#skipping the first episode though it’s hard to get into the pilot

[devilsskettle]

okay i’m gonna try to watch bates motel again, i think i can finally appreciate how fucked up the family dynamic is in this show

[manwiththemagic]

spn s1 ep1 "pilot"

REWATCH TIMEEEE!!! I literally just finished the show but uh, I'm so hype I'm just going straight back in :9

So uhhhh, random things from me while I watch the episode because I'm bored, and stuck at my dads place 😔

Also whenever I'm mean to Dean and Sam ITS WITH LOVE!! not John though. Glad that MF is dead.

Crazy how John See's the blood next to Sam and doesn't immediately check for wounds.., or when the blood drops on him his neck doesn't immediately snap towards the ceiling. I get he doesn't know shit about the supernatural but like c'mon man.. (I'm allowed to be mean, it's John freaking Winchester. I hate him)

Love the picture on Sam's dresser being of his parents. I know it's mostly cinematography in like showing that this is Sam, but likeeeee idk. It's funny that deans all like "you abandoned us.(Me. IDC about you leaving dad, you left me. What the freak man!?)" But like, clearly Sam still loves them all?? Idk

AAAAAA HALLOWEEN MENTIONED!! crazy how for most of the show it's assumed he doesn't like Halloween because he hunts monsters, but no, it's because he threw up on some girl in 6th grade at a party😭

Deans first shown crime, breaking and entering.

Why didn't he just knock😭 it wouldn't have made a difference??? 💀💀

FIGHT‼️ FIGHT‼️

God they looked like such babies back thennnnnnnnuuuuhhhhh!!!

Dean already being kinda shady.

no seriously they look like babies..

“𝑖 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑚𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑠😏” okay lil bro chill out. That's your brothers girlfriend..

I forgot how pervy early seasons Dean was LMAO it's not funny..

Funny how Sam's all like "ermm.. no why would I leave with you in the middle of the night??" And tbh he is valid for that. It's probably wayyy to soon of their dad being missing for it to be Sam's problem, but Dean? Lil bro doesn't careeeeeee. I think he just was super anxious and like, we already know how co-dependent the lil shits are. Bro didn't wanna be alone.

“do you think mom would have wanted us to be raised this way?” OH YOU HAVE NOOOOO IDEA LIL BRO..

Also it's funny (after seeing s15) that he is getting kinda what he thought was an dramatic anxiety of his of Sam saying "no dude wtf?". Like Dean waited hours stalking Sam out because he was to scared to talk to him, and like... real? But he thought Sam would be more "I hate you KYS" when Sam in reality is just "let me live my life." and both are equally as bad to dean💀💀

“ "I can't do this alone." "Yea you can." "Well.. I don't want to." ”EXHIBIT A. him saying this after being mad at Sam like "YOU ran away" like bro.. your acting mad crazy girlfriend rn. Pushing and pulling. "I hate you sm you bitch GAHD. anyways... (*Twirls hair*) I missed you... Run away with me??" LIKE BRO.

Crazy how it's always said that Sam has the puppy dog eyes but like... Dean is literally puppy dog eyeing Sam to come back. And Sam falls for it.. dumbass.

Dean lil smirk when Sam asks a question. “Just like riding a bike, isn't it Sammy?” Dawg maybe use a better metaphor. When did you guys have time to ride bikes?? Also that reminds me of that one ep with Gabriel aka the trickster who put them in a sitcom. With the two seater bike? Anyways...

Dean back at his guilt tripping and gaslighting!! You go queen!! “You know.. I've never bothered you in almost two years..” right.... Cause that's so hard. (It definitely was. Lil bro is super clingy in early s1)

The way he immediately tells Sam to skip the interview. He basically says "Interview?? Uh? Who cares about a job?? We're about to go work a job?? Sure it doesn't pay, and it's dangerous, and you hate it—" like bro😭

Dead cheater with a squeaky ahh car.

Dean Winchester crime number 2, credit card scams, and pride him them. (Literally not shocked people peg him for a criminal mastermind. He legit is..)

sams first "it's Sam. Not Sammy" time!! I forgot he used to do that. Cause in the late seasons, like bro just gave up. Like Lucifer calls him Sammy, GOD calls him Sammy, but not as much. Mostly because he isn't *as* mocking as Lucy boy.

God do I love baby. First time watching it i didn't care about the car. My thoughts were "damn. Cool ass car. Anyways—" BUT NO. baby is so much more than that.

Deans third crime, impersonating an officer.

Ahh good ol fake id's. Sam looks SOOOOO anxious about it.. lil baby's first time lying 😔 LMAO JK but it probably is one of his first times doing this as an adult. Like he ran off at 18, Dean has 8 years of adult-lying-experience. Sam has none

AHH ONE OF MY FAVORITE LINES!! “you're awfully young to be federal Marshalls.” “why thanks, that's awfully kind of ya!” I loved deans lil accent ☹️. ESPECIALLY LATER ON IN JAIL OR WTV. “you son of a bitch, we don' swing that way!” I LOVE HIM.

my sons chat.

Why do the police believe them?? They pull up in the funkiest of outfits, baby faces, the most FAKE id's ever and people are just like. "Ahh yes... Marshalls!!" LIKE NO??

sassy Dean!! “well that's just the type of crap police work I'd expect out of you guys.” LIKE BRO.. I don't like the cops either but damn 😭

Sam's lil foot stomp💀💀

DEANS SMACK..

“why'd you do that??” “why'd you have to stomp on my foot? 😡” “why'd you have to talk to police that way??” LMAOOO also Dean def wanted to look cool Infront of sam. "Sam look how much of a cool bad boy I am😎" bc like Sam def thought teen "bad boy" Dean was superrrr cool, but like Dean doesn't know how to make Sam look up to him again 🦹

Seriously guys?? You? This random dead guys UNCLES?? YOU LOOK THE SAME AGE AS HIM. also Dean if your trying to pass your baby face brother as an adult man, maybe don't call him Sammy to the people your trying to convince??

AHH MORE IN SYNC TALKING!!! I love it when they do that.

Dean is so CLINGY. "heard she got murdered or smth idk. And they say she kills others blah blah blah case stuff—" and Dean just stares at Sam like "you hearing this?" OF COURSE HE IS. dawg he's right next to you chill out 😭

Gosh Dean is SUCH a meddler. He's bugging Sam talkin about "you think your gonna become a lawyer? Marry your girl" and Sam's obviously like "yes?? Duh" then Dean gets MAD like bro😭 bro is so mad Sam has a life, and I remember that from the future ep with Sam collage friends and the shifter. Dean just refuses to see Sam as an adult, and just drags him everywhere😭

Deans the definition of those like boy moms, but with sam. "Hiya sammy!! Is this your girlfriend..? She's uh.. awful and I hate her. HAH. demon bitch!!" like in s4/5 with ruby, he's not mad Sam is with a demon, he's mad Sam is "abandoning him" bc he has abandonment issues. Also he infantalizes Sam sm bc like he raised Sam, he still has the little kid Sammy version of Sam stuck in his head. And that's why he continues to lie to Sam for 15 FUCKING SEASONS. anyways..

Deans 10 baginllionth crime, breaking and entering (into his dad's abandoned motel room)

SO MANY ICONIC LINES!!! “no chick flick moments.” “pff. Alright, jerk.” “bitch.” I LOVE THEM.

finally daytime.. I mean don't get me wrong, I LOVE the dark grimey aesthetic of the early seasons but woooff finally I can see. Also I miss baby Sam's haircut. Like it was fire?? ALSO THE LEATHER JACKET?? YIPPE!! and the samulet!! Gosh I missed it.

Sam calling Jess!!! AUSGHSBS

Deans first time getting arrested in the series!! Crazy how it goes from this to being in worse than federal prison (a place that "legally/technically/on the books" doesn't exist) because of a assassination attempt on the president..

“fake U.S. Marshall, Fake credit cards. You got anything that real?” “uhh yeah. My boobs. :)” HES SO SASSY!!! I miss happy(ish) Dean!!

The police have such valid reason to question dean. Like bro strolls into town, fake id's, digging around, then you find him staying in a room with 10 missing persons all over, a bunch of "satanic mumbo jumbo" as the cop says it, and a level of sass so high a heroin junkie would O.D.

Dean (rightfully) pulling the "how is it me? The first guy went missing when I was 3, pal." And cops like "erm. I know your working with that old guy."

AH THE JOURNAL!! they treated that shit like it was the Bible in early seasons. Kinda fun. Also I bet this is where the cult idea started.. like in the FBI eps where everyone's like "yeah we know your dad was crazy, boy. That's why you—"

And honestly? I LIVE FOR THE FBI PLOT LINES!!

“so you had a happy marriage?” “.... definitely” OKAY BRO... RIGHTTTTT YEAH TOTALLY. lying lil bitch.

sam was really just yapping about the supernatural to anyone in early seasons... Like bro you ain't gotta tell this random man about women in white lore😭 same thing in the wendigo ep

Also Sam's puppy dog eyes!! “you tell me..🥺” (which reminds me of late season when chuck takes away their main character luck and Sam is like ‘so tell me, please🥺’ and the people are like 'puppy dog eyes? Are you fr? Does that always work for you?' LMAOO. But also I don't think Sam is realizing he's doing it. I think he just really had that kicked puppy look.)

Dean crimes yet again, breaking out of holding. Also “fake 911 call? Pretty illegal Sammy! :)” LIKE YOU CAN TALK. LMAOO I love how sassy he was.

fucking John and his dumbass orders with coordinates. Why was he even sending Sam in this goose chase? Why not just act like everything's normal to dean? He won't know what your doing, and Sam would still be in school.

oh great the fucking women in white. I HATE THAT BITCH!! I HATE THAT FUCKING BITCH!!/ref.

First time of many where Sam gets assaulted. no because why do the writers always have Sam get sexually assaulted.. ITS THE FIRST EP BRO.. and like later it happens with so many others, and demons, and old women, and LUCIFER. God he was the WORST.

Ghost? GONE!! who ya gonna call?

“you found her weak spot, nic work Sammy!” he's so proud of him omg. If it was late seasons Dean, and early seasons Sam you know Dean would be the type of dad ("big brother" stfu. Dad.) who would take cheesey selfies with an unwilling Sam, and post them on Facebook (bc old) and go "look at my sammy!! First hunt back and he's already killin'!! #proud" OR WTV

“wish I could say the same for you. What'd you think shooting Casper in the face, you freak?” LMAOOO

Deans so disappointed that Sam wants to go home LMAO. like yeah he told you from the start lil bro, but I can't blame you. 🤷

Dean is trying EVERYTHING to get Sam to stick around omg 😭 he's like a desperate ex, or a divorced dad trying to win his sons favor. “we made one hell of a team back there..” Jesus Christ Dean, pick yourself up dude. It's kinda sad😭

NOOOO JESSS!!! breaks my heart everytime.. she haunts the narrative :(.

Dean immediately busy in.. was he just waiting around? Like stop stalking your little brother man 😭 anyways glad he was there!! Saved Sam from burning up bc of Jess..

Gosh thats.. :(

Iconic trunk slam!! They use that shot a couple times in the end seasons to show how much time has passed. AND IT EATS EVERY TIME HEYOO!!

