#so yeah now jasmine (along with sara) have to save us

[dracimexidae]

I'm in pain 🫠

[blvemonday]

heather mcnamara’s playlist.

nobody by mitski.

and i don't want your pity i just want somebody near me guess i'm a coward i just want to feel alright

and i know no one will save me i just need someone to kiss give me one good honest kiss and i'll be alright //

i've been big and small and big and small and big and small again and still nobody wants me still nobody wants me

teen idle by marina.

yeah, i wish i'd been, i wish i'd been, a teen, teen idle wish i'd been a prom queen, fighting for the title instead of being sixteen and burning up a bible feeling super, super, super suicidal

the wasted years, the wasted youth the pretty lies, the ugly truth and the day has come where i have died only to find, I've come alive

pretty girl by clairo.

i could be a pretty girl i'll wear a skirt for you and i could be a pretty girl shut up when you want me to i could be a pretty girl won't ever make you blue and i could be a pretty girl i'll lose myself in you

a better son/daughter by rilo kiley.

and sometimes when you're on you're really fucking on and your friends, they sing along and they love you but the lows are so extreme that the good seems fucking cheap and it teases you for weeks in its absence

and you'll be awake, you'll be alert you'll be positive, though it hurts and you'll laugh and embrace all your friends you'll be a real good listener you'll be honest, you'll be brave you'll be handsome and you'll be beautiful you'll be happy

there she goes by sixpence none the richer. ( @chaosaur ft. heather chandler. )

there she goes, there she goes again she calls my name, pulls my train no one else could heal my pain but i just can't contain this feelin' that remains

there she goes there she goes again chasing down my lane and i just can't contain this feelin' that remains

shake it out by florence + the machine. 

regrets collect like old friends here to relive your darkest moments i can see no way, i can see no way and all of the ghouls come out to play

and every demon wants his pound of flesh but i like to keep some things to myself i like to keep my issues strong it's always darkest before the dawn

and i've been a fool and i've been blind i can never leave the past behind i can see no way, i can see no way i'm always dragging that horse around

cherry wine as covered by jasmine thompson. ( @chaosaur ft. heather chandler. )

her eyes and words are so icy oh, but she burns like rum on the fire hot and fast and angry as she can be i walk my days on a wire //

the way she tells me i'm hers and she is mine open hand or closed fist would be fine the blood is rare and sweet as cherry wine // 

but i want it, it's a crime that she's not around most of the time

fake happy by paramore. 

if i smile with my teeth bet you believe me if i smile with my teeth i think i believe me

oh, please don't ask me how i've been don't make me play pretend oh no, oh ,what's the use oh, please, i bet everybody here is fake happy, too

breathe me by sia.

help, i have done it again i have been here many times before hurt myself again today and the worst part is there's no one else to blame

be my friend, hold me wrap me up, unfold me i am small, i'm needy warm me up and breathe me

she used to be mine by sara bareilles.

it's not simple to say that most days i don't recognize me //

she's imperfect, but she tries she is good, but she lies she is hard on herself she is broken and won't ask for help she is messy, but she's kind she is lonely most of the time she is all of this mixed up and baked in a beautiful pie she is gone, but she used to be mine //

it's not what i asked for sometimes life just slips in through a back door and carves out a person and makes you believe it's all true and now i've got you and you're not what i asked for if i'm honest, i know i would give it all back

[monotype-on-phantom]

Thank You For 1000 Followers!!!

As promised, guys, here we are. For those who are fairly new, here’s what’s going on.

To celebrate reaching 1000 followers, I said I’d cover an episode of another show. This is something a lot of people have asked about for awhile, and it seemed like a good way to show my appreciation. One of the donors requested American Dragon: Jake Long, and yeah. This show does seem right up my alley.

I was a bit torn on which episode to cover. I was initially going to just go over the first episode, but if I’m going to be covering the entire thing at some point, I won’t want to leave myself with nothing else to say. Instead, I decided to cover what was one of my favorite episodes as a kid. The second episode, Dragon Breath (which ironically is about a school dance where the protagonist’s date turns into a monster. Go fig.) This episode features just about all the important characters and introduces some things that give me a lot to say.

ADJL is the same kind of show as DP. It’s about a teenage boy trying to balance his secret life as a hero with school. The show keeps continuity, with plot points like certain people discovering Jake’s secret or certain relationship developments. In spite of that, most of the story is very episodic. Each episode introduces a problem/antagonist, and that problem/antagonist is solved by the end (for the time being) along with our hero having learned some sort of important life lesson.

