#stream one punch man season 2

[iiiiiiis-things]

"But you're the only one that's holding me down!"

pairing- bsf!satoru x reader

cw- igs angst idk i js needed plot to build up, fluff, highschool toru

analysis- your ex leaves you & satoru gets stood up

a/n- HEY PEOPLES i just wanna thank you for all the support and love yall are giving me im close to 1k and i wanna do a special so ill be having a poll posted soon, also this story was heavily influenced by strangers things season 2 when nancy was dancing with dustin !

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"are you fucking shitting me ?" your stern voice could be heard by your ex, who was standing in front of you dancing with another girl but quickly removed her away from him the second he saw your face. "is this what you meant by be right back? to go blow me off with this bitch?" you point to the girl he was dancing with, completely shocked because not to be rude but you knew your self worth and this was just down right disrespectful. "baby i swear she's just a friend-" you tune him out making an overly dramatic eye roll as you feel your eyes began to water, honestly you didn't even know why exactly this little situation had you threatening to spill tears.

your ex was embarrassing you nothing new before- this was the same routine, the same cycle, and he had the same excuse every. single. time. you wanted to quite literally punch yourself in the face for falling for it yet again.

There was something in your gut telling you going to the snowball with your ex would have horrible results, yet you ignored your female intuition and went anyways, now you stood here looking so idiotically stupid in front of everyone as your confront this piece of shit. honestly ? you weren't even close to being as upset as you were embarrassed. hell the only reason you found out what he was doing on his "bathroom break" was because your friend pointed him out with a "uh girl- ain't that yo man?"

"bottom line is- you mean more to me than she does" is he serious ?.. "oh so she means something to you? just not as much as me right" the girl look so uncomfortable in this situation she began to remove herself from the middle of you two "little word of advice sweetheart, don't date him in the future, he's just looking to get his dick wet."

"wha- no what are you- why are you putting words in my mouth?! you know what are being such a bitch about this! jesus y/n you're always blowing things way out of proportion it's why i can't stay in a damn relationship with you ! and i try so hard to be nice but it's like you latch on to me like a fucking leech, just admit it without me you would be nothing! you had no one before me, no one loved you until I came along. your so god damn annoying seriously." staring in absolute disbelief and your eyes are so hot as people were now looking his way wondering what was going on and why his voice was growing louder and louder by the minute.

"let me tell you something you sick fuck. I am my own person and i do not need a little boy who's insecure about his penis size to contradict me about me and my life, you may have gotten me to come out of my shell but you didn't make shit, you are not my father nor my mother so you have absolutely no right to speak to me the way you're doing right now. I am a growing woman with my own liberties and ideals and if you didn't see that before, then that says a lot about the way you view me." hot tears are not streaming down your face as you make your way back to the table you were sitting at. you had made sure to keep your voice down so you wouldn't attract a crowd because lord knows all hell would've broken lose.

you sat at the table trying to dry your tears as a wave of nausea comes over you, feeling upset about everything that just happened as his words relayed in your head 'no one loved you' no. he was wrong so utterly wrong, you had friends, great ones in fact, you even had a best friend the one who stuck by your side through thick and thin.

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"shit" satoru cursed out as he realized he was crying, he was currently sitting behind the flimsy decorations the at covered the bleachers, alone and out of sight form everyone who could see how pathetic he looked right now.

crying over a female.

satoru honestly didn't even know why exactly this little situation had him crying, he had been showed up. nothing new before- girls who flirt with him for his wealth and ditch as soon as the connections start. of course he was used to it, sad but true. he came to the conclusion of it wasn't the girl herself that he was crying over. it was his inability to find love. most people would laugh when if they hear that satoru was true a lover boy, especially with his reputation for moving into different relationships faster than a virgin boy cumming for the first time.

in fact he had been in more flings you can count on your fingers just this semester. but it wasn't on purpose it's not like his goal was to become a pass around. it just sorta happened...

satoru was more upset than he had realized. thoughts running around his head about how unlucky his love life was. He sat on the bleachers, on the last day and most important moment of the first semester of his senior year, crying and alone.

it was so unfair, he had come here with a group of friends and though they didn't come with dates it sure as hell looked like they were leaving with one, suguru and shoko didn't even have a plus one but in the mist of waiting with satoru on his, they had both picked up someone to dance with. which was fine, he couldn't bring himself to be envy of his friends love life. hell even his best friend who stuck by his side through thick and thin was probably around the gymnasium somewhere slow dancing with her-

"hey." satoru immediately wipes his face as he hears your voice. "uh hey, what's up?" he looks up at you hoping you wouldn't notice his red and puffy eyes, but you were his best friend so of course you did.

"are you okay?" walking over to the bleachers you sit a couple feet away from him "yeah, heh why wouldn't i be?" he said with a little sniffle "oh well- this is just an observation but maybe it has something to do with the fact that you're crying... and alone" shit you had noticed, satoru did not like the feeling swarming inside his tummy he felt self-conscious. he didn't want to look so vulnerable infront of you

"well- technically i'm not alone, you're here" he looks up at you giving his infamous cocky smile that you've grown the love you can't help but giggle at his antics "what's funny?" "you" you catch yourself smiling a little to hard at him which causes you to clear your throat and switch the topic of the conversation. "so uh- where's your date?" looking off to the side his smile faded as soon as it came "i don't know if i should tell you, it's pretty lame" he spreads his legs further slouching down as he picks at his fingernails in the middle of his lap.

"satoru i've been your friend since middle school... i've seen your emo phase" his eyes shoot open as he looks over at you in horror "oh my god! you remember that?" a pink hue dusted his cheeks as he remembers the sight of that god awful side part and horrible black eye liner (sorry nanami) "of course i do" you let out with a laugh gojo leans his head back and groan bringing his hands up to cover his face out of embarrassment. laughing once more you decide to scoot in closer, now sitting right next to him, opposite to the few feet when you were away from him. "so?"

"i've been stood up" his eyes falls into his lap not having the guts to see your face of empathy right now. "if it makes you feel better" you lean back and stretch your arms out on the row behind you eyes having the same fate as his "my ex ditched me for someone else then proceeded to call me annoying" gojo felt his heart squeeze as he looked up to see the waterline of your eyes activate "he's a piece of shit, seriously i don't even know why you keep going back to him" redness around his eyes slowly faded and started to fill with anger as he talked about your ex "it's cause- i just- i just want to be loved by someone who truly wants me for me and every time he walks into my life it's usually at one of my lowest points and i just fall right for it!" your best friend watched intensely as he took in every word you were saying as you began to pour your heart out to him all the while in his head agreeing with you since all he wanted was to be loved.