“we got work to do.” GAHHHHDD!! chills!! Literal chills! I love this show! :}

[duhragonball]

Neon Genesis Evangelion 12

I'm old enough to remember when 2000 A.D. was kind of a big deal, and now it's just whatever 1976 was to people who lived in 2000 A.D.

Gosh, this takes me back. Remember back in 2000, when everything was mustard-toned for some reason? Triple H and the Rock kept trading the WWF title back and forth, and Antarctica was on fire?

We got a glimpse of Misato's past in that flashback, but in the present, she's been promoted to Major. Shinji and Asuka didn't even notice, but Big Rigg Mahoney caught on right away, because he's an expert on rank insignia and such. Suzuhara knows too, but come on, we all know he learned it from Big Rigg Mahoney.

The Eva pilots do some sort of "stress test" thing at the base. I'm not sure what this is for, but Shinji shows great improvement so he gets a gold star for it. He's uncomfortable being praised, though.

Later, the kids throw a little party to celebrate Misato's promotion. Oh, I didn't notice the sash she's got on, that's adorable!

Naturally, Big Rigg Mahoney organized this whole shindig, and the writers honor him by using his full name for the first time since Episode 4. It's too late, though. He's been Big Rigg Mahoney for too long now, and he won't go back.

Speaking of guys I had to rename because I don't dare look up what they're actually called, I think Vice Commander Clownshoes needs a cooler rank. "Admiral Clownshoes" has a nice ring to it.

The others make a lot of loud screeching noises, and Shinji and Misato have this quiet conversation in the middle of it, which seems kind of impossible, with the noise, but okay. They both don't handle praise very well, and Shinji asks why she joined NERV, and she dodges the question.

At the moment, Major Katsugari is in charge of NERV, because Geno Ikari and Admiral Clownshoes are on some expedition to Antarctica, or what's left of it. We never find out why they're there, so I'm just gonna skip over this.

No, wait. Imagine a "Steamed Hams" bit featuring these two. Clownshoes feeds him Krustyburgers and Gendo just clasps his hands over his beard and stares enigmatically.

Oh, this is the dumbest looking one yet. I thought the Angel from Episode 1 looked kind of weak, but I didn't mind because I assumed they would get cooler looking as the show went on. Now I'm starting to wonder if that guy was my favorite the whole time.

This Angel just floats in low orbit over the Earth and drops pieces of itself. The telemetry indicates that it's just practicing, improving its aim, but Misato figures it'll eventually launch an attack on NERV headquarters. Ritsuko further speculates that it'll drop its entire body when that happens, which would cause tremendous devastation. They seem very chipper about this.

So the Angel's attack strategy is.... falling. Really hard, I guess. Misato's counterplay is... catch the Angel before it hits.

Let me back up. A while back, it was established that Angels have an "AT Field" which protects them from conventional weapons. The Evas can neutralize this advantage, and this is apparently because the Evas possess their own AT Fields. I'm not sure if the fields cancel each other out, or if the Evas can use their fields to penetrate the fields of their enemies. Anyway, I think this Angel isn't just falling from a great height; it's also using its AT field to make a bigger impact when it hits. Likewise, Misato's plan seems to depend on the Evas' AT fields being powerful enough to halt the angel just before it hits the ground.

But this is still an objectively stupid plan. The calculations say it only has a 1-in-10,000 chance of working. Even the pilot kids can tell how stupid it is. Misato has already ordered the evacuation of Tokyo-3 and all non-essential NERV personnel. The kids still agree to do it, but they don't expect it to work. Misato offers to take them all out for a steak dinner if they win. You know, if the four of them all came out of this episode wearing Ribera jackets, that would be fuckin' awesome.

I'm not gonna photoshop it, but just imagine them all showing up for work the next day rocking these bad boys. Wait, the Ribera steakhouse is in Tokyo, so I guess it got destroyed in the wars that followed the Second Impact. Well so much for that.

Asuka doesn't plan to write a will because she doesn't expect to die. Rei also has no use for a will, but it's spookier when she says it, like she doesn't need a will because she cannot be killed in any way that matters. Shinji doesn't need to write a will because I'm pretty sure the only thing he owns is that stupid shirt of his, and the tape player that he's probably worn out replaying the same two songs over and over.

Also, Rei pre-emptively refuses the steak dinner. Not because she's afraid of failure, or because she is confident in her success. She just doesn't care for meat. Bad. Ass.

So they start getting ready for this, and Misato basically tells her crew that she has no idea what she's doing, and most of this plan is pure guesswork. It only works if the Evas manage to get under the Angel as it comes down, and they have no idea if it's even going to crash on them. She's just pretty sure it will, and she even trots out that "woman's intuition" line, which is one of the hackiest things in the hack playbook.

On their way to deploy, Shinji asks Asuka why she pilots the Eva, and you might want to sit down for this: She does it for the attention. Just the mere fact that people will acknowledge her existence, as if anyone could ignore this kid. She asks Shinji why he pilots the Eva, and he doesn't know. This is episode twelve, by the way. We'll get our answer today, but let the record show: this is episode twelve.

Then we get a flashback? Flash forward? At some point, Misato finally reveals to Shinji why she joined NERV. Her father was a scientist who threw himself into his work, just like Shinji's dad. Misato resented him for it, but when Second Impact happened, he sacrificed himself to save her, and she's felt a burning desire to defeat the Angels ever since. It's not just to avenge her father, but perhaps to spite him. Shinji can sort of relate to this.

Back to the mission, the Angel has begun to descend, so the Evas have to hustle those buns before McDonalds switches from the breakfast menu to the lunch menu. "McDonalds had all-day breakfast in 2015", you may say. Yare yare daze. In this world, where the Angels have destroyed half the world's population, the visionaries who made all-day breakfast possible no longer exist. The funding and logistical support for such an initiative has been siphoned away to fund the NERV agency. And so, manga man, the breakfast menu will end at 11:00am.

Anyway, yeah, Shinji gets under the Angel and catches it, then the girls swoop in to add their AT fields to his, and then Asuka stabs it in the eyeball to kill it.

I guess this makes sense.

With that settled, Misato receives a call from Gendo Ikari in the Antarctic. He congratulates her on her success, and handwaves the damage done to Eva Unit 01, since destroying Angels is their purpose. He then asks to speak with the pilot of Unit 01 and tells Shinji, directly, that he did a good job. Wow. I just assumed this would never happen, or maybe Gendo would say half of this with his dying breath in the final episode or something. But no, they just gave this away in Episode 12. Huh.

Later, the kids take up Misato on her steak dinner promise, but they choose a ramen stand instead, because they know she's poor as fuck. Also, Rei doesn't like meat, so this just makes sense. They should have gone to Taquiera Goku. This is so close, but yet so far.

Anyway, while they eat, Shinji tells Misato that he finally knows why he pilots the Eva. It's so he can hear the praise from his father, like he did today. That's what keeps him going, even if it took this long for him to get it.

Well, we're inching a little closer, I guess. This will probably all come together quickly, so let me use this space to throw out a few theories I've had in mind.

The Eva pilots have to be 14-year-olds for some reason. I can see no good reason for this, except that there must be some quality in them that literally did not exist prior to Second Impact. Either they got magic powers from it, or they've been genetically engineered to pilot Evas, or some other thing, but it's got to be some deal where the pilots were "invented" around the same time as the Evas themselves. NERV doesn't want to use fourteen year-olds, but there literally isn't anyone older who would be compatible, and they simply can't wait any longer for them to grow up.

I suspect that the Evas are Angels themselves, or some sort of technology built from Angel corpses, or something like that. That's why they have AT fields, and why no one else has any idea how to recreate the technology.

I also get a strong I Am Legend vibe from this whole story. I only saw the Will Smith movie, but as I understand it, the book follows a similar track, where this lone human is trying to get rid of the vampires, only to discover that the vampires see him as the monster, since he's this lone enemy who constantly tries to destroy their community. He's their legend now, just as Count Dracula was the legend in his culture once.

The Angels keep attacking NERV, getting bolder and smarter each time, and no one knows or cares why this keeps happening, because they're too worried about defending themselves. But it sure feels like the Angels are trying to defend themselves, since NERV is committed to their destruction. And if I'm right, it sure seems like Gendo Ikari is doing some shady shit involving Angels, which might make him seem like a major threat to the Angels. They're trying to destroy humanity before humanity destroys them. Second Impact itself may have been caused by Angels trying to stop Ikari or Misato's dad from hurting them.

So I predict this will get revealed near the end. The Angel attacks will get more intense and brutal, and then the kids will find out that they've been the baddies all along, and shit will hit the fan. Don't tell me if I'm right or not, but that's how things are looking to me right now.

[mdhwrites]

Arcane Episode 1 Review: A Playground Indeed

I have a LOT to talk about with this because Arcane is an amazing beast even in just its first episode so I’m splitting it up into parts so if you want to skip something, look for the bold text.

1. A Distinction to Be Made (Preamble in how I see this show)

2. Welcome to The Playground (Overall impression and tone)

3. A Crew to Run With (Side Characters)

4. Our Champions (Main Characters)

5. The Personality of Animation

A Distinction to Be Made

So I often worry with shows I’ve heard literally nothing bad that the hype is going to get to me. I’ll be primed to be harsh on it because my brain is hoping to see what other people see in it. It’s just a problem with my brain.

This was not one of those times because this series is already living up to its reputation... Though I’ll actually be critical first in saying that that’s not surprising. I don’t know if this is commonly true for Netflix series but a lot of people are going to judge this against Saturday Morning cartoons or normal broadcast stuff.

That opening sequence with Vander, Vi and Powder tells you this isn’t the same case. It is a confident choice to start so somber, to build pure atmosphere for the sort of hell that used to be this place to contrast it later against the struggling but surviving Lanes that we see later. It’s also one you’d NEVER get out of pretty much anything for broadcast television and dripping with enough money in five minutes to fund probably an entire episode of something like Amphibia.

It is prestige television like something like the Walking Dead so I’m going to try and not compare it to other things like The Owl House, Danny Phantom, etc. like that. It clearly is meant to be hard serialized, more serious, more impressive, etc. like that. I also don’t say this to knock it but it’s an important distinction versus a lot of its peers... Because it’s animated.

Anyone who comes to Arcane wanting a fun, PG-13 animated show is possibly going to be turned away just like those who hear it’s animated but serious might get turned away too. Luckily for me, I’m here for both sides so this pilot was FUCKING AWESOME.

Welcome to the Playground

Now I did compare it to prestige television but I want to start with the fact that unlike your Game of Thrones or Walking Deads, this first episode’s title lives up to it. This is a blast, in more ways than one. The overall energy, after the dreariness of the beginning, is a mix of excitement, tension and energy which is EXACTLY what it should be for an episode introducing us to young criminals trying to stretch their wings and find their place.

I’m trying to stick to this part being overall impression though so I won’t get into too many specifics. Part of what sells all of this though is the breath through the world of Piltover and the Lanes. The dynamic is nothing new but the episode is happy to really showcase each part’s different wonders as well as their dangers, despite how little time we get in Piltover. It makes the contrasts all the stronger and the threats all the more real.

But it never abandons wonder to wallow. This is what allows it to frankly keep up a positive feeling throughout the first episode. That things will workout, even as set backs and issues come up. This was just one bad job after all. What’s the worst that can happen?

