#or would they just cut her entirely and give her important moments to other characters

[glaciacherry]

the weather is hot, i'm tired and I need pour out my thoughts cuz they keep rattling around in my head lol

warning: spoilers, negative opinions, ramblings that may or may not make sense

I first came across the movie through seeing a couple clips on youtube with the bird and tiger, and my initial impressions were honestly kinda iffy, tbh i've gotten a bit of a sixth sense from over the years and can usually tell if i'm gonna vibe with a piece of media or not.

But after listening to a couple of the songs and seeing some pretty cool fanart I decided to at least give a try.

The art and animation is fun and colourful, it uses a lot of very zany animesque expressions which can be fun for the most part, but there are a couple times were it can come across as bit much and weird in an off-putting way in certain scenes. The animation is that choppy style like spiderverse which is fun.

The music is nice if kinda forgettable, although I have a pretty bad memory so my standards of a song being memorable are gonna be a lot higher than most, Golden and Soda Pop are my faves.

The comedy is pretty hit or miss, some funny moments here and there, but other moments just aren't my cup of tea. Some times it can feel kinda whiplashy, jumping between serious and comedic moments.

The characters are kinda underwhelming for the most part, the main girls at least have recognisable personalities.

Zoey who is probably my fave of the main trio, Huntrix, is the bubbly silly one, who we're told is a people pleaser? but never really shown that, she does some mediating between Mira and Rumi, when the Huntrix see the Saja Boys performing she is the one to suggest they seem nice which seems to suggest she's the most open-minded but that goes nowhere.

Mira is bad girl type of character, quick tempered and the most battle hungry, one notable scene is when Rumi says that don't have time for Mira's insecurities which feels like it comes out nowhere? self-projection maybe? Idk I thought that moment was weird.

Rumi is a workaholic? I guess? and is stressed.

We also know that Rumi is part demon, like from birth I'm assuming or maybe Rumi's mother made some sort of deal? did her mother fall in love with a demon? how did her mother die?

If we look at the end the movie is giving this sort of accept your flaws and don't hide who you are message, like Inside Out type of message were your negative emotions like anger and sadness are important too and having a healthy balance of emotions is important, only Inside Out actually handled that message well where KPDH just feels like a thrown together mess with serious lack of build up.

Jinu is kinda interesting, starts of with manipulation but over time starts to develop some actual feelings, he's definitely wracked with guilt and trauma and with Gwi-Ma breathing down his neck he is convinced himself he's nothing but an evil demon and that's it, no hope of redeeming himself, but there is hope and does prove himself by the end by sacrificing himself, which tbh the whole redemption via life sacrifice is not a trope I honestly vibe with that much, like it depends, I think this instance is more or less fine I guess idk not entirely sure how I feel about it.

Also like I've seen some people making the arguments that he's pure evil and doesn't deserve a redemption which just no, redemption isn't about whether about someone deserves it, it's about owning up to wrong doings and becoming a better person.

like some stories/characters are perfect with pure evil characters while work better with redemptions or morally complexity, it just depends on what the writers want out of the story.

the whole this character did this or that so they don't deserve redemption is just whole load of hogwash to me.

Also tbh Rumi and Jinu relationship felt underwhelming and just kinda meh.

Aside from Jinu, none of the other Saja Boys feel like actual characters and more so feel like props, tbh I feel like if they had been cut from the movie nothing would be much different, they have nice designs but that's it, feels like they solely exist for the purpose of a cheap joke and eye candy.

Bobby, the Huntrix's manager is there I guess? honestly I think I would have been better if Celine was their manager, that way there could have been more build up and scenes between the girls. What if Celine was the sort of toxic manager and this could have added more weight to Rumi's rant when she was having her demonic crash out.

Bobby could have popped up through the movie a couple times helping the girls and at the end of the movie be their new manger, I feel that would have been a nicer idea, oh well hey-ho, maybe it's an idea I could use for a fic.

Also it felt like they were hinting at a plotline of Bobby feeling neglected and ignored by the girls throughout the movie which again goes nowhere, just kinda weird.

Maybe the fault lies in time constraint? cuz a lot of moments especially towards the end of the movie just sorta happen without flow or a proper reason that gets shown, like Rumi going from super angry at Celine and going all demony to immediately going back and fighting against the demons and she and Mira and Zoey saving the day without any real issue or struggle it just sorta happens, with Jinu sacrificing himself and getting into a sword because why not and sealing all the other demons away which just feels weird cuz like the movies brings up the idea that hey maybe not all demons are bad, then when the only one that gets redeemed by killing themselves is dead they just put barrier back and that's it.

Also what's the deal with the bird and tiger? are they demons? do they have sapience? we see them at the end of the movie, like what's there deal?

honestly there is just too many unanswered questions.

messy, weird, rewatching it I like it a bit more than my first viewing, but I still have several issues.

TLDR: It's an ok movie, maybe two or three out five stars depending if the type of comedy used is your thing, the art and animation is nice, the music is decent though mostly forgettable, the story writing feels rushed and messy in places, a lot of the characters feel underdeveloped and underutilised.

If you wanna watch something with a similar type of plot I'd either recommend something like Sailor Moon or some of the Precure seasons cuz they do the whole big bad using underlings to steal power and attempt takeover, and of the seasons I have seen there is a nice mix evil and morally complex villains with really nice writing.

Or MLP: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks, for the whole battle of the band thing and also having energy stealing takeover plot.

I've been writing this when I probably should be alseep so if any of this doesn't make sense... whoops I guess?

[julietcpulet]

The hair stick: anime vs light novel.

So I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed at how I think the anime left out some of the subtlety with the hair stick. I get that a lot of how we’re able to interpret what Maomao actually feels vs how she comes across is either in her internal monologue or in her actions, things the anime can’t always capture given the limits of time. She’s a character that often has to be interpreted, not taken at face value. In regard to Jinshi’s hair stick the light novel gives the impression that Maomao is more possessive over it than first anticipated. Although she feigns disinterest she won’t give it to Shisui and it’s the only personal possession left to her.

“Someone gave it to me,” she replied. Given to her without much ceremony true enough, still. “What if I asked you to give it to me? Would you do it?” After a moment’s pause, Maomao said carefully, “I’m afraid not.”

The anime, however, chose to go with a more direct approach that did make it seem as if Maomao has little care for the object and is merely keeping it out of fear from reprisal by Jinshi which isn’t how she actually sees the situation. (Spoilers under the cut)

In the novel, her saying that Jinshi will just find a way to bring the stick back to her because of his persistence is just dancing around that she doesn’t actually want to give it away. It’s also a hint at how well Jinshi knows her, unlike others.

But Jinshi was oddly skilled at reading Maomao’s expressions. Partly because they’d now known each other for a fair amount of time, true, but even by that standard he was quite sensitive to slight changes in her face.

There’s also the small matter of the anime having Shisui retrieve the stick from next to the bed vs the novel having had Maomao place it next to her pillow. Yes, these are small details but overall important. Especially when she gives the stick to Shisui in their final moment together. That’s when it becomes clear it has more significance.

This particular hair stick was plain, yet of uncommonly fine make. The one who had given it to her could be especially obstinate, so there was every possibility that just like its original owner, it would somehow manage to find its way back to her.

We realize that Maomao’s appearing fixation on Jinshi’s obstinance and the hair stick could be linked to her subconscious hope that by having it he would come find her, which he did, although entirely unrelated to the object. It’s her way of wishing for something she couldn’t voice out loud, which was to be rescued. She also uses it as a prayer for her friend, saying that like Jinshi had found his way to her, if she gives Shisui the hair stick maybe they’ll see one another again. But with the anime giving the impression the stick is merely an annoyance, I feel that any greater meaning is lost. Unfortunately I get how it can be difficult to get some of this across in the anime but given how much more there is left of season 2 and even deeper nuance coming up between characters, it does worry me a bit if they’re going to start leaving things surface level. Especially because some fans want to see Maomao in a light that casts her as having little attachment to Jinshi and lacking emotion which isn’t true. If the anime always plays up the joke of their dynamic being him as overzealous and her seeming so put off, as that is the outward appearance, then we’ll never get to see the payoff of all the layers underneath.

[asidian]

Something this show does incredibly well are the little moments Charles and Edwin share, without words, that sell the idea that they've been each other's Most Important Person for thirty years.

This little section of a scene takes all of probably six seconds.

