#since we need something a bit lighter after this week's ep

[oneawkwardcookie]

WIP Wednesday

Tagged by @stanningskygsky

Here's the thumbnail for a video I'm posting on Sunday

Tagging: @breannacasey, @piningeddiediaz, @swiftiebuckleys, @tawaifeddiediaz, @tarlosbuddie, @drinkcrywrite and anyone else with a WIP they want to share something from

[robertfettuccine]

My Post-May the Fourth Bad Batch Thoughts

there's lots of 'em

[spoilers]

To start off, I was So excited for the finale I stayed up to watch it when it came out (1am in my time zone) and idk it didn’t feel worth it to do that during finals week after watching the ep

Maybe I had too high expectations but I figured that to wrap up the entire show we’d at least get an hour? Maybe more? I was hoping for something like the s1 premiere but no 51 minutes and you suffer.

Ok I've decided to put my thoughts into 15 minute increments for Organization Purposes

Part One thoughts:

Ok so right away I feel the "wrecker is gonna die" vibes. "Can you make it?" "Try and stop me." It feels very final it feels like he won't. I def thought my first time around that he wasn't gonna make it

The way Hemlock holds that gloved hand... I thought surely that had to be important somehow. I've been wondering about it since he was introduced.

Echo looks like handsome squidward sorry

The way Omega rewires the droid.. Tech. But the way she starts giving orders to the rest of the kids is so Hunter. She really is her fathers' (plural) daughter.

Sidenote the way her theme combines with a light, string-heavy version of the Bad Batch theme while she and the kids are getting ready to leave the vault... mmmm me when music

Ok back to the Batch and ough.. Wrecker is seriously hurt this had me so nervous they're out of med patches I thought for Sure he was gone

Imagine you're in the military and you get sent to some super secret boring base and your whole job is to stand around and guard a submerged lizard (?) and you're already confused and over it and then you find a bunch of kids in your walls???

WOw this is really minor but the cut from the kids and the Zillo to Echo and Emerie at 9:46 felt Really awkward. That's all.

the HAND thing again what is With that Hemlock??

Wrecker again with the Dying

REX MENTION!!!!! WTF IS A BAD HELMET PAINT JOB

"Clone Force 99 died with Tech" what a great line. If only it carried emotional weight within the rest of the story. If only the character's actions made that make sense. Hmm.

"If we all go in, we're not all making it out" see this is why I thought I was getting rogue one'd

"Omega needs you both" is sweet and cool, but she doesn't. She's proved this whole season that she's competent on her own. Idk.

Plan 99 namedrop? Also crosshair's self hatred and guilt is so devastating he's constantly trying to atone and it's so.....

Tech namedrop????? And for WHAT??????????

nOO that stormtrooper.. they done squished his ass

Jax is afraid of heights! Just like Wrecker!! Good character moment for everybody.

Part 1 TLDR: The first third of this episode was full of contrast, which was super interesting to watch. Omega and the kids are doing great, the lighting on them is generally softer and.. idk, lighter. They get hopeful music and they succeed. The Batch on the other hand..... everything is so ominous. It feels like somebody's gonna die (and it feels like it's Wrecker). My main gripes: some of the jump cuts feel like the episode was hastily stitched together and they don't make sense, I don't really know what to do with that knowledge. The Plan 99 conversation didn't make any sense within the context of this season (I'll elaborate later). Positives: Omega is really winning this ep, you can see all of her brothers in her and it's beautiful. What they've done with her theme in the music I Love. That moment with Omega and Jax when he says he's afraid of heights is really sweet.

Part Two Thoughts:

Ok starting off strong, Scorch questioning his orders for a bit? He's going to lose brothers? The door closes before we can hear what he says over the comm? I really thought maybe Scorch redemption.

Ok Hemlock is activating the CXs. There's four of them.

They all have different armor.. and different body types.. very similar to the batch....... hmmmmmmm

CX-2!! *clown noises*

Ok close up on the same CXs from before. One of them uses blades. One has.. sci-fi brass knuckles? CX-2 is there. This feels like Evil Bad Batch.

THE CLOSE UP ON CX-2 SPECIFICALLY WHY IS HE IMPORTANT

wrecker dying again uhnnnnnnhnhhhhhhhhhh

The brass knuckles CX just grabbed a panel of Something and used it as a shield. That's Plan 82. That's Wrecker's job.

WHY IS THERE ONE WITH GOGGLES JUST LIKE TECH'S? WHY

Goggles clone duel wields sword-vibroblades. ?

The one with the staff.. Hunter?

Ok Vibro-Sword CX, why toss the Sword to CX-2 so he can cut off Crosshair's hand? Why not just do it yourself? Those things have enough reach that he could have sliced it off himself.

The way CX-2 talks is Just like Crosshair. The inflections are exactly the same.

Ok I get Hemlock's a sadist but why keep the Batch alive at all? Seems like that's more dangerous than experimenting on them is productive

Echo and Omega's reunion is lovely. "Hey kid. And... other kids." he's doing amazing

Using the Chief Scientist's datapad just like last time Omega escaped... nice.

Hemlock's hand again.

Ok so crosshair just gets a hand stump and we move on?? This whole scene felt weird and out of place to me but Especially that.

Yeah!! Clone rebellion. Echo is Fives if he won (and had no melanin)

Maybe Electrostaff CX is Wrecker? He seems taller and has a wider build.

But nvm Brass Knuckles CX plays wrecker's part in the batch and Electrostaff doesn't

GOGGLES AGAIN WITH THE SWORDS?? WhY isn't CX-2 fighting with the rest why is he with Hemlock why does he stand out so much WHY

"My work will always be Kaminoan" yeah Nala Se isn't redeemed for me she's still a supremacist and a eugenicist and she and Rampart both deserved what they got. Satisfying ending for them both though.

Part 2 TLDR: This part had a ton of potential. There were a lot of suspenseful and mysterious shots. The story started getting more intense, even though the kids escaped successfully. There was weight there, and as an audience we could tell how much was on the line. I loved watching this part. My main gripes: Honestly none with this part alone. All of it felt pretty in-character, it had depth, it had weight, and it had meaning in the story. It makes less sense when we get to Part 3 though. Positives: I absolutely loved watching this part of the ep. It had me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out just what was going on with the CXs and who wasn't going to make it out. Giving Echo the chance to continue his brother's mission and free the clones was great. Nala Se and Rampart both got a fitting end, I was very satisfied with that as well.

Part Three Thoughts:

Wrecker is fighting Staff Guy (possibly Evil Wrecker) oh that would've been so cool

And they just STABBED HIM?? JUST LIKE THAT?? What was with the focus on CX-2 throughout the ENTIRE SEASON when he literally Didn't Matter At All???

We're not even gonna talk about the hand then huh. Ok.

Closeup of the Goggles Helmet?? What was the purpose. What was it.

And then they have SOmeone pick up the sword and helmet all ominously and then it's just some guy. We see his face. It kinda looks too small for his body. Like bad photoshop

Ok so echo doesn't have lungs? or like..

There is Such a focus on the Goggles. Like we were never supposed to see his face. Like it was maybe supposed to be suspenseful.

Ok why so ominous if Wrecker is just gonna shove his face into a wall instantly? Why all the suspense and cool shots?

When CX-2's ship blew up I thought for sure it was from Rex or Phee's ship. But no. (can regular DC-15s even Do that?)

HNNNNNHG wet hair Hunter

SCORCH?? Ok so he could have been some random guy and it wouldn't have made a difference. What was the purpose. Why did he have a name? Why bring in a Legends character just to get rid of him in the most anticlimactic way possible?

Hemlock threatening Omega literally doesn't make any sense? It carries Zero weight. Omega even brings it up and Hemlock doesn't respond. Because it doesn't make sense for his character. Why.

Nice little callback with Crosshair's shoulder rest

Crosshair shooting Omega's binders off should be a tense moment but it's not. There's nothing at stake here. We know he won't shoot Omega. What am I supposed to be feeling?

Ok seeing Hemlock just get absolutely Pelted was nice

She hugged Crosshair first. Maybe we can start resolving some of his guilt. If we actually took time to show characters processing their emotions.

We're Still not talking about the hand? That feels notable, is that just me???

Ok and everyone just.. leaves. We just leave. It's done? Where was the climax supposed to be genuine question

Ok so we're namedropping now. Project Stardust with a nice subtle imperial march in the background. Okay?

We are back on Pabu now. The clone kids are there. The clones are there. The kids are there. Emerie is there. Everybody's happy.

Where is Phee?

Echo's ending is actually fine. I went into this ep the first time thinking for Sure he was going to die. Instead he's doing what Fives died trying to do. He's the last Domino but he doesn't have to fall and I think that's ok. But why isn't he with Rex in Rebels?

"With Hemlock gone, and his data destroyed, they're finally safe" - M. Night Shyamalan in the ATLA movie because we must Tell our audience Everything. Seriously why are we telling the audience something they can see? Why does Omega say that out loud? Nobody would say that. It's obvious. That line was just SO out of place

No real goodbyes for Echo though? No sweet character moments? No reactions from anyone?

Nice clones theme though. Fives would be proud.

All the dialogue between Omega and Hunter in this final scene just feels so.. off. Lazy. Show us what's going on, don't tell.

Why do Crosshair and Wrecker feel like such an afterthought here? Why is it so Awkward? Why were they over saying goodbye to Echo and Omega and Hunter weren't? It feels like they weren't supposed to make it out. It feels weird. It feels forced.

Part 3 TLDR: This was the part of the ep that just fell flat for me. It had some cool moments, but it felt really rushed and poorly thought out. It feels very out of place with the previous 30mins. It almost feels to me like it was rewritten, although I may just be delusional. My main gripes: This part of the ep should have had the big emotional moments and also wrapped up all the loose ends introduced in the rest of the season. It did none of that for me. Why cut off Crosshair's hand to have none of the characters really acknowledge his sacrifice? That isn't a resolution to his arc. None of the Things that happened to the Batch this season were processed at all, and everyone except Hunter and Omega was pretty much sidelined towards the end. CX-2, who was built up all season, died in a super unsatisfying way. The dialogue and staging of that final scene felt super off. The cavalry never arrived. Positives: As always, the Kiners killed it. The music was great. I love a happy ending, that rarely happens in Star Wars and I would've absolutely eaten it up under the right circumstances. Watching Hemlock finally get it was super satisfying. Echo's ending as a continuation of the Domino Squad's quest for clone individuality was really fitting actually. That One shot of Tantiss... glorious.

Epilogue Thoughts:

The way the city is set up on Pabu makes it look just like Tantiss in the overhead shot.

Aww the red bandana in Omega's hair

Hunter aged much better than Rex.

"We want to keep you safe" "You're our kid Omega" OK WHERE IS THE WE? WHERE IS THE OUR????

Ha she's taller than him short king Hunter wins

"Keep an eye on Wrecker and Crosshair" you're not gonna say bye? They aren't gonna see you off?? No way Wrecker would be ok with that

The GOGGLES :((((

Omega's lil salute like Tech in S2E4 Faster my heart

Where are Crosshair and Wrecker in the epilogue. It feels like a weird choice to leave them out. They're just as much her dads as Hunter is.

Epilogue TLDR: Honestly I liked that this was their ending. Finally, some Star Wars characters can have peace. With that said, My main gripes: significant lack of Crosshair and Wrecker, who absolutely wouldn't have let omega leave without saying goodbye. Similarly, lack of Phee, who seemed to be becoming a mother figure to Omega. I can't imagine she wouldn't have seen her daughter off. Positives: old Hunter. We don't get to see that many clones age, and Rebels animation, as much as I love it, just didn't quite do it justice. It was great to see some characters get to actually live out full (ish) lives at peace. Also older Omega's character design was peak.

Oooookay so this ended up being a Lot longer than I intended it to be when I started writing it but I just had a lot of thoughts on the finale and needed to put them somewhere. I loved the experience of being a part of the Bad Batch fandom from start to finish, and I made some great memories for sure. While the finale wasn't necessarily what I was hoping for from this show, I loved being delusional with everybody. Plus, this isn't the end. (we know they won't give up the clone wars animation style it makes them too much money)

[lizacstuff]

Can’t wait to read you thoughts on this episode. Eda and Serkan are getting engaged! ngl seeing the rings did something to me, I haven’t recovered yet.

I KNOW!!!!! I missed the rings so much. When folks were upset during the filming of 20 when it became apparent he wasn't wearing the ring anymore, I remember saying that they have to take them off so they can put them back on for real, and it will be oh so sweet when they do. Flashforward six weeks and YES!!!! Just seeing those rings again is sweet we're going to die when they actually slip them on during the next episode. I'm not attached to any of my own jewelry the way I'm attached to their rings, lmao.

As a whole this episode was very enjoyable for me.  The new writers clearly realized they needed a mood change after episode 25, and I was thrilled to see the show return to its roots. The tone felt more like the first batch of episodes than any in recent memory. What a relief. Also I've said prior to this that I suspected that where we would feel Ayse's absence was in the humor and lack of sparkle.  Well I thought this episode had plenty of both, so I stand corrected. The first Edser scene with Serkan gliding by Eda without saying a word and then having his trusty sidekick Leyla keep an eye on what they were doing outside set the light comedic tone and put everything on the right footing from the get go. 

More later on Edser, let's start with all the nonsense they use to fill the rest of the 2+ hours. 

(continue under the read more)

What in the frack is Babaanne's endgame?  Does she have one?  Is it to take revenge on Serkan? To get Eda back in her orbit? Or just to cause chaos? Or is she testing them? Not sure. 

I enjoyed the scene between mom and son, Aydan and Serkan's relationship has really become one of the best on the show, certainly better than recent Eda/Ayfer.  Which is interesting, because in the pilot they established that while Serkan may be rich with material things, he was lacking in love and emotional familial support, while Eda was poor in regards to material things, but was surrounded by love in the form of her family/friends. Though perhaps one of the greatest gifts Eda's given Serkan is an improved relationship with his mother, and the impetus to distance himself from his unloving father. While Serkan has inspired her growing independence from her aunt. 

Speaking of them, let's move on to Aydan and Ayfer. PLEASE MADE THIS CHEF NONSENSE END! Good grief. I really don't enjoy watching these two ladies making total asses of themselves over this douche. Both of them trying to catch him on his jog and then going along with his aikido nonsense. It feels like he's just playing with them for his own amusement. Both deserve better and I don't even like Ayfer. Also if my boss gave me a single red rose for being employee of the month, I'd find that both creepy and hella disappointing (crash prizes please.) 

Meanwhile Ayfer is still testing my last nerve. When Aydan and Seyfi show up and inform her that they've found out that Serkan and Eda broke up and she responds with, "Were they even together to break up?" I wanted to slap her upside the head. Whatever official relationship status Eda and Serkan have, they have been connected and in a romantic relationship this entire time. The bit of time jump at the start of 15 before she goes back to work for Efe, is really the only section of time since they've met where they weren't in a relationship. And while Eda isn't all that forthcoming with Ayfer when it comes to Serkan, she hasn't really hidden it well. It was at Ayfer's birthday when they were on the ice together being very romantic, Ayfer was at Aydan's 70s party and could very well see Eda and Serkan attached at the hip all night and wound around one another intimately slow dancing, Ayfer knows Eda spent the night at Serkan's when she left because of Babaanne, Ayfer was at the NY party and saw them together there. Not to mention Ayfer knows Serkan saved her business and why, she knows Serkan was still wearing his ring, and she knows Eda looked completely shattered over leaving Serkan as Ayfer heartlessly reacted with glee in the last episode. 

So asking "were they even together" just completely diminishes what Eda is currently going through, as if parting with him is no big deal because there was nothing there to begin with, when she knows better. When she's seen it with her own two eyes. Seriously.. fuck her. Every other character who is a friend of Eda and Serkan all know that they're a unit. I don't even feel bad that she came to ArtLife to beg for Eda's company, but Eda ended up blowing her off. Surprising Serkan with a proposal was a much better use of her time.

Engin and Piril, yeeesh, I feel for Piril, trying to put off this meeting. I'm sure she's thinking it's for Engin's own good, but her flipping into total bitch mode when they're newlyweds... not great. Not an auspicious start to the marriage. Even if she wants to keep Engin away from her father, she ought to confide in Engin and tell him why she's freaked. I'm assuming we'll get more of that in the next episode since Engin is looking rough in those promo stills. 

My favorite side plot was probably Grandog's henchman's (what is his name?) crush on Melo. Melo deserves to be crushed on, and I love that she is so uninterested that she doesn't see it.  Much more fun to have him chasing her, and her being oblivious. Poor Leyla, trying in vain to get his attention when he only has eyes for Melo. Enjoyed that Melo and Leyla made the agreement that Melo would help Leyla get the dude and Leyla would help get rid of Erdem. I'm looking forward to see where this goes. 

Ceren and Ferit... were there too. 

Now onto the A story (and let's be real the only one that matters) Eda and Serkan. Obviously 25 left us off in a very sad, heartbroken place. I'm not sure what decisions were made, when or why, but at some point TPTB decided they needed to get back to their roots and thank goodness. Episode 25 was just so dark, Eda was miserable the entire episode, as was Serkan, and that's not fun to watch for 2 hours. The way they handled them here is much better. 

I know some feel the tone shift was too much. To that I would say, it was so dark in ep 25, I'm happy to do a 180, no matter the reason, to get back to a place where watching is fun, and also I think of the breakup as Eda throwing the breaks on a runaway train and once she did, and she was sure the train was stopped at least for the time being, then she could take a moment, reassess the situation and potentially decide it wasn’t as dire as she thought. In the last episode, every moment Eda delayed giving that old bitty what she wanted, something catastrophic befell Serkan, his business, or his family. The pressure mounted, the stakes were high and in the end she had to do whatever was necessary to stop Babaanne's assault on Serkan. 

This episode we saw her catch her breath and then formulate a plan. I think a tone shift fits with that. Of course she feels lighter knowing that even though she hurt Serkan, he's protected for the moment. Now that that's taken care of, she's ready for next steps. So it works that the next morning we see her telling Melo and Ceren that she's not going to give up Serkan, and outlining her plan around getting close to Babaanne in order to get something on her. Good girl!  

As I said above, I just adored that first scene outside ArtLife. The girls gathered around, trying to warn Eda that Serkan was coming, and then his walk by where he KNEW EXACTLY WHAT HE WAS DOING when he got right up in Eda's business without even looking at her.  He knows what makes her weak in the knees. And I love that Serkan decided to play it like this. HE KNOWS. He knows she loves him, he knows there's more to the breakup, and he knows how to deal with it. Drive her crazy until she cracks and tells him everything. OR drive her crazy until they end in a passionate, possessive sex explosion. One or the other.  

Quick poll, who didn't love watching Serkan take back the reigns of his company? This gal did. YAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS. Alpha Serkan is back. Kick the old bag's throne to the curb. Kick the old bag's creepy client to the curb. Now we just have to kick the old bag and her deranged, obsessed sidekick to the curb as well.  But for now, I loved seeing him at the end of the table, making decisions, not brooking opposition. The team squabbling over his decision, but he just sits back, unbothered. Total power move. I appreciate Ferit questioning the decision, questioning it is the right thing to do in his position, but he may have gotten a little too pissy about it. Dude, this entire company IS Serkan. The success of the company is due to his talent, his vision, his business acumen. I get they're all worried he's making a decision because of Eda, but he's got a proven track record of, you know, being right, so there's no reason to get shirty. If Serkan doesn't want to work with someone, his instinct is probably on target.

Eda getting Babaanne to stand down warmed me from the inside out. I find it interesting that she used the argument that they were pushing him too hard and he didn't deserve it, and Babaanne bought it. For one I think Eda was worried Serkan was going to snap and do something that might start Babs' Bolat revenge cycle again. For two, she just wants the love of her life to win and be calm. However, if anyone in that room didn't catch onto what happened there, that Eda and BigB leave and then come back a minute later and BigB has done a 180, I question their competence. *cough* Ferit *cough* He's just not the sharpest tool in the shed. However, obviously, Serkan knew. 

On another note, they've gotten pretty murky with the line between ArtLife and the holding.  Babaanne has 45% of the Holding, not ArtLife. Ferit has 5% of the holding, not ArtLife. So which company was working with the Prince?  Since it was a project to design a house, seems like that should be ArtLife? But Babs and Ferit seemed to think they had a vote which they shouldn't if it's ArtLife.  Who knows... whatever. 

Have you ever seen anything cuter than Eda in her coat and boots and protective helmet, leaning over, clutching her chest, exhausted after climbing all those stairs?  I mean she's an adorable bean just bent over and huffing and puffing, but the fact that she just climbed up goodness knows how many flights of stairs (judging by that view, an impossible number, but we'll allow it) just to see Serkan?  We giggle at her excuse that she did that because he gave her too much work. Eda, he's not going to buy that, luckily none of us want him to buy it. These two, they can't stay away from each other. Ever. She was also probably worried after the foreman told her he'd been up there for hours. Again, I think she's concerned that she's pushed him too far. So now she's in Serkan's shoes after the first breakup. Navigating that push pull of wanting to be with him, but sticking to the decision to end it for his sake. 

It's nice to see that her claustrophobia was not "cured" after going up in the elevator with Serkan one-time. On her own, she's still not able to face it. I'm sure she could do it again with him, but there's more work to be done before she can face it without him. 

Serkan was surprisingly vulnerable in both his conversation with Engin and with Eda on the top of that skyscraper. Even just telling Engin he was too out of sorts to join him for lunch, tells us that while he knows what he's doing, he knows there's more to the story, but he's still hurting and unsettled after the breakup. Then, "I create to make people happy, but I myself can't be happy. It's strange." Oh Serkan. I think you ripped my heart out with that... Eda's too. 

Eda was so discombobulated by Serkan's attitude. Whatever she expected from him, his acceptance of the break up, wasn't it. His proposal that they be "friends" threw her and she looked so distressed when he said, "Everyone will live their own life." Alarm bells started going off for her, much as they did for him at the top of ep 19 when Eda said she was going to start living her life. She did NOT like the idea of Serkan Bolat out there living a life that didn't include her, lmao. 

It's crazy to me that Eda has a friend like Fifi, who probably breaks and enters for a living, and yet she chooses Melo for a clandestine operation. Come on, Eda, you got to choose the right person for the job, lmao. I also question Eda's choice of cat burglar wardrobe. Seemed a bit... restricting and flashy. Though her skin-tight, snakeskin breaking-and-entering dress and fashionable trespassing boots did make it easier to transition to fine dining and driving your man towards rambunctious breakup/makeup/jealousy sex.  Not much to say about the restaurant scenes. The prince is creepy af, and was that the most awkward dance.... ever? The looks back and forth between Edser were excellent, so much tension and longing and jealousy. But boy is it hard to watch a scene with Balca in it, ugh she makes my skin crawl and I don’t even like looking at her. Also the deliberate way the actress has chosen to speak is irritating. Anyway, we now know Balca is pretty much capable of anything, if she’s capable of essentially poisoning the man she thinks she loves. Yikes. Did Nana realize that Balca poisoned him? I have to believe she did, because him being sick seemed part of the plan. THEY'RE ALL FULL EVIL!!! .

One thing I don't believe is that Eda Yildiz would ever walk out of that restaurant with Serkan looking that bad. No way she leaves him to Balca's care, or anyone else's for that matter. Nope, regardless of who was watching she would have insisted on taking him to the doctor herself.  But I get they were setting up the plot, so they sacrificed that bit. 

These villains are really bad at driving a wedge between two people who love each other. AngryGran is all like, "I know a foolproof plan, let's put them in the same room and get 'em all riled up with jealousy, then make Serkan sick so Eda's worried, then I'll convince her to go check on him and let's see what happens!" LMAO. Cheers to you, dumbasses, you brought us a whole heaping plate full of S.E.X. They were really banking that Eda was going to fly off the handle and think that Serkan went from an allergic reaction to sexing up the new obsessed employee very quickly. It's great that they all underestimate Eda and Serkan's relationship and connection, that should continue to help Edser as long as these fools continue to meddle. 