Which I know enough to have had a rock forming in my stomach as the show began making it clearer and clearer that there was never a way for this job to go right. Even without light spoilers though, you can tell. It is curdling the sweet, warm milk that it’s trying to lull you to sleep with. That for as tough as Vi is, as capable her crew and how dominant Vander is over his domain, things are turning.

But the show is wise enough to wait. It has things to introduce after all like:

A Crew to Run With

So I won’t actually get into Vi and Powder yet, despite knowing them to be the main characters. Frankly, I think the fact that I can make this section at all though is a VERY good thing. The fact that this isn’t going to be just one line for these guys is even better.

Vi’s two friends are great. They feel like a play on the big dumb guy and small smart guy but they don’t play it entirely straight. The larger guy isn’t just a fat joke like one might expect or a liability because of his weight. Instead, they acknowledge the fact that vikings had very similar builds so while there’s a small touch of him just obliterating a cupcake, you know he puts in the work to at least mostly work it off. He is also the muscle and strength of the crew, alongside the heart. He appears to probably be about as capable as Vi in a fight but not nearly as ruthless. He frankly doesn’t seem to have the stomach to go quite as hard as Vi, nor the drive needed to be the leader, though the caution to be a great advisor.

The rogue of their party has his charm too. Not as good in a fight but more squirrely and scrappy. He’s also got more skills than the others, things that make him more invaluable and that has gone STRAIGHT to his head. He doesn’t see his fuck ups after all or his weaknesses because he always is justified on the team because he’s the one who can actually work the gadgets they need. He does need one proper kick in the ass to get his head on straight but he’s young and pride and ego are all too common for kids.

Vander might have one of the best introductions I’ve ever seen. “Don’t threaten the one who poors the drinks” is such a great line and honestly, the whole exchange is incredible. He is never actually nice to the traders beyond asking if they need anything but the VA does an incredible job delivering threats and joking barbs in such a way that it takes a while for you to realize just how upset he is with these two. When he says “You’ll get used to it” is when the sweetness drops as he makes it clear that this is how it works. You either leave or... get used to it.

It only gets more interesting though as we see him with the kids and especially Vi. You can see the contrast of the man who lived a life that led to him wearing iron gauntlets and beating an enforcer’s face in and the change required for him to now have a family and run the lanes as its boss. He’s not exactly a criminal lord but he can’t live by our sort of morality. The sort of morality that says one blown up building is enough to start a crusade, but he also can’t be so cutthroat as to sell out his own kind, especially his own kin.

A lot of others get good moments, like us learning Ekko is inventive and smart, or just the incredible impression that the villain leaves in his limited time, but nothing I can say too much of at the moment. I do love the fact that even accidental information does push the villain to show sympathy... But only with veiled sympathy. It’s a good way to show the act he might put up to get people to be loyal to him but also the wheels within wheels that he’s turning so as to be ready for whatever is to come.

Our Champions

Just the one shot of them overlooking the Lanes would tell you that these are your main characters: Powder and Vi. Even if you don’t know they’re Legends, you could tell these two and their relationship is going to be a major part of this, though the theme song does spoil that some too, at least once the timeskip that is to come happens.

The two simply have both too distinct of designs and too much importance to each other while not having any of the death flags someone like Vander might (though to its credit, I actually don’t know if Vander is about to bite it and the show hasn’t been too blunt on if that will or won’t happen.) With that said, anyone who thought Powder was the innocent set up to die... I wouldn’t blame them.

Powder is not bad but she suffers from writing that happens a lot with younger characters. Because she is less skilled and able than the rest, the episode centers a LOOOOT of what’s happening with her around that conflict. Pretty much all of the dialogue with her is about how she has a lot of growing left to do before she’s on par with those older than her. It could get a little tedious but I found it mostly fine but that has to do a lot more with Vi and Powder together than Powder by herself.

Not to say Powder doesn’t do right by herself regardless. Her inventiveness is well documented, her frustrations with those inventions but also her love for them is too. One can easily note that when she talks about them not working, she doesn’t discard them or even stop making them. It implies that she blames herself, not her tools which is VERY dangerous for an inventor that young because it means one of the biggest hurdles to learning is gone already. It effectively guarantees that she’ll only get better because she’s ready to get better.

She contrasts well as a more innocent figure though because while she’s willing to effectively make a grenade, it’s only when push comes to shove. It’s not her first instinct and you could absolutely imagine a different timeline where she grows up in a place less violent and so her gadgets wouldn’t be geared towards violence. It’s also just good to show that it does take time in this world for the innocence in someone to be crushed. That it’s not so cruel and scary so as to make someone like her unable to function.

It does cause a bit of a manic pixie feeling from her but it’s reigned in well by the lack of energy she has. She’s still mostly quiet as someone who doesn’t fight or isn’t ready for danger needs to be ready to hide. Again, she contrasts well with almost every other character we see.

This is especially true with Vi. Vi doesn’t talk a lot without a point. She definitely has gang leader energy to her and not in a bad way. She is working to be like her adopted father someday where she’s ready to run everything. This is both in her gruff attitude and her fists... But also in the kindness she’s learned from Vander.

She has a well of kindness and wisdom that is beyond her years. Frankly, it’s easy to see why the other kids look up to her and it’s not just because she can kick ass. She has a confidence that is infectious so when she says she believes you’re ready, you think it too. She’s also able to connect and make her point clear, whether it be through kindness to her sister or roughness to the dumbass on her team.

She really does save the wallowing that could be with Powder. The fact that the two are genuinely open to each other stops a misunderstanding plot and let it actually lead to a really sweet moment about bad days that just hit so well. But... This isn’t her only side. The other side I connect all too well with as someone who got told he was mature for his age.

An anger. This belief that if you are more mature, so smart and so talented, that you ought to be better. Ought to be somewhere other than where you are. You shouldn’t have to deal with fools or scraps or watch the popular kids get to break the rules that always feel so suffocating to you. That anger is starting to form in Vi and it could easily get out of control.

It actually makes a fun parallel to the angry enforcer who gets in Vander’s face. That man very much so looks at the people here, people he sees as skirting the rules and hurting others, and wants an excuse to do something about it. Meanwhile, Vi sees the topsiders ignoring their plight, feigned ignorance making them as culpable to their problems as if they were punching them in the face themselves and wants to do something about it. Wants to release that anger somehow. She doesn’t have the tools or smarts to do it yet though, which makes her sister’s potential all the scarier.

The Personality of Animation

The last thing I want to touch on is just the fact that the animation for this is SO GOOD. This is absolutely one of those shows where you could turn off the volume and still get much of the point of what’s going on. The expressions are incredible, from the big ticket emotions to subtle acting moments that would be hard for even the best actors to pull off and that is not easy for an animator to replicate. Just body language is incredibly on point though, like how Vi sits when Vander wants to talk. Literally the way she sits just screams “I know what you’re going to say so get it over with” because she doesn’t want this talk and thinks it’s going to be pointless because she’s a dumb tweenager who thinks she’s got the world figured out.

In general, EVERYTHING is dripping with personality like this. No two people do something in quite the same way. There is so much care and attention to detail that you really only get with movie animation nowadays, and not even every movie, even from big studios. Not all of them are paying this much attention. A lot of the personality I got the characters came from design and actions and what you can just read on their face and it’s just really impressive.

The fact that it’s BEAUTIFUL while doing this is just the cherry on top. It’s also more grounded and more adult than most kid’s shows in its writing and animation without losing the fun of animation. Honestly, and I know some might disagree with me on this, I’d love it if people took this as a sign that you don’t have to be boring in order to be more adult when it comes to animation. I see trailers for shows like “Fired on Mars” and sure, it looks like it could be fun... But it also LOOKS boring as hell. Like yep, I sure have seen this sort of stiff adult animation a bunch of times.

The fact that Arcane is so ALIVE with its animation is a just a fucking treat, though part of that is absolutely because Riot has the money to back this thing up. They’re not making these as cash grabs so they’re going to make sure that if everything else fails, the animation doesn’t.

And man... They’ve had well over a decade to refine these characters, regions, world, concepts, etc. and I’m really happy that despite their genre of games not demanding it, they don’t seem to have been sitting on their hands. You can tell this is the sort of project that can only be realized so well by having both confidence and polish that takes just a lot, and I mean a LOOOT of time.

And frankly, I feel a bit bad that I hadn’t given it my own time sooner. Hopefully it keeps ticking on as strongly as this first forty minutes.

===========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[worldcatlas]

VOY: Caretaker (Part 2)

The Star Trek universe is a long road, so to keep things moving along home, I’ve decided to no longer split up 2-part episodes and films. This is the first of three posts that will wrap up Caretaker, Emissary, and ST: The Motion Picture. 

Part two of Voyager’s pilot episode brings new excitement, new troubles, and new characters.

Are all Talaxians this… eccentric?

When we first meet Neelix, he’s scraping out a living as a junk trader, clad in a fur coat that appears to be made up of several different alien mammals, over a confusingly-patchwork shirt (or harness? Or space lederhosen??) with metallic gold accents. It’s an appropriately mottled look for his line of work, although it definitely looks like it smells weird.

Is that me or you, Mr. Vulcan?

However, we don’t get to spend much time with this outfit, as Janeway invites the Talaxian aboard, and Neelix is quick to take advantage of Voyager’s facilities – including the replicator. After asking Tuvok if it will make him a Starfleet uniform (“it most certainly will not”), we beam down to the Ocampan planet below to see that Neelix has chosen a suit made of old bus station upholstery. 

At first, I thought this outfit was both too beige and too chaotic, but the more I look, the more I like it. It actually kind of works with his Talaxian mohawk and spots, and I love that the fabric is just as garish and patchwork-looking as his “junk collector” outfit.. Also, the overwhelming impression of beige may just be due to this planet’s extremely yellow lens filter atmosphere.

The colour palette is “waiting room neutral”.

The structure of the outfit is interesting, too. Chunky piping across the midsection creates some nice, futuristic asymmetry, and I love that it continues down the one sleeve in rings. Neelix goes on to knock it out of the park with a matching teal shirt (you can just see the collar peeking out above) and shoes.

This is a man who knows how to coordinate.

Next, it’s time for another new species in the Delta Quadrant: the Kazon! As we get a wide shot of the group of Kazon Ogla, we can immediately see a lot of cream and ochre tones, cut off sleeves, and a single hairstyle that everybody has to share.

And no girls allowed.

It’s actually an incredible number of unique-but-coordinated costumes. You immediately get the impression that these guys are a rowdy bunch who aren’t afraid to get their asymmetrical skirts dirty proving who has the most testosterone. As well, everybody looks great in warm earth tones.

I guess it’s not hard to shop when every single member of your species is an autumn.

Somebody needs to tell them all the belts and gloves are a bit much though.

We just like to feel secure, okay?

Kes also makes her debut in this scene, but she’s basically wearing a dirty potato sack, so we’ll skip ahead. Like her lover Neelix, she’s quick to accept the Voyager crew’s hospitality, and replicates a new set of duds the moment she’s on board. Interestingly, she opts for a very Kazon colour palette.

Now who’s asymmetrical??

It’s a killer look – layered, colourful, a little bit alien, but also cute. The one-shoulder bodycon tunic is sexy, but the neckline and legs are very modestly covered. Kes is basically Twiggy as a telepathic space elf. As a child watching Star Trek in the 90s, I remember noticing Jennifer Lien’s costumes as Kes more than anything else in the show, and I still aspire to this aesthetic.