"i mean its so hard to find someone in this generation who truly cares about me, it's like im" you lean forward and put your face in you palms eyebrows furrowed as you let your frustrations out

"doomed for love"

the two of you make eye contact shocked that the same words fell from both of your lips "i get you in so many ways you wouldn't even understand." a comfortable silence fills the air around you for a moment until he broke it (fucking blabbermouth) "for the record, i don't think your annoying, and-" mumbling the last part you look over in confusion "what did you say?" the blush began to creep back up his neck as he looks to the side "i said-" he voice went inaudible once again "toru i can't hear you" "i said you look beautiful tonight!" he suddenly shouted, turning back around to look you in your eyes, the two of you just looked at eachother not knowing what to say next "well thank you, i think that you look very handsome" you scootch over more and lean you head on to his shoulder

at first satoru tenses up not sure what to do but as time went on he relaxes, slowly bringing a hand around to your waist to pull you in even closer into a nice side hug as the two of you watch the other people have fun on the dance floor "jesus, suguru can not dance" letting out a sigh satoru puts his head down embarrassed for his friend who was currently making a damn fool of himself infront of his date you giggle looking around the gymnasium spotting your closet girl friend "if you think he's bad look at shoko" you sit up and he follows suit only for his jaw to drop at the her cruel dance moves "what about-"

"utahime" in unison the two of you burst into laughter as you seemingly spot her at the same time, she was moving her hips so off beat that it was unusual, but hey at least she was happy. after the fit of giggles you return back into the position before "you know, we shouldn't even have come to this thing in the first place- it's so corny i mean cmon, what's next there gonna play a thousand years by christina pe-"

"heart beats fast"

"oh you've gotta be shitting me" you cackle at the perfect timing of his crude joke as he leans back once more. you take it upon your self to get up and stick your hand out in front of him "y-you wanna dance?" rolling your eyes you snatch him up by his blazer dragging him to the make shift dance floor "uh, i'm not sure if i-" "relax you got this, just like we practiced" right. how could he forget that the two of you practice slow dancing together (it was his idea since he didn't want to embarrass himself) just the night before.

you stretch you arms out behind him, caressing where his smooth skin and the fluffiness tuffs of his hair connected as he wrapped his arms around your mid back the two of you smoothly swayed from side to side looking into at another with a smile. "hey let's try something" satoru says he then adjust your hands on him for a more comfortable position and soon enough he's leading the way as the two of you dance together laughing at the little stumbles here and there "okay you ready?" "yeah" just then satoru spins you around so lightly you would think that he thinks you're made of glass, fragile. everthing is in slow motion and you don't catch it, but your best friend looks at you with love filling his eyes. you looked so beautiful. your pink dress illuminating under the fairy lights that hung around. gojo satoru had never seen such beauty in his life. he begins to think how lucky he is to have someone like you in his life. after the spin is over he brings you into a hug one hand wrapped its long arm around your back and the other pushes your head into his chest and he leans his neck down to give you a small kiss on your forehead. the hug catches you off guard by its firmness but you reciprocate nun the less.

"wanna go back to my place and watch a movie?"

[confuse-the-masses]

(major TLOVM spoilers for later stream & (probably) season 3 stuff)

I was thinking about how when the season 2 finale had a Scanlan fake out death, I was nervous they were doing bard’s lament early. Once he was fine I was a little confused as to why they would do that when it would potentially ruin the punch in (probably) season 3. Then I realized that was the point. You don’t do the same scene more than once in storytelling unless you’re intentionally comparing the scenes, what’s different this time?

They’ve set it up so now when Vax (and the audience) finds Scanlan’s body he’ll think he’s joking.

“C’mon Scan Man, get up, quick messing around”

Only this time he won’t

​I also kinda want no fanfare when it happens, like, he doesn’t go down doing anything heroic. No one even notices until after the fight it over…

[mustbemosstaken]

I know this has been said before but the people bringing it up in the art stream has put it back in my brain (Also please keep in mind this is very /lh and just my opinion based on how I interpret the story of Fable SMP as a viewer):

Y’all don’t want a Rae villain arc, you want an arc where Heyhay can play a villain. A villain arc for Rae would go against literally all of the character development that has been established for Rae.

And you can’t even have the argument of like “oh well the angst of if he’s corrupted and then comes back later to see how he hurt people” because WE HAD THAT. WE HAD LIKE A WHOLE ARC OF THAT WITH THE WARDEN.

Even outside of the Warden, you’ve got that whole Among Us AU where we get to see Rae being evil?? We have villain Rae guys what more do you want?!? Villain!Rae is a fun idea for an AU, but narrative wise it does not work in canon at all-

I agree that Heyhay would play a great villain, and would probably find a way to make Villain!Rae really compelling. But Rae has been built up in such a way that to have him suddenly “go on a villain arc” would just like,,, wreck any of his previously established arcs?? At least from my interpretation of Fable so far, the overall arc with Rae as a character, regardless of gods or anything like that, has always been about a man coming to love himself through learning to love other people, and through that, a lonely man finding a family. S1 Rae at the very beginning is a lonely, broken man with no regard for himself or those around him, driven purely by research, who is forced to take a mentoring, and then pseudo-leadership position, and forced to care for and eventually come to love the people around him, who he now views as his family. A family he never got to have beforehand.

That’s why the relationship with c!Jamie is so important to Rae in canon. Jamie is the first person where Rae really had to step up and be there for someone else. Thats why he cares so much about c!Athena, because Rae really had to find it within himself to save them and be there for them. That’s why Banner Fam, or the Breakfast Squad, or even eventually Broters means so much to Rae because he didn’t have that family when we started the story. To have him go on a villain arc and hurt the people around him would narratively break all of that. It would pull apart all of those relationships at the very foundations, and it would be really hard to repair them from a storytelling perspective.

The only way I could see it being done is if Rae was to go “evil” to protect the people he cares about, but as long as those characters are still in the picture they’re the kind of people who wouldn’t let Rae do that to himself. Hell, the man had a full breakdown because he punched his best friend one time, you think he’s gonna murder someone or something?

And like,,, it’s not even like we don’t get to see snippets of these things in canon. We get to see elements of Rae losing himself to anger and desperation in order protect others. We get it when he replaces his eye in S2 and he goes all mad scientists, or when he yells at Ulysses in S3 because he genuinely believes he needs to step up because this man is a threat to his family. Hell, we even see the angst of “his family thinks Rae is evil and is scared of him” because THATS LIKE MOST OF C!JAMIES ARC IN EARLY S2???

Season 2 really is a treasure trove of theoretically “villainous Rae” content. His betrayal of Aax’s trust with the eye surgery, the Jamie memory arc where they do view Rae as evil, delving into more and more dangerous and morally questionable Telchin medicine to help c!Athena, and then the entirety of the Warden arc where he’s actively hurting those around him and taken over by an evil goddess, like it’s all there. We have that guys!?!