Eda was, wait for it, LEGENDARY, in her smackdown of Balca. QUEEEEEEEN. I'll never be over the, "You can only be with a statue of Serkan, darling." BWAHAHAHAHA. Yes! Throw her creepy, inappropriate present back in her face. And Balca's gall asking Eda to leave and then continually lecture Eda that they'd broken up. That takes either big cajones or huge helpings of delusion, because Balca has very little information when it comes to their relationship, yet she's playing her hand like she knows it all and like she doesn't care what gets back to Serkan. However, got to hand it to Balca for keeping her composure once Eda saw through her little staged production, because her story was painfully weak. Let's say for real that you're at your boss's house, the boss is sick so you're hanging around downstairs by yourself just to make sure everything is okay. What's the problem with just... you know... wearing your outfit with a coffee stain?  Unless you had a massive big gulp sized coffee and poured it over your head, why even change? Don't you just... live with the stain? It's not like you're making a presentation to the board of directors in 5 minutes.  For the love of god you're sitting there and no one else is around. Weak alibi.  

Poor Serkan, he's just there trying to sleep off having his allergies maliciously triggered, and he completely misses out on the love of his life fighting for him downstairs. Oh how he would have loved to see that. But oh what a way to wake up, with Eda Yildiz standing over him, looking magnificent, and rousing him with a scolding tone. I've already talked about how HOT the jealousy and possessiveness was here, so I'll focus on the scene itself. 

Let’s talk about the fragman first. Due to the short production timeline of this show, when they create a trailer they're doing it from the dailies, not from the show itself. That part of the show usually hasn't even been edited yet so the fragman exists before the episode. That means often there are scenes or angles that appear in the fragman, but not in the episode. It happened bigtime with the shower scene in 19, it happened randomly with the fragman for 20, they showed that really great shot of heartbroken Serkan in red, but didn't show the full thing in the episode, (when giffing it I had to use the fragman) and here, several of the best shots of Eda and Serkan ripping each other's clothes off were in the fragman and didn't make the episode. We can live with it for a lonely Serkan shot, but it's quite a bait and switch in this instance. Especially when pretty much every member of the cast (except Hande, Kerem didn't post anything either, but he did appear in that IGlive where the cast mercilessly teased him about it) promoted the scene. Not cool. I realize that they're dealing with sensors and may have had to cut things in order to avoid fines and such, but then they probably should have found a way to release the uncut scene on the internet as I've read other Turkish shows have done and like they did with episode 13. If you're gonna put something like this in the fragman to entice viewers, and have the cast promote it, you need to be willing to deliver. Badly done on the part of both Fox and MF Yapim.

That being said, one of the great things about the tighter restrictions this show has to adhere to, is they really show the intimacy instead. On an American show, these characters would have started eating each other's faces off and then tumbled into bed. There is something very hot, though, about them just invading each other's space, breathing each other's scent, nose to nose, nose to neck, nose to cheek... without breaching. Plus we got to see him carry her to the bed... even if they darkened it to the point you can barely see. I saw enough. HOT. The scene was short, but more tantalizing than lots of love scenes I've seen.

I was sad she left while he still slept in the morning. For him not to feel her get out of bed, she must have worn him out! It really would have been nice to see them wake up together, but I'm sure that will come. Plus it gave us the tension filled scene in the office. The knocked over lamp in the background was a delicious detail. Things got rambunctious! I'm glad Eda got to return the sentiment that only she can touch him, if only Serkan had heard it! Another thing that would have made him so happy if only he knew about it.

Melo is all of us upon learning about their night of passion. She's a whole cheerleader for them, and I love it. 

The post-sex scenes at the office were amazing. For several seconds I thought that he really did think it was a dream. Panic started to set in until she admitted she'd had it too. Phew. No hiding for Eda. I'm glad he flirted, instead of getting offended, and that she was at least honest about there being something she needed to do before they could really be together. Eda also handled the office conversation with Balca well. Love that she didn't show any reaction to her claim about Paris, just wished her a good trip. I felt that deep breath she took before going into his office. Yes, girl, calm down before you march in and accuse him of something, good thing he immediately invited her. I just about melted at, "I don't want to argue... you're precious to me." Serkan is gradually learning how to head off her fits of pique. 

The proposal... I... just... okay... my heart... I need a minute... still not over it. 

It was perfect. She made a surprise for him!!!!  After he asked her for a surprise a few episodes ago she did it and surpassed even his wildest dreams. It was quite a surprise for us too! Thank you for not spoiling it, show!  Serkan has told Eda he loves her about 3 dozen different ways, he's made it clear how he feels and what he wants ("Eda Bolat, sounds nice."). There is no doubt that he was ready to propose the moment he felt she'd be receptive, so it was wonderful that she threw caution to the wind and did it. Both Serkan and the audience needed to see exactly how much she loves him, and this was a wonderful way to do that. It's pretty much the biggest thing she could have done.  Also for those of us in other parts of the world (I'm in the US) it might not be too out of the ordinary for a woman to propose, but from what I understand it's rare and possibly non-existent on Turkish shows. That's pretty cool.

Did you see his face!?!? He was so happy at first when he registered that she was actually standing in front of him and then just totally gobsmacked when he saw the rings and realized what was happening. As for Eda, she was just glowing. GLOWING. And don't even get me started on the plane. That trip on the day after they met is such an important part of their love story and the call back here is wonderful. The first time around he thought she was there for him, this time he can't believe that she's there for him.  

Can't wait to see the way the full conversation/proposal plays out, do ya'll think he'll say yes? (hee)

[houseof-harry]

Heyy if you’re still taking requests can you do one with grayson based off of the prom episode from friends? It’s basically like gray getting ready to be her surprise date to prom because he thought her date bailed but at the last minute he showed up and she left w him. she never knew and only finally found out through watching the old home videos together & they finally get together. sorryyy this was so long if u want u can watch a clip of that eps on youtube. thank you and love your writings!!

I changed this up a tiny bit but I hope you enjoy!

A week before prom your boyfriend found it appropriate to break up with you because he wanted someone else. You had coordinated your dress with his tux, you were supposed to go with his friends, spend the night at their after prom. You had no idea what to do.

Ethan, one of your good friends, had an amazing idea. You see, Grayson had been pining over you since you were all kids. You had grown up with them because your parents were friends. You ran in different crowds at school, though. So Grayson never really felt like he had the opportunity to ask you out, too scared you wouldn’t want to date him because you and your friends really only dated the guys you were friends with (messy, but not surprising).

This was his chance, though. You had told Ethan it would be humiliating to show up alone. Especially when your ex had told you he was bringing the other girl he was into.

However, Ethan is shit at planning, and forgot to tell Grayson of this idea until the morning of prom. They were hopeful, though. Grayson even managed to go out and get a new tie to match the color of your dress. Ethan had convinced you to come to their pre prom, and that you could hang out with them and that their friends were super cool with it.

So that’s what you did. And when you got there, everyone was so nice which you were grateful for because both Ethan and Grayson were out of sight, leaving you to manage yourself around their friends group. You had even found one of their friends who had also recently been dumped and was there alone. It was nice to talk to someone who was in a similar situation to you, and you both decided that you could be each other’s dates because fuck men. You didn’t need them, right?

“E! Guess what!” You call when you finally see both of the twins exiting the house, Ethan with a camera in order to catch what he thought would be the beginning of the rest of Grayson’s life. They were both convinced you were soulmates.

“What?” He asks, the smile evident in his voice even though you couldn’t see it due to the camera blocking his face.

“Kayla and I are going together now! We decided we don’t need men to enjoy our last prom ever, if anything they’d probably ruin the fun.” You both giggle, not noticing the twins immediately stopping.

It was nice to see you smiling and laughing even though it was only this morning you were still crying about your ex. Grayson didn’t want to ruin that, he couldn’t. Your happiness was more important than anything.

Ethan turned the camera off, his shoulders slumping. He grabbed Grayson by the back of his neck, patting him. “One day.”

***

4 years later

You were roaming around your backyard, friends and family surrounding you as you celebrated your graduation from college. You were talking with your aunt when you noticed the twins walk past your gate, approaching the table with the food immediately. You excused yourself from your conversation, walking over to them.

“Look what the fucking cat dragged in,” you tease, the smile on your face making the words even lighter.

You weren’t sure they were even gonna come when you sent them the invite via facebook. They’d become YouTube stars, moved to LA after high school, and seemed to never look back. You saw them no more than twice a year when you both happened to be back in your hometown, and it would be at family dinners so everything remained pretty tame.

“Wouldn’t miss it for anything, y/n. This is big, we’re proud,” Ethan responds, his arms wrapping around your shoulders. He swayed you side to side, the happiness of being together again overwhelming the both of you. It was easy to forget how much you missed them until you got to hang out with them again.

When you pulled away, Grayson was right there, the smile on his face so familiar it made you shiver. There were a lot of things that reminded you of home, but that smile always brought about the upmost comfort.

The thing is, you had liked Grayson for just as long as he liked you. But you knew he was way too cool to pursue, and that only heightened once he went to LA. They didn’t tell you much about their dating lives when you would text and call, but you knew they weren’t virgins by any means. You just didn’t want to know what types of girls he was going after out there, because they would probably make you pale in comparison. 

The feeling of his hug pulls you from your thoughts. All of a sudden you were consumed by all things Grayson and everything felt right. The anxiety you felt about this day left you, and you were finally able to just relax. No worries about post grad situations, jobs, grad school, none of it. You just stood there and soaked it in until you knew you had been hanging onto him too long before pulling back. He only let you back away a little, though, his hands finding their place on your elbows. You let him keep you close, your gaze stuck on his.

“Hey,” he breathes out, almost like he couldn’t believe you were truly in front of him, even after all those years.

Ethan had long since become entranced in the buffet again, leaving you and Grayson to chat. “Hi.”

“How are you, how is everything? I mean you graduated so you have to be doing alright. I’m so proud, by the way, this is a really big deal. I got you something,” he rambles, reaching into his back pocket.

“Gray, I don’t need anything from you guys, you didn’t have to.” Your cheeks heat up as he pulls out an envelope, handling it to you.

“It’s time sensitive, so you gotta open it before like 8 tonight,” he chuckles, your hands bringing the envelope to your chest.

“Thank you, I’ll make sure it’s the first one I open.”

The two of you stand there smiling at each other for a moment, appreciating that you’re really back together. Grayson felt like he did all of his childhood; happy, excited, and nervous. Really nervous. He didn’t want to be the first one to speak again because he knew he wouldn’t be able to shut up again.

Before you could decide to say anything either, someone is calling your name. You turn your head to see some of your other family had just arrived. You turn back to Grayson, a sheepish smile on your lips.

“Sorry I gotta-”

“Yeah, yeah of course. Go soak up all the congratulations, you’ve earned it all.” He pats your shoulders before going to find Ethan.

The rest of the day goes as planned, everyone coming and going to say their congrats. You didn’t get to spend any more time with the twins, but they found themselves catching up with some other high school friends who had been able to come.

That night, you took a shower but reminded yourself of what Grayson told you earlier. When you got out, it was 7:30. You quickly got dressed in casual clothes, going downstairs to open the card from them.

Hey y/n,

Congrats! We’re both so proud of everything you’ve accomplished these past four years and are so excited to see where you go in the next four and beyond. We decided instead of a conventional gift, we wanted to do something a bit more personal. Come to ours at 8:30.

Love,

Grayson and Ethan,

p.s. don’t call or text asking for hints, we refuse to break

You giggle at the note at the end. You felt butterflies immediately erupt in your stomach, recognizing the handwriting as Grayson’s. You had no idea what they had in store for you, but you couldn’t wait.

By the time 8:30 rolled around, you were itching to know what was up. You were pulling down their long driveway, trying to collect yourself so you wouldn’t seem too on edge. Grayson was always really good at reading you, so you knew your efforts were fruitless but you wanted to try anyways.

Once you parked and texted them that you were there, you got out and walked to the door. Before you had even reached the welcome mat, the door swung open and Grayson with his signature smile stood there, the excitement evident in his eyes.

“Hey y/n.”

“Hey.” You have a grin to match his, his happiness fueling yours. It was impossible to be sad when he was so happy.

“Let me show you your present.” He holds his hand out to you, and you graciously accept despite the fact he will definitely be able to tell your palms were a bit clammy. You hoped he’d brush it off as the summer heat, but you both new the nerves were eating away at you slowly.

He leads you out to their backyard, where there were three chairs set up in front of what looked like a huge movie screen.

“Gray, what’s-”

“We put together a video for you. Or us, I guess. It’s just all our old stupid videos we made from growing up edited together into the story of Grayson, Ethan, and y/n.”

You stopped walking, tears immediately pricking the corners of your eyes. No one had gotten you such a personal gift. I mean, of course you appreciated all the money especially as a college grad, but this was something that would be able to last forever.

Ethan walked out past you, a big bowl of popcorn in his hands. “Ready?” He asks casually, but the grin of his face says he has other intentions. He seems more excited for this than you and Grayson.

“Yeah,” you croak out, still emotional but now excited to see what they had whipped up. You all sit in your seats, excitement radiating from them and all different emotions coming from you. This definitely wasn’t what you were expecting.

Once they start the video, you’re quickly enthralled in remembering your past, the memories from growing up with them flooding in with every new video they included. All the way from your first time trick or treating together, to the skits you would put together when your families would have dinner parties, to the days on the beach when you went away for the weekend with them. It made you feel light inside, like there was nothing to worry about again.

All of a sudden there’s a clip the starts with Grayson’s feet in his dress shoes, and it soon pans out to capture his entire outfit. The outfit he wore to your senior prom.

“Excited?” Ethan asks from behind the camera as Grayson adjusts his tie and smooths his suit.

“Terrified,” he mumbles back, his hands visibly shaking.

“Dude, she just got dumped and you get to be the hero who swoops in, saves prom, and promises to love her forever,” Ethan jokes, but there’s not even a hint of a smile from Grayson.

“I can’t come off that strong, she has no idea I love her. I just gotta act as normal as possible.” The nerves are clear in his voice as he continues to speak, checking his hair in the mirror.

“Dude, I saw her walk down the driveway like ten minutes ago, we gotta go. Got the flower thing?” Ethan asks.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Grayson says, walking out of the house in front of Ethan and the camera.

“E! Guess what?” The camera moves to show you and Kayla, smiling and giggling together.

“What?” His voice booms from right behind the microphone.

“Kayla and I are going together now! We decided we don’t need men to enjoy our last prom ever, if anything they’d probably ruin the fun.” The camera catches the two of you laughing together, almost totally ignoring the boys.

The next clip begins, but you have long stopped paying attention. Grayson loved you in high school? He was going to ask you to prom because of your shit ex trying to ruin it for you? And he never told you this whole time?

The last few videos finish and the screen goes black.

“So?” Ethan asks as soon as it’s over, his head turning to you. You sat there, mouth open, eyes on the blank screen unable to speak. “That bad, huh?”

“Huh?’ You snap out of it, looking at him. “No, it was good. Really good. Thank you, guys. This really meant a lot. It was nice to remember all the fun we had here growing up.” Your words and smile are genuine, but Grayson can tell there’s something else going on.

“What’s wrong?” He asks.

“Nothing, just got me emotional I think,” you mumble, looking at your lap in hopes of avoiding them asking any further questions.

“Why not just all good ones?”

Oh because you loved me and I loved you and we didn’t tell each other and now we live such different lives in such different worlds and no guy has ever compared to you but if it was impossible in high school, it’s definitely impossible now, you think to yourself.

“Just miss being that carefree sometimes, I guess,” you shrug, deciding lying is most definitely the safer bet.

“Alright, she’s not gonna tell us the truth, so let’s at least go inside to avoid the mosquitos,” Ethan quips, standing and grabbing the popcorn bowl. You go to follow him, but Grayson grabs your arm. You look down at him and can see the concern in his eyes. You sit again while Ethan leaves you two out there alone.

“What is it actually?” He asks, his gaze heavy as it holds yours captive, wanting to genuinely hear and see what you have to say.

“You were gonna ask me to prom?” You whisper, like it’s some big secret. It also feels stupid asking him that seeing as prom is just not important anymore, but this was just easier to ask than the real question you wanted an answer to.

“Of course. Your ex was an ass for what he did, would never let you go alone after that. You knew I never liked him in the first place. But, you and Kayla had a really good time together, so it all worked out in the end,” his words are meaningful, but his smile isn’t meeting his eyes. It’s clear he’s holding back.

“But you were gonna ask me because you loved me?” You raise your brow.

He coughs, turning his head to the side to avoid the eye contact he had initiated. “Uh, yeah.”

“Like really loved me or just thought I was cute because we were in high school?”

“Definitely really loved you.” He nods, rubbing his bicep. He was nervous again, unsure of how to go about this. He thought you’d think it was funny that he loved you, not question him. He’s scared you’ll ask how he feels now, and he doesn’t want to say anything that will scare you off.

“Huh,” you huff, leaning back in your chair. “I loved you, too.” His eyes widen at this. He whips his head to look at you, shock written all over his face. He expected a lot of things to come from your mouth, but not that. Definitely not that.

“You fucking what?” Is the only response he can think go saying. He went through years of loving you from afar only to find out now he could have been doing it upfront this whole time.

You laugh, turning to look at him again. “Thought it was obvious. That’s why I never did anything, thought you knew and didn’t feel the same way.”

Grayson literally sputters, at a complete loss for words. “Is this a joke?”

“Why would I be joking?” You ask genuinely. Your brows pulled together in confusion, not understanding what was so shocking about it all.

“Because it has to be a joke that I could have been loving you all these years to your face instead of hiding it but I didn't have to.” He leans forward, his elbows resting on his knees as he holds his face in frustration.

You sit in silence for a moment, his words sinking in. You couldn’t tell what he meant by that, was he still in love with you?

“It’s okay Gray. We were young and stuff.” You shrug, hoping to make him feel better. I mean obviously you still were hopelessly in love with him, but he didn’t have to know it.

He laughs almost cynically, turning to look at you. “You don’t see it, do you?” He seems almost defeated while he speaks.

“See what?”

“I’m still in love with you. Like if we had a prom right now and you got ditched again I’d go rent a whole tux and take you. I’d literally do anything for you, and would have done anything the past two decades we’ve known each other. I love you so much, everything about you. When we moved away and you went to college, it took me literally like three months to start enjoying life again without telling you about everything because you deserved the space to grow. I couldn’t be selfish and take away your college experience from you just because I loved you. But seeing you today has just, I don’t know. I don’t even know what I’m saying,” he sighs, catching his breath. He’s rambled in front of you from nerves many times, but this was a whole other level. Fear slowly started to sink into every bone of his body as he realized what he had admitted to you.

You sat there in complete shock, not expecting him to have said any of that. Yet, he had put it perfectly. You had always kept your feelings to yourself so as to never hold him back. Also to avoid complete rejection from the most important person in your life, but also because he deserved to live without the burden of your love.

“Gray, hey, look at me,” you mumble, reaching out to put your arm on his forearm. He lifts his head, his eyes timidly meeting yours but his muscles relaxing as soon as he felt your skin on his.

“We can act like I didn’t say all of that stuff if it’ll mean we get to keep being friends.” The anxiety drips from every single word that comes from his mouth.

“Why would we do that?” You stand, walking over to stand i front of him. His gaze follows you while he leans back in his chair. You grab both his hands and encourage him to stand with you. When he does, your bodies are close, the heat radiating off one another.

“Because I’d rather be friends with you and act like I don’t love you than not be in your life at all.” His voice was so vulnerable and you don’t think you've ever heard him so shy in his life. He usually oozed confidence, never faltering. Now, all he seemed to be doing is question every word he’s saying.

“But what if we could be more than friends?” You ask, biting your lip and looking at him.

His face reflects his surprise as he sucks in a quick breath. Before he has the chance to ramble again, you lean in to leave a light kiss against his lips. It’s quick and Grayson almost wonders if he’s dreaming. It’s the moment he’s thought about since he was 10, and it was over before he could truly enjoy it.

He scans your face, making sure he doesn’t see any regret forming before he grabs your hips and pulls you in for a real kiss. His lips are slow and sensual on yours, cherishing every moment you let him continue to kiss you. You wrap your arms around his neck, pulling him flush against you.

All of a sudden you hear someone screaming from the window above you guys. You both pull away, looking up to see Ethan beaming down at you both. “And to think it only took me, like, 15 years to get this to happen!”

You all laugh, soaking up the relief and happiness of the moment. Although it took so long, you’re sure you and Grayson will appreciate every moment together going forward.

[taste-in-music]

taste-in-music’s Year End Wrap-Up

Hello everybody! We’ve finally reached the end of 2020. While I’m glad to leave this miserable year behind, one of things that undeniably got me through it was the vast amount of awesome music we got. In past years I’ve made favorite album and EP lists, but this time around I’m going to tackle them all in one go, giving reviews on the projects that had some significances to me over the course of the year. I’m going to make a post for my favorite songs too, so keep an eye out for that in coming days. Now, without further ado, let’s get started, shall we?

folklore by Taylor Swift: This was an incredible year of growth for Taylor Swift. As much as I’ve enjoyed her past music, the way she constantly felt the need to address what people thought of her always irked me, (though after watching her documentary, I do understand why she did it.) It wasn’t Taylor Swift the public persona that was most interesting, I thought. It was Taylor Swift the artist, the songwriter, the storyteller. What I wanted was an album focused on that. This year, I got one, (well... more on that later,) and it’s my favorite project she’s ever done. The tales Swift spins on folklore span across love triangles, heiresses, and battlefields, and she nails each and every one. While the chilly indie-folk influence from the likes of Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon is prominent, Swift’s warmth and charisma always cuts through the fog like a beam of sunlight. So yeah, this is my undeniable album of the year.

Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple: I only started listening to Fiona Apple last year and had thoroughly enjoyed her music, but this album cemented her as one of my favorite songwriters and performers of all time. Everything about Fetch The Bolt Cutters is so idiosyncratic yet fits together in just the right way, like watching an entire house being dropped from the sky and falling perfectly into place. It is a testament to the creative process, emotional honesty, and breaking free from all the cages you may find yourself in, whether they be societal, personal, or those of your own making. And in a year that was so isolating, it felt like Apple was whispering everything I needed to hear right into my ear, just when I needed it. In short, my boltcutters have been motherfucking fetched. 

Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers: When Punisher was announced, I had no clue how Phoebe Bridgers would match the quality of Stranger In The Alps. Upon first listen, I wasn’t sure she had. By the fifteenth time I was listening to this album and every lyric was hitting like Cupid’s arrow to the jugular, I knew she’d surpassed it. Punisher presents a sonic scope that both comforts and crushes all at once, like with the upbeat yet mournful horns on “Kyoto” or the cathartic swell on standout “I Know The End.” In my opinion, Bridgers is one of the greatest songwriters of our generation in the making, and I can’t wait to see what the future brings for her. She may know the end, but she’s far from it. 

SAWAYAMA by Rina Sawayama: This is the album I see becoming a new shorthand for the true potential of pop excellence, a cult hit that never got its time to shine but is beloved by pop music geeks to the ends of the earth, like EMOTION by Carly Rae Jepsen. SAWAYAMA so effortlessly blends diverse genres and influences like disco, nu metal, and arena rock, and it yet it remains cohesive due to Rina Sawayama’s sheer strength as a performer. She deserves a spot on the pop girlie hierarchy, and one near the top. 

Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa: I really enjoyed Dua Lipa’s debut album, but even I didn’t expect her to come through with such a fully realized, consistent, downright fantastic follow up. Future Nostalgia is a pop album that feels studied, like Lipa did her research of pop’s past as she made it. The result is an album that synthesizes several different sounds under her vision, one that is always trained ahead, and it simply slaps. In a perfect world, nearly every song on this album got spun off into a hit single. 

evermore by Taylor Swift: 2020 was already my year of listening to Taylor Swift, (I went through her whole discography, cultivated a favorites playlist, and at the end of the year I was in the top 2% of her yearly Spotify listeners.) evermore was a lovely cherry to top it all off. While folklore enchanted me with its stories, evermore captivated me with its melodies. I haven’t been able to get snippets of this album out. of. my. head. for weeks now. It’s a bit less consistent than it’s older sister, (and likely to live in its shadow,) but there is still so much to love. 