Crystal has just taken her memories and is ready to rush off to London alone to sort out her issues. And what does she do? She digs up Edwin's attitude from early in the series, from before he knew or particularly liked her, and throws his words back at them.

And then it cuts to the boys, and they get this stunning little exchange that happens without a single word spoken.

Charles just gives Edwin this look. Like: there. You see? That's come back to bite us, hasn't it.

And Edwin gives him a smile, and a little nod, like: I'm leaving this to you, please take care of it.

And then he just turns and goes.

It is an absolutely brilliant moment, honestly. You can see how often they've done some version of this before – how often Edwin's abrasive attitude toward people he doesn't know very well has earned him exactly that look from Charles to remind him that his bedside manner could use work.

And there's something so incredibly familiar about the whole exchange. These characters are very aware of each other's strengths and weaknesses. They have grown to work and live together so seamlessly that they understand how and when to compensate for things their partner isn't as adept at handling. They both know that Charles has the better emotional intuition in this partnership; they both know it's his charisma that smooths the way with clients, because he's been doing it for thirty years.

It's such a tiny aside, but it packs so much into those couple of seconds. Any other show would have needed an entire scene to get across this much history and chemistry and been-there-for-you-for-decades affection and mutual support.

Not this one. Hats off to the writers and the actors for this little gem. What a good moment.

[silcobrainrot]

Okay I gotta talk about the Kuleshov Effect for a minute because I see a lot of people talking about how Silco and Vi were looking at each other on the bridge and it's got me scratching at the walls.

The Kuleshov Effect is a film editing effect. It is a mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation.

In other words, the way a movie or show is edited influences the way you think or feel about it. This kind of subtle manipulation is very powerful and is used throughout film and television to guide the audience's emotional journey and can be used to influence characterization and plot just by putting things in the right order. When people talk about "unintentional implications from the writers" I have noticed several times that the cause of the unintentional implication actually being the editing, not the writing.

On the bridge just before the opening credits of episode 8, we have two perspectives: Vi's perspective and Silco's perspective. Rather than show what Vi's doing in one long sequence, and then switch to Silco's perspective in one long sequence, the editors break these sequences into smaller shots and inter-cut them.

The most common use of intercutting like this is when shooting dialogue: cut to one character, cut to the other. Because of this, to our minds, this sequence looks like they are having a silent conversation, but they aren't. They can't even see each other.

Silco can't see beyond the smog, flood lights, and oncoming parade of enforcers, and it's safe to assume Vi can't see past these obstacles either. They have no way or reason of knowing the other is observing the bridge.

So, now that we know they can't see each other, let's look at what happens if we reorder the clips so these are two distinct sequences rather than one long one.

The sequences on their own are not staged the way a conversation would be staged, because both characters are in the centers of their respective frames.

Vi is looking at the bridge where her childhood friend was about to fight her sister so she could get away. The last thing that happened on the bridge that she knows of is another bomb going off, just one. She doesn't know if Ekko or Jinx are still alive. Maybe she's wondering if she should have stayed instead of leaving Jinx again.

Silco is panicked and caught off guard by his own reaction. He has a moment of emotional vulnerability while his back is turned to his employees and while the enforcers are still too far away to see what's happening on his face. He steels himself before standing up, and faces down the enforcers before walking away.

So, why edit this scene this way? If they can't see each other, why make it look like they can? Specifically because they wanted these characters to have an emotional exchange, but can't, because they are physically too far apart. Vi and Silco only get two scenes together and they only talk directly to each other once. This helps fill in a hole where we want these two to interact, but plot-wise it makes no sense for them to be able to. The editors change the entire meaning of both of these sequences if the emotions on their faces are a conversation.

What I like about this is that it gives you two options for how to interpret this, and both can be true at the same time. You can look at each sequence on its own, and you can look at it the way the editors were manipulating you into seeing it. I do love what they've done here, and I think it's important when analyzing media to know what tools and techniques the creators have used to tell their story and be able to deconstruct their little tricks to inform your interpretation.

Anyway thank you @sweetestsixshooter for reminding me I wanted to write this down lmao

[questionablecuttlefish]

One of the most popular topics that people likes to bring up in shipwars “against” lightcannon is that we mischaracterize (did I write it correctly?) Lux to fit in our delusions. For example: she didn't kill Sylas and she despises killers and her ideals and morality is the most important thing to her, oh, also that she's good

So you as a Lightcannon writer and someone who is very familiar with her lore and character, could you give me your perspective about this?

Ah yes, that one.

Here's my answer in pictures:

But more seriously. 😆

I think that's a gross oversimplification of Lux's character, and it's generally an argument made by people who don't know who Lux is beyond the most superficial impression.

It's a product of a mindset that can't separate modern ideals of 'morality' - what would be moral to you and me, from our culture and our moment - from a character raised in a very, very different culture and a very different world.

A good example is the opening scenes of A Game of Thrones, we witness the horrible slaughter of a group of Night's Watch by the Others. The lone, desperate survivor escapes, and in the very next scene, we see that he's been captured by the Lord of a castle, who is about to execute him for the crime of desertion by beheading with a sword. This man makes his sons watch as he decapitates this poor, innocent bastard who, to us, has done no wrong and just survived a terrifying experience. He makes sure his seven year old, Bran, witnesses him cut a man's head off with a sword.

Meet Eddard Stark, probably the most forthright, honorable, and morally upstanding character in the series.

Look, Lux is a 'good' character. She's smart, compassionate, forthright, and principled. She almost always takes the diplomatic option first and uses violence primarily in self-defense.

On the other hand, she's a Crownguard. She is the daughter of the highest ranking noble household next to the King himself. Her Aunt is the High Marshall of the entire Demacian military. Her Uncle is(was,heh) the head of the Mageseekers, so the mage hunting secret police. Her brother is the Might of Demacia, Sword Captain of the Dauntless Vanguard.

What I'm saying here is that Lux is a military brat. She has been born and raised into the values of a highly militaristic, feudal warrior culture at the very highest level of that society. She's been trained in warrior arts - riding, swordfighting, archery, and military tactics and strategy - since she could walk and form words.

In her old lore? She was literally a traumatized, brainwashed child soldier taken from her family and trained to fight for Demacia.

In her new/current lore? She's still a trained spy who has succeeded at several covert missions within Noxus.

We've seen her fight monsters and Mageseekers in the M.S game, she didn't hesitate to shoot Sylas with a crossbow and stab him with a dagger until his mages dragged her off him in the comic, as above.

She also witnessed her brother behead a man in the For Demacia story; she was trying to intervene because she had sussed that there was something else going on, and therefore his death would have been unnecessary and unjust, not necessarily out of protest at the death penalty itself.

It's worth noting - as the Mageseeker confirms - that Lux stayed out of the mage rebellion not out of 'naive pacifism' as she's sometimes accused of, but because: 1. She couldn't forgive Sylas for his betrayal.

2. A desire to protect the noncombatant refugees in her care.

3. She's still loyal to Demacia and her family and refused to fight her own kin.

4. because she knew if she stayed neutral, she could leverage her Crownguard privilege and name with King Jarvan to negotiate protection for mages after the conflict.

Which, y'know, she did.

All of these are products of who she is a character, a Demacian, a Crownguard, and a canny political operator. None of these are blind pacifism, this is the kind of soft power "Fox" move Mel Medarda would recognize and approve of.

So no, Luxanna Crownguard isn't going to be put off by Jinx's violence.

Violence is inherently part of her world, too. Demacia is a 'medieval' feudal regime that is almost perpetually at war with its neighbours and, in some ways a harsher, more brutal place than Piltover and Zaun, particularly its notions of 'justice'.

Piltover is only about 50% likely to have public executions as entertainment/morality lesson, Demacia absolutely 100% does and we've seen two of them in canon, is what I'm saying.

I think Lux would understand that Jinx committed terrible deeds, yes, as part of a civil conflict that Lux herself would be coming at with only an outsider's understanding.

Lux knows exactly how it feels to have best intentions blow up in your face, to be backed into a corner and forced to take some pretty extreme actions to survive.

I don't think, after her actions and choices triggered the Mage Uprising and cost untold lives across Demacia, Lux would consider her own hands clean enough to judge someone like Jinx. Sure, Lux didn't mean to give Sylas her power to commit second hand mass murder, but Powder didn't mean to kill her family either.

And it's also worth noting the part of Sylas' actions that Lux doesn't forgive - especially in the Mageseeker dialogue - is specifically the personal betrayal of her trust, outing her as a mage, and ruining her life.

