#same like i prefer this kind of stories to those where 99% of the episodes are about some political war game blah blah and 1% about romance

[weasleywizardpranks]

Bad batch finale rant

This is probably just me bitching and not being able to let go of things so my apologies.

I’ll just say that overall I’m not super happy with the final season. To me it felt rushed, so much happened off screen and it feels like we wasted characters. And what the hell was the point of Echo giving Omega the crossbow?

And I’m here to complain about how the Bad Batch were practically useless on Tantis. Echo and Omega carried that rescue mission, the bad batch just made it way more complicated. Also really missing Hunter’s insane senses. It’s like they were forgotten about.

Crosshair has joined the hot men of Star Wars who lost a hand squad.

I’m happy and sad all at the same time that we finally got a good mention of Tech after all this time. “Clone Force 99 died with Tech” will actually haunt my dreams. Hauntingly beautiful.

But I do wish we got to actually see a bit more of them dealing with their grief, especially Crosshair. I kind of get why, but it also just kind of pushed Techs existence to the side.

Speaking of Tech, I’m actually happy that he stayed dead. I much prefer that than him being winter soldiered. And I love that you get to see him through his brothers but especially Omega. His memory lives on through them. I do get the complaints about CX-2 though. The way he was handled led you to believe he was at least someone. Just for all of them to be no one.

I’m not shocked by the deaths, I think we all expected those. Hemlock got what he deserved.

I was a little shocked they actually stayed on Pabu just because that’s where the empire found them last time, but I guess they didn’t bother to look for her. Obviously the project continues in some way though. I’m happy all of them lived, and Emerie came along. It’s obviously setting up another show, or at least it better be because that’s a whole storyline we should see.

The epilogue. I will say I tend to dislike large time jumps anyway because I’m the kind of person that likes seeing everything. What was their life like? Did they ever travel anywhere? Etc.

1. I am very happy that Omega is a pilot and is going to fight for the rebellion. It makes sense that she would want to help. Tech would be proud.

2. Dilf Hunter the man that you are. It was nice to see him accept that Omega is leaving.

Here’s where I say that I suck at letting go. This goodbye seems so permanent. Stories that could have been told with them gone. Characters with minimal development. The fact that you don’t even see Crosshair or Wrecker in the epilogue really bothers me. I was expecting them to come out of the shadows or something but nope. Nothing. It felt like Wrecker barely appeared in the episode. Even if we got a time lapse or something leading into the epilogue so we could see them grow old with omega would have been nice.

I will say at least with Crosshair, his story I think has been done the best out of all of 99. A complicated character with a satisfying arc and a happy ending.

I really do think we should have had another season (or more). We barely got to see the Bad Batch together, we got five or six episodes I think?

It almost feels like wasted potential. We could have gotten so much more and it seems like we won’t be getting really anything. Maybe a couple of appearances in spin off shows.

Just overall the finale felt lacklustre to me. Not saying it was horrible, because it wasn’t. But I just have very mixed feelings about it. The fact that we don’t really get a goodbye from Wrecker or Crosshair bothers me immensely. But also nothing from Phee? Or any of the other side characters?

But that’s it for the Clone Wars era. Probably my favourite era and it gave me so many of my favourite characters. Ones I could relate to, ones that made me smile any time they were on screen. I’m very sad to see it go, but I’m really hoping for more clone stories because I’m not ready to let go of them. I’ll get over it eventually.

Mission accomplished

[rachelbethhines]

Vintage Shows to Watch While You Wait for the Next Episode of WandaVision - The 60s

So the 60s is the era that Wandavision pulls most heavily from for it’s inspiration. So much so that one could make the argument that each of the first three episodes are all set in the 1960s. Episode one pulls from the early 60s with multiple Dick Van Dyke refences, episode two is very Bewitched inspired, and episode three is aesthetically very similar to The Brady Bunch which started in ‘69. As such it was hard to narrow down the list for this decade and I had to get creative in some ways. 

1. The Andy Griffith Show (1960 - 1968)

The Andy Griffith Show gets kind of a bad rap now a days for being, supposedly, a conservative’s wet dream. People claiming it as such have apparently never actually seen the series. Oh yes, it’s very much set in white rural 60s America and will occasionally present the obliviously outdated joke, but the story of a widowed sheriff being the only sane man in a small town full of lovable lunatics, who prefers to solve his and others problems with negotiation and hair brained schemes as opposed to violence has far more in common with modern day Steven Universe than whatever genocidal fantasy fake rednecks have in their heads.  

As the gif above shows Andy Griffith was very subtlety progressive for its time. Andy was a stanch pacifist, pro-gun control, treated drug addicts and prisoners with respect, and all the women he would date had careers, ect. and so on. It’s not a satire making any sort of grand political statements but the series had a moral center that was far more left than many realize. 

But if it’s not a satire, then what type of comedy is it? 

The Andy Griffith Show excels in what I like to call, ‘awkward comedy’. See everyone in Mayberry is far too nice to just come out and tell a character they’re making an ass of themselves, so therefore whoever is the idiot punching bag of the episode’s focus must slowly unravel as everyone looks on in helpless pity until said character realizes the folly of their ways and the townsfolk come together to make them feel happy and accepted once more. Wandavision takes this polite idyllic awkwardness and plays it up for horror instead of laughs.  

2. The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961 - 1966)

The creators of Wandavision actually met with Dick Van Dyke himself to pick his brain and learn how sitcoms were made back then. Paul Bentley also took inspiration from Van Dyke in his performance of the sitcom version of Vision, while Olsen stated Mary Tylor Moore had a heavy influence on her character of Wanda. But more than just being a point of homage, The Dick Van Dyke Show was hugely influential in modernizing the family sitcom and breaking a lot of the unspoken traditions and ‘rules’ of the 50s television era. It’s also just really, really funny.  

3.The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962 - 1965) 

Bit of a cheat here. Alfred Hitchcock Presents actually started in 1955 as a half hour anthology show, but in ‘62 the show got a revamp and was extended into a full hour tv series. I knew I wanted The Twilight Zone to be covered in my episode one recap, but ‘The Master of Suspense’ couldn’t be forgotten. While The Twilight Zone reveled in the surreal and supernatural, Alfred Hitchcock pioneered the thriller genre and made real life seem dangerous, horrifying, and other worldly.   

4. Doctor Who (1963 - present day) vs Star Trek (1966 - present day) 

Just like how westerns dominated the air waves during the 50s, science fiction was the center of the cultural zeitgeist of the 60s. From Lost in Space to My Favorite Martian, space aliens and robots were everywhere. So naturally I had to name drop the two sci-fi juggernauts that still air to this today. If you thought that the rivalry between Star Wars and Star Trek was bad then you’ve never seen a chat full of Whovians and Trekkies duking it out over who is the better monster, the Borg or the Cyberman. But which one has the more influence over Wandavision?

Well Star Trek owes it’s existence to sitcoms. As with The Twilight Zone before it, Star Trek was produced by Desilu Productions and it’s co-founder and CEO, Lucille Ball, was the series biggest supporter behind the scenes, lobbying for it when it faced early cancelation. As with all things sitcomy, everything ties back to I Love Lucy in the end. However despite that little backstory, it would seem that the series has very little to do with Wandavision itself beyond being quintessentially American. 

I would argue that Wandavision owes much to Doctor Who though. Arguably more so than any show mentioned in this retrospective. Time travel, alternate realities, trouble in quite suburbia, brainwashing, people coming back from the dead, ect... just about every trope you can find in Wandavision has also appeared in Doctor Who at some point. As a series that can go anywhere and do anything, Doctor Who was a pioneer of marrying genres in new and interesting ways. 

5. Bewitched (1964 - 1972) and I Dream of Jeannie (1965 - 1970)

It’s hard to pick one series over another because they’re essentially the same show. A mortal man falls in love with a magical girl who upends their lives with magic filled hijinks as they try their best not to have their secret discovered by the rest of the world. And both have their fingerprints all over the DNA of Wandavision. 

There’s only two core differences; Samantha and Jeannie have completely different personalities, with Sam being confident and knowledgeable and Jeannie being naïve and oblivious, along with their relationships with their respective men, Sam and Darrin being married and in love at the start of the series and Jeannie chasing after Tony in the beginning in a will they/won’t they affair, finally only getting together in the last season. 

6. The Munsters (1964 - 1966) vs The Adams Family (1964 - 1966)

Fans of these two shows are forever sadden that there never was a crossover between them. Because they’d fit perfectly together. Both shows are about a surreal and macabre family living in American suburbia and disrupting the lives of their neighbors with their otherworldly hijinks. Sound familiar?     

The main difference between the two shows is the way the characters viewed their placement in the world they inhabit. 

The Munsters were always oblivious to the fact that didn’t fit in. They just automatically assumed everyone had the same personal tastes as them. Whenever they encountered anyone who behaved strangely around them they would write that person off as being the odd one rather than questioning themselves. As such the main cast was structured like a stereotypical sitcom family who just happened to be classic movie monsters. 

The Addams were well aware that they were abnormal and they loved it! They lived life with in their own little world and didn’t care what anyone thought of them. As such the characters were far more colorful and quirky as individuals but there was little in the way of refences to other horror franchises beyond just a general love of the twisted and strange. 

7. Green Acres (1965 - 1971) and the Rual-verse (1962 - 1971)

So the MCU is not the first franchise to bring viewers an interconnected universe to the small screen. Far from it, as sitcoms had been doing this for decades, starting with the ‘rualverse’. Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and Green Acres were all produced by the same company and were treated as spinoffs of each other, complete with crossovers and shared characters and sets. 

Of the three, the last show, Green Acres, has the most in common with Wandavision. A well to do businessman and his lovely socialite wife settle down in small town America on a farm in order to get away from the stresses of city life, only to find new stresses in the country. Eva Gabor, herself a natural Hungarian, plays the character of Lisa as Hungarian making her one of the few non-native born Americans on tv screens during the cold war. Despite her posh nature and original protests to the move, Lisa assimilates to the rural life far easier than her husband, Oliver. Who, as the main comedic thread, can’t comprehend his new quirky neighbors’ odd and often illogical behavior.  

8. Hogan’s Heroes (1965 - 1971) and Get Smart (1965 - 1969)

So as comic fans have been quick to point out, it’s looking like both A.I.M. (Hydra) and Sword (Shield) will be players in the story of Wandavision. To commemorate that here’s two shows to represent those opposing sides. Although in truth, neither series has anything else in common with each other but I need to condense things down someway. 

In Hydra’s corner we got Hogan’s Heroes. A show all about taking down Nazis from within. 

I love, love, love, ‘robin hood’ comedies where a group of con artists try week after to week to pull one over the establishment. The Phil Silvers Show, Mchale's Navy, and Top Cat, just to name a few examples are all childhood favorites of mine. However while those shows had a lot of morally ambiguous characters, Hogan’s Heroes has very clear cut good guys and bad guys, cause the bad guys are Nazis and the show relentless makes fun of the third reich as should we all. In fact I was watching Hogan’s Heroes while waiting for the GA run off election results. Fortunately my home state decided to kick out our own brand of Nazis this year. 

For Shield, we got the ultimate spy spoof, Get Smart. Starring, Inspector Gadget himself, Don Adams, as the bumbling Maxwell Smart. Get Smart, is a hilarious send up of Cold War espionage but the real selling point of the show, imho, is Max and his co-worker 99′s relationship. You can cut the sexual tension in the air with a knife all while laughing your ass off. 

9. Batman (1966 - 1968)

First was Superman and then came Batman. Yet while Superman was a serious action show, Batman was a straight up comedy. Showcasing that superheroes could indeed be funny. 

Also shout out for Batman being the only show on this list to have an actual crossover with it’s competitor, The Green Hornet. 

10. Julia (1968 - 1971)

Since episode two features the first appearances of Herb and Monica, let’s highlight the first black led sitcom since the cancelation of Amos ‘n Andy over a decade earlier. The show focuses on single mother and military nurse, Julia, as she tries to live her life without her recently decease husband, who was killed in Vietnam, as she tries to raise their six year old son on her own.  

The series is cute. It’s more of a throw back to earlier family sitcoms where there’s no fantasy and life lessons are the name of the game. It’s the fact that the main character is a single black woman is what made the show so subversive and important at the time. 

Runner Ups

There’s much good stuff in the 60s, so here’s some others that didn’t make the cut but I would recommend anyways. 

Car 54, Where Are You? (1961 - 1963)

I call this the Brooklynn 99 of the 1960s. Bumbling but well meaning Officer Toody longs to do good in the world and help anyone in need, but often screws things up with his ill thought out schemes. He often drags his best friend and partner, the competent but anxiety riddled, Muldoon into his escapades. 

Mr. Ed (1961 - 1966)

The grandfather of the sarcastic talking pet trope. 

The Jetsons (1962 - 1963 and 1985 - 1987)

Hanna-Barbera often took popular sitcoms and just repackaged them as cartoons with a fantasy theme to them. The Jetsons has no singular show that it rips-off but is rather more a grab bag of sitcom tropes that feature, robots, computers, and flying cars. 

The Outer Limits (1963 - 1965) 

The Outer Limits was The Twilight Zone’s biggest competitor in terms of being a sic-fi/horror anthology series. 

Gillian’s Island (1964 - 1967) 

The only comparison to WandaVision I could think of was that this is a sitcom about people being trapped in one place. But by that point I was running out of room on the list. Still it’s one of the funniest shows on here. 

So yeah, this took longer than expected cause there’s a lot, here. Hopefully the 70s will be easier. Which I’ll post on Friday. 

[mymadmedleyw]

Fic Writer Review

I was tagged by @dp-marvel94 (I am just saying this is my very first occassion to by tagged in a thing like that, so filling this made my day really, thank you!)

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

22 – wow, that sounds many…

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?  

206.997, and more than the half belongs under one idea – that’s creepy…

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?  

Oh, it’s many… once, I am into something, I have to write in that – surprisingly I am addicted to DP for nearly a year, and nothing else.

(But little bit of history, from the newest to the oldest: Danny Phantom, The Irregulars (that was really a short one), Guardians of Childhood/Rise of the Guardians (my very first finished multi-chaptered one was in that), Dark, Charmed (the old one, not the new series), Gravity Falls, Venom, Doctor Who, a crossover within Tangled: The Series and Milo Murphy’s Law, Death Note/Death Note: Another Note; and I had some ideas about a Rick and Morty and Gravity Falls crossover, and it seems I never uploaded here my concept about a not crossover Tangled: The Series idea, and either an independent one in Rick and Morty, hm… shame. Most of those are not finished. Okay, like 99% of it…)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Core (Danny Phantom), stand-alone, ~3k

What The Past Holds (Danny Phantom), wip, ~91k

Pitch’s Secret (Guardians of Childhood/Rise of the Guardians), finished, ~14k

We are not alone (Venom), really short one, ~1k

Phantom (Danny Phantom), stand-alone, ~2k

5. Which of your fic do you want more attention for?  

Definitely it’s WTPH. It’s my current work. The idea about it came in December, and since that, I am working on that constantly. At first, I had ideas for eight chapters, and nothing else. Now, it grew into this monstrosity: a side-line (Bonds Over Time), and a collection that contains the deleted scenes or ideas that appeared in my mind and could fit into the story (Bits Of The Past), and also an entirely finished concept for Vlad’s past (Certain Moment Of Time), that could be connected to it too.