I’m Allergic to Dogs! by Remi Wolf: This EP is so much goddamn fun. It’s a blend of many different sounds, indie pop, electronic, maybe hip hop, I think reggae at points? It’s such a colorful, textured, quirky listen bristling with energy and undeniable hooks. “Woo!” conquered my Summer, and months later the bridge of “Photo ID” conquered TikTok. Keep your eye out for Remi Wolf in the coming year, she’s going to make a big splash. 

Good At Being Young by Charli Adams: Good At Being Young was the first EP this year that I could not get enough of. It drifts through dreamy indie-pop sounds, with melancholic guitars and cloudy synths, and Adams has a deep vocal timbre that delivers tales of adolescent tribulations with just the right amount of wistfulness. Overall, it builds the perfect soundscape for a late-night drive.

Cape God by Allie X: Allie X has been keeping us FED with content. It seems like only yesterday that Super Sunset came out, and yet her output remains impressively consistent. This album has impressive highs, some lower moments, but the danceability, duets, and enticing darkness under its shiny pop veneer make it a record you won’t want to skip. 

La vita nuova by Christine and The Queens: Perhaps the biggest flex of 2020 was Christine and The Queens dropping a fantastic EP and accompanying short film right out of the gate. The grooves on this are infectious, wiry, and air-tight, (the Caroline Polachek feature was another added bonus,) but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of emotional weight too. 

Lighter by Donna Missal: This was one of my most anticipated albums of the year, and it’s hard to determine whether it disappointed or not. I think the only thing holding Lighter back is that This Time was such a formative album for me, (my favorite of 2018, to the uninitiated.) In fact, this album flows way better than This Time, more cohesive with its storytelling and more consistent in folk-rock sound. And, of course, Donna Missal’s vocals stun on both the bangers and the ballads. 

SURF by BLACKSTARKIDS: There was no record this year that was more instantly likeable than this one. The blend of low-fi indie pop and hip hop makes for a whirlwind of sunny fun and youthful malaise that would make the perfect soundtrack for a road trip to the beach. Standouts include the opening track “SOUNDS LIKE FUN,” the chill “WIGS,” and blissful title track “MUSIC TO SURF TO.”

The Baby by Samia: I’ve had my eye on Samia since “Milk” dropped years ago. Seeing her live sparked my belief that she was an indie darling in the making, and The Baby confirmed that she definitely was. The lyrics on this album mix quiet contemplation with just enough sardonic wit and raw emotion throughout a varied selection of sunny rock bops and gut wrenching ballads. If you enjoyed Punisher, then I can’t recommend this enough.

Season 2 by Nasty Cherry: Nasty Cherry is a group that I will not stop rooting for. Their EP from last year showed their potential for nailing monster hooks, but this sophomore effort shows just how versatile they can be. This EP covers everything from Dylan Brady produced hyperpop to early-2000s reminiscent pop rock to emotional balladry, and they pull it all off flawlessly. 

A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling by Magdalena Bay: This album became a fast favorite way late in the year, there is such a sweetness to Magdalena Bay’s music that makes it stick in your brain like a piece of blue raspberry bubblegum. This EP is spacey, catchy, and filled with electronic synthpop mastery, with countless catchy hooks that’ll make you feel like drifting and dancing all at once.

Miss Anthropocene by Grimes: The bubblegum bombast of Art Angels fully redefined my taste in pop years ago, so I was fascinated to see how Grimes would follow it up. On Miss Anthropocene, she leans into darker, more industrial textures, but also anchors it back to Earth with acoustic touches and some of her most introspective lyrics to date. Grimes painted a version of a world on the brink of disaster on this album, a picture that was hypnotically beautiful. And in a year where the word was a certified disaster, that was strangely comforting.

Plastic Hearts by Miley Cyrus: I’ve been wanting Miley to go rock for so goddamn long, Plastic Hearts was bound to make this list by pure validation alone. But what can I say? This breed of glossy 80s rock suits Cyrus’s rougher voice so well! I hope she stays in this lane a bit longer, but as we know, she’s one of pop’s most chameleonic figures. Only time will tell. 

Where Does The Devil Hide by Zella Day: I have been patiently awaiting new Zella Day music ever since getting hooked on Kicker back in 2017, so this was one of my most anticipated releases of the year. This EP sounds nothing like Kicker, and I couldn’t be happier. It shows Day leaning even more into her influences from the past, (the 60s/70s vibes are intense with this one,) but also breathing a refreshing new life into them. 

SOUL LADY by Yukika: When I imagine the ideal of pop music, what it would sound like in a perfect world, this is what it sounds like. SOUL LADY is full of pristine, glossy production and catchy hooks that feel like they’ve come down from the clouds. I’ll admit that I can have trouble forming a connection with music when I don’t understand the lyrics, (it’s something I’m working on,) but this album cleared that hurdle with ease. If you’re curious about city pop or K-pop this is a great place to start. 

Heaven Is Without You by Love You Later: Give me lush pop production and heartbroken lyrics finished off with a heaping helping of nostalgia and I’ll eat it up with a spoon. Love You Later has been feeding my addiction to this genre for years, and this latest helping is particularly sweet. 

IN A DREAM by Troye Sivan: Troye Sivan has always supplied the bops, but it was about time that he started experimenting with his sound a little bit more. This EP offers some harder-hitting electronic textures, but also the addictive hooks that’ll keep you coming back for more.

Ungodly Hour by Chloe X Halle: These women are so TALENTED! If there is any word I’d use to describe this album it would be “effortless,” the harmonies, grooves, and chemistry between Chloe and Halle feels so natural and free-flowing. Charisma just rolls off of them in droves, I see full-blown stardom and several Grammys in their future.

Watching You by Robinson: This EP was one of the first on this list to arrive this year, and it still hits months later. Robinson’s confessional lyrics work wonders over the buoyant pop grooves, and “Don’t Say” remains one of the best pop songs of recent years. 

Manic by Halsey: I respect Halsey for dipping her toes into a myriad of different genres, (synth pop, rock, hip hop, and acoustic balladry,) but it does make for a jumbled listening experience. Still, I appreciate that this album features some of Halsey’s strongest tracks and writing to date, offering greater experimentation and emotional imtimacy than album’s past. 

We Don’t Stop by Aly & AJ: Should this count? It’s more a compilation of their past EP and singles... I don’t care, I’m counting it because there’s some new stuff too. This is an excellent display of Aly & AJ’s pop prowess in recent years, the hooks, vocal chemistry, and shimmery production are undeniable. 

Under My Influence by The Aces: The Aces returned in 2020 with a more laid-back, groovier record than their debut, exploring a wider variety of sounds. They’re as magnetic and likeable a group as ever, each member giving it their all, but I think I’ll return to the debut more often. 

Strangers/Lovers by Dagny: I’ve been anticipating a longer Dagny project, as she’s been drip-feeding us singles for a while now. This was a lot of fun, with Dagny pairing her upbeat earnestness with stories of romantic tribulation. While the hooks aren’t as memorable as her past offerings, there is still so much to enjoy. Lead single “Come Over” and “Let Me Cry” are my favorites.

DUALITY by Tatiana Hazel: I came across this via recommendation on Tik Tok and it’s a solid pop record! The music is swooning, synthy, and tinged with disco and Latin influence. The record doesn’t waste a second of its runtime, clocking in at less than half an hour and grooving the whole time.

After Hours by The Weeknd: The sonic palette of After Hours is so engaging, a neon-drenched blend of synthwave, electropop, and R&B. I’ve always felt lukewarm on The Weeknd’s musical persona of brooding, villainous party monster, so the strongest moments on this album tend to be when he subverts that in some way. Still, in full, this album is an undeniable force of smash hits, stadium-shaking ballads, and cinematic flair. I can’t wait for his Super Bowl performance. 

Petrol Bloom by LAUREL: It’s no secret that this year was chock-full of 80s revival albums (there’s what, five others on this list?) LAUREL wasn’t an artist I was expecting to go in that direction after the brooding folk pop of her debut album, but her deeper timbre works great alongside the synthy soundscapes. 

positions by Ariana Grande: I’ve just come to expect that nearly all of Ariana Grande’s albums are going to be growers to me. My first listen to positions was underwhelming, but the songs have grown on me more and more. This album feels like being let in on a giggly, fun slumber party with Grande and her friends. I wouldn’t call this her strongest album by far, and while I tend to prefer when she favors the more powerful parts of her range, (and her enunciations could still use some work,) there is a lot of good material here. 

THE ALBUM by BLACKPINK: We may just have to stan. I checked this out after watching their Netflix documentary, and while this breed of cacophonous, in-your-face electropop isn’t something I can listen to all the time, the hooks and charisma are undeniable. It certainly makes me feel like a bad bitch whenever I’m working out. 

Kid Krow by Conan Gray: Conan Gray burst onto my radar offering dreamy tracks rich with teen malaise and suburban restlessness, and a good amount of that initial appeal carries over onto this album. Kid Krow has both a larger instrumental scope and more stripped-back moments. In the end, it still feels like Gray is finding his voice as an artist, but he's giving up great bops to jam out to as he does.

Petals For Armor by Hayley Williams: Hayley Williams is one of my favorite vocalists, so seeing her venture out for a solo project was exciting. This album offers a mixed bag of danceable jams, emotive moments that showcase Williams’s powerful voice, and a few skips. But overall it showcases Williams’s strength as a performer as she tackles her past with vulnerability and versatility.

Apart by LÉON: Oh, man. This one was kind of disappointing. For context, LÉON’s self-titled debut was my favorite album of last year. This follow-up is by no means bad, but every song on her first album was instantly memorable. This one, not so much. LÉON’s vocals are beautiful, and there are some stand-out tracks, but I don’t see myself returning to this nearly as much. 

Blush by Maya Hawke: Maya Hawke’s Blush was to my 2020 what Tōth’s Practice Magic and Seek Professional Help When Necessary was to my 2019, (and that makes sense, as they’ve collaborated in the past.) This album is so blissful and nonchalant, and Maya Hawke has a gentle, soothing voice that feels wise beyond her years. While the writing isn’t as hard-hitting as, say, the Phoebe Bridgers album, sometimes I just want to listen to something that could rock me off into a dream world. If you like folksy, down-to-earth ballads, you’ve got a solid collection of them right here. 

Dedicated Side B by Carly Rae Jepsen: Of course Queen Carly would pull through with B-sides for Dedicated, did we expect anything less? Jepsen’s brand of controlled yet carefree shimmery poptimism drenched in 80s nostalgia that never fails to put me in a good mood. This album has some lusher, more tropical instrumentation than Dedicated proper, but works great alongside it.

Missing Person by Kelsy Karter: To the Plastic Hearts fans out there, your homework now is to give this record a listen. This rock album presents pop hooks, but a lot of reckless rock fun too. Kelsy Karter has so much irresistible swagger and carefree spirit as a performer, speeding through the emotional highs and lows like she’s burning rubber in a cherry red Cadillac. 

how i’m feeling now by Charli XCX: I’ll admit, this album was a bit abrasive to me on first listen. But tracks like “anthems” and “forever” made me return, and it’s a huge grower. If you listen closely, you’ll find the sugary-sweet hooks and relatable sentiments nestled deep in the crunchy hyperpop textures, begging to be discovered and eventually loved. 

Jaguar by Victoria Monét: If you enjoyed positions, then check out the debut from one of that album’s most prominent co-writers. Jaguar’s concise collection of silky R&B slow-burners show that Victoria Monet’s is a superstar in her own right. 

Some great albums I listened to that didn’t come out this year: Blue by Joni Mitchell, BLACKPINK IN YOUR AREA by BLACKPINK, I Need to Start a Garden by Haley Heynderickx, Plastic Beach by Gorillaz, Out in the Storm by Waxahatchee, 7 by Beach House, Dummy by Portishead, Lovers Fevers by Babygirl, and Red by Taylor Swift. 

Whether you liked, reblogged, or commented on a post, sent me an ask, or interacted with this blog in any way, thank you so much for all the support throughout the year! I can’t express how much I appreciate it. 

What were your favorite albums from this year? Did I miss anything? Send me an ask and let me know. I’ll tell you my thoughts, or put it on my to-listen-to list if I haven’t heard it. 

Here’s to 2021! May it clear the extremely low bar set by this year. 

[muthaz-rapapa]

HealPre Final Review: Not terrible but not entirely laudable either...

*sigh* Where do I start?

Well, one thing I’m pretty sure of is that COVID definitely affected production somehow. By that, I don’t just mean the show needing to go on hiatus, resulting in a shorter run compared to previous seasons. I’m also talking about any possible changes that might’ve been made to the original narrative, if there was one.

Much like how Suite’s story had to be altered in the wake of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster, I believe Heal underwent a similar treatment in response to the pandemic becoming more widespread as 2020 went on.

Especially since it dealt with health and nature, HealPre is probably the season that has come the closest in relevancy to real life events.

Frankly, that can be quite scary because this virus was and is still a fucking nightmare on a massive global scale. From that view, I can understand why the writers/producers would be concerned of the anime hitting too near home. At least for their main demographic’s (children) sake, maybe they were compelled to shift to something lighter and less edgier so that the kids could find some comfort and enjoyment in the midst of the world’s current crisis.

So I can’t fault Toei for that, if that’s really the case. Going through a pandemic is terrifying, infuriating and exhausting and UGH. We could use something that can help ease our worries or momentarily distract us even a little bit. 

Though would it have killed them to dedicate one episode to the importance of wearing a mask or washing hands? (-_- ;;)

HOWEVER! Seeing as I am not a fragile child, I’ve still got several (oho~) criticisms to air out before I put this season behind me. This review isn’t particularly scathing but...there is a lot of discontent so you’ve been forewarned.

But first, let’s tediously review what structure means in Precure.

We all know that there are certain things that will forever (?) remain fixed in the series formula.

The plot is always going to be “magical girls fight evil doers threatening to ruin the world”.

There are plot points to indicate story progression but in reality, are put there to correspond with toy releases which are usually marked by these five: introductions, first power up, midseason Cure, second power up, and build-up to the climax + finale.

There is usually a specific message (a theme) to be told with every season and motifs (narrative tools) to aid in getting that across. For HealPre, the theme is “living is fighting” and its motifs are “health” and “nature”.

I left out “animals” b/c 1) it didn’t hold as much significance as the other two did, 2) animals are part of nature anyway and 3) let’s be real, it’s just a synonym for “mascots” which we already get every year. :P

Right. I’m probably forgetting something but for the most part, these are immovable pillars of Precure.

Story, on the other hand, has more variables you can work with.

Story is how you tell the plot, how you convey the message.

Precure, as a tv series, is unarguably carried by its main stars, the Cures. So it only makes sense that a huge percentage of a season’s success owes itself to how much of an impact its characters had on the audience as well as how effective their individual story arcs were as sub-plots tying back to the bigger picture (the message/theme).

Ideally, these arcs would shine the brightest in the filler episodes, where the plot  (“good guys vs. bad guys”) is less of a focus so there is more space for personal development and growth.

Also, not all character arcs have to be directly related to the plot but they ought to be written well in order to support the overarching message (the theme).

Now, has HealPre done that? Has each girl’s story demonstrated a good example of what “living is fighting” means?

...nnnnnnyyeeee... look, even I can’t give a straightforward answer on that because while technically they did, by virtue of Nodoka’s observance in ep 44 recounting it as such, there’s also actually not enough to make it feel substantial from a viewer’s standpoint.

At least, that’s what I thought while watching HealPre.

With the exception of Nodoka’s, there was a lot of saying but not much doing to convincingly back the other girls’ arcs up. The fillers themselves were very weak, loosely composed in relation to the motifs and, if I may be so blunt, downright boring that if Nodoka didn’t phrase those episodes as things that counted towards the theme, I probably would put up more of a fight on disagreeing. so shoot me, I’m soft for her :P

And I know that sounds confusing right now but I will elaborate as I continue.

Before that though, to be utterly fair, some seasons keep their respective themes shrouded in vagueness until they’re given a more concrete form in words around the finale. So it’s not like we can do much except make educated guesses on what they really are. Most of the time, we’re just measuring everything against our perception of a standard in the fog. Or maybe that’s just me?

Nevertheless, you can just tell, y’know? By simply watching and observing the whole show, you can tell if the characterization, the development, and the outcome (essentially the content given) really live up to what the season claims is endgame.

So let’s go through that first then. The characters, starting with our lead Cure...

Nodoka being the only Cure in her team to have an arc deserving of the praise “exceptional” should come as a surprise to no one.

She was the most solid in terms of direction on how her story was going to proceed. Out of all the girls, her journey had the greatest connection to the subject “health”, repeatedly delved into it every time the spotlight was on her and fulfilled everything it seemed to promise from her debut in episode 1.

Her struggles on the road to recovery from a long-term illness and the strength she’s drawn from that traumatizing experience as well as her time as Precure did more than establish her as the strongest character in HealPre.

She has also rose to become one of the most memorable Pink Cures in the entire franchise (personally, I rank her in the top 5).

And it’s not hard to see why she’s earned such high regard in a lot of fans’ hearts.

The writers clearly worked a lot on her character composition to the point where she can pretty much embody the theme of “living is fighting” all on her own.

She came into HealPre fresh out of the hospital and full of earnest desire to make the most of her newfound freedom but she also wasn’t without knowledge on what hardship is. From there, she only got stronger, even when she was stumbling and trying to figure things out along the way. She grew more fortified in her beliefs on what it means to be truly live a healthy life.

She bravely defied the ones who attempted to take advantage of her and twist her cause against her. And she learned that taking care of herself is equally as important as wanting others to be safe from harm.

It was never about winning or coming out on top. It was about protecting a fundamental yet precious truth. That one thing any decent human being should never have to concede: the right to live well.

Honestly, Nodoka is absolutely inspiring all around, as a fictional character, a heroine and a normal everyday person.

Everything about her arc went satisfyingly right like it was meant to and the best thing is, we don’t need to question it because we saw how it all happened with our very own eyes.

I sincerely wished I could say the same for the others but sadly, they were just too flawed.

And Pegitan can throw flippers with me all day if he wants but as undeniable as the above statements are about Chiyu, her arc failed to leap over the increasingly mounting disappointment I had with every episode that’s been assigned solely to her.

Two of which weren’t even about Chiyu. One centered on Pegitan’s admiration for his partner and the other focused on her brother, Touji. Which, while nice to give to supporting/secondary characters, is a fat waste of valuable screentime and not what I’m here for.

It also didn’t help that the conflict of her arc (the indecision over choosing between two dreams) started really late in the game and was resolved so quickly within two episodes. There was no time for me to get invested into it, there was no powerful sense of conviction like how Go!Pri or Hugtto handled theirs and really, it just felt like Chiyu was only following what the script dictated for her rather than genuinely awakening to her own competitive passion towards track and field.

It was almost like it didn’t matter. Almost as if the writers procrastinated in thinking up something worthwhile to further her development...but then settled on grabbing an old idea off the shelf without refining it to suit Chiyu when they ran out of time.

This happened similarly with Minami in Go!Pri and Elena in StarPre, both of whom left me angry at how their arcs were executed. Yet theirs don’t compare to how pissed off I am about Chiyu’s. Because while Minami’s took a while to arrive, it wasn’t done poorly and linked back to Go!Pri’s theme well enough. And while Elena’s was over crammed last minute, at least it was unique to her character and had lots of potential ways to play out if they actually started it earlier on in StarPre.

Chiyu’s arc is like a discount version of the former with hardly any of the intriguing qualities of the latter. Sure, she had two early episodes that laid out the two most important aspects of her life (her family inn and her dedication to her sport) but after that, they weren’t brought up again until we were only weeks away from the ending. Y’know, just to fill up episode slots and meet the minimal requirement of saying they did give Chiyu some issue to resolve. 

It was not engaging at all.

Furthermore, the fact that her arc had very little to no relation with either “health” or “nature” hurt my appreciation of her character somewhat. I just...don’t think her kind of story really matches with the central topics of HealPre?

...but maybe I’m being bitter about this all wrong and that’s screwing up my rational thinking on this matter.

Because Chiyu’s arc is valid under the logic of the overall theme, I would never say it isn’t. And again, character arcs don’t have to be close to the plot nor is it necessary to employ the “suffering builds character” method to make them interesting.

Chiyu always does her best every day. That’s sufficient argument on why her story does fit within the frame of HealPre’s premise.

Guess I’ll just have to wrangle my resistance into acceptance somehow.

...still, her arc could’ve been done so much better than what we were given. Chiyu at least deserved that much.

Next, Hinata.

Since the beginning, I knew she was gonna be runner-up to Nodoka for having the (for lack of better term atm) “best” arc because it was heavily implied that she has ADHD and therefore, immediately checked off the “health” trait. She was even more obvious about it than Nozomi was.

Difficulty paying attention, hyperactivity, impulsiveness. Hinata didn’t just display all those signs, she also showed how hard it was for her to deal with the downsides to them on a regular basis.

She kept apologizing and put herself down excessively for inconveniencing her friends even though they never blamed her for her condition. Got them annoyed a few times, yes, but didn’t stop them from staying friends with her and definitely didn’t make them hate her either.

Everybody was understanding of Hinata...except Hinata because she always took her failures to heart and considered quitting several times to avoid the crushing dejection of making mistakes over and over again.

She got better, though, and no one could have summed it up more heartwarmingly than Nyatoran with the encouraging words he gave her at the conclusion of her arc. 

But it still feels like there’s a huge chunk of development missing between the start and finish. Or rather, it seemed like all of it occurred offscreen and we were only informed later that it did in fact, happen.

To recap, iirc, Hinata had around 5 episodes that focused on her (ep 9, 13, 23, 35 and 40). Ep 18 doesn’t count because that was a Nyatoran-centric filler more than anything.

Ep 9 and 13 did their jobs of introducing and highlighting the details of Hinata’s troubles while also suggesting she will eventually learn to overcome her insecurities. The ones after, though? They pushed those issues to the backseat.

In Ep 23, she had to share the (uneven) spotlight with Asumi. Hinata’s improvements were briefly mentioned but the majority of the ep went to teaching Asumi what “cute” meant and how to get along with puppies. I mean, I get that Asumi recently joined the group and bonding with her was mandatory by tradition. But since each Cure only gets a limited number of eps to herself, it would’ve been more beneficial for Hinata if she didn’t have to split screentime with someone else’s growth schedule.

Ep 35 is slightly better but not by a whole lot. Sure, Natasha was able to reconcile with Elizabeth which was very sweet and heck, it was the goal for that episode. But again, nothing was really done or addressed about Hinata’s main conflict. She tossed it back with the rest of her homework to deal with later. ahaha, a TroPre hint

Then ep 40 came to formally close the curtains on her story and apparently, Hinata screwed up lots of times since...whenever but she picked herself up every time after and kept on trying. Awesome. So WHY didn’t we get to see that? 

I’m not asking for the impossible here. I’m not asking for Hinata to be cured or anything miraculous like that. There is treatment available for ADHD but it is not curable.

Also, forcing Hinata to find a way to get better at studying, the thing she struggles with the most, is not the solution either because that would only make her more stressed and anxious over her own disorder.

What I want is to see how she moved from wailing “I can’t do it! I don’t wanna! I’m so scared of failing so why bother?!” to determinedly declaring “So what if I failed 1 or 100 times? So what if I fail another 1000 times? What matters is that I don’t let that stop me!”

That confidence is not something that can be built up overnight. It’s gradual and it takes numerous tries to reach from where Hinata was to where Hinata is now.

Telling me she grew emotionally stronger can only allow me to believe so much. I need to actually witness the changes as well.

If it weren’t for that, Hinata’s arc would have been a lot more impressive. Shame.

Finally............... Asumi.

Asumi, Asumi, Asumi, Asumi, Asumi, Asumi, Asumi... *sighs & drums fingers*

...she has no arc, ok? Seriously, what story is there to speak of, much less write a hefty analysis on?

A spirit born for the sake of Latte who just went along with the Precure ride because Latte didn’t want to abandon her duty. She made friends with those who aren’t Latte, extended her knowledge and understanding and gained valuable human experience during her stay on Earth. But ultimately, she will always define her entire existence around a puppy. 

Nothing is more important than this puppy.

...... to be honest, Asumi not having a storyline isn’t what bothers me. It’s her lack of depth that does.

Hell, even the giant burger she ate had more depth than she did!

