#season 2 just genuinely sucked but season 3 did a LOT better!

[eztilsolar]

earthspark season 3 is like rid15, just don't take it too seriously and you'll have fun

not much below here just some rambling. no spoilers for the show.

but i was personally watching it with my brother because we wanted to get earthspark over with before moving to a show we knew would be good (jurassic world: chaos theory). however, we were a lot more engaged and entertained than we though we would be!! my brother, who usually plays games in the background during shows, was actually paying attention during, like, the second half of the season.

maybe its just because we were watching it together or something but it was fun! i've stopped being annoyed by the animation and just started enjoying the characters instead, which i would say are doing pretty good (ignoring starscream, he's just gone back to being a wet weasel). we liked the dynamics of new relations and old ones.

sure, some things were bad, some things were iffy, but it was fun. its funny to look at twitter and tumblr and just seeing all this hate about it, which im not blaming you for not liking it, i understand, however i personally enjoyed it.

[bengiyo]

Ben's Big BL Blurb 3: Blue Canvas of Youthful Days Blew It, But I Still Recommend It

I finished Blue Canvas of Youthful Days today, and I don’t like where we left off with this show. Let’s get into that, and then check in on some of the other shows I’m watching.

Blue Canvas of Youthful Days Didn’t Give the Audience Catharsis

I don’t begrudge the show going for a happy ending, given how so many other BLs from their home country end with sudden traumatic turns. However, I don’t feel like we got catharsis from the ending at all. I struggle to full articulate my frustration here, but I think I just really wanted an ending akin to Weekend (2011) or Gameboys 2 (2022).

I think these two were in a position where they were unable to be together now, and I think they should have ended on a separation. When Cairo and Gav had to separate at the end of Gameboys, it was the correct choice. They were still building their lives, and Gav wasn’t doing well on his on. Similarly, Blue Canvas established a scenario whereby Qi Lu did not have the power to stop his father from harming Qin Xiao. Likewise, Qin Xiao couldn’t keep the local gang from beating Qi Lu.

I would have preferred they have the boys confront that they were hiding things from each other, and how they both failed to protect each other from the horrors. I am disappointed that we didn’t get a poignant goodbye from them as they accept that they can’t be together right now. I wouldn’t have minded so much a blurb at the end of the show with the pitch for a season 2 that they didn’t get to film (though @thisonelikesaliens commentary makes even what they wrote dour). We didn’t confront the issue with the dad at all, and we didn’t deal with Qin Xiao losing all he’d worked for.

Genuinely, I would have been okay with them getting a tag at the end of the show with them seeing each other on the street again and sharing a meaningful look. However, we never saw them face the music of their double noble idiocy, and that sucks. It especially sucks because we had Let Free The Curse of Taekwondo this year, and so we saw the consequences of this. We could have had these two railing against the world and promising to see each other again. The tag at the end of the reuse of the fantasy sequence feels tacked on and unearned. That kinda sucks more.

Final Verdict: 8, Recommended With Reservations. I really liked most of this show, and I think they wrote some phenomenal characters until the finale here. Like @lurkingshan I ended up not pleased with this ending. I am disappointed in the lack of resolution about the withholding, and I think they needed to face the separation and goodbye. However, I really liked the cast, and I respect the team that worked so hard to get this to us.

On to the rest of the show, presented in no particular order…starting with the worst. I’ll put in parentheses what episode number I’m on as of this post.

Haunted Hearts is Boring (5/7)

Magic, mah friend! Your show is boring. I do not know why these boys won’t kiss, and at this point I feel like I don’t care anymore. They’re introducing yet another ghost next week and I just am so disinvested. I try so hard every time to support Oxin Films and Regal Entertainment, but they make it so fucking hard. Holy shit. There’s only so far the boys being cute can carry a thin concept like this.

City of Stars is Better Than I Expected (2/12)

I am catching up on this show. The acting isn’t great, but I’m really enjoying a lot of what’s happening here. I will report back when I finish.

See Your Love is Fun But Kinda Weird (7/13)

The visuals are great in this show, and the leads are filling in the aesthetic gap left behind by Jimmy and Tommy in a way that really works for me. There’s been way too many pratfalls in the last two episodes. We are at 1.5 pratfalls per episode at this point. The side couple is absolutely ridiculous. I’m having fun.

Caged Again is Becoming a Favorite (4/10)

Junior is the best protagonist of the year. I’m obsessed with this penguin boy. I love the way this show uses its supernatural elements to drive its storytelling forward, even if I think the plot got a little silly in episode 4. The friend group dynamics are so fun, and I haven’t enjoyed a group of Thai boys this much since Knock Knock, Boys! (no surprise, two of them are in this show, too).

Your Sky is a Weekly Delight (3/12)

The 2gether rewrite show is great, and I will be reading no commentary to the contrary. These boys are so great, and they are one of the best couples of the year. This show is doing fake dating in a way that’s just so excellent, because it’s real dating! The boys are genuinely trying to get know each other so they can pretend to be a better fake couple. This is so close to being excellent meta commentary about dating in the digital age, and how so much of dating for the current generation is about how others perceive the validity of your relationship. It’s actually so fun to watch a show where the characters are doing all the things you’re supposed to do when you’re trying to build something with someone, but one of them doesn’t fully understand what they’ve gotten into. This show is great, and I love it.

Love in the Air: Koi no Yokan is so Slick (5/10)

If there’s one thing a Japanese drama is going to get right it’s trauma! This show delivered on Kai’s horrors in a way that was so visceral that I needed to pause and catch a breath. I remain obsessed with the casting of Nagatsuma Reo as Kai, because he’s taller than Suzuki Asahi sometimes. I really love that they didn’t give us the BL height difference trope, and I like that they didn’t style Kai in a way to make him look more feminine. There’s a egalitarian physical balance between Fuma and Kai that I find extremely refreshing, considering the massive class, wealth, and suffering gap between the two characters. It’s no surprise that we’ve had a dearth of gifs of their sex scene, considering it doesn’t play to the kind of asymmetric aesthetics that folks seem enjoy in their pairings.

As always, the Rei and Kai friendship remains one of the best parts of this story, and I like the way this version of Sky talks to this version of Rain about the queer stuff. He feels like he’s being careful with his friend, and not just ghosting him on important conversations about his friend’s sexual awakening (one of my major gripes with the original Thai adaptation).

Our Youth is Taking Over My Brain (4/11)

I have not moved on from the “Infect me” line, and I am still obsessed with the plausible deniability of the “no homo” that Hirukawa relies upon as he continues to pursue Minase. Now that Minase has reached his breaking point, I’m so looking forward to seeing where we go next. We’re due for a major separation, and I’m ready for a Japanese BL to not fuck up a second chance romance attempt this time. Perhaps adapting Korean work could the solution?

Spare Me Your Mercy is a Welcome Return to the Sammon Feeling I Enjoy (1/10)

I just really love when Sammon shows feel like the mystery matters more than the romance, and this feels like it’s in the correct space. I loved the initial setup, and the potential for there to be multiple murderers. I really hope that they start killing younger people in this show, because they said there were only 40 palliative care patients, and we downed three of them in the first episode. I’m so happy to see JJ again, and Tor looks great. I am looking forward to the weekly watch and theorizing with this show. Most importantly, I’m looking forward to the complex meditation on euthanasia, which this story feels like it’s taking seriously.

Love is Like a Poison Finally has Given Us a BL Battle Couple Again (11/12)

We haven’t had a BL battle couple in what feels like forever. I love that this show continues to reward us for believing in Haruto and Shiba. Haruto’s dad is the absolute worst, and I really want him to lose. I love Shiba, and I love that the show continues to give him some of the visual tropes of a legal drama (like the pan up near the end). I’m in love with this show, and it’s going to be one of my favorites of the year, I’m sure.

Fragrance You Inherit Hurts Me Because Everyone is Doing The Right Thing (4/8)

This show is actually so painful sometimes, because no one is doing anything wrong. Everyone is being as emotionally honest as they can be with everyone they speak to about all of the things that are going on. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Sakura choosing to let go of her lingering crush on Mone now that they’re both moms and their kids are dating. Besides, we presume that Mone is still married! The conversation with On-chan makes me think that Mone misunderstood the relationship Sakura had with him in college (My man is ace but not aro! We love to see it).

I just really love that everyone is trying to do right by everyone around them, and I think all of the things that remain unspoken in this show have been withheld for completely valid reasons. There are no villains in this story, and that makes it even harder to watch really kind people treat each other politely in every scene. I’m just feeling a quiet scream in me the entire time I watch a good son by a thoughtful gift for his loving mother with the help of his supportive and lovely girlfriend, as he prepares a surprise from the old friend who clearly still cares about her friend and the unrequited/unexpressed feelings between them. This show is incredible. Go watch it right now. Thank you again to @isaksbestpillow.

Conclusion

That’s more shows than I’ve been watching in a while. It’s nice to have some Thai shows back in my rotation that I’m actually enjoying. I really want the Chinese to now fuck up their endings, but it seems like 2024 will not be that year. I’ll try to check in with the end of Love is Like a Poison when the Netflix release schedule completes so folks can binge it then. In the mean time, let me know what you’re enjoying, and what else I should consider picking up.

[ollycohens]

oh no you guys. i’m going to spew things i’ve realized while rewatching umbrella academy. I’m realizing were all being too sucked into fanon things after being stuck without canon content for so long. We have convinced ourselves Five acts like a mean mean dude to everyone but rewatching, i’ve realized he’s only stressed and is saying things out of panicked anger, especially in s1 with the apocalypse dooming over them. he acts soft to his siblings multiple times, he’s really not as mean as we write him in fanfiction. he is a little crap though, that’s for sure, and i love him for that <3

also realizing that the siblings don’t hate five. they just literally don’t know him at all. he came back a completely different person after 17 years for the siblings, they don’t know five, he’s a stranger so of course they’re gonna be cold to him. it’s like, “i don’t know you well, but you’re always going to be my brother in the end”.

ALSO. for those who ship some of the siblings, uhm… i’ve seen a lot of you guys try to prove that they don’t see eachother as siblings and more like academy students, but they very much say in just about every episode that they see eachother as siblings. they don’t actually SAY that word by word but they say things like “she’s our sister”, or “our dad”. if they say OUR dad… bro. i’m not even going to continue, you can put it together yourself. But, i do realize why people ship the siblings. I am not defending incest shippers but with umbrella academy i can see why people have resorted to it. only 3 of the characters in the main sibling cast has romantic partners. people like shipping people, people love writing romantic relationships, but with only diego/lila, dave/klaus, and sissy/viktor, (i’m not going to count five/dolores for now) people are desperate with the need to ship the rest of the siblings with someone, and since there are only a few actual canon characters in the show that interact with our main 7, people start shipping them together… yikes. anywho, that’s all for that peice. i blame the show writers as well for shipping luther/allison, they did not have to do that, but i’m hoping it was only to convey the severity of what childhood trauma does to people.