This ended up way longer than I thought it would lol, but I don’t know, I just constantly see people in the fandom and in HeyHay13’s twitch chat being like “oooh villain Rae we desperately need villain Rae in canon” and I just personally don’t get the appeal from a storytelling perspective. Maybe I’m just too caught up in wanting characters to be happy lol. Let my poor little meow meow have peace and love his boyfriends and not have to be evil again.

Anyway, uh… TLDR Mosstaken doesn’t like villain!Rae except for when he does I guess lmao /j

[harseer]

Curtains on Mayonaka Punch

Mayonaka Punch is over. I loved that show. The characters, the art, the music, the worldbuilding, all of it was lovely and lands it pretty solidly as my anime of the season. But also, as she says, To Love is to Hate, and so here i am with only bitching and moaning to do. (Spoilers for all of Mayonaka Punch)

I remember at the start of the season i wrote down somewhere "If the narrative turns out that Masaki was actually in the right in punching her co-host in the face, instead of having her confront her faults as a person, then this show will only be good as opposed to truly great". Was i right? I guess we'll never know because it ended up way worse than that. Masaki clearly has serious issues not just with violence, but also with being really mean and lowkey abusive at some points, but the show never tries to address it. She gets character development about dealing with online hate, about empathizing with others, about relying on her friends, etc, and these things are somewhat related, but the problematic aspects of her character never get examined and challenged. At the very end of the last episode she just punches Live in the face. On stream. I know it was meant as a joke, but that wasn't funny to me. That was super sad. It's the very thing that drove the people she loved away in episode 1, and now 12 episodes later she does it again and it's supposed to be okay??

The show never shows us what the disagreement that made Masaki punch Otomi even was. We see them make up in episode 10, then we see the making-up video in episode 11. That video shows Otomi giving a light slap at Masaki to get even and Masaki returning it with a full-blown punch, and Masaki gets re-cancelled for it. But that scene wasn't in episode 10. We only see the event through the edited video which is framed so that Masaki is out of frame the whole time. So, the implication here is that there's missing context that makes Masaki look worse than she really is, right? Because without some missing context, the newtube commenters going "Oh man, Masaki is a violent abusive bitch" are just straight up right, both in episode 11 and episode 1. Taken at face value, Masaki just threw 10 episodes of character development in the bin, did the exact same shit that got her cancelled at the start of the season, got cancelled again because of it in the exact same way, and rightfully so. Taken at face value Masaki is absolutely right to say "no one wants me on camera". And you have to take this at face value because this video is never brought up again, there is no extra context. Masaki just randomly physically assaults the people she loves at the slightest of disagreements, all her growth over the season was just about learning to cope with being a shitty person rather than improving as a person. This is pretty much the only logical way to read her as a character.

The disease to this symptom, I think, is that Mayonaka Punch has a structure problem. Let's review some episode synopsis. Episode 1: Masaki gets fired from Hype-sis and meets Live. Episode 2: The gang starts Chuchu Girls, Chuchu Girls gets shut down, They start again with Mayonaka Punch. This episode functions as a "This is why they can't use their powers for easy views" explanation. Episode 3: Tokage is introduced, they film a video cleaning up Tokage's crusty-ass room, but Yuki destroys the footage. Episode 4: Fu Episode (banger). These episodes are individually good, don't get me wrong, but 1/3rd of the season in and we're left still unsure what it is the show is actually about. All they've done is set things up and record food-eating videos and one (1) music cover. What kind of channel has only food-eating videos and one (1) music cover (not the point, Harseer). The show picks up steam from then on, raises its stakes and proves itself very deft in how it weaves its worldbuilding, character development and mystery together in each episode. It makes for a very good show that was entertaining to watch every week. But it can't wrap the whole thing together in the end. This isn't even a "the final episode was bad" situation, the final episode was very good (aside from the punch). It just, sorta... narratively leads nowhere.

I guess this is all my over-the-top snobish way of saying: i wanted more. Masaki was an interesting protagonist, the kind we don't see often in slice of life anime. There could have been something to make me say "It's interesting" when i look back on it in two years, but probably i'll just say "It's good".

B+. Good is still Good, i guess. Also this girl is cute as fuck:

[heliza24]

Love your blog and all your analysis!!

Many people didn't like S2 because Simon, according to them was just a tool to drive Wilhelm's story, a love interest only and didn't really have his own story. In particular, many are frustrated at the lack of narrative on the video's effect and Simon's subsequent trauma. Of course, everyone's allowed their opinions but seeing as you have experience in the world of writing and making tv magic, wanted to get your insight on this. Thanks, a S2 fan! 💜

Hi anon! Thanks for the question.

I’ve already written pretty extensively about Simon’s arc in season 2 and why I like it in this post. In short, I think he grows a lot in season 2, but his growth takes him towards emotional vulnerability and openness, which is not something we’re used to seeing in characters (especially not male ones). 

I also don’t mind how they address Simon’s trauma in season 2. I’m going to approach this momentarily not as a writer, but as someone who has been in therapy for years. There are some traumas that have happened to me (like a serious car accident when I was a kid) that are very concrete, with a set beginning and end, and that began to affect me right away. (I had ptsd symptoms pretty immediately after that accident). But there are other traumas that feel like a series of small cuts instead of one big punch. It’s harder to decide where they begin and end, and their effects are more subtle. Sometimes it takes me years to even realize that they were traumatic and that they are still affecting me. (The medical trauma I’ve experienced as an adult over several years is like this). To me this is more what Simon is dealing with with the video. Once the video goes online, it’s not coming down. There’s no set end date, and Simon spends most of season 2 not even knowing who the perpetrator was. He’s in the kind of no-man’s land between the initial blow and coming to understand how the whole process has affected him. That being said, I do think we see some changes in him that reflect what he’s gone through. He seems to care a lot less about his academic classes than he did in season 1. He’s writing music in an attempt to process what he’s been through. And you could even see his attempt to have sex with Marcus as a trauma response. The last time he hooked up with someone his agency was taken from him. So it makes sense to me that he’s eager to have sex again but fully on his own terms, to partially erase that feeling of not being in control. I don’t know for sure if this will happen, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more traditional ptsd symptoms from Simon in season 3. If there’s some sort of legal action against August that would signify a sort of “end” of the video trauma, and would also probably be re-traumatizing in a lot of ways. I also think interacting directly with the royal family might stir up some things as well.