Oh, Asumi does have a personality alright. She’s consistently and unfailingly polite, utterly devoted to her raison d’être and in crucial moments, gives pearls of wisdom when the girls are in a pinch. She’s good.

But if that’s all she is, then she’s also painfully dull.

She has nothing to contribute to the discussion of health or nature, despite being created through an element of the Earth so you’d think she’d have an opinion of her own. At least worry about the planet that gave life to her as much as she frets over Latte all the time. But nope.

She shares the exact same face as Teatine’s past Precure partner so you’d think we’d explore that connection to see if it would influence or affect her in any way. But nope.

90% of the time, her role was just being Latte’s constant, fawning satellite.

Not only did that irritate the hell out of me but it just reinforced my stance that this type of character is one of the worst you can ever insert into any narrative.

Because if someone keeps reiterating how much they’re obsessed with this one thing and seldom talks about anything else without bringing their obsession into it... then what’s so special about them on their own?

You’ve practically surrendered the different qualities you could have had for worship of something else. That’s not a fair trade-in.

Asumi’s character is so packed with Latte-related stuff that there’s not much space left for anything that can be considered uniquely Asumi.

I mean, maybe it’s because I can never see myself or any normal person comfortable with living like that.

Living for the sake of being together with the one you love? Okay. But living with your whole universe revolving around that one thing? Making most if not all decisions based on this one thing?

No. That’s absolutely crazy, alright? Nobody with a healthy amount of awareness and self-worth would live like that.

And you can counter that Asumi’s just born like that. That she can’t help her origins because Teatine’s wish to protect her daughter is essentially what brought Asumi into existence so of course, her biggest concern would be Latte. At least, she wasn’t forced into it, right? As long as Asumi chose of her own will to follow Latte, it should be fine, right?

You can even use the fact that Asumi isn’t human. That she’s a spirit and we shouldn’t apply our human standards too strictly to her.

Yea, but those are feeble defenses in the face of her being a good main character, a good main heroine. 

There are many ways to make a decent MC. The way Asumi was written proves she certainly does not possess traits that can classify her as true protagonist material. A protagonist has to be more than one amplified feature, which Asumi is not.

For the record, I don’t hate Asumi (she’s not interesting enough to generate a feeling that intense). I'm just severely let down because even if I don’t end up loving the midseason Cure for whatever reason, I can usually count on them to bring something intriguing to the table to dissect and analyze. At least I should find something to care about them.

Didn’t happen with her. :(

Oh god, I’ve been working on this post for days now and I’ve got a headache and with the baton pass happening in less than a few hours as I type this, I just really need to get it done and over with so please forgive me for speeding up through the rest, I’ll try to keep it as coherent as possible. NYARGH! (@_@ ;;)

Mascots.

Would you be surprised to hear that I’m not surprised that they were actually written very well?

Like I said early on, I suspected the return of fairy partnerships were going to improve the mascots’ significance in the story and, well, I was right. 

This time, they didn’t just fill in the usual expectations of relaying exposition, serving as the Cures’ transformation devices and looking cute for the merchandise. The Healing Animals had to make progress on their own training to become doctors as well.

And they did through their relationships with their human partners.

It was a refreshing take on the mascot aspect of the series because the friendships felt really symbiotic. When the trainees arrived on Earth, they relied on the girls to help them perform their jobs as well as provide them with shelter, food, the occasional peptalk about their trainee status, etc.

Then as the story continued and they got to know each other better, the mascots were able to return the favor by giving support when the Cures needed it. Rabirin when Nodoka was frightened and confused about how to deal with Daruizen, Pegitan when Chiyu was having trouble choosing between two dreams and Nyatoran who made sure to always lift Hinata’s spirits up when she got upset at herself.

In short, they achieved their objectives of learning what it means to be good doctors by being there for their friends! How wonderful! :D

My memory for Latte is hazy, unfortunately, since she’s coddled by everyone all the time (can’t blame them, she’s friggin’ adorable! <3) but I’ll never forget how she stood firm on the battlefield to see things through, to fight for the Earth like she promised her mother. She started out so babie but showed us all there was enormous bravery behind her cute face and ugh, we should all be very proud of her! <3

The only major issues I had about the mascots were these:

1) Too many irrelevant fillers went to them. They only needed a maximum of two for their entire mascot group.

2) Latte kept getting sick even after she acquired a Precure partner of her own. I was hoping it wouldn’t hurt her as much as it did before Asumi arrived or that she would build up a stronger immunity but noooo, they insisted on torturing the poor pupper! T_T

Villains + Finale Battle

Not a lot needs to be said for the first part. We’ve had mediocre antagonists before. HealPre’s just happened to be extra annoying as they were despicable. 

Which is worse because jerks you can just leave in the trash but assholes won’t stop harassing you unless you pummel them into their graves, set fire to their corpses and leave no trace of them behind! >:(

Y’all know who I’m talking about. Opinions on him continue to vary depending on who you talk to and if they’re avid fans of his face or not but whatever. The son of a bitch served his purpose and is dead now. That’s all that matters to me.

Anyway, the King was flat like his two lesser generals. He was neither intimidating nor distinguished enough in the brand of evil to really make us think of him as a serious threat and because of that, it ended up making the boss fight look like any run of the mill boss fight.

I know, they tried so hard with all that shiny animation but it just didn’t have that glorious sense of vindication that previous seasons (or ep 42) gave and I blame it all on this Rumiko Takahashi reject.

Also, this strategy was pretty useless?

They built it up like Earth was gonna sacrifice herself and die or something (she wouldn’t and even if she came close, deus ex machina would’ve kicked in to prevent that and COVID-induced caution too I guess). 

But there were no signs of pain (well, that’s a relief) after absorbing Shindoi-ne and they really pissed King Byogen off more than they did any damage with the absorbed byo-gen power.

...so yea, this tactic was just to kill some time and budget, nothing more. Meh.

By the way, did Asumi eject Shindoi-ne’s pathogen out of her body yet or did they just leave it in there to bounce around until it eventually dissolves on its own?

Because that’s eww. I mean, it’s obviously not gonna hurt Asumi they can both relate on hyperfocusing their affection for someone so maybe the compatibility helps :P but still, ewwwww.

Fillers + Underused Motifs

In hindsight, perhaps HealPre didn’t exactly promise the content we I wanted about “health” and “nature” if their objective was to teach that any manner of “fighting” can count towards “living”.

......but fuck you Toei, you’re still cowards! >:/

Fillers will be fillers but it’s always better to try and make some of them as meaningful as possible. And they wasted the opportunity to inform an impressionable audience (during a very crucial period of our time, I must add) on a lot of things related to the HealPre’s motifs. Especially about the environment which for some ridiculous reason, they chose not to touch on for the main stretch of the overall story.

Proper hygiene, good diet plan and sleeping habits, regular exercise (already done by the girls a few times but could use another example), meditation, counseling/therapy (especially for mental health!), etc.

Real life pollution, climate change/global warming (IMPORTANT!!), deforestation, preservation vs conservation, endangered species, recycling, volunteering to clean up your community, etc.

These just came off the top of my head but yes, there’s more and no, I’m not saying that the writers need to cover all of them in extreme detail or replace the slice-of-life episodes.

But they should be able to mesh both serious and light-hearted together in harmony somehow. Like those fillers where the mascots saw people cleaning up littering at the park or that interaction with that arborist who taught them about wild animals and trees when the group went to visit a lake.

For health, maybe let the girls visit patients with chronic illness in the hospital or have them converse with a medical professional on some matter. Particularly if it’s got something to do with mental illness because stigma in Japan on those who are afflicted with such conditions is still prevalent and has caused a number of sad and shocking tragedies that could have otherwise been avoided if people didn’t have such outdated, judgmental mindsets.

That last part might be too dark for a children’s anime but there’s a lot more out there that is doable.

Do that without reducing it into a footnote, Toei. It is so necessary for your target audience to be aware of these issues at the age they are now. You have an almost 20-year old franchise to serve as a very effective platform. Make better use of it if you truly care about the message you’re conveying through your show!

Also, what the fuck.

The last episode was a mess. Why are you only mentioning this now when the season is already over?

This should’ve been brought up months ago!

All the things we could’ve seen the Cures done to protect the Earth without magic.

The excuse of “I didn’t know humans were so horrible!” is a shit one because everybody knows humans are deplorable trash when it comes to abusing the Earth. All the more reason why you have to persistently drill it into people’s heads that they should not be like those who don’t care or choose not to care.

One crack episode isn’t going to cut that.

God, I so want to unsee this ep just so I don’t have to end HealPre on a more sour note than it already was. *big aggrieved sigh*

Lastly (and this really is the end of my long ranting, I promise), the missing undisclosed lore.

There are few Precure seasons without a past lore of its own in the recent years. Is it a wonder, though?

Lore is mysterious and fascinating. If it involves a past Precure, even more so.

Sometimes fans might just hang onto a show because they’re curious about what happened before the main story. We’d never get the full tale of those adventures but at least, it’s fun to imagine the “prequel”.

Also, past Precure are just badass. Fact.

Strangely enough, we didn’t get that for Heal. All we know is that she was called “Fuu” and was very close to Teatine. 

Hmm. Probably one of those changes caused by COVID interference cuz I can’t imagine the writers choosing not to tell her past in the original draft.

With all that finally off my chest, I’m ready to part ways with you girls until the next All Stars (Nodoka, I’m gonna miss you so much! T_T)

HealPre wasn’t the worst and it was nowhere near the best that it had the potential to be. But it’s passable. At least for those who loved it even with its flaws, I’m genuinely glad it was good for you.

For those who are thinking about picking it up (although why you would read this spoilery post before watching, I have no idea), if you’re looking for a standard magical girl anime to enjoy casually, then this is a safe pick. If you really want to invest your attention and heart into it, though? Then perhaps it would be in your interest to ask someone who saw it already to help you filter out the episodes that are worth watching. You don’t need to worry about the rest, they’re inconsequential. :P

Ok then! Thanks for reading as always, brave souls who have reached this point. 

Stay healthy and safe out there and I’ll see you at the beach next week! Tropic underwater paradise here we coooooommmmmeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!! xDDD

[lgbtyrus]

TJ’s Playlist (Final Ep Anniversary Bonus)

So it's been a year since I cried to the finale because tyrus was canon, and I wanted to travel back in time to some of the happiest memories I had because of this show. I had a thing in Macaroni's POV, but it was a little lame and didn't want to finish it so I went this route instead. It's also always bothered me that this story ended on 19 chapters, and I thought this was the perfect chance to even it out with a perfect 20. If you're reading this, I love you very much and thank you for coming back (or getting here for the first time). Goodbye to TJ's Playlist for real now <3 

Ao3 Link | Wattpad Link

-

TJ ran down the hall, pushing by students who couldn’t get out of his way fast enough. It was the last day of middle school, and everyone was lingering behind to say goodbye to their friends who might go to a different high school. TJ had been doing the same before remembering he had promised Cyrus he would meet him up front.

Cyrus was standing with Buffy and Marty, laughing at something one of them said when TJ caught up. “Hi,” TJ told him, bending over to catch his breath. “Sorry I’m late. I forgot how fast time can go.”

“It’s fine.” Cyrus smiled. “I wasn’t going to leave without you.” Cyrus reached over to hold TJ’s hand, making him smile.

Buffy said to Cyrus with a grin, “So yard sale?” Cyrus’s neighborhood had a large yard sale once a year, and they chose the last day of school to do it. Cyrus’ parents invited all of them to take their things to sell.

“Yes! Come by with anything you want to get rid of,” Cyrus replied. “I’m so excited. It feels like a cleanse and the first step into high school.”

“Can’t wait,” Buffy said. “I’m going to stop by home first for my stuff, pick up Andi, and meet you guys there.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Cyrus said and gave her a thumbs up. They said bye to Marty and Buffy who walked off holding hands, leaving TJ with his boyfriend. Cyrus turned to look at him and asked, “So. Did you think about it?”

TJ bit at the inside of his cheek for a moment. “I did.”

“And?”

“I think I’m going to sell them.”

Cyrus jumped up. “Yes? Really?”

“Just the repeats!” TJ smiled, taking a step back to avoid getting stepped on.

“Yes, that’s amazing. That’s perfect. The people in the neighborhood are going to love you,” Cyrus said. “We’ll look up the value of every single one before we set them out.”

“Already did that. That’s actually the reason why I decided to sell them.”

“Are they worth a lot?”

“Not as much as the cameras would be, but it’s a decent amount of money to pay for basketball camp.” TJ and Cyrus started walking away from their now former middle school, not looking back.

“How long would you be gone for?” Cyrus asked him.

“Three weeks. We can handle that, right?” TJ asked him, squeezing his hand. The coach at Grant High School recommended he go to basketball camp to secure a spot on the varsity team the next year, but it was a little pricey even with both of his parents working at the time.

“Of course.” Cyrus squeezed his hands back, smiling at him. “Let’s go get your things.” After going through his GG’s stuff for the first time, TJ realized there was a lot of valuable items that included comic books and vinyls. He was letting go of all the comic books because he wasn’t interested in that, but he didn’t have the desire to let go of any music. There was more vinyl’s in the attic than he realized and even though he didn’t have a player, he wanted them for the day he did have one.

Cyrus was talking to TJ about his last day of dance and how he wasn’t looking forward to regular PE at all as they headed to the Kippen’s house. “I need to have PE with Buffy at all costs next year. If not, I’ll definitely get picked last for every team.”

“You’re already stressed out for PE next year?” TJ snickered. He knew Cyrus well enough at this point to know his fear of public humiliation in PE was insurmountable “You need to relax a little. It’s summer break.”

“I know, but I tend to plan every minute of my future and PE is an inevitable part of it.”

“Let’s make a deal. You put off thinking about PE until a month before school, and I’ll let you be there when I get my report card in the mail.” TJ liked to open his report card alone considering he has done really bad in math in the past, but Cyrus really wanted to see how much TJ had improved now that he had a proper tutor.

Cyrus hummed to himself before saying, “Deal. But only because I can’t wait to see the look on your face when you see how well you did.”

“My C average does bring out my best smile.”

“All of your smiles are your best smiles.”

“You literally told me my dancing to old music is my best smile.”

“It’s a little biased because you dance with me.”

“It does make me smile when you slow dance with me,” TJ admitted to him. Cyrus smiled, blushing at the comment and making TJ’s heart skip a beat. There hadn’t been a single day where TJ doubted his feelings for him.

-

They got to the Kippen’s empty house, Macaroni the cat waiting in the yard. He was jumping after a grasshopper before he saw Cyrus and TJ come up. He ran to Cyrus and meowed, making him grin. “Hello, friend,” Cyrus said as he bent over to pick him up.

“Needy,” TJ muttered to Macaroni as he roughly petted his ears. Macaroni swatted at TJ who pulled his hand away on time.

Cyrus held Macaroni closer and said, “You have to be gentle with him. He’s old.”

“He’s okay,” TJ said, sticking his tongue out at the cat. He went to go unlock the door while Cyrus asked Macaroni about his day. The cat simply purred in his arms.

Inside, Cyrus put him down and followed TJ without asking upstairs to his room, little footprints tapping against the wood floors. Cyrus felt like the Kippen’s gothic house was his second home. It was Halloween themed according to his parents, but he liked the charm it gave off. TJ’s parents were younger than his after all and when the air was clear, it was fun to be there.

TJ had two boxes on the floor ready to go. “Can you take the vinyl one? It’s lighter,” TJ asked Cyrus as he picked up a box.

“For sure,” Cyrus said. He got the box and looked around the room that seemed to be more crowded as TJ dug out things from the attic. It made Cyrus smile every time TJ called him with a new discovery. A new photo album from the 70s. More polaroid photos he took of TJ and Amber when they were little. A random trinket TJ thought was cool. One time he didn’t find anything of his GG’s. He found a bunch of new t-shirts from his dad’s old band and a few CD’s TJ couldn’t stop laughing at for an hour. His dad was in makeup that really did make him look like a vampire.

Cyrus said goodbye to Macaroni who rubbed against his leg before walking out with TJ and walking down to his house. Around the block, people already had their yard sales open and people from all over Shadyside were visiting there. Even though TJ lived so close to him, his neighborhood seemed to be a completely different world from his. TJ didn’t know his next door neighbors, and he had just found out a month ago that Marty had lived across the street from him practically his entire life.

They got to Cyrus’ house where his parents had set out tables. Cyrus’ old toys and clothes were out and ready to go to new homes. He gave up most of his children’s books, but he kept a few favorites just in case he ever had kids to read them to one day. “You’re selling all your Pokemon cards?” TJ asked him as he set his box on an empty table.

“There will be someone who appreciates them more.” Cyrus then added, “They’re also fake.”

“Dollar store packets?” TJ smiled knowingly.

“Yes!” Cyrus laughed. “I always wondered why the ones at Kmart were more expensive and now I know why.”

“They were still fun to play with, though.”

“I honestly never learned how to play with them,” Cyrus admitted. “I just liked looking at them.”

“That’s me with my vinyl records right now,” TJ said. “I opened every single one of them because some had notes and receipts from GG. Some silly stuff like saying to pick up my grandma from school or just lists of other singers.” Cyrus stared at TJ as he set out the records, wondering if now was the time to give him what he just bought him. He wanted to hold out for his birthday but watching TJ talk about the vinyl’s made him realize how much listening to that music meant to him.

“There’s actually something I want to give you,” Cyrus said.

“Now?” TJ raised an eyebrow.

“Think of it as the first part of your birthday present.”

“First part? Of my birthday present? My birthday that’s in July?”

“Yes. Yes. Yes,” Cyrus nodded. “So, do you want it or not?”

“Can it be the only gift you give me?” TJ asked him.

“Of course not. The other thing is on its way already.”

“Oh god, Cyrus. You really didn’t have to get me anything.”

“Says the guy that gave me a present everyday of the week leading up to my birthday.” TJ smiled, Cyrus knowing that he finally got him to give in.

“Fine. Surprise me.”

Cyrus took TJ’s hand. “Come on! I can’t wait for you to see it.” Cyrus led TJ inside his house where they walked past his parents, TJ barely able to say a full hello to them. They went into his room where Cyrus let go of his hand and dug through his t-shirt drawer where he pulled out a wrapped present.

“You already wrapped it?” TJ asked, smiling as Cyrus handed him the box.

“Had to be ready just in case you ever found it.”

“You’re the one that snoops through my things, not me,” TJ reminded him.

“Just open in,” Cyrus said impatiently. TJ put the present on the bed and started ripping the wrapper. With a single tear down the middle, TJ knew what it was and gasped.

“Cyrus,” he whispered. “You really shouldn’t have.”

“I wanted to. Really badly.” TJ finished unwrapping the green record player and held out the box in his hands, staring at it in awe. “Now you can listen to everything your GG left you.”

“Yeah,” TJ said with a smile. “I really can.” He put the box down and went over to face Cyrus. “Thank you so much.” TJ bent down and kissed him, both smiling into the kiss.

“You are very welcome.”

TJ held onto Cyrus’ hand and told him, “Let’s go play some music.”

[booasaur]

I kinda have hopes for the episode where Maya gets jealous. I don't think it will just be jealousy for the sake of jealousy if that makes sense. But more in the sense that the ex probably knew Andrew and Carina better than Maya. She is probably the one that makes Carina smile for the first time since Andrew's death. But we'll have to wait and see.

Okay, I have a few of these lined up so let me answer this first since it’s from before last week’s ep even.

I had seen some theories, at that point, where Maya’s jealousy would be rooted in not being able to help Carina the way the ex could, and while we did see her figuring out how to help eventually in 4x07, this is still a possibility. It would make a lot of sense if it was in this very specific way. Someone else coming in and bringing up Andrew would immediately cheer up Carina in a way Maya simply doesn’t have the ability to.

And another anon:

I’m seeing a lot of people nervous for the jealousy storyline with marina but is it too optimistic of me to think it’s just going to be some sort of comedic relief?? I mean you already see from the promo that Travis and Vic are dealing with her new guy and I feel like that’s going to be the brunt of the angst for the episode. At least that’s what I’m hoping, I could be completely wrong🤷🏼‍♀️ what are your thought about what’s going to happen Thursday between both storylines??

I don’t think it’s too optimistic, it’s definitely possibly after two heavy eps for them that this might be lighter and played more for comedy than seriously. You just never know with these writers, is the problem, but I wouldn’t at all rule it out. Logically it would be, not just because it would be ridiculous to pull a jealousy storyline in the middle of Carina’s impossible grief, but because as you said, the main storyline seems to be about whatever happened between Travis and Vic’s new guy. 

They could be misleading us, like maybe it’s not that bad and he’s just an ex but it definitely feels like he did something serious to Travis, at least from Travis’s reaction and the whole of the preview focused on them. Some people are speculating he was involved in Travis’s husband’s death and that could definitely make things awkward for Vic, as the summary suggests. I would LOVE to flip from these serious moments back to an extremely light-hearted framing of whatever’s going on with Maya and Carina.

And another anon:

Maya shows a lot of growth and is there for Carina so of course they have to take two steps back with her with this jealousy thing so soon after Andrew's death when Carina is still grieving and needs as many friends as she can get like are they trying to make everyone hate Maya I just don't get it

It wouldn’t be unrealistic if she did regress a bit, she’s been shockingly perfect on this so far, but at the same time, I really hope it’s not something that bad because for real, she’s had some unlikable moments but done the wrong way, this could be a very bad look.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Uchitama 7 - 8 | Eizouken 8 - 9 | ID: INVADED 8 - 11 | Iruma-kun 22 - 23 (FINAL) | BnHA 82 - 83

Uchitama 7

Lemme guess…this is the ve-Yep.

The name of this segment is Ottamake. The ke means fur/hair, but it does seem like it’s referring to Tama otherwise.

For some reason, Bull’s really into cats…

LOL, you can see the cat food right there is a real brand. I dunno how they got away with that.

Hmm, this show has something to say about idol business…and it does it better than some of the human idol shows! That says something.

It even comments on the “graduation” system. Whaddaya know.

Welp, I never thought an anime could pull off this with a commentary on gender presentation, to boot. (It’s not as pervasive as Stars Align’s, but it’s still one of the better ones. I guess I shouldn’t expect it as a norm though.) I thought Kai was a dude though and so Bull’s interactions came off to me as massively gay. I’ve been thinking, maybe he’s pan? Can dogs be pansexual???

Why do I get the feeling Kai is going to be introduced into 3-chome? Update: Doesn’t happen.

This song sounds very idol-like.

Uchitama 8

Aww…I feel like we’re going to learn Nora’s backstory soon. I think it’s going to be real sad.

…Yup, there goes my kokoro. Smol Nora is cute~!

Genki can mean “healthy” as well as “energetic” – the latter is why it’s translated as “spunky”.

Why do I get the feeling Nora’s owner died…?

Oh, smol Nora has a bandaid on his leg.

Let me ask the essential furry question – they hav human ears and animal ears. Which of those sets of ears do they hear with?

Yuuki Kaji does a good job as Nora.

This song’s so sad, it almost got me crying…  

Eizouken 8

This anime is like something from Studio Trigger!

The magic of Eizouken is that you get sucked into the anime they make and never look back.

Tomodachi vs. nakama, I think it is.

Id: Invaded 8

Lately, I’ve been thinking about practical cosplay (everyday wear that also doubles as a cosplay outfit). So basically, I’ve been thinking about Sakaido and El-Melloi II’s outfits a lot, since they’re rather practical while still looking cool. All I’m missing for El-Melloi’s outfit with the red jacket is a black button-up shirt, for El-Melloi’s outfit with the black jacket I’m missing a red scarf and I’m missing a brown button-up shirt for Sakaido’s (although the yellow scarf I got today to get one step closer to two of those isn’t the right mustard colour, it’s more of a lighter yellow).

Also, I noticed it’s (according to the katakana) meant to be “Id: Invaded”, but heck, it’s been ID: Invaded for so long for me, I don’t care either way.

Kiki was born in Fukui.

I always thought Mister Fixer sounded sad and now I think I know why…the bit I remember the most (the line that goes “Mister Fixer” and the bit around it) sounds like the singer is lamenting their life. Now that I see the visuals again after a few weeks (I’d get fatigued if I watched all that Fate/ and still managed to keep up with simulcasts, so I’ve been taking the simulcasts in a few eps at one time), Mister Fixer does quite sound like a crime drama song, but not as much as Thought I Knew (from Stand My Heroes).