ALSO THIS HERE SHOOK ME. I actually think Reginald cares for the siblings. i hate to say it, but it’s true. caring for them does not mean being good, though. he was a horrible father, and person, but he genuinely did care for the siblings, in a like, “being the best is the best thing for you, i will make you better, for your sake, even if you don’t know it now, you will see that i am right” kind of way.

also why has NOBODY MENTIONED THIS. in season 2 when diego first reunites with five in the asylum, while he’s walking into the visitors room, he’s staring at five with this heartfelt, soft look, and then says “five…” in the most soft spoken voice ever 😭 your honor i love them

ALSO UGHHH THIS. IM GOING TO FREAK OUT ABOUT CAMERAWORK AND METAPHORS HERE SO BARE WITH ME. we as a fandom complain about the lack of flashbacks five has due to his ptsd. we’ve seen his first flashback since getting back to his family in s1 during the van scene when he gets triggered by those kids playing and starts thinking about his own childhood, i’m guessing. i ate that scene up, and was sad to see that be one of the only deeply vulnerable scenes he has in the season, and during my first watch i thought they’d never bring it back up. but they do!! i may be stupid for not realizing but whatever. in season 2, when five is trying to explain at elliot’s with all his siblings around that another apocalypse is coming, everyone starts talking about each other. as someone who studies film and camerawork, i love this scene. we see the camera focus on five as it slowly zooms in. it doesn’t switch scenes at all as the siblings voices overlap and echo over eachother. this whole scene conveys him getting overwhelmed and he starts to zone out, starting to think of the nuclear war he saw his siblings in. the scenes of the war start quickly switching through, showing many different scenes of it before it switches back to five, who says “guys, you all die. i want to forget it but i can’t” which just UGH its so well done there. if you think about it, he was starting to slip into another flashback. he was triggered by talking about their deaths in the war but was handling it well until the siblings started fighting, where we see the overlapping voices happen. it portrays him losing control and being unable to pull it back together with too much going on for him to focus on grounding himself. we DO however, see that five was able to pull himself out before he fell too deep into the flashback. i love how they show this through them still having the scene showing the war, but then fives voice starts talking over the scene which is still focusing on the war as if he was pushing it back and forcing himself to come back to the present.

thank you for reading if you’ve made it this far, i will continue to freak out another time <3

[renthony]

🏳️‍🌈 (queer media rec please !)

(Drop a 🏳️‍🌈 in my inbox and I’ll respond with a queer media recommendation!)

I've been sticking to indie or less-popular works for these recommendations, but the most recent Interview With the Vampire episode destroyed me and I need to get more people in on this sweet, sweet suffering.

AMC's television adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire is phenomenal. The season 2 finale airs next week, and I'm hoping very much for more. It's officially available via AMC+, and if you're at all into queer gothic horror, you have to check it out.

The basic premise is that an immortal Vampire named Louis tells his tragic story to a human reporter named Daniel. We learn all about Louis' life as a human, how he was turned into a vampire by his vampire lover Lestat, and how the two created a child vampire named Claudia to be their daughter. It's a messy domestic drama where every single narrator is unreliable, it's a horror show, it's tragic, it's queer as hell, and it's perfect for people who want to see mean, petty, mentally unwell, horny queer characters waging psychological warfare on each other.

Here's the trailer for season 1:

I was very, very nervous when the adaptation was first announced. I'm a huge Vampire Chronicles fan, I was absolutely obsessed with Lestat as a teenager (...and also now...), and I was pretty firmly on the side of folks who were thinking, "we did this already, Queen of the Damned was a horrible (albeit still pretty fun) movie, we can just let the books stand on their own after that one."

When the casting announcements for Lestat (Sam Reid) and Louis (Jacob Anderson) were made, I got even more nervous. In the book, Louis is a white slave owner born in the late 1700s, and I was worried that the showrunners would just make Louis a Black character without examining or unpacking any of the anti-Blackness in the source material. I'd enjoyed Jacob Anderson's performance in Game of Thrones, and I didn't have any ill will against him, but I was genuinely worried a Black Louis was going to be in poor taste at best.

Instead of presenting Louis as a Black slave owner, though, the show reworked his backstory to make him a Black businessman in 1910s New Orleans. We get to know his family and his situation, and the dynamics of a queer interracial romance in turn-of-the-Century New Orleans add quite a lot of new depth to the story. Jacob Anderson deserves basically every award ever, because his performance as Louis is just...goddamn. He is the definitive Louis for me.

The show feels like a love letter to both the book series and the 1994 film. In the show, the interview takes place in 2022, and is framed as a second, "do-over" interview. It makes meta-commentary on the film and the books, and it's a real treat as a fan of the prior works. The constant little book references and hints for future plots are fantastic. The show loves the source material just as much as the audience does, and it never tries to say, "the old version sucks, we're doing it better." It's a loving tribute to my favorite messy queer vampires, and I need everybody to go lavish attention on it so it gets more seasons.

Edit 6/27/24:

Season 3 has been confirmed, babes!!!

[m3nt4llyr4v3d]

Miraculous and Redemption

You know, I think I understand what my issue is with this show’s stance on redemption. It’s not specifically who gets the redemption, even the hypocrisy of who does or doesn’t get redemption/forgiven is only one part of the issue.

It’s specifically how they treat the characters who don’t get redemption.

I have seen, in media, where terrible characters who’ve done terrible things get a redemption, and the mean characters, who are just mean, don’t change at all. That’s fine! People are complex, some change and some don’t, some have done horrible things and some are just school yard bullies. It’s fine to showcase this, I mean hell, in the Owl House, Boscha was still an asshole in season 2, and this was past the point that characters like Lilith were forgiven (Lilith isn’t really terrible in Season 1, she just has done a lot worse than Boscha)

Miraculous’s massive issue with this, however, is that the narrative/the authors treats those mean characters as worse than those characters who’ve done horrible things.

I mean, what other media has one of the creators say that some high school bully is comparable to Trump when her literal rich, corrupt, politician father is right fucking there?

Usually the media where a terrible person is redeemed and the mean character isn’t doesn’t treat it as a moral issue. It’s not “oh well this person can’t change” or “oh this person is even worse!” It’s usually “they’re mean, and that’s annoying, but oh well”. That media never treats the character like Satan incarnate, or treats their meanness compared to actual villainy as a moral issue. When characters are around them, they aren’t treating that mean character as literal scum compared to the former villain, the narrative doesn’t treat them as more than an annoyance or, for lack of better words, “small fry”. I mean, while Owl House acknowledged that Boscha was still a prick in season 2, they didn’t act like she was worse than Belos.

Miraculous treats Chloe and Lila, some petty, mean teenagers, as the literal devil compared to other characters. Lila is a master manipulator who somehow convinced 3 people she’s their daughter and has a trillion disguises! It doesn’t matter that that twist came out of nowhere, and it makes it a little weird that this teenager has multiple disguises that she uses around the city apparently, one where she looks like a 20 year old, making people theorize she’s an adult because how on earth is she smart enough or resourceful enough to do this. Chloe is a villain comparable to Gabe, even when she was a hero! Her backstory doesn’t justify any of her actions, but for literally everyone else, we are going to justify their actions! If they don’t do that, they’ll just sweep their actions under the rug completely! It doesn’t matter that she’s consistently being manipulated by the fully grown adults around her, she’s terrible don’t think about it! She neglected her father somehow (???????????????????) so it’s fully justified to send her off with her abusive mother! We aren’t even going to acknowledge that Andre literally had a part in raising her and her turning out this way, because somehow he did no wrong! And what sucks is that it’s succeeding at making those characters appear that way, because some fans are completely genuine when they say that Gabriel is more sympathetic than them. I mean, if you frequent the Reddit (which you absolutely shouldn’t, one way or another it will melt your brain), you’ll consistently see character rankings with Gabriel, Lila, Tomoe, and Chloe in the same category. Somehow the show put the bullies in the same categories as the literal abusive terrorist and his helper in these people’s eyes. You will constantly see these literal teenagers be put on the same category as adults who have done infinitely worse. Even Andre, who is a corrupt politician and terrible role model and literally RAISED CHLOE… is “woobified” by some fans, even going as far to say that Chloe abused him! Nevermind how that would even be possible when she was like, 5-7 when her mom left! I can’t point my fingers at the fans for this though, because the show goes out of its way to place all of its sympathy on the adults, even when they don’t deserve it, EVEN WHEN THE PAST WRITING LITERALLY PAINTS THEIR ACTIONS AS BAD

(It also doesn’t help that the fully grown adult’s actions are all forgiven but god forbid you’re terrible as a teenager, then you’ll get sent off to live with your verbally abusive mother while your basically deadbeat father adopts your half sister literally right after wiping his hands of you)

I will talk about the hypocrisy in redemption at some point, and how bias and forgiveness is handled, but godDAMN, this sucks

[lastoneout]

As someone who's curious about star trek: where would you recommend I start? It's a lil overwhelming, but yall seem to be having fun!

Oh lord that is the question isn't it. Honestly the real answer is anywhere, while all of the shows take place in the same universe aside from Picard and Lower Decks they don't really require a huge amount of knowledge about any other series(and hell if you don't mind not getting some references and enjoy raunchy comedy with a heart of gold shining within it Lower Decks is a really fun time), they really do all stand on their own and even ones that are prequels or continuations like Prodigy and Strange New Worlds are pretty self contained.

Personally though(and people will likely kill me for this but whatever) I started with the 2009 Star Trek film and I legit do think it does a really good job of getting a new audience the info they need on how the universe works and who some of the big characters in The Original Series are while also being fun and accessible and, crucially, not a huge time sink. I think a LOT of people get intimidated out of Trek because most of the shows are long as fuck and while I say this with love...not all of them hit the ground running. So yeah, it's snappy, it's exciting, it preserves whats important, and it's basically designed as an entry point, so it's worth a watch. And I'm just a huge sucker for Chris Pine, his Kirk is a bit more openly feral than the original and I honestly love that for him <3

However!! I would NOT recommend watching the other two films, Into Darkness and Beyond, right away. Star Trek '09 is essentially an AU of the Original Series so the story is unique, but Into Darkness is just a remix of The Wrath of Khan and NOT A GOOD ONE at that! Plus it's just...kinda dark and miserable and deviates heavily from the established feel of Star Trek that every other show managed to hold onto, which sucks. If you really wanna watch Beyond you can, and you genuinely should at some point regardless, it also is an original story that stands on it's own and to be honest is the best film of the trilogy and one of my favorite Star Trek anythings ever. It's got all the good Trek energy from the original shows while still keeping it's own identity and that's a joy to watch. So yeah, if you start with '09 I would recommend diving into a show before continuing. And maybe just not watching Into Darkness at all. It's bad.

Now, if you are a fan of animated shows for older kids like Avatar The Last Airbender, Star Trek Prodigy is genuinely a GREAT entry point. It is technically a sequel to Voyager but it is also it's own story with new main characters and it's legit meant as a way to get kids into Star Trek for the first time so it's very accessible while still being engaging and unique, and they explain stuff very clearly in a way that never feels patronizing or like it's talking down to the viewers. I legit got tear-y eyed watching the scene where they explain Starfleet just because I'm so glad it exists to welcom people in to a world I love so dearly. That and it's also SO good like I cannot stress enough this show fucking rules. It even has a nonbinary character in the main cast who I adore!! I love the animation and the whole cast and the story and just ough 100/10 for sure. I would even say for people who prefer ATLA style shows over big sci-fi/action films this is the better start than '09, so it's up to you.

Moving on, as much as I love it I'm not entirely sure if I'd recommend The Next Generation as a starting point, if only because the first two seasons are REALLY rough. Like they def have some good episodes, one of my faves of the whole series is in season 2, but it's clear the show needed a couple of seasons to figure itself out before it really took off. I personally did watch TNG after Star Trek '09, but I have a very high threshold for...weird and kinda bad sci-fi so idk, take that as you will. I was willing to buckle down and get through the weird because I knew how good it was going to get, but that's just me. However, I will say once TNG gets it's legs under it there is no looking back, it gets SO good that basically all Trek shows that came after it up until very recently have been living in it's shadow for better or worse. It does ofc have some issues with racism and misogyny and other isms that are clearly due to it coming out in the 80s, but it's also incredibly progressive for not only it's time but often times ours, and overall it's a phenomenal show that is absolutely worth watching and was a lot of people's introductions to Star Trek, so it's a decent start if you don't mind dealing with some weird energy at the start.