Ok, now I’m going to totally switch gears and approach your question from a writing perspective. Let’s talk about story structure for a minute, specifically TV story structure. Most TV has an A plot and a B plot (and sometimes a C plot too). In old school cable procedurals, the A plot would be the mystery of the week, while the B plot would be about whatever was happening in the characters’ personal lives. If there was an overarching mystery or storyline that tied the whole season together, that would be the C plot. As you can guess by how they’re named, the A Plot would take up the most time and do the most to drive  the episode forward. The B plot is next most important, etc. Once shows started to become more serialized in the age of streaming, the concept of A and B plots changed a little bit. Now the plots are divided by character and theme. The A plot will be headlined by the protagonist and will explore the main themes of the show. The B plot will be headlined by a secondary protagonist, who doesn’t have as much to do as the A plot lead, but is still answering a dramatic question that relates to the central themes of the show. A lot of times the primary and secondary protagonists’ actions influence each other, but they don’t share a ton of screen time. (If they did, their stories wouldn’t be separate.) You can think of the A and B plot protagonists as two sides of the same coin. They’re intricately connected, they’re exploring the same ideas, but they rarely come face to face, and they often represent different perspectives on the same themes. Black Sails is probably my favorite example of this. (I’m not as active in the Black Sails fandom as I am in the Young Royals fandom, but Black Sails is probably my all time favorite show and I absolutely love all the ungovernable pirates over in the Black Sails tag. Shout out to them). James Flint is the main protagonist and headliner of the A story, but Max is the secondary protagonist that headlines the B story. Both are struggling with the question of how to achieve and wield power in an unjust world, and their political maneuvers consistently influence each other’s plots. They share a lot of secondary characters across both of their plots, but they themselves never interact. So that’s one example, and if you look around at your favorite shows you’ll be able to find lots that adhere to this formula, including, I would say, Young Royals.

I think a lot of people are kind of subconsciously looking for this kind of structure, and have decided that Simon is the protagonist of the B plot. I understand this, because we all love Simon. He’s really well written and acted, his personality is so compelling, and his chemistry with Wilhelm is great. I spend a lot of time writing him in fic (I’m the writer of all the Simon content in Heart and Homeland) so I understand this impulse. But if you were looking for Simon to be anchoring the B plot in season 2, you might have been disappointed. Because in reality I don’t think he’s the secondary protagonist. I think Sara is. 

Sara is set up as a foil to Wilhelm, the main protagonist, in so many ways. I always say that the driving dramatic question of Young Royals lives with Wilhelm, and it’s something along the lines of “should I conform and live the oppressive life that was designed for me, or rebel and find my own path to happiness?” Sara is wrestling with a similar question that’s kind of the inverse of this; for her settling into a prescribed role in the Hillerska class system initially seems like a relief. So maybe for her the dramatic question is something along the lines of “is the price of fitting in worth it? Will it lead to true happiness?” They feel so much like opposite sides of the same coin to me. 

So Sara and Wilhelm are both trying to define themselves in relation to their families and also the class system. This comes up in the similarities of their family structure (they both feel very connected to their class position through their families; they both have complicated relationships with their mothers and bad to negligible relationships with their fathers; they both have a deep connection to their siblings) and in the relationships they choose to embark upon. They’re both navigating a very serious and complicated first love. They’re both dating across class (in the opposite direction, a perfect example of the “different views on the same theme” aspect of primary and secondary protagonists). They both have concerns about how and when their relationships become public, and by extension are both playing in the sandbox of themes around privacy and authenticity that define so much of the show.  

Both have difficulty regulating and recognizing their emotions. Sara seems to exhibit alexithymia, a common aspect of autism that makes it hard to recognize one's own emotions. Wilhelm has been taught to repress his emotions, which he does well until he explodes (like when he got into the fight at the top of the series or when he yells at his mom on the phone). He’s also managing a lot of physical symptoms of anxiety. 

Both also struggle with questions of justice and how to make things right. In the beginning of season 2, Wilhelm is initially determined to destroy August because he thinks August will never repent, but by the end of the season he’s starting to realize that this was the wrong technique. He realizes this largely because of Simon; he only puts down the gun and walks away from August because Simon does first.  Sara makes the opposite journey: she starts by trusting that August will change and repent on his own, but then she is forced to confront the fact that this is not true, and that she needs to use the legal system to bring August to justice. She makes this realization largely because of Simon, and seeing the ways that she has hurt Simon, in the same scene with the gun. 

The other big argument in support of Sara as the secondary protagonist of the show is that she and Wilhelm never directly interact. Their actions affect each other all the time, but they don’t share a scene together. They’re living on parallel but separate story tracks. 

Simon is a crucial character in both Wilhelm and Sara’s stories, but the fact that he is close with both excludes him from being a protagonist of his own plot line. (I would say the same about August, who is a catalyst for both Wilhelm and Sara.) That doesn’t mean that Simon isn’t well written. He has a very compelling character arc, motivates much of the plot, and his relationship with Wilhelm forms the heart of the show. But I think the reason people were disappointed in his story in season 2 is that they were expecting something from him that the structure of the show doesn’t support.  

If you’re interested in reading more about A/B/C plot structures I found this website really easy to understand. Also shout out to @bluedalahorse for talking to me about Wilhelm and Sara and helping me articulate what I was trying to say here. 

Thanks again for the ask, anon and for the vote of confidence in my analysis! I really appreciate it. If anyone else has a Young Royals scene or question they want me to break down from a writing or cinematography perspective, my ask box is always open.

[mariacallous]

Forty-seven years ago today, everything changed. True believers might already know what it was: On May 25, 1977, Star Wars hit movie theaters and irrevocably altered nearly everything pertaining to the act of moviegoing. Lines around the block, overly excited nerds, an appetite for action figures. Star Wars taught Hollywood that certain genres—sci-fi, fantasy, anything that percolated in the offbeat TV shows, books, and comics of the 1950s and ’60s—had fans, and those fandoms would show up. Star Wars made a meager $1.6 million in the US in its opening weekend. But people kept coming back, and by the end of its initial run it had made more than $300 million. Hollywood’s Next Big Thing had arrived.

Common wisdom dictates that Jaws, which came out in 1975 and made some $260 million, was the first summer blockbuster. That’s true, but it was Star Wars that shifted the idea of what kind of film future popcorn flicks tried to be. In the years after its release, a trove of sci-fi and genre films landed in theaters: Blade Runner, Alien, E.T., the Mad Max sequel The Road Warrior. By the ’90s, the summer movie energy had shifted to action fare—Twister, Speed, Jurassic Park, Independence Day—but nerd stuff still ruled. For every Forrest Gump there was a Batman Returns or Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Then came a little juggernaut called Marvel. By the time Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies started clearing nine-figure opening weekends in the aughts, it was obvious that comic book heroes’ true superpowers involved making your money disappear. The Avengers opened in early May 2012 and nearly recouped its $200-million-plus production budget in three days. Suddenly, there were at least two superhero movies every year, if not every summer, and some new Star Wars flicks at the holidays.