I’ve seen images of Anaido and Sakaido in the same well for a few weeks now, so this cooperation bit is no surprise at all.

I believe Fukuda is asking why Narihisago is a –san to her even though they’ve worked together a while.

The words “data profile” are in one corner of the titlecard.

Does Anaido remember who he is in the ID Well? I presume not, but it’s hard to tell since we haven’t had as much time with him as we have Sakaido (not to mention I’ve been regularly filling my head with Fate/ and other things as well lately…so it’s hard to remember).

It’s interesting. Fukuda has the same piercings as Anaido (and even a ring on one pointer finger that matches them!), so he must’ve tried experimenting with…more legal holes, to put it one way…before getting his most iconic one.

Kaeru’s nails are chipped. Hmm.

In #Brake-Broken, which I read the first chapter of earlier (there’s a sample on the Young Ace website), Sakaido notices he doesn’t have a phone with him to call anyone or a licence (because in that manga, he wakes up in a car). It’s likely this will work the same way and Anaido won’t have any possessions on him, aside from the clothes on his back, accessories and the item that was stolen from his wrist/s.

Rings on both fingers…so I should be talking about them in plural. Update: I like how Anaido’s off-the-wall thought processes break up the inherent seriousness of Sakaido’s deductions and utilitarian way of doing things.

Anaido, you grimdark f***er. Update: For trying to eat a dead girl.

Okay, so for the sake of my practical cosplay, I knew I’d need this episode. Sakaido wears a long-sleeve brown shirt with some kind of shirt under that (either brown or black), plus a mustard-coloured scarf. (Note El-Melloi II wears a black shirt under his black button-up shirt, so I went with black as well.) In Brake Broken, I also noticed he wears dark socks (or that could be the leggings) and runners with a lightning bolt on them (I had to make do with generic black runners with a white stripe on the bottom), plus the iconic brown shorts over those (with a triangle pattern)…Why does Sakaido have a scarf anyway, versus Anaido and Miyo who don’t? As much as I like scarves, especially where colder weather is involved, getting a specific colour scarf was a bit of a headache to be honest, since I took 3 trips before deciding on the one I was going to buy (and even then, someone got it before me! The scarf I have now was my 2nd choice). Update: The shorts, leggings and undershirt are black, but I don’t know if Sakaido is wearing any socks or if they’re black too.

Just to note what Anaido has as well (although a coat like that, with the red detailing and flaps, would be hard to find…), he has a blue coat, suspenders, a white button-up top, a string tie (had to google what that was called, although its name is pretty obvious now that I know), black pants (which kinda look like leggings, but they’re not) and leather boots.

Now Sakaido can go into the loony bin…he’s talking to Kaeru.

Is Anaido going in circles? Sakaido caught up real fast…

Um, hey, protip: When stuck in quicksand, try to “float” on it. If you move, you’ll sink into it more. I don’t know how I know that, but I did stick it into my mind for times like this.

Notably, Anaido is about a head taller than Sakaido. Either Sakaido is unnaturally short and Anaido is average…or Anaido is just tall in that way some men are.

Did the bird get to this dude…?

There appears to be a man with a bun facing Hondomachi in the ED, although you can’t tell who it is from silhouette alone…Maybe he hasn’t appeared in the show yet. (Can’t be Matsuoka though. Might be the old guy who’s the head of Kura, actually.)

Update: Is the dead guy Momoki…?

Id: Invaded 9

It’s the familiar ceiling scene from Evangelion! (Okay, I’m kidding, but it’s a similar deal.)

I think the rules of Fate/ are “do it all, until you can no longer do it” (i.e. Everything is the same, until it’s different). It seems it’s the same here too.

Huh? Momoki?

“It doesn’t seem friendly.” – Yeah, and people die whe they are killed…in murder mysteries like this, usually speaking.

I noticed Narihisago’s tie is the same colour as his Sakaido jacket, if not the shirt under that.

Where did the Challenger’s clothes go after he took them off??? Hyperspace??? He wasn’t shown tossing them.

So Kaeru was Asukai all along, huh?

“Look at this.”

“It makes me think about him.” Subbers, that’s two mistakes in less than 1 minute…

I saw a fanart where Narihisago had his arm broken. I didn’t know why, but now I do. Also, TV Tropes is bad if you want to avoid spoilers…I know that already, but I go there anyway sometimes...

“It makes me wanna puke.”

Iruma-kun 22

The anime’s final episode is next week…but there’s already a season 2 in store for next year, so hopefully I survive the coronavirus and sort out all my issues this year in time for it.

Dat OP though. I’ve grown used to it and it’s actually endeared itself to me…which is odd, since I didn’t think I’d like it at first.

Demdol = akudol. Obviously, from “demon”.

Was that…Clara’s mother???  Kuromu’s older bro doesn’t look too bad, either.

Ohmygosh, this is fabulousssssssssss (and hilarious)! I’ve been waiting for this moment for many episodes, as you can tell if you’ve been following along, and I finally got the payoff!

Clara ends her sentence with –akuma (devil), hence the translation is matching it the same way.

Oh my gosh, Ryouhei Kimura (Azz-kun) sucks at being feminine, but that’s exactly what the role requires for this!

If you just pretend Azz-kun isn’t dressed in such an outlandish outfit, he looks really good…! Ayumu Murase does a pretty good falsetto, although you can tell there’s one point where Kimura’s voice gets really manly-sounding for a lady.

“Little imp” – Koakuma.  

Oh! The Keroli family is all cute.

Ooh, Kuromu’s nails are blue. Never noticed that before.

Eizouken 9

Chojugiga are ancient pictures normally depicting animals. As for sepak takraw…

I wonder if Eizouken will tackle the Manabi Line one day…?

That’s a parallel for Comiket, LOL.

“A colossus that no one can see!” – Gridman, is that you?

When did Kanamori meet Asakusa again…?

Kanamori with a bun is cool.

“There is nothing fun about social media!” – Well, social media is fun for me because it’s where I escape reality, but sometimes you gotta be like Kanamori and use it for publicity’s sake.

LOL, the username for the Eizouken is @eizoukenn.

I just realised Mizusaki’s hairstyle is irregular…it’s much longer on on side than the other.

“Mizusaki bump” – I think this references the Colbert bump. (TV Tropes link)

Kanamori – she with the word “gold”…or “money”…in her name – struggles with maths? Wow, that was something to hear. (I guess it’s kinda like me and IT (cybersecurity) – I suck at it because I suck at modulos…or division in short…and even though I can be found on my computer a lot, that’s why I don’t pursue it any longer. I was decent at accounting, but man, I’d be bored out of my brain if you made me do business IT and I have zero skills in games and multimedia.)

“Was it thuggery?” – What’s thuggery? That word sounds funny.

Did you see how Asakusa fell off the tank?

I did CR’s Eizouken quiz sometime in the past and it gave me Asakusa. That’s true, basically. I like thinking up ideas and how cool they are, but because I can’t stop from elaborating on them, they get out of hand and that’s why I have a tonne of dropped projects. (Then again, with how freely I can imagine motion, I could’ve gotten Mizusaki too.) Update: Tried again and I actually did get Mizusaki…whaddaya know.

Id: Invaded 10

People have been comparing this to Minority Report…now I see why.

I almost feel like this is a discussion of euthanasia and suicide as much as it is memory and the consciousness.

Ohh…she remembers! Hondomachi!

You can’t see Muku’s face! Ohh, scary!

Aww, the music really sold this montage. By the way, that sign didn’t say “entrance ceremony”, it said nyuugaku omedetou, “Congratulations on your entry [into school]”.

It…this singer almost sounds like Bruno Mars, but that would be basically impossible, no?

Oh my gosh…when the song swelled, I absolutely cried. That’s rare, man – that’s rare.

BnHA 82

I think the leftmost figure might be Miruko, the rabbit lady. I’ve never read anything about her outside of wiki pages ad other small spoilers, but I roughly know what she looks like.

What does Gentle mean by “Anglaise”? Surely it wouldn’t refer to cream…(crème anglaise)

LOL, Disneyland parades…

Whew…that was dangerous. I almost agreed with Mineta there (to get the festival over and done with).

I swear Midoriya gets together with All Might, just like this, at the end or start of a climactic arc. He did it in the last season of BnHA, remember?

BnHA 83

Hmm…It’s interesting that the author likes to point out who has and hasn’t met Eri. Then again, it’s good for consistency.

LOL, Amajiki my boy…you’re so relatable.

Hmm…amidst the coronavirus concerns…this cancellation business seems quite timely.

Oh! It’s a drone.

For some reason, I thought Sero was drinking vegetable juice…? Eh, no matter. They have vegetable juice in Japan – I remember seeing some on my trip.

Hmm? Gentle is like a phantom thief, I just realised. Mostly harmless, but bound to cause a big stir if he gets his way.

What is Gentle’s Quirk, anyway…?

Work Son…LOL(…?)

Who bets their moustache on this stuff, anyway…? (LOL)

Iruma 23 (FINAL)

I don’t get to see Iruma become evil this season…but he will next season! That visual I’ve been seeing by the original mangaka confirms it!

Marathon - the demon puns are back.

Demonicon =Oricon chart.

Demon Star Platinum…was that…a Jojo’s reference?! *scare chord*

Oh! Maguro (tuna).

Azz-kun being afraid of fish? That’s news to me.

Okay, subbers. Whose idea was it to translate Iruma’s words as “My feels…”…?

There’s a post-credits segment. Keep watching.

Yay! Evil Iruma-kun!...In spring 2021. (I’ve never once been so excited for a character to turn evil than this! I also like how evil Iruma said it’s the “buttcrack” of dawn…but that’s just my immature side showing.)

Id: Invaded 11

“…being taken for a ride!” – Well, you’re in a car, so you’re getting a ride nonetheless. (LOL) I hadn’t heard of the term “being taken for a ride” until…what? 2016, I think? When I was still doing language anaylsis.

Sakaido used Headbutt! It’s…kind of effective? (Writing up these pseudo-Pokémon battles is fun. I should write more.)

“…put a drill to your head…”

“The victims of John Walker’s serial killers…”

I noticed Hondomachi is touching the side of her head which had the hole in it…if I remembered it right.

Is it “the Kura”? Or just Kura?

August 15th is a popular date for anime, huh? It’s in the middle of summer. (Refers to Kagerou Project.)

That ‘who knew you needed to lose something to be complete’ thing…I think I get it, but for some reason I only ever seem to get that feeling when it’s me trying to read asexuality into things (since that’s how I learnt to interpret asexuality), so…yeah, way to go, me.

Wait…Togo visited Momoki’s bedroom?!

Yep, so I was right about that being the side with Hondomachi’s hole.

[headoverjojo]

You were expecting a random post but it was IT, THE THIRD PRIZE OF THE CONTEST!! Yeah I’m, UH, like reeeeaally late and I’m super super sorry for this ç.ç This work had been studded with a series of unfortunate events, like firstly I lost the first draft I handwrote and I still don’t know where the hell it is -bet it will pop up tomorrow. Bet it.- I cried for two days and then stared at the ceiling for more than two weeks, then various things irl BUT! I finally managed to write something that satisfies me -and you know that I never publish something that I don’t deem worthy, I mean, maybe in the end it’s not but this is another story- and SO! @kidgoober, my dear, I apologize again for the delay and I want to thank you for your immense patience!! I hope that this would be worth of the waiting! 

It’s a comforting scenario with Giornoxfem!reader. I suggest to listen to “You are enough” by Sleeping at Last, before or after the reading -and the EP “Atlas: Oceans” always by Sleeping at Last during the reading-. Here we go! :3

You’re enough

(words count: 1695)

In all your past relationships and friendships you always seeked especially two things: respect and honesty. And in Giorno you found both of them.

People were always surprised by how similar you were, in your mature and careful behaviour. How you carefully studied others, in order to know how to behave. Sometimes, people who didn’t know you thought you were just a fake person, ignoring how you were almost brutally honest with each other and your friends. Your behaviour wasn’t a fake one, but more a self-defence system.

In Giorno you found someone who could understand you for real. He knew the struggle of keeping just for himself a reply, he knew how heavy and poisonous were the anger and frustration you had to keep inside, again and again, ‘cause you “were in no position to properly reply”. He was just wholeheartedly grateful that your parents never did to you what his stepfather did to him. You were the last person in the world to deserve this and, oh god, in case he would have liked to have a “talk” with your parents.

That’s why he always did his best to make you feel comfortable to talk with him about everything and to reply to him as you liked. With you he felt understood and at ease; he could, for once, lower his walls and not think about every reaction, every word and action. It was… freedom. And he wanted you to feel the same.

Together, you made so many steps forward. Together, you found that respect and honesty, deep and sincere, you both had searched for so long. You were not just partners, but also best friends, allies, supporters. Thanks to your developed ability to read others’ emotions, you both could tell immediately if the other was upset and act consequently. That was what happened also that day. The right moment you entered home, Giorno needed just a look to see you were deeply upset.

After quickly checking his mental agenda, he grimaced. Oh… you said that you wanted to go to see your parents, that day. Your relationship with them, well… wasn’t the best of the world, but, from what you’ve said, it had improved considerably in the last years. However, some issues were still ongoing and your face said that those issues had resurfaced, during your visit.

He didn’t ask you how you were feeling. He didn’t fake ignorance or a smile, acting as it was all fine. He got up, leaving back every paper, and walked straight to you, simply hugging you, tightly, safely. His fingers gently rubbed your scalp, as you sank in his embrace, sighing in relief. No matter how bad the day had been, Giorno’s hugs had the power to lighten at least a bit the weight on your heart… they tasted like home.

“Want to talk about it?” he asked, kissing your temple. You sighed, closing your eyes, relishing a moment more in his warmth, before nodding. He led you to the couch, gently making you sit down, and then put on the stove some water for a good cup of tea.

After returning to you, he kissed your forehead, sitting near you and watching you with calm eyes, giving you the time to recollect your ideas. For long seconds just the soft noise of the boiling water kept breaking the silence in the room.

“My mother did it again.” you admitted, sighing. Giorno closed his eyes for a second. Of course…

“What did she say?” you huffed, fidgeting, before Giorno’s slender fingers came in the way, gently holding yours.

“The usual. She used me to rant about herself and inflate her ego. I had forgotten about one of my aunts’ birthday, not even one of my closest aunts, and I apologized for my bad memory. And she? She went on ranting about how forgetful I am, how instead she always had such a sharp mind when she was young… let’s say, how in general she was better than me in everything when she was my age.” you took a deep breath, after that long tirade, feeling empty. Giorno’s hands never left yours, not even for a second.

“And what do you think about what she said?” he asked, quietly. You shifted a bit, pouting, feeling at unease. What did you think about it…

“Well, maybe she was right. And, like, after that I told her to stop this, to inflate her ego using me to elevate herself and she seemed… hurt for real? And… and maybe I am the wrong one, not her, and that, well… maybe I’ll never be good enough to be at the same level as everyone else. Maybe I’m just too screwed up to be saved.” you muttered, bitterly. You heard Giorno shifting and immediately after you found his face in your vision range. His eyes were serious, as his expression, and it made him look older than his age.

“Don’t ever say it. You are enough, you are more than enough. Do you know how much they hurt you? And look at you. Look at how strong you are. Look at how gentle and sweet and wonderful you are. What you lived could have turned you into a monster, but it didn’t happen. Your will has been stronger and you emerged from that darkness. And even today you still work on yourself ‘cause you want to be a better person. I am so, so proud of you.” he said, with utter sincerity, gently stroking your cheeks. You blinked more times, to keep back few traitorous tears, before taking a deep breath. Enough…?

“But if I’m enough, if I’m… strong, as you said, then… why do I feel like this?- Giorno’s heart broke, hearing how lost your voice sounded. -Why do I feel so small, why her words always make me shrink down? It’s like… it’s like I’ve done not even one step forward. It’s like I’m still that scared child who learned to lie and read emotions in order not to be yelled at. I hadn’t grown.” you concluded, slumping on the back of the couch, your head low. It was so… you hadn’t grown. All those steps forward, all those progresses… all lost in a snap. What kind of progresses those had been, if they crumbled down at the first difficult? You wanted to cry, but your eyes were dry. Even they didn’t want to cooperate, it seemed…

“I have to disagree.” Giorno’s voice was strong and determined, as he gently picked your head up, his fingers under your chin, to stop you from lowering it again. His turquoise eyes stared into yours, firm, serious, but also so gentle, so understanding. He could understand at heart what you were feeling right now… You were similar, all in all. You both, under the shield you had to build to protect your heart, were scared of the world. But, oh… since the moment he met you, Giorno felt like the world wasn’t so scaring anymore. With you it was all better… and maybe it was worth to open up to the world. As long as he was with you, the world was a less scaring place.

“You’re just having a small setback. It’s normal, you’re still healing… there’s nothing bad in it. But this doesn’t delete anything good you have done in this period, it doesn’t delete your progresses. Even if now you feel small and not worthy… you aren’t. I can promise you, you absolutely aren’t unworthy and not enough. I know it hurts, now, that you don’t feel motivated to go on… but please, don’t let this stop you. You’re not alone, now… we’ll face it together, as we always did, ok? Those words will fade, as the pain they gave you. New, positive things will replace this pain. We’ll build new memories, together… we’ll build a happy life, as I promised you. It will be better, tesoro.” he gently pressed his forehead on yours, staring in your eyes. A faint, sincere smile colored his lips and soon was matched by one on yours. You couldn’t doubt Giorno, when he was speaking with such a heartbreaking sincerity. You placed your hands on his ones, softly stroking their back and relishing in their warmth, feeling protected, as even your self-doubt couldn’t do anything against Giorno’s light.

You sighed, feeling the weight on your heart lighter, at least a bit. All in all… if Giorno, the person who more than anyone else understood you at heart, thought that you could do it, that you were strong and worth enough to achieve the happiness you deserve, then… then maybe it was so. Giorno wouldn’t ever have lied to you, even if the truth he had to say was ugly and painful. He wasn’t the type. Everything he said to you was exactly what he thought. And, well… this meant that he really thought what was saying to you.

His words slowly sank in you, as small drops of light, slowly chasing away the dark gloominess that had darkened everything you were seeing. You were enough. You were worth it. You will have make through it. You were strong. And you weren’t alone.

“Thank you, Gio.” your smile was more confident, now, and it made Giorno’s heart flip in happiness. He smiled back at you, one of his rare but, oh, so beautiful full bright smiles, and softly kissed you.

“I’m proud of you.” he repeated, sweetly, before getting up and going to take off the stove the kettle.

“Would you like a cup of tea?” you smiled, turning to watch him, leaning on the back of the couch. A rush of affection ran into your veins, as you were watching his elegant profile, focused on the tea bags and hot water, his golden hair… your Giorno, who made so many steps forward, just as you. He was proud of you, but you were so, so proud of him too, of all the progresses he managed to do in that period.

“I’d love it.” you fondly smiled at him, waiting for him. He was right… together you could do it.

Together you were unstoppable.

[miguel-manbemel]

Aspects & Fanfics Ep. 3: All the Sides of Cooking

This one took a little longer, as I had some blockings during the process and a lot of research to do. As always, remember that this fanfic ignores any entry after “Embarrasing Phases”. This one is lighter in tone, so no particular warnings to be pointed out, other than a brief appearance of Deceit, if it could be a trigger to anyone.

SYNOPSIS: Thomas has been training hard to get in a good shape, so he decides to indulge himself with a candy party. When Logan advises him against it, Thomas decides instead that, since Joan and Talyn are coming over for dinner, he’s gonna make a healthy vegan pizza for them. Thomas and the Sides travel to the Mind Palace Kitchen to make the pizza together as a rehearsal.

EPISODE INDEX

[Thomas and Joan are in the living room. Joan looks at Thomas with a neutral face. Thomas sports a happy unconcerned smile]

THOMAS: Hello, everyone. We’ve just returned from a little running. We bet who would be the one who would make two turns around the neighborhood in the shortest amount of time. The loser has to go through a punishment chosen by the winner in front of the camera right now. [looks at Joan, smiling. Joan looks at Thomas with the same neutral face. Thomas looks at the camera smiling] Wanna guess who won?

[Thomas keeps the same frozen smile which at this point has started looking a bit creepy, while he pulls out a carrot. His smile fades away when he takes a huge bite. He chews it with a crunchy sound and a disgusted face. When he swallows it, he retches a bit and looks at Joan with a supplicant face]

JOAN: [unimpressed] You were going to tickle me for five minutes if I had lost. This at least will be faster. All of it!

[Thomas moans a bit with a pouty face, then bites the carrot again.]

[intro sequence]

THOMAS: What is up, everybody?  I don't know if you have noticed, but I have been taking in the last few months a trend to take care of my body. Mainly because I want to be healthy, but also, why not, to get on a better shape for the spring that is just around the corner. That’s a pleasant bonus of being healthy and a good reward for all the sacrifices that must be made, isn’t it?

LOGAN: [rising up] And I give you my congratulations, Thomas. You’re getting excellent results thanks to following all my planning and notifications. Don’t thank me, I know I’m good.

ROMAN: [rising up] And I’m filled with joy, Thomas. Thanks to you being fit, I can make the most of myself in my princely quests and rescues.

VIRGIL: [rising up, with a mischievous smirk] I don’t think getting your rag bunny, Mrs. Fluffy Bottom, from the highest shelf of the tallest shelving can count as a “princely rescue”.

ROMAN: [giving a dirty look to Virgil] And how did you know that Mrs. Fluffy Bottom was there? [pointing at him with an over-dramatic cracking voice] It was you who took my bunny from my doll castle and put it there, wasn’t it!? Again!?

VIRGIL: [ignoring him] Anyway, yes, Thomas, it was worthy to endure all the moments of agony and angst [pointing at Thomas’ body] to get this result, so congratulations.

THOMAS: [flattered] Gee, thanks, guys.

PATTON: [rising up, yelling overly excited of joy] Now, it’s time for a candy partyyyy!

THOMAS: [happy] Yessss!

LOGAN: Wait, what? No!

PATTON, THOMAS: [overlapping moaning in disappointment] Awwww!

LOGAN: Thomas, you must stay strong! If you start eating all kinds of junk food now, you’re gonna lose everything you’ve gained!

THOMAS: [squealing begging voice] But… it’s only this once!

LOGAN: [firm voice] One moment in your mouth, one eternity in your tummy! No, Thomas, you must never, ever, overindulge yourself!

ROMAN: [ironic] Said the one who doesn’t devour eleven jars of Crofter’s per day, including the ones I bought for myself. [talking to himself] I think I should put a padlock on my door when I get out of my room.

LOGAN: I don’t have a physical appearance, Roman, therefore what I eat doesn’t affect me in the slightest. It’s your health, Thomas, what is on the spot. You must keep eating healthy, [counting with his fingers] every hour of every day of every week of every year of all the rest of your life!

[Thomas shows a face of huge angst]

VIRGIL: [demonic voice, with his hood on, in an angry mood] Would you mind stop meddling with my job? [back to normal voice, while taking the hood off, still angry] I am Thomas’ Anxiety, not you, and you always overdo it!

LOGAN: Sorry. But the point remains the same. [to Thomas] No candy parties, mister!

PATTON: Logan, that’s a bit… excessive. I don’t think there’s anything wrong in giving ourselves a little whim from time to time.

THOMAS: He’s right, Logan. I know that eating healthy is paramount, but even in the strictest of diets there are moments of relax. There’s almost no bad food per se, only the quantity and frequency of what we eat is what must be taken into account. As long as I keep having a varied and balanced diet, and I don’t forget to accompany it with exercise, health won’t suffer.

LOGAN: You may be right, Thomas, but I know Patton. He has no self-control when it is about sweet,  both physical and figurative. He’s gonna push you into eating tons of candy, and you’re gonna let yourself fall at his feet. Even if I took my glasses off I could see it.

THOMAS: Do you think I don’t have any willpower at all? No, Patton, as I said, balance is the key. Too much candy is not healthy. So don’t even think about it, okay?

PATTON: [sighs] Fiiine…. So… [happy] Candy party?