She understands his cause. She won't join it, because that would mean siding with someone who wants to kill her family, but again, Lux's reasons for choosing not to fight are much more complex and personal than 'she hates violence'.

She's able to compromise enough to accept Sylas' help when her city comes under siege, because while Lux is a 'good guy', she's also a pragmatist first.

I think Lux would see a lot of Sylas in Jinx. I think she would see a lot of herself, as well, particularly once she learned about Jinx's past, about Silco (basically Jinx's Sylas figure, no?) and about everything she's been through.

I don't think Lux would judge her for that.

I feel that Lux would try to be the voice of reason, the hand holding hers to ground her, maybe even the olive branch to help her try to repair some of her burned bridges (this is certainly what she tries to do in Ill-Omen's) and that could cause interesting conflict in their developing relationship.

But I think Lux would understand. Jinx may be more volatile and spiteful and personal in her use of violence, but she's shaped by experiences not far from Lux's own.

And by Season Two? Yeah, no, Season Two Jinx is well and truly on her hero arc. Post-Season Two Jinx? Especially if she's trying to put violence aside and heal?

Post season two Jinx, who's grieving losing her father, her sister, her child? That Jinx would absolutely attract Lux's compassion even more than before.

I've written so many words to answer it, but to me, it's such a non-argument to begin with. You have to not even look at Lux past "blonde nice girl" to think it.

[amuelia]

How do you think Roose is going to go out in Winds, will he be killed by Ramsay like in the show (in a very different style, obviously) or is it something a bit unexpected?

Not fond of it being similar to the show version because it implies he's not gonna get a lot of screentime in tWoW; it's also kind of a cheap way to give him "karma" for killing robb by just reversing the roles and having roose be at the receiving end of a murderous betrayal. Note also that Theon is absent from this storyline now (since he escaped), and i'd assume Roose as an important tertiary character would have at least one more big chapter in tWoW, so he probably escapes the Winterfell situation alive at the very least until another PoV crosses his path (Asha?).

If Stannis takes Winterfell, i'd assume Roose would be a prisoner for the moment, maybe saved for a Stark to judge over as a show of goodwill; and whatever "northern conspiracy" payoff there is would probably mean that the northmen distance themselves from him as much as possible and make him the fall guy for the entire red wedding + fallout events (which are mostly his fault anyways). Barbrey as a character likely has been added to the story in aDwD to give a bit of diversity to the northern politics, as someone who is not a stark loyalist and has some closer feelings towards roose but also isnt guilty of the red wedding. I think her role might be that she is a bit of a thorn in the otherwise likely clean consensus on what to do with the Bolton problem and she might argue somewhat in Roose' favour politically (maybe arguing against him being executed or otherwise buying him some time).

And the best sword is the one that cuts both ways, he might tell you. Take the Battle of Green Fork. Had his night march taken Lord Tywin unawares and won the battle, he would have smashed the Lannisters and become the hero of the hour. While if it failed... well, you see what happened. The only way he could lose there would be if were captured or slain himself, and he did his best to minimize the chances of that. - GRRM, SSM Feb 3 2001

Roose' storyline so far has been about how he tries to maximize his profits, while also keeping out of harms way and not getting caught. He acts in ways that are morally reprehensive as long as the result is favourable to him and he can get away with it scot free. Yet come aDwD, we start to see that it is getting harder and harder for him to keep this up:

Roose Bolton said nothing at all. But Theon Greyjoy saw a look in his pale eyes that he had never seen before—an uneasiness, even a hint of fear. - a Ghost in Winterfell, aDwD

Ned Stark tried his best to act like a decent person and showed a spine acting openly as such, and after a lifetime of integrity his legacy lives on in his children and people are willing to go to war in his memory. Roose is his foil; he acts morally badly, and spinelessly so as he tries to avoid consequences - so likely as an inversion to Ned his house will go to ruin and the consequences of his actions catch up to him as his modus operandi made him liked by few. So i'd personally find it interesting if he has a fair trial and gets judged the way he deserves, with no way for him to weasel himself out of it again.

My dream tWoW direction would be that he then gets sent to the wall (which also was Ned's initial sentence, another foil moment) and becomes the epilogue PoV and faces an Other - it would be a cool way to hand off the torch from the last big human villain of the wot5k storyline to the center antagonistic force of the war for the dawn storyline (it would also complete the set of Red Wedding architects being epilogue PoVs as the first epilogue in aSoS was a Frey, and the second in aDwD a Lannister). It would also really showcase how inhuman and alien the Others are by taking the coldest and "least humane" human character that everyone jokes is a vampire, and showing that in contrast to them he still is one of us by giving us a view inside his brain and his very human reaction to them.

The real enemy is the cold.  - Prologue, aGoT

Reek wondered if Roose Bolton ever cried. If so, do the tears feel cold upon his cheeks? - Reek III, aDwD

He looked deep into the heart of winter, and then he cried out, afraid, and the heat of his tears burned on his cheeks. - Bran III, aGoT

[mangaloversolar2000]

Enemies to Lovers or Red Flags in Pastels? — A Critical Look at Lumity’s Foundations

Lumity is iconic. It gave us one of the first queer WLW couples in Western animation with actual screen time. But sometimes, people forget that just being queer doesn’t make a relationship automatically healthy—or narratively sound. And when you actually look at the foundation of Lumity, it’s kind of… full of red flags that get painted over in soft lighting and cute banter. (Not hating on Lumity btw, this is completely opinion based with reasons why Lumity seems kinda...complicated in my eyes.)

1. Amity Didn’t Bully Luz—But She Did Try to Get Her Dissected

Yeah. Let’s not sugarcoat that one.

In Season 1, Amity literally tries to have Luz dissected by Principal Bump. All because Luz embarrassed her in front of her Abomination class. That’s not petty teen drama—that’s dangerous.

Sure, it’s played for laughs, but if the roles were reversed, people would be furious. This moment is brushed aside because Luz is so endlessly forgiving and the tone is whimsical. But realistically? That’s not just “tsundere behavior.” That’s genuinely disturbing.

2. Amity Bullied Willow for Years and Never Properly Apologized

Let’s talk about Willow. Sweet, awkward Willow who was Amity’s best friend until Amity cut her off to climb the social ladder (with pressure from her parents but still...). Amity not only abandoned her, she actively bullied her. (though for some reason it seemed like this retconned even though in one of the first episodes we see Amity bully Willow) She let Boscha and the others mock Willow constantly while standing by—or even participating.

Later in the show, the story implies that Amity feels guilty and is trying to reconnect. But the apology scene? It never happens. She gives a vague “I wasn’t strong back then,” and we move on.

Meanwhile, Willow is just… okay with it. Like years of emotional damage can be patched over because Amity looks sad. It’s not fair to Willow, and it reflects a pattern in the show where Amity’s emotional arcs are prioritized over the pain she caused others.

3. Luz Never Challenges This Behavior

This is where it gets extra complicated.

Luz, bless her, is a people-pleaser. She just wants friends and adventure and sparkly magic. But that also means she never actually calls Amity out—not for bullying Willow, not for trying to get her dissected, not for anything. She just rolls with it.

Luz’s entire relationship with Amity is built on her always giving grace, always understanding, and never asking for real accountability. In a way, that makes their romance feel unbalanced. Amity gets the space to grow and cry and be soft. Luz? Luz becomes a side character in her own emotional arc.

4. Trauma Bonding Is Not a Love Story

Another point worth mentioning: a lot of Lumity’s deeper moments come from shared trauma. Whether it’s dealing with their families, Belos, or the Collector, they get closer through chaos. But trauma bonding isn’t inherently romantic—it’s survival. And the show leans on it to create intimacy, instead of giving us scenes where they talk about what they want, what they need, or what they like outside of danger.

What do they have in common, really? Aside from magic and angst? The relationship often feels more like a narrative reward than a fully developed emotional connection.

Conclusion: Cute, Important, but Narratively Messy

Look—Lumity matters. It opened doors. It showed queer girls being brave and awkward and in love. But that doesn’t mean we can’t critique how messy it is under the surface.

Amity hurt people. Luz never processes it. Willow gets sidelined. And somehow, it’s all swept under the rug for the sake of a shippable couple. Queer rep shouldn’t mean excusing harmful behavior just because it’s pastel-coded and soft-spoken.

We deserve better storytelling, not just representation.

tbh I kinda prefered Willuz but I don't hate Lumity, I'm fine with the ship but I felt like it was rushed and could have been better developed.