As for Voyager, I won't lie, I fucking love it! It's also fairly self-contained, it doesn't even take place in the same part of the universe as the rest of the shows aside from Prodigy and so you don't need a lot of series knowledge to follow it. It is one of the...campier shows, def gets weird as hell at some points but it's got this wonderful spirit at the core of it that imo it always seems to find it's way back to. It is sadly a product of it's time, however, and the first officer Chakotay, while certainly not the worst Native American rep I've seen, certainly isn't the best either. I've heard Prodigy does a very good job at correcting this, but Prodigy came out like 25 years after Voyager so yeah, it is something to keep in mind if that's gonna be a deal-breaker for you. The show does at least let him be a person outside of The Problematic Bit and I appreciate that, it gives him room to shine without the baggage of writers who have no clue what they're doing weighing him down and thus he's genuinely a really great character and probably one of the best first officers in all of Trek, and again I have seen FAR worse bad rep.

Aside from that while it does get weird in it's own bad sci-fi way, all of Trek is weird in that way sometimes, and anyone who says otherwise has no clue what they're talking about. I really enjoyed Voyager, I like it more than The Next Generation for sure and is a better jumping on point than it as well. It does reference a lot of stuff from TNG though and some characters do make a reappearance, but again it's really not that hard to get the gist as the show is more than willing to explain itself. Also it had the first female captain and truly Janeway is peak I would die for her, and the opening theme makes me feel shrimp emotions.

As much as I love Lower Decks I would not recommend it as a starter show, it's very referential and it has some Pretty Bad Episodes, the end of season 2 is dead to me, and it's also an adult comedy so if that's not your vibe you won't enjoy it. I do think it's a wonderful show but yeah, def targeted at adult fans who like some vulgarity(Trek isn't exactly a kids show but it does try to stay away from swearing and sex jokes and the like) and already enjoy Star Trek. Great show, got some rocky bits for sure, and maybe not the best start for someone new. Interestingly tho I do think out of the shows I've seen it does have the BEST first season of any Trek show. It really hits the ground running and the finale is like up there with Holes in terms of a perfectly tied together narrative. Def great to see!

As for the other shows....I sadly can't say because I haven't watched them yet. I know Deep Space Nine is regarded as one of the best Trek shows overall for too many reasons to list, The Original Series has been one of the longest lasting active fandoms in all of history and is beloved by most fans(I'm really excited to watch it) for both it's depth and it's campy nonsense as well as the insane gay energy going on between Kirk and Spock and you should watch it at some point, I hear Discovery had it's own rocky start but has had fans going to bat for it for years, and Enterprise has a rep for being mid but also to this day has fans who swear more people would love it if they were willing to give it a fair shot(plus Beyond pulls from it heavily which is awesome!), and while I've heard mixed things about Strange New Worlds it also seems to be a pretty well regarded entry point and a lot of people genuinely adore it, and it's nice to see some attention get paid to TOS inspired stuff rather than everything being oops all TNG for so long.

And Picard exists. For better or worse. Maybe worse I've heard. Im not interested in watching it because I genuinely do think Trek needs to get OUT of the shadow of TNG for it's own good at this point but that's just me. Def one that should be watched AFTER The Next Generation though as it's a direct sequel and you probably won't get anything that's going on without that context.

Anyway sorry for the essay it is now 3am and I am an idiot I just LOVE Star Trek more than I could possibly ever say and overall aside from Lower Decks and Picard(and Into Darkness I am sorry I truly hate that film to an perhaps unhealthy degree) you really cannot go wrong with your starter. Also I fully welcome anyone who has seen the other shows to chime in here! I wish I could speak to them but there really is so much Star Trek and only so many hours in a day. I hope this helped though, and I wish you luck!!

(Also sorry if I dissed on anyone's faves this is my opinion ofc everyone is going to like different things and I know plenty of people enjoy the stuff I can't stand. There's a show for everyone in here and we won't always agree, but overall I think it's best to just live and let live, especially given the rare but vocal assholes who swear anything made after DS9 is bad. They are idiots and I will attack them on sight.)

[tapwater118]

The Post-Split Rant, part 3

a.k.a.: Grown Woman really should have finished this like 3 weeks ago give me a break

Part 1 | Part 2

yes i did just section the parts out like this just for the visual gag shut up

BFB Post-Split is my least favorite season, so now I’m gonna wrap up my whinging about it and move on with my life. These are my opinions, you’re free to disagree, bluh bluh bluh let’s just get on with it already.

BFB 28

Okay, I said I would talk about the eliminated contestants here, but I remember them doing more in this episode than they actually did for some reason. I guess I’ll get to them in BFB 29 I suppose.

Anyway the Announcer is back! Announcer’s actually my favorite host out of all the seasons (sorry Four), so when I watched this the first time I remember being really stoked to see him again. And I am glad to say they did him very nicely! He still has his slightly snarky demeanor (in spite of his monotone TTS voice), and is overall used in a very interesting way here. I’ll get more into it later, but it is very clear they didn’t just bring him back for nostalgia points, which I appreciate.

For an “all-in-one” challenge, this episode did it a lot better than BFDI 23, dare I say. Instead of spending a bit too long on the first few challenges and speeding by the rest, they spend time just on the challenges that they can get good bits out of and briskly walk past the others. I feel this approach works a lot better than BFDI 23.

Honestly, pretty nice episode. No real issues here. Not as good as BFB 20 or 26 I’d say, but a good deal better than BFB 22. Moving on.

BFB 29

They said it was impossible. They said it couldn’t be done. Post-Split actually has a second good Taco and Blocky interaction. They’re having an actual conversation! With witty banter and such!What is this wizardry? Why couldn’t we have more like this?

Not related to anything else really but I have to get this out. I find the over abundance of nicknames in Post-Split to be kind of grating at times but NOTHING grinds my gears as much as the stupid “blank”-ster nicknames. “Tacster” “Blockster” “Teadster” SHUT UUUUUUUPPPPPP. They’re just fine in isolation but they use them SO FREQUENTLY I HATE IT. Gelatin uses these the most and I honestly think it’s lessened my opinion of him to a non-negligible degree. Leafster is the only one that gets a past the rest suck so much shit.

Ok sub-rant over. Back on topic.

The whole, well not really backstory… interstory(?) they give Announcer here is very neat, I like it. Really adds a lot of depth to his character. Whoa, Post-Split just had compelling character development. I think I need to sit down. I guess I’ll also add here that it’s nice Taco has something to do other than whinge at Blocky. I mean, there’s a handful of other characters just kinda sitting around that they could also have investigating the Announcer, but I feel Taco fits this role the best (out of the characters available to do so).

The quality-downgrading bit near the end is also fun too- okay enough beating around the bush. I’ll talk about it here because I already have enough to say about BFB 30 on its own; they pretty obviously set Flower up to win. Having her be repeatedly ignored and tortured for those sympathy points, and then having her be the one to save the show to cap it all off.

I voted for Flower to win, and even if they didn’t set her up like this I still would have. She’s one of the few characters in all of BFDI that actually has a serious degree of character-growth throughout the series, from being the prototypical “mean for the sake of it” character in season 1 to having genuine compassion for those she cares about by the end of BFB. Gelatin doesn’t have any of this, and if I can be candid, I have no clue how he got so far in the season.

BFB 29 is good overall, but let’s not dwell on it any longer. The real meat and potatoes of this part of the rant is going to deal with the final episode, one I have so many thoughts on I have to split it into multiple segments. Let’s talk about BFB 30.

Smaller Thoughts on BFB 30

The scenes with the fake seasons add a lot to Four’s character, and are a nice lead in to the fact that he’s actually a huge BFDI fan who really just wanted to be in that show he really loves. Judging by his actions in the early days of BFB it’s obvious this was a rather late addition to his character, but his cruelty to the objects could likely be interpreted as just a culture difference between Algebraliens and objects. I could make a whole separate analysis about this, but right now I’ll just leave it that these aspects of Four’s character are rather interesting.

This is going to be really nitpicky, but I have no clue why Bubble would want Gelatin to win. He’s been nothing but horrible to her the entirety of Post-Split. Maybe you could say the same for Flower’s behavior towards her both here and in season 1, but in that case have her indecisive over her vote, not overly enthusiastic. This choice makes no sense. (Can you tell that Bubble is one of those characters I care way too much over how they’re written?)

Gotta say, very nice how they have Firey reflecting on his actions without outside prompting here, good sign of character development. Now if only they could have had him say something to this effect eight episodes ago… sigh…

From here the episode splits into two plots that it jumps between repeatedly. Going through every scene in the order they happen would start to get confusing, so I’ve given them their own sections. Gonna be honest, not really a fan of how either of these went. Let’s start with the better of the two.

Flower and the Battle for the BFDI

So, Flower and the Announcer start fighting over who should get the BFDI, and Purple Face comes out of nowhere to steal it for himself. They get in the bus, a bunch of other people give some silly reasons why they should have the BFDI, and then the bus is dangling off a cliff. Everyone hops out except those still fighting over the BFDI: Flower, the Announcer, and Purple Face.

Purple Face does not need to be here.

Flower wants the BFDI because she won, it’s her rightful prize, very valid. Announcer wants the BFDI because it’s his life’s work and, as he reveals here, the only remaining copy of that work, very valid.

Purple Face wants the BFDI just because he thinks he deserves it. His reason for wanting it is just as stupid as all the reasons the other characters (who aren’t Flower or the Announcer) gave for wanting it, and those were all treated as jokes. Hell, Firey (and by extension Leafy) DEFINITELY had a better reason for wanting the damn thing.

Why are we supposed to be taking this seriously? Purple Face has been nothing but a joke character the entire season, and now they suddenly want people to feel bad for him. So much of this scene is dedicated to him over Flower and the Announcer, the two this scene should have been focused on.

Time to get to the much weaker of the two plots.

Gelatin Helps Four Find Out His Value

Okay, I’m about to be way too overly negative, so let’s have something positive for a breather. “Choo Choo! Think again, Balloon Buddy!” is one of the best jokes in the entire series. I will not elaborate.

So, Four starts to run away, and all the characters who didn’t go after Purple Face (except Profily) chase after him. After a bit, they all end up on the sun, and a character gives a speech about how they’re all mad at Four, how he’s hurt them and been mean to them throughout the entire season, and he still expects them to all stick around for him?

Pretty nice speech, I wonder which character gives it?

Maybe Bubble? She’s constantly going under ire and has had to take a lot of shit this season.

Or maybe Flower! Maybe she could reflect on when she was a bad person, and how she turned around to better herself, and try to impart the things she learned onto Four.

Perhaps X! They’re Four’s best friend, and have certainly been hurt by him throughout this season. Maybe he could show Four sympathy for the objects? This is probably the best option, because of how close these characters are.

But no, none of these characters make this speech.

Gelatin makes this speech.

Gelatin.

Motherfucking Gelatin.

MOTHERFUCKING. FORK-FLINGING. PEOPLE-PUSHING. BOMBY-EXPLODING. GELATIN.

Gelatin is the last character who should be giving a speech about how being mean to people is bad. HE IS A GODDAMN MENACE! HAVING HIM SAY THIS MAKES HIM INTO A GIANT HYPOCRITE!

And then they play a montage on the BFB to show how fun this season actually was, and convince Four that they all really do like him. Am I the only one that thinks Four got off a little scot-free for the whole murdering and tormenting his contestants thing?