I also put many headcanons in that, and ticks of characters, and parallels, and layers that I just love: like Vlad having a sister and some details about his family background, Dan having Vlad’s memories too, how the explosion in the Nasty Burger happened and how Dan turned out like that… some precious things, really, but I won’t elaborate much, in case of anyone wants to give a read to it. Overall, I tried to make the TUE-mess into a somewhat more reasonable logical mess – if I managed to do that at all. I don’t know I’m just like a mother with a new-born with it: look, it’s my child! I made it! I developed it! here, hold it! and love it too, as much as I do! (Sorry, I don’t know how that metaphor came…)

6. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Even if it’s a kudo, or a keysmash as a comment, I write back. I mean, if someone writes – literally anything – and spends time with it, I write them back too. (And my very bad habit, that sometimes, if the comment hits an interesting thought, I tend to explain the background behind that more, and accidentally spilling some things I shouldn’t yet... In many cases, it’s like a brainstorming, and then I use that idea. I mean as, for example many of @dp-marvel94’s comments on ff, made me to realise some things, and how then I fixed those forgotten parts made my story along with it much better – once, I will list them, and you’ll be surprised how long is that list, and how obvious things I forgot about entirely…)

7. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Okay, I don’t have many finished story – shame on me. So, I’ll count the shorts. I think it’s then Phantom. It rolls around the idea what if in Forever Phantom, Danny can’t change back to Phantom, and his parents blame Phantom for the disappearance of Danny, and they start chasing madly the ghosts, making them leave the human realm once and for all – which means, Danny has to go with them. It’s really a short fic, but I very like this idea, and it was my very first in this fandom. (I was watching DP that time, I mean, getting familiar with it, but this idea got stuck in my head as I watched that episode, so that was my introduction here. Also, I watched my very first DP episode that time, which means, less then a year ago, so, I am that newbie here…) I am not spilling the end of the story, but it doesn’t have a very happy end I could say.

8. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Uh, yes? I have a crossover within Tangled: The Series and Milo Murphy’s Law. It’s unfinished, but that time I thought Milo and Varian have the same vibe, including clumsiness. It was only a short idea that time, but it’s definitely worth once to continue or finish somehow. I have a crossover within Rick and Morty, and Gravity Falls. That is standing within my very big idea, but it’s halfway written on my original language and English and that’s like after how a certain trilogy end, but it has some mentioning of ideas I never finished, so yeah… it’s not even published anywhere. Maybe, once, I’ll decide what language I prefer for that, and translate the other part and then, hardly, but I’ll finish it some day... – or, never, it actually would be a very big bite if I try to imagine it.

9. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I don’t remember to that. I mean, my main story (WTPH) kind of not everyone’s preference, ’cause of Dan, so that’s already divides the readers and I haven’t got all in all many comments yet on my stories (kudos are appreciated too, I am shy too to leave comments on fics, so don’t worry, I get it), so I think I haven’t got any. But I'd be curious to experience if someone reads one of my stories and leaves behind a comment that then criticizing it. I mean, I’d be open to learn what part is not fitting, or just too much. (I am surprised that no one ever mentioned my ’weird’ sentences. I mean for me those make sense, but those make sense for a native English person too? I’m always worried about that…)

10. Do you write smut? if so what kind?

Uh, yeah, I did. Not very proud of it, though I don’t have a heart to orphan that work. I mean, it belongs to me too. Sometimes I wonder to delete some of my works, but then I realise, no, that’s me, I won’t pretend where I came from, and shove into the dustbin my mad thoughts... All in all, my stories now, for a while, are much more family-friendly – if, anything within DP could be really counted as ‘family-friendly’…

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah, I was very proud of my story back then, called Metamorphosis (Death Note), and I had a crazy idea and tried to translate it. So now, the first chapter is out there both in English and both in my native language, but I got stuck at the second chapter. I couldn’t translate wisely and logically the title of it to give out the many meaning it has in English. And I once tried to translate California (Gravity Falls) to English, but that would be a hard work, so I left it behind – maybe once…

Over that I sometimes has a crazy idea to translate back and forth my stories, no, beyond that, I haven’t had a fic translated from anyone else. And I think I am the only masochist that it ever crosses my mind, I guess…

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, not really. I’d be curious to once do that – maybe, but I’m not sure...

(To tell the truth, I’d be worried about that. I’d be glad to do that once, but I am anxious if I could understand my co-writer, or not. I mean, do you have any idea that I have to give five reads to any longer comments to understand it? I understand those (and I really love getting those!), but I have to give many reads to make sure I understand those well, and then, making sure, I answer back right, and my sentences make sense. My fics have ’fancy’ words, and I love working in English, but sometimes it’s a curse it’s not my native one. So then, I’m constantly worried about interactions, if I receive well something, and if my sentences are understandable for others or not. So, in short, you can see my struggle here… same reason I don’t do Invisobang, but I am considering it...)

13. What’s your all time favorite ship?

I’m not very much a ship-type. But I count Danny and Sam, as a fix point. (Danny and Val was nice and I’d have been very glad to see them in more episodes, but let’s face it, that wouldn’t work, because both of them are too stubborn to choose their other life and if once, they would face with each other, knowing everything about the other, they’d remain allies or at most very good friends.) If, the question is, what are the ships in my head (but not necessarily just ‘romantic’) that I prefer to read, well, it’s Dan and Valerie. I love their dynamics, especially in Deliverance. I don’t know why I just love reading it. 

For other reasons I ship Dani and Valerie. Though I can’t write romance and stuff like that, but in one of my planned ideas they are dating - sort-of...

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Okay, there are many. Surely, it’s my Gravity Falls story, called California, but that’s a huge one, and the first one in a trilogy (plus some additional side-lines), and mainly in my head for years, so yeah… I think I won’t ever reasonably finish that as it should be finished. A Tale of Fords (Gravity Falls) could be count as one too. Oh, and Envision and ties (Doctor Who). Sad to say, but yeah, I am always saying, “maybe once”, but I am not sure when…

15. What are your writing strengths?

Okay, this is a funny thing, but I’ve realised I can’t deal with many characters at the same time. So, I think my strength are dialogues and interactions within two people. And I get into their thoughts, so I guess if I have to word it somehow: it’s character-studies then.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Can’t handle more than two people. No, seriously, somehow it always turns out, the third is unconscious, sleeping, leaves the room, and so on. I’ve just recognised it recently, and it was a hilarious recognition…

I am also bad at actions, like very very bad, I don’t even try that, because my brain just simple can’t come up with fight-scenes at all. I think I only can write character-studies, and nothing else.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Oh, man… does it count I am not a native English-user? So, technically I ‘always’ write dialogues in another language? But jokes aside, sometimes, I have ideas that the people use another language, and I am like “are you aware, you can’t even write English slang?”, so then, I gave up. Right now, though, I am planning to add ASL in one of my future ideas. I am wrecking my mind, how to do that nicely – but that’s only a forming plan, and dated for next year, currently, I am only collecting ideas for that.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?  

Does it count my very first fic was a fanfiction of one of my friend’s fanfiction in high school? She wrote a really good story – not shared anywhere, we were just giving each other the hand-written exercise book (oh, the old days…). If I remember well, it was a crossover within Supernatural and Queen of the Damned (the movie, not the book). I had no idea about Supernatural, but the story was good, but I was not satisfied with the end, and in secret I wrote another end for it, to myself. I’m not sure where is that anymore, but I clearly remember that was my very first written stuff, and that’s how my origin story began and how is I am here now.

(Oh, and once, I wrote a H2O fanfiction short story to my sister as a name-day present, in which she was a mermaid, discovering her powers during a holiday at a beach (we were at that time in Croatia in a family holiday, so the timing was fitting), and that was one of my very first fandoms to write in it too… God, I have no idea why I wrote it down, it just crossed my mind, and I remember I thought it was cute, I think she was eleven or twelve that time, so I am not sure she appreciated as much as I found it fun to write that…)

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?  

This is mean… anyway, currently it’s WTPH, for obvious reasons. But I am very proud how the Angst Week turned out (my work for that is called Certain Moment of Time). First of all, I doubted I would be able to write for every day, since I planned to do the whole DannyMay, but things turned out differently and I am still sad, I haven’t done many. But I did not just managed to write for all days, but all could be counted under one idea, and also each of the chapters could be read independently at the same time. It includes a little bit of background story about Vlad, about a rewritten time, his struggles at the hospital, things around Danny’s birth, how Danny managed to survive the Portal incident, how Vlad was informed about the Ghost Boy, and that actually Danny’s separation was just a ‘plan B’ that Vlad tried to avoid… it’s complicated to describe the many things in that, but when I feel WTPH an unescapable mess, and I am frustrated by the lack of proper words to finish the coming chapters, CMOT is my absolute favourite. And I love the whole idea about it. No, I’ll be honest, that’s my beloved so far (just because it’s finished). But I like so much too my idea about Dan and Dani in Bonds Over Time, how they try to live together a normal life… okay, let’s admit it, this question is mean, I seriously can’t tell, and I am thinking right now only my current ones…

20. What fic are you most proud of?  

Okay, this is mean too. I am proud of my old works as much that I always go back to them when I am in a nostalgic mode. (I haven’t read any of my old ones in ages, because I try to avoid distractions, and knowing myself, I’d start thinking about the continuation and never finishing my current works at all...)

I am proud of Pitch’s Secret, because that was my very first multi-chaptered one idea that I actually managed to finish. That in fact, gave me the courage to start working on a multi-chaptered DP one. (My original plan was to be brave and aim doing eight chapters, to top the five, and I would have been very proud of myself, but instead now it’s way longer than that original idea, and I seriously don’t know when it will end – twenty chapters maybe?)

I think, if I don’t include the previous question. (It’s the same, isn’t it?) I am very proud of the first chapter in my Doctor Who fic. That doesn’t tell anything about the plot or about anything, that just gives a very good atmospheric background. Every time I read that, it gives me shivers.

---

okay, I don’t know who to tag, anyone who feels like it, serve yourself, I am curious... :)

[longinglook]

I may or may not have spent my entire Sunday binge watching all of I told sunset about you and Gaya sa pelikula and now I have so many thoughts and feelings that I need to write about them so here we go! Under a read more (if tumblr allows me to) because it’s 2k words hehe

First of all, I knew next to nothing about both shows before starting them. I had seen a couple of gifs here and there, but really had no idea what I was in for.

I started with I told sunset about you, which has 3 episodes out of 5 out. All I knew is that it was going to be beautiful and possibly sad, and it was. Everything about this show is so high quality, from the audio to the dialogue to the locations to the acting, just wow. The production is better than a lot of movies I’ve seen, and every technical aspect is perfect. I am really loving the plot so far as well, I find the childhood friendship to stubborn rivalry to grown up friendship again very relatable. I think it’s a very common experience for a lot of non straight folks to develop an extremely close bond with a same sex friend when you’re too young to realize what you’re actually feeling for them until you’re a lot older and suddely the jealousy and possessivenes all make sense.

I love the recurring themes sprinkled throughout the episodes, starting from the chinese vocabulary that expresses the core thoughts of the two main characters: rival, intimacy, secret, male protagonist, as promised. They could easily be the episode titles, or the names of imaginary sections the show could be divided into. It’s a great way to integrate metaphors and deeper meaning into the plot.

That’s how most of the communication goes in this show, deep emotions are never conveyed through words because words are scary and loud and they can’t be taken back once they’re out there. The plot advances though stares and gestures and touch and gorgeous shots of the landscape. The pace is slow with hour-long episodes that could each be a movie of their own. This worried me a bit before starting, and I have to admit that at times I struggled to stay focused, especially during scenes that set the mood but don’t do much plot-wise. This is just a personal preference, though, and in no way I see it as a flaw. 

The dancing around each other the main characters do, sometimes literal, is frustrating but it determines an emotional build up that’s just starting to reach its peak. This is one of those shows that has me screaming if only they talked to each other, but the silences and unspoken words are so well directed and acted that it works. I struggle a lot with keeping in mind that they’re still in high school, they’re very young and I can’t expect them to act rationally just yet. 

I was really worried about Teh possibly going the insufferable Theory-of-love-khai way, and I am still not 100% sold on him. When he started helping Oh-aew again it felt like he was just doing it to make himself feel better about the whole thing. It was frustrating to see him so possessive and jealous while also so deeply in denial about his own feelings, to the point where he had me rooting for Bas instead. He was getting better, but then he fled at the end of episode 3 and now I have no clue what’s going to happen next. About this, I really have no idea if they’re going for a happy ending or a sad one. I’m really hoping it will be good, because so far there has been barely any emotional payoff for all the repressed longing and misunderstanding the show has put us through.

I do like their dynamic a lot though, I have a weak spot for childhood friends reconnecting and an ever weaker spot for informal mentor/mentee relationships. Oh-aew asking Teh to tutor him until he passes the admission exam was an almost exact mirror of Yuri on ice Yuri begging Victor to be his coach until he retires and I loved that a lot.

Now on to the one issue I have with this show: it feels too much like an art film. It reminds me of Moonlight and Call me by your name, in the way that I wasn’t able to connect with those movies because they are too perfect. They are so beautiful and carefully crafted that I can’t fully immerse myself in them. There’s a filter that stops me from relating to the characters and constantly reminds me that this is not reality. It’s pretty, it’s extremely well done, but it feels like art. It has some quirks, some scenes that feel too artificial. One scene in particular, the one where Teh buries his head in the paper Oh-aew wrote with his coconut scented pen to sniff it, which is a direct parallel to Call me by your name, bothered me in particular. Just as it felt over-the-top and purposefully weird in the movie, so it feels in the show. It’s a way of showcasing how a confused teen deals with attraction he barely understands, it’s raw and animalistic in a way, but it’s so quirky that all it accomplishes is to remind me that I’m watching an lgbt show. It makes me wonder if a scene like this would make sense in a straight relationship because here it seems to highlight how different and primal his attraction is. If I had to pinpoint it, I’d say that I have a problem with media showcasing queerness though peculiar, purposefully awkward scenes like these instead of normal kissing and cuddling.

Overall, I can’t wait to see how this show ends and I still think it’s one of the best bls to air in 2020, if not ever. It’s refreshing to see something with a big budget used well! So far my rating is 8/10, which I know is a lot lower than what everyone else seems to think but it’s still very much subject to change! Just hoping they won’t pull a Make our days count, but I doubt they’ll go there.

And now Gaya sa pelikula. Wow. Again, I knew next to nothing about this show before watching, and I was coming from a 3 hour I told sunset about you binge watch, so the bar was pretty high.

And boy, did this show deliver. I was blown away by the depth and the humor of it. It feels like the writers had fun taking all sorts of common tropes and stereotypes just to show everyone how well they can be evolved and made complex. Two strangers who somehow find themselves sharing an apartment sounds like the start of so many fanfictions out there, but it’s so well executed and interesting that you don’t even stop to think about how weak the premises for their meeting are. It doesn’t matter and it’s not even that far-fetched, either. The sister and the neighbor are also two characters that start off as extra stereotyped, but in just a few scenes they unveil an incredible depth and backstory. It blew me away.

Each character is so realistic. Everything they do and say makes sense, they all have their reasons and their past and they react accordingly, it’s so coherent. It’s impressive how everything takes place inside the house and you barely realize it because things happen and the plot moves anyways, and the way information about external events and people is conveyed is so seamless that you don’t even notice it. In only 7 episodes (so far) they have managed to give everyone a complex background and personality through the use of objects and small details and wow don’t get me started on the music.

The soundtrack is SO GOOD. I never really pay attention to music in shows but it plays a very important role here in my opinion and, well, it’s exactly the kind of music I like listening to and ahhh I just spent 4 hours playing the first kiss song on loop so I might be biased. Right from the start in episode 1, when Karl gives in to Vlad’s music and starts dancing to it, it’s established that it’s an important element to the mood of each scene. I love how the dancing I talked about for I told sunset about you comes back here, but while I saw it as a hesitant dancing around each other there, here it’s the opposite, it’s freeing and it’s about accepting yourself. And the end of episode 6 highlights this, with the beautiful quote “You are entitled to a love that lets you dance without fear and shame.” It made me cry a looooot.

I think the development of their relationship is masterfully done. It doesn’t happen too quickly nor too slowly. Karl goes through some needed shocks that act as his wake up call. When I’m watching bl shows I care the most about them feeling real and relatable. I don’t want to feel like they were written by a straight person trying to guess what it’s like to be gay. Now I didn’t look anything up about the Gaya sa pelikula writers, but I’d be very surprised if they were straight. I can relate to both Karl and Vlad for different aspects of their stories and their worries and thoughts. There was one part in particular that hit so close that I had to take a few breaks because it hurt too much. I am a lesbian, I’ve had relationship with a girl that lasted over a year, I am out to some friends but not all. I never came out to my parents, who are both very open minded and friends with a lot of gay people and would love me just as much if I told them, and yet I can’t. It’s not just that, I am terrified by the idea of them already knowing or being able to guess. When Karl freaked out over his uncle guessing, it hit me so hard because I’ve felt the same way so many times.