[hatosaur]

tlou hbo ep.6 thoughts ig

you sent this to my main inbox but i'm answering here since i figure you follow me here anyway (also late watching it lol but it sure was bliss to not watch for a bit)

i think it's a waste of an episode to have all the flashbacks put together like this. they're meant to give little bits of insight as to why ellie is gunning so hard for revenge (but ellie isn't gunning very hard in the show right now, she actually seems pretty occupied with her relationship with dina that abby is hardly on her mind at all). they accompany and highlight the brutality and danger that we were meant to see (again, absent; story's gutted of all the brutal killing ellie's supposed to be doing) but they feel a lot less significant when put up against each other.

they probably could've made for intro segments since the show seems pretty fond of these but maybe they'd be too long? though there have been long intros before in season 1.

it being from joel's perspective is a very confusing choice. even if they started out the season attempting to flesh him out more, it still doesn't really work because he's been dead the entire season. i don't think we gain anything from having more of his pov because we know enough of how he felt about the rift between him and ellie already, and especially not with the thesis that they set up for the episode which is the cycle of...fatherhood? the story is already about joel's story as a father and the choices he makes because of it! why are we throwing in yet another point his morally gray choices as a father?

instead of joel and ellie's relationship being okay with an undercurrent of tension only to make a sheer drop when ellie seeks out the truth about salt lake, the episode presents it more as a gradual fall. i can see a world where it would be interesting but it stumbles so much. ellie's characterization is one of the season's biggest problems because she's written as if she's still 14. she's still happy-go-lucky, she still jokes and quips, and she's still same-old ellie and i think that's a huge misstep. because it really doesn't seem like she's all that affected by the weight of what joel did.

they remove some pretty integral scenes that give insight to how feelings about salt lake have just been festering within her all this time, like the flashbacks of when she was 17, where she finds the bodies of jackson residents who ran away and where she runs off to salt lake to find the truth (presumably to cut back on set costs??). it's the legit turning point for their relationship but they sub in, uh...eugene's death? there's an attempt at ellie's feelings about infection and where she stands as an immune person, but again, the episode is from joel's perspective so that clearly isn't the point of the scene but instead, ✨joel's gray morality again✨, hooray. the show keeps beating us over the head with THIS shit in particular, and neglecting that subtextual facet of ellie's character that has to do with her lost sense of purpose as "the immune girl." y'know. a major part of season one.

the eugene scene makes it more about ellie's overall distrust in joel being reaffirmed but not really in regards to what happened at salt lake specifically.

i could pick at every detail in the episode if i wanted to, but i feel like the most important is the porch scene. what. the fuck.

pushing the porch scene up makes no sense at all? with this, it felt like they just didn't want the flashbacks as a motif at all, which would've been fine for the others but this one? how do you botch one of the most important scenes to the story? it's not even supported by any momentum because this episode didn't build any at all.

the porch scene is meant to be pivotal to both characters. it's joel stating that he stands by his choice, and it's ellie offering an olive branch between them. instead, much like with the whole episode, they cram two important moments in one: ellie starting to forgive joel and joel confessing the truth about salt lake. why is this HERE of all places. why did they choose to have joel confess in one of his last moments with ellie, when it causes a rift between them in the og story?

and ellie forgives him almost immediately! what causes her to break down, hyperventilate, and stop speaking to joel entirely for two whole years in the game, she gets over completely in the show in a matter of minutes.

it begs the question now: what is ellie's motivation here, really?

ellie's reason for going on a damn-near suicidal revenge mission is just not strong enough in the show. it effectively boils down to "she loves him so she goes," which is fine, but other people loved joel. everyone in town loved joel. in the show, she's the one who presses pretty hard to go (unlike in the game, where tommy mirrors her grief). the show is of the position that "only a certain type of person would do this (one with a 'violent heart')" when it should be "ellie is desperate to do this because of what she could've had." it is a character choice based on a perceived mistake.

they softened EVERYTHING in this version of the story to the point where i feel disoriented just watching. they softened joel, they softened ellie, they softened every edge of the story that gave it clarity for, what, some simulated sense of "nuance"? to explore more of joel's gray morality and the consequences of his actions?

for a story about ellie's journey through self-destructive revenge, it doesn't feel like it's about ellie at all. she doesn't feel like the main character and it shows in the plain fact that they chose to use the flashback episode to explore MORE OF JOEL and not of ellie.

[shinysobi]

the kiss (aka that one scene) and subsequently—

*spoilers for bridgerton s3*

ahem...this might be a bit indelicate? Let us think about who Colin is, at his core. he is a dreamer. he's sweet, he's kind to a fault, and he's also the Bridgerton brother most likely to have ao3 in the 21st century.

Penelope asks for a kiss, and Colin cannot deny her that. so much of their relationship is evinced by the fact that they cannot deny each other anything, even if it is at the expense of their own well-being. Penelope has never once voiced her feelings for Colin because she is aware that he would never see her in such a light, and mostly because, she does not think that her feelings are his business. In the books and in the show, Penelope has never voiced her crush.

So, when she's facing the very real prospects of remaining a spinster and firmly under the influence of her mother and sister (Prudence, especially, I don't really think Phillipa would be that bad) she makes a choice to ask the love of her life, mind you, the one man she had always felt safe with, to kiss her. She is waving goodbye to the dreams of being married, finding a place of her own in a world where a woman had no value if they were not attached in matrimony to a man. Yes, it seems pathetic, yes, it seems desperate. It is. It is desperate. Penelope is desperate at this moment, and she is reckless, but she is not pathetic. She wants to be kissed, and she asks for it, it is a moment where we see a woman exercise agency for the first time in her life. Feelings are so very rarely black or white, and so is this scene; on one hand, you feel wronged and angry at the fact that Penelope is pleading for a kiss, on the other, you empathize with her situation and where she is coming from. She wants this moment, and who better to ask from, than her best friend? Colin has always, always been there for her, and she has been there for him. They know each other the best, she has had the privilege of being able to love him. She wants love, and she has it in her hands at this moment, a fleeting, transient glimpse into what her life could be if she were someone else. This is the moment when Penelope Featherington's dreams are well and truly shattered.

And that same kiss turns Colin's world on its axis. It is so wonderful to see on screen how the same action can have two entirely opposite, but just as important effects on people. Colin has always loved Penelope. This is not even a discussion. He took action on behalf of her family (on behalf of her, really) when he found out about her cousin's schemes. He gives Cressida the cut direct when she humiliates Penelope in front of him. He seeks her out at every social assembly. He has always looked out for her and has always loved her. But all this is platonic. He has never felt a physical connection with her, because neither of them has had the chance to explore that avenue. Neither Colin nor Penelope are aware of their latent attraction to each other. For Penelope, it is because she has never been allowed to feel a physical connection with anyone, and Colin because he has never thought of pursuing a physical connection with Penelope. It is their kiss that ultimately awakens that connection in Colin, and by connection, Penelope asking Colin for a kiss is what puts the wheels in motion.

Which brings me to the first paragraph. Colin is the sweetest boy in the Bridgerton family (Gregory I love you, but nine children? Get off that woman, immediately). When he realizes that he likes Penelope, and loves her romantically, what does he do? He internalizes it like he does everything else. So much of Colin's character arc, both in the book and in the show is about him internalizing everything. He refuses to voice his own feelings if they make other people uncomfortable, much to the detriment of his own mental health. After being deceived in the first season, he removes himself from London because he cannot bear to stay in the city anymore, not when he is reminded of how naive and stupid he was, every moment. It is also important to realize that Colin has been viewed as the naive, soft-hearted brother, by everyone else. When he gets engaged in season 1, Anthony, his big brother, the example he is supposed to follow, tells him that he should have taken Colin to brothels and accuses him of getting married to have sex. In season two, Penelope, an outsider, is the only person who gives a damn about his thoughts. His own family refuses to listen to him, and what does he do when he returns a second time? He tells them, "I shall not bore you with the details". He knows, no one essentially gives a shit. This is why, when he comes to the knowledge of the full breadth of his feelings for Penelope, he internalizes so hard he dreams of her. And this is not an indelicate dream. He does not dream of taking her in the back of a carriage or on his yellow sheets, he dreams of her returning his feelings. He is yet unaware of the extent of Penelope's feelings toward him, but he knows he should not force his feelings onto her, and that is why he dreams of her.