I only noticed how gay I was later.

There’s also a lot of variation in textures here, between the crinkled summer cotton and contrasting velveteen, which we’ll soon see is the style of the Ocampa. What? Oh right! Our people are still missing! Back down to the planet we go. 

The underground Ocampa lean toward earth tones – although, would they call them that? – befitting their simple, horticultural lifestyle. Like Kes, their outfits are layered and multi-textured.

The Caretaker provides everything we need. Linen, tweed, corduroy…

Unless you’re a bad guy, in which case you wear grey, unflattering robes and a scarf (poorly).

The Ocampan equivalent of sweats and a gym tee.

We also get a really good look at Chakotay’s Maquis outfit in this scene, which will sadly soon be replaced by a Starfleet uniform for good. It’s a shame, as it looks like someone spent a lot of time working on that leather vest, with its hand-stitched details and tailored fit.

Do you think he brought the holster from home?

Speaking of Maquis drip, B’Elanna has some INSANE boots that we only get to see for a split second as she swings her legs off a bio-bed in sick bay. The whole outfit is absolutely deadly, but I would do anything to see these boots show up in more episodes.

Surely we can make a uniform exception?

With all the loose ends neatly wrapped up, it’s time for the Voyager crew (and new additions) to start the long trek home. But before we can warp away, Neelix and Kes run to tell Janeway something very important – that they’ve replicated more new clothes.

The bridge is basically a common area, right?

Kes sports an olive green tunic with slashed shoulders that allow the poofy sleeves of a shirt underneath to poke through, over jade green leggings and matching heels. It’s another cute look, and even more elfin than before, but I think the red-and-orange outfit was more flattering. Neelix has another matching pants and jacket set made out of the ugliest fabric possible, though with an interesting front closure swooping off to one side. Beneath the jacket is a very handsome red shirt, with a sort of kimono-like layered appearance.

Slow your pace a bit, guys, we’ve got 70,000 lightyears to go.

—

The Costume Designer for this episode was Robert Blackman.  Wardrobe Supervisor: Carol Kunz Key Costumers: Tom Siegel, Camille Argus, Matt Hoffman, Jamie Thomas

[basingstokemercury]

If you're interested in joining the Cartwright clan:

Most of Bonanza's first few seasons have been uploaded to YouTube in various places if you can deal with watermarks, varying audiovisual quality, and opening credits often missing or replaced with fake music.

Tubi has the last thirteen episodes of S1 and first seventeen of S2 - again, varying quality and usually skipped opening credits, but there are subtitles!

Starting from the pilot and going in order is the obvious course, but if you want to start off with the best my favourite two of S1 are Death At Dawn and Blood On The Land.

Why should you watch it? Well.

Adam exists. Adam is hard to describe if you don't know him, but he's brilliant intellectually and psychologically, charming (in a unique way that's... well, also hard to describe, mixing unyielding directness with the ability to fit in high society), uncompromising on his principles, the quintessential oldest brother, brutally honest and an inveterate prankster/tease, just about the perfect character.

The family dynamic. The sibling and parent interactions are absolutely believable and their love shines through throughout. It is, unfortunately, the 1960s, so no hugs and verbal affection is often more subdued than I'd like, but there are arm/shoulder touches in abundance and you get used to it.

Beautiful costuming. Everyone looks so good.

There's a musical episode! Well, not exactly - it's a half-hour audio story in the form of an evening party at the family house where Adam organises a singalong, and the boys are up to something behind their father's back... They all have fine voices, which blend very well.

The plots are consistently pretty good. 32 episodes a season, and as of the first only two I absolutely dislike, though there are definitely some I don't usually revisit. Very dark topics and farces both done well.

Great casting. All four fit their roles well and are talented actors.

So, go ahead and tell me what you think!

Just be careful: those who develop romantic involvements with a Cartwright rarely get happy endings... (I've been doomed since I was ten)

[miminmimikyu]

I really enjoyed watching G-Witch. It was one of the most fun mecha series I've seen in a while! There's a lot I liked about the finale, but I feel like the pacing in this episode made it one of the weaker episodes in G-Witch's run. There definitely was enough in this series for at least one more cour but at the very least this finale would have benefitted from being 2 episodes instead of 1.

I mean of course there definitely was so much to like! I liked seeing the consequences of piloting Calibarn. I liked that people who died in Gundams + Cardo reappeared in the data storm. They're the ones who stopped Eri last week, right? I liked the concept of Suletta creating that rainbow permet field and all the Gundams and QZ disintegrating. I love that Prospera tried one last time to emotionally manipulate Suletta by bringing up her own Permet infection. I loved that callback to episode 1: Miorine diving out into space to save Suletta!!! And that soundless pleading and the headbutt! I love the fact that Suletta and Miorine are married and Suletta is going to build a school on Earth. I'm so happy Eri survived. And I also loved this "sibling meeting":

But. It was so rushed! I'm all for stories not explaining everything and allowing for speculation but a lot of the stuff in this episode, actually the previous two episodes as well, needed more time to build up or breathe or even just explain some stuff. The space laser, the Peil CEOs and Elan Ceres' sudden defection could have all used more build up. Miorine using Shaddiq's plan as inspiration to dissolve the Group was a gutsy move but it all happened so fast! The rainbow data storm was cool but I really would have loved more time for that idea to form + how did Suletta, Eri and a few spare Gundams amplify the data storm all the way out to Lagrange-1 without using QZ? There's a limit to how much you can hand-wave with "Suletta can raise Eri's score". Also, while the 3-years later stuff was nice to see I'm just not a big fan of hard time skips right at the end of the action.

I would have loved to have seen some more time spent with Suletta and Miorine. I mean I knew they weren't going to include any overt romance because they've been avoiding that all series. But it would have been nice to include, idk, maybe Miorine helping Suletta recover or Suletta returning to Mercury with Miorine for a while. It was her dream to open a school there after all, it just feels odd that they never visit there during the whole series.

Though the one thing that doesn't sit right with me is that Nika and Shaddiq ended up in prison while Prospera and Delling didn't. I know G-Witch's whole thing is that the students are cleaning up the messes that the adults left behind and building a brighter future. If those teenagers must suffer the consequences of their actions then so must those two adults, who did far worse things than Nika did. I get Delling is facing hearings, but Prospera? Suletta spent all this time abiding by "Move forward and you gain two / Even if you lose, you will have gained something you wouldn't gain by running". Yet Prospera 's "move forward" turned out to be "choose the future" and not "admit to your crimes, face the consequences". She and Suletta would still have gained that more honest relationship even if Prospera was branded a war criminal and thrown in prison. Suletta wouldn't have abandoned her.

Anyway, I hope this isn't the last series set in the Ad Stella universe. One of the things I really like about this universe is that trade off when piloting with "protecting the body using Gund tech" and "being killed by it" and I wish this will be revisited and explored upon in the future. Can't wait to see more witches and their pilot-devouring Gundams. Though they'll probably have to build some new ones first.

[toastess-with-the-mostess]

Let's Rewind! Toast watches Voltron: Defender of The Universe (1984)

Season 1, Episode 7: The Lion Has New Claws

Did Zarkon's voice change? I feel like it changed

Who the fuck is rowing across the castle's moat when the damn bridge is down They are the ✨drama✨

A look into the teams rooms Only Lance and Keith wake up to the alarm while Pidge is sleeping through it Even cuter, he fell asleep with his glasses on

Hunk decides it's a false alarm that he would fix later in the morning, I think this is our first indication that Hunk knows what he's doing with wires

Goddamn it not her GO OFF PIDGE, PROBABLY SHOULDN'T HAVE HIT HER SO EARLY BUT SHE DESERVES IT LATER

"Well I thought she was the witch" SHE IS ONE YOURE STILL RIGHT PIDGE

It's probably my bias against her, but man is Nanny just annoying sdionv

Allura being a girl boss already, sneaking into blue lion to train herself how to pilot it

IT'S LESS FUNNY WITHOUT THE SOUND BUT I LAUGHED WAY TOO HARD AT THIS EXCHANGE

"Now Pidge, I don't want you flying off the handle-" Keith there's a spear being pointed at the three of you because that decrepit woman doesn't know how to get things done without violence, that is more than enough reason to fly off the handle

CORAN WHY WOULD YOU FUCK THEM OVER LIKE THAT LMAOO THEY MAKE PAPER TUBE SOUNDS WHEN THEY FALL TOO OH MY GOD

Off to save the princess from herself because her babysitter threatened them!

Good for Allura, she learned to land the lion safely She fainted on the dash though

I had to skip through that spanking scene that Nanny put Allura through, especially because the boys were laughing it her while they watched That definitely didn't age well, and I'm sure there's people who didn't like seeing that even when it was first airing

There's a scene with Hunk stretching and his pants falling down?? Like ok I guess it's connected to Nanny telling Pidge he needs to be neater but,,, weird

Kova or Koba? I know later we get another character with the same name which is a big fucking mistake to do in story telling so I gotta be sure on the spelling

Oh so we're watching literal mass murder ok A robeast got to Arus again and is LITERALLY STOMPING ON EVERY BUILDING IT SEES

Not Coran literally tying Allura up I can't say I don't understand where he's coming from, especially because she's the last known living royal but c'mon you could've locked her in her room instead of tying her to a CHAIR

Animation error again, green lion had a red colored torso lol

"Piggy-back attack" what a cute name for an attack, it's just one of the lions using another as a boost to hit the robeast

I forgot to describe the robeast last episode so i'll do both now! The one that totally did not kill Sven was called the Exospike robeast and weighed at 3750 short tons! His weapons were twin forward stab spears, bone blades, fan blasters, and had an organic carbon steel exoskeleton This episode's robeast is called the Blue Fiend, not as creative, and weight 4150 short tons. The weapons are shoulder-harness XEnergy beams, king's crown spikes and horns, robust battle fists, and has dual-layer organic armor

We get a superfast cut of the mice trying to chew Allura free of the ropes and then not even a second later we're back to Keith almost getting torn apart LMAO oh nvm it just keeps going like that, really quick back and forth between Allura's escape and Keith getting manhandled

She's loose and ready to rumble! Not even 5 seconds on site, and she's already forming Voltron, good for her

Looks like we're getting closer to the final preamble before formation

Nanny why would you try to guilt-trip Allura into not flying by mentioning her dead dad, not like it worked but still that's a low blow and the only reason you're alive right now is because of her >:/

The guys are tossing her up while cheering a sweet moment only made weird by the fact that she looks so lifeless while she's being tossed LMAO

Episode end! I'm not looking forward to seeing more of nanny, she's a gross addition But we've got Allura in blue now with a pink uniform! I wonder why they gave her pink in this show, I mean other than her being a Girl™️

[ontaworks]

May Update + Demographic Shift

Hello once again!

My name is Eric, and I have made a further update regarding my independent studio known as Gadeton. Let’s begin shall we?

So first and foremost, What is Gadeton exactly?

Unless you have read the “About” page on my website please skip this if you already know it.