Episode 7 was amazing. I hate badly written drama the most, and 99% of shows can’t come up with any good reason for drama but they have to put it in there anyways and it sucks. This was the complete opposite, I adored it and I say this as a lover of fluff. It feels right, I think it’s an issue that would come up between two people like them. They are both right and the only thing that could happen there is what actually went down. I definitely think things will be fixed by the end and I am looking forward to it, but I am very glad this issue was included because it’s so important and so true to many lgbt people’s lives.

Another aspect I absolutely adored are the multiple references to lgbt theory and language, and Vlad has some of the best lines I’ve ever heard coming from a bl. When he tells Karl not to be afraid of the word, when he explains that “you don’t look gay” isn’t a compliment, when he scolds his sister for not acknowledging the things she used to say to him by covering them up with her ally act, those are all such important and educative moments that I hope everyone listens to. I love that Vlad is not correcting some ignorant bad guy, but it’s his accepting and loving friends and family that make the mistakes, because sometimes being supportive your own way isn’t enough if you’re not actively learning from the ones you want to support.

This is a 10/10 for me right now. I can’t find anything I don’t like about it. It never feels boring, it never feels overdone, it never feels cheap or unoriginal. It went straight to the top of my favorite bls.

And now I can’t help but compare the two a bit, because yes they are two different shows but right now the relationships they portray have reached the same point: there has been a climax and now the one who is more confused about his sexuality is panicking and taking a step back. It’s a coincidence that I watched both shows on the same day when their last aired episodes end in such a similar way, but it really leads me to compare the two. I don’t want to put them one against each other or say which one did it better because that’s not the point of this, they are both two amazing and important shows who are excelling in what they’re doing. 

Gaya sa pelikula is down to earth, it’s explicit and it’s straight to the point in explaining what’s going on inside each character’s head. It feels like watching real people deal with real struggles. I told sunset about you is a lot more subtle and quiet, and since we don’t really have a clear insight in the characters’ heads sometimes it’s hard to completely understand what’s going on with them. It’s a completely different way of narrating, and while Gaya sa pelikula makes me feel like I’m a part of the events, I told sunset about you feels like I’m just spectating from an outside perspective. They are different choices, but one of them ends up feeling a lot more emotional to me than the other.

To wrap it up, I highly recommend both shows and I can’t wait to see how they’ll end! They are both among the best shows of the year, both free of all those annoyingly stereotyped characters and plot points that most bls tend to overuse.

[stupid-stew]

me but i decide who dies

amphibia true colors spoiler warning! this is about the owl house but i talk about a big part of the episode so like AH

ALSO MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH TOH WARNING! not a fic, just that's the whole point of what this is so like be warned.

ok, marcy kind of died. yes at least her body has been more or less preserved, idk how alive that makes her, but i'm counting that as an on screen death. reason? getting impaled with a massive flaming sword kills you like 99% of the time, exception being possibly marcy. but what does the on screen death in amphibia have to do with the owl house? soooo much, at least to me.

i would love an on screen death of a major character in the owl house at some point, i think it could add a lot to the series and give a new depth to the characters, but there are some exceptions to the rule

personally, the people that are off limits for dying are lilith, amity, luz, and belos. everyone else is fair game.

lilith is my personal fave, but that's not why i don't want her dead. a big part of season 2 is probably going to have to do with lilith, her involvement in the coven, but also her redemption. i know some people also don't like the use of the word redemption here, just go with it for the sake of the argument. as a part of said redemption, she has to be alive. killing of a character as a way for them to pay for their mistakes is literally so dumb, i hate it, and i refuse to let it happen to her. that level of self sacrifice shouldn't be a part of her journey.

amity, i really hate to be that person, but since we don't really know all that much about her character, this is mostly about her representation. amity is a kid, she has so much character development ahead of her, but if true colors showed us anything it's that no matter how young you are, you can still get impaled. i would love to see more of her and her growth as a witch, season 2 intro gives me really high hopes for her, but since lumity is most likely going to become full canon sometime in the next couple seasons, killing her off would eliminate that, and no more lesbian characters dying off because all they are is expendable representation, dana terrace would never i just fell like it had to be said. no i do not like amity just because of the representation she provides, but i think killing her would be a big mistake for that reason.

luz, she's our protagonist, this is her story, she started it, killing her off would be interesting but i feel like it would ultimately end the story. she really is the centerpiece of the show, though i might let up on this stance if it happens in the last episode of season 3.

belos, this is weird. i don't want him to die, he's such a good villain, and his corruption will live on without him, killing him achieves nothing at all really. that being said, him getting stripped of his powers and imprisoned? i can live with that.

i could sit here and explain who should die and who shouldn't and go through each character, but that's kind of lame and i feel like anyone who read this far doesn't want to read all of that, so i'll just tell you who i think should be the one to die.

eda.

i love eda with all my heart, i really really do, but just think about it. she's such an impact on everyone, she's really important to the series, and her dying leaves a lot of opportunities for a lot of growth in some very prominent characters.

yes my favorite category is angst, but it provides me with thoughts.

if eda died, luz would be wrecked. it would allow us to see her mourning the loss of a family member while being separated from another, and it would give her that revenge aspect we only really saw in ybos with her smashing the crystal ball with lilith's face on it. it would give luz a chance to openly experience some emotions we haven't ever really seen from her, we know she would do anything for eda, but if she has eda taken away from her, in front of her, sheeesh.

and luz is a big impact on everyone else, seeing all luz's friends around her have to deal with not only the loss of someone who hopefully becomes very important to them this season, but also the experience of seeing someone they love and care about dealing with it on another level? it could reveal a lot about them, and some characters more than others. especially king, he cares about eda and luz, and we don't really know much about how king and eda met, but he does consider her family, and luz is someone he loves, so him not only suffering the loss of eda but seeing luz going through the same thing could provide a lot of things particularly for his character.

and also lilith. her sister dying? after she spent all that time trying to get her back? after learning how much pain she had caused during her now shortened life time? and now being stuck without eda, probably having to fill in her role for a lot of other characters? it could add another layer to her that we hadn't really seen before. this isn't because i'm like trying to further traumatize lilith, but because eda's role in her life is an important factor here and it needs to be considered.

but if it happens, when?

i think around the end of season 2 would be ideal, but that's just given what we know so far. season 2 is going to be epic, i can feel it in my bones, and i want eda to play a large part in that, which is hard for her to do if she dies. like i said, she's a really important character, and i mean like not to be a copycat but i really think it should happen in a similar way to marcy's "death". by that i mean, there should be a battle, and someone (preferably belos in this situation) comes up and kills her from behind while she's talking to someone. it shouldn't be similar to marcy's situation exactly, but i think that sort of sudden oh shit she just died is perfect for eda's character so far.

even given what little we do know about eda's role in season 2, hopefully with gwendolyn showing up in her life, doing whatever it is that she does and causing strain, it adds a new dynamic to eda, with her having the mother figure inserted suddenly into her life instead of being the mother figure for someone else. and i probably sound like a hypocrite with the whole "no killing characters major development", but if she dies towards the end of season 2, she gets a lot of chances to grow as a character and prove it, especially with how massive her role in the series has been so far.

also, if it happened end of season 2, imagine season 3, hit the ground full sprinting and have the remaining characters take those 44 minute episodes to process and react.

this is obviously really dependent on what actually goes down in season 2 when it starts airing, and seeing as how all we have to go on so far is the episode synopses for the first quarter of season 2, this is really just my personal opinion, but i do think it would be really interesting, even if they have to pull something similar to marcy where everyone just thinks she's dead for a while, i'm totally for that too. it's really just about her place in everyone else's lives and how it would effect the series, i think she's the best choice.

[windbournefree]

AARON SORKIN'S "WOMAN PROBLEM" AND THE NEWSROOM

After binging on The Newsroom (and loving it) created by Aaron Sorkin I got to thinking about his reputed "woman problem" when some YouTube commenter described all the female characters on the show as "twits." That's a characterization I strongly disagree with, and will show why, but also can't shake the intuitive sense that his portrayal is rightly controversial. By that I mean it is right that it should be a matter of discussion, not that it is necessarily wrong. The people holding the discussion need to decide that for themselves.

First the bald facts. Women in this drama hold power: Leona founded and still owns the company, Mackenzie is the Executive Producer of the network's flagship news program with a male second-in-command and many male staff, Sloan is the acknowledged smartest person in the company with far more lucrative prospects awaiting her should she choose them, Maggie is promoted instantly from a personal aide to an associate producer by a woman despite her youth and inexperience. Women are in leadership roles with real power that they do exercise.

In their relationships to men, the women in The Newsroom engage in give and take.

Mackenzie may look at Will like a doe-eyed schoolgirl at times but she's in love with him and is self-recriminating about previous behaviors. She isn't like that with any other male characters. Even with Will she frequently takes charge and makes him follow her direction, which he does. Mac exercises real power in her relationship with Will from episode one on. When Will doles out his "punishments" she only takes them to the degree that she believes she should. She holds the power at any time to say, "That's enough!" which she does in regards to the engagement ring. When she does that he realizes he's gone too far and changes his behavior.

Maggie coddles Don in most of the scenes we see of them and breaks up with him mostly in scenes we don't see. I'd venture to guess that the early breakups happen because the relationship has no room for her passion and she gets tired of soothing his ego to make things work. In contrast, Maggie's drawn to Jim because he awakens and allows room for her passion. Most employees who confront and yell at their bosses as much as she does with Jim would be suspended and/or fired. He lets her get away with it to a degree because he recognizes that that same passion drives her to become an excellent journalist. And because he likes her. Both are true. Every once in awhile he has to reprimand her in public to assert authority over his team or it gives permission to his other staff to behave the same way. Maggie is no shrinking violet. She is strong and self-directed and refuses to allow a man to control her. Most of her errors come from inexperience and human frailty. None of them occur because she's a woman.

Sloan clearly wears the pants in her relationship to Don which, to his surprise, he doesn't mind. Ever once in awhile, though, they switch roles or just relate as equals. Don goes from dating the young intern who part of him wants to dominate to dating the highly intelligent, self-directed professional who no man can dominate and becomes a better version of himself as a result. Sloan's errors in her first broadcast about Fukushima occur not because she is scared by Will as a man but because she's scared by him as respected professional. His gender doesn't matter to her. When Charlie yells at her about it she tells him strongly, "Do not call me 'girl,' sir!" And that's to the head of the News Division.

Leona clearly rules the roost and fights with Charlie as an equal or as a subordinate, never as a superior. They fight the way old friends do.

In no respect are women as a class portrayed as inferior or subordinate to the power of men. So why do I get that intuitive itch that there's something old-fashioned about Sorkin's writing on gender relations?

I think it's that some of the male characters in The Newsroom tend to be the carriers of logic and reasoning while the female characters tend to be the carriers of emotional expression. This isn't always true: Sloan is highly logical (while also passionate) and Charlie is highly emotional (while also reasonable) and Neal carries both in balance. It's certainly true, however, of the Jim & Maggie relationship which is intended as a reflection of the older Will & Mackenzie one. Remember how, in episode one, Mackenzie points out Maggie to Jim and tells him that she's a younger version of her before she grew into herself and got hotter with age? And why has Jim long been Mackenzie's choice for supervising producer? Could it be because he reminds her of Will? I think so. I also think it's fair to assume that Sorkin does not intend for that rational/emotional dichotomy to typify all gender relations since he gives us alternate examples. More likely it's because Sorkin is a brainy guy who prefers an emotionally expressive woman to bring balance into his life. When he writes romance it comes out of who he is, what he likes. That's how he connects to the material at a feeling level. Some viewers may prefer a flip on those traditional associations and the Don & Sloan relationship may have been his attempt to provide that. It's not where Sorkin feels at his strongest or most natural, though, so he writes what he knows.

There ARE problems with The Newsroom, though, that I think if addressed would have reduced criticism. In no way should bosses be allowed to date subordinates over whose careers they have an influence. The producers decide what stories are aired. The career of a journalist rises and falls with the number and quality of stories they get aired. Dating a subordinate in this environment is a breach of ethics and most professional workplace standards. To be fair, Maggie was first an intern then a personal aide and only became an associate producer (journalist) as Don was on his way out so it wasn't a total breach; definitely in the gray area, though. The sexual tension between Jim and Maggie, obvious to everyone (as Sloan pointed out in the finale), often broke out into open conflict. Mackenzie should have addressed this conflict as their supervisor but instead encouraged it. As Jim points out it was Mac's idea for him to get together with Maggie in the first place. Again, it was Mac's advice to Jim to "gather ye rosebuds while ye may" that led to his and Maggie's first kiss and then Jim deciding this was wrong. Mackenzie's regrets about her relationship with Will colored her judgment and led her to offer advice that may have been okay coming from a friend but was inappropriate coming from a supervisor. She could have been rightly disciplined or even fired by HR if found out. Jim does decide that he can't date a subordinate however he feels but Mac should have intervened and threatened to move one of them out if they couldn't handle the tension in a professional manner. In the series finale Jim offers the Supervising Producer position to the woman he's in love with. How is that not an HR violation? How would Maggie's career not be dogged by rumors of "sleeping her way to the top" if she accepts it?

The other thing is the way emotional conflicts between several of the characters break out into office wide battles. Talk about an unsafe working environment! I can't see how the entire management staff wasn't fired on an almost weekly basis. And when Mackenzie commends Maggie for her loyalty by saying she wouldn't complain to HR if her hair was on fire I cringed. Is that the message you want to send out in a #MeToo world?

Aaron Sorkin says he likes to write "very romantically, very idealistically." The chaos in the newsroom is intended for laughs, not to be taken as a serious reflection of a workplace. The characters are flawed and frequently do not do what they should. The lack of HR supervision is even mentioned by a character in season one so there's awareness that liberties are being taken. I don't think there's an inherent woman problem here, just a production not as sensitive as it might be to the struggles women face in the workplace. There are good reasons why "no dating" policies are in place, why it's unprofessional to carry your personal life into the workplace. Workplace comedies routinely feature HR nightmares for the sake of laughs: Brooklyn 99 is a good example. We don't take them seriously. It's the sheer intelligence of The Newsroom and the realistic setting that may make the comedy part seem more serious than it is. Personally I see the show as a kind of joyful fantasy; Sports Night without the canned laughter. If you can separate the fantastic from the realistic I think you'll find that The Newsroom is actually very empowering for women.

[snkpolls]

SnK Episode 63 Poll Results (for Anime Only Watchers)

The poll closed with 114 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Manga Readers’ poll, click here.

Anime only watchers, beware of spoilers if you venture over to the manga readers’ poll results.

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RATE THE EPISODE 98 Responses

It would appear that the response to this week’s episode is even higher than last week’s, with 99% giving it a score of 3 or higher. Nice!

Amazing episode overall, it really gives you the feeling that something huge is about to happen

The best episode so far. Music was perfectly matched with animations. 

Hype

i liked it!

This was an amazing episode and I can't wait to see what will happen next !

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING MOMENTS WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 100 Responses

The cliffhanger at the end of the episode was by and far the most favorite among viewers, with 56% stating it was their favorite moment from the episode. It is distantly followed by the festival scene in which Reiner sacrifices his money to spoil the kids. And at a distant third, people got a good laugh at the stairwell scene where Porco gets spooked by Pieck.

WOULD YOU SHAMELESSLY EXPLOIT REINER FINANCIALLY IF YOU HAD SUCH AN OPPORTUNITY? 99 Responses

Looks like more than half (61.6%) of responders would agree to exploit Reiner financially (half of those without a hint of shame). Others would either consider it or reject the offer, in that order. 

RIP Reiner's money

WHICH FOOD WOULD YOU WANT REINER TO BUY YOU? 99 Responses

Pizza is the clear winner on this one (62.6%), followed by Desser at a distant second (25.3%). Just a little over 9% went for Sandwiches instead. The couple of other responders clearly cheated!

WHICH KID HAD THE CUTEST “BEGGING” EXPRESSION? 100 Responses

Gabi went ahead and knocked out her competition for this tournament (gaining 64%). Guess she really is cute, as she says. Falco’s in distant second (29%), followed by Zofia (7%). Poor Udo has gotten no love.