THOMAS: [happy] Candy party!

PATTON: Yaaayy!

LOGAN: Okay. If you think it’s mandatory to have this session of indulgement, so be it, but before that, we must take into account what comes next.

THOMAS: What do you mean?

LOGAN: You’re gonna ingest a lot of calories on these candies, calories that are most of them based on pure simple carbohydrates, that is, sugar that is quickly absorbed and is on a huge risk of turning into fat. Your next meal will need to be low in carbs and higher in other nutrients to compensate.

THOMAS: Can you elaborate?

LOGAN: Thomas, do you think I’m your cook or something? Now you know how to cook, so you can elaborate your meals yourself.

THOMAS: [sighs] I meant your exposition, Logan, not the meal.

LOGAN: Oh. Certainly. The recommended proportions of each type of food that should be ingested each day for a balanced diet is… [pulls out a cardboard with a graph] 50 percent of vegetables, 25 percent of proteins and 25 percent of carbs. Since your serving of carbs for the day is already covered by the candy party, your dinner must contain around 67 percent of vegetables and 37 percent of proteins. It wouldn’t still be a perfect meal for the day as the carbs you’re gonna ingest are not the best, but it will work out. But don’t make a habit out of it, Thomas. It’s better to eat complex carbs, like the ones from rice, pasta and other cereals, which are absorbed slowly and give you energy gradually when you need it, especially if they’re wholegrain, rather than the simple carbs from these sweets, which don’t have any nutritionally useful value. They call them empty calories for a reason, after all.

THOMAS: Okay… So, Patton is already served with sweets in a few minutes, but what should I have for dinner tonight? Any suggestions?

LOGAN: I would go for anything that contains phosphorus and vitamin B12, which are good for the adequate functioning of the brain. I suggest a ration of sardines or, if you can afford it, crayfish.

ROMAN: I’d like some good old proteins. My muscles won’t build themselves up without good building blocks, right? Perhaps some chicken breast or beef steak?

VIRGIL: Don’t forget some greens, Thomas. Folic acid and vitamins like B9 are good against depression and they would help me ease my work by reducing your charge of anxiety. Maybe some spinach?

THOMAS: Wow, suddenly everyone here has become a nutritionist?

VIRGIL: Well, it’s good to know the essentials related to our jobs, including what we should eat to perform better, isn’t it?

ROMAN: Plus, we asked Logan about it a while ago. I’ve been studying and memorizing.

THOMAS: Ah, gotcha. Well, Joan and Talyn are coming for dinner tonight. Joan is pescetarian and Talyn is vegan. They will be fine with Virgil’s suggestion, but what options would be better to maintain the same nutritious values while avoiding meat in the case of Joan and anything of animal origin in the case of Talyn?

ROMAN: Well, in the case of Joan, tuna fish is a good source of protein.

PATTON: Speaking about tuna fish, you can tune a piano, but you can’t tu…

LOGAN: [angry] If you tell that lame joke one more time, I swear I’m gonna place hot candies between the sweet ones, and then I’ll laugh too!

THOMAS: Don’t you dare, Logan! I’m eating those too!

VIRGIL: Well, in reality you’re eating them all, so…

THOMAS: Okay, what about Talyn, Roman? They won’t want tuna fish.

ROMAN: True. Well, it’s true that the best proteins are from animal origin, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to find them on non animal food. [looks subtly down in his hand direction, then with fake voice as if he was reading something] Um… For instance, soy is the best source of non animal protein, it is the base of the renowned tofu. Pumpkin seeds are a close second, followed by beans, chickpeas and lentils. Legumes in general are a good source of protein. Soy un príncipe estúpido. Card copyrighted by Logan… What?

[Virgil and Logan chuckle]

THOMAS: [confused] What?

ROMAN: [his face turns red] Okay, you got me. [pulls out some vocab cards] It is impossible for me to remember all of that by heart, so I asked Logan to write me some vocab cards with the basics, and I accidentally read the credits [giving a dirty look to Logan] and something that wasn’t credits.

LOGAN: [subtle mischievous chuckle] I knew that was gonna happen and I couldn’t wait to see it. That’s what you get for not studying your notes.

PATTON: [mumbling with a squeeing voice] I’m so proud that you schooled him with a joke…

THOMAS: Okay, Logan, what about the phosphorus you wanted?

LOGAN: Joan will be fine with the sardines, I think. As for Talyn, a good idea would be chickpeas or artichokes, or a garnish based on certain nuts or dried fruits, like dried grapes, plums and figs, or almonds, peanuts, pistachio… There are options for them to choose, certainly.

THOMAS: Cool. Now the point is, I don’t think sardines and meat are exactly the best combination, except on one Joan’s horror smoothies, and that’s not a compliment.

LOGAN: Thomas, who’s said that we have to eat everything at the same time? It’s obvious that we cannot cover all the existing nutrients at the same time in a single meal. We only show you the options. Now you must make a choice of what to eat, as always.

THOMAS: You know what? I suddenly had an idea. Pizza!

LOGAN: Sorry, Thomas. Pizza is high on carbs from the dough.

THOMAS: Doh!

PATTON: I do like pizza… But I like candy too… I don’t know.

THOMAS: I do like candy, Patton, but we cannot have everything. Could we have some pizza for dinner tonight? I’d love to have pizza with my friends, that would be an enjoyable party too. Besides, we could have the candy party next month.

PATTON: I mean…

THOMAS: Besides, I want to make the pizza myself to include all the ingredients we discussed. And here’s my suggestion. Would you all like to rehearse how to make the pizza with me in the Mind Palace?

PATTON: [gasps] I love that idea!

ROMAN: Me too!

VIRGIL: Count me in.

LOGAN: It would be a great way of giving yourself a treat without renouncing to eating healthy, so additional affirmation.

THOMAS: Then it’s settled! Off to the Mind Palace! Roman, do you lend us a hand?

ROMAN: Certainly! Let’s go the Palace Kitchen!

[Roman snaps his fingers, and the next second Thomas and the Sides appear in a huge kitchen like the ones from professional restaurants]

THOMAS: Wow! This place is huge!

ROMAN: Of course it is. In the Palace we only eat the best of the best imaginary food you can never eat. By the way, guys, I don’t think we’re appropriately dressed for cooking. But I can fix that in a snap.

[Roman snaps his fingers and Thomas and the Sides suddenly appear dressed with cooking uniforms. Logan’s uniform is a white jacket like those worn by professional chefs, Patton is dressed with an apron decorated with a drawing of an anime style cat getting cookies out of an oven, Virgil is wearing a white uniform and a white beret and in his chest the words “kitchen helper”, Roman is wearing a white uniform with a tall classic chef hat. Thomas is wearing a short chef hat and a white apron with a red star like the one from his Steven Universe shirt.]

THOMAS: Wow, you surely were fast in choosing our clothing, Roman. And you, guys, look awesome!

ROMAN: Thank you, Thomas. I deliver only the best.

LOGAN: This outfit is adequate. Very professional and serious, even without a necktie.

ROMAN: Oh, the necktie is under the jacket, Logan. You don’t want to get it dirty, do you?

LOGAN: [checking out] Oh, you’re right. Now I love it.

PATTON: This apron is so cute! I love cats!

THOMAS: It’s so you, Patton.

VIRGIL: [angry] Why does my outfit read “Kitchen Helper”?

ROMAN: Well, we need someone to help us cut things, heat pans, ovens, etcetera. It’s not gonna get done itself, you know?

VIRGIL: And why don’t you do that for a change? Why do I always have to be the techie in every group work we do?

THOMAS: Don’t worry, Virgil. There’s not gonna be a helper in this task. We’re all gonna be cooking in equal parts. Besides, that’s what’s fun about it!

PATTON: Yayy!

THOMAS: Okay, let’s get cooking. First we need to make the dough. We’re gonna need flour, water, salt and yeast. We mix the ingredients and then knead it well.

PATTON: [yelling with a happy yet a bit maniacal face] Flour! [Throws a whole bag of flour in a bowl, rising a huge cloud that makes Logan sneeze] Water! [puts the bowl under the tap and fills it with a huge amount of water. Virgil and Roman watch the scene in horror] Salt! [pours a whole handful of salt in the bowl] And yeast! [opens a package of yeast and pours everything in] And we knead it! [puts his arms furiously in the bowl and starts kneading it, or rather throwing everything in all directions]

THOMAS: Stop it! Stop it! Pump the brakes, Patton!

PATTON: [stops, with his arms in the bowl] What?

LOGAN: Patton, doesn’t the word “proportions” [pulls out a vocab card] ring a bell to you? We need specific measures of each ingredient so that the dough will work out.

PATTON: [the bowl and the mess disappear] Sorry.

THOMAS: I wish my real kitchen could be cleaned so easily when I do a mess.

VIRGIL: [sighs] Don’t worry. [mumbling] Can’t believe it’s me who’s said that… [normal voice] I already added the measures to the bowl. Now you only have to knead it.

THOMAS: Thank you, Virgil, you’re so efficient.

VIRGIL: Of course I am. I always take all of you out of the bad situations you put yourselves into, remember?

PATTON: [smiling] That’s my boy!

THOMAS: Okay, Patton, do you think you can knead it without throwing it all everywhere? Put your arms in and knead it gently but firmly, until you have a homogeneous dough that doesn’t stick too much to your fingers. Got it?

PATTON: Got it, kiddo!

[Patton starts kneading the dough]

THOMAS: Now, with that on its way, it’s time for the next step. Roman, you always say you’re on top of the world, right?

ROMAN: [with a princely pose] Do you doubt it?

THOMAS: Cool, because you’re gonna be in charge of the topping. Start heating that pan and fry a can of crushed tomato. Add it some garlic powder and oregano.

ROMAN: Okay…

THOMAS: Logan, what properties does tomato have?

LOGAN: Oh, the good old solanum lycopersicum. It has a lot of properties. It contains vitamins like C, A, K, iron and potassium. Curiously enough, it’s one of the few vegetables that has more properties cooked than raw, as, even if it loses part of its content in vitamin C when cooked, the cooking also breaks the fibers in the tomato and frees all its content of lycopene, a great antioxidant, so that it can be absorbed by the human body.

THOMAS: Interesting. Virgil, would you mind peeling and cutting some onions?

VIRGIL: Thank God my eyeshadow is waterproof today… Okay, as you command, Thomas.

THOMAS: How are you going, Patton?

PATTON: This is going good, Thomothy. [showing a figurine of a dog] Look, I made a dog with the dough!

LOGAN: [annoyed] Patton, that’s dough, not Play-doh! You must make a round ball out of the dough.

PATTON: [sighs] Fine…

THOMAS: But is the dough homogeneous as I told you?

PATTON: Yes, Thomas.

THOMAS: Great, then when you’re done making the ball, spread some olive oil on all its surface, put it inside that bigger bowl and cover the bowl with film. And let the dough ferment and grow. It has to rest there until it doubles its size.

PATTON: Right, kiddo.

THOMAS: Logan, I want to make a pizza that the three of us can eat, so do you mind if I don’t put fish?

LOGAN: As you wish, Thomas.

THOMAS: Okay, then. Logan, start chopping some green and red peppers.

LOGAN: Ah, good source of vitamin C.

THOMAS: And Virgil, you slice some mushrooms.

LOGAN: Excellent. Mushrooms have the phosphorus that I need, among other stuff.

THOMAS: Glad to hear that, Logan. Virgil, cook the peppers and the onion in that pan with oil and then add the mushrooms and those spinach over there. You must cook it all until it’s almost done, but not completely, as cooking will be completed in the oven later. Roman, how is the tomato sauce going?

ROMAN: I think this is worthy of a king, Thomas Ramsey. Ready when you’re ready.

THOMAS: Fantastic, remove it from the fire, then. Patton, how is the dough going?

PATTON: It’s already doubled its size, Thomas.

THOMAS: What? Already? It should have taken half and hour at least.

ROMAN: Thomas, all of this is imaginary. Time is not a constraint in imagination.

THOMAS: You’re right. Well, then bring it here, Patton. I’m gonna extend the dough to form the pizza base. [Thomas gets the ball out of the bowl and pours some flour on the table] Some flour on the table… And let’s do it.

[Thomas extends the dough with a rolling pin until it looks like a proper pizza base]

THOMAS: I’ll put it in this oven plate. I’ll spread some oil on it, so it doesn’t get sticked… I’ll put it in the oven for a few minutes so that it gets ready to put the topping. How are we going with the other ingredients, Virgil?

VIRGIL: It’s all ready, Thomas.

[A ding is heard]

PATTON: The pizza base is ready, Thomas… [Patton burns is hands when he tries to get the plate with his bare hands] Ouch!

THOMAS: Patton! Step out! [Patton accidentally touches the plate and burns his arm] Step out of the oven if you keep getting burnt! I’ll do it.

[Thomas puts on some gloves and gets the pizza base out of the oven, then puts it in the table]

THOMAS: Okay, this is ready… Patton, are you okay?

PATTON: [with his hands under the stream of water] Nice to meet you, Ready, I’m Dad! Yes, Thomas, it was nothing.

THOMAS: Okay, you stay there while we mount the pizza. Roman, the sauce.

ROMAN: Yes, chef!

[Roman gives Thomas the tomato sauce and Thomas spreads it on the base]

THOMAS: Mmm… it smells good. Now, the stir-fry.

[Virgil gives him the contents of the pan, and Thomas carefully puts them on the pizza, distributing them all over the surface]

THOMAS: And now, the final touch, some vegan cheese all over it.

[Thomas puts the cheese all over the pizza]

THOMAS: Done. Now, back to the oven until it’s done.

[Thomas puts the pizza back in the oven]

THOMAS: And now we wa…

[A ding is heard]

LOGAN: Thomas, you don’t have to wait in the Mind Palace, we told you.

THOMAS: Oh, that’s right! Well, here it is.

[Thomas takes out the perfectly cooked pizza]

THOMAS: Oh, my goodness! It looks delicious!

PATTON: It really does!

ROMAN: Mmm, that smell is great…

VIRGIL: It looks really good, guys.

LOGAN: And to top it all, it’s healthy and both Joan and Talyn will love it. Now, the question is…

[Suddenly the light goes off, Roman screams with Talyn’s voice]

LOGAN: Roman! You screamed right in my ear! It hurts!

ROMAN: Sorry, Logan, I still hate the dark!

[The light then goes back on and the pizza is gone. All the Sides and Thomas gasp and look in all directions]

THOMAS: Hey, where did the pizza go!?

ROMAN: No fair!

PATTON: I’m hungry!

VIRGIL: It’s okay, Patton, we’ll find out what happened and make another one later. What were you going to say, Logan?

LOGAN: Oh, yes. The question is, Thomas, will you be able to do the pizza on your own in real life later?

THOMAS: Oh, I won’t be doing it on my own, Logan. Joan and Talyn are going to help me. It will be fun for all of us, and the feeling of accomplishment is really rewarding!

ROMAN: Okay, then let’s get out of here.

[Roman snaps his fingers and they all appear back in the living room]

THOMAS: This was a fun experience. I wish I could cook real food with you, guys.

ROMAN: [sinking down] At least we have cooked together. We have to repeat the experience another time.

VIRGIL: [sinking down] I’m gonna go clean the kitchen. You all came out so quickly we forgot, and now it’s a mess.

PATTON: [sinking down] I’m going with you, kiddo, I’ll be glad to help.

THOMAS: [confused] Won’t the kitchen clean itself like before?

LOGAN: Don’t ask. Well, good luck with your cooking evening. I’m glad that at least we avoided the candy party and you learned some nutritional facts.

THOMAS: We didn’t avoid the candy party, Logan, we have only postponed it.

LOGAN: [sighs] Fine… Remember the times, Thomas, it won’t be as fast in real life. [sinking down] And don’t forget to do the next session of exercise a little longer to compensate!

THOMAS: All right, Logan… [to the camera] It is important to be conscious of what we eat. We are what we eat, and if we eat healthy, we will be healthy ourselves. But it is also important to understand that, except if you’re allergic to something, of course, there are no forbidden foods. We can eat almost anything as long as the less healthier foods are not eaten with too much frequency and we keep a balanced diet that involves all necessary nutrients. Also, there is nothing wrong with being a vegetarian, pescetarian, vegan or any other option. It’s true that you’ll have to be more careful to get all the nutrients you need, but if you learn and apply that discipline, go ahead with it and be whatever you wanna be, and don’t listen to those who might try to ridicule you or don’t understand your life choices. In the end, your life is yours and only yours, and only you must decide what to do with it as long as you don’t hurt yourself. Until next time, take it easy, guys, gals and non binary pals. Peace out!

[ending card. Thomas, Joan and Talyn are in the kitchen getting the pizza out of the oven]

THOMAS: Aaaand, here it is!

TALYN: It looks gorgeous, Thomas!

JOAN: I can’t wait to eat this f… [bleep] baby! Where did you learn this recipe, Thomas?

THOMAS: Oh, I just practiced it in the Mind Palace with my friends…

[There’s a silence in the room. Joan and Talyn get serious and look at Thomas]

JOAN: Thomas, I thought we were over this. These people you call Sanders Sides are not real.

TALYN: You’re starting to worry us, Thomas. Are you sure you’re okay?

THOMAS: I’m fine, guys, don’t worry. [mumbling] I don’t know why I talked about the Sides so carelessly…

[Joan and Talyn look at each other with a worried face, then look at Thomas, who is unconcerned, slicing the pizza. Then, there’s another scene on the Dark Realm. Deceit is there, eating the whole pizza by himself]

DECEIT: [looking at the camera, breaking the fourth wall] What? Don’t I deserve some me time too? I’m sure nothing wrong will happen if Thomas can’t tell lies for a few minutes… [bites another portion of pizza with delight] Oh, this is not so good!

[night-filled-mountain]

So the Labenda Swamp/Berleben episodes, while they had plenty of stand-out moments (KIRI! CALI! Shaving with a greatsword! Awkward hug!), weren’t exactly my favorites this campaign. Intra-party tension, lots of combat, lots of single-minded focus on their job (...their purely mercenary job for a crime boss, with no element of emotional investment or even a whiff of heroism). Basically, they had the generally grim atmosphere that you’d probably expect from a shitty swamp town. By the end of ep. 23, I was really craving some downtime for the group, some richer, softer interactions, juicy character development, and maybe an altruistic side quest that would help me really root for the Mighty Nein (much as I adore their shadiness).

...I cannot express how hard Hupperdook delivered on all of this. I loved this episode so much, you guys. SO MUCH.

Highlights:

There was so much goodness that I think I’m going to have to divide this up based on characters. Starting with...

CALEB

This episode was like the grand payoff for all of Caleb’s conflicts with the others about his inability to integrate with the group. Practically every little thing he did confirmed his affection for them and his determination to be kind and playful and fully present for them, to shed his sad-loner persona and become a team player:

-Magically lighting Beau’s firecracker for her with no hesitation, even though they’re both well aware of his issues with fire

-Encouraging Nott in her dance plans with Jester--i.e. encouraging her to enjoy herself with someone other than him, which feels incredibly healthy for both of them

-Hasting Jester to improve her piano-playing, and tossing gold in the “tipping hat” for her

-Having a civil (and hilarious) conversation with Fjord about the hazards of rooming with Molly in a party town--and actually inviting Fjord to share a room with him and Nott, which I kind of wish we got to see, although the way things actually turned out was equally satisfying

-Telling Yasha he was sorry she wouldn’t be going out with them because he counts on her as his social-anxiety buddy

-Gently checking up on Fjord re: his flirting anxiety (more on that later)

-Participating in the drinking contest--again, with no hesitation (and killing it!). This went against so many of Caleb’s usual scruples (not spending money frivolously, avoiding crowds and social interaction), not to mention making him extremely vulnerable, both physically and emotionally. He had to know that some of his closely guarded secrets might come out, and he had to extract a promise that they wouldn’t let him pass out in the gutter...but he went through with it anyway, trusting the group to take care of him. And they (specifically Jester) justified his trust.

-THE DRUNKEN SINGING. Counting and singing both seem to be compulsions for Caleb, especially in stressful situations (we’ve seen him sing a version of that “Mighty Nein” song on the battlefield, haven’t we?), but even after the heartbreak of the waltz scene, nothing can quite beat, “One of those things is true...aaand you are blue.”

-Speaking of which...

JESTER

-That waltz honestly might have been the saddest (and sweetest) scene of the entire campaign. In a situation that would normally be ripe for high comedy (the most awkward, inhibited member of the party gets super drunk and agrees to dance with Jester, trickery cleric and perpetual agent of chaos), we got a quiet slow dance and a line so poignant in context and delivery that I’m tearing up just thinking about it. The way Laura/Jester’s face instantly crumbled (even though Jester knows nothing of Caleb’s backstory). Her instantly softened tone, the complete lack of teasing. Caleb’s broken little “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m...I’m sorry.” His sudden reversion to Sad Loner Eternally Punishing Himself, as he walked away to seek out solitude in some filthy gutter. Jester’s determination to Not Let Him Do That, to keep her promise and get him into bed. “I’m sure Astrid loves you very much.”

...Yeah, I’m not sure how to do that scene justice other than crying about it.

Moving on to somewhat lighter tidbits...

-“I go over and give Caleb a kiss on the cheek.” 😊 (I need to make a whole separate post at some point about Caleb and touch.) (...About everyone and touch, for that matter.)

-Jester has never been drunk. I always kind of figured that her habit of ordering milk was just an in-joke about Laura’s pregnancy, like the pickles--but no, it’s a legitimate character detail stemming from her sheltered upbringing. I felt sorry for Jester and Laura when she was the odd tiefling out in the drinking contest, but in retrospect, it’s really good (for Caleb’s sake as well as their finances’) that they had a Sober Friend on deck.

-Her conversation with Caleb about “hidden skills” made me wonder, not for the first time, whether she’s actually had a lot of sexual experience as she often implies, or whether her childhood surrounded by courtesans (and her habit of spying on their clients) has simply made her feel qualified to speak on the subject. Passing the written exam but not the practicum, as it were.

-Her frantic (and mostly futile) attempts to get her teammates to say who they’re attracted to while under Zone of Truth were good fun, but her frantic attempts to get them to say whether they like her held a bit more weight, I think. Jester is, without a doubt, the best-liked member of the Mighty Nein--I don’t think there’s a single teammate who couldn’t have truthfully answered that question with a resounding “Yes”--but Jester, with her history of isolation, her social inexperience, her lingering fears of being left alone again, still feels insecure about whether her friendships are sincere. Give Jester hugs, is what I’m saying. Give her ALL the hugs.

-Jester’s concern for Kiri gets more adorable each episode. I especially like how emphatic she is about the fact that Kiri is a person, appearances notwithstanding (“She’s like you, she’s a little girl, not a pet”). Laura said in a Talks episode a while back that Jester thought of Kiri like a doll, but I definitely think her views have evolved. There was something especially touching about the music-box scene. Hupperdook seems to present several options for safe and wholesome environments in which they might leave Kiri, but I’m kind of rooting for Rissa and her father to take her in.

-Jester got to throw around her magic a lot in fun, non-combat ways this episode. Loved the Thaumaturgy cheers for Beau, and the Infernal whispers surrounding the blacksmith kids. But that Locate Object spell not only single-handedly saved their asses, financially speaking, but also changed the entire direction of their current adventure when it led them to that final scene, with the kids in the boarded-up shop.

-It was kind of amazing to see the different ways and specific moments in which each member of the Mighty Nein was affected by the kids’ story. For Jester, of course, it was when they said their parents were thrown in jail for “idol worship.” It is killing me (in a Very Good way) how we’re gradually finding the cracks in the Nein’s cynical, mercenary armor--the emotional buttons that can be pushed to lead them to propose (or support) an actual altruistic quest, despite their much-cherished self-identity as “a bunch of assholes.” Which, of course, leads me to...

FJORD

Holy cats, did this episode radically transform the way I see and feel about Fjord. I haven’t done such an intense 180 on a character since Beau’s one-on-one scene with Dairon back in the day. That was the scene that 100% hooked me on Beau. I went in feeling lukewarm and iffy about her, and came out finding her lovable, secretly vulnerable, and generally fascinating...and this episode had the exact same effect for me re: Fjord.