The one-two punch of Covid-19 theater closures and streaming pretty much kneecapped this entire process. The summer of 2020 had virtually no blockbusters, and by the time moviegoers returned to multiplexes in 2021 and 2022, there had been a vibe shift. Movies like Black Widow and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness did well, but they weren’t events. Rushing to Fandango for tickets didn’t feel as urgent as it once did. Last summer, Barbenheimer was the buzziest thing in movies. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 made money, but they still got beat by Barbie’s might.

Overall, this year could be a wake-up call for studios that superhero fatigue has fully set in, says Chris Nashawaty, author of The Future Was Now, a new book out in July about how the movies of 1982—Blade Runner, E.T., Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, among others—ushered in the current blockbuster era. That epoch, he says, “was always going to be something that couldn’t last forever; I’m frankly surprised that it lasted as long as it did.”

Nashawaty says the success of Barbenheimer—both movies—indicates that audiences are hungry for smart films, but Hollywood’s risk aversion likely means studios will greenlight more projects based on toys and games like Monopoly rather than movies about physicists. “This is a real existential moment in Hollywood right now,” he adds, and studios need to be bold to stay relevant.

Summer 2024, which unofficially begins this weekend, promises a move away from the formula that has been in play for decades. There are only a handful of big popcorn-ready movies coming, and they’re decidedly less family-friendly than the blockbusters of yore. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which dropped on Friday, is a teeth-chatteringly gritty prequel about a kidnapped woman (Anya Taylor-Joy playing the younger version of Charlize Theron’s character from Mad Max: Fury Road) who ends up in a war between two overlords and has to fight her way out. Deadpool & Wolverine is a Marvel movie, yes, but it’s apparently a paean to pegging and cocaine so hard-R that Ryan Reynolds won’t shut up about it.

The series of weird indies coming in the next few months—the thriller Cuckoo, Ti West’s latest horror flick MaXXXine, a new collab from Poor Things pals Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos called Kinds of Kindness—finally have some room to get into the summer movie conversation.

Make no mistake: I am typing these things with glee and admiration. Glossy family movies have their place, but they’ve grown awfully predictable. Safe—not necessarily in their plots, but in their substance. No matter how fun last year’s barn-burner The Super Mario Bros. Movie was, you can’t say anything about it was surprising, much less new. No one walked into the theater for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and walked out as gobsmacked as they were when they saw Star Wars, or even Speed.

This is not a “Hollywood is so homogenized” argument. Rather, it’s a reminder that Tinseltown wasn’t always this way. Its influence used to introduce people to the future. What’s happening now has the potential to mark a return to the kind of startlingly original movies that used to be hits. Between the pandemic, streaming, and the Hollywood strikes of last summer, a lot of old habits got broken, and there’s a sense that a renaissance is afoot.

This revitalization won’t come easy, if it comes at all. Summer 2024 still has its share of redos and sequels—a new Inside Out movie, reboots of ’90s summer staples The Crow and Twister. (The latter is the aptly-named Twisters; there are more tornadoes this time, apparently.) But even those movies at least feel like they’re grasping for the prefranchise days, even if they’re birthing franchises in the process.

Furiosa is currently projected to bring in more than $40 million at the US box office this weekend, a figure that would bring it close to Fury Road’s tally but may not convince Hollywood execs that it should bankroll more R-rated, original shockbusters. It would, presumably, best The Garfield Movie, which is also out this weekend and has the makings of a more surefire hit: well-known IP, animated, PG-rated. (For the record, though: Critics seem to think it sucks.) Early ticket sales for Deadpool & Wolverine are already breaking records for an R-rated movie. Should it dominate the conversation for a couple weeks while also raking in money, that embrace of a very not-Disney Disney movie—coupled with Furiosa and Hot Barbenheimer Summer—could signal a tipping point.

Look, nothing will ever completely derail Hollywood’s reliance on sure things. Video game adaptations remain poised to take the crown long held by superhero flicks. (Borderlands, starring Cate Blanchett, is coming to theaters this August.) But if this summer’s ever-sprawling slate turns up just enough weird hits, maybe we’ll once again know the feeling of walking out of Star Wars for the first time.

[lokiondisneyplus]

Disney has revealed that it has spent $141.3 million (£110.6 million) on pre-production and filming of the second season of its Loki streaming series as it attempts to reinvigorate its struggling Marvel Studios division after a string of critical and commercial failures.

No expense has been spared on Loki Season 2 which cost more in pre-production and filming than many big screen Marvel movies including Doctor Strange (£102.7 million), Thor 2: The Dark World (£99.4 million) and Guardians of the Galaxy (£91.1 million).

Due to debut on the Disney+ platform in October, the sequel to the hit 2021 series stars Tom Hiddleston as the eponymous Asgardian god of mischief. He is joined by Owen Wilson and a new addition to the cast, Oscar-winning Indiana Jones actor Ke Huy Quan who team up to stop a time-travelling conqueror called Kang.

Indiana Jones star Ke Huy Quan is joining Loki for Season 2.2023 MARVEL

Quan's role has been particularly well-received with one fan gushing that "this is the greatest thing to ever happen. I adore this man". Another described it as "like seeing an old friend. It is comforting to see him on screen." One fan even went as far as to say that Quan is reason enough for tuning in. "I was on the fence on watching Loki season 2 but I saw that Ke Huy Quan is in it and yeah...I'm definitely watching that." It is more than can be said for most of Marvel's productions this year.

The studio kicked off 2023 with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, a sci-fi film which opened in February and introduced the Kang character. Its domestic debut weekend box office of $106 million was the highest in the Ant-Man trilogy but then it fell by 70%, resulting in the biggest second-weekend drop in the franchise's history. The movie ended up grossing $476.1 million worldwide which was lower than both of its prequels. As we revealed, Disney spent $193.2 million on pre-production and filming alone.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was widely criticised for its CGI Photo courtesy of Marvel ... [+]COURTESY OF MARVEL STUDIOS

Just days after her departure, Marvel was rocked again when Kang actor Jonathan Majors was arrested on assault and harassment charges. He denies them and will get a chance to explain why when he goes on trial this month.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was a rare recent success for Marvel © 2023 MARVEL.COURTESY OF MARVEL STUDIOS

Then came Secret Invasion. Disney had high hopes for the streaming series which launched in June and was based on a beloved comic series about a race of shape-shifting aliens secretly invading the corridors of power. However, its serious tone, gaping plot holes and poor CGI put off fans leading to its crescendo becoming the single lowest-rated episode of any Marvel series with just a 7% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

As we revealed, staggeringly, it had a budget of $211.6 million. It explains why Disney's chief executive Bob Iger said in February that the studio needs to "reduce costs on everything that we make because, while we're extremely proud of what's on the screen, it's gotten to a point where it's extraordinarily expensive."