NOW THAT WE’VE SEEN MORE OF THE NEW CAST, WE’LL ASK AGAIN. WHICH NEW CHARACTER IS YOUR FAVORITE? 99 Responses

We’re back with this question, again. It would appear that Falco has won over the hearts of most responders, gaining 54.5%. Pieck the Enigmatic Cart Titan Shifter is in second place with a little over 25%. Gabi the Fiery Warrior cadet is in third place with 10.1%. Others gave their preference for Willy, Magath, Zofia and Udo in that order. Poor Porco has gotten no love! 

Love zofia but my favs always disappointed me.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF PIECK CRAWLING ON ALL FOURS BECAUSE IT FEELS “MORE NATURAL” FOR HER? 97 Responses

When it comes to the scene of Pieck crawling on all fours, almost 60% seemed to think of it as either a cute or even a hot (you know what kind of hot) moment. On the flip side, almost 26% thought the scene was disturbing or simply sad. A few others either didn’t seem to care or thought the scene was funny. 

Cute,but sad since she's adapted to being this tool for war of the Marleyans

fan service

Pieck got a dump truck

mixed

Y'ALL NEED TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND TOUCH SOME GRASS, YOU HORNY F*CKS

WILLY TELLS MAGATH THAT THE WARHAMMER TITAN IS PRESENT, BUT THAT MAGATH PROBABLY CAN’T GUESS WHICH MEMBER OF THE TYBUR FAMILY HOLDS IT. WHO WOULD BE YOUR GUESS? 100 Responses

In retrospect, we should have included an option for those who have already been spoiled on the identity of the Warhammer titan, based on many of the responses we received. We’ve blacked out the pie chart to avoid spoiling anyone. But, in order from the first choice on the list to the last available choice, the following options were most favored: Willy, the old man, the old woman, the blonde mother, one of the children, the woman serving food, and one of the guards.

MAGATH AND WILLY TALK ABOUT MARLEY’S SELF-DESTRUCTIVE WAR HISTORY AND MAGATH NOTES THAT IT’S TOO LATE TO STOP IT. DO YOU AGREE WITH HIM? 98 Responses

Most responses assert that Magath’s prediction will come true in the end and Marley’s downfall will be a result of its own conduct (little over 56%). Some others dissent, arguing that although Marley will probably fall, it will not be because of its own previous conduct. The rest either can’t say for sure, believe Willy’s plans will save the nation or simply don’t care.

WILLY TALKS A BIT ABOUT “HELOS,” THE GREAT HERO OF MARLEY WHO SUBDUED THE TITANS. HE SAYS THAT MARLEY NEEDS ANOTHER “HELOS.” WHO, IF ANY, OF OUR PROMINENT CAST MEMBERS DO YOU THINK THAT NEW HERO COULD BE? 96 Responses

“I need a Hero! I’m holding out for a hero to the end of the-“, you get the point. Everybody needs a hero, right? It would appear that a quarter believe Eren could fit in as this metaphorical “Helos”. Almost 20% believe that none of them will fit this type of role. In third place we have our recently promoted Protagonist, Reiner Braun. Other popular options included Zeke, Levi and Falco, in that order. Gabi was written in for one response. Looks like we forgot to include her in our options. 😅

gabi... i feel very early seasons eren vibes from her

IN A SIMILAR VEIN, MAGATH CRITICIZES THE HELOS STATUE BY STATING THAT IT IS HOLLOW INSIDE. WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS MEANS? 98 Responses

When critiquing the statue itself, Magath noted that it is hollow. In that vein, almost 38% believe that Marley’s defeat of the Titans in the Great Titan War is a hollow lie. Others (17.3%) believe the story will simply lack a hero in the end. Almost the same percentage (16.3%) think that Marley’s defeat of the Titans *was* genuine, but their subsequent conduct is anything but heroic. The rest either believe there is some thematic substance in that statement, but aren’t sure what it is or think that Magath is just a cynic.

WHAT IS THE TRUTH WILLY INTENDS TO REVEAL AT THE FESTIVAL? 97 Responses

When it comes to discerning Willy’s plan at the festival, almost 65% were convinced he wants to reveal something about the history of Marley and Eldia. In distant second place (16.5%) we had folks believing Willy wants to reveal certain information about the Titans. The rest were either not sure or thought he wanted to reveal info about something else entirely. 

the war

WHAT DO YOU THINK WILLY’S “SOLUTION” TO THE WORLD’S PROBLEMS MAY BE? 96 Responses

We got a rather colorful pie chart for such a bleak question. The slight plurality (27.1%) believe Willy wants to obtain the coordinate in order to obtain the control of all Eldians, others (26%) believe he wants to commit genocide on Eldians living on Paradis island or perhaps wants to obtain the powers of all Nine Titans. The rest believe Lord Tybur either wants to commit genocide on all Eldians in the world or wants to make with the Ethnic group. A whole array of different opinions. 

the war Genocide of Marlians

I don't really know lol

DO YOU THINK WILLY CAN CONVINCE THE PEOPLE TO GET ON BOARD WITH THE “SOLUTION” HE WILL REVEAL AT THE PLAY? 97 Responses

When it comes to convincing the audience of the festival to support Willy’s plans, the overwhelming majority believe he’ll be successful, either in part (majority) or in whole (minority). The rather miniscule minority isn’t sure and even less people believe Willy will wholly fail. 

I think Willy's speech may lead to a serious division throughout Marley between people that agree with his solution and people that don't

marleyans are a bunch of sheeps anyways so i don't think they will even question his "solution" as long as it's about getting rid of eldians

WE ARE INTRODUCED TO A WOMAN WHO GABI SAYS IS “AN EASTERNER FROM HIZURU,” WHO APPEARS TO BE SYMPATHETIC TOWARD THE ELDIANS. DO YOU THINK THAT THIS WOMAN WILL HAVE ANY IMPORTANCE IN FUTURE PLOT DEVELOPMENTS? 97 Responses

When it comes to the “Easterner from Hizuru”, it would appear that a decent chunk of responses believe she’ll play some sort of role in the story later, either in relation to Mikasa (42.3%) or the Eldians (16.5%) as a whole. Others dissent and argue that she’s there to showcase people sympathetic to the Eldians in the world instead (24.7%). Finally, some are simply not sure (16.5%).

DO YOU THINK THERE IS ANY SIGNIFICANCE TO THE BASEBALL MITT? 97 Responses

It would appear that Eren has a baseball mitt. Does it mean there is any significance to it? I don’t know. I’m just a ghost writing walls of text. Anyway, a plurality (42.3%) of those answering this question believe that there is (significance) and that it’s a hidden message from Eren’s “family”. Some others also believe in the importance of the mitt (22.7%), but aren’t sure of what it means exactly. Others take a middle position (21.6%) favoring a symbolic interpretation of the iteam. The rest simply have no idea. 

From monkey boy and his perfect game ? Idk why tbh

Maybe alluding to Zeke, probably helps Eren where to channel his hatred

DO YOU THINK THAT EREN CAME TO MARLEY ALONE, OR WAS HE SENT THERE BY THE SURVEY CORPS TO FULFILL A ROLE? 96 Responses

When it comes to the status of the SC and Eren in Marley, the definitive majority believe they are there with him (59.4%). Almost 22% think he is there alone and without the consent of the Corps. On the flip side, 14.6% believe he is there alone, but wholly with the Corps’ consent.  

HOW DO YOU THINK REINER AND EREN’S CONVERSATION WILL GO? 95 Responses

A rather interesting development exists in the prospect of another conversation between Eren and Reiner. Also interesting are the predictions for this question. Just a little over a third believe they’ll have a civil talk, in contrast to their talk from S2. A little under a third believe the conversation will not have any yelling, but will still be rather bitter. Others believe that they’ll either start fighting or engage in another shouting match. 9.5% are simply not sure.

Eren becomes attack titan probably

ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW MUCH WOULD YOU LIKE TO RETURN TO THE SURVEY CORPS/PARADIS RIGHT NOW? 97 Responses

Finally, here is another recurring question. How much do you want to return to the SC/Paradis right now? A little over 50% are very eager, though a little under 50% state that they can afford to wait a bit.

Marley is kinda boring

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

I feel like the story hasn't moved that much or maybe there are just a lot of things that haven't been clarified yet. I did read some spoilers of the latest chapters but I can't seem to connect the latest episodes to the spoilers I have read.

Mainly gave it a 4 because I'm in the middle between superb quality of animation and my lack of interest in the Warriors, but added +1 because we are finally getting back to the SC crew!

Gabi is still annoying as hell, she's the effing worst

The build up is nice

I felt bad for Grandad Yeager, wish Eren could have patted his shoulder or something. Guess he's an asshole now. Would love to find out more about the baseball thing.

I can't wiat 2 weeks, i'm going to cry

The more they focus on Gabi, the more unlikable and unsympathetic she becomes. I really hope we don't have to deal with too much more of her after this arc.

It really felt like the calm before the storm. Very interesting episode. I just know something is going to happen during Tybur's speech and Eren's talk with Reiner. Can't wait! 

Sucks to be Falco ig

Ughhhhh, just a fucking vibe of an episode. I'll say it.... I like Reiner now😌😌 yeh I know.  This episode made me love the warriors crew despite me not giving an f about them before. I hope porco is secretly in love with Reiner and explains why he hated him so much. Still waiting out for [redacted]’s new side part, hopefully we will see him soon. Well... till next week friends ~C

wait too long for next T-T

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 91 Responses

Thank you again to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again next episode!

[unwillingadventurer]

5 Shows

tagged by @missholson. Thank you <3

Pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions. Tag 10 (or however many) people.

So hard to pick 5. :D

1. Raffles, 2. Doctor Who, 3.Only When I Laugh 4. Life on Mars 5. Callan

Who is your favourite character in 2? Ian Chesterton (closely followed by Barbara) but we just love Ian so much. Love how brave he is, how adaptable and clever he is. But also with that humourous side and the chemistry he has with mostly Barbara but also the Doctor, Vicki and Susan.

Who is your least favourite character in 1? Definitely none of the leads haha. We weren’t overly struck by the TV Teddy Garland, he just wasn’t how we pictured him from the book. Can’t say there’s anyone we actively dislike though. Some really good side characters.

What is your favourite episode of 4? So tough. We’re pretty fond of the one where Sam is ‘high’ or deep in coma depending on how you look at it, and the others have to solve the crime and he watches them on the screen. Also the last ever episode was just amazing. Honestly love every episode.

What is your favourite season of 5? Anything from the black and white days really. Unfortunately there’s more missing from those but we feel they had more atmosphere that the colour never captured for us. Plus series 3 has no Tony Valentine lol.

Who is your favourite couple in 3? The only romantic couples really are Norman and whatever girl he’s fallen in love with that week lol. So no one on this occasion. They’re more of a trio of friends and its not about couples so much.

Who is your favourite couple in 2? Ian and Barbara of course. They work together perfectly.

What is your favourite episode of 1? ahhh, probably The Chest of Silver or the Spoils of Sacrilege. They’re probably the two we watch most. The Chest of Silver is just great for Bunny, and also Raffles in the chest and the blue sweater and telephone and bedroom scene ahh. Spoils is just a whole episode of adorable Raffles and Bunny ending with the pleasure of your company scene.

What is your favourite episode of 5? Heir Apparent. It just is all we want from an episode with just so much Callan and Meres together which we feel they could definitely have done more of as they have such a great dynamic. There’s a lot of good humour and action in it.

What is your favourite season of 2? Season 2. Season 1 has the great beginning but season 2 has so many good episodes in it like the Romans, Crusade, Dalek Invasion, Time Meddler, and has all our fave companions, Ian, Babs, Steven and Vicki but also Susan’s goodbye. Plus the Doctor is just great in this season.

How long have you watched 1? We first saw it in about 2011 or 2012 and then didn’t watch it again for a few years and then in 2018 we watched it again and read the books and then fell back in love with it.

How did you become interested in 3? Through liking old TV and Christopher Strauli. It was a sitcom we never heard of and then our parents told us that we’d like it as it had James Bolam and Chris and was just a funny show that had been a bit forgotten. It’s honestly as great as some of the other better known sitcoms. 

Who is your favourite actor in 4? Ooh, probably John Simm. They’re all great but he really has to carry that show and is in like 99% of scenes. He doesn’t get the humour the others get so has a lot to get across. He definitely made us cry.

Which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5? Don’t make us choose between Doctor Who and Raffles. if its just Doctor Who overall then Raffles wins but if its the One era then we can’t choose, both mean so much. Callan is great but not to the same obsession.

Which show have you seen more episodes of, 1 or 3? We’ve seen all the eps of all these things. Raffles doesn’t have many eps and Only When I Laugh is only like 30 eps or something.

If you could be anyone from 4, who would you like to be? Wouldn’t want to be in Sam’s situation lol. Kind of liberating to be Gene and say what you think without any worries. Annie possibly.

Would a crossover between 3 and 4 work? Only When I Laugh would be better with Ashes to Ashes as both the 80′s. It’d have to be Only When I Laugh set in the 70′s and Sam is investigating something or it could be 2006, the ‘only when i laugh’ guys are in hospital again and Sam is in a coma there.

Pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple? ha can’t think of anyone. Raffles and Bunny are the only pair for us.

Overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5? They’re completely different. Only When I Laugh is generally episodic about three guys in hospital so the stories are fun but very self contained and simple, sometimes like plays. Callan is a spy drama so more complex and layered so can’t choose.

Which has better theme music, 2 or 4? Doctor Who hands down. One of the best themes out there. But Life on Mars has a great soundtrack of 70′s songs. We have the CD and love it. The theme is ok but can’t compete with Doctor Who.

Tagging @wolfiejimi @the-prince-of-professors @ilwinsgarden @ludojudoposts @demigodofhoolemere @nilo2207 @tremendousdetectivetheorist @missanthropicprinciple @lizchristina and anyone else who wants to do it :)

[burnouts3s3]

Maria-sama Ga Miteru, a blu-ray review

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.) Just the facts 'Cause you're in a Hurry! Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP):  99 USD How much I paid: 69.99 USD, the Pre Order price Animation Studio: DEEN Original Localizer: Nozomi Entertainment Licensed and Localized Currently by: Sentai Filmworks Audio: Japanese Audio with Subtitles Number of Episodes: 39 Episodes and 5 OVAs equaling a run time of 1237 Minutes. Length per Episode: 25 Minutes on average. 21 Without Intro and Ending song. Length per OVA: 50 Minutes on Average Number of Discs: 8 Blu Ray Discs Episodes per Disc: Seasons 1, 2 and 4: Episodes 1 through 9 on the 1st Blu-ray Disc. Episodes 10 through 13 on the 2nd Blu-ray disc as well as “Don’t Let Mother Maria Know”, funny ‘outtakes’ of the characters in Chibi From. Season 3: OVAs 1 – 3 on 1st Blu-ray Disc. OVAs 4-5 on 2nd Blu-Ray Disc. Aspect Ratio: 4:3 for Seasons 1 and 2. 16:9 for Seasons 3 and 4. Are there plans for a DVD release?: A DVD release of the series exists from Nozomi Entertainment. Does this come a digital voucher to redeem?: No. This only has the Blu-ray discs. Also on: HiDive, Sentai Filmwork’s Streaming Service. Bonus Features: Clean Opening Animation, Clean Closing Animation and “Don’t tell Mother Maria”, ‘outtakes’ of the characters in chibi form. Notable Localization Changes: Onee-sama, a popular phrase Yumi addresses Sachiko with, has been translated into “Dear Sister” (which is more or less the same thing). Honorfics such as –san or –sama have been omitted in the subs or changed. (For example, when a character refers to Sachiko as Sachiko-sama, the subs translate it into “Lady Sachiko”). Make of that as you will. My Personal Biases: I actually reviewed Marimite a long time ago on this site. I still hold fond memories of the show to this day.