Whatever, let’s take a look at the supposedly “fun” moments of BFB that they want to give Four credit for:

Flower getting excited for like a second that she didn’t get eliminated, before running off in embarrassment because she tried to celebrate with the contestant who actually did get eliminated

A scene mere moments before Four despawns X again

A bunch of people playing with the popper toys, something that had no involvement from Four and likely would have happened regardless of his presence

A scene mere moments before Leafy painfully burns to death

Gelatin’s fork stack, which definitely didn’t involve Four because it happened before they showed up

The boring-ass train ride from BFB 21

Four’s almost-four-way-tie song, which I guess gets a pass

Aside from the last one maybe, how is ANY of this meant so show how much fun the cast has had with Four? And to top it all off the most unfitting piano music plays over the whole thing. Absolute dumpster fire of a montage.

Ending Thoughts on BFB 30

Everyone gets together to have a party and all is well in the world. Except for those 50000 dead Davids in Davidland. A shame, really. (that was a joke)

Wow, this best friends line sure aged well, didn’t it, Teardrop? (Actually thinking about it now they probably planned for Teardrop to join TPOT by this point. So why include this line when they already knew one of his best friends ditched him?)

This line is really corny. But also kinda charming? Weird. I guess all she really wanted in the end was friends, and now she has them! Good for her.

And you know, if I ignore how much I dislike how Post-Split reconciled Firey and Leafy, this scene is really cute. Very nice note to end on.

For the episode, that is. We still have stuff to talk about here.

So, about BFB 30 as a whole. Do I think it’s a good BFDI episode? Yeah, I guess. I have my problems with it (as I have more than made clear), but it still has a lot of laughs, and things conclude in a halfway decent way. So yeah, it’s a good episode.

But is it a good finale? I don’t think so. This is supposed to be BFB’s last hurrah, its final impact on the viewers. It should be putting its best foot forward here, but it drops the ball on so many things I can’t in good conscience say it was a satisfying conclusion to the season.

I just hope TPOT handles its finale a lot better.

Post-Split as a Whole

Welp, that certainly was a ride. Time for some closing thoughts.

While it might seem like I dislike characters like Gelatin from what I’ve said in this rant, I really don’t. I like these characters in the other seasons they’re in! Post-Split just kinda doesn’t do all that great with them.

Additionally, I don’t hate Post-Split either. I don’t love it, though. It’s just okay. It has some high highs, and some pretty deep lows. It has a lot of little things (and some major ones) that all together keep me from loving it like I do all the other seasons.

I’ve seen some people say the Split was the nail in the coffin for BFB, that there was no way Post-Split could have lived up to what came before. I don’t share this opinion. Episodes like BFB 20 and 26 (and to a lesser extent, 28 and 29, and to an even lesser extent, 22) show to me that Post-Split could have been something special.

So what happened? Why did Post-Split turn out the way it did?

I don’t know. I’m not here to do any meta-analysis or anything.

I’m just here to rant.

And rant I have.

[aliusfrater]

how would you rank sams deaths???

ranked from favourite to least-liked:

2.21 the absolute shock and following uncertainty is so yummy. it's the only death that i had ever felt any 'absolute' feeling for and it gives it so much weight. i also really like how quietly sam goes and how he slips into how dean babies him following his ressurection despite not initially knowing that he died, but knowing that something did go wrong in terms of his stabbing. the implications re: the cycle of abuse and a lot of dean's lines in his monologue when it comes to sam and dean's relationship are incredibly intriguing.

13.21 i LOVE how messy it is, how vulnerable sam is the entire time. it's very erotic in a similar way to every other time he was metaphorically raped through physical violence, but i'm making specific mirroring reference to 4.19. i like how that eroticism leads into lucifer's ressurection, and i mean, it thematically tracks for what their relationship is. also the make-up and jared's performance absolutely rules. i also really, really enjoy the palpable feeling of dean's grief and how the sudden nature of sam's death just strips him clean of his facade in a way that makes it feel like he's flayed raw in front of you. sam screaming for dean despite knowing dean can't do anything; he can't help but call for him regardless etc etc. UGH. i almost put this one over 2.21 because it's genuinely fantastic to me and it's such a pivotal moment for the implications of his and lucifer's as well as his and jack's relationship but as usual the later seasons don't give much credit to sam's character, and the implied scene that involves some level of recognition between sam and his literal death (re: his change of clothes) isn't seen by the audience.

5.22 the scene speaks for itself. the acting, the montage, the writing etc etc are all fantastic. it's only ranked this lowly because 1) the special effects of sam falling and burning in hell sucked ass and ruined my immersion, 2) the fandom made the aftermath of the scene into a dstiel thing which also ruined the longevity of the scene's impact on me, 3) the episode feels very rushed and tried to fit in so freakin' much, and 4) the fact that it isn't a permanent death also lessens its impact; i generally think season five is the first indication of some kind of lessening in the show's quality and i think they could have done much better if they knew they'd be getting a sixth season earlier on. i would have honestly ranked it lower if it didn't have that huge emotional impact.

14.17 the implicationsssss !! re: nick's resentment for sam, sam's last words, dean's reaction to his death and resurrection. to me, this episode is feels really well done and the drama is so well paced that your throat closes up about it, even after so many deaths. it feels reminiscent of the moment that sam dies in 2.21, where logically you know he'll be fine, but there's just a weight to it. jared is really good at dying.

5.13 because 1) i'm a pervert for the way sam's blood leaks out of that tube of metal as he goes pale, and 2) "first...we talk. then i fix your darling little Sammy." capital S.

15.20 underwhelming in a healing way. i have a lot of thoughts about the execution of the episode but i've generally come around to enjoying picking it apart and connecting certain dots as it is. the same goes for sam's death. it's just pretty uneventful in a way i can't be a pervert about, which is why it's so low, but the only reason it isn't lower is because it did make me emotional (positive). also, fun fact: it's one of the very few natural deaths on supernatural and it's the only natural death to occur withinin the winchester family that we see on screen.

5.16 not played up/emphasised/voyeuristic in any satisfying way that sets it apart because it's essentially the teaser and set-up for the episode. i did like seeing sam get shot point-blank though :3

4.08 comedic to a point where it almost annoys me but the fact that it annoys me makes it kind of camp, which cancels out the fact that i feel annoyed. it does make sam a victim-to-be-saved of the supernatural Thing of the week, which does subtly place him within the damsel in distress role. which is something i greatly enjoy.

12.09 almost indifferent about it. it serves a purpose. i like that sam and dean die at the same time in a situation where the audience watches people behold the unfolding of events. i could also generate commentary about sam and dean vs the military personnel's place within the structures of hunting vs the military much like the dean-cole narrative dynamic.

aaand:

non-canonical deaths this refers to sam being blown up in ava's vision in 2.10 as well as sam's season fifteen's godbullet wound au visions. i LOVED sam's 2.10 death scene. it's technically the most graphic one and i fucking loved that we got to see him blow up, then see bits of him scatter around the room. he should have had more death scenes like it. i haven't seen season fifteen in its entirety since my first watch of the show in late april/early may but from what i do remember, i remember being annoyed that 1) it was all happening in the bunker, and 2) the scenes as they played out weren't nearly as dramatic as they could've been. it was really obvious that they were being torn at the seams in every aspect of the show; no one was being given the opportunity to stretch their legs.

[eastgaysian]

Hey, as you are the resident Tom expert: why do think Naomi and Stewy seem to pick up on the fact that logan is abusive or at least damaging, but Tom remains almost willfully oblivious / genuinely oblivious the whole show? Do you think he was playing dumb? Or is it out of his desire to *be* powerful, be wealthy, be like Logan? just really interested in your thoughts if you’re still up for analyzing that insane slimy man clown <3

it's been fully a month since i got this ask i was on a trip with my friends and then went into lemming lockdown. but i have been thinking about it and i do still have thoughts on succession i prommy

this is kind of a complicated knot to untangle - i'll say first off that the way logan treats kendall vs shiv is markedly different, and kendall and shiv respond very differently. naomi and stewy also come from wealthy backgrounds and have some amount of disillusionment with Wealth and Power as a result while tom is, obviously, fixated on social climbing and caught up in the allure of money being a superpower.

with stewy, the biggest thing is that he's been a part of kendall's life since they were kids. while cut script canonicity is always iffy wrt things like 'dinner for winners' etc he's known kendall for, what, 30+ years? the fact is he's been around long enough and closely enough to see a lot more of the roys than most people do - he's also not going to turn a blind eye and enable or excuse like members of the old guard. he doesn't work for logan, he's kendall's best friend. while this doesn't necessarily mean he has always kendall's best interests in mind or that he encourages him towards what we'd consider 'healthy' behaviors, he's had a front row seat to the Kendall Show for decades. he knows first-hand how damaging it is for kendall to remain in logan's proximity/under his control

naomi obviously picks up on How Bad It Is much more quickly, which i would say is a combination of her seeing a lot of herself in kendall, not only with regards to addiction but also wanting to get the money and get out from the family company and all its baggage. in season 2 kendall is also at his absolute lowest, completely under logan's thumb, and everyone's aware of this.

on the whole it's just much more immediately obvious that kendall's fucked and that logan plays a huge role in this. compared to shiv generally being understood as logan's 'favorite,' trying to distance herself from logan/royness at the beginning of the show, and presenting a Cool and Composed front to everyone while kendall walks around with his big brown doe eyes and injured baby bird swagger. neither of them are fully willing to acknowledge just how much damage logan has done, but shiv is much better at hiding the extent of it from other people than kendall is

which is not to say that tom doesn't have some serious cognitive dissonance/conflicts of interest going on, like him asking shiv at the beginning of austerlitz if it's cool to speak to logan 'in a bridge-building way' despite the fact logan accused shiv of knowing about kendall's coup and blew up at her as a result. tom's not totally, willfully blind of what's going on - he saw logan hit iverson at thanksgiving, he got boar on the floor'ed. he correctly assesses in vaulter that 'you saw what your dad did to kendall. there's gotta be the chance he'll do the same to you? get bored of you, once he's got you?' which is again not totally separate from his own self-interest. he needs (or 'needs') to be in logan's proximity and in his good graces in a way stewy or naomi don't, which means smoothing over the fact he's abusive and awful

but i also don't think tom would be able to justify sucking up to logan to himself if shiv didn't okay tom talking to logan in austerlitz, then take logan up on his offer in the summer palace/fixate on the idea of becoming ceo. in an objective sense it's still awful for him to do, of course, but logan has kind of always been between tom and shiv. from his perspective shiv's chosen logan over him before and hasn't stopped him from choosing logan over her in small ways. shiv is chronically unwilling/unable to admit when she's been hurt and tom is unwilling/unable to look past that and recognize when he does something terrible, especially when everyone else is doing the same terrible things

[genesisgijinka]

Hiya, did you miss me? Because I have returned to suck out more world building from your brain.

Question 1: Egg.

I am almost certain about what the answer will be, but I'm gonna ask it anyways.

Where do the pokébabies come from? Do they follow the same rules as our world?

Question 2: What's Arceus' IQ (the answer is "yes")

This is kind of a follow up to my Pokéspeak question. In its answer, you spoke about Red's Alakazam, Pythagoras, being able to use sign language. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that that was inspired by Washoe the Chimpanzee. WIth most of Red's mons knowing some sign language.

Relevant Exposition: Pokemon in the anime are mostly at a level of intelligence/demeanor where you could genuinely model swap them with a human and have there be no difference and vice versa (like what you did with your April Fool's post) the prime example is this one [IMAGE-ID: A snapshot from the first season of the pokemon anime. In the scene, an Eevee is seen holding a cup of what looks like juice.]

The question: Is this level of pokemon intelligence/demeanor still present in your world, and if so, where would the line be drawn between human/gijinka-replaceable and actual animal.

Question 3: Programing.

This one is a simple question with a less than simple answer.

How do Game mechanics like Base Power, PP, EV's, IV's, Base stats, Accuracy, and Most importantly: Stat Boosts work in genesis?