If you can tell by the name of my studio, Gadeton is an independent studio made by me as it is considered to be the evolution of my past independent studios such as Quixolite, Kixubug, you name them all (though I really don’t like mentioning my past independent studios names by the way). As you can tell by the slogan for my independent studio, the slogan is “Retrofuturism of Entertainment”, which implies that one of my illustrations as well for my art style is heavily inspired from the art style in the late 90s to the 2000s. I’ve decided for my independent studio to focus more on quality rather than quantity. Since making too many series would be a time-consuming task to create from comics, to anything that would give me quite some stress.

So I have the opportunity of creating something that I could come up with from one of my experiences through my childhood and others that I could think through my mind. I’ve been drawing a ton of illustrations for a decade and boy it was a wild ride to have me experience this.

I’ve been working hard on one of my projects like Nachinko Buckets for example, in which it is planned to be released once I get the pilot of the script done, so I can start animating the pilot episode of the series.

However, there is something that I need to discuss that's been coming through my mind lately.

I was thinking of shifting the demographic of my independent studio to a more older demographic somewhere that is between the preteens (8-12) and the teens/young adult demographic (13-21). For what I have gather I was originally going to make my independent studio to focus more on the action, but I decided to scrap it in favor of a style that would take some influence from companies like 2Spot Studios for example and a ton of Newgrounds animations as well for the illustrations from the 2000s as well as many DeviantArt artist from the 2000s that have a similar style as well.

As a result of the demographic being shifted to a more slightly older audience, there will be some changes to one of my future projects, and here is a list of everything.

Fierwood and my other future project are merged to form The Renenocks!

That’s right, my project Fierwood as well for my other future project featuring my character such as Monelope, Natochi, etc. are being merged back into The Renenocks. Meaning that I reverted my project back to Renetack. The reason why I made this decision is that I find the two of them to be quite similar to one another and the fact that the other future project set to be release in 2024 or later would not reach its quality and I deemed that this project seems to be too similar to Nachinko Buckets and the fact that demographic of my project did not reach its potential standards than I expected to be. So I decided to give myself the opportunity to merge the two together once again, and bring back three characters Boltrice, Innoton (now renamed Isaac), and Omeliot (now renamed Ollie). But this time, I decided to make it quite different as Isaac is now the main protagonist of my series with Boltrice and Ollie being the secondary protagonist as well. I also plan on rewriting most of the personalities and traits to all three of them, while giving Boltrice and Ollie a few traits from an old project back in 2019 known as Synthetic Charms, the project that the two originated from.

Here are the new designs for Boltrice, Isaac, and Ollie, which can be seen down below.

I’m planning on reposting most of my characters that I drew on social media as well as updating their bios on my DeviantArt page. If you want more information about this project, please contact me on my other social media accounts as well as using my email. Let’s go on to the next change.

Further changes to Nachinko Buckets

As a result of me shifting the demographic to my independent studio, Nachinko Buckets will have some minor changes to the project as listed down below:

An unnamed minor French kid antagonist and Crunch are removed from the series I believe that the unnamed French kid antagonist was deemed to be too similar to Nerdy from A Day with Bowser Jr, and as for Crunch, I just don’t find Crunch to be that interesting to me as he feels like a carbon copy to Lorne from Kid vs. Kat.

Valentina Vinci and Heather Cameron will be moved to the role as voicing additional voices for each of the side or background characters in the show as a result of the removal of a minor French kid antagonist and Crunch.

I’m planning to rewrite some of the character’s personalities since I find some of the characters to be either too cliche, stereotypical, or rather too similar to my characters for one of my future projects.

Most of the surreal nature to the series is removed entirely, but parodies and references are still present though. The reason why the surreal nature is removed from the series is because of the changes that I made to the main location of Nadoville, as it doesn’t have any surreal nature to it anymore, though it still keeps the strange nature to it as many of the rules in the city is still strange akin like Wayside School.

Nanopia has been renamed to Nadoville

I think that’s pretty much it for all of the changes that I made for one of my two projects as a result of the demographic shift. To sum that up, I just wanted to try something new in order for me to achieve the quality that many creators out there that have their passion on their project and I could agree with anyone that do support independent creators throughout the world with animation studios such as Glitch Productions and other independent animators around the world, as well as indie game developers like Matt Makes Games and others that have their passion as well. So I want to focus more on the quality of one of my projects and hope it will be a hit for many audiences around here and knowing that it will reach the quality that I would expect to see for my future projects.

So with that out of the way, I hope you understand my decision to shift the demographic to a slightly older audience while keeping all of my projects safe for work. If you have any further questions please contact me via email or one of my social media accounts.

Anyways, I’ll see you then.

----------------------------------------------

© 2023 Gadeton, All Rights Reserved

[non-operator]

okay... let me start off with "I'm sorry" because I lied and I'm bored, gave H*llavu B*ss a go because my feed is full of it and HH now and I have no impulse control and I also can't leave things unfinished. And HB is free on youtube; I can technically pirate hh but I don't want to be in that much effort for that...

And like, I think it's the same as I feel about that one song from HH. It's not that great, though I guess I can see why people like it? But in a "I don't think you people ever moved past deviant art era plot and art". Which, to be nice, isn't bad by itself but objectively speaking, there is better media and stories out there. All in all, I'm giving it a 2.5/10; I think the best way to summarize HB is that it's a show made for people who were already in love with it before watching it, not a show that tries to win over its audience.

Plot

It is episodic, so I will admit that plot isn't that big of a factor in the series. But I will say that it loses sight of its premise pretty fast. Like, it's advertised and set up as a "wacky hijinks in a found family assassination business", but after the first few episodes or so, it stops showing them doing work/killing people and how they go about that, and focuses more on what happens around or outside of work. For example, ep 6 and 7 just doesn't even show them working and skips straight to the aftermath and what they're going to do after work. The Spring Break episode does show them working, but it glosses over it; IMP is more like a plot device than a premise. Ep 2 straight up has them doing other stuff (aka bodyguarding, something that is explicitly said to be not a service IMP offers). Fuck it, even the Harvest Moon Festival ep is not work-related. For a show that is supposedly centered on IMP and the main cast killing humans on behalf of sinners with a grudge, it doesn't actually interact or play with that concept. And I think it basically drops completely out of focus in Season 2.

And like, I can understand if the show wants to make it more about character dynamics than the business, but the pilot (and ep 1 kind of) promises to explore that *through* IMP work. And that leads into the next big problem with HB

Character

I feel like everyone except Blitzo is underdeveloped, especially the women in the show. We get a lot of insight into Blitzo's motivations and emotional baggage and how he copes with that in unhealthy and asshole-y ways. But literally everyone else is kind of thrown under the bus unless it's relevant to Blitzo. The only character that kind of escapes this treatment (but not wholly) is Moxxie.

But Millie is only defined by how she's Moxxie's wife, and basically nothing else. Loona-- does have some more characterization than Millie, but her biggest-- and basically only-- role in the show is being Blitzo's difficult adopted daughter; her character arc about idk getting more in-touch with her feelings and being more expressive is centered around how she feels about Blitzo. And then the side characters: Octavia and Stella. Octavia is also about being a daughter to her father, and that's kind of it! Even though she's struggling with her parents' (incoming) divorce, she's only shown to be interacting/having an emotional connection with Stolas; Stella is never in the picture. Stella is-- just a major bitch, and that's it. That's all she has to her character.

But Octavia and Stella are side characters, so I can accept them having pretty flat personalities, but Millie and Loona? Those two are part of the main fucking cast. How are they being sidelined this hard??

I think a lot of the show revolves around Blitzo, so if the characters don't matter to him or don't bounce off well with him, they kind of get shafted by the writing. Like Millie. She is just generally so easygoing with Blitzo's antics that there's nothing for Blitzo to really react to there, so she's just essentially a background character.

Speaking of, almost all the characters and relationships are kind of built to parallel Blitzo and Stolitz (we'll get to this ship in a minute). Like, Moxxie is supposed to be a nice foil to Blitzo because they're both afraid of rejection, but they deal with that in opposite ways; Moxxie is polite, professional, no backbone because he doesn't want confrontation lest it lead to rejection whereas Blitzo is crass and a dick about everything so he can push people away before they reject/hurt him. And they both want to be loved, but Moxxie has a healthy relationship with Millie whereas Blitzo has no such thing in his life, so another contrast. And also daddy issues.

This is okay on its own. It makes a compelling dynamic between Blitzo as a boss and friend to Moxxie.

But then they do this for almost every character?? Loona (basically) has daddy issues and can't express herself that well because she's under-socialized and Trauma, Octavia is a daddy's girl and is too emo to communicate her feelings, Stolas has daddy issues and also communication issues, Fizzarolli has daddy issues (when he doesn't need to???)

And then there's the fact that it feels like the other relationships we see are supposed to work as parallels/foils to Stolitz as well? Moxxie and Millie and happy and healthy and committed, unlike Stolitz. Fizz and Asmodeus manage to work around that class disparity/power imbalance because they can communicate with each other, unlike Stoliz. They kind of just function as a "this is what Stolitz could be if they got over themselves and talked"

And generational trauma and the desire to be loved can be a major and shared theme, but there should at least be nuance between each representation of it?? These are literally all the same in that it boils down to "I don't know how to ask for proper intimacy".

Ships

There's only one main ship and it's Stolitz, and... I find it compelling?? But it's just not executed well enough. They just rush through the development, so when the show actually reveals that there's mutual attraction, it just feels like it comes out of nowhere and the audience has to do a lot of the legwork to figure out what the fuck happened from point a to point b.

It's also like, it steals a lot of attention from other aspects of the show. I feel like a lot of Season 2 episodes kind of focuses more on that relationship in favor of other characters who need screen time and development (like Millie)

I could give a really long analysis on Stolitz, but I'm just going to say that the problem kind of just boils down to the show doesn't sell that they actually feel genuine affection for each other. I can see them projecting their own emotional baggage onto the other and using each other, but there's no transition from the transactional relationship they have in the beginning to liking each other as people. In fact, I don't think they even know each other outside of sex and work. Which is bad. Because I can buy them fucking up communicating their wants and thus settling for fucking each other for "professional" reasons, but if the show really wants to sell this ship, there has to be something genuine between them that draws them to each other.

Which is to say, Stolitz is a ship for people who already love and want the ship, not for people who are just There. As in, the show seems to make the assumption that the audience wants this ship to happen and that the ship will happen, so they don't really take the time to establish a solid foundation and growth arc for it. It just feels like big emotional or romantic moments without the actual necessary context to make it work. Which is just a problem for the general show.

Pacing

It's bad. It's so bad. I can understand leaving arcs unresolved for a bit so that there's suspense or whatever, but they keep adding more arcs and problems while leaving unfinished plotlines unfinished. Only to then resolve it super quickly. Like ??????? It's all so cramped and rushed-- but then they sometimes slow it down in the worst way possible in that it just kind of ignores previous developments for a one-off episode or something (like S2 Ep 2 where they just ignore the Stolitz drama for wacky adventure in the human world and Stolas and Blitzo are just acting like nothing wrong happened). (And I Know! I know they showed details in the background that explain that this happens because both of them are ignoring the problem, but even so, they shouldn't be acting so casual with each other; it should be made more clear that they're both still uncomfortable but *acting*) (and something that changes the relationship should be shown to the audience clearly? Not just put in as "blink and you'll miss it" text messages??)