My Verdict: A long running staple of the Shoujo genre and said to have kickstarted the Yuri trend that gave us Kannazuki no Miko, Strawberry Panic, Aoi Hana and Sasameki Koto, Maria-sama Ga Miteru still holds up to this very day. And thanks to Sentai Filmwork’s ability to print it on Blu-ray, now even newcomers can enjoy the quiet campus of Lilian Academy. Buy it! Maria Sama Ga Miteru, a blu ray review

“The Maidens who assemble in Mother Maria’s Garden have such angelic smiles that today, too, they pass through the tall gate. Their pure bodies and minds are wrapped in dark colored school uniforms. The pleats on their skirts shouldn’t be noticeable. Their while sailor collars should always be tidy. Walking slowly is preferred here. St. Lilian’s Academy is a Garden for Maidens.”

Our Protagonist, Yumi Fukuzawa, is a freshman in St. Lillian Girls’ academy, an all-girls Catholic School. One day, while praying in front of the Virgin Mary, Mother Maria, someone comes up to her. It is none other than the school’s idol, Sachiko Ogasawara. While Sachiko fixes Yumi’s collar, Yumi’s friend, Tsutako, takes a photograph and blackmails Yumi to get the scoop. While Yumi goes to the Yamayuri council, which acts as the governing body for the school, Sachiko storms out of the room and trips on top of her. Sachiko attempts to make Yumi her petite Souer. Through the Souer system, upperclass girls can make a lowerclass girl their ‘sister’ by handing them a Rosary. If the underclass girl accepts, they become partners and look after each other until graduation. While seemingly innocent at first, the system can lead to all sorts of conflicts and misunderstandings but also joy and laughter. This is the story of how Yumi first accepts Sachiko’s Rosary and ends when she eventually bestows that rosary to another.   I really love Yumi as a character. While she does act as the ‘ordinary outsider’ meant to be the audience Point of view character, there’s a charm to Yumi. She’s actually very quick on her feet, eager to help and very kind and friendly. She does make mistakes but there’s a very human quality and the small moments where she shines (initially rejecting Sachiko’s rosary, practicing her routine to impress the graduating Seniors, helping out during the school festivals, standing up to some rich snobs) that really makes her shine. (Though I will give some credit to Yumi as she manages to possess proper hand eye coordination and inner ear balance that her successors Himeko Kurusugawa and Nagisa Aoi seem to lack.) In some ways, Sachiko was the inspiration that lead to the creations of such characters such as Shizuru Fujino from My-Hime, Chikane Himemiya from Kannazuki no Miko and Shizuma Hanazono from Strawberry Panic. On the surface, Sachiko is a cold, stern and almost unbendable force of nature, bent on getting her way. However, slowly but surely, Yumi melts the icy exterior to find the human underneath. (It also helps that Sachiko occasionally is the butt of the joke at times, such as, being her first time at a fast food restaurant, she remembers to order correctly and pay the server, but forgets to pick up the food). Among my favorite characters is the adorably lovable Satou Sei, a senior of the school and the canon lesbian of the show. Sei is often flirtatious but also very humorous to boot.  There’s a sort of fandom clash as many people ship Sei and Yumi together and Shimako and Sachiko together.  (There’s the implication that if Sei had not picked Shimako to be her petite seour, she would have picked Yumi and Sachiko is jealous of that fact since she wanted to give Shimako her rosary first, but Shimako refused her). Rounding out the cast are Rei and Yoshino, a Kendo Senior and her sickly cousin who might switch the idea of a tomboy on its head and Touko, Sachiko’s cousin who’s prickly exterior might hide someone much more vulnerable and Noriko, a girl who might share a love of Buddhist statues the Shimako does. A lot of people cite Maria Watches Over Us (or Marimite for short) as the revitalization of the Class S genre, which focuses on romantic friendships between school girls. A lot of people have pointed out that the genre has had its fair share of negative stereotypes and doesn’t exactly portray a healthy or realistic relationships for young queer women. But, I’ve always stated I would rather have a problematic show that affects me emotionally over a well-meaning show that has a good social message but leaves me cold. Of course, the show is self-aware of its genre roots and occasionally pokes fun at it. (At one point, Yoshino does the ‘rich girl laugh’ with another person and all it does is draw unwanted attention from passerbys). If there’s definitely a weak spot to the series, it’s definitely the animation. Panning shots and freeze frames are all present here, but the direction is solid enough where you’re enjoying it even when you notice the stitches and seems. (It’s an early 2000’s show centering about the school lives of ordinary girls. What were you expecting, Darling in the Franxx?) Granted, Season 3 is when the animation quality (as well as the aspect ratio) picks up but even the older seasons are passable and enjoyable to watch. What sells the show isn’t necessarily the animation, but character interactions with one another. Those looking for Women Love Women relationships probably aren’t going to find it here, but it did lead to the inspiration for other works to tackle. Each movement, each subtle touch or facial reaction or slip of the tongue feels weighty. You can tell there’s so much more being said than what’s on the screen and the characters missing or picking up on those subtleties really is the highlight. Season 3 is where the show changes format from a half hour episodic series to an hour long OVA (Original Video Animation) format and they play out more like self-contained movies than a series of over-arching episodes. And yes, the blu-rays also include “Don’t let Mother Maria Know.”. These are a series of humorous shorts included with the original DVD releases that contain cartoonized versions of the characters engaging in very silly behavior and outtakes. 

After Nozomi Entertainment sold the rights off, Sentai Filmworks bought them and did a pretty good job localizing the show. The show contains no English Dub, but translates the Japanese text to pretty close to its original source material. One thing to note is the lack of honorfics. Honorfics are titles one refers to when addressing another person, like –san meaning Mr. or Ms. in English. “Onee-sama” is translated to “Dear Sister” while “Sachiko-sama” is translated to “Lady Sachiko”. (Though for some reason, Kashiwagi’s nickname for Sachiko, Sacchan, is kept in). CAVEAT: There’s the implication that Maria Watches Over Us feels dated in its depictions of girls’ relationships and class differences and promotes not quite so healthy relationships. But, had it not been for Studio DEEN and the characters of Yumi and Sachiko, we might have never gotten Himeko and Chikane or Shizuru and Natsuki or Fumi and Akira or Kazama and Sumika or Kase and Yamada or Touko and Yuu. Hell, even Flip Flappers did a parody of Marimite for an episode. With Nozomi Entertainment selling off the rights (as well as Seasons 2 and 3 DVDs being sold for outrageous prices), Sentai Filmworks has done the anime community a service by preserving this work and making it available to Western audiences. So, it all but depresses me to know that this great work will go unnoticed while the inevitable fans order the next Umaru merchandise instead. If you have enough of an attention span to watch a show that doesn’t have constant explosions, fanservice or attack names being shouted out, it’s definitely worth a look see. Of course, speaking as someone who binge watches Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure during his off hours, I enjoyed every bit I had with Maria-sama ga Miteru.

Verdict: Buy it!

[pass-the-bechdel]

Continuum Season Three Full Review

How many episodes pass the Bechdel test?

92.3% (twelve out of thirteen)

What is the average percentage per episode of female characters with names and lines?

35.1%

How many episodes have a cast that is at least 40% female?

Six, episodes 3.02 “Minute Man”, 3.03 “Minute to Win It”, 3.04 “A Minute Changes Everything, 3.05 “30 Minutes to Air”, 3.08 “So Do Our Minutes Hasten,” 3.10 “Revolutions per Minute.”  

How many episodes have a cast that is less than 20% female?

One, episode 3.09, “Minute of Silence.”

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Twenty-four.  Eleven who appear in more than one episode, five who appear in at least half the episodes, and one who appears in every episode.

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Forty-six. Eighteen who appear in more than one episode, nine who appear in at least half the episodes, and none who appear in every episode.

Positive Content Status:

Aside from a higher average percentage of female characters per episode—and, not coincidentally, a much higher Bechdel score, there isn’t much to note. (Average score of 3.0)

General Season Quality:

Easily the best season so far, in terms of juggling storylines and characters. 

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) under the cut:

As solid as season two of Continuum was, it often quite felt as if it was ultimately stretched thin, with too many balls aloft. Looking at season three, it seems like the showrunners agreed, as many of the plotlines set across that season are quietly pushed aside—more on this later—and the result is a season that, while still juggling a lot, feels a lot more cohesive.

The show’s decision to reboot itself by shunting Kiera and Alec to a different timeline is one of those things that would normally give me pause: why should I care about Travis or Garza’s deaths, if they’re going to be undone? Why should I care about the previous two seasons, if, as this season suggests, it’s events were a tangential, transient part of Kiera’s life? And what of Carlos and Betty forming an alliance with Julian, one of the season two finale’s most interesting tidbits?  As was noted in a conversation I had about the series, there is the risk of the show turning into something like The Good Place, where the continuous reboots and mindwipes can’t help but exhaust.  

And yet…it works. Part of it is because time travel is part of Continuum’s core premise, even when it means only going back a week, and part of it is because the series actually understands the implications of what it’s doing. Yes, it’s weird to hear Carlos treat Red Kiera and Green Kiera as completely different people when the only things separating them is a week. And yet, he’s perfectly right: to paraphrase an episode title, a week changes everything, and the characters we meet throughout this season are not the ones in the Red timeline.

Furthermore, while the season abandons the Red timeline, it does not forget it, and the writers are able to use our knowledge and expectations to good effect. The story of Betty’s role as a Liber8 mole gains more poignancy because we know how it played out in another universe, where Carlos was more disillusioned with police work and more willing to choose her over the CPD. Alec’s anger over things like Escher and Emily feels more deliciously ironic, given what he doesn’t know about them. And of course, we get yet another set of complications, as Red Kiera and Alec’s presence in the new timeline throws it completely out of whack, completely derailing the future as we’d come to know it.

One of my favorite moments about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, a series with a similar prevent-the-future premise to Continuum’s, occurs when Derek Reese and Jesse Flores, lovers and time-traveling freedom fighters from a future in which humanity battles terminators for survival, realize they don’t actually come from the same timeline. While their timelines of origin share generalities—enough that they don’t realize this until they’ve been interacting for weeks, if not months—they are not identical—Jesse has memories of experiences that did not occur to this version of Derek, and vice-versa. It remains one of television’s more interesting attempts to deal with the mechanics of time travel and timeline-altering, and similar elements form the backbone of this season of Continuum. And it works really well. 

While the previous seasons played coy when it came to answering whether Kiera and Liber8’s shenanigans were helping prevent their version of 2077 or ensure it played out, by this season, it is clear that it is the former. While this means that Liber8 technically succeeds, it also means that the future it’s created also has time travelers, including some that may prefer the future where the world is owned by corporations to the one where Liber8’s presence brings them down (along with everyone else). It’s a smart expansion of the show’s premise and universe, and the timing couldn’t have been better: while the Kiera / Liber8 conflict is more interesting this season than it had been in the past (not that it was ever un-interesting) it also wasn’t a thing that could continue indefinitely. Something needed to change, and this season does that, and quite well.

Still, the biggest change isn’t the timeline shenanigans, but the one that occurs within Kiera herself. As mentioned, one of the more interesting things about Continuum during the first two seasons is that Kiera was, when one looked at the big picture, the bad guy.  Liber8 may have had the body count to justify all the energy that’s expended to stop them (although it’s worth noting that this season has the group taking pains to make their campaign less reliant on indiscriminate bloodshed) but Kiera is the one supporting the continued oppression of the 99%.

While the first two seasons of the show got a lot of mileage from the dissonance between Kiera’s politics and her role as hero, this one finally begins the journey to her epiphany, and the road to her realizing that her 2077 cannot be allowed to exist—even when doing so guarantees that her son will not exist either—is one of the season’s best stories, and it not only again cements her as one of the top-tier sci-fi protagonists on television, but also leads to the series’ biggest “hell yeah” moment to date, as she teams up with Liber8 in order to prevent both the future she knows and a far worse one. 

On that note, if there’s an element that consistently doesn’t work this season, it’s the addition of Brad Tonkin as a love interest.  As mentioned before, he makes sense from a storytelling perspective: he’s reverse Kiera, the spouse and parent from the future who willingly gets himself stranded in the past in order to change the future.  Furthermore, there’s plenty of other reasons for him to be there: he not only provides proof that the battle being waged in the present has concrete (and terrible) consequences, but he’s also vital to the season’s “who killed Green Kiera?” subplot. I’m not sure if him and Kiera bonding the way they have is an example of a romance that’s been shoehorned in, one that simply hasn’t had time to develop, or one that makes sense for the kind of characters Kiera and Brad are, and frankly, the answer doesn’t matter: it still strikes a very odd chord, and while it’s not an entirely unpleasant one—there’s something weirdly appealing about all their interactions—I can’t help but feel that it didn’t need to be here.

Season three is Continuum’s best season so far when it comes to the Bechdel test, with all but one episode passing.  At the same time, this is an excellent showcase of the incompleteness of the Bechdel test as a measure of feminism—that improvement doesn’t translate into a better positive content score.  Furthermore, it’s hard not to notice that this season ends with the loss of three key female characters, who are also all three women of color.  While the show still has considerable racial diversity, all of it is male, and that is a problem.  It feels odd that a show that is so fundamentally political can also be negligent when it comes to things like this, but that’s also not surprising, or new.

Still, it’s hard not to accept these circumstances, given how solid the season is as a whole, and just how different Continuum continues to be.   For its faults, its singular and very defined point of view—a rare thing, in TV, especially when it comes to entities as deified as the police—combined with its skill at under-appreciated storytelling elements like world-building and cast juggling, continue to make it  pleasure to watch. 

[exotic-panda]

Aw nuts! You found a Michael-stan post! Here’s an FAQ on how to deal with those obnoxious posts:

“He’s the Antichrist! He’s the embodiment of evil!”

In the bible, yes. But this is a TV show, and Michael is a fictional character, so the rules are different. Michael started out with impulses, but learned to control them. To quote Cody, “He’s not really evil. He is just proving his point. He draws out people’s true nature.” That’s not necessarily evil, he’s just good at talking to people. But the killing, yes, that part is definitely not something heroic. he has a pessimistic view on he world and wants to fix it. We don’t really know what his deal world is, so it’s hard to say that his end result is so bad. Michael is very straight-to-the-point, so it’s easy to call him evil. Evil is being driven to do something for the sake that it’s bad. Michael thinks he can “fix” the world. He’s not killing all of humanity, he thinks he’s weeding out the worst part of it, which out of context, that’s not a bad idea. But of course, the methods in doing so is terrible for us, the population he’s targeting.

“He’s a wimp! I can’t stand his whining!”

So Cordelia, Tate, Ben, most of the witches, and literally everyone else are okay to cry? Michael isn’t soulless (no pun intended), and he has every right to freak out when someone bad happens. Grandma committed suicide? Holy shit. Everyone is abandoning you because they don’t accept you’re “hobby”? Betrayal. RUN OVER BY A FUCKING CAR AND TOLD TO GO TO HELL BY YOUR GRANDMA? YIKESSSSSS.

Him being able to react to these events gives him depth and helps explain his motives. Him crying shows his humanity, which SHOULD have opened a door to him having a better defeat, not some cop-out.

“He killed the world!”

If we’re going by the amount of people he killed by hand/magic, then his kill count is less than 60 (on screen at least). He never likes to get his hands dirty, which is why his kill count gets lower the older he is (not including the final episode). Remember that Michael had no idea what his destiny was, so he just chilled with Mead. But once she died, Michael only cared about killing the coven. Suddenly, he’s told to destroy the world, yet still doesn't know why until two “coked up nerds” gave him the bible..

“He raped-”

No, he didn’t. He’s 99% likely to be a virgin. But may I recommend other AHS villains who did? (guess how Michael was born)

“He is A MISOGYNIST”

No, Cody confirmed he isn’t sexist at all. Plus, he’s attracted to strong women, remember?

“He’s ugly”

I mean, did YOU expect to fall in love with the Antichrist? Is what Michael looks like such an influence on what you determine to be a good villian? 

“Cody is a bad actor. Everything Michael does in corny.”

The fact that you’re still watching the season considering how much Michael appears in it is astonishing.

“He hurt my QUEEN Cordelia!!!!”

This isn’t WW2, what’s with the side-picking. Michael is doing his job as a villain the same way Cordelia is doing her job as a hero. If you hate a character because the character YOU stan hates them, then I wonder how you treat your friends.

“He’s a BAD GUY. He shouldn’t be loved!”