A total of 7,000 job cuts and $5.5 billion of cost-savings followed, but even that wasn't enough. Just last month, Iger told CNBC that Disney is slowing down when it comes to making movies and streaming series for its Marvel and Star Wars franchises. "You pull back not just to focus, but also as part of our cost containment initiative. Spending less on what we make, and making less," he said.

Season 2 of Loki was given the green light long before these comments and before Iger even returned to the helm of Disney in November last year. It shows.

The series was filmed at the historic Pinewood Studios just outside London as well as on location across the UK capital. It's a far cry from tinsel town and this shines a spotlight on the otherwise secretive cost of film-making.

Budgets of streaming shows are usually confidential as studios combine the cost of them in their overall expenses and don't itemise how much they spent on each one.

Shows made in the UK are an exception. They benefit from the government's Television Tax Relief scheme which allows studios to claim a cash reimbursement of up to 25% of the money they spend in the country.

To qualify, shows must pass a points test based on factors such as how much filming was done in the UK, the level of UK content and how much they promote UK heritage. Furthermore, at least 10% of the core costs of the production need to relate to activities in the UK and in order to demonstrate this to the government, studios set up a separate Television Production Company (TPC) there for each picture.

These TPCs have to file publicly-available financial statements showing everything from the headcount and salaries to the total cost of the production and the amount of cash they have got back.

The UK government's regulations state that each TPC must be "responsible for pre-production, principal photography and post-production of the television programme; and for delivery of the completed programme." Accordingly, there is no doubt that their financial statements show all of the costs of each series. It isn't even possible for studios to hide costs in other companies as the law also states that "there can only be one TPC in relation to a programme."

The companies usually have code names so that they don’t raise attention when filing for permits to film on location. The Disney subsidiary behind Loki Season 2 is called Limbo Productions I UK in a nod to title character's transient status. Its first set of financial statements were filed on Sunday and cover the 18-month period to October 31 2022 which is when filming wrapped.

They reveal that the company was handed a $27.9 million (£21.8 million) reimbursement bringing its net spending down to $113.4 million which is still far from small beer. The colossal cost dates back to the peak of the pandemic when much of the world was locked indoors addicted to streaming content. Disney was eagerly adding shows to its streaming platform in a bid to attract more subscribers than its rivals.

Season 1 of Loki was the most-watched Marvel TV show to date on Disney+ ©Marvel Studios 2020. All ... [+]COURTESY OF MARVEL STUDIOS

According to industry analysts Samba TV, Loki's first episode was watched by 2.5 million households in its first five days giving it a higher audience than any of Marvel's other streaming shows - a record which stands to this day. The streaming bubble has long since burst thanks to the easing of the pandemic and pure strings being pulled due to rising inflation. However, Season 2's budget could be more important now than ever. Disney doesn't just need it to succeed in order to give a glow to Marvel but to its entire streaming platform.

Unlike theatrical releases, which share ticket sales between studios and exhibitors, Disney receives all of the revenue from its streaming platform. Subscribers pay a single fee which grants them access to all of its new content throughout the year, with or without advertising depending on how much they pay. This makes it impossible to calculate how much subscription revenue is generated by each streaming show.

Instead, the total costs of the shows are deducted from the total revenue to determine whether the platform overall made a profit or a loss. The more subscribers it has, the higher the revenue and the greater the potential for profit. However, Disney wisely changed its goal of chasing subscribers in light of the bleak economic backdrop. Its aim now is to reduce the cost of the programming which also gives a greater potential for profit. It is badly needed.

Disney+ hasn't made a profit since it was launched in 2019 and made an operating loss of $659 million in the first quarter of 2023 alone. Disney has assured investors that the platform will be profitable by the end of its 2024 fiscal year and time will tell whether Loki Season 2's blockbuster budget is a help or a hindrance to that.

[redstonedust]

Im shadowbanned so the only way i can get propaganda out is by asking other people to post it for me. Pls? Pretty pls? ~ @nightmare761

ANYWAY

Five reasons to vote for Joe:

1) He has been actively involved and campaigning to win the tumblr sexyman poll. He has been posting shirtless pictures on twitter and even did a tumblr live to promote his cause. He blazed his pool video, he has been updating his linkedin where all his former clients (he used to to do freelance work as a programer) are hearing about this minecraft poll where we’re voting for the most sexyman of them all. Peak cringe energy, the building block of any respectable tumblr sexyman.

2) If he wins he’ll most likely be going against ZombieCleo, one of his best friends and another person who’s been actively campaigning to win. They stream together pretty often so if they get pit against one another the content that will ensue from that promises to be a goldmine.

3) You look up tumblr sexyman in a dictionary and you find a picture of Joe.

4) He beat Wilbur. I repeat. Joe Hills, the active Hermit with the least amount of subscribers (159k) beat Wilbur freaking Soot (6.3Mil) last round. Do you understand what that means? This man who has 2.5% of the subscribers that Wilbur has on youtube just beat him in the poll, and he’s going NECK TO NECK with Quackity as we speak. Hes punching WAY out of his league and he’s holding his ground. Is there anything sexier than that?

5) And finally, I’ve got this. My final offering to you as to why you should vote Joe Hills for tumbler sexyman:

This right here, is a response to Hermitgang, a disstrack that Team S.T.A.R. made during the Hermitcraft Civil War of Season 6 to demolish the G Team. It took them like a month to put that together. Joe wrote this in a day, and left them in the dust. Hermitgang limped so Joe’s Response could RUN (and that is saying something cause Hermitgang is a banger)

https://youtu.be/XKM0yUL3MJw (in case the link doesn’t work)

you heard em, vote joe hills!

[theplotdemandsit]

Gyeonseong Creature Season 2 Hurt/Comfort List

Character: Jang Tae Sang/Jang Ho Jae

Played by: The Man, The Myth, The Legend: Park Seo Joon

Episodes: 7

Streaming: Netflix

Organization of content: Ellipsis indicate a break in scene or setting where as semicolons represent short breaks in continuity but overall the same scene. 

Warnings: The description below includes spoilers, but I’ve tried to be simplistic and avoid unnecessary details about location and purposes. Read at your own risk! Also, similar to the first season, there is strong violence and gore, though I found it to be less disturbing than the content in season 1. 

2x01: Jang gets hit by a car while on a motor bike and attacked by unknown assailants; Falls off a bridge from a height normal people can’t survive; When his helmet is removed he is coughing up blood…Wakes up in the present…Is attacked by an unknown assailant—cut on his cheek…Attacked again and takes an elbow to the face (ouch) that knocks him back to the ground for a minute; ringing in ears when girl says his name. 

2x02: Visible bruise from last episode fight…Scar reveal on neck…Worried and distressed about injured person…Talks with his friend about his past accident and his lost memories. 