I could go on and on about why Colin is the best Bridgerton brother (Gregory, nine children) but it will take up a lot of space, so I shall keep it brief: (in the show) Anthony almost marries Edwina, a girl who is what, thirteen(?) twelve (?) years younger than him, a girl who has no safety net outside of her sister and her mother, her sister whom Anthony was in love with, and refused to confront his feelings for. Literally, no one forced Anthony to propose to Edwina, he went down on one knee while being aware of his feelings for her older sister. Kate would have been content with relinquishing her younger sister to a marriage where she loved someone who would forever love another. Imagine if Anthony had married Edwina as he intended. Do you think, for even a second, that he would look at her face and not be reminded of Kate? Not to mention neither of them took action till the very last second, and Edwina, a bystander, was forced to ruin herself. Half the reason why she married abroad is the fact that not a single person in London would have married her (headcanon: she marries the Prince, fuck you, Anthony) when she was very publicly denigrated as the Viscount Bridgerton's cast-off. Yes, the Queen's favor saves Anthony and Kate's marriage from scandal, but it also saves Edwina, it saves her from further public embarrassment and scrutiny by a ton that not only views her as an outsider but also envies her for securing the title of the Season's Diamond. (Book)Benedict forces a woman from a servant class to be his mistress while he searches for the girl he fancied to be the love of his life. I'm sorry, there's no coming back from that. Colin gets angry when he is aware of who Lady Whistledown is, but his anger is not directed at Penelope herself. It is directed at her lack of thought for her own safety. Colin puts Penelope's safety and reputation over everything. In the carriage scene, he steps back as soon as he hears the words "but we are friends" from her mouth; he takes it as a sign, that this is Penelope telling him I don't have feelings for you, and he is happy to respect her wishes. Colin would have never voiced his feelings a second time if she had rebuffed him then, he would have been happy to remove himself from Society and spend his days on the Continent, writing in his journals. So much of both Penelope and Colin is them learning to voice their wants and desires and fuck, it's the most beautiful thing to watch as it comes to life on my screen.

[onanightofwintryfog]

Squid game s3 spoilers

I haven't watched ep 5 and 6 entirely yet but I skimmed through them and I don't know if I'll watch them today bc the ending feels... Very.. netflix

The first episodes were so less gihun centric that I thought maybe the finale would make up for that but I guess it kinda didn't

I know where every fix it fic will start - by not using the last game

That last game takes sooo long and is kinda boring

Idk I felt I knew were this was going and gihun sacrificing himself for the baby well.. I didn't like it

The baby as a player fucked everything up

The unmasking between gihun and inho was so anticlimactic. Maybe it's my ao3 brain but come on, that was gihun's whole life for 3 years, finding out who the front man is, finding him, stopping the games, and when he finds out youngil is the frontman they don't even talk??

Srsly it's not just my 457 glasses, they deserved to talk, to discuss humanity and their beliefs

But gihun just leaves

They pushed them so hard in the promo and i know it was mostly netflix at fault bc they know how well the fans liked 457 as a ship but even before that - we had a whole s2 with them obsessed with each other and then s3 there is nothing left of that - mostly bc of a baby

Tbh I would have preferred to have a pregnant junhee die, that would have been so fucking tragic but it would have made the whole dynamic better

Junhee's death was brutal - also it didn't really make sense to me. Why did she jump? Why didn't she just let them shoot her? And bc she jumped, she could have tried to get to her baby (making the scene even more tragic) it would have fit better with her conviction to do everything for her baby. Giving gihun the job to look after it kinda felt a bit cheap

So to finish my last thoughts: I wanted more gihun, the season needed more gihun and we didn't get that which is one of the reasons it fell flat for me. He barely talked!! If you hype up the frontman /gihun confrontation and unmasking then you better show up with a great scene and not whatever this was (as Isaid I know that was mostly netflix's fault). More hwang brothers. There were so many characters I didn't care about which got so much screentime and I feel they could've cut a lot of that to show more important character moments - their scenes didn't even feel like a good commentary on what humans will do to each other in extreme situations.

So overall: this season was a miss. I will be reading fanfics and rewatching 1 and 2

[internetgiraffekid1673]

Darling Charming and Hair

So @eahcomforttrash brought up in discord that Darling deserves a moment to chop all her hair off as a rejection of her Charming powers, and that thought seized me so hard that I decided to draw her hair journey instead of working on my other projects!

For those who haven't read the books---first off, go do that, @/athena-xox has them all digitally for free on her pinned post---second off, there are a lot of characters that have freaky magic abilities that never come up in the show, including the Charmings. Daring has his physically blinding smile (which is in the show), but Dexter can make girls swoon and faint with his gorgeous eyes (this isn't brought up often because his glasses null the effect), and Darling can slow down time for a few seconds by flicking her hair.

(This also sorta turned into a clothes journey lol).

So! Let's get into it shall we? In depth analysis under the cut, cuz it's gonna get long!

Top Left, Pre Way Too Wonderland Reveal:

I actually really love Darling's hair pouf. It's so impractical and extra and reminiscent of actual European royal's hairstyles, which is PERFECT for someone who is desperately attempting to cover her rebellious activities and dressing extra royal. Darling (in the books) explicitly puts a LOT of time into making her hair be the perfect princess-y style her mother taught her to do, so I think the pouf is very in line.

I am less a fan of the canon colors. In the books, her hair is described as platinum blonde, which is great! But I really really dislike the blue and white combo from the show because I just don't think her parents would LET her use hair dye. How scandalous! How newfangled! How non-traditional! How. . .rebellious. Darling is trying to convince them she's NOT being a rebel, and I don't think she'd be gutsy enough to ask for forgiveness OR permission on this one.

Unnaturally colored hair is actually very important to me in EAH. The only other royals who have dyed hair are Briar (dissatisfied with her destiny, behaves contrary to social norms, will later sympathize with the rebels), Duchess (has her whole thing about not really fitting with the royals and ALSO being dissatisfied with her destiny), Lizzie (from Wonderland and thus has a very different perspective on the whole thing, and also possibly has the red naturally), and Rosabella (who had bad writing all around and didn't exist until quite late in the series, but who I like to think of as more of a Royal in name only).

So giving Darling an unnatural hair color is a good thematic indicator to people who haven't read the books that Darling is actually a rebel (along with her metallic accent being silver like the rebels instead of gold like the royals), but it doesn't make sense diagetically (unless she's washing it out and re-dyeing it every day, and who's got that kind of time). So I tend to draw it without the dye before Way Too Wonderland.

Similarly, the books also describe Darling putting a lot of care into her outfits and makeup to look not just princessy but also TRADITIONAL. She's not willing to do anything risky, even something as small as lipstick instead of a perfect tiny touch of gloss. I think she'd definitely wear the MOST makeup during this period.

I LOVE that the show has her outfit resemble armor, but I do think it's a little too obvious (she's wearing entire PAULDRONS, I think someone's gonna notice). It doesn't show super well from just the bust, but I compromise by SHAPING her outfit identitically to a suit of armor (hence the lace collar area). I also never draw her in anything form-fitting during this time, because she's super buff and doesn't wanna be showing that off.

I also think that Darling and the color pink are important, but I'll save that for another section.

Top Right, Sometime around Dragon Games

I think after her big reveal in Way Too Wonderland, Darling would do a hard turn into being ALL rebel, ALL knightly, no princess ANYTHING allowed AT ALL.

Importantly, I don't think this is who she really is authentically. She is a mix of a princess and a knight and also just herself. But after being forced into SUCH a traditional look for SUCH a long time, I think she'd feel very sick of it all and just jump off in the opposite direction.

This would very importantly include cutting off her hair, and with it, her powers to slow time in a pinch. Darling is really annoyed that she has these powers, but she makes VERY good use of them in the books, including one instance where she literally saves Maddie from banishment. So I think, in her fit of passionately rejecting her destiny, her family, and her role as a princess, she'd cut her hair and dye it all the way. And then she'd slowly start to realize she misses having both her time powers and also just long hair.

During this period, I also don't think she'd wear ANY makeup ever, would wear her armor casually a lot more (partially because she can now, partially to flex what she can manage in full plate, and partially because donning and doffing armor takes a while and she's not that fast at it yet). Her casual outfits would likely be very plain, and extremely masculine.