-His flustered reactions to flirtation have always seemed funny before, and they were funny in this episode too, up to a point...and then, as Travis played it up, it began to feel like something more. I love that it was Caleb, of all people, who sensed Fjord’s genuine discomfort and asked if he was okay. Whether that discomfort just stems from virginity/inexperience or from some kind of bad experience, it makes Fjord’s relationship with Jester--who defaults to flirting as a standard form of social interaction, because of her upbringing--a lot more interesting to me than it’s ever been before. Her offer of sex lessons would have felt like simple comedy in an earlier episode, but now it felt like a case of fundamental miscommunication, a clash between two people with very different backgrounds and worldviews when it comes to sex and romance...and I am All About It, I am so on board for that ride, it appeals to me so much more than Jester’s simple romance-novel-fantasy version of their relationship.

-In my notes on last week’s episode, I forgot to even mention Fjord confiding in Molly about the eyeball on his sword (and Molly’s poorly-timed and poorly-executed Charm Person spell), but Fjord and Molly’s relationship always intrigues me. In this week’s installment of their roommate shenanigans, we got Fjord’s rather jaw-dropping line “Half of me’s interested, the other half is terrified” (I could just hear the fics being written on the spot). My shipping compass is all over the place at this point. On the one hand, Fjord has low wisdom and an occasional tendency to jump on board with crazy scenarios just for the hell of it. On the other hand, I could swear sometimes, looking back over the whole campaign, that the only people in whom he’s shown anything like romantic interest are Caleb and Molly. (If you want to get all metaphorical-innuendo with this, they’re the only two teammates he’s almost allowed to hold/examine his sword...yet, in both cases, he decided to refuse/hold off.)

-Fjord coaching Beau on behavior and facial expressions never, ever gets old. And for once, instead of trying to help her be more courteous and less off-putting, he got to help her ramp up her intimidation to a whole new level (for a couple of teenage punks! 😂). Molly and Caleb doing good cop/bad cop last week was a delight, but Fjord and Beau pulled it off just as brilliantly. (Are we ever going to hear what became of those kids, as they spent a day frantically searching for the thieves the Mighty Nein had already found? ^_^)

-And finally...HOW ABOUT THAT BACKSTORY, THOUGH!?

No, it’s not the first backstory drop we’ve gotten for Fjord; in fact, it’s one of the briefest. We knew about the kids who made fun of him for his tusks and drove him to file them down. We knew about his sailor background, the shipwreck, his near-drowning experience, and that he presumably made a shady deal with his patron (whether he remembers it or not). We knew about his mentor, Vandren, whose fate is still up in the air. Yet somehow, none of that had anywhere near as much impact on me as that one little line, that achingly hesitant response to the question of whether he’d ever been in an orphanage: “Yes. I was. They’re terrible fucking places.”

I’ve actually thought a lot over the course of this campaign about why I’ve had more trouble connecting to Fjord than to the other characters, and I realized that a lot of it boiled down to the fact that he’s just never seemed to have the same vulnerability. Yes, his backstory was painful, even traumatic, but there was a certain macho romanticism to it--explosions, shipwrecks, a shady kraken-esque magical patron, even the fact that the loved one he lost was a surrogate father. It was all a little bit too “classic hero” for me to really feel it down to my bones...and honestly, that also applied to Fjord in general. He was always so smooth, so polished, so badass and confident and leader-like. I never heard the same raw desperation in his voice as I did in Caleb’s when he talked about his parents, or Nott’s when she talked about her goblin heritage, or Molly’s when he talked about rejecting his forgotten past, or Jester’s when she begged the Traveler to appear, or even Beau’s (downplayed as much as she could!) when she was seeking Dairon’s approval.

But with that one line about his childhood, regardless of the specifics, Fjord has joined the club for me. I’m all in. I’d die for him as soon as I would for any of the others. ...And this turned out waaay longer than I expected. 😳 Moving on!

-Everything about Fjord during that last scene (and actually, everything about that scene in general) was pure gold. Fjord was so soft toward those kids; he gave us the gentlest rendition of the line “I’m the one asking questions” that I’ve ever heard. His quiet, eloquent, persistent appeal to the others to join him in a dangerous, unpaid, purely altruistic rescue mission did such a number on my heart.

-Also?  “I would really like the opportunity to leave this place better than we found it” was a direct quote from Molly when he talked about his circus days under Zone of Truth--and Molly definitely noticed. I love, love, love that the members of this chaotic-neutral trash group are learning to appeal directly to each other’s backgrounds, issues, and specific values, not just to get a rise out of each other, but to activate the compassion that every one of them has buried beneath a hundred layers of cynical self-interest.

-Of course, Fjord and Molly weren’t the only people having their buttons pushed in that discussion, and Fjord’s wasn’t the only big backstory drop this episode! Which brings me to...

BEAU

-Though I was initially disappointed that the gang didn’t set off a whole bunch of them in the streets of Hupperdook, I am now thrilled and terrified at the thought of all the firecrackers she still has in her possession.

-Everything about Beau and Jester’s friendship is pure as the driven snow, and Beau getting Jester a flower necklace was no exception.

-Beau: *tries to snatch Molly’s tip for a dancer out of midair; rolls a natural one* Dancer: *grabs the coin, kicks Beau in the face, and winks at her* Beau: “I wink back. You know, I kind of liked that. That was kinda hot.” Me: This is the most quintessentially Beau moment I have ever witnessed, and I love her more than air.

-Low-charisma Beau and Molly leaning on the bar, totally ignored, for 15 minutes, was beautiful...but Beau’s “Sorry to interrupt your incessant flirting, but can I please have a drink?” is everything I have ever wanted from Beau and Molly’s frenemyship. I feel so fulfilled.

-Beau’s brief involvement in Jester and Nott’s dance plans (“Yeah, I know, I’m your second choice” / Nott: “No, third” 😂). Beau gets a lot of flak for arrogance, but honestly, her self-deprecation game is almost as strong as Caleb’s, and it is both hilarious and kind of poignant every time.

-Her defense of Nott from the racist (species-ist?) firecracker salesman. “Hey, don’t ever apologize for who you are, man.” Also telling her that Caleb is “a good guy”--which, coming from the one person who (a.) knows Caleb’s full backstory and (b.) isn’t Nott, is kind of huge.

-BEAU BACKSTORY DROP. BEAU BACKSTORY DROP. I wanted it SO BADLY, and I got my wish!! There was nothing about it that I didn’t love, starting with the fact that she confided in Nott. Out of all the Mighty Nein members, they’re probably two of the people with the fewest interactions, but it makes sense that the weird Caleb/Beau/Nott bond formed during Caleb’s backstory drop continues to strengthen.

-“Are you evil? Are you a bad guy?” / “No. I don’t...I hope not. I think it differs from day to day, depending on what I’m doing. Do you think I’m a bad guy?” This said so much about Beau herself, and also Beau’s self-image--and how heavily it depends on how other people see her, despite how vehemently she’d like to claim otherwise.

-Beau’s story wasn’t shocking or even surprising--it basically just tied together a lot of the hints we’ve already gotten--but there were so many little touches that killed me:

Her painfully realistic reluctance to pronounce her father a bad person

The fact that he hired the monks to straight-up kidnap her like some kind of horrific “scared straight” stunt (which is a thing that real parents do to real children, and that’s all I’m going to say about that)

The pained sarcasm of her, “Sure. Great,” when Nott asked if she was okay...and the brief dropped eye contact when Nott asked, “Was it hard?”

The looong pause and deeep breath between, “He was hoping...” and, “...they were gonna beat my indiscretions out of me.”

“I think all of the things that my father saw in me that he hated, the monks saw as a potential advantage.” I’ve always known that Beau’s first scene with Dairon felt raw and emotional and Important, but this scene finally gave us the context to explain why.

And, more than anything, the way her voice broke and dissolved into pained laughter when she said, “In fact, he told me he never wanted to see me again.” ...If this guy is still alive, the Mighty Nein had damn well better hunt him down and give him the full Syldor Vessar or Howaardt Darrington treatment.

...I have to note that amid all those dark emotions, something about Beau’s deadpan delivery of “I worked at a library” sent me into hysterics. (Also, “That had to do with the job that I had before the job that I had--”)

In short: For her first big backstory drop, this was deeply satisfying, but there are still so many things we don’t know! Why was her childhood “meant for someone else”? What about “I came to hate the town I was in and the system my father was a part of”? That seems related to her previous confession to Caleb, that she watched her father give up everything for the Empire and get screwed over somehow. And what about her comment to Dairon ages ago about how her father’s money (for her upkeep) must not be coming in anymore? Is he dead? Missing? In prison? I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING.

Still not the end of the Beau moments, though:

-Beau getting Fjord out of awkward sexual propositions by pleading erectile dysfunction on his behalf. Best/worst anti-wingwoman ever. (Bonus: Fjord’s Very Southern, Very Offended, “She doesn’t know me like that.” 😂)

-She finally followed through with her long-ago threat to slap Caleb! (Caleb, luckily, was not in a state to care.)

-“I will fucking punch you if you try and kiss me.” Literally could not ask for more with Beau and Molly. Could. Not. Ask. For. More.

-Her anguished “NOOOO!” when Molly literally pulled the alcohol out of her body...and of course, ”Did you touch inside of me!?”

-Despite finally dropping backstory of her own, Beau is still #1 when it comes to digging out other people’s: “I mean, Nott’s over here trying to pull my heartstrings, but it seems like you should be the target. Do you have a thing with kids in orphanages?”

Speaking of heartstrings...

NOTT

-So happy to see more of her friendship with Jester (“Do we need choreography!?”), and an attempt to revive their Detective Duo dynamic.

-It’s been a while since we saw Nott deal with racism (species-ism?). Still as much of a gut punch as ever.

-I loved seeing her gratitude to Beau for taking care of Caleb, along with her determination to make sure Beau is doing it right. I’m still not sure how I feel about Nott’s whole “I am the parent” attitude, but she’s certainly a better ‘parent’ than most of the Mighty Nein have ever known.

-She did a fantastic job bringing out Beau’s backstory without overshadowing Beau, but she still got off some great lines in that scene: “So wait. Little townsgirl, her parents are wine-makers, now you’re a brutal assassin martial artist who can kill anything...what happened in between those two things?” and  “You were bootlegging your old man’s hooch!?”

-“I never thought of you as an optimistic person, but that’s a very positive way of looking at it.” Okay...I may finally, finally be letting go of my cherished image of Scrappy Urchin Child Nott, and warming up to Maternal Nott. Watching her earnestly encourage her ever-growing collection of adopted children is kind of the best. (She was also great at “pulling Beau’s heartstrings” during the final scene, though I couldn’t help thinking that a lot of her “Don’t you think the children should be with their loving parents!?” rhetoric would’ve hit home for Caleb as well.)

-The drinking contest was a delight from start to finish, but Nott’s match was probably my second-favorite. (Nothing could beat “little Caleb” triumphing over his mild-mannered opponent.)

-It was a small moment, but it made me inordinately happy to see Nott and Molly profusely congratulating each other after the contest and then DANCING TOGETHER. They’ve barely exchanged a word since (1.) Molly wrenched deeply personal confessions out of Nott with Charm Person, (2.) They clashed in the aftermath of Scrollgate, and (3.) Nott offended Molly pretty seriously during his Zone of Truth backstory. Every single moment of Mighty Nein friendship/concern/camaraderie in this episode gave me so much life, but these two were a highlight.

And, speak of the devil...

MOLLY

It’s been quite some time since Molly got a big chance to shine. I’m mildly concerned about that, but that’s a matter for another post. (And it will probably get cleared up soon anyway--I think Tal just has a somewhat quieter play style, and takes a while to settle into his characters.) That said, the Molly moments we did get in this episode were absolute gems:

-Straight-up knight-in-shining-armoring Rissa with the punks who were harassing her. Nothing will ever be quite as gloriously creepy as blood maledicts.

-“Do I have masculine wiles!?” / “You have...pan wiles.” / “I’m into it.” (There’s this very specific voice Molly uses once in a while, this tone of pure childlike wonder, that sends my Molly love into overdrive. The lines that come to mind are, “Can I!?” back when Fjord joked that Molly could take the mirror from Pumat Sol’s shop, and “I won a strawberry!” back at the Harvest Close festival. I love that I can now add “Do I have masculine wiles!?” to the list.)

-Drawing alcohol out of Beau with his blood-hunter powers to ease her hangover

-“Whatever team you’re on, I don’t think I play for that one...It’s Team Fuck-Off, I’m well aware.”

-Throwing up on Fjord, and then tenderly bringing him to bed (...not that way)

-His “Say no more, I’m in” as soon as Fjord made it clear that the quest to break the kids’ parents out of jail was personal for him. In perfect accordance with his carnie past, Molly often walks this delicate line between “keep your head down, don’t make trouble” and “be the chaos you want to see in the world,” and I love that a friend’s Strong Feelings can single-handedly push him from one side to the other.

-I feel like there are probably more Molly moments I’m forgetting because I’m at the tail end of a post the size of Mt. Everest here, and I am most sincerely sorry.

BONUS

Yasha was barely there this episode, for obvious reasons, but I still desperately want art of her cuddling with Kiri!

IN CONCLUSION

This episode was amazing and I cannot wait for next week.

[recentanimenews]

Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina – 03 – A Flower’s Fangs and the Cruelty of Kindness

This week chronicles two separate stories of Elaina’s travels, neither of which end remotely happily, indicating Wandering Witch won’t be content to ply us with bromides about the beauty of the world. It’s going to show us the good and the bad, and how the bad often wears a good cloak.

On the lighter side: This is the second straight ep that starts with Elaina asking the audience some version of “Who is that elegant stunning girl?…Why, it’s ME!!!” Later in the episode, a character praises her, and replies “You can praise me more if you like!” Our wandering witch is brimming with confidence, and I am here for it!

On to the meat of the story: Elaina first comes across a young woman in vast and gorgeous flower field. When asked if she tends the field, the woman says “no one can tend it”, which in hindsight was the first sign something was off. She asks Elaina to give a bouquet of flowers to someone in the next town—doesn’t matter who.

Elaina doesn’t get past the gate when she’s stopped, first by a hot-headed guard, then his superior, both of whom are wearing masks and demand she hand over the flowers. While they may be harmless to a witch, the blooms are poisonous and drive ordinary folk insane.

The younger guard recognizes the shawl the flowers were wrapped as belonging to his missing sister. When Elaina returns to the now dark and stormy field, she finds the brother there, covered in vines and being slowly digested beside his sister, who has already fully morphed into a plant.

Elaina wisely peaces the fuck out, but misses the worst of this story. The smoke from the burned bouquet apparently spreads to other townsfolk, who in turn become thralls to the predatory plant and spread the “gift” of lovely flower bouquets throughout the land.

There’s a harsh German children’s tale quality to this segment, warning one to beware of outward beauty, as it could one day enslave and kill you. Life-affirming this is not—but it is surprisingly powerful.

In the next segment, a young lad flags Elaina down to say hello. His name is Emil, who himself has been traveling about collecting scenes of happiness and converting them to magic he’s keeping in a bottle. He intends to give it as a gift to the girl he likes. First red flag? The girl in question is his servant.

Emil, the village chief’s son, invites Elaina to lunch, after which he’ll present the gift to the shy, gloomy Nino. But from the start it seems quite unlikely his gift will raise Nino’s spirits. During a painfully awkward few minutes with the father, Elaina learns she’s a slave he bought because she could do housework and would grow up to be a beauty.

The lunch is far larger and better than Elaina expected, but the village chief shows his true colors, and the typical dynamic of the household, when Emil surprises Nino and she drops a pitcher of water. The dad verbally abuses Nino and shoves her to the ground, and Nino adopts a desperate contriteness.

Elaina is able to deescalate the situation by magically repairing the pitcher (a very neat bit of CGI), but it’s long since time she was on her way. When Emil presents Nino with the bottle of happiness and they open it together, images of truly happy people wash over her vision, moving her to tears.

But they’re not tears of joy, and Nino certainly doesn’t cheer up afterwards. It isn’t until Elaina is back in the sky that she remembers the end of a similar story: when a man traveled the world capturing beautiful images to share with his bedridden wife, they only made her more depressed, and compelled her to eventually take her own life.

Neither we nor Elaina know if Nino will turn out that way, but she pointedly remarks that she doesn’t want to know. As with the flower siblings, she saw and heard all she needed to, and it was time to move on. This isn’t The Heroic Crusade of Elaina, it’s The Journey of Elaina.

That means accepting that the world is sometimes ugly and cruel and dark, there’s nothing you can do about it but move on and try to find something brighter over the horizon. While this episode was hardly comfort food, I applaud the show’s guts to “go there”, i.e. not make all of Elaina’s experiences whimsically wonderful…or even remotely pleasant.

By: magicalchurlsukui

[lizacstuff]

Merhaba friends - SCK episode 35 asks

(Fragman 36 ask at the end)

Apologies to those of you who sent asks for last week’s episode and I didn’t answer them. The week got away from me and then suddenly it was show day, the episode aired, and the asks were no longer relevant. Even if I didn’t answer I appreciate you reaching out!

Anonymous said: I’m dying to know what you thought.

While my ego would like to think that there are a variety of subjects that people might seek out my thoughts on, I’m going to guess you want to know what I thought of episode 35. 

I had a mixed reaction. I liked a lot of things, loved a lot of things, there were some things I found disappointing, and a few characters I wanted to strangle. So let’s explore from that perspective. 

Liked:

Romcom feel was back. It felt lighter and was easier to watch than a lot of eps in this arc.

Aydan, Ayfer and Seyfi working together to unite the kids. They were actually funny and trying to do the right thing, even if their methods were a bit morally gray. 

Serkan and Eda’s photo on outdoor advertising and on the cover of magazines. We’ll ignore how quick the turnaround was to get those photos up, it was just plain fun to watch Serkan see himself on his drive into work and be embarrassed and aggravated by the whole thing, while there was also a little spark of excitement from him in being linked to Eda like that. That was enjoyable.

Melo is always the best bestie and Ayfer didn’t suck as an aunt!

LOVED:

Most every individual Edser scene. 

Serkan out-of-his head with worry, planning to jump into the frigid sea, even though he wouldn’t have any shot of saving her that way. That’s my ride-or-die, protective romantic robot! 

Serkan making faces as Eda plans her wedding. Excellent work from Kerem here. 

Eda buttoning up Serkan’s shirt. That was hot. It was also hot that he just let her. 

Sekan buttoning up Eda’s dress (get a room kids and start going the other way... unbuttoning, UNBUTTON) This scene was emotional and the sexual tension! 

Serkan clutching his chest. The poor boy was about to have a panic attack right there. Follow through, writers, give him the full fledged panic attack!  

The hair caught in the button (There’s that button again!) sequence. it was funny and sexy and made Selin into a foolish, immature third wheel. I’m all for it. 

Serkan apologizing to Eda for Selin, that was big because up til now he hasn’t really recognized how awful Selin is in most situations. He has blinders when it comes to her, mostly because he doesn’t pay attention, so it was satisfying to see him acknowledge her bad behavior.

EVERY MOMENT AT THE BOLAT HOUSE. That was a great sequence, and IMO we mostly have Hande and Kerem to thank for it and not the writers. They brought it to life and obviously a lot of it was on them to just figure out what to do in the scene.  I loved that Serkan saw Eda amongst the flowers in that painting. Swoon!  their conversation about how they were both hungry was hilarious. Every moment with them fixing the sandwiches was gold and then it just got better from there. With him being willing to share food, to the throwback “mesala” conversation to her listening to his heart. All so... so... good. 

However, while we definitely deserved those nice, long, funny, heartwarming scenes, I must say the writers didn’t use them to their fullest potential. How did the night end? How did they part? Why was no progress made after spending the night that way?  If the writers were even half decent at their job they would have had Serkan confess some feelings while high, but not remember in the morning thus giving us the parallel with episode 11 when he was sick. Eda would have felt defeated when he didn’t remember, again, and it would have made more sense why she thought the fake wedding was her last shot at getting through to him. 

Characters I’m mad at:

Ceren knows the whole episode that Deniz loves Eda, she knows he’s being weird about it, she makes up with Eda, and stills says nothing? WTF?

Engin makes it to the wedding, he knows Serkan has his memories back and he doesn’t stop the wedding to let Eda know before she says yes? WTF?

Ferit allegedly has the photos and he thinks the wedding is real, but he doesn’t show Eda the photos so she has a better idea of what she’s getting into? WTF?      (though through that whole Ferit/Selin scene I wondered if Ferit was just playing along with Selin, trying to get info out of her and he’s not really the one who has the photos. Time will tell. )

Selin/Deniz- Obvious, psychos, I need them freaking gone. How Deniz can claim to love Eda, but sit there and watch her look devastated and cry her eyes out at the thought of fake marrying him, while knowing he’s about to pull a disgusting trick is unfathomable. He needs to be committed.

Disappointing:

To be clear, I no longer care, but I can’t believe how badly they flubbed this storyline. That? That was the payoff for the hell we’ve been put through for 7 weeks? Wow talk about not worth it and anti-climactic. I’m not going to go on about all the ways they failed, but I could. 

While I fully believe that Serkan fell back in love with Eda before he got his memories back (see this post) he should have confessed to Eda before he got them back. That was the whole point of this entire storyline and they carried that the entire time, but then fumbled the ball at the 1 yard line. Good grief, these writers are bad. 

Serkan gets his memories back, he knows time is of the essence, and he still is torn and has to think about it? WHAT? Just no. Ridiculous. I realize they did it for maximum suspense, but they shouldn’t have. They really shouldn’t have.

That was their reunion after all we’ve been through? Come on, writers, step it up. I realize we no longer have the writers that gave us his love declaration in 11 or Eda’s and Serkan’s proposals, or their make up scene in 28 or their goodbye scene in 28, but this was lackluster. 

So, in summation, there was a lot that I really enjoyed, I thought the episode flowed better than some of the others in this arc, and lots of great individual Edser moments, it’s just the way they flubbed the whole storyline. I’m just so glad the amnesia is over, that thankfully I don't really care.

Anonymous said: when pushed by engin and aydan multiple times in the episode he never denies he ISN'T in love with her and rather skirts around the issue and deflects with "she's marrying deniz!" which should be proof enough he fell in love with her especially considering in 29 he was telling eda that "there was no such thing as love" between them. it was almost reminiscent of eda in 10/11 where she doesn't tell him her feelings bc she believes he wants selin, this time in reverse bc he believes she's moved on.

This came in response to this ask, and yes I agree. I should have hit that point harder, that Engin and Aydan ask him and he never denies it. When this arc started he would have denied it in a flat second. 

He fell in love with her again, full stop. It’s just a shame that they didn’t make it the entire crux of his love confession, we deserved to see that. Just one of the many ways the writers dropped the ball with this storyline. 

Anonymous said: The whiplash we got going from 26-28 to the drag of 29-35 though. 🤦🏼‍♀️ and you really could cut out that entire storyline and you wouldn’t be missing anything because really nothing happened. They didn’t even have Serkan stopping Eda before he got his memories back to fulfill a basic assumed foreshadowing. Like....huh?

I don’t want to be negative, but it’s crazy to me that they sped through wedding prep at a lightning pace and then went through this painful amnesia storyline at a snail’s pace. They should have had at least 5 episodes of wedding prep, doing just one pre-wedding activity per episode, but kept Babaanne around to create the drama. I wanted at least one episode of them back together, but keeping it secret so they could work against her. We were robbed of that!

Anonymous said: I know we’ve been hating a lot on the new writers but the showrunner still has to sign off on these scenes right? And it’s been the same one this whole time. What has she been thinking? Maybe the writers didn’t do their homework but surely she can tell that scenes being very out of character wouldn’t make sense?

Bold of you to assume there’s a showrunner as we know them on a Hollywood show. I assume you’re talking about Asena, but I always think of her more of a cross between an EP and a network exec. A bit more removed than a showrunner.  I have no idea who the guiding light of this show is since Ayse left. The production timelines are so tight, I don’t think there’s time to review scripts and reject them. Sometime I think it’s a wonder anything makes sense at all. 