2x03: Attacked by masked assailants (pattern going here) pushed off a floor and fell a few stories on a pile of trash; then pushed out a window from several stories that knocks the wind out of him (at the least); limping away and then attacked again; thrown into a car and kicked repeatedly on the ground; he’s a bloody mess by now and can barely move; crawls over to FL to protect her…Car accident which bloodies his face even more…Ending scene shows him unconscious on the ground. 

2x04: Wakes up in the hospital, his face cut and bruised…(FLASHBACK— hit over the head with a 2x4 and collapses to the ground, falling unconscious)…Headache and ringing in the ears as he begins remembering…Seriously attacked in a taunting manner—cuts shoulder and chest; stabbed through the chest…Dragged unconscious and bloody; slowly gains consciousness 

2x05: (FLASHBACK—Once again attacked by black clad assailants, slashed and stabbed repeatedly [honestly not sure how he’s still alive or conscious]; held up on his knees barely conscious…Wakes up surrounded by a bloody massacre; vomits blood, shivering, “I feel strange”; fighting for sanity)…FL sees him barely conscious on ground and screaming for him; crawling at a snail’s pace; somehow underwater and loses consciousness…Not whump but looking super hot, dang; fighting but actually winning this time; stabbed multiple times.

2x06: After 5 episodes of straight pain, this one has nada but feels. Can't complain.

2x07: Fighting, stabbed; (FLASHBACK—Friend finds him unconscious on a bed with a fresh, still bleeding but stitched wound on his neck and holds him)…Fighting; punching glass repeatedly causing his hand to bleed.

Ending Thoughts

Loved this! Definitely worth the wait. I’m not sure a list is really necessary since this show is 60% physical hurt and 40% feels, but here it is. I found the emotional and physical hurt to be pretty evenly balanced, though the characters were a lot stronger than the overall plot. Despite my love for this season, I will say that season 1 still has my heart due to the patriotism and freedom-fighting themes. While this season didn't make me as emotional as the last, the writing still felt solid (despite all the many questions I still have) and I was still at the edge of my seat the entire time. They did their job and they did it well.

I’m still left with a lot of questions that I may rant about later, but for the most part I feel satisfied. Actually I'm not satisfied at all I NEED ANSWERS and another season but it's fine this is fine About the violence—I am actually really sensitive to violence which may sound strange considering the things I watch, but I will say that I didn’t have to look away too often and never had to skip anything. And I totally skipped a lot of the massacre’s in the first season. I think what’s different here is that the monsters are more human and so the deaths are slightly less brutal. Though they are definitely brutal and gross. I’d say people who like horror will still like it and those who don’t favor gore will still enjoy it as well. Anyway, I definitely recommend! The acting was impeccable from our mains, the music was gorgeous, and the editing and cinematography was on point. (My undergrad was film 🤓). Happy watching!

[angiefsutton]

Quantum Leap (1989) Re-watch - S1, E8

As previously mentioned, I'm doing a re-watch of Quantum Leap (1989) now that I've fallen back into writing slash for it. And as I watched, decided to write up my off-the-cuff/stream of consciousness thoughts as I watch them. (I'm also doing this on my Dreamwidth.)

Season 1, Episode 8: "Kamikaze Kid" Date of Leap: June 6, 1961 Written by: Paul L. Brown

If I recall correctly, this is where we learn that Katie was an abuse victim. {After watching: Yep, I was right.}

"Oh, my God: I'm a dork!" My dude: you have an IQ of 267, speak 7 languages, learned to read at the age of 2, do advanced calculus in his head at the age of 5, and beat a computer at chess at the age of 10. You also graduated from high school and went to MIT at the age of 16. You are ALREADY a dork/geek/nerd. ;-)

Yay - an 'Oh, boy!' leap-in.

Oh God: I forgot Jason Priestly was in this!

Sam is already the fighter of the bully. Yay!

"He's not wearing any underwear!" The first of many, I think. Also, blocked beautifully so you don't actually SEE anything.

Woo-hoo: shirtless Scott. Starting to wonder if him being shirtless and/or in jeans was part of his contract. :-)

That silver jacket and those shades for Al - so laughably futuristic!

(And is it just me, or is Al looking in at the 'naked' Sam when he gives him the 'rating' of the dive?)

We get that Al has Russian blood on his mother's side.

"You remind me of a stripper I know in Vegas: she starts out with empty TV shipping carton and then she ends up with a little teeny weenie Kleenex box right over her …." I love it. Something tells me Al would've loved the burlesque routine I saw at the Kansas City Fringe a number of years ago where the performer did a 'reverse' strip (started out mostly naked and put her clothes ON. One of the audience members jokingly yelled out at one point, "Put it on!").

Ah, TV in the 80s - when they had to reiterate basic ideas (like Al being a hologram) every episode for the newbies.

Sam's hilarious fall back into the garbage dump: it's so well done! Such a great 'pratfall'.

"Ah, young love: there's nothing like it." / "How would YOU know?" God these two are great together.

The waitress offers dessert. Al says, "Just put a cherry on top of your head!" and just bounces in anticipation.

"Did you ever notice that girls never cuddle up to guys unless they're driving a fancy car?" And thus the canon of Al having a 'fancy car' is born. ;-)

The way Dean watches and follows Scott when Sam 'remembers' about Katie's past - dear lord, he was a talented actor.

But Al's response of "I'm sorry, Sam" implies that this is the first time he's heard this. Huh.

Also - still no mention of Tom. Very obvious he doesn't 'exist' yet in canon, as there'd be some sort of comment about why Tom didn't help either.

Sam getting punched in the arm by 'his' dad - Sam's reaction is PRICELESS.

And then, "I hurt this arm" only for the dad to haul off and hit the other arm. I lol'd.

The pause Scott/Sam does when mom calls out "Cameron!" Total 'oh, fuck - what did I do wrong?' of a teenager.

Oh god - I forgot that the mom pulls out a Playboy!

"You gonna bring her to the wedding?" / "I don't know - she's awfully young." My dude. My man. You're a TEENAGER here. Remember? (Glad Al wasn't there, otherwise who KNOWS what he would've said.)

"Strange: now that I'll finally be doing what I always dreamed of …" / "It's a little scary." / "How did you know?" / "Oh, I've had the feeling." Daw - Scott's look! Bashful!Beckett once again!

"For one: he drinks too much." <-- obviously before Al was a recovering alcoholic.

The fixing of the car: Sam is apparently GREAT at improv by now!

"Tina'd look great without that on." Al Calavicci, I love you. (Also - if I ever DO get around to that 'Sam dresses in lingerie for Al', I may have to use a variation of that for his reaction.)

Also - GOD BLESS SUSPENDERS.

