining enough, but I don’t really remember what it was about lol. Guess it wasn’t that memorable. Apparently other locations got other dramas.

We saw the new Scwartz Rose boys. Honestly they’re pretty forgettable and only one of them does anything. Oh well.

There’s a lot more stuff, straight from the start, with Rainbow Live characters like Rei. Also Ito shows up and gets a line later on. And she has the most amazing ponytail. It’s so pretty. I wish I could have a ponytail like that.

Kouji is apparently making songs for Scwartz Rose. Hiro heads off to talk to Kouji. Definitely didn’t expect them to reunite so soon into the movie. There’s some super duper amazing English here. I was able to hold myself back the first time. But I chuckled a lot during the second viewing. I’m honestly amazed I managed to keep it to a chuckle, and next time is probably gonna be full out laughter. I just don’t think I can hold myself back a third time.

Shin gets a letter. And they’re like “woah, it could be a love letter. from a boy. watch out for those”. Anyway, Shin goes to meet up with Louis and they do Crazy Gonna Crazy. By now I’m sure you all know that they kiss in this scene. So yeah, I think it’s fairly safe to assume that letter was a love letter.

Crazy Gonna Crazy was like the montage scene of this movie. It had a dance battle going on and some other stuff. So I assume the next King of Prism movie will have Butterfly Effect for the montage performance?

Jin comes to take June and for some reason she goes with him? I don’t think they explained why. Hijiri seems heartbroken. Me too. JUNE </3 </3 </3 During the cheering section I tried to reach out for her like him. I’ll practice it more for next time so I can do it justice.

Kazuki went to King of Prism Fight Club. And bodied everyone. Then trained under a waterfall. What a hero. FREEDOM.

Did I mention Shin and Louis kissed?

There’s a lot of rough stuff that happens and Hiro gets super depressed. His mother talks to him about his father a bit but says she can’t say more... huh? future plot point confirmed? She manages to pull him out of his depression (and he gets some help from a honey apple curry... with a nice shot of Kouji’s butt)

Eventually everyone gets their training done, and we also see Rei Wakana and Ann looking on and cheering for Kazuki under the waterfall. Did he know they were there? I wonder if he could even hear them over the waterfall. lol. Waterfall hype.

Then we get to the cup. The new Schwarz Rose dude does a song, but it barely focuses on it. rip him.

Then ALEC SHOWS UP. AND I WAVE MY PURPLE CYALUMES. the second time. The first time I’m like “I really want this to be EZ DO DANCE... but I also want it to be a new Alec solo... but I really want EZ DO DANCE....” Anyway, it was EZ DO DANCE!!!! YES!!!!! NOW KARAOKE MACHINES HAVE ANOTHER VERSION OF THIS SONG!!!!!!!!

Anyway, Alec was terrifying. In the most incredible way. Like wow. He scared everyone in the audience in the movie, and did a good job making me scared too. Then he starts using his incredible six pack to bomb the stadium (what a six pack). He’s destroying the whole thing. Kazuki looks like he’s about to give us the dance battle we’ve all been waiting for, but Taiga jumps in! I was really hoping this would be close but with Alec’s victory, leading to him and Kazuki battling to a new song. Instead it ended in a draw. I felt bad for Alec. But you know what? Alec, you were blowing up the whole stadium. And scaring everyone. Those are pretty bad things to do. You don’t deserve to win acting that way.

Anyway, they’re going to have to end the cup there (because no stage or anything lol). But Kazuki steps in to save the day, and his performance repairs the entire stadium. FREEEEEEEEEEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!! He gets disqualified. I didn’t catch why. They used some Japanese word I didn’t know. Next time I’ll write it down so I can look it up. Alec shouts out “What!” really loudly after hearing about the disqualification. Note to self: There’s time to shout this right after him. Do it next time.

The stage is fixed. Shin does a performance.It’s really good. Before this everyone in Edel Rose puts there hands together. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. There’s room to shout 8 right after this, so we all did it. Cheering sections really are the best.

Louis wears the most incredible dress. Wow. I wish I could wear that dress. It looks so beautiful. There’s apparently some crazy back story between Shin and Louis. Shin had super cool long hair, and Louis is pretty much confirmed to be a Prism Messenger (I don’t think they specify it’s Louis in this flashback, but I’d bet on it being him).