This is the magic of villains/any other fictional character. Characters allow readers to see a whole new world without any real-world consequences. Villains are loved because we can see a side that we won’t get to see in real life criminals. They help us understand their motivations and even teach lessons. This has been going on since the beginning of storytelling. Villains teach us why we shouldn’t end up like them and how we could easily do so. They also give a purpose to the story and the protagonist. Without Michael, Mallory will never show how heroic she is to the viewer, or how  far Cordelia will go to save her Coven. Villains get to reveal a “darker” side to protagonists. (pretty much a :how far will this happen in order for the hero to break character) They’re a foil and bring balance. This is why villain deaths should be handled well too. Strong villains need strong conclusions. Michael’s death was tragic because it threw away everything that made him an intriguing villain. We love him because of his complexity, not because he likes to kill. Also worth to mention that people usually prefer villains over heroes because villains are not supposed to be perfect, so they’re more relatable. Michael doesn’t know what to do in life, just like almost every person who leaves high school. We’ve all been lost. We all felt unloved, and seeing a villain, especially the Antichrist, reflect our emotions creates a special connection.

���He’s a CHILD”

I totally see where you’re coming from. This may make it awkward to see shipping stuff, but the show said that he aged a decade. His mentality is childish simply because he only aged a decade, not take in the experience. His brain developed fully, but he is still incredibly naive, which is why he was pushed into doing what Jeff and Mutt wanted him to do. 

“He has no good traits at all.”

Is he good? No. But does he show his humanity? YES. He is deprived of love, so he can be extremely clingy to people who show him kindness and accept him despite his nature. He could have killed Constance when she kicked him out, and mind you this was during his most unstable moment. But he didn’t-no- he couldn’t. He loved her. Same goes with Ben. He could have just burned his soul, but he didn’t. Especially after Ben rejects him. Michael doesn’t like to hurt people who are nice to him since he doesn’t want to be lonely.

And, like any human, he shows RAGE. Mind you, the true Antichrist is supposed to be super calculative and deceiving, but Michael slips up MULTIPLE times. His plans fail because he’s SELF-CONSCIOUS. HE’S NERVOUS.  he doesn’t know what to do because no one “gave him a fucking instruction manual”. His entire goal was to just destroy the coven, throwing his original plans out the window. He is confused, lost, and “needs a hole filled in his heart”. (basically what he exposed Gallant for he was also bashing himself)

“This goes against my religion and you will go to hell”

k

I realized that to avoid these toxic posts, simply avoiding the Michael Langdon tag will repel every thirsty post from users who don’t appreciate Michael’s character at all and don’t know why they hate the ending.

If you have any other questions or concerns simply reply and I will update it! We must make sure these filthy stanners know their place in hell.

[mrlnsfrt]

Personal thoughts and how I am preparing for the year.

Each January I take an intentional break from social media and most videos, games, and what I consider general distractions. During one month I do my best to focus on learning and planning. Each year this effort looks a bit different depending on where I am in life. I find this very helpful and I believe it has a significant impact on the whole year.

Eventually I hope to post more on this and more detailed thoughts on each resource and the insights I gained. For now I will only make a list with a brief description next to each item. (the links are there simply to help you in case you are interested, I do not benefit in any way if you click or purchase any of these items)

Bible

Back in 2016 I finally received my copy of Bibliotheca. I had supported the original kickstarter campaign (so I paid a lot less than what it costs now) and expected it to arrive back in 2014 but long story short I am doing my personal devotional Bible reading from it this year whenever I am home. When I am away I read from the Andrews Study Bible which is my go to Bible on most occasions.

The reason why I am doing my devotional reading from the Bibliotheca is because it does not have chapter and verse numbers and I find that it offers me a different reading experience.

Supplemental Devotional Reading

As a Seventh-day Adventist I have been really blessed by the writings of Ellen G. White. I ended last year and began this year reading from the first six chapters of her inspirational classic Christ’s Object Lessons. I am reading from the version printed by the Andrews University Press and I was only able to find one copy available at Amazon. The content is the same, I just prefer that version because the design of the physical book in case you want to search for it you can look it up by its ISBN 978-1-883925-99-4. A free PDF version is available here. Those first six chapters renewed in my mind the importance of the word of God and strengthened my decision to make personal Bible study a top priority in this new year.

Currently I am reading Steps to Christ, one of my favorite books by Ellen White. I try to read it every year because I believe it reminds me of the basics and the beauty of the gospel. I have usually read from a paperback but this year I am reading from the bonded leather version. Once again, the content is the same. I received this copy as an ordination gift and I am enjoying going through and seeing what I highlighted the first time I read it and highlighting new portions this time around.

Theology/Philosophy

I am also reading books that cause me to think more deeply about things. One such book is God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, by Abraham Heschel. I bought a used copy and I have been reading this painfully slowly for months now. This book is not a top priority, so I don’t get to it often, but it is so thought provoking. I love the way the author writes and thinks and I am enjoying this book. I like to read books that challenge me to think more deeply and to look at things from a different perspective.

Magazine Article

On a similar note I recently read a fascinating article from Liberty Magazine entitled “After Liberalism.” While reading the article I realized how little I know about philosophy, but I was still able to grasp the key idea of the article. I enjoyed it because it exposed me to a world I am not often exposed to (as a church pastor in south Georgia, USA) but one that many inhabit. I am grateful for that exposure and the thoughts it provoked.

Podcast

I have mostly taken a break from podcasts because I have been focusing more on audiobooks this month but I listened to one episode recently that I found very insightful. Now I feel like I need to mention this, this is not a Christian podcast, the host does curse a a few times. I do believe that the principles of essentialism, discussed in this episode, are worth pondering and that establishing clear priorities have a huge impact on what we accomplish in our lifetime. The podcast episode and several show notes are available here.

I have not read the book Essentialism, but I found this video very helpful.

One thing I am doing differently this January is that I am investing more in audiobooks.

I recently finished listening to Dare to Lead by Brené Brown. I am strongly considering buying the printed book and going over it with some of my local leaders. Once again, this is not a Christian book and does contain some language I would not use. But the leadership principles Brene Brown, describes seem very powerful and I will be implementing several this year with my local leaders.

An audiobook I am currently listening to is Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: A Righteous Gentile vs. the Third Reich. This book has been amazing so far and I look forward to finishing it. There is so much to be learned not only about the life of Bonhoeffer but about history and theology as well. I am thoroughly enjoying this book.

Feedback

This was quite different from what I usually post, so I would love to hear from you if you found this helpful at all. Would you be interested in more updates of this kind? Would you like a longer description of the insights I have gleaned from each of those sources? Let me know.

[margridarnauds]

character asks meme you just reblogged: marie antoinette, 1789; katte, friedrich; and sarah, tanz

MA (Obviously focusing entirely on the portrayal of her in-musical)

character: hate them | don’t really care | like them | LOVE them | THEY ARE MY PRECIOUS

ship with: Louis XVI, as per the historical record. Like, come on, they were ADORABLE together. And for me, their final fate together only works if they both love and respect one another. Like, really, you expect me to believe she consistently stayed by his side throughout the entire Revolution because she tolerated him? When the French doesn’t even let her respect him? (Not even mentioning that the Varennes Flight could have gone VERY differently if they’d split up rather than staying together as a family. Like, I really, really hate historical!Fersen for a variety of mostly petty reasons, but he had a point there.) 

Madame de Polignac, in the sense of “They’re totally canon in the French version.” Not something I really see myself DOING anything with, but, like, it’s a thing. 

Olympe in a sort of tragic, one-sided way. Like, I can’t ever really see them as having a full on RELATIONSHIP, even in a world where Louis XVI didn’t exist and MA didn’t love him (don’t ask me how she’s in France in this universe, possibly widowed, possibly traveling around with her family? For some reason?) But, like, I see it more as a first crush, Olympe realizing that she doesn’t HAVE to like men, and possibly being a little over-attached because (1) This is the first time she’s felt like this and (2) She’s somewhat isolated from regular court life. 

Also, I’ve toyed with Solene/MA before, as a possibility, but it’s not one I’m really hardcore on, more an “Oh, that would be interesting” type thing. I think it would be HILARIOUS if Ronan’s chilling incognito with Laz one day in Versailles, two dudes chilling in the same bed five feet apart because they’re not gay, Ronan’s his VALET dammit, and then in pops his sister by the queen’s side and they both have to do some major explaining to one another. 

friendship them with:  MA/Madame de Polignac, in 99% of the universes where they’re not a thing and MA remains fully in love with Louis. MA/Olympe, after Olympe is able to sort everything out. MA/French!Artois, because I honestly love the two of them chilling out, being friends as per the historical record (before...things intervened. Mainly politics.) I love Trash Shit!Artois with every fiber of my being, but also I love the more benign version of him, hanging out as the Token Goth during Je Mise Tout, not planning the death of his entire family. 

general opinions: I fully understand (alright, not fully, because I don’t have a PHD in Japanese lit, but...I get it a little) the various and assorted ways that both Toho and Zuka MA conform to the Good Wife, Wise Mother trope, being punished for her adultery with Fersen and then resolving to become devoted to her husband and children, losing that little spark of rebellion she has in the beginning. I do get it. BUT, ultimately, I do prefer it to French!MA, where it’s obvious that they had no idea what to do with her, having her being a vain party girl in one scene, throwing a temper tantrum when Fersen says he’s leaving (Even though he ALREADY left once before, you know? When he fought in a little skirmish called “THE AMERICAN MOTHERFUCKING REVOLUTION”) a mourning mother, swinging BACK to the vain aristocrat when Soléne brings the party to them (I can tell they were literally one step away from having her say “Let them eat cake”), then she hates her husband, and then we’re supposed to feel sorry for her.  

Like, I feel like they were handed one of the most controversial women in history and they had no idea what to do, so they just molded her to whatever the scene required. 

Meanwhile, both the Takarazuka and Toho casts (or, at least, what I’ve patched together about the Toho; I might be revising this in a month with “I CHANGED MY MIIIIIIIIIND”) give her a full story arc, as far as beginning with her party girl stage, saying that she doesn’t care about what God would think about her affair with Fersen, paying the consequences, and then preparing herself for the role she’s going to play later on. 

Obviously, it’s still not what I would’ve done if I was in charge of a 1789 adaptation. What me, @philomaela, AND @cestbrulercesnuits have all talked about at times is that our ideal 1789 adaptation would be a TV series because....it’s the French Revolution. We differ in exactly what we’d put INTO it, but that’s a kind of common thread. Personally, I would probably bring in the more political Antoinette that we got to see historically, show the conflicts she had with Louis’ brothers as time went on, that break in their relationship, her frustration with the émigrés, along with her generosity and the increasingly devoted relationship with her husband. AND. NO. FERSEN. (Though, also, if I were in charge of a 1789 adaptation, I’d still want to focus more on the Squad, AKA the nonhistorical characters, so it’d be kept to maybe one scene per episode, at most.) Still, if I’m not going to get ahold of an ungodly amount of money so I can personally finance my dream version of it, I’m going to appreciate what we’ve been given and the cultural translation involved. Though I do feel a little bad that Olympe’s kind of been pushed to the wayside in the musical where she’s supposed to be one of the two leads, when there’s so much of a chance to actually develop her more. But....The Rose of Versailles. Japan. Takarazuka. It was kind of inevitable that we’d get a focus on Antoinette, as well as Antoinette/Fersen. 

Also, she has pretty dresses. I want that silver one, dammit. 

Katte

character: hate them | don’t really care | like them | LOVE them | THEY ARE MY PRECIOUS

ship with:  Fritz. Was there ever a doubt?

friendship them with: The Wilhelmine/Fritz/Katte trio is Good and Pure, though apparently she HATED him historically. But. It’s Friedrich: Mythos und Tragödie. History’s dead. 

general opinions: Good boi. Baby. Awkward dance moves, but he tries. Lies to Frederick William I’s face while thinking about banging his son. 

Also, while it’s possible, it would be VERY hard for you to convince me that Ghost!Katte is real!Katte. Like, Katte tried to protect Fritz consistently, even at the potential cost of his career and his life. And then at the end he wants Fritz to just? Give up? Rather than turn himself around? And the way he looks at Fritz when he dies...

Really. Look me in the eye and tell me that’s the Katte we saw in the past, that that reflects ANY of his interactions with Fritz. 

“Oh, but Rachel, they’re together in the end!” 

 As soon as Fritz is dead, he’s off the stage. His job is done. Now, you could argue that he’s a figment of Fritz’s imagination, as he’s growing older, thinking back on the past as he nears death, but I would propose another suspect, who we KNOW is capable of changing form to suit the job at hand and has a tendency to emotionally manipulate their victims to make the job easier. 

Tl;dr: THAT THING IS NOT KATTE. 

Sarah Chagal

character: hate them | don’t really care | like them | LOVE them | THEY ARE MY PRECIOUS

ship with:  Krolock (Shhhhhhhh, I know I’m trash on this one. I accept it. Let me have my gothic romance trash ship even as I know Tanz is a deliberate subversion of many of those tropes and in many productions Krolock drops her to the ground after the Ball and she seems to be more in love with the romance and mystery Krolock offers than him. But again! That’s a production by production thing! In one production Krolock turns into a talking stuffed bat, even though I know MOST of the fandom chooses to forget it.)

friendship them with: Honestly, as cute as her and Alfred would be as friends, I’m not sure they could ever reach that point again post-finale. Obviously, that’s rich coming from me, aka “I know he killed his father, but LISTEN...” but I just have a hard time seeing it. Like, I feel like the vampiric self ultimately doesn’t entirely subsume the original personality, and that once Alfred’s gone on his little blood binge, he’s probably going to come back to himself a little. 

I do kind of support Herbert and Sarah bonding over their shared love of baths (also, I could actually see them traveling around together, since Sarah would never take well to being locked up in the castle and...come on. Herbert staying there when he could be observing the latest Parisian fashion, living the high life? Herbert? Though ultimately I think that Herbert would probably be more than a little bit petty, if not because of Alfred, then because he’s used to being the primary focus of his father’s attention and he sees her essentially as a mid-afterlife crisis. 

The only thing I could really see is her/Magda, since they’ve both dealt with SO MUCH SHIT because of Chagal and it’d be great to see them bond. But that would require the women on this show to actually. Interact. (THANK YOU, Broadway production. The fandom might reject you, but I appreciate you.)

general opinions: 

God, it’s been so long since I’ve watched this show. When I did read all the fanfic available, back in the day (on FANFICTION.NET, showing how long ago), I recall that there was a lot of hatred for Sarah, obviously mostly from Alfred/Herbert fans who were like “Poor Alfred, manipulated and abandoned by that devious girl who didn’t deserve her devotion! It’s so good that Herbert understands him for what he truly is!” Because it was that period in fandom. 

Personally, I’ll defend her until I die, I can’t really blame her for ANYTHING she does given what the alternative is. Like, if you interpret her as manipulating Alfred, it’s a pretty shitty thing to do, I get that, and I get why a lot of fandom loves Alfred as the Woobie. He’s cute! He’s a dork! He’s the first thing we see in the show, so we’re already pre-disposed to liking and bonding with him! But what’s her alternative? Staying with her insanely abusive father, dying as an old maid when she wants to escape? Like, come on. She saw a chance that was probably never going to happen again and I think she took it, and I can’t really blame her for it. Also, I fully agree with this meta as far as Sarah being more self aware in the Broadway and at least having an idea of what she’s getting into and seizing it. (Also, I embrace the idea of her and Krolock possibly banging after Totale Finsternis, or at least her having some sort of sexual awakening. Get that undead D, girl.) 

I think that you get a very different idea of her if you’re watching the musical with a focus more on the Heroine’s Journey (Personally, this is the version of the Heroine’s Journey that I tend to subscribe to, VS the more common “Integration of the masculine and the feminine” one, because it actually seems to depict a common progression in fairy tales and doesn’t seem to punish women who stay in the “masculine” side imo) VS The Hero’s journey, which I suppose is why I never really...bonded with Alfred and Alfred/Sarah the same way? Like, when I think about it, my main focus has always kind of been Sarah as the protagonist, which I know was never really the intent, but? I don’t care. Like, when I think about it, I think I always latched onto the idea of the girl escaping the oppressive world in her home by running off with the vampire. It’s kind of an essential part of the appeal of the vampire, especially to teenage girls. Like, one of my favorite quotes is Nina Auerbach’s, “Vampires were supposed to menace women, but to me at least, they promised protection against a destiny of girdles, spike heels, and approval.” And so, yeah, I kind of like the idea of her getting what she wants, much like Elisabeth getting an ending where she’s finally free. 