And sometimes this rushed pacing leads to info-dumps or telling, not showing. Like with Stolas' focus episode where we learn his backstory. It's not super bad, but it weakens the impact of big plot moments; we just hear Stolas saying he endured his loveless marriage for his daughter, but we. never really see that...? The times he's with her when she's a child doesn't count because Stella's not a picture in that. The one time we kind of see something related to this statement is when Stella's kind of being loud in the kitchen and he checks in on her sleeping peacefully, but like. That's not really and example of him enduring Stella's temper and insults for Octavia's sake. He hasn't even seen Stella at all before he drops by Octavia's room. The next time is when Stella is throwing an imp at him in the kitchen and Stolas is trying to be... nice? reasonable? But at this point, I think it's clear to Octavia that her parents don't love each other. And even then, we never really see him paying attention to her or expressing concern about what Octavia might think or feel during the fight, or trying to reassure her that this is just a normal spat between married couples afterwards as damage control. We can just take his word for it, but it's just not as powerful. I'd say the same goes for when we learn about Moxxie and his father/traumatic childhood. Would've been great to see how he struggles with that specifically or had more clues to that before we see him completely resolve to stand up to his father.

It just feels like the show itself expects the audience to be completely in love with it, so it doesn't really bother to develop its world or characters until Big Emotional Moments and at that point, it just gives the necessary context to pull it off real fast, so everything just feels so... compact and dense and not very natural. It's not trying to sell itself to a new audience, it's catering to an audience that's been supporting them since the pilot.

[sage-nikolai]

Man.

I'm watching Hazbin Hotel and I have thoughts.

Episode 5 and 6 spoilers, a little

1) i watched the pilot when it came out and it feels good to watch a project unfold, especially watching an indie hit it big.

2) helluva boss has been fun, even with the...er...writing woes. All the songs from HB has been great, or at least fun!

3) Jeremy Jordan has me by the throat right now and when I heard he was playing Lucifer, I had to watch it.

And. Uh.

Man, the show is suffering with the 8 episode season huh?

I can feel it trying so hard to do more than the mandatory "we can't skip this" plot and character beats, but it just doesn't have time for anything else.

No time for us to really get to know the characters (and there is such an influx of them). I feel like I need to do deep dives, find what Vivienne and her team has posted in the past for this show which...sucks. I want to just watch this, not do homework, not watch essayists on YouTube so I can be hand delivered the info im lacking...

I feel like I know the V's better than I know the Hotel...

And the shows story is...suffering from the pace. We go from six months to extermination to one month in five episodes. And we find that out in one line I didn't catch my first watch through.

Everything that happened in episodes 1-5 could've all happened roughly in the same month, imo. We are missing so much time.

Yes, in episode 5, Charlie mentions that the last time she called her dad was five months ago, and that was in the pilot, but... there's just no sense of time in the show. Her saying that flew over my head the first time I watched it. Legitimately, episode 5 feels like it could've happened a few days after 4, and, uh, when does episode 4 take place? Cause, again 1-4 feels like they all could've happened in the same month.

Yes, Charlie is stressed at the start of 5, but?? Eh?? She's been shown to be very emotional?? It didn't read as "we have like four weeks to execute a plan and I've got shit" to me. First watch, I thought she was just...still upset about messing up with Angel and drowning herself in her work, looking for solutions and hitting a wall... but we still time, she's just stressed and sleep deprived, not that we had...less than a month before the angels come back?

But... between 5 and 6, I feel its implied a few weeks pass, maybe? Like...unless Lucifer got Charlie a meeting immediately. Which...it kinda felt like from watching the episodes back-to-back...

There's just no time in-between.

So, the story feels very fast, way too fast. There's no time to breathe.

This show would've benefited from even 12 episodes for the season, or maybe longer episodes?

We need the characters to breathe. We need to feel time pass.

We need goofy side-adventure episodes in this show, where we see shenanigans at the Hotel. We need more of the hotel characters just...living with each other; Angel's slow but steady improvement. Charlie maybe having more ideas for rehab then summer camp activities. More of Vaggie finding who she is.

And, going back, we...we needed more of Carmilla and her daughters? Like, I dont know them? And her song, though nice... it would've been better if I knew who she was.

It just...there is so much love poured into this, I can feel it, but the audience gets...a compromise.

[lorenfangor]

I heard that #40 was super homophobic :/ so I skipped it. But now your fic is making me want to give it a try. How problematic is it? Are the characters worth it?

Okay.

Okay.

Let’s talk about #40.

The plot of The Other (a Marco POV) is that Marco sees an Andalite on a video tape sent in to some Unsolved Mysteries-esque TV show, and he assumes it’s Ax and hauls ass to save him from being captured. Ax, being Ax, has videotaped the show, and they pull it up and Tobias uses his hawk eyes to figure out that it’s not Ax, it’s another Andalite - one without a tailblade. Ax is appalled at the presence of this vecol (an Andalite word for a disabled person) and we find out that he and others of his species have deep ingrained prejudices against at least some kinds of disabled people.

Despite this, Marco and Ax go looking for the Andalite in question because he’s been spotted by national TV, and they meet a second one, named Gafinilan-Estrif-Valad. The vecol is Mertil-Iscar-Elmand, a former fighter pilot with a reputation and Gafinilan’s coded-gay life partner. The two of them have been on Earth since book 1; they crashed their fighters on the planet and have been trapped there thanks to the GalaxyTree going down. Gafinilan has adopted a human cover, a physics professor, and they’ve been living in secret ever since.

Thanks to that tape, Mertil has been captured by Visser Three, and he’s not morph-capable so he can’t escape. Gafinilan wants to trade the leader of the “Andalite Bandits” to the Yeerks to get his boyfriend back; he can’t fight to free Mertil because he’s terminally ill with a genetic disorder that will eventually kill him, and (it’s implied that) the Yeerks aren’t interested in disabled hosts, even disabled Andalite ones. Despite Ax’s ableism, the Animorphs agree to work with Gafinilan and free Mertil, and they’re successful. Marco ends the book talking about how there are all kinds of prejudices you’ll have to face and boxes that people will put you in, and you can’t necessarily escape them even if they’re reductive and inaccurate, but you can still live your life with pride.

So now that I’ve explained the plot, I’m gonna come out the gate saying that I love this book. I love it wholeheartedly, I love Marco’s narration, I love Ax having to deal with Andalite society’s ableism, I love these characters, and as a disabled lesbian I don’t find these disabled gays to be inherently Bad Rep.

that’s of course just my opinion and it doesn’t overshadow other issues that people might have? but at the same time, I don’t like the seemingly-common narrative that this book is all bad all the time, and I want to offer up a different read.To that end, I’m going to go point by point through some of the criticisms and common complaints that I’ve seen across the fandom over the years.

“Mertil and Gafinilan were put on a bus after one appearance because they were gay!”

this is one I’m going to have to disagree with hardcore. I talked about this yesterday, but in Animorphs there are a lot of characters or ideas that only get introduced once or twice and then get written off or dropped - in order off the top of my head, #11 (the Amazon trip), #16 (Fenestre and his cannibalism), #17 (the oatmeal), #18 (the hint of Yeerks doing genetic experiments in the hospital basement), #24/#39/#42 (the Helmacrons’ ability to detect morphing tech), #25 (the Venber), #28 (experiments with limiting brain function through drugs), #34 (the Hork-Bajir homeworld being retaken, the Ixcila procedure), #36 (the Nartec), #41 (Jake’s Bad Future Dream), and #44 (the Aboriginal people Cassie meets in Australia) all feature things that either seem to exist just for the sake of having a particular trope explored Animorphs-style or to feature an idea for One Single Book.

This is a series that’s episodic and has a very limited overall story arc because of how children’s literature in the 90s was structured - these books are closer to The Saddle Club, Sweet Valley High, Animal Ark, or The Baby-Sitters’ Club than they are to Harry Potter or A Series of Unfortunate Events. Mertil and Gafinilan don’t get to be in more than one book because they’re not established in the main cast or the supporting cast, I don’t think that it’s solely got anything to do with their being gay.

“Gafinilan has AIDS, this is a book about AIDS, and that’s homophobic!”

Okay, this is… hard. First, yes, Gafinilan does have a terminal illness. Yes, Gafinilan is gay. No, Soola’s Disease is not AIDS.

I have two responses to this, and I’ll attack them in order of their occurrence in my thought. First, there’s coded AIDS diseases all over genre fiction, especially genre fiction from that era, because the AIDS epidemic made a massive impact on public life and fundamentally changed both how the public perceived illness and queerness and how queer people themselves experienced it. I was too young to live through it, but my dad’s college roommate was out, and my dad himself has a lot of friends who he just ceases to talk about if the conversation gets past 1986 or so - this was devastating and it got examined in art for more reasons than “gay people all have AIDS”, and I dislike the implication that the only reason it could ever appear was as a tired stereotype or a message that Being Queer Means Death. Gafinilan is kind, fond of flowers, and fond of children - he’s multifaceted, and he’s got a terminal illness. Those kinds of people really exist, and they aren’t Bad Rep.

Second off, Soola’s Disease? Really isn’t AIDS. It’s a congenital genetic illness that develops over time, cannot be transmitted, and does not carry a serious stigma the way AIDS did. Gafinilan also has access to a cure - he could become a nothlit and no longer be afflicted by it, even if it’s considered somewhat dishonorable to go nothlit to escape that way. That’s not AIDS, and in fact at no point in my read and rereads did I assume that his having a terminal illness was supposed to be a commentary on homosexuality until I found out that other people were assuming it.

“Mertil losing his tail means he’s lost his masculinity, and that’s bad because he’s gay! That’s homophobic!”

so this is another one I’ve gotta hardcore disagree with, because while Mertil is one of two Very Obviously Queer Characters, he’s not the only character who loses something fundamental about himself, or even loses access to sexual and/or romantic capability in ways he was familiar with.

Tobias and Arbron both get ripped out of their ordinary normal lives by going nothlit in bad situations, and while they both wind up finding fulfillment and freedom despite that, it’s still traumatic, even more for Arbron I’d say than for Tobias. And on a psychological level, none of the main cast is left unmarked or free of trauma or free of deep change thanks to the bad things that have happened to them - they’re no less fundamentally altered than Mertil, even if it’s mental rather than physical. And yes, tail loss is equated with castration or emasculation, but that doesn’t automatically mean Mertil suffering it is tied to his homosexuality and therefore the takeaway we’re intended to have is “Being gay is tragic and makes you less of a man”. This is a series where bad shit happens to everyone, and enduring losses that take away things central to one’s self-conception or identity or body is just part of the story.

Also, frankly? Plenty of IRL disabled people have to grapple with a loss of sexual function, and again, they’re not Bad Rep just because they’re messy.

“Andalite society is confusingly written in this book, and the disability aspects are clearly just a coverup for the gay stuff!”

Andalite society is canonically sexist, a bit exceptionalist and prejudiced in their own favor, and pretty contradictory and often challenged internally on its own norms. In essence, it’s a pretty ordinary society, and they’re really realistic as sci-fi races go. It makes sense from that perspective that Andalites would tolerate scarring or a lost stalk eye or a lost skull eye, but not tolerate serious injuries that significantly impact your perceived quality of life. Ableism is like that - it’s not one-size-fits-all. I look at Ax’s reactions and I see a lot of my own family and friends’ behaviors - this vibes with my understanding of prejudice, you know?