Then everyone cheers Glorious Schwarz. Including us. GLORIOUS SCHWARZ!!!

Hiro comes out and reveals his magical power to change all cyalumes by snapping his fingers. Then halfway through the song he turns everything into gold, including the cyalumes (don’t forget to change yours at this point!). Oh, yeah, he performed Pride. And made Kazuki and Kouji holograms appear. He didn’t need projectors or anything. Get outplayed Non. But I guess this means Kami Idol Non could do a Triangle performance with no projectors. That would be hype. Anyway, Hiro’s performance is super good, and he becomes King. The issue with him not being able to use Pride gets settled during the performance. It’s implied Kakeru took care of this when he was doing money stuff earlier. Maybe some sort of deal that was part of using his watches?

June leaves Jin and goes back to Hijiri! JUNE <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

And Hiro gets crowned King. He hugs it out with Kouji and Kazuki (I really thought they were going to perform here). Then he shouts “I am the King of Prism” and we go to credits.

The credits song was great... but I’m sitting here like “Wow.. they teased us like that... Over the Rainbow shows up and they didn’t even perform... If this was a cheering section I’d be shouting encore right now...”

Anyway, credits song ends and suddenly we go back to a stage with the audience shouting “Encore”. And Over the Rainbow shows up and gives us what we’ve all been waiting for. During their Prism Jump they kiss girls who look very similar to characters from Rainbow Live. Kouji even calls his girl Cross... huh... must be coincidence. Like the first movie, there are lines you can shout out. After the first showing, I really thought my favourite scene was either the EZ DO DANCE battle (ALEC!!!!) or the Crazy Gonna Grazy performance. But once I shouted out the lines, I suddenly could vividly imagine myself kissing Kazuki and it felt almost like the real thing. So yeah. No scene is going to top my imagination giving me that experience. Sorry other scenes.

After the movie we got film strips. Here’s mine.

We also got to buy pamphlets

There’s a ton of KOP merchandise at the theatre now. Definitely gonna pick some of it up next time I go back. Which will hopefully be when I don’t have a cold. Although I have a job where I work with a billion different little kids every day. I pretty much always have a cold. Given that I want this (and I need to get that May Laala pillow from Prism Stone), I think I’ll have to pass on building a fight stick next month lol. Then there’s the Kazuki daki, which I’d seen at Prism Stone plenty of times but hadn’t bought because it wasn’t Alec. That kiss with him changed my mind though. I need it. Too much money from that paycheck already committed to being an idol fan. Oh, and if I get tickets to the iRis fifth anniversary live I’ll want to buy stuff there. Wish me luck in the second lottery.

Anyway, the movie blew me away. It was so good. Movie of the century for sure. Yes I know we still have like 80 years to go. I’m calling it now. The next 80 years are downhill. Unless the next King of Prism movie tops this. Oh yeah, there was a thing at the end that said “End of youth forever”. So I assume that means we’re done with over the rainbow? Or maybe just their youth? Next movie might be more about Shin/Louis, or it might be a more grown up thing about Over the Rainbow and the Rainbow Live cast? No matter what I’m super excited.

Well, there’s all that Shin backstory. So they’re definitely gonna go into more detail about that.

Can they please do something about the pacing though? Like, this movie was so fast. It probably could have been 2-3 hours long. And no one’s gonna complain about the movie being that long lol.

I know this is kinda insignificant, but it feels really cool that I can understand almost all of this movie. Years of Japanese study paying off. I’m pretty proud of myself atm.

There’s a super delicious ramen place 2 minutes away from my apartment that’s open until 3am. My apartment is about 30 minutes from the theatre, and I was super hungry after the movie, so I stopped by there around around 2am.  Last time I went around 9 and had to wait in line 50 minutes, but it seems like there’s no line at 2am. Treated myself to their super fancy miso char siu ramen. And got a noodle refill. But wow it was so good. Great birthday meal.

Also, it was super cool that after the Rainbow Live marathon and first KoP movie I turned 24. Right in time for Pride the Hero. Best Birthday Ever.

PRIDE THE HERO