[novadreii]

The Ancient Magus' Bride: A Review

Big spoilers ahead.

I’m not often compelled to write full-length reviews on series that I watch, but this one elicited an interesting response from me. I don’t think I’ve ever negatively changed my mind about an anime halfway through. If I like something from the start, I usually like it all the way through to the end. If I loathe something from the start, I try to determine if there’s room for development/improvement before continuing. And I’ve seen a good amount of shows turn it around.

But TAMG was really a strange experience for me. Everything pointed towards this being a quality show. All the signs were there. And I will commend it on what it did right. This show had gorgeous animation, lovely voice acting, and a breathtaking original soundtrack. As I said, all the signs pointed to this being a winner, maybe the best anime of the last 5 years or so.

But sadly, TAMG is, at its core, a reductive escapist fantasy for young girls.

I know, that is a bold statement. But I have evidence to support my claim! Promise.

We start off the show with Chise being bought by the titular Ancient Mage at a slave auction. It’s okay, though, because she willingly sold herself into slavery. Wait, you can do that? I guess. Anyway. This show’s big selling point is Chise’s growth from a sad girl with nothing to live for to...well, someone who is not that way. And it’s a relatable backstory for a main character. So far, so good.

But the rest of plot fails to sufficiently develop the rest of the world, lore, and characters in a way that makes Chise’s development interesting enough. Side characters are given at most one (1) episode of backstory before being utterly forgotten for the entire rest of the series. Plot points that you think will eventually loop back for an interesting game of Raise the Stakes just kind of wander out to sea and never come back (aka Chise’s family...um...her dad and brother are still out there!). The lore of the fairies and magic is just kind of there and never properly explored or utilized. Chise is supposedly there to learn magic from Elias as her teacher, yet we don’t really ever see him instructing her in the theory of it, or her magical skills progressing. All we’re really told is that Chise is both incredibly strong and weak as shit as the same time. Makes sense.

Elias’ origin is completely ignored, even that could have been an amazing addition to the story as it’s so shrouded in mystery and intrigue and often hinted at by several characters. So, at about the rough halfway point of the series, I had all these loose ends and unexplored areas of the story in my head that I was really excited about, but they never materialized in the second half. The main “villain” in the show was kind of sad and easily defeated.

The second cour of the show was focused almost exclusively on what is, in my opinion, the most mundane, cloying, and dull part of the story: the relationship between Elias and Chise. Yep, sorry friends. I don’t find these two even remotely well suited to each other in any capacity, least of all romantic. Try picturing them together when Elias is in human form; that creeps me out more than his usual form. From the very beginning, I have disliked Elias. I find him boring. Oh boohoo, you’ve been wandering around Earth for hundreds of years and still haven’t figured out what “sad” “happy” “jealous” and “angry” feel like? Are you stupid as well as inexperienced, or just willfully ignorant? Because he managed to study and become proficient in the art of magecraft, but never could figure out why watching Titanic made his eyes leak? How many times do we have to watch Elias clutch his heart and say, “Is this what _______ feels like?” Just shut up. I find it hard to believe that in between all the magic and failed cooking lessons with Lindel, they never talked about how they felt in the hundreds of years that Lindel was taking care of him? *Dr. Phil voice* Really now?

Elias’ cluelessness about basic human emotions is the basis for about 99% of the personal conflicts/drama in the story, and it gets tiresome and feels cheap. Why does anime love to center on characters who don’t know how to feel? Does it give them more agency to act like a dick? Do young girls swoon after men who don’t really care about anything? Elias is frustrating, because we never get to see him break through that monotonous “teach me how to feel” crap, except for when he’s having a rage tantrum. But we never see him buckle down and really unload on how he’s feeling in an open and communicative way. He’s very selective with what he shares, and when he does it’s because Chise is prodding him to do it.

What I found essentially disappointing about this story is how everything in it was just there to further the drama between Chise and Elias without actually furthering the story itself. Everything Elias does to Chise, from how he constantly touches/grabs/picks her up without her permission, how he looms over her menacingly in his monster form when he’s jealous, how he calls her diminutive pet names, irritates me. Chise is a child who has nothing; of course she is going to gravitate to someone who offers her the only thing she wanted: a place to call home. What’s his excuse? He is the one in the position of power, and does he ever use it to his advantage.

How many times do we witness Elias withholding information from Chise, policing her, acting shady, throwing a giant temper tantrum, and being generally creepy and possessive? The anime is masterful in that it succeeds in writing it all off as romantic and cute, because “Elias doesn’t know what emotions he’s feeling! It’s cause he must love her LOL” Again, this was a lame excuse so that Elias could have license to be an asshole. All they needed was a cool/handsome/monstrous character design and a smooth af voice actor to make it all okay. But it isn’t. Chise did not, and still doesn’t have the agency to choose differently.

And I almost fell for it too; that’s how good it is. Because it ropes you in with great production value. I admit that instinctively I am just a dumb ape who will go gaga over anything shiny and pretty. And this anime certainly is those things, but it doesn’t capitalize on the amazing potential it set up from its very beginning, choosing instead to focus on relationship drama between two people who really should not be involved romantically at all.

I ask this: would it have detracted from the story at all for them to have had an adoptive parent and child relationship, to which both characters’ age, experience, and power dynamic was a lot better suited? Would it have been less meaningful? Why did they have to be set up as husband and wife from the get go? What was the point, other than to provide a weak and frankly disturbing plot point? If parent/child is a no-go, how about we make the female main character older than 20 years old for once? Even that would have been preferable.

I did read the manga, and the author tries to dance around the issue by once again using Elias’ inexplicable lack of emotional intelligence as an excuse. He doesn’t know what a bride is, he doesn’t understand the concept of marriage, he means it innocently etc. Okay, BUT, Chise, the rest of the characters, the author of the manga himself, the readers, and literally everyone else understands exactly what marriage is and what it implies. That is the connection the author intends us to make with all the symbolism and mushy dialogue between the two of them (as well as other characters’ observations about them both). It doesn’t matter how ambiguous the author is being about something; if it’s there, it’s there. Let’s call the spade a spade.

So the story revolves primarily around the romantic development between an indisputably adult male who also holds all the resources/power, and an emotionally broken child who can’t refuse. TAMG did not develop the rest of its story enough to distract me from this point, and I was just never able to look past it. It was glaring at me with each episode I watched.

Sure, Chise gets mad sometimes, and Elias eventually comes around from pouting when he realizes he could lose her. He eventually offers a monotone apology and all is right as rain. Chise eventually develops into the Needlessly Self-Sacrificing Main Character that anime relies on just a touch too heavily. It feels disingenuous and not at all relatable. It’s tiresome.

Towards the end, Chise gets some resolution from an old painful memory during an arc where she finally breaks free of Elias so she can act of her own accord for once. Which I really liked. But then she just ran home, forgave Elias a little too easily for all his bullshit, and ended up “marrying” him (again, everything is shrouded in an infuriating layer of ambiguity because nobody wants to call it what it is, but alllllll the right symbolism is there, we can figure it out ffs). That came completely out of left field for me and solidified my hunch that this is meant to be a teen fantasy and little else: leaving everything behind only to be saved, controlled by, and obsessed over by an ominous, rich, handsome, and overbearing man who just won’t keep his hands to himself.

There’s so much more I wanted to know about, and I get that you can’t fit everything into 24 episodes. But people like Silky, Ruth, Renfred, and Alice were utterly forgotten about even though they had solid, developed stories in the beginning of the anime. It’s like they hooked me in and left me hanging; the whole time I was waiting for MORE from those characters. For Silky to say even one word or to have more of a relationship with Chise other than hugging her dramatically from time to time, for Chise and Ruth to have another mage/familiar moment (or even arc). Things like that would have added so much more depth and significance to the story than even one more minute of Elias and Chise awkwardly and needlessly cuddling (or sleeping in bed together....honestly, wtf).

So in conclusion (am I writing a thesis or something?), The Ancient Magus’ Bride felt something like a betrayal. It drew me in with the promise of a gorgeous and heartfelt story, only to focus on what I thought was an inappropriate and forced relationship. I’m sure 16-year-old me would have eaten all of this up like a six-course meal. It’s a Japanese twist on Twilight (therefore also reminiscent of the even worse Fifty Shades franchise). As I get older and automatically tend think a lot more critically about why I like or dislike things, something like this isn’t going to cut it for me. It pulled at the heartstrings with emotive music and pretty visuals, but left me wanting so much more. I don’t want the media I consume to make me feel like I should like it; I just want to.

To any teen girls who adore this anime, I’m not telling you what to personally like/dislike. But I do hope you’ll think about why you do, and contemplate the fact that just because something is wrapped up in pretty packaging, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s harmless. Love doesn’t have to mean being dominated, stalked, policed, or controlled. And you don’t have to be married before you’re 20 or it’s game over. Healthy relationships are balanced, with an equal flow of power, love, and trust between parties involved. They can happen at 17, 45, or never, and that’s all okay. My fear is that this anime will reinforce the exact opposite message with its audience, in a manner that is honestly kind of insidious. It was so well-made, the tone and ambiance they created is so lovely that the harmful messages will just fly over your head; like they almost did to me.

Or...just enjoy it without a second thought and leave me to my over-analyzing. I do admit I look very closely at things, but I don’t know any other way to be.

TLDR; A lot of style, not a whole lot of substance. 4.5/10

[tumblunni]

....Man, I think Haunter is my favourite pokemon again. I usually have a brief period of each generation’s best new ghostie temporarily stealing the number one spot, but i usually tend to lose the hype for them around a year later and they join my just Gigantic Pile Of Second Favourites I Cannot Choose Between And then I used to dislike Sableye, Banette and Rotom but they all took the top fave spot as soon as I was like ‘hey if i actually use on on my team maybe I’ll like it- I REALLY LIKE IT’. but I mean, when i love them more because of my personal one i had on my team, or my headcanons or fanfics or etc, I think maybe that’s a dishonest fave cos they’re not my fave on their own benefits? And Rotom stayed in the top fave spot for a really long time cos it not only had a lot of love as my main heavy hitter in platinum but also has a big role as the main mon of one of my fave characters. And like five other fave characters in random anime one off episodes! And then it was a pokedex! EVERYTHING ROTOM TOUCHES TURNS TO GOLD

Buuuuuuuuut.... Haunter was like.. My Original Favourite My first favourite pokemon was pikachu, and then chansey, but Haunter was my first favourite ghost and it says a lot that it still holds up even all these generations later when the type finally got fleshed out with as many members as other types. Man its so funny in retrospect that I’m pretty defined as The Super Ghost Fan nowadays but I wasn’t really into them for the first three generations of pokemon. There just wasnt ANYONE except the haunter line in gen 1, and only misdreavus got added, and then in gen 3 I didnt initially like banette’s design in its first pretty awful sprite so i felt like duskull was the only good one and i didnt like its evolutions. Another reason to love sinnoh: it added great ghosties, evolutions for past ones, and made a lot of past ones available at the same time, and i mean we got our first ghost legendary too! The generation of spoop hype! (until kalos was even more of that, but it was less of a big deal cos ghosts werent so rare now)

ANYWAY Haunter is REALLY GOOD AND GREAT Its design is so simple yet perfect?? Like I know it was designed to be one of the most literal middle evolutions ever, its just meant to be basically.. half of gengar. With its oldest pokedex entries that was back before they really decided what they wanted to do with the ghost type, it was all ‘its a mysterious creature from an unknown dimension and nobody is sure if its a real ghost’. So its unclear whether its design is really meant to be the head pokemon gastly growing its first baby arms, or like.. all three stages are the same pokemon slowly emerging into our dimension, with Gengar being the true form? In any case, I never really felt Gengar was very special, aside from the fan theory it’s a doppelganger of clefable. (I mean its name is literally a mispelling of doppelganger!) like.. it always felt like a letdown of a final form? it would be so great on its own, its just a nice solid silly ‘monster under the bed’ type of ghost, a fluffy bugbear with a lot of sass and the minor original trait of its face being super big and kinda in the wrong place compared to clefable. Makes you imagine it scares people by going full cleff mimic and then just turning around in an alleyway XD I actually had a fan pokemon as a kid called Gambal which was literally just a chansey equivelant of gengar, and had powers of bad luck and stuff. But then the name ended up going to an entirely different fakemon instead who was a rabbit thing that was a game corner prize. Oh and I also had a geng of celebi! Called Tanka just cos that was my name for all my ocs at the time. Its just a type of poetry that i thought sounded Hella Cool for no logical reason. But yeah, I drew like a million pics of every pokemon as a ghost version and its just funny how subconciously i was a ghost fan even before there were more than four ghosts in existance XD

BUT WHERE WAS I Oh yeah, gengar is dissappointing! And its unfair cos if it was an unrelated pokemon on its own, I would like it! It just doesn’t hold up favourably to how awesome haunter and gastly’s concepts are. i mean, look here we have two different quality takes on the ‘floating head’ concept and then its final form isn’t a floating head. HOW DARE YOU. I guess gengar kinda still keeps the aesthetic with its oversized face, kinda? Like its a giant head just mimicing being a regular pokemon? But I mean i think a giant head with arms and legs stops being a giant head. Its why Nanimon and Mamemon aren’t as cute as regular sperical types. I think the only exception is when its a giant head with ONLY legs, and they’re small rabbit legs specifically- like Lotad or Tokomon!

Anyway, nowadays I’ve grown more appreciation for Gengar (again) because I had one in my team and I love him so I can’t not love my best friend. He has an interesting story cos he’s actually That One Haunter, lol! That memorable npc in DPPt who trades you a haunter but its holding an everstone so it doesn’t evolve. I was still equally annoyed at her even though I’d planned to press B and keep it as a haunter anyway! XD But then the cute default name Gaspar made me get really attatched to him, and man i have so many super detailed story and personality headcanons for this little goofball. Eventually he did actually evolve into Gengar, cos I traded him temporarily to a friend in order to transfer him between generations, and i forgot gengar was a trade evo so i didnt tell her to not do it. I still feel really bad that i overreacted about it, i worry that maybe I made her feel guilty! Ultimately, it was probably a good thing, because I kept my other bestie Reaper the Sneasel unevolved forever cos i dislike Weavile, and like.. obviously he kinda sucks in battle because of this. I still love all my pokemon regardless of whether they’re useful in competitive, tho! Oh and mega gengar is pretty sweet, too! It brings back a lot of haunter’s appeal! I just wish that i never saw its feet, seriously. I thought that it was just a head and arms again, but apparantly it just spends 99% of the time phased into objects and its legs just look really awful and unfitting when you see them. It makes it like a top heavy buff design and that really doesn’t work?? It sucks cos i LOVE the other ‘skipped leg day’ pokemon Mega Swampert, so i dunno why I don’t like the same thing on ghosts! Dusknoir and Jellicent are my least favourite ghosts ever. So yeah my opinion on gengar now is like... mixed? i don’t dislike it like I used to, but I don’t really love it on its own benefits or anything, i just don’t dislike it cos i associate it with a sweet and cute bestie who saved me a lot in sinnoh due to his hypnosis attack. But I still think it’s a worse design than haunter, which is The Best Design In All Of Pokemon. Even when I flip flop on what my favourite POKEMON is, I still think it’s my favourite design! Rotom is maybe the most creative design CONCEPT amoung the ghosts, but Haunter is just... so good at what it set out to do.