I think it would take a little bit of being like this before she starts to have some realizations along the lines of "oh wait, I actually DO like these feminine things, just not these ones. Or wait, maybe I did like that, just not the traditional version of it I was forced to do." In my perfect world, this is how she would spend ALL of Dragon Games, and I think the events of that special would give her some time to think about what she actually wants in her personal style now that she has freedom to choose.

Bottom Left, Post Dragon Games, possibly next school year:

This is kind of Darling's fully evolved form to me. I think, at this point, she's spent her time looking like a perfect traditional princess and she's spent her time doing the complete 180 from that, and she's now realized that the place for her is actually somewhere in the middle.

I think she'd grow her hair out longer, but not as long as it used to be. Enough that it can be pulled into a sensible ponytail, occasionallg styled, and flipped for usage of her time powers once again, but not much longer than that. I also think she'd finally reach her colors in the show, putting in blue streaks, but keeping some of her Charming blonde present.

Weirdly enough, I also think this is when her clothing would be closest to the show, with some armor like elements (the casual-wear pauldrons and the. . .battle corset? Thing?), but also lots of casual ones. I think she'd swap fairly frequently between skirts and pants, and would wear some makeup, but it would be less than she used to, and probably more adventurous in color and style when she does.

I also gave her a scarf like her brother Dexter, because I think it's cute <3

Bottom Right, Nightgown/Unstyled pre Way Too Wonderland

This is kinda how I headcanon Darling looking before the reveal, but without styling herself to look extra traditional. This was mostly so I could get a feel for the shape, color, and texture of her hair when it isn't pulled into that pouf, but now is also a good time to talk about the pink.

So, in the books, Darling strongly associates the color pink with a series of really boring classic "princess gets rescued" fairy tales that she was forced to read instead of the adventure type novels she was after. She thinks of the color as a signal for the traditional values she hates. So in her earlier outfits, while blue is still her main color (she is a charming after all), I think she incorporates EVEN more pink than in canon. All accessories, all makeup, all extra layers are gonna be pink (hence the pink sash in her nightgown here).

During her time completely shunning her heritage, she wouldn't wear any pink at all ever. All blues all the time. But Darling is still a Charming princess. She was still born into a royal family with a lot of influence and privilege. She still has Charming magic powers. Her heritage doesn't HAVE to be a marker of oppression. She can take it and use it as a tool for good.

This ties in to my greater agenda about wanting Dexter to have to teach his siblings how to interact with commoners and how to use their privilege to help other people rebel, but I think that during that arc, Darling would slowly reclaim pink as a part of her color pallette. Yeah, it's the princess color, and she's a princess. But that doesn't mean she HAS to be helpless. She's still wearing armor and rescuing folks herself. It IS another tool in her arsenal.

Being a princess means being very persuasive and good at convincing people to listen to you. It means having a lot of money, which never hurts when you're using it to fund a cause. It means having easy access to authority figures and being able to get your ideas to the right people. When you're trying to make BIG change, you need every resource you can get, and there's something very poetic about using the same ones that once imprisoned you to help free so many others.

Anyways, those are my intricate headcanons on Darling's appearance, and there will hopefully be a follow up with the full versions of her outfits!

[mousathe14]

So as I mentioned before, Young Justice was interrupted by a whole “Sins of Youth” event where everyone’s ages were screwed up.

So we just finished Aquaman & Lagoon Boy as well as Batman & Robin’s stories

That’s still 4 more pillars of Young Justice left. So let’s see what Impulse is up to.

Dressing down Wally. This reversal is definitely something. How is Impulse a more mature adult than Wally is as an adult?

And yeah, Wally’s been going on about his honeymoon since the Jr. Justice League segment.

Superman and Batman are off protecting their cities, everyone else is trying to find solutions to their predicament, and all Wally can think about is his honeymoon.

I can understand wanting to tell Linda what happened but I don’t think that’s what his plans are.

Their relationship is fascinating and I’m glad the first thing he did after trying to get Wally to slow down was to see the most important person in his life, Max. Give him reassurance, bounce off ideas, like peer rather than a pupil/nuisance/weird family member.

I’m glad they get to have this moment, Max seeing Bart have maturity and smart ideas. Seeing the most important person in his life be a grown up.

I gotta get back to the Impulse comics of this era. I’m so far behind but man, the new art is painful to get through. But I gotta know what’s up with Max.

NOW! On to the funny bit.

Now that’s what I like to see, horror at this new state of affairs.

Since Linda is a reporter her plan is to use her connections to help put a positive spin on the heroes. But…

Boy’s got a honeymoon to get to. It’s almost all he talked about as soon as he got kid-ified.

Linda is not impressed. In fact she cannot stand the very idea of kissing this OG Teen Titan.

Wallace is right, he may be bad, but Aquaman is ten times worse.

You know, that’s a shoulder hug but it almost doesn’t look like it.

So the plan is for Wally and Bart to go on a worldwide media blitz, basically a publicity stunt to do a bunch of interviews over the course of mere minutes each. It doesn’t go well and it’s not particularly interesting.

Honestly this is the worst scene:

The idea that Bart’s aroace coding is because he isn’t old enough?

I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it.

This isn’t even being done by one of his main writers, it’s being written by, lemmie check…

DWAYNE MCDUFFIE!?

You’re one of my heroes, man, how could you do this to me and to Impulse?

Okay, let’s cheer myself up with some Bart roasting Wally. He’s gonna be taller than Wally, that’s funny.

And he’s right, the piss costume is a bad costume. He looks like discount Reverse Flash. He looks like someone was trying to make a Reverse Flash costume from a thrift store. Why would you make your PRIMARY costume color look like Reverse Flash’s?

Impulse is right, Wally donning a Kid-Impulse costume is the way to go.

Also here’s a cute Red Tornado scene

I don’t know what he’s listening to but the fact that he kind of enjoys being a kid and he’s listening to some kind of rock and roll is really adorable.

The idea that Reddy feels cut off from his humanity is ridiculous. He couldn’t be more human right now.

So the rapid fire interviews don’t go well. Too busy being heroes.

But we end with this nice little scene.

Impulse shows how much he’ll grow, finding the rescuing of others to be more important than good press.

Which is very much in character anyway, Bart is many things but egotistical isn’t one of them. While Wally acknowledges that as one of his flaws.

Bart wouldn’t know what to do with the press other than be goofy or say “hi” to Max. He’s kind of a show off but entirely for his amusement because he still processes things like a video game.

But we finish this section off with Wally actually being sweet by comparing Bart to Barry, which is probably the nicest thing he’ll ever say to him (that’s not true, he’ll say nice things to him in The Flash comics of the era, eventually).

Man, everyone loves Barry so much, but I guess when you run yourself to death saving reality itself people can only have nice things to say about you.

I should consider reading the Flash Volume 1 but uh, if Wally is this little of a character as an adult I can’t imagine how much worse it would be for Barry in older comics.

[lemotmo]

😂😂😂😂 I desperately want to believe this is fake but I'm afraid they totally believe he's a pilot

Q. I'm sorry but the fact that he's an actual pilot is the sexiest thing ever. We deserved the entire scene, I wish they hadn't cut it. That was too difficult for him to pull off for them to not have aired the entire bit. The rest of the episode was trash. I will give you that.

A. Please, PLEASE tell me all of you are aware that he is not an actual pilot. Please tell me that you're at least capable of realizing that he didn't actually fly a helicopter through the air space over Los Angeles. Between the disgusting billboard stunt and the 14! asks all kind of insinuating lou was actually flying that helicopter, I feel like I'm going insane. I need this to be a bit because my belief in humanity is hanging by a thread. But just in case.... his part of the helicopter stuff was filmed on a soundstage in California. No part of what you 'saw' him do was real. It's called acting. He's very, very bad at it but it's all fake nonetheless. He's not a pilot. He's not a firefighter. He is not the Messiah (but the show is going to insinuate Bobby Nash could be). The episode was bad. It was a bad episode. The plot, such as it was, was flimsy and full of holes big enough to drive a truck through, which I'm assuming was the point, so Bobby not really being dead won't be that much of a stretch for the audience. It was a bad idea. It's been poorly executed. Angela's version of how she found out has changed 3 times now. The 'goodbye' posts all focused way more on Bobby leaving the 118 than Peter leaving 911. Oliver and Ryan aren't even trying to sell it. Aisha had to change her post twice. And Kenny overplayed the replying to upset viewers bit too much. It hasn't been done well at all, but we're here. The important thing is that Bobby won't really be dead. And Tim being a co writer for the episode ups the chances of a Buddie grief moment exponentially. I'm going to take the wins. Your character had his full circle moment, like the moron said, so take that and be happy as well. Because I'm pretty sure his part in the Buddie plot comes full circle in episode 16. He has served his purpose and in Tommy's own words the ride is over. But at no time was he ever really flying anything, other than up my nerves.