Anonymous said: I see you've giffed some of the edser "questionable positions" bookshelf scene. (Awesome gifs btw). Honestly, that entire scene was really funny, with the rest of the art life crew jumping in. Even Selin made me laugh when she came in there and said "how did her hair get stuck?!" and Serkan very sarcastically replied with something like "I wound it up in there, what do you think??" Not to mention all the very close face talking that was going on!

Great scene! Here’s the gif set you’re referring to.  I suppose the writers proved they could do fun, and romantically comedic scenes if they want to. More like this, please. 

Anonymous said:

With these past 5 (?) episodes with these last set of writers, I truly believe that they did not go back to watch SCK at all before writing. Any past references were probably given to them on a checklist or something. Like I don't know if they even watched episode 28 with how they ended up doing away with the memory loss. Its kind of astounding how much they dropped the ball. Hopefully the rumors of new writers are true and they get enough episodes to give us a good ending to this story!

This came in right after the episode, but unfortunately, we learned today that we are apparently not getting new writers, at least not for episode 36.I was fully convinced we were since Sefkat (the production company twitter admin) liked Yasin’s post when he said we’d be getting all new writers for 36. Normally I don’t believe anything Yasin says because he has lied so many times that any info he actually has just comes across as a clock being right twice a day.  However, when she liked it, I found that convincing.  Also the way they cancelled shooting on Saturday and H/K were in for a meeting on Friday. Seemed like it was all adding up. We’ll see, maybe there will be new ones for 37??

As for not watching what came before, it certainly feels like they only skimmed and watched certain scenes and didn’t do a deep dive on the series. Watching all the eps in full should be a requirement before they start the job. I always feel they are  just off with Serkan’s characterization, they don’t quite get him and they turn him a bit into a cardboard cutout of early Serkan. It’s like the character sketch outline of Serkan, but with no depth. 

Anonymous said: When I saw the character description of the new cast member added to the show I was like "great, another possible screen space filler in regards to Aydan" but after watching the episode, I was actually really intrigued by his character. I know there's a bunch of theories out there that Serkan is actually his son, which I don't really buy into right now, but nevertheless he was a real potential to be a father figure in Serkan's life... and maybe the only guest character to not be a villain lol.

I’ll tell you this, that casting makes it seem like they at least want us to think he’s Serkan’s father.  He’s way better looking that Alptekin and he just looks like he could genetically be responsible for the magnificence that is Serkan. 

We’ll see what they do. I think it could be interesting, just because until Serkan met Eda he was so invested in being “Serkan Bolat” that having his identity shaken like this would be seismic for him. It could create some really good drama for him in all his relationships without tearing apart Edser. Also, if Alptekin knew it would go along way in explaining that relationship. Alptekin always demanding perfection and the cold way he sent him away to boarding school. It would explain why he could never earn his father’s love or approval, and that knowledge might give him some peace. 

In addition, and a big plus, it would mean that his biological father was NOT responsible for the deaths of Eda’s parents. 

Anonymous said: 1/ everyone for weeks was waxing poetic and had super detailed headcannons of how serkan would remember in really specific ways when he realized he was in love, something that ayfer kinda poked fun of at the beginning of the ep talking about the fake wedding, but i was genuinely laughing out loud at serkan and engin accidently getting into a fight and him yelling throughout it that he remembers and engin pushing him in front going "can you give him one good hit?!" lmaoo

2/ getting a good hit to the end to unscramble your brain that is already giving you flashbacks is more actually more realistic than the usual fairytale way.. sure, less romantic, but definitely more realistic. the man was already in love with her, super confused on what to do since he genuinely thought she was marrying deniz, and was already having flashes, all he really needed was good hit in the head lol. maybe eda should've kept going when they were boxing 😂

I like your take on it.

Anonymous said: i think they saw the fandom complaining week after week that there was too much heaviness/drama in their romcom and said "so you guys want romcom? here i'll give you full on romcom" which is what i thought this episode was! and i really appreciated such a fun ep overall to watch to bring this otherwise really sad and emotion heavy memory loss plot to an end.

Yes, the episode was a lot more fun than most that had come before it. If only they could have tied it all together. 

Anonymous said: Something that just occurred to me that's so crazy in addition to wrapping an episode days before it airs, is that in Turkish television, a series has like 1 permanent director and a small writing team that writes ALL of the episodes. In US TV, that's pretty much unheard of - different writers rotate owning each episode and the same director will shoot maybe 2-3 episodes at most a season. The production turnaround time is so short that it's insane that we don't hear of more last-minute delays

I know, I think about this all the time. It’s crazy to me that there’s only one director. Which is why there’s not a lot of added layers to this show.  When a director just has one episode on their plate and they spend a couple of weeks prepping to direct, every shot, every angle, every bit of set dressing can be meaningful. This show doesn’t have that kind of visual depth.  On the other hand you do get a director that knows the actors and crew inside and out and they all have a short hand which allows them to get to what they want faster and easier. That can’t be replicated with directors who come in for one episode. 

Anonymous said: Over the past month or so, I’ve been seeing so many people cancel Serkan and wanting Eda to leave him forever and move away, but she really never gave up on him and she might finally get him back this week 😭 in fact, Eda and Melo are the only people we’ve seen who have tried to help get his memories back! Everyone who has been friendly to Selin can disinvite themselves to the Edser wedding

I’m glad I didn’t see a bunch of this nonsense myself.  But, honestly, anyone who wants Eda to leave and not end up with Serkan... why are they watching this show to begin with? Did they take a wrong turn somewhere? How did they last this long watching it? We’re 35 episode in and this entire show is their love story, beyond that story and it being a vehicle to showcase Hande and Kerem’s awesome chemistry, it really doesn’t offer many other reasons to watch. 

And yes to jettisoning anyone who was friendly with Selin. PIRIL I’M LOOKING AT YOU. I sure hope Piril finds out exactly how low Selin will sink. She needs to feel ashamed for welcoming her back without question. 

Anonymous said: That fragman for ep 36...part of me wants to hope that it will all be solved pretty soon, since we got edser separated for so long we deserved them together now. But part of me also knows these writers suck so I’m expecting the worst. I just wanted edser together again 😭

I know. When I saw the full fragman my initial reaction was to yell “WHY CAN’T WE HAVE NICE THINGS!!!!!!!”  But I’ve calmed down now. 

It seems to me that we have Serkan and Eda together and working together to figure this mess out, which is good. we have romantic walks on the pier, and Eda spending the night at his place and a sweet breakfast setting with Eda in jammies. All good.  

But then we also have Selin and Deniz refusing to quit.  Selin comes up with the plan that if Deniz doesn’t sign the papers in time, then they will have to get a divorce which means Eda can’t marry for 300 days. So then, what? Deniz steals Serkan’s car and goes on the run? 

What they hope to accomplish with this, I don’t know. Because even if they succeed and Serkan and Eda can’t get married right away, it’s not like they’ll just magically decide that they want to be with those two psychos instead.  I can see Selin doing it just for revenge so she can make them miserable, but what’s Deniz’ motivation? The further psycho he goes, the worse Eda will think of him. Bizarre. 

As for the pregnancy thing. It sounds like Eda must hear that from someone. My money is on Deniz. That’s his Hail Mary to try and drive a wedge between Serkan and Eda. Because seemingly when Eda brings it up, Selin asks where did you hear that. Also, phew, Eda says right away that if its true that Sekan deserves to know, which hopefully will clear things up (because the writers showed us over and over and over again that they weren’t sleeping in the same bed) and it will show Serkan just what kind of crazy he’s dealing with. 

Anonymous said: I was pretty excited after watching the fragman, but surprised when I went on twitter and saw that almost everyone was really upset by it. I’m sure most people know Selin isn’t actually pregnant, but they all still somehow hate the storyline (possibly bc they think it’ll drive edser apart?) idk am I crazy for thinking that we’ll still get good edser moments and them staying together and fighting together? I guess the show needs drama to continue but I’m not mad because I think good edser will outweigh bad/miscommunication edser.

I’m sure we’ll get good Edser moments, but I can’t really fault anyone for being extremely annoyed by this fragman. I think this little plot point will end up not being a big deal at all, however, I can see how it feels like a kick in the face after what we’ve been through the last 7 episodes. It’s like can we get one happy episode? Just one?

Also it’s just very uncomfortable. I’m in the camp that currently thinks it’s impossible for her to be pregnant because they haven’t slept together. He was too fragile and injured before they came back to Istanbul (sleeping on the couch with his PTSD) and after he was too confused and consumed by Eda and just uninterested in Selin. I have to believe they kept showing us them not spending the night in the same place for a reason. 

However, if they were to have had sex, it’s very unsettling because it’s a little too close to him not being able to give consent. It’s Rape by Deception. He had a brain injury, amnesia, was suffering a myriad of traumas and was not in his right mind. He did not have the full set of facts on where their relationship stood, but she did (she knew he wanted nothing to do with her and told her he never loved her and didn’t even want to be friends) and instead of being honest she abused him. She lied to him. She didn’t tell him the truth about what had happened. She isolated him from anyone who could tell him the truth and manipulated him into thinking that she was the only person in the world he could trust and the person he loved and trusted most was untrustworthy and an enemy. 

However, as the audience we know the things she’d done in the past to abuse his trust, and we know for certain if he remembered, he would never consent to sleep with her. Never. So even beyond the cheating and the romance it would rob us of if they did have sex, it’s ICKY and GROSS and none of us want to even think of it.  I don’t expect TV writers in Turkey to be on the forefront of thought when it comes to issues of consent, so I’d rather this door just not be opened at all. 

But here we are, they opened it. Now all we can do it hope that it is a device to hear Serkan say that it isn’t impossible and for Selin to be fully exposed as completely unbalanced and a lying, manipulator.

Anonymous said: the fandom by use of sheer will forced this selin plot line into existence LOL. i swear since the beginning of the memory plot in 29, the "selin will lie to eda she's pregnant" rumor has been constantly making rounds, and i guess it's time to cash in. i will say that i've seen ppl thinking know that somehow serkan and her were intimate even though she's clearly lying.. guys, if there was even a POSSIBILITY she would've used this way back before now and would have told everyone, including serkan.

I agree with this. If this was a card she could play with Serkan, she’d play it. She’s been getting more and more desperate. And in the fragman there she is coming up with ways for Deniz to run away so he can’t sign the papers. If there was something she could hold over Serkan, she would, She’s not because then the con would be up, we’ll just have to wait and see how big of a lie she’s willing to tell. 

Anonymous said: I wonder if Selin was a spy when she was younger! That woman is always watching everything from her car! Even in the new trailer.

Ha! Let’s hope that in the end she’s not a very good spy and they finally get one over on her. Oh please oh please oh please let the stable boy be the one who has the photos and let him have more on her. I want there to be tons of photos of her in her car spying on them. That would be so humiliating for her. 

Seriously, though, who knows what happened to Selin to make her the way she is. Frankly, I don’t think my assessment of her has really changed (most of my old posts on her are tagged with “anti Selin”) She’s just a spoiled, selfish, entitled brat who thinks she should get anything and everything she wants. If she wants Serkan, she should have him, doesn’t matter what he wants or who she hurts, she’ll do whatever she has to do to make that happen. She was probably never told no as a child. So when she’s thwarted she thinks she’s entitled to whatever reaction she wants to have, if that’s ruining other people’s lives, so be it.  No one can be happy if she’s not. 

[wits-writing]

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 3 Ep 7: “Getting Over Jeff” review

[My other Crazy Ex-Girlfriend reviews here]

While Rebecca starts learning to go outside of her comfort zone, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend gives the main spotlight to Paula when she returns home to Buffalo, NY and runs into her high school boyfriend. Back in West Covina, Darryl and White Josh come to terms with the impasse their relationship is at. “Getting Over Jeff” is an overall lighter episode than the last few of this season have offered, which is welcome after how heavy the season has gotten.

[Full review under the cut]

Paula spends this episode reflecting on her role as a supporting player in other people’s lives. She spends all her time as a wife, mother, paralegal, law student or helping Rebecca. Once she feels she doesn’t need to be by Rebecca’s side constantly, she tries to reenter her family life and finds that Scott and her sons have developed a routine that phases her out. Scott says that even if she’s done needing to be there for Rebecca, she’ll eventually finding something else to take up her time, it won’t be her family and he gets that. With that in mind, she ends up going to Buffalo to look after her father with Rebecca in tow.

As soon as she gets there her dad sends her out to buy him more vodka. While she’s at the store she ends up coming across “her Josh Chan”, her high school boyfriend Jeff. When a store clerk asks what he means to her, she ends up expressing it in a musical homage to ABBA called “First Penis I Saw.” The song is a joyful number about Paula’s earliest sexual experience and how life changing it felt. The grocery store around her transforms into a space where all the products are cardboard cutouts with “Jeff” on the labels with the notable exception of a sign saying, “Suggestive Vegetables 50% Off.” She and her backup performers, the store clerk and a random older woman, end up singing into those suggestive vegetables and sneaking around the store to look at Jeff as Paula reminisces about the first time she saw his penis and what she did after. (“I didn’t know what to do next. I didn’t have that part planned. He said, “Let me show you some basic moves.” And then he took my hand!”) It’s a hilariously catchy number and performance to get across why Paula hasn’t been able to stop thinking about Jeff since he broke up with her “in the parking lot after we saw Fried Green Tomatoes.”

After Jeff and her start talking at the store, he starts telling her how he never met anyone as interested in cars as her and that he’s restoring an old Camaro. With Rebecca hitting it off so well with her dad, she decides to take Jeff up on his offer and goes to his garage. Seeing her be flirty with the one guy she never got over has Paula acting relaxed and happy in a way we don’t get very often for her character. She does end up playing support to everyone else in her life most of the time. Her indulging the past a little is nice for her and put into further contrast with how she usually is when Rebecca describes her as “everyone’s big spoon.” It’s after working with Jeff on the car for a couple nights and they start dancing that Jeff starts to go in for a kiss. She turns him down and realizes that’s all she wanted out of him, to know that they have similar regrets. With that sense of closure, she’s able to return to her old life without it feeling like a consolation prize.

Rebecca starts the episode three weeks into her therapy treatments. She’s putting a lot of herself into the literal textbook work of getting better, which goes along with her tendency towards overachieving. Dr. Shen tells her that putting so much of herself into the work of her therapy, trying to be an A-student, isn’t what she needs to do to get better. He tells her to get comfortable living at a “C+”, stop being hard on herself and start taking steps back into her life outside of the “therapy bubble.” When Paula tells her about the trip to Buffalo, she jumps on that as a chance to get out and do something adventurous. Before she leaves, she talks with Nathaniel briefly about their feelings for each other and says she wants to be with him but doesn’t know if the therapy books would allow it (an interesting parallel with Greg’s hesitation to go to Emory last season while he’s in AA.)

When she gets to Buffalo, she ends up hitting it off with Paula’s dad, Bob played by Eddie Pepitone. Hanging out with him turns out to be exactly what she needed to get out of her comfort zone as she finds his surly nature charming. She drinks shots and watches conservative news with him, even laughs at his wildly tone-deaf sense of humor at several points. After a day of hanging out with Bob, she gets a late-night text from Nathaniel that she ends up turning into a sexting session. While she still has her moments of self-doubt over doing all these things, Bob tells her to just live those moments out having fun. That someone so unlike Rebecca turns out to be exactly who she needed in her life at this moment is hilariously perfect. She ends up expressing her feelings about this in a Shirley Temple style number called “My Friend’s Dad.” It’s a giddy expression of how much she doesn’t have to worry about how Bob acts since she’s not related to him.

Back in West Covina, Darryl is confronted by his daughter, Madison, about how he hasn’t been able to break up with White Josh since they realized they’ll never be able to agree on having a baby together. This episode does end up marking the end of their relationship as Madison ends up putting them in a situation where they have no choice but to talk about how they can’t move forward with such a big thing they disagree on. Seeing these two break up, especially with what it’s meant for the show since they got together, isn’t easy but it will all come down to how the show follows up on it with both characters.

(It’s also weird how two completely different CW shows, this and Supergirl, had their respective queer couples break up over the exact same issue.)

Josh Chan is dealing with his own path forward and feeling lost, especially since he’s on indefinite suspension from his job since Rebecca framed him for stealing. He’s offered a bartending job at Homebase and ends up taking it as his chance to be a “big boy.” Him trying to make the job “cooler” by doing bar tricks he learned from YouTube tutorials is hilarious to watch as he seems so sure of himself doing all of it. He gets a wakeup call about how this doesn’t improve anything for him when he ends up getting a staff infection by popping a pimple after handling dirty dishes. The puss from the infected area of his face popping out is a variety of gross-out humor that I don’t find entertaining, so that being the punchline his story this episode built to is a little disappointing. But by the end of this he seems ready to try to be more mature.

“Getting Over Jeff” ends up being a wider view into how the characters on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend can function outside of anything with Rebecca old stories concerning Josh, right down to the title. There’s other good bits I haven’t mentioned yet; like Paula’s final talk at the end of the episode with Scott about how she wants to be with her family more in the future, Rebecca telling Paula she doesn’t need to be her big spoon (because same-size spoons fit best together) and Rebecca finally being ready to have sex with Nathaniel again. The episode ends on Rebecca recapping what her weekend was like with Dr. Shen and saying that just being human without needing to be the absolute best or worst feels good. It’s a great note of progress for her and we’ll see how she continues this path when the show returns in the new year with “Nathaniel Needs My Help.”

[jbharrisauthor]

Timing Is Anything (Episode 1 - Chapter Ten)

Read Chapter One here

Read Chapter Two here

Read Chapter Three here

Read Chapter Four here

Read Chapter Five here

Read Chapter Six here

Read Chapter Seven here

Read Chapter Eight here

Read Chapter Nine here

Ianto smoothed his hands down the fresh suit he’d found in amongst the endless racks of The Doctor’s clothes. It was a nice suit; navy blue with lighter pinstripes. He’d found a light blue shirt and dark maroon tie to go with it, and had to say, he was very happy with the result. Felt much more like himself. He didn’t think the Doctor would mind him borrowing the outfit, but maybe he should have asked first, just to be polite.

When he’d picked up the clothes he’d been wearing earlier today, a strange kind of repulsion had flowed through him. He’d died in those clothes, and he couldn’t bring himself to put them back on, not when he was going to see Jack and get his second chance. Or was it a third chance? Actually, it was probably more like four or five chances by now. For both of them. But that was the mystery and magnetism of what kept drawing them back together. Perhaps it was naive or cliché to say, but it just felt like they were meant to be. No matter what happened, in spite of and because of death, they always found a way.

A sharp pain spike through his head for a split second, leaving him blinking. There’d been a dull ache in his forehead since he’d woken up on that table, but that momentary pain had been intense. He shook his head to dispel the last of it. After all he’d been through in the last day, he was probably lucky a slightly aching head was the worst of his troubles.

And he was thanking his lucky stars that The Doctor had managed to stop that apparatus before it’d managed to do whatever it was designed to do to his skull. Obviously the first part of the procedure had involved rendering him unconscious and scrambling his memory, because everything from when he’d been in that room was just a blur in his mind. There had been someone else in there with him. The only reason he knew was from a strong sense of residual anger. Like whoever it was had really pissed him off before knocking him out.

None of it really mattered now, though. The Doctor would eventually catch up with whoever it was after she’d dropped him back on Earth with Jack and Gwen. And maybe, if they were really lucky, she’d stick around long enough to help them sort out the problem of those 456 aliens who wanted to take ten percent of the world’s children.

He returned to the control room just as the TARDIS made a whooshing-wheezing noise and then powered down.

“I hope you don’t mind,” he called as he stepped out. “I took the liberty of borrowing some clothes.”

She turned with a smile, but it seemed a little forced. “No, I don’t mind at all. Looking very sharp.”

“Thank you.” He joined her next to the console. “Have we arrived then?”

She crossed her arms, staring up at him, a definite hint of apprehension edging into her expression. “We’ve arrived on Earth, yes. But there are some things we need to talk about first.”

Why didn’t he like the sound of that?

“What things?”

“Things like how time is tricky.” She was clearly hedging. He definitely didn’t like it.

“Right, but you told me it was simple, that you could take me back to five minutes after we left. In 2009.” His voice had gotten tight and he swallowed, trying not to jump to all the worst conclusions about where this was heading.

“I did, but if we’re being honest, I would have said almost anything to get you to come with me.”

“What are you trying to tell me?”

She straightened, shifting to stand directly in front of him. “You were meant to die that day, Ianto. You did die.”

“No, I didn’t. You saved me and I’m standing right here. So, what’s the problem?” His pulse had picked up speed, a low swell of panic rising. Had something happened to Jack? To Earth? Was there nothing to go back to?

“The problem is, before I couldn’t see it. I didn’t know the Timeless were involved, out there hiding in the far reaches beyond the edges of the universe, biding their time. But now I can see it. I can see their hand in so many things.”

“What has this got to do with me dying?”

“Your death happened. An entire timeline unfolded without you in it. Jack kept going, just like you knew he would, but he never forgot you. Not until his last breath.”

“So he does eventually die then?” The thought of something he’d come to believe was so impossible sent a physical wave of pain through him, making his breath catch.

The Doctor held up a finger. “Shh. Forget I said that. Spoilers.”

“Spoilers? What does that mean?”

“It’s a thing. Never mind. What I’m trying to tell you, Ianto, is that by saving you that day, I altered things. But when I checked just now to bring you back, nothing had changed.”

He shook his head. “Now you’ve lost me. Time travel is the one thing I’ve managed to avoid at Torchwood.”

She grabbed the console screen and brought up a quick diagram with some lines on it to demonstrate. “By saving you and then returning you a few minutes later, you should have gone on to impact the timeline, albeit in small ways, in the years following. But there’s not the smallest deviation to suggest that happened. Not until a few years later.”

“Which means…?”

“You’re not supposed to return to 2009. You need to stay dead. But I’m fairly sure I’ve found where I need to slot you back into Jack’s timeline. However, I have to warn you, he won’t be the same man you left that day the 456 aliens killed you.”

“How many years?” he asked through a tight jaw. His heart was pounding, disbelief surging through him.

“Around nine.”

“Nine years?” He snatched in a sharp breath. “You want to take me back nine years after the 456 killed me?”

“Ianto, we’re already here. In Cardiff 2018. This is where and when you meet Jack again. The new Cardiff.”

“New Cardiff? What does that mean?” he said distractedly, mind reeling.

“Well, there was an incident with some aliens called the Sorvix. A lot has happened in the last nine years.”

He gave an almost hysterical laugh. “You think?”

“Well, yes, that was probably an understatement of sorts.”

He dragged both his hands over his face. “Oh God. I can’t believe this is happening. You said you could take me right back. What the hell am I supposed to do now? Just walk in and say hi Jack, sorry you thought I was dead for the past nine years, but I just popped off half a century into the future with The Doctor for a bit of shenanigans. Who, by the way, is now a woman. That’s going to go down smashing.”

She caught his shoulders. “Sass, Ianto. You’re spiralling.”

“Sorry, I’m sorry.” He gulped in a long breath, trying to calm his racing thoughts.

“I should be the one saying sorry. Before I knew what we were dealing with, I thought this was going to be simple. But it’s not, it’s really not. It’s so far from simple, I barely know where to begin.”

He exhaled, forcing the last of the shock away. This wasn’t The Doctor’s doing. It was them, the Timeless. And if The Doctor was going to find a way to beat them, then she needed all the help she could get. She needed Captain Jack Harkness.

“We could begin by stepping out those doors and seeing what we find in 2018 Cardiff.”

He held out his arm for her, and she folded her hand into the crook of his elbow with a relieved smile.

“Brilliant idea, Mr Jones.”

They proceeded along the walkway, his heart picking up speed with each step closer to the TARDIS doors. Somewhere out there was Jack. And apparently, they had nine years’ worth of catching up to do. A smile spread over his lips. He could only begin to imagine what that would entail.

(Author note: This is the end of episode 1. The first chapter of ep 2 should be coming later this week. Always, But Not Forever (Episode 2) - Ianto Jones died a day ago in 2009. Except he kind of didn't. Saved by The doctor, he's been five hundred years in the future and now returned to Cardiff 2018. Nine years have passed, Torchwood has persisted, but Jack and Gwen have moved on. Can Ianto step back into his old life, or will he find there's no longer a place for him?)