LETS TALK AGAIN ABOUT HOW GREAT HAUNTER IS I mean just LOOK AT IT, its just SO GOOD Floating heads are great, and gastly was a great way to take that concept and make it ghostly! And its so cool that its basically a hitodama/will of the wisp/generic spooky flame face from every jrpg ever, except made more original because its made of like.. pure darkness smog mist instead. The colour choices for it are really good too, i always really loved the dithering effect they used to make it in the sprite-based games! Its one of the few pokemon where i love the regualr better than the shiny, even though the shiny isn’t one of those terrible neon green ones. It has one of the best shinies and that shade of smoky purple still captures my heart more! i think i would prefer the shiny if regular gengar was bedsheet white though, not blue and only turning white when it mega evolves. That’s weird. AND THEN HAUNTER IS JUST AN EVEN BETTER FLOATING HEAD It loses the cool smoke but it gains these pointy ears/cliche vampire hair shaped head protrusions that just work SO WELL. Like its a floating head that isn’t just a plain sphere! That’s the one part of floating head monsters that generally sucks, a lot of them outside of the creativity of pokemon tend to be super samey generic bald spherical angry man heads. A floating head of a guy with a cliche horror B-movie hairstyle is great! And especially when its a really unhumanoid jack-o-lantern face that’s just like.. replicating that hairstyle without actually being a hairstyle. thats my fave kind of humanoid type pokemon, I love when they’re still animals or monsters or even inanimate objects that are MIMICKING humans, not just a lazy thing that looks like an actual human wearing a costume. I’m probably in the minority but this is why I prefer Mr Mime to stuff like Machamp or Delfox or Incineroar. And then also I love how it takes Gastly’s grumpy eyes and softens them a bit to look more mischeivious instead of angry. Looking always in a bad mood is probably the biggest reason i don’t like Gastly the most, i just feel sad for it. Another reason why I love sinnoh lol, it had a big happy mischief face on its sprite! (shame platinum ruined it a bit, but HGSS was even cuter) And then its just such a creative way of giving a floating head some limbs while not ruining its floating head aesthetic. Floaty rayman arms is such a ghostly thing even though there arent many ghosts that use that design aesthetic!

Honestly thats the biggest reason haunter is so great, really. it just.. encapsulates ghost, even though it doesnt have like ANY cliche ghost design elements! its such a good original concept for like the simplest and most basic pure image of ghostliness in this world. It somehow feels like its exactly what ghosts are, without taking any shortcuts from other popular ghost characters. its so simple and iconic! Its a new thing that could fit in perfectly with all those ancient B-movie creatures and I’d never question it! Gastly is at least slightly based on a will o wisp, and gengar is a bugbear/monster under the bed/shadow creature/doppelganger super combination creature. But in the aim of making something in-between the two, they accidentally made something that doesn’t look very much like ANY of them and stands out miles above them! I think this entire evolution line has had such great staying power because every member of it looks really distinct from the others, while also vaguely fitting together with theme and colourscheme so they don’t seem distinct in a BAD way. Any of these would be equally beloved as entirely separate mons, but linking them together makes them oddly endearing as a weird ragtag bunch of buddies! Its like the addams family!

Oh, but my one and only complaint is that Haunter’s gameboy era design looks better than how it got changed once the graphics got better.

To be entirely honest, I think that the changed version was their intent right from the beginning, and the cooler aesthetic one was just an accident of the limited graphics. Cos I mean the anime had that design from the beginning, after all! BUT STILL, I love it so much more and I wish it could have been proper canon. or at least remained as its shiny form or something! (A mild blue hint instead of a mild purple hint is really boring, this shiny only looks good on gastly...) The glowy outline is probably the best part, though i do also like how the colours stay more matched with gastly instead of the smog colour becoming the body colour. Actually its not even that, its just a random less appealing deep purple, it might have been cooler if it remained that lighter shade of lilac? Also it sucks that haunter retained the glow around its hands at least in the gameverse until we got 3D models. It never had that in the anime so i guess they removed it to remain consistant but like.. WHY! It doesn’t look as cool with red glow on purple as opposed to purple glow on black, but I still really liked it. Like you could have at least kept the glow when it uses attacks or something?

Oh, and isn’t it so weird that so many ghosts have had all black removed from their design as the generations go on? Like.. I mean I don’t think they did this to haunter cos they feared it was similar to Jynx, it isn’t remotely humanoid and it doesn’t have a stereotypical face or anything. And it wouldnt make sense cos they kept it on gastly. But then also banette has gone from black to an increasingly lighter grey, and its EEEEEEEVEN lighter on merchandising! I waited ages for an official banette plush, and it is a really sweet little thing thats so perfect... but then its light grey? I don’t mind cos it makes my plushie feel like more of an individual at least. Also its annoying that mega banette started off as the same dark grey/black that banette originally was, but then its one of the few pokemon that got a big change between XY and SuMo, aside from new animations and stuff. now its light grey too! Booooooo! Other ghosts that’ve experienced The Greying: Duskull, Dusknoir already started off lighter than its pre-evo and then still got more so as time went on, and Misdreavus turned green and then blue instead of grey but its still the same sort of thing. Now the only real black/dark grey ghosts we have left are Yamask and Phantump, and its just.. so weird?? Cos like none of the black dark-types have had big colour changes except Sneasel. I dunno, maybe they’re doing this to make the ghost and dark types more distinct, making it more like purple is the signature colour of ghosts? But I mean its the type icon colour for poison and psychic too so this just makes the colourschemes LESS distinct... Also I just think that the dark grey banette and the black haunter looked so much better, so it sucks that out of all the ghosts it had to be the ones I love! And out of all dark types it had to be my favourite too! (And sneasel is my fave ice type too!)

...anyway GHOSTS and HAUNTER I LOVE THEM and I’m sorry i rambled for like an hour writing all this THEYRE JUST SO FUCKING CUTE AND SWEET

oh and one last thing!! I love how haunter established the trend of ghost types being more mischievious and misunderstood than actually evil Well, i mean all three of its evo line starred in that episode of the anime, but Haunter was the one that went with ash at the end and got one more episode of cuteness afterward. That whole mini arc was the MOST MEMORABLE PART OF THE SHOW for me, I couldnt believe it was so short when i rewatched it! I totally misremembered haunter sticking around for half a season or something, cos it was so endearing to me. And its still so endearing to me every time the games decide to make a new ghost be harmless or sad, or harmless and sad. or even harmful and sad! i mean i cried the most at banette even though its past of being an abandoned toy is supposed to just be a justification why its the most angry and dangerous ghost. I’M SURE I COULD HEAL IT WITH HUGS, yells bunni, as they essentially glomp the pokemon equivelant of a shark...

god i just love ghosts so much and specifically haunter the most much hug your haunter today also your banette also your rotom also pumpkaboo and litwick and phantump and duskull...

[divinelydivorced]

Goodbye, Grandma

My grandma passed away yesterday morning. Even though we knew it was coming, it is still hard.  Tuesday around 3:50 am, I awoke suddenly and couldn’t quite get back to sleep until 4:30. Come to find out, the end started around four and she was gone around 4:20.  It’s amazing how souls are so connected that we can feel the loss happening at the exact moment it occurs.  The older I get, I am made more aware of how similar my grandma and I are.  I’m proud to have inherited so many of her quirky traits and have come to embrace them.  In fact, I see them as a tribute to the impact she had on my life.  So, in honor of the life my grandma lived, here are the 25 things she has taught me:

1.     Bladder problems ARE a joking matter.  My grandma was a hot mess, God love her. Whether it was peeing her pants in an elevator in front of a bunch of strangers or never leaving a restaurant without a huge stain on her top, she always managed to leave a trail.  Most people would cry or die of embarrassment, but she’d just hee-haw, laughing so hard she’d likely pee again.  She passed on her small bladder and the ability to find humor in the embarrassment to me, which has provided my friends with endless counts of entertaining stories. College friends still text from time to time, “Remember when Adam Harris finally asked you to hang out and you had to say no because you’d just peed on your long sweater and had to shower and change?”  Yes, yes, I remember.  

2.     If you want it, get it.  She always knew what she wanted and wasted no time in purchasing it.  I remember, around age ten, her saying how much she wanted a bird feeder.  I went home and made one out of an old milk carton.  When I showed up to proudly give it to her, only two days later, there in her front yard was a brand new gorgeous wooden one.    

3.     Eat it and get it over with.  My grandma was notorious for eating an entire watermelon in the course of an afternoon.  This also contributed to her bladder problems.  Once, my sister went to take a nap at her house.  While drifting in and out, she caught a whiff of the sweet smell of a butter braid (a very large pastry you’d take to a party).  When she awoke excited for dessert, she went out to discover my grandma had de-thawed it, cooked it, and ate 99% of it in the course of two hours.  To this day, whenever I make any dessert-I eat 99% of it while it’s still hot.  We all know what’s going to happen so just get it over with already.

4.     If it annoys you, get rid of it-no matter its practicality. My grandma loved buying things almost as much as she loved getting rid of those same things three months later.  One time she showed up at mom’s house with a car full of lamps.  She decided she hated lamps and wanted them all gone.  My mom, always the practical one, kept them so when my grandma realized later they were necessary, she wouldn’t have to buy more.  Any of my friends know I’m the same.  I served wine in a juice glass the other day.  My friend asked, “Don’t you have wine glasses?” “I did,” I said, “but just got rid of them.”  “Why? You didn’t use them?” he asked.  “No, I used them all the time.  I just got tired of looking at them.”

5.     Never stop moving.  My grandma moved all the time.  She’d often announce it at the latest holiday dinner.  She would wake up, be suddenly sick of her place, and a month later would be somewhere new.  She once left a home, only to return to it a few years later.  A constant mover myself, I was looking forward to staying in my current place for more than a year (a new record) until I recently found out I had to vacate in 30 days due to construction.  Although annoying and inconvenient, I was not surprised when I found myself thinking the other day, “Actually-I’m kind of over this place, so that worked out.”

6.     Crazy is charming.  My grandma was nuts, as am I.  Yet we embrace the crazy and combine it with big hearts.  That’s why people keep coming back.  A little crazy never hurt anyone…and we are a lot of fun on road trips.

7.     The flu is for sissies.  We’d often stay at her house when we had the flu. Grandma gave us whatever we wanted, which included the time my brother insisted he wanted to eat a bunch of tacos.  You can imagine my mother’s frustration when she arrived to pick him up and found him vomiting ground beef and shredded cheese everywhere.

8.     Pools and convertibles aren’t luxuries, they’re necessities.  Life’s too short.  GET THEM BOTH.

9.     Dogs are our children.  She had an antique cradle for her dog to sleep in and was the first to introduce me to a dog stroller.  I get it and think it makes absolute sense.

10.  You don’t need a man.  Most of my life she’s been single.  Men have chased after her and she’ll let them buy her lunch or keep her company, yet it goes no further.  Because at the end of the day, she’s her own woman and has no need for a full-time man dragging her down.  This is a lesson I’m still learning.

11.  Soap operas are good television.  She lived near the high school, so at lunchtime, my girlfriends and I would take our lunches to eat at her place and watch Days of Our Lives.  Those were some of my favorite memories.  If the show got really intense and it was time for us to go, she’d try convincing us to drive her car back, at age 14, so she didn’t have to leave.  She even took me and my aunt to a Days of Our Lives festival one summer.  When it came to idolizing celebrities, her and I saw eye to eye.

12.  Dairy Queen can be dinner.  When she helped move me to Michigan, we spent a week eating Dairy Queen snicker blizzards for every meal.  She was doing Weight Watchers at the time and, although two of these, met her quota for the day-she was willing to make the sacrifice.  I remember thinking how brilliant this was.  When we got tired of Dairy Queen (rare), we’d hit up the Chinese Buffet.  No excuses and no shame-it’s how we rolled.

13.  Why choose when you can have both.  My grandma loved driving with the windows down.  She also would sweat profusely.  Once, we got in the car on a blazing summer day and I asked if we should turn on the AC or roll down the windows.  Her answer?  Both. We cranked the radio up, let the wind tousle our hair as the cold AC blasted our faces.

14.  Underwear is optional.  In fact, it’s often preferred you go without.

15.  Sing loud and proud.  My grandma had one of those loud operatic voices which she’d use to pelt Amazing Grace in church.  We grandkids would chuckle, but in reality, I always loved how she simply didn’t care. She was singing for Jesus.

16.  Spend your time how you want.  There were years where she’d choose hours of Farmville over leaving the house.  I’ve been known to spend an entire 48 hour weekend playing Sims-taking breaks only to run to the bathroom and grab a snack.  It’s our time-we will do what we want with it, and if that means interacting with computerized lives over human ones, so be it.

17.  There’s always something burning in the oven.  Every holiday she left something in the oven.  EVERY. HOLIDAY.  How no one caught on, I don’t know.  How I managed to inherit this trait, despite being annoyed by it, beats me. It seems the rolls always take the biggest hit…who needs carbs anyway-more DQ.

18.  There’s no time for sentimentality.  At a family event, she once walked out with crates of old photographs-including her wedding photos-and announced to the family she was throwing them away the next morning, so, “grab what you want.”  Everyone started arguing with her and refusing to take anything.  Meanwhile I did a clean sweep, loading boxes into my car.  Later, everyone was grateful because she kept to her word and burned everything I didn’t get my hands on.  Years later, I marched out to the living room with a box full of the photos I’d taken and said to my mom, “I’m throwing all of these away tomorrow, so take what you want.”  You better believe she took them-lesson learned.

19.  Sausage gravy is love.  As long as I knew her, she had a part-time job of sitting with an elderly person, a job I’ve now inherited.  As soon as I could work, she started taking me along and then giving me some of her shifts.  She taught me how to make sausage gravy-the first meal I ever learned to cook.  “Old people love sausage gravy,” she told me. She was right.

20.  Rules are meant to be broken.  My grandma didn’t give a f***.  In fact, she invented the phrase.  Sometimes she’d do stuff simply to get a reaction out of you.  There was no rhyme or reason-she went with her urge. I remember walking through the shoe store with my mom a couple years ago and asking my mom, “Do you ever get a strong desire to just start knocking things over?”  

21.  If it can go in a blender, it should.  Grandma introduced me to smoothies and I’ve never looked back.  “Everything can go in a blender!” she once enthusiastically told me as she threw in leftovers along with fruit and hit “blend.”  Now I buy pineapple in bulk and enough produce to feed a small village for a month.

22.  New fads are meant to be tried.  My grandma purchased every diet pill and vitamin that existed, as well as any exercise devise.  She had one of those machines that shook you, vibrating a strap around your bottom and promising to eliminate cellulite by simply standing there.  She had the utmost confidence they would work.  Each time she’d pull the latest tool or pill out of the box, I’d watch in awe as she demonstrated its powers, believing she’d discovered the secret to staying fit and healthy.  She instilled this hope in me.  I carried a crystal around for weeks once after reading it’d get my period to finally to start.  I paid an obscene amount of money for Cindy Crawford’s miracle elixir, returning it 30 days later, and then surprising myself by purchasing it a second time years later during a 5 am workout binge when the infomercial reappeared.  My recent purchase was a $100 fascia blaster which I use with fervor, while watching Friends episodes, and later have to justify when explaining the bruises on my legs to friends with a, “Yeah, it hurts but I can feel it working!”

23.  Walk everywhere.  It’s great exercise, sure.  But, more importantly, it gives you a chance to catch up on the town gossip.

24.  Careful-you can give a man your yeast infection.  This statement alone is self-explanatory.  Yet my grandma felt the need to retell an in-depth twenty-minute story of how her and my grandpa discovered this to be factual, leaving me scarred for life.

25.  When life pushes back, you push harder.  The beginning of my grandma’s life was not easy.  In fact, as I understand it, it was quite hard. My grandpa rescued her and she fell madly in love.  When he died so young, it would have been easy to give up.  But she didn’t.  She found job after job, she gave of herself whenever she could, and always left people laughing.  She was resilient.  She didn’t take the easy way out and, in fact, often took the road less traveled. She made no apologies and left some scars.  Although I will miss her greatly, I am grateful she’s in heaven, reunited with my grandpa-right where she’s always wanted to be.  

So, sing loud, grandma.  Eat your fill of watermelons and leave your underwear here on earth.  I won’t say rest in peace because that never was your style and, besides, I can hear the hee-hawing from heaven already.  In the end, she had it right.  We don’t need all this stuff we carry around because it’s only temporary. All that matters is how you make people feel, the laughter over tears, and never giving up.  And, of course, always knowing where the nearest restroom is.