The story in this episode is perhaps a bit cluttered, but it comes together alright. Jake’s concerned about the school dance after he misses his chance to ask out his crush, Rose. To top that off, his fire breathing glands are maturing, resulting in him having horrible breath, and there’s some sort of mysterious monster loose in the city. Jake does manage to find a date to the dance in an attempt to impress Rose, but oh no! She turns out to be the monster, a soul sucking creature known as a Nix!

The pros and cons of the show altogether are very evident in this episode. On one hand, you’ve got a lot of creative ideas. We meet a half spider girl, a pair of seer twins, trolls, and, of course, a nix. Nixes are honestly my favorite creatures in this show, even though they’re not very prominent. They’re like a cross between a werewolf and a siren with a little soul-sucking mixed in.

So, this episode gives us a perfectly nice, normal girl named Jasmine. She’s friendly, cheerful, easygoing, and well-meaning. But, when the moon reaches the center of the sky, she transforms into a violent monster who devours the souls of the entire student body. That’s a story that could make for a really interesting character, and Jasmine is someone I enjoy watching.

Jake ends up having to fight her to save his schoolmates, but he makes a mistake that leaves him powerless. With no other options, he uses the foul breath I mentioned earlier as a weapon. And it works. The stench is so foul that she passes out.

It’s silly, but everything in the episode had a point. The story beats work well, and the payoff is pretty satisfying.

The problems lie in the writing, dialogue, and execution. While the plot does work well, it gets lost in a sea of excessiveness.

ADJL has a serious problem with going too over the top with its characters, and in comparison, the interesting plot points become muted. At least a quarter of Jake’s dialogue in this episode is him shouting things like “yo yo yo!” or “party over here!” He refers to Jasmine as “hot date, Jasmine” twice in the same sentence and throughout the episode. It starts to get uncomfortable since it feels so objectifying.

I don’t think Jake is incredibly shallow or anything. Later in the episode, he shows how much less shallow he is than his rival, Brad, by noticing when he left Rose behind and going to cheer her up. The main problem I have is how far the show takes Jake’s hip hop talk.

I don’t have a lot of experience with hip hop culture, so maybe this is accurate. That doesn’t stop the episode from being a slog to sit through, though. I don’t care who you are, unless you’re being ironic or intentionally dorky, the line “if you want the hotties, you gots to move your bodies, heeeeey!” just isn’t going to work. If it was toned down or more self aware, I’d forgive it, but as it is, the show’s hard to take seriously.

Another example of the show taking things too far is the character designs.

These two are the Oracle Twins, Sara and Kara. Their setup is, like Jasmine, incredibly interesting. The two of them are seers, but their visions are quite limited due to their watered-down bloodline. Sara, the cheerful one, can only see visions of the bad things that are going to happen. Her gloomy sister, Kara, can only see the good things.

While that’s an interesting way of playing with expectations, the writers take it a step further and actually explain why their personalities are that way. Sara is cheerful and upbeat because to her, any amount of good news is amazing. She’s so used to seeing horrible things that she doesn’t want to let go of any moment of happiness that comes her way. Kara, meanwhile, has no sense of optimism or love for life because she already knows everything good that will happen to her. There are no pleasant surprises, nothing exciting, and everything’s just become dull.

That’s actually very fascinating, and it could lead to some impressive commentary and character development. Except they don’t do that. The characters are played straight, with only a few situations where Sara’s upbeat personality breaks or comes off as creepy. To top that off, this is what they look like in season 2.

Boom. There went any semblance of subtlety.

The original designs were brilliant. Sara and Kara were redheads, which meant they could avoid the association of peppiness with blonde hair/blue eyes and gloominess with dark colors. Both look identical aside from how they dress and style their hair. It allows their personality to speak through their appearance without being overbearing.

Season two scraps all of that and opts for exactly the types of designs that are overbearing..

I think this is enough to demonstrate just how many missed opportunities were in this show. When the story tones things down and allows things to feel more organic, it’s actually quite enjoyable. When it doesn’t, it can get painful.

But those are just my thoughts after one episode. It’s been awhile since I rewatched the series all the way through, so things may change when I cover it. Hopefully this will give you an idea of what it’ll be like.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled Danny Phantom posts. Finally.