“Mertil and Gafinilan have a tragic ending, which means the story is saying that being gay dooms you to tragedy!”

Mertil and Gafinilan have the best possible ending that they could ask for? They are victims of the war, they are suffering because of the war, they get the same cocktail of trauma and damage that every other soldier gets. But unlike Jake and Tobias and Marco, unlike Elfangor, unlike Aximili? Their ending comes in peace, in their own home. Gafinilan isn’t dying alone, he’s got the love of his life with him. Mertil isn’t going to be as isolated anymore, he’s got Marco for a friend. Animorphs is a tragedy, it’s not a happy story, it’s not something that guarantees a beautiful sunshine-and-roses ending for everyone, and I love tragedy, and so I will fight for this story. Yes, it hurts. Yes, it deserved better. But it’s not less meaningful just because it’s sad. Nobody is entitled to anything in this book, and it’s just as true for these two as it is for anyone else.

“It’s not cool that the only canonically gay characters in this series don’t get to be happy and trauma-free and unblemished Good Rep!”

This is one I can kind of understand, and I’ll give some ground to it, because it is sucky. The only thing I’ll say is that I stand by my argument that nothing that happens to Mertil and Gafinilan is unusual compared to what happens to the rest of the cast, and that their ending is way happier than Rachel and Tobias’s, or Jake and Cassie’s. But it’s a legitimate point of frustration, and the one argument I’ll say I agree has validity.

(Though, I also want to point out that I think there are plenty of equally queercoded characters in the story who aren’t Mertil and Gafinilan - Tobias, Rachel, Cassie, and Marco all get at least one or two moments that signal to me that they’re potentially LGBT+, not to mention Mr. Tidwell and Illim in #29 and their long-term domestic partnership. There’s no reason to assume that the only queer people here are those two aliens when Marco’s descriptions of Jake exist.)

“Marco uses slurs and reduces Gafinilan’s whole identity to his illness!”

Technically, yes, this is true, except putting it that way strips the whole passage of its context. Marco is discussing the boxes society puts you into, the ones you don’t have a choice about facing or escaping. He’s talking about negative stereotypes and reductive generalizations, he’s referring to them as bad things that you get inflicted upon you by an outside world or by friends who don’t know the whole story or the real you. The slurs he uses are real slurs that get thrown at people still, and they’re not okay, and the point is that they’re not okay but assholes are going to call you by them anyway. He ends by saying “you just have to learn to live with it”, and since this is coming from a fifteen-year-old Latino kid who we know is picked on by bullies for all sorts of reasons and who faces racism and homophobia? He knows what he’s talking about. He’s bitter about what’s been said and done, he’s not stating it like it’s a good thing.

Yes, absolutely, this speech is a product of its time, but it’s a product of its time that speaks of defiance and says “We aren’t what we’re said to be,” and in the year this was published? That’s a good message.

tl;dr The Other is good, actually, and Mertil and Gafinilan are incredible characters who deserve all the love they could possibly get.

[shinygoku]

If you are taking non-train characters, what are your answers for The Other Gordon 👀

For simplicity, or maybe for complexity, I’ll refer to Both the TOS and the TAG versions, though I’m much more thoroughly acquainted with his TAG ver.

There wasn’t a Gordon Tracy in the movie, so I can skip that entirely lmao

To signify which Gord I’m talking about, TOS will have Orange and TAG will have Yellow heart emojis.

First impression

🧡 (Was very young at the time and not much good at reading quickly) “Gordon Tracy.... Astronaut.” I always liked TB4 herself, but I don’t think I got to see the TOS eps where Gordon really shines, which is a pity u_u;

💛 I was a little taken aback but the redesign, but also intrigued! This time I was already an adult and didn’t have issue reading Aquanaut lmao, but also got in on the ground floor of the show, getting to see the soon-to-be beloved shine in the very first episode.

Impression now

🧡 Holy cow is this dude ever underrated! In the episodes where he’s allowed to play a part, he actually shines so brightly! Several of the Best eps have him prominent, like Terror in New York and Operation Crash Dive, but even the ones where he is sidelined, the short moments we get can still do a lot, like his jokes and being The Most Fashionable of them Tracy Boys. They sneakily wrote in a potential reason why he ain’t used more with the notorious Hydrofoil Accident, but then maybe they coulda mentioned it in the show proper instead of in supplementary lore books? Oh well, the fans go very hard for this plot :P

💛 Holy cow, this time he’s not underrated so much as victim to Shoddy Writing!!! By both the show and the fans! [Mario from Super Mario Sunshine when he’s on low health voice] YAH-HOooorrrugughghh

Ok, seriously, this lad is again such a wonderful character, when he’s allowed to be written well. But they leaned very deliberately into his lighthearted, joking side and that fine character note became the unfortunate handlebars for people to grip into that being all there is to him, or to spin off into more annoying and out of character behaviours, like Season 2′s stupid underwater city episode that I hate so much, I hate it so fucking much that they wrote a whole episode to dunk on him by not only making him fill TB4 with food wrappers, but he doesn’t even pilot her for most of the episode >:V

Uhm yeah, when allowed to be written as more than Token Comic Relief, he’s fantastic. There’s such a wide range to his knowledge, his experience and his emotions. David Menkin defo brings his A Game to voicing Gordon and he has a beautifully nuanced performance [better than Virgil’s, who seems to be pretty much in one mode all the time lol... it can’t be easy being a VA where the characters are in high stress situations a lot]

I also think his feelings for Lady Penelope were actually handled really, really well. That he��s obviously got a Thing for her but doesn’t bring it up every time they’re in proximity, or that he doesn’t spend hours angsting over it. But s1 and s3′s advancement of this subplot feels sooo goooood and natural and is a lot of my good faith for s3 as a whole, to be honest! 💕

Favourite moment

🧡 Times like this make me wanna get the OG Series on DVD...! Hmm, gonna hafta go with the mad lad boarding a plane, getting in a firefight with the guy who’d been causing them all to crash, shooting him in the back, then holding the severed wires back together with his bare hands, all from Operation Crash Dive. That whole ep is a jewel and he did more earlier on too, but this short sequence is the ultimate Chaotic Good, the likes of which one rarely sees outside of Shounen Anime.

💛 I’m not gonna be so mean as to say SOS Part 1 lol, though that ep was Transcendent. It’s hard to pick one, he excels in the lovely new TB4, but I think it’s less his skills there and more his resourcefulness and emotional intelligence in eps like Extraction that have me the fondest. Also lmao, the contrast in my pick from this compared to TOS...!

Honourable mention to Heavy Metal for an action pick, we see 4′s Demo Missiles solve the problem by blowing stuff up, all while dangled in mid air! Niiiiice~

Idea for a story

🧡 It’s not so much of an idea, but whenever I do make myself watch Thunderbirds Are Go (The 1966 Film), I feel like there’s a potential plot thread of him feeling disappointed to be left out of the happenings that clearly the Andersons didn’t mean to pick up on. But he’s so clearly saddened when Jeff stupidly says Gordon won’t be needed [note that the previous failed Zero-X hand the crew land in the ocean....!] to help guard the 2nd Zero-X [in the end, only Scott is slightly relevant, Lady Penelope and Parker carry that mission!], and we also see him looking out of the balcony as the others launch, like he’s wistful.

Unfortunately the film turns into a weird ass Alan centric soap and barely skates over the main plot, too, before oh shit it’s time for the big climatic rescue. Gordon is overjoyed to be give a token role in that, which amounts to shooting a grapple line. Goes with the lore of him being the Best Shot, but oof! That’s it?! RUBBISH

So yeah idk, a rewrite of that shitshow that actually uses him? Could be an idea lol. Maybe it could even be combined with the strange narrative choice of an Alan pity party, the two could discuss the ups and downs of the gig and feeling over/under worked.

💛 Uhhh harder to say as I’m consumed many, many TAG fics since 2015 and still come and go and come back again for more at times, I don’t think I have any pitches that haven’t already been done, for better and for worse lmao

Honestly, I still ain’t let go entirely of the desire to cross over TAG with CSatM, but I don’t think I can make it work as a long form story which it deserves, plus I’d hafta focus on non-Gordon characters too, so uhh.... yeah, at the mo I got nothing ^^;

Unpopular opinion

🧡 Nooo babe, don’t smoke!! Also anyone who claims he isn’t the most handsome of the Tracy clan is lying.

💛 For years, the TAG fandom copypasted the TOS backstory in, which is understandable, but only a few works/authors could get the balance right. Look, the dude is clearly in his 20′s and it’s more than a little unrealistic for him to have done all 3 of the Served in WASP, Got Olympic Gold Medal, Hydrofoil Incident happenings. Like, the same applies to TOS but you could wave that away as being 60′s writing, where Military service as a young thing [eww] was common and Gordon looks older in that.

This got de-emphasised after SOS part 1, natch, as that seems pretty heavily implied to be This Universe’s answer to the Hydrofoil. The WASP and Gold Medal do continue to pop up, but at least 2 massive life achievements before being ....~23?? ish??? is a bit easier to grasp than 3 ¬w¬;

Favourite relationship

🧡 Did Gordon really get to interact with anyone other than his family and the other Tracy Island residents? I’ve read fic which gives him and Tin-Tin some fantastic platonic closeness, but I suspect the show itself wasn’t that generous...!

💛 All too easily, Pen & Ink! That is, Lady Penelope and he!

As I’ve said before, the romantic interest he has is played refreshingly well, and they get several great scenes together with the casual flirting and working well as a team. The Deep Water -> SOS 1 -> Upside Down triple punch really seals the deal, but it was hinted as early as Ep 1 and made obvious on his end in Tunnels of Time. All soooo good~ 💗

Favourite headcanon

🧡 Gordon rules at chess. We see chessboards in the episodes and occasionally the characters are seated by one, and I saw the notion that Gordon’s shockingly good at it in a fic and would like to embrace that~

💛 First, before the show made it be Virgil, I was introduced to the notion that Gordon was the most qualified First Aider type. I still prefer this lmao

Even though the series holds out on us, I firmly believe he has more Uniform variants than his wetsuit, and more causal clothes [though I am fond of his 1 Hawaiian Shirt n Jeans combo] and can make pretty much anything Work. Also his hair naturally has the same style as TOS when it’s not gelled upwards lol

[mittensmorgul]

About your Bugs episode: I agree, never quite understood why it was considered the worst episode of the show when there so much meat character wise (the rest is very bad, yes). It's in the bottom, sure, but not at the bottom of the bottom. There was another podcast that said that Dean always judged Sam when Sam never did it, and I was like: "Pikachu face". Really??? never? Sure. Haven't though about Dean being the one that visited Sam at Standford, but I can see it. Hope you're feeling well. : )

OH GOSH. Hi! And thanks for listening! :D

And yeah, the problems with Bugs sort of add to my enjoyment of the episode, especially knowing how much of a pain in the butt it was to film. The pacing in the episode was awful (what is the linear passage of time anyway?), the whole concept for the curse was contrived and racist, but Kim Manners... and umbrellas... and Dean’s steam shower... :’D

I think possibly one of the frustrations people have with it, especially on first watch (and I think this is probably one a lot of people skip entirely on a rewatch, from a combination of remembering it was gross and the overblown hatred for this episode in the fandom-- and even in canon... Chuck hates this one personally, too...) ... i lost the thread, let me try to start over... :’D

I think a frustration people have with this one is that in some ways they were still trying to force Sam into the pov/emotional anchor of the series, when the writers had already really moved out of that stance episodes before this one. But it hadn’t really broken through completely yet that they were writing Dean as the emotional anchor by this point.