🤣 Thank you Nonny!!!

Why would anyone believe that L flew that helicopter for real? 🙄

I agree with most of this. It was a bad episode. There is nothing wrong with a character death on a TV-show, but the way they handled this? The random episode? The underwhelming death scene? The useless random helicopter scene that wasted time? The absolute lack of Eddie???

The whole follow-up that reeks of deception?

Yeah, it just wasn't a good idea and on top of that is was badly executed. 🤷‍♀️

But it is what it is. We are here now. So, we've got to move on from this. And we will... as soon as Bobby (and Eddie) returns to them and to us. 😋 I'm fully in the 'Bobby is alive' camp at this point.

As for Tommy? I also believe that his part in the 911, Buck and Buddie narrative will come to an end in season 8. It started with a helicopter rescue to save bathena and it ended with a helicopter rescue to save the 118. It started with him kissing Buck and it'll end with him walking away from Buck to make room for Eddie. His character's journey really has come full circle.

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If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[mosylufanfic]

Mosy, what are your thoughts on the Andor finale? 😬

The finale arc was . . . hmmm.

I loved episode 10. Loved it. One of my favorite hours of this entire show, seeing how Kleya and Luthen became who they were, the give-and-take of their fascinating relationship, how it had seeds all the way back to how they met and built to the choice Kleya made in the end because she had no other choice and Luthen would not only have realized that, he would have agreed.

11 and 12 blur together for me, and mostly felt like they were trying to move pieces into place to be ready for the start of Rogue One. So I'm going to talk about the season as a whole because now that we have a whole we can step back and look at it.

After letting it settle in for a few days (and, um, doing a lot of yelling on Discord), I have to say that I liked most of it. Really, truly, I did. I still think the first season, while not flawless (and other people have written lots about why) was some damn good TV, especially with how well Cassian's character changed throughout it, each segment flowing into the next, broadening his view of the galaxy and the futility of trying to ignore the Empire.

I think that the second season both continued some of the flaws of the first season and additionally was too crowded with stuff. It felt kinda like they wrote some big, interesting, impactful events first - Leida's wedding, the events on Ghorman in arcs 2 and 3, Mon's speech and escape from the Senate, all the events of episode 10 - and then put them in a line that had an endpoint of Rogue One.

I understand about getting cut down to one season from four. I feel like with that level of compression, the writers wanted to keep too many of their favorite things from the four season plan, so they smushed them together and then sat down to figure out where to put the connective tissue and how to run Cassian's storyline through it.

The connective tissue, however, wasn't connecting. We barely caught our breath between arcs before we jumped again. The characters and relationships that suffered the most for me were Bix and Cassian, and that's really sad, not just because I like both of them as characters, but because aside from a couple of sweet or funny moments, it failed to get me invested in the relationship between them that was posited as very, very important.

Now, before people tell me I'm just a silly shipper, I'll point out that in s1 they were slightly antagonistic exes, he left for something like seven episodes, and he rescued her at the end. That was where they were at. And suddenly they were married in season 2. We never saw that shift in what she thought of him, we never saw him decide to commit, we were just asked to believe that it had happened. And we were asked to believe that similar shifts (if not as monumental) happened between the other arcs. We got things like Cassian's overprotectiveness and Bix's trauma reaction(s) but they never seemed to go anywhere outside of the arc that they were in.

It's been covered extensively by others, but we always seemed to see Cassian's personal life at a crisis in each arc, without the necessary setup and follow-through that would have made the resolution of it land with the full weight.

Now I will say, anytime Cassian stepped out of his personal life and into tasks the Rebellion (mostly Luthen tbf) asked him to do, something clicked into place and I could believe that this was Captain Andor of Rebel Intelligence. Slick enough to pose as an Imperial pilot and steal a prototype, (okay, his escape was less slick but he got bad intel), savvy enough to manipulate the dipshit brigade while in chains, expert enough to assess a local rebellion, in line to be promoted, trusted enough to get called across the galaxy direct from a genocide to secure one of the Rebellion's most important assets. But what worked so well for me in s1 was that the personal was political, and he ultimately went all-in ("kill me or take me in") because of shifts going on in his interior self. In this season, his personal life was something he (literally) came home to after his work was done.

And I've yelled about how Bix's storyline, particularly in arc 3, didn't seem to follow logically from her character, either in season 1 or even in the previous arcs. I've read takes that Bix was focused on trying to create a home (making a home doesn't make her less of a mechanic or less of a rebel or less traumatized by Dedra), knew they weren't working out, etc, and I like those ideas, but that's not what I was seeing on the screen. And looking at the personal as political . . . In arcs 2 and 3, Bix had both all personal and no personal life. She didn't seem to be involved in the Rebellion except in a couple of missions that happened off-screen, and murdering Gorst in a segment that took about three minutes and went shockingly well with little to no prep. She served as Cassian's personal life, but her own seemed to morph between arcs into what was needed to create his story.

And . . . the ending. The two endings of that relationship.

When Bix left, she said, "Come find me after this is all over," implying that their great love story was just on hold while he did More Important Things. That said, Cassian did seem to have put the relationship behind him in the fourth arc. So it could be argued (if we'd been shown any kind of difference in the way they viewed their relationship with each other) that she believed he would find her, and he decided to let her go.

But even with that, the last shot with the baby strongly implied that if not for his sacrifice on Scarif, that great love story would have been picked up again. He would have been given a Hero's Welcome, his service to the Rebellion and the galaxy rewarded with a wife, a home, and a family - things he was trying hold onto throughout both seasons, in different iterations.

Since he didn't get that, they were his legacy . . . except Bix is not a legacy, she is a woman, with a life before him and a life after him. And his child is not a legacy, they are a human being who will grow up to live their own life and make their own choices.

His legacy in Rogue One was the galaxy and the Rebellion and the destruction of the Death Star.

(I really dislike child-as-symbol, by the way. I work with kids. Not a single one of them is Parent 2.0 or "a little piece of them" or their legacy. Not even one.)

There's a lot more I could say, but this is already a novel, and since I watched the show for Cassian's journey toward the man we got in Rogue One, that's what I focused on.

(Also? The Force Healer bit was weird. Just . . . weird.)

[aihoshiino]

You said that you have problems with how the LA characterized Ai, could you pls elaborate on that?

Note I haven't actually finished the LA myself. (I'm getting to it, eventually)

I'm working on a longer post about it as I chew my way through the LA series and the movie but my main issue thus far is a mixture of the show cutting some of her most important character moments and not making up for their absence with new or reworked material and making lots of small changes to her as a character that don't change a lot in the moment but really add up when they're all stacked on top of each other. The biggest problem is just that it comes off really obvious to me that Ai was just... not remotely a priority for the LA team and they either didn't care about or didn't understand her character as written in the original manga.

I get that's an extremely bold claim to make but it's really hard not to feel it, even just coming off episode 1. Like the anime, it adapts the first volume but pretty much guts it - it seems to be an exercise in cutting as much as possible while technically retaining the plot of the volume. And to be clear, this is because the LA episodes are only 35 mins and some change long, so that's a whole lot less time than the anime has to adapt the same amount of content. But the LA team's priorities in choosing what to cut and what to retain is fucking bizarre. Like... let me walk you through the episode in terms of how the material is adapted. Chapter 1 is pretty much entirely gone - the episode opens with about three minutes of a B-Komachi performance then some chopped up snippets of chapter 2 and Literally Two Entire Lines from chapter 1 before there's a bit of original material to bridge the gap for the MASSIVE jump the story takes when it jumps ahead to a mashup of chapters 5 and 6 that barely features Ai at all. From there, we move right to a bizarrely chopped up version of her "I'm a liar" joker monologue/flashback in chapter 8 and continue from there to the end of volume 1 with no other major cuts. It takes all of twenty five minutes for us to reach Ai's death and to make matters worse, the LA series retains the interview segments from the manga - so those twenty five minutes aren't even really about her. Being as generous as I can, I would say we don't even have twenty minutes to get to know Ai before the story then spends ten minutes gleefully oogling at its comparatively much more lurid and sensational take on her death, down to closeups of the knife in her body and having the child actors scream and cry and wail about it.