Question 1: Eggs Yeah, the whole egg thing I'm throwing out the window as a game mechanic designed to avoid having to explain the birds and the bees in a video game that's marketed at children. If it lays an egg in our world, it still lays an egg. But if there's live birth here, then it's live birth in the world of Genesis.

this now brings to mind, do the people in pokemon games have eggs suddenly appear too?

Question 2: Pokemon Intelligence and Language It varies a little bit on the pokemon individual, tbh. Some are better at picking certain things up than others.

I've heard of several instances of not just our great ape cousins learning to speak sign language, but also some species birds and I think there was a whale that figured out human speech? But that last one might have been more mimicry than actual language comprehension and also brings in the physical capabilities of each pokemon species and their ability to transcend the pokemon/human language barriers. I've also seen several videos of people with big mats covered in buttons for their pets to convey wants and needs to their owners, which the pets do use!

As for swapping out pokemon for people level of swap, the answer is not quite. The April Fool's joke page was just that; a joke. I mostly ignore the anime bc I was not allowed to watch it growing up, plus there's a lot of weird things that don't follow the game rules. But for a long time, as we've underestimated the intelligence of animals in our world, so too have people underestimated the intelligence of pokemon and it's a widely studied subject nowadays.

Question 3: Programming I'm going to be honest, the most I understood about things like EVs and IVs is that number go and number go up when level up. I'm a competitive player's nightmare in that no matter how many times I've tried to learn what these things do, it will not stick in my brain so I'm just, ignoring it in Genesis :'D

As for some of the other stuff, I've actually shown PP running out in comic before:

and Aiden running out of PP is also why he passed out during the battle with the champion squad, ending that fight (iirc I did run him out of moves in-game and he was using Struggle)

For stat boosts, it kind of depends on what I narratively need to happen. We've seen 2 kinds of Barrier; the glowing sheets that Aiden uses, and the blue bubbles that Prime uses (the differences are mostly personal preference). They're physical barriers that block attacks.

Some other instances of stat boosts we've seen are

Light screen

String shot

Will-o-wisp

Me First

Calm mind

and a few others scattered throughout the comic. I mostly go with the in-game text that explains what the move does and find a way to translate it into a visual representation, to show the readers that something happened.

[sky-kenobye]

⛵️ Five Fandoms, Five Ships ⛵

Get to know the blogger, via five different ships from five different fandoms!

Thanks for the tag @underacalicosky !!

Putting it under the cut because this is LONG, sorry.

I love them your honor. Doesn't even have to be romantic, I just want to see them being obsessed about each other. I'm also a pretty big obianidala fan, hence why I added her too. (I'm a multishipper really. I have my otp but there's a lot of ships that I enjoy)

1. Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker(/Padmé Amidala) (Star Wars)

When I first watched star wars (not that long ago, I only watched it because I wanted to see the sequels in theater lmao) I wasn't a big fan of the prequels so I mostly ignored them, but then a couple years ago I randomly rewatched them in the middle of the night and suddenly I was obsessed. I'm not even sure how I ended up on AO3 (did I go look for obikin? Did I stumble on it? Idk) but eventually I started reading Pining in Preschool, then realised that @palfriendpatine66 was on tumblr, I started interacting with more people around here, and now I'm (slowly) writing fics, and I'm having the time of my life here, so thanks Pal!

I don't think any if my past fandom brainrots reached my current level so I'm pretty sure I'm here for the long haul (at least it's not stopping anytime soon).

It's not super obvious here but I'm actually a huge Marvel fan (well, the MCU, I've never read a comic), and especially Captain America. Stucky is just, 🤌 so tasty (a lot of similarities with obikin actually imo). I'd like to talk to whoever thought "I'm with you 'til the end of the line" was a straight sentence to repeatedly say to your bro throughout an entire century though. Like?? I'm all for relationships that defy the boundaries of platonic and romantic, but still, that's kinda gay.

2. Steve Rogers/James "Bucky" Barnes(/Peggy Carter) (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

The first MCU movie I saw was actually captain america 2 (and not the first one lol) in theater, and I was instantly hooked, though since Endgame I've been less into it, since my fav is gone (and I have to agree with tumblr on that one: they're making too many movies and shows, I can't keep up 😩)

(And I'm still super salty about what they did to steve in canon, they should have killed him off instead of whatever the fuck that was, honestly)

I also added Peggy because she's great, and polyamory is so much better than love triangles or shipping wars. (I'm not polyamorous but I believe in their beliefs. I think it's because of the aromanticism)

Same as with obikin (and stucky too tbh) I don't really care how they love each other, I just care that they do. They're the most important person to each other, be it romantic, platonic, familial, idc.

3. John Watson/Sherlock Holmes (mostly BBC Sherlock, but from the RDJ movies and the books too)

I've obsessed over (non-existent) clues during the last season, and deluded myself into thinking they'd become canon, alas, it didn't happen.

I've translated a couple of fics in french for that ship, but I've never written for it (I thought about it tho), and I've read a lot. That's the fandom where I've read some of the best queerplatonic fics, and that's my favorite interpretation of the ship, especially sherlock being some flavor of aroace.

4. Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)

I love them as a queerplatonic relationship, and I genuinely think that's what they are in canon, the haters can suck it, that's not queerbaiting even if they dont become a canon couple.

Okay, I'm starting to see a patern here. Am I really that predictable? You can just copy-past what I said above.

(I'm fully on board with them being a couple though)

Hey, a straight ship! With a woman not added as a second thought!

5. Elizabeth Bennet/Mr Darcy (Pride and Prejudice)

Not quite the same vibe as the others, but I've read sooo many fics and books (straight up published fics lol), I've watched a bunch of different adaptations (even the one with zombies)... The worst part is that I think I've only read the og book once, oops.

I actually inherited that fandom from the women in my family lmao. My mom, sister and sister-in-law are all obsessed with it, so I read it to see what all the fuss was about and, yeah, I get it.

And that's it! There are other fandoms I'm into, and other ships in those fandoms, but that's pretty much it (the main one that's missing is Dinluke, the others are mostly smaller ones).

I'm not super actively in those fandoms (apart from Star Wars obviously) but i come back to them now and then. Usually I re-watch it then binge-read a bunch of fics (while my main fandom stays in the main spot in my brain) then I let it go again until it comes back (while obikin still stays in the main spot).

Also Harry Potter used to be my main obsession but JKR kinda ruined that for me so I'm not really into it anymore (hence why I didn't list it even though I have written fics for it).

Anyway that was way too long, if you've read all of this then props to you!

I'm tagging: @cottonraincoat @fem-anakin-skywalker @kingdomvel @ineffable-snowman @arobiwan (and whoever else wants to do it because I'm nosy and I want to know stuff about people)

[upper-eepy-sleepy-girl]

TOH PILOT FOUND & REVIEWED

I found this pilot for the The Owl House

and honestly, I feel like this version would have been better for the show. Although there are some things the final show ended up doing better for the long run (like Eda being the only person to be able to go to the human realm), I feel like there are a few things this pilot did so much better, that changes so much

rant below (most of this copied from a rant on discord)

here are the three things in this pilot that are handled so much better, that I think makes all the difference:

1) the first thing is how Eda and Luz meet, the final show feels a lot more awkward, and the reveal that Eda is a witch feels so over the top that it feels like a parody of itself, whereas in the pilot, it's a lot smaller and feels much more natural because of that. Them just bumping into each other, and Eda just trying to swindle her feels a lot less forced.

2) The handling of magic schools in the final show bugs me. When they're first introduced in ep. 3 it is basically just there to make fun of Harry Potter (which tbh, hp deserves to be made fun of; fuck jkr), but that just ruins the whole plot line from that point on. I can't take Hexside seriously when I know it's intentionally trying to be a Hogwarts knock-off. And although that issue gets better in season 2, it still just sucks. In this pilot, magical schools are just there; no fan-fare. It feels less like it's trying to make fun of something else, and makes it feel like something new. And because of that, it can pull a lot funnier jokes because it isn't all "Ha ha, harry potter reference." It instead feels like a natural part of the world of the show. It feels like it is actually trying to comment on what it's like to be in school

3) They got rid of Warden Wrath, which I like because I am a Warden Wrath hater. Also the framing the first episode made him out to be tyrannical overlord. When I watched the show for the first time, Wrath confused the fuck out of me. I thought he like like a ruler, or some type of overlord, and ep 2's lack of explanation didn't help. But he just ended up being Belos' prison warden; which yeah, it's in his name but it just felt so clumsy. The way he was introduced, it felt like he was going to be a bigger threat than he was.

Honestly, I could rant about how they handled Hexside in the final show a lot; I'd be repeating the same points over and over but idc. The way they handled Hexside feels so out of place and underutilized. For a show that is typically very genuine and passionate about being a fantasy show, the way it treats Hexside so ironically, with the same type of "well that just happened" humor that every other "cool" show is doing irritates me. And yeah, toh does sometimes poke fun at the fantasy genre (just look at the whole Boiling Isles), but it does it in a unique and fun way, but Hexside just feels so out of place. It bothers me so much because it had a lot of potential, and should've been more than just a Hogwarts knock-off

[jeanmoreausautismstickers]

hello I absolutely adore Imogen as a character and I'd like to talk about her a bit.

CW: Heartstopper spoilers for seasons 1 and 2

okay so Imogen's character's really interesting to me in the way that she sort of parallels Nick (mostly in season 2 but a bit in season 1 also).

in season 1, she's shown to be more popular. she's good friends with Nick and most of the rugby players and I'd assume probably has many friends at Higgs also. I see her depicted as a 'bad' person (more before season 2 was released than after) simply because she's one of Nick's love interests and it's odd to me?? it isn't like she really did anything wrong, excluding lying about being with Nick to Tara, Darcy and Elle. like yes sure she's friends with Harry, his lot, and later on Ben, but she's honestly not that bad. when she tells Tara and Darcy she's an ally (this is one of my favourite bits) she genuinely believes that she's doing the right thing. I'm not saying they have to be grateful or anything, but she doesn't know any better and she really is an ally.

sure, she can be a bit annoying, maybe a little overbearing but keep in mind she is sixteen years old. she has a crush, or at least she feels like she's supposed to, on a guy she's friends with. she asked HIM out, HE said yes. she didn't ambush him or anything, in fact I believe she didn't really want Harry and the rest of the group there when she asked Nick out. it wasn't her fault he felt pressured to say yes.

when Nick tells her he doesn't feel that way about her, she doesn't get angry with him or try and convince him to be. she accepts it, regardless of how much that has to hurt, and moves on. she doesn't even tell their friendship group that it's Nick's fault it didn't work out, she says SHE can do better. and she can. I love Nick, but she fully deserves someone who genuinely loves and is attracted to her as a person.

in season 2, it's shown that she's still good friends with Nick! she's moved on, she doesn't try and pressure or force him or anything. granted, the guy she develops a crush on isn't great, but she doesn't know that. when Nick tries to tell her, she (understandably) gets upset and I do not blame her. she believes Ben, the same way Charlie believed him when they started kissing and stuff, and that's not her fault. Ben is shown to be really good at manipulation.

when she ends up realising Ben sucks and hanging out with the 'Paris Squad' it's shown that she's much happier. I think my favourite part of this, however, is how close she grows with Sahar.

her breaking up with Ben was my FAVOURITE thing she's ever done it was such a good scene. it also shows how much she's grown as a person to be able to recognise she really does deserve better and needs to turn her focus back on herself.

her and Sahar help me circle back to when I said she parallels Nick because the situation is a bit similar. she and Sahar start off as friends. she believed Sahar was straight, and when she said so and Sahar got upset, you can see the confusion and panic on her face because she really does feel guilty for assuming and feeling like she's hurt Sahar, and it's shown that she follows her offscreen (showing she HAS been working on herself, btw). it's after that initial realisation that she starts looking at Sahar a bit differently.

the biggest one though is when she sees Sahar on stage (sort of like Nick with Charlie and his drums in the orchestra) and the bi flag coloured lights flash across her.