Yes, Sam has the close arc with the kid, not Dean, and Dean’s more aligned with the Father character who was a mildly antagonistic character to stat with. But the father was STILL trying to support his kid, who was smart and curious about the world but also in a bit of a rebellious teenager phase. It’s really hard to see the world from an adult perspective when you’re convinced you’re mature and your parents are just assholes... which... is kinda what Sam is beginning to learn about Dean...

Though he never really does learn it, and for that I am eternally frustrated, but heck... this episode basically puts Sam in the rebellious teenager role, and Dean in the parent who has resigned himself to just absorb the emotional reactions of his kid. I mean, the episode starts out when one of my favorite shots in the series-- Sam reclining on the impala while Dean comes out of the pool hall having earned the money they will have to live on. GORGEOUS shot. But while Dean had been hustling pool, Sam is literally just lounging there.

We already had judgy comments from sam going back to the pilot episode (you and dad still living off credit card fraud?). But even here, eight episodes in, Sam is still bitching about the fact they don’t have “real” jobs. And I get that it’s about underlining the fact that Sam really wants a normal life where he doesn’t hunt and can pretend the monsters aren’t real and someone else can handle those problems or whatever. But that’s also part of the reason I could never, ever see Sam as the main character of this show, right from the start.

You make a show called Supernatural. One of the guys is immersed in the life of hunting and monsters, and the other one is sort of dragged back into that life by circumstance but constantly longs for the upper middle class life of normalcy he’d run away to college to build for himself. Which one of these two is supposed to be the pov character? Our emotional connection to a show about monsters and hunting, that we chose to watch for supernatural stuff? The one who lives it fully, or the one whose main goal is to run away from it and ignore the reality of their universe? Exactly...

And this episode does a really good job of framing that. I really wish more folks would just ignore the glaring badness of the episode, and give it a rewatch just for the character stuff.

And for everyone else who's wondering what even prompted this episode, it's my @spngeorg podcast! I'm going episode by episode and just... recording all the thoughts that go through my head while I watch, basically... so if you want to listen to me ramble about this show chronologically (I swear, I only complain about the finale some of the time...) you can listen on AnchorFM, or wherever you enjoy podcasts. :) As of the time of this post, I've watched 30 episodes. 2.09 Croatoan is up next!

[cherry-valentine]

Fall 2021 Anime Season

Here’s what I’m watching this season!

86 Season 2 is probably the series I’m enjoying most this season. A surprisingly dark sci-fi series following a small group of teen soldiers who pilot mechs against a mysterious threat called the Legion, season two finds them taken in by a neighboring country who actually treats them well (unlike their home country, who used them as disposable pawns against the Legion). The first few episodes have them taking a stab at living normal lives, pursuing hobbies, getting regular jobs, taking classes, etc. But they’re soldiers at heart, and none of them are content to live in “peace” while a war is going on right outside their doors. The show has a lot to say about war, violence, PTSD, trauma in general, and found-family dynamics. While season one was almost evenly split between Shin and the 86ers fighting the Legion and Lena’s attempts to help them through political and military machinations from inside the Republic, season two is much more strongly focused on Shin and his group as they fight the Legion for a new country, one that has shown them kindness and respect. It’s been interesting to see how other countries are dealing with the Legion, and just how other countries are governed overall. It’s a bit of world-building that the series really needed. The music remains powerful and affecting. The battles are glorious to behold, with gorgeous backgrounds and impressive mecha designs. I’m warming up to the character art, which is still somewhat generic but at least it’s drawn well. Highly recommended.

World Trigger Season 3 is a lot of fun so far. Though I prefer the large-scale invasion arcs we saw in seasons 1 and 2, the smaller tournament arcs between teams have been good, especially when they involve upwards of four teams at a time, creating a somewhat chaotic but exciting feel. The show continues to balance a huge cast very well and has the right mix of action, humor, and emotional moments. The art and animation aren’t the most flashy but they do the job well enough. The show is getting pretty long by this point, so it’s getting harder to recommend it to new viewers, but if you’re looking for a shounen action anime to try, you can’t really go wrong with this one (provided you skip the filler arcs that took up the later episodes of season one). It has plenty of strong lady characters, doesn’t rely on fanservice to make us like them, and has a main protagonist who is more skilled in strategy than actual fighting (in fact he’s one of the weaker fighters in the entire series at this point), which gives the story a fresh take on the genre and avoids predictability.

Kimetsu no Yaiba Season 2 is starting out by adapting the Mugen Train arc again, this time adding in some scenes that the movie didn’t have time for. To be honest, I kinda wish I’d just waited and watched this version. Sure it’s broken up into episodes, but it’s basically an extended cut of the movie that’s much more enjoyable. In particular, the first episode of the season is almost entirely new content that wasn’t in the movie, and I really wish they’d found a way to cram even a few minutes of it into the film. It’s actually Rengoku’s introduction, and it does far more to make him likable and endearing than the entire movie did. So if you somehow haven’t seen the movie yet, at least watch the first episode of season two before doing so (and if you have seen the movie and are planning on skipping these episodes, also watch the first episode, since that’s where the bulk of the new content seems to be). It’s hard to talk much about the animation/music/etc. because most of it was taken from the movie, which had a much higher budget. Of course it looks gorgeous. Of course it sounds fantastic. The new arc starts soon, so there’s that. In general, Kimetsu no Yaiba’s strength is in its execution. It’s proof that you can take a fairly simple (even somewhat generic) story and elevate it to something amazing by giving it an incredible presentation. That’s not to say the show is all style, no substance. The characters are fun and there are some truly heartfelt moments. Recommended to anyone who wants to enjoy some beautiful animation.

The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window is the only brand new show I’m watching this season (and I’m going with the English title because it sounds so cool). It’s a BL (Boys Love) series. I think. The BL stuff is definitely on the back burner as the series focuses on its supernatural plot. The basic idea is that a young man named Mikado can see ghosts/spirits/whatever, which have always terrified him. One day he meets Hiyakawa, an exorcist who recruits him to work for him, with the promise of helping him to not be afraid all the time. There’s also a girl named Erika being forced to put curses on people by some shadowy group, and the plot so far surrounds Erika and the boys helping her escape. Right away, you might notice something odd: the fact that a female character has such a big role in a BL series. I was very surprised by how important Erika is. It’s nice that she’s there and has her own story and is not exclusively used to make one of the boys jealous (there’s a little of that, but it’s definitely not the only, or even the main, reason she’s there). She’s an interesting character for sure. But I do wish the BL elements were a little more present in the story. Another interesting character, and my favorite, is the police detective (or whatever his title is) named Hanzawa. His super power is not believing in any of this supernatural shit, which effectively makes him immune to all of it. His disbelief is so strong, in fact, that his blood or saliva can be used to make barriers to protect others from supernatural attacks! He’s a somewhat cranky older guy, middle aged and married and having no time for nonsense. I love him. Other than that, the art is decent. The character designs look good but the animation isn’t exactly high quality. The opening and ending themes are pretty good.

Note: There were several shows airing this season that looked interesting, but I’ve been so busy with holiday-related stuff that I didn’t get the chance to try them. If I watch them later, I might add them to later write up posts for future seasons. In the meantime, if you know of a good anime that’s airing this season, please let me know so I can look into it. I hate harem and I’m not crazy about isekai. Otherwise, I’m open to anything.

Carry Over Shows From Previous Seasons:

Shaman King

Best of Season:

Best New Show: The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window Best Opening Theme: Kimetsu no Yaiba Best Ending Theme: Kimetsu no Yaiba Best New Male Character: Hanzawa (Night Beyond) Best New Female Character: Erika (Night Beyond)

[boobachu]

best place to start w sonic media?

Sonic the Hedgehog's biggest strength and weakness is diversity. There are infinite takes on what Sonic the Hedgehog should be and that's part of why the fandom's so split cuz we want one or more specific aspects so I'll give you some hints on where you might want to start cuz there's really no one good starting point.

Games where holding down on the D pad makes you roll and speed up: Sonic Advance. It's not as hard as Sonic 2 and it's not as long as Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It also has one of the better special stage systems. If you liked this game I'd go for Sonic 2 next, and if you thought the game was WAY too short then Sonic Mania is for you!

3D games that focus on platforming: Sonic Lost World is in my opinion the most fun to play as Sonic the character. It has a good progression of difficulty, but unfortunately the game does a poor job at teaching you how to use your moves.

Best grab bag game: Sonic Adventure 2 no contest. It has a really cheesy action-adventure story and three really different and fun gameplay styles. Plus it has the best version of chao garden if you wanna pet some dudes and race them

Hardest 3D Sonic game: Sonic Unleashed easily. If you wanna go as fast as possible and try again and again and again to get the best ranks you play this game. Also the werehog is god of war.

Hardest 2D Sonic game: That'll be Sonic Rush, it's also super fast paced and you'll struggle to balance speed and platforming.

Easiest 3D Sonic game: Sonic Forces. This also has a very customizable character (and technically has really difficult challenges, but you'll only run across that for 100%)

Easiest 2D Sonic game: Sonic 4. The second episode has way more depth tho and there's no real bonus from playing both episodes besides Metal Sonic

Comics: the new IDW comics, I love Archie but it's very '90s superhero comic and also very much an Archie comic (love triangles and romance drama) though the earliest Archie comics are very gag driven which would never be revisited until Sonic Boom (which, the Sonic Boom comics are the best thing to come out of that side project)

So far the first 30 or so issues of IDW are really, really good and the last 20 issues are really really okay. It's the one Sonic comic I'd recommend above all else. (also read the 30th anniversary special, that likely won't be on any online sites as it's technically a different canon alongside the movie one-shot)

Cartoons:

Sonic the Hedgehog (the movie) It's probably the most Sonic Sonic cartoon, but it's also only an hour long since It's a two episode original video animation and failed pilot.

Sonic the Hedgehog (the ABC series, aka SatAM) is easily the best if you love adventure and drama and want to see Sonic the Hedgehog have PTSD

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is basically what if Americans made Sonic, it's the most like the story of the games (Sonic & Tails wandering the world and stopping Robotnik) but it's also a huge homage to early animation such as Felix the Cat (who is a big influence on Sonic's design, if you want to see Sonic's spiritual predicesor, watch The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, whom one of the directors/writers of AoStH did some episodes and designs for)

Also go for the new movies, the second one is way better but they're going for the slow decent into villanous madness for Robotnik and that's something that'd be lost by skipping the first movie.

Though, just like the '90s Super Mario Bros. movie, it's heavily inspired by Sonic's canons, it's not an adaptation of any pre-existing story. So don't be shocked if the games and comics are nothing like this (but if you turn out to like it good news Tails is getting a movie and Knuckles a mini-series so yay!)

Sorry if that wasn't helpful, I've never really had to reccomend Sonic before, most people I know either played Sonic 2 or SA2 or something at least once. It's like reccomending Mario, you just assume people'd play it already.

Though I guess it's not the '90s anymor eXD