If you're looking at that summary and thinking "uh, well what about chapter 4? chapter 7??? CHAPTER 1?????" then it's my great the-opposite-of-delight to tell you that they're entirely cut with no efforts to incorporate the characterization into the remaining and original material. Everything those chapters tell us about Ai's self hatred, her sense of isolation and inferiority and the way her relationship with the twins helps her to become a better person is just... gone. Poof. Even when the LA series adds original material or even tries to do flashbacks later down the line, it's too little too late. The result is that not only is Ai a much less well realized character in the LA series but that the audience has way less time to give a shit about her and way fewer tools to understand her.

And as for the Ai POV/flashback stuff in The Last Act.................... god i don't have the strength to talk about that right now. I'll just say.... remember how highly I've spoken about how OnK handles the topic of abuse before? That for all his other fumbles, Aka Akasaka is a writer with an extremely good understanding of the pathology of abuse and that despite being despicable people, Ayumi Hoshino and Airi Himekawa are both fantastically well-realized characters, deeply human and that Akasaka both understand and expresses their pathology, their methods of abuse and the impact it has on their victims phenomenally well?

well, um. unfortunately, TLA does. the opposite of that.

[scimitar-and-longsword]

My A Knight's Tale The Musical Review! (Finally)

I have been sick as a dog since I got back from the UK, so I haven't had the energy to write anything about my thoughts on A Knights Tale The Musical. So here we go, nearly 2 weeks after I saw the show lol

(seats for night 1!)

In case you didn't know, A Knight's Tale is my all-time favorite movie. My daughter's middle name is Jocelyn after the FMC from this movie. I don't fuck around about A Knight's Tale!! We literally planned our entire trip around flying from California to see this show. Lol so in some ways I was always gonna be a very harsh critic but I'm also a huge Musical Theater fan and so I feel like I was primed to love it too. So keep that in mind I guess lol

(Andrew Coshan: Will, Meesha Turner: Jocelyn)

First of all: It was good, but it sacrificed the heart I love about the movie in service of making the show more panto/camp than the movie ever was (which I know is saying something lol) and I think that was a mistake.

Don't get me wrong! I had so much fun, we only had plans to see it once but ended up seeing it a second time and we noticed multiple changes even only 1 show later so obviously they are still tweaking and trying out things. (I saw it on April 24th and 25th and if the changes we saw just between those two nights are anything to go by my thoughts here could be completely out of touch with the show as it is being performed now)

(Max Bennett: Chaucer, Emile Ruddock: Roland)

The Good:

Costumes, choreography, staging, STUNTS, Acting and singing (less some things I'll talk about below)

Chaucer is a highlight, and his breaking of the fourth wall is so fun. He is the perfect character to be our narrator! Kate's expanded role is also such a fun change! And I like the addition of a romance between her and Wat, especially since we lose the background romance of Christiana and Roland from the movie with the role of Christiana missing here (an understandable choice). I also loved Prince Edward's expanded role! It gives him more of a clear reason for saving the day at the end.

I don't have much to say here as most stuff was good, but nothing blew my socks off. I promise I did really like this show (I saw it twice!!) but there's enough that I think would need fixing before a West End Transfer that I'd rather talk about those things more. But again, I need to be SO CLEAR this show was fun and overall did not disappoint a major fan like me lol.

(Eva Scott: "What" (why did they change the spelling of Wat's name???), Emily Benjamin: Kate)

The Mid:

Song choices... Some where inspired! But I think more than half were very strange. I think it was mistake to abandon the aesthetic set by the movie of exclusively 70s rock. Cutting Golden Years Short to shoehorn in Livin’ La Vida Loca was a BONKERS choice. But then Take On Me as a training/sword fighting montage was so fun. Idk. It was kind of all over the place lol. They also made a few songs choices that undermined character arcs and encouraged awkward laughter from the audience during moments that should have been emotional highlights.

Kate's Act 2 show stopping opener of "I'm every Woman" provides literally nothing to the show, no other main characters are on stage and Kate is not a character the experiences an arc. She's like third tier in terms of importance, she's a supporting character and giving her the opener to act two where there is no plot happening is 100% to show off the actress (who is awesome and well known in the UK theater scene- so like I GET why they would want to show her off... but we already had Holding Out for a Hero... and that song at least was part of the plot rather than just a showcases of pyrotechnics and a forklift lol) It drags down the plot of the show imo.

They reordered a bunch of stuff... Some made sense- like introducing Kate earlier. Some did NOT work (imo- this is probably the one thing that I could be convinced just rubbed me the wrong way because I'm such a big fan of the movie and I'm just mad it's not exactly the same 😂)

(Oliver Tompsett: Count Adhemar, Jay Saighal: Prince Edward)

The Bad:

The Tone is very confusing at points (see song choice above) every single moment of sincerity from the movie is undercut in the musical with a one-liner that was not there in the movie. Usually from Wat or Roland- but every character was guilty of it. Count Adhemar's Harold has a kind of fun but pathetic subplot in the movie of trying to be a Harold like Chaucer and in the musical the character is absolutely insufferable (same actor, but different role of Simon the Summonor was also fucking awful... )

One example that bugged me so much is the scene where Will is leaving home and tells his father he's worried he won't be able to find the way back home. In both the movie and the musical his father responds "don't worry William, just follow your feet." In the movie this scene ends with cutting back to Will thinking about that flashback crying alone- nobody else talking to him. It sets up his central arc going into the third act! In the stage show a young Roland- who is present in the scene in the movie but has no lines- undercuts the entire emotional scene by saying "and if not, I've got a map" as they leave the stage promoting a little chuckle from the audience.

That one scene is just an example and on its own would not be egregious in any way. But when every single moment of true sincerity throughout the show is turned totally to humor you're going to get the biggest problem I had with the show which is the ending falling completely flat.

This really comes to a head at the end of the show when (spoilers for both the movie and the musical) Will finally meets his father again, starts to sing- and both nights the audience started laughing. It was 100% not supposed to be a funny moment. Both nights the laughing petered out once the audience understood that this was a serious moment... Only for maybe 10 mins later the same thing to happen again when young Will comes on stage to sing the opening the lines to we Will Rock You canter stage, silhouetted by stars. Both nights the audience laughed it was not supposed to be funny, it was supposed to be a moment that set up the final confrontation of the movie and that gave the main character drive. This was even more confirmed to me when the second night we saw the show the actor playing Will got visibly and audibly more upset and cried more before he sang the emotional song with his father in an effort to signal to the audience that this was a sincere moment and admittedly there was less laughs that night- though there were still were some scattered chuckles.

Another BIG negative for me was turning Adhemar into this like camp mustache twirling idiot at the end. He is SCARY in the movie. He is a real threat to Will. And honestly, for most of the Musical he is too, but for someone completely baffling reason near the final confrontation he turns into this over the top silly dude, trying to fake Will out and shaking his arms at Will- running off the stage crying at the end... God it was painful to watch. Another instance of them kneecapping the actual emotions in this show in favor of quick dumb jokes. Hell, I even actually really liked his song choice- but some of the acting (or I suspect directing) choices here are fucking awful lol

Permit to be an asshole for a moment (if I haven't been already lol) but expanding the role of the "man in the stocks" from having like two lines in the movie to suddenly being a co-narator with Chaucer- as well as the only other character to break the fourth wall- is fucking wild choice. And he very much contributed to the tone weirdness. He's in like every scene delivering the worst jokes. Imo they should cut him from most of the show and give all of his stuff to Chaucer- even introducing Chaucer earlier as a purely audience proxy- which would make his naked appearance later in the show all the more shocking and funny in my opinion.

(our seats on night 2)

Final thoughts:

Idk what else to say, if I had to give a star rating I would give it like 3.5? I know I had a lot to say lol, but it truly comes from a place of wanting to see the show improve in future productions! It's solid, but in no way amazing. Good bones- lots of potential, which honestly for its first run is really not a bad place to be!

I am really glad I went to see it! There is never any guarantees with shows like this making it to The West End, let alone Broadway or touring the US, so taking this opportunity may have been my only chance to see a musical adaptation of my all time favorite movie.

And if it miraculously does make all of those transfers and I get to see it again someday, I will be so excited to see what changes have been made- and yes even which things I disagree with that they decide to keep in every iteration lol. Regardless of if I see it again I will always be happy that I got to see this first production twice!

Change Your Stars ✨🗡️🐎

Here is a video of the bows for funsies 💕