I think it just parallels nicely with Nick and Charlie's relationship because of the similarities (l cba to list them) in how their relationship began and how her's and Sahar's MIGHT begin (if we get a season 3 and thats a storyline Alice wants to pick up)

overall I think she and Nick are very similar (she also is very golden retriever ish) and she's such a good character and I'm glad she's in the show. she creates conflict (like the date in season 1 and Nick being anxious about telling her in season 2) but not so much that she can't be redeemed or loved as a person/character.

also!! I love that she did the ally to (potentially) queer person pipeline because that's a very realistic queer experience and it brings me a lot of joy to see that depicted onscreen.

dunno I've rambled enough and this honestly probably doesn't make much sense considering I've not slept but I hope you enjoyed this 🫶

[youngpettyqueen]

9, 10, 20, 21!

9: worst part of canon

me 2 seconds ago: im not gonna go on about the anti-military stance of MASH softening

me seeing this: SO THE ANTI-MILITARY STANCE OF MASH SOFTENING-

for real though. as much as I love the show as a whole, I wish they kept the anti-military stance of seasons 1 - 3. I hate that it got lax and slowly got softer and softer as the show went on. yes the anti-war themes remain but its such a weird stance they take where they try to go "well not all army people are bad" with the introduction of Potter that ultimately just doesnt work

also the way Klinger gets treated often being shoved under the rug. my man deserved BETTER

10: worst part of fanon

I did answer this one but ill focus on a specific character here and say I really dont like a lot of fanon Klinger stuff I used to see when I was in the tags more. people make him out to be really dumb which is a large issue in the show itself, even though he's like. really fucking smart. but there's also a general issue ive seen of him being made out to be this, like, flamboyant slutty character which doesnt match him at all?? he's a romantic! he wants to get married! he's a sweetheart with the ladies- and close friends with the nurses, too. it doesnt surprise me this happens, fandoms in general are just. incapable of being normal about characters of colour, but I still hate to see it

20: part of canon you found tedious or boring

answered this one!

21: part of canon you think is overhyped

I love to joke around about queer subtext but I really really get nervous when I see people act like MASH was somehow deliberately queer. I think you can make a case for queerness as an anti-military device in the early seasons! but thats about it, I dont genuinely think any of these characters were meant to be read as queer themselves, and I think its important to remember that

like I love to call them all queer and say "what was the heterosexual reason for this" but at the end of the day. im well aware they weren't meant to be read that way. the heterosexual explanation is that these characters were written by heterosexual writers and queer jokes have always been a thing. MASH has fortunately aged fairly well in some of these and its easy to relate to the humour, but when people act like characters being queer is like, deliberate and canon subtext... I get nervous. ive been in a lot of fandoms over the years where this happens and it never ends well, it always ends up in queer baiting discourse and ship wars and it just. sucks

thats the long way of saying I think the fandom way overhypes what is considered queer subtext

[variousqueerthings]

I am an idiot with a box and a screwdriver, passing through, helping out, learning. I don’t need an army

Dark Water/Death In Heaven -- we're doing it as a double episode single-review, because it's one continuous story. It also wraps up a lot of the thematic threads of season eight and finally reveals that *gasp* it was the Master all along! (I genuinely do not remember if people were taken by surprise back in the day, I never watched this far at that time, and obviously I knew when I finally did)

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 6/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 6/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 3/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 5/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 5/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 5/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 6/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 4/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 4/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 2/10

FULL RATING: 46/100 (if I can count….)

the real issue with the plot of the finale, as I see it is actually solidly in the field of "pacing." there's some other stuff (I'll get into what I think about fulfilling character arcs and concepts about soldiers below), but pacing is the throughline as we take a look at various themes and arcs and whether they were sufficiently wrapped up

EDIT: this one is quite long because it also partially covers the whole season + I rant about the military

OBJECTIFICATION: oooof the four women in this finale, Clara, Kate, Osgood, and Gomez!Master, we technically don't get this much, however I do think it's interesting that M*ffat's Master is... called... Missy....

which I will not be doing, because I hate it. you see she's "Mistress" because she's a woman now, but no nonono, she needs a cutesy version of it, so it's "Missy," she's like the sexy dom you always dreamed of (just like Irene and River and several single-episode characters...)

at least he didn't dress her in leather

it's also hard to designate whether the way he writes her is so off from the way Simm!Master was written, because he for sure had a bunch of "I'm just Cu-raaazyy" moments. also he used bigotry as a casual hammer, which I'd be curious to talk with RTD about. I don't think he'd do that the same way if he were writing those episodes today, anyway, wrong era

Gomez!Master, in these episodes, has some really really stellar moments. she also has moments that make me go, "ah yes, this is a woman written by M*ffat," most noticeably in some of her one-sided "flirting" with the Doctor. again, it's hard to pinpoint, because a lot of it is just "yeah they're unhinged about each other and have been forever," but some of the "ooh Doctor I'm doing all of this for you," stuff is... it just feels like they can do that because of het Nonsense now (which I will get into in the "sexiness" point)

like she can be softer now (in a Master way) because she's portrayed by a woman opposite Capaldi's Doctor, which I think the "short for Mistress" moment is the most prime example of

I do also think though, this is (you guessed it) partially a pacing issue, because they didn't insert Gomez!Master into the main narrative until the second-to-last episode. if we could have seen her in some material way doing something prior to that -- but wait, Simm!Master also only appeared properly in the second-to-last episode, yes, correct, but Simm!Master was materially affecting the narrative from very early on, and not in a somewhat random "I gave you a number to call for a helpline that turned out to be the Tardis and also I'm sort of sitting around waiting for the plot to catch up with me" setup, but in a "I'm monitoring your family, I'm fucking with the government" kind of way -- there was even a musical cue that included the four beats that recurred so that we could connect that to the overarching story of mind-control

I'm going to get back to this in complexity, because we're getting off-point. Point is the jump from where we left off to where we find Gomez!Master being a bit lovey-dovey (again, in a Master way) just wasn't there and I feel like M*ffat thought he could do it this way because of course now they're played by a man and a woman... hypothesis. theory, if you will. Charlie Day Corkboard meme perhaps. but M*ffat would never have done this if the Master were played by a guy, looking at his track record. he might have done it if the Doctor were played by a woman, but I think the real issue there would have been how incredibly porn-opening-adjacent his Doctor/Master interactions would have become, so that's a different sort of lesbophobic bullet dodged

like, I'll take more explicit Master/Doctor stuff. but I'm fucking watching you M*ffat, youknow.

PLOT-POINT: Clara is not a plot-point in this episode, however I do think the pacing of Stuff hits her quite hard. we had a slowish build-up of her and Danny over the episodes, although fascinatingly he never really got to have proper feelings about the acres of lies she'd told him -- she was working up to telling him about it properly, but he got hit by a car before she could

this brings up a Thing about Clara, which is that she makes a loooot of bad decisions that prioritise her own current wants over what's good for her and/or people around her, and I doooo think that's intentional -- she has a line in this episode where she says to Danny, "I wasn’t very good at it, but I did love you"

now season 9 might deal with the guilt of the above, so there may be things to come, but there was certainly a lot of confusion on my side about what her journey was going to be about, and so far it seems to be a very unhealthy "I am owed things" rather than about running away from something tangible or feeling overwhelmed from life

there is the original idea that it was her mother's death that prompted her to want to travel, but something always got in the way, and that this (for example taking care of two kids whose mother died recently) indicates that she's a "good" person who cares for others -- and she doesn't not care, but it's certainly not her driving character trait in the way that it seemed to look like when Eleven met her properly and gauged her as a person who could be a companion

this is all very waffly, because I'm still not sure where Clara lands in all of this, or if I think it works in the grand scheme of things, especially in tandem with the other characterisations and themes of this season. it's got a very depressing, hopeless sort of framing to it that in other contexts I might be really into, but I may not enjoy for Doctor Who

that being said... it's consistent throughout the season. Clara sees the Doctor's red flags (and we'll get to those) and provided the ending is okay and she can control the Doctor and her own role in the situation, she's okay with the idea that people get used along the way -- as long as the Doctor doesn't try that on her

in this episode of course Clara threatens to (and makes good on that promise, even if it doesn't work) destroy the Tardis keys, stranding them both on a volcano, rails against the ordinariness of grief and feels that she is owed something more, shuts down Danny's attempts to say that he loves her, because it's not on her terms (granted, these terms are "please just accept that I'm dead," but that is kind of the point with Clara and her sense of controlling things, even death), then decides to be the one to kill Danny properly as a Cyberman, despite the Doctor explaining that Cyber-Danny will kill others, and then is fully intending to just straight up kill the Master!!!!

this is wild to me -- back in s3, when Francine and the entire Jones family are prepared to see the Master dead, it's because he destroyed the earth and made them watch and kept them as slaves for a year

in this episode, Clara wants to kill the Master because she did bad things that, yes, prolonged the sadness of Danny's death, but crucially did not actually cause Danny's death. Danny just... died. yeah, there's probably theories out there that the Master might have caused it (we'll get to this too), but this is never textual in the episode, and Clara never gives an indication that that's her belief

she's just angry that the Master is a bad person who did bad things, as concept. and mostly she's angry because her boyfriend is dead, and as far as I can see, the Doctor is now off the hook (whereas at the beginning the Doctor was very much on the hook) and the Master is the closest person around to take that anger out on

bonkers for a companion to be this way. again, Martha, my beloved Martha, Osterhagen key back in the day, she's not doing this out of anger, she's having a straight-up bad time and the whole tragedy is about the Doctor accidentally turning companions into soldiers. they've got guns and everything. Clara just bypasses this and is simply down for murder because she's upset

at the end of course she elects to not tell the Doctor about Danny's sacrifice/still being dead, because she thinks the Doctor would stay rather than return to Gallifrey (which may not be found after all, because the Doctor lies to her about that too), which is quite self-sacrificial of her. we'll see where this sentiment goes, especially as it's another lie, which is kind of their whole... thing with one another. terrible terrible for one another, which I know is the appeal for their fans, so I'm not necessarily writing this as critique

I am reminded of the Doctor and Martha again, who also had a whole unhealthy thing going on, but it was very based in the narrative and had a specific trajectory and then an ending that acknowledged this as a reason for Martha no longer wishing to travel with them (and then some things I have questions about, RTD bring Martha back I'm not satisfied!)

in this story, it feels like this is simply who Clara is. and while it does contradict some of her earlier narrative in s7, I can accept that it's consistent now. but yeah... as said, there's some plotting and pacing inconsistencies. where are the kids from before (I know she stopped taking care of them, but one feels like they had no tangible impact on the story), why was Danny's death written in the way it was (we'll get to that), where did some of her s7 characterisation go (I really missed a Clara who wasn't just smart and quippy, but was also scared and out of her depth), is this because she "knows" a lot of the Doctor lore now, so she feels like she belongs more in this world than other people? why was she in love with Danny, to the point of wanting to go to a possible afterlife to get him back (actually this is a big one, because while they did have scenes together, I don't know what drew her to him, and I have some feelings about Danny down in the politics section of this, which somewhat can be boiled down to "he gives me the vibes of a man who is kind and sensitive and easily used and Clara likes to use people so...")

like I said- it's not that Clara doesn't make sense for who she is now, but that the pacing and structure don't support her arc very well. I don't think this is the worst thing to happen to a female character during M*ffat's run, but it does make this finale less emotionally fulfilling than it clearly wants to be

am I sad that Danny is dead? yeah, but not because of Clara. I'm sad because of his unrealised potential as a character. am I shocked that Clara wanted to shoot the Master? yes, but because it was a Bonkers Yonkers bit of characterisation on top of some already wild things she did which any past Doctor I think would have said "ok, you are not suitable for this kind of life, because you are way too down with murder and have no emotional stability." When Clara left the Doctor, I was kinda like. yeah, ok, she could end this here I guess (I say that, and acknowledge that actually the Christmas Special right after gives her a bit more depth on the whole "Danny Dying Sitch" of things, although again, it does not make me think she should be continuing to travel with the Doctor, never mind be working with UNIT in s9????)

ok. but. pacing. let's get to it

COMPLEXITY: ok the problem with this episode is not technically complexity, although it does fall for a couple of M*ffat standards in that it didn't need to be doing some of the things it is doing (the cremation stuff I think is particularly unsettling in a needless way that I think crosses a line, but that is possibly subjective)

the problem is the questions I was asking in the previous sections and a whole bunch more, that shows that all of the themes and questions that were set up throughout the season weren't paced well or satisfactorily concluded

take one that I like: The Master. big fan of Gomez' portrayal of The Master barring a few things that are very M*ffat female character, with a dash of his Moriarty (so youknow the drill if you've ever spent too long engaging with a M*ffat narrative), but that's not her, that's just her having to make a "hey Missy you're so fine" dialogue work

I mentioned it was odd that she was so sidelined and just... hanging around... until the second-to-last episode. I am unclear why she "chose" Clara to travel with the Doctor, first of all. I cannot remember if this is answered in the episode, beyond like "the Universe and fate and shit" which I'm not a fan of if so. second of all... why didn't she kill Danny? (EDIT: did read there's a short story that confirmed she did kill Danny, but we're going purely by episodes here)

if we want to go big, say, why wasn't there a big, slow reveal that she'd been poking around in Clara's life, maybe also Danny's life who knows, and that she was giving all of these things to the Doctor as a gift by using humans as puppets culminating in Danny's death and this is what sets Clara off? the idea that she once again is just playing to the tune of a larger narrative that she has no control over and worse, isn't even about her, but about this fucked up dynamic between these two incredibly old aliens

I'm sure some people like the randomness of Danny's death. I personally do not. I think it's contrived angst that comes out of nowhere in the same way so much of M*ffat's narrative tends to do. why is this happening now? because we need the story to go there and we forgot to place 90% of the establishing building blocks that make it feel organic -- the worst offender for this in my opinion is still the "Amy grew up with River as her best friend the whole time, you just didn't know," but this is a pretty bad example in my opinion too, because on the surface it is very very sad, and the randomness of death is a great idea... but hey, remember when they did that story in 2005 with Rose's dad and it was really good and established and played into the overarching themes of her story? this is not that. this is using sadness as a cheap device

there's like. a story in here that is really really good, and it gets buried underneath a bunch of contrived over-the-top stuff (although, while I initially thought the "president of the earth" stuff was bad, and still kind of do, I did think it was funny that the Doctor mocked the Master about all those times they tried to rule the world and the Doctor managed it by accident)

I also -- and I'm sure many people have noticed this too -- cannot help but go, "oh isn't this just the Library plot but evil? and with a worse/less believable set of scifi nonsense explanations?" and that's such a M*ffat classic too. use three or four good (and sometimes not good) ideas over and over again, but bigger and more unwieldy

Ohhhh boy the idea of the Brigadier becoming a Cyberman, because all of earth - no wait, more than earth, some of the people who end up there aren't on earth - for the last x amount of years has just been sucked into the evil Library database. (seriously, tell me how this works, because it works across Time and Space apparently??) -- anyway billions? trillions? of people becoming Cybermen. I don't think this is explained either. I am not a fan of the Brigadier becoming a Cyberman, let's say that

none of the core scifi stuff is explained beyond a handwave, and none of the emotional arcs are given a satisfying conclusion but!

listen Michelle Gomez is so cool, I relish the future when I know she's getting better dialogue

also in theory I like the callback to the "I win" in s3. we know the Doctor doesn't kill her, but yeah, him going "you win." they're such weirdos about each other, truly. again, with all of the rest of the "stuff" this season, the poor pacing, the scrape-the-surface-and-it's-cheap-sentimentality I don't think it entirely works, but hey, Gomez will return so!

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: Danny is dead. the Master is Michelle Gomez (and not dead). the Doctor is slightly? more chill in themself (maybe, idk, going by the following episode, maybe not). Gallifrey is still lost. I think that covers it?

also the Doctor just straight-up wasn't looking for Gallifrey this whole time it seems

COMPANIONS MATTER: Clara does some things in this one. notably, not a single thing she does works, but for the ways they work because the Doctor and/or Danny care about her so so much, which I think is at the heart of all of this -- if you (the audience) believe that the Doctor and Danny have so much affection and/or love for Clara that despite her behaviour they would go to the afterlife for her, they would break cyber-coding for her, then this works

if you don't believe this, then we're in trouble.

things Clara does: aforementioned attempted destruction of Tardis key, attempting to save Danny from death, passing herself off as the Doctor, killing Danny, killing the Master

I thiiiink... that covers it. within this she does convince the Doctor to take her to the afterlife, and Danny saves her life a few times

I want to note the "Clara pretends to be the Doctor" moment, because I think it's a good example of some of the flattening of her character. in her earlier entries in s7 she was afraid at times. now, obviously, like the other companions she's seen more, she's more confident, but she is still in very real danger -- contrasting with Rose in Doomsday and how she taunts the Daleks, she's still very very afraid, she's sure they're all going to die

and I think Rose in Army of Ghosts/Doomsday is the closest to Clara out of previous companions I've seen (not counting Classic Who which I haven't finished). by that point she's seen so much that her mother comments that she doesn't seem like herself anymore (I wish Clara's grandmother had made a similar observation -- or at least some kind of observation). she knows a bunch of DW lore, she loves the travel for the sake of it, she feels, yeah, special (although with the caveat that she's met previous companions, the Doom hangs over them all season, we know this is about to end one way or another)

I just sat there the whole time thinking, "why is the director not asking JLC to put more emotion into her voice, more doubt, more desperation, just... more. why is this scene so flat?"

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: the Doctor is a headless chicken in this one, except for the fact that he's like "yeah we'll go to the afterlife" and then promptly goes "there is no afterlife, this is stupid."

it's a small thing on the whole, but hey, Doctor, you're the one who decided to go there

as for the Doctor as a seasons-arc roundup. I... don't hate it... but I still don't like how this Doctor is characterised. he's still incredibly unlikeable just on a personal level, and yeah yeah good doesn't mean nice, but he's also just not kind. and I think I struggle to enjoy an iteration of the Doctor who isn't kind, at least sometimes

I think a lot of that -- the unkindness -- falls to the wayside as a concept in this episode, because idk, it's not important I guess? whereas I think it's central to the Doctor's question of "am I good"? are you good because you try to make people not-die, sure, but you're also good because you don't mock kids. you don't casually state that you've forgotten peoples faces because they're so forgettable/unimportant to you. you don't treat people poorly that know they're about to die

if that stuff -- that domestic stuff, as Nine might have called it -- isn't important to the question, then I don't think the question is being satisfactorily answered by this episode

yes, Twelve turns down the chance to have a literal army that could just kill all bad guys, but I never doubted that. does Twelve treat others with kindness? Mmmm still not really, going by the episode right after. it's a fun little exploration of something absolutely wild the Master might try, but I don't think it tells me anything new about the Twelfth Doctor

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: ok, I'm sure some people loved some of these callbacks. The Brigadier. the Cybermen outside St Pauls.

did like Osgood saying that Simm!Master prime-minister wasn't even the worst one we've had. that ages ever more hilariously

I just don't think the plot is good enough for a lot of them. and as an ending to the Brigadier well... ok, I liked it better than way back (s6) the Doctor receives a random phonecall that the Brigadier is dead and it's apropos nothing and Kate Stewart hadn't been introduced yet, so it was just some random guy that the old fans knew, but the nu fans would have been ??? about, because why does this guy dying drive the plot like that? I liked that the Brigadier has context

of course that context is, your brain was uploaded to a computer database for years and now you're fully a cyberman -- and it's not framed as super tragic? it's another one of the ways the emotional Stuff falls flat in this episode, and I just choose to pretend it's not something that happens

“SEXINESS”: M I S S Y... short for Mistress... because we need to gender this now. Anyway, the first time this character meets the Doctor in this form, she forcibly grabs him and kisses him without his consent (afterwards Clara smirks and asks if she used tongue)

so that is... that is a thing that happens. that is a thing that has happened a lot on this show, both to Ten and Eleven, but not to Twelve until now, because I guess women only humorously throw themselves at twinks

when will our suffering end?? why is this considered funny???? Stop!!!

she also at one point says "you know I should shoot you in a jealous rage, now wouldn’t that be sexy," which was one thing I was alluding to with the "where does writing the Master as kind of fucked up end and writing the Master as a Crazy Evil Sexy Lady begin" because this is definitely in the latter category

INTERNAL WORLD: is this just the Silence of the Library but evil and less believable? yes. does it make sense that they could magically put all those minds back into reconstructed Cyberbodies on top of corpses, including people who must have been dead for centuries, or died in the future not even on earth? don't think about it

POLITICS: So, you know how this season is all about the Doctor and soldiers and "am I a good man" and Danny was a soldier and calls the Doctor an officer, and on the plus-side we have the Doctor's speech about not being a good man or an officer or anything like that, but just "some fuckn guy" (paraphrased, he actually calls himself an idiot)

on the flipside of that we have... Danny. oh Danny. I. so I really want to like Danny, and I actually do like Danny, I think he's the most underserved character of the season, in the sense that everyone else being written to be an asshole just makes it shine through that he is... not. and his whole thing is that he feels guilty about having shot a kid in Afghanistan and that's what made him leave the military, because... it felt bad, I guess

I write that, because Danny didn't leave the army because he didn't agree with their politics anymore. despite having a bunch of lines derogatorily calling the Doctor "sir," and flipping shit like "watch the blood-soaked general in action" there's never actually a story of Danny realising a superior officer was using his power to hurt anyone, and he never questions that having been there in the first place, in a position to shoot a child, might have been the bad thing

he's not railing against superiors, he's just railing, which is frustrating when it's so close to getting it right. it seemed like they might be going there for awhile, there was a hot second where I thought they might, but at the end he firmly re-identifies himself as a soldier and shoots himself and the other Cybermen into the sky to save the planet. it's so... oooh it's so [flames on the side of my head]

he does send the kid back, rather than himself, which circles back to my thinking about Danny the character (kind, compassionate, sensitive) and Danny as keeper of certain themes (that it's not the system of soldiering that's bad, in fact we need to defend ourselves, see Doctor, your black and white narrative about soldiers as related to any guilt you might feel about having once killed people, or making situations happen where people die or or, is false, because it's more complicated than that, and soldiers are a good thing actually -- no, we haven't actually made a narrative about systems of soldiering, we've conflated freedom-fighting against a fictional fascist-coded alien with the British army, it's the same thing in the end)

it makes me want to -- in that oh-so-silly fandom way -- take Danny away from the writers and look back at his core traits: he's an orphan who by the sounds of things was never adopted, so in a place of being easily groomed by a structure like the army, he believes in the inherent goodness of people (I think), like I said, kind, compassionate, sensitive, lovely to kids, clearly suffers from PTSD (of course), and... in my opinion eaaasily misused by others, because he judges things to be solely on his shoulders

because Clara is a very forceful personality, I can sooo easily see how he'd be taken with her and want to forgive her over and over again and sacrifice himself for her

I wish that Danny's storyline had been about realising his worth. not his worth as a fucking soldier, but just "oh, I've been scared my whole life, I've had to do what others told me my whole life, and now this is my choice." I mean, the sacrificing is still... sigh (I do remember seeing people pointing out that great, we introduce a Black recurring character and then yeet him into the sky once his use is up, vs, say Rory who is there from beginning to end)

(I actually like Danny better than Rory on the whole, but I also think Danny and Rory have a lot of similar traits, and they both fall in love with women who have treated them abysmally, but at least Clara understands this as a part of her arc, both in the final episode of this and the subsequent Christmas episode)

but at least it wouldn't have been a sacrifice in which he reinserts himself as a cog in a machine. fucking soldier. please Danny, you deserve more from this thematic journey. if we'd had a narrative about an abusive or simply bad or incompetent or idealistically incompatible officer, this would have made more sense, but instead we just get vague references that go nowhere

ok I'm writing in circles now, so let's drop this and talk about the kid he shoots, whom he meets in the "afterlife" (argh this whole concept is so stupid) and I guess just... sits with? until he scares him away. and then sends him back to life again

there's something poignant in that to an extent, it's just of course that this random unnamed kid from Afghanistan who says not a line is a prop to absolve Danny of his personal guilt at shooting a child, and, again, not really about the nature of British colonialism and military violence

now oof, those are some heavy themes to bring up, can we expect all this from a silly show like Doctor Who? well, M*ffat did, he just wasn't able to follow through. heavy themes aren't shock value, you'd better be a good enough writer to do something with them, or idk, not want to suck the British army's dick

ooh, that was a bit aggressive on my part. I think because season eight actually has so much interesting stuff it's playing with, so this time I could finally see Stuff, but then the payoff was just a disappointing slap. RIP Danny, in my heart you had character development this season that went into all of the interesting narrative threads that were introduced, and you became a passionate speaker for not grooming kids into joining the army

the TL;DR of this point is "soldiers good sometimes. check mate Pacifist" -- but similar to Kill The Moon, it's so messy I'm not sure it actually knows what it wants to say

FULL RATING: 46/100 (if I can count….)

I feel like not everyone would agree with me, but I like the Master's overall plan. it fits with the wildly swinging way they try to win the Doctor over, just to lash out when the Doctor (understandably) turns them down, while also pinpointing the little hypocrisies of the Doctor's morals, because the Master keeps offering the ability to Change Things and the Doctor prefers little shifts of the status quo that often mean people get left behind or get hurt or it's much messier than a clean sweep of "if you just ruled the Universe with me, we'd do good things"

(the Doctor is of course right to go "yeahno, this is not a good idea, for starters we both have so many issues, for seconds anyone who sets out to be a good ruler of anything has already failed because of the premise"). it's the strongest part of the episodes for me, I just wish it had had a more satisfying build-up and been able to tie in better to the themes of the season (or rather that the themes of the season had been written better in previous episodes so as to tie in better with this wrapping-up)

and obviously the whole "soldier" stuff is just badly written

and Clara...? I'll wait and see in her final season. it's very much a "depends on how they round it off" for me

also, oh boy am I done with quips. the Wh*donesque quipping is doing my head in, please make it stooop

"One last chance. I don’t care about the rules, I don’t give a damn about paradoxes, I swear you will never step inside your Tardis again" <- this is Villain Behaviour Clara!!!!

[talenlee]

Outlaws of Thunder Junction Draft In Retrospect

Outlaws of Thunder Junction is stepping out the door in a few days as the ‘newest’ standard set, and with it goes the default focus of premier drafting on Magic The Gathering Arena. As the newest and most current set, any time Magic: The Gathering Arena gives me a pack for showing up or having fun or being nice or having a cute smile (like it’d know), it gives me a Outlaws of Thunder Junction pack.

This has been a deliberate part of my focus playing on Arena. See, I really like playing constructed magic, and because of that, I’ve been drafting Outlaws of Thunder Junction regularly.

These things seem at odds, I know.

Here’s my thinking:

Building decks need cards.

The game gives you a bunch of preconstructed decks to start with, but they are explicitly weak and designed to get you started in the game. They’re not about the kinds of things I want to be doing with my cards.

If I want to acquire cards, I can either spend money on buying product or I can do things in the free game that get me more rewards

These rewards can be spent on buying packs in the store, which is how they encourage me to keep engaged with the store, or I can draft.

If I just buy boosters, at maximum payout, it’s 90k gold for 90 boosters, 45k for 45 boosters that give 8 cards, so 360 cards.

If I draft, assuming I do badly, I will spend 10k gold, and open 3 boosters (with no chance for wildcards) that total 45 cards, and get another booster (+8 cards). That’s a much lower rate of return, with 4 boosters being 4k gold.

But the draft sees 53 cards and 4 boosters would see 32.

If I do okay at a draft, I’m spending 10k gold for 3 15-card boosters (45 cards) + 2 boosters (16 cards) and 1,000 gems.

If I draft cards I already have 4 of (which will happen if I draft a lot), they contribute to the vault very quickly and if I draft rares I already have 4 of (which turns out also happens) I get wildcards for those.

Here’s the other thing: Saving up for 90k gold takes more than two months during which there are good days and bad days and sometimes nothing happening. Drafting every week or so is a lot of fun.

Not that I would have necessarily said that at particular points. I mean, there were points in the Thunder Junction season where I had the extremely firm opinion that actually, draft sucks, why am I doing it. One night, I did a draft, got a 1-3 loss, and was so mad about it I immediately spent my gems to queue up again, eating a 0-3 loss. In that moment, I did genuinely storm around the house and think ‘why do I bother, this sucks, why am I doing this.’

It’s very important to face that feeling, because I know full well I was fuming and upset about losing and not handling it well. I talked about it on kind.social, I fumed, I had a little tattle and a little vent about it, but also, it was very important to recognise, I was talking about my feelings. I was venting about feeling bad. I didn’t need to talk about the objective failings, or about the balance of the game, I was talking about the things I felt bad about, and it’s okay to feel bad and it’s okay to express that feeling bad.

Anyway, what did I learn in general?

You Don’t Have To Worry About Getting Enough Playables

Time was when I learned how to play draft, it was a genuinely challenging experience because boosters had cards in it you wouldn’t want to play. That’s because it was the set Scourge, and Onslaught-Scourge-Legions draft was a midnight hellscape. Do you know what commons were like back then? Half of them were non-creatures, and in Onslaught specifically, there were some absolute donkeys.

Have you ever seen Treespring Lorian? It’s a 5/4 for 6. What about Daru Lancer? Six mana, 3 power first striker, bam!

Removal was better, creatures were worse, and you would be shocked at what constituted good evasion. Screaming Seahawk was a ‘good card’, and Severed Legion was one of the most powerful cards in its class.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction has far fewer cards I wouldn’t run and when I cut them it’s because I have better cards, not because the cards are too bad to put in a deck. Even cards that are a bit awkward still have a place – particularly, sometimes you’ll have an uncommon or rare that transform how good another card is. Check out Boneyard Desecrator. I’ve won a few games with it as just a 3/4 menace for 4, which is unexciting but fine, but that’s a little desperate compared to when I got one alongside a Baron Bertram Graywater – which meant I started this creature getting bigger and bigger, slowly bleeding an opponent as I made treasures and vampires, and held off bigeger and bigger threats. Very fun engine, and it leads to the next point…

Sometimes an Uncommon Pulls Something Together

Treasure Dredger isn’t an amazing card, I don’t think. It’s a 2/2 for 2. It can block some things in combat but on its own it’s not really doing a lot. It doesn’t trigger crimes on its own, and you don’t usually need regular treasure production, unless you have something for it to work with. Like, again Baron Bertram Graywater.

Know what else works great with it? A huge expensive card like Cruel Ultimatum, or a huge expensive card like Overwhelming Forces or a card like Gold Rush. If I have one of those cards, suddenly, the Dredger is a lot more interesting. Quilled Charger isn’t a really exciting card, but menace is really good if you also have a Ferocification.

When I found I had a deck hanging around a card like that, I would play as if I was trying to get that card. Cyclers, searches, digging and rummaging all become differently valuable if you have a cool uncommon or rare that makes the whole deck work in a particular way, and that means that cards that keep the game going until you get them have a value for that point too. Gotta keep my head on a swivel and notice when my deck’s priorities are different.

Oh, know another good example? Spring Splasher. It’s not that good a card, but when I drafted two alongside a Lazav, Familiar Stranger, being able to drop Lazav and immediately crime on a creature that was safe and also promised to make the next crime on the next turn was really good. It didn’t matter if they weren’t a great card per se, because if Lazav is a 3/6 the first time they attack, they’re really hard to get rid of!

I remember these stories. I remember winning this way. I remember having fun with these interactions.

Sometimes You Get Dumpstered

In my first OTJ draft, my third game and loss was where my opponent cast, in order:

Thunder Salvo

Sandstorm Salvager

Hellspur Posse Boss

Gitrog Monster

Back For More

Savage Smash

That was kinda impossible to beat. And that happens. In best-of-one free-to-play drafting, there are going to be situations where an opponent gets a handful of heaters and I don’t have anything I can do about it but that’s not most games, it’s not all games, and even when a statistical outlier like this happens, the thing to do is take it, dust myself off, vent about the feelings and be okay with trying again.

I can’t remember when I won like that. I’m sure I have had wins where my opponent just – oh! Oh wait no! No I remember now. The last draft I did, I played a green-black deck where I had two treasure dredgers and a Kaervek, the Punisher. My opponents were convinced getting rid of Kaervak was a big deal, and left my Treasure Dredgers alone.

Then when I had five treasures, I untapped and cast the Goldvein Hydra in my hand, resulting in a 12/12 trampling vigilance haste. And I gotta say if you’re the opponent and you just spent time brawling through blockers and trying to box me into a position to get Kaervak off the table, because you could have no idea that my deck couldn’t do anything with him, only to have the Hydra that had been sitting in my hand vomit itself onto the battlefield and crash over 8 power of blockers for lethal –

That probably felt bad.

I mean, I take the W, but I gotta remember that I’m someone’s bad match too, sometimes. Point is, I’m playing a high variance card game for a reason and I’m not owed a victory, even if I think I am.

Don’t Spend All Your Removal At Once

The target is 20 of my opponent’s life total. Just because I can neatly kill a thing when my opponent plays out a creature and I have the mana up doesn’t mean it’s worth my time to do it. Creatures are going to bash into each other and live and die, and there’s nothing good about keeping the board clear in limited unless I’m already ahead, and ahead in a way that won’t be easily disrupted (so, like, 2-3 good sized creatures), then killing their creature with one of my small supply of removal spells might be a waste of that card. I don’t have a lot! I don’t have tons of removal! I need to hang onto it for the best targets. Killing something to get in for 2 is not a good use of a whole card.

Late Game Gas Is Really Important

I used to play limited in a world where you wanted to be able to engage on the battlefield on turn three, and just go for it. Creature combat was about mediocre creatures hitting one another and killing your opponents’ stuff and broadly speaking if you could draft a bunch of bears you were going to win just because you went 2 drop, 2 drop, two 2 drops against opponents who were still casting more expensive stuff.

That’s not the case any more. Evasion isn’t as available, it’s not as pure. People want to get around things and want to get through things. Menace has an amazing effect. Vigilance is incredible. But just having any big creature that I can draw to in the late game or hold onto in the mid game is important. Without that, even when the end game is stalled I’m drawing cards that aren’t good and don’t matter even if I am drawing a lot of them.

Conclusion

I am fond of  OTJ. I have memories of playing it and it has made me a little less scared of drafting going forwards and I’m really happy with how Magic Arena made drafting it part of my life.

Oh and Bonny Pall is a mess.

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