"Check out this black number in the Fredericks of Hollywood box." The EYE WIGGLE! Be still my heart!

"What are you going to publish: a lingerie catalog?" / "That's a good idea, Sam. I could do some 'inside research', if you get my drift." Don't ever change, Al.

"I thought lingerie was enough." Oh, yeah. DEFINITELY referring to this episode if I write that story. (And Sam's … fondness for Al in reaction: so sweet!)

And we get the bruises on her neck. Handled well, especially for the Afternoon Special feel of the plot.

Sam's stopping of Bob as he walks up is SO. GOOD. Kudos to Scott Bakula.

Sam being protectively violent. Oh dear LORD that's hot.

The rehearsal is at the TAIL O' THE COCK??? (Sounds like Al's kind of place .)

OH MY GOD! JASON PRIESTLY IS SO YOUNG.

I forgot about the running joke of Sam getting punched in the arm.

I ALSO forgot he has to sit at the kid's table. (And gets smacked - in the arm - by one of the kids.)

And outfit #3 for Al. (Dear lord: how much did they spend on COSTUMES?)

Oh, god - the Michael Jackson 'kiss with history. Totally unneeded. Although watching Scott/Sam dance IS fun.

"You know: normally, I'm against spreading men's room gossip. But in THIS case…" Seeing Al … not angry, but almost OFFENDED, is great here.

"Ka-za-zoom!" God I love Al's … slang? Is it slang?

Sam: "Al!" {beat} "I love ya!" CANON. (And the two of them in that car is SUCH GOOD CHEMISTRY)

"Wasn't that a kick in the butt?" Is this the first time we get that phrase? I didn't note it in my other write ups. If so, huzzah! And that SMILE of Al's. They ARE in love!

Scott/Sam's 'jump' out of the way of Bob's car is SO. BADLY. FILMED.

And a right hook from Sam. YAY!

Really? Bob's gang just … decides it wasn't cool? REALLY? (I guess for an hour-long drama in 1989, it works.)

And the very slashy scene of Sam and Al singing "Let it Be Me" together.

And outfit #4 for Al - LOVE that blue shirt!

Yay! A canon 'Sammy' as well as an 'Al-y boy'!

"Look what I picked up this morning." / "The girl or the car?" / "Both. Met her at the car auction. She offered to 'wax my hood'." SO MUCH TO SAY about this. First: being right on the heels of that very slashy moment, it almost comes across as a 'Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?' moment. Second: this was one of the ones that made me use "Susan: she's a gardener, and she lets me trim her bush at the front of the house." in my "OSHA Safety Guidelines Regarding the Quantum Accelerator … and YOU!" story. Headcanon that Al specifically comes up with these double entendres just for the fun of it.

Oh, the damn 'glow up' of Jill. I hate it almost as much as I hate the one on Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club.

Of COURSE Al is encouraging Sam to kiss the pre-teen. Because of course he is.

… did Sam just look at Al for PERMISSION/APPROVAL????

That is such a sweet kiss, too. Very obviously filmed keeping in mind the REAL age difference between the actors.

And another 'oh, boy' leap in. Glad to see that that became standard in the leap in this early in the series!

Final thoughts: This one aged pretty damn well (aside from that damned glow up). Scott and Dean seem to be having the time of their lives in this episode. We also get more backstory on Sam. (And technically Al.) I mean, it's basically an homage to Grease/Happy Days/American Graffiti, but when has THAT stopped this show? It's engaging, with great act cliffhangers. And the director does a good job showing everyone's reactions (especially the women) to Bob (and Bob's dad) when they are 'misbehaving'.

I want to say I read somewhere that this is one of the slashiest episodes of the series, and it definitely holds up there. Scott and Dean have SO. MUCH. CHEMISTRY. Thinking back over the series, I'd have to say this is one of my favorite episodes.

[hazel-of-sodor]

Best of Discovery Season 1

This year the final season of Star Trek Discovery airs, bringing an end to the show that brought Star trek back to television after over a decade absense. To celebrate its 5 season run (which was incredibly long for a streaming show, I'll be doing a best of for all the seasons of streaming era trek so far, listing great moments/scenes (at least 13, as this was meant to be a bakers dozen series), and One honorable mention.

To start off, the season that Started it all, Star Trek Discovery Season One . Spoilers below

Battle of the Binary Stars

A fleet of Starfleet ships arrive to back up the USS Shenzhou against a klingon fleet, and what a fleet it is. A whole era of Starfleet design is explored in a single scene against a goreous backdrop of the titular binary stars.

2. U.S.S. Europa arrives

The U.S.S. Shenzhou is disable by the battle and is drifting towards an astroid when the Admiral's Flagship arrives. The Nimitz Class U.S.S. Europa arrives at the last second, tractoring the Shenzhou and calling a temporary ceasefire to the battle. It is a visually gorgeous scene with a wonderful score. For just a moment, the arrival of the mighty starship make it seem like everything might be okay.

3. U.S.S. Discovery arrives

U.S.S. Discovery, the namesake off the show doesn't appear till episode 3, but she make a grand entrance, saving the prison shuttle transporting Burnham in a scene that wonderfully conveys her size and grandeur

4. The shushing Klingon

Aboard the damaged U.S.S. Glenn, a team from the U.S.S. Discovery find the crew fataly mutilated by a failed spore jump, but more immediatly threatening, a monster roams the halls of the stricken ship, one capable of killing the klingon boarding party sent to recover the ships secerts. The scenes onboard the Glenn are brutal, and wonderfully tense. It also gives us the hilarious "did that klingon just shush me?" Moment. (I chose a pic of the Glenn rather than the interior as those were more graphic than I wanted for this post)

5. The Discovery saves Corvan II

Discovery makes her first successful long range spore jump and saves the Federation mining Colony Corvan II. Its a wonderful moment od Discovery's crew coming together to save civilians.

6. Please Don't Take My Ship, She's All I Have Left

This moment between Cornwall and Lorca is amazing, and makes me wish that lorca hadn't been mirror Lorca. His plea for him to keep command off discovery is heartfelt (but later revealed to be for all the wrong reasons)

7. Mudd Loses

Magic to Make the Sanest Man go man is amazing throughout, but the moment the crew finally outwits Mudd is so, so satisfying.

8. The Loss of the USS Gagarin

The Discovery attempts to save the U.S.S. Gagarin from the Klingopns and fails, despite their best efforts. The loss makes the war feel far more real, and highlights the fact the Discovery is just one ship, no matter her spore drive. I also love Lorca's speech here-"There will be time to grieve later"

9.Destruction of the Sarcophagus ship

A satisfying victory for the crew, and seeing discovery make all the jumps is an epic scene.

10.Mirror Tilly...kinda

"If you spoke to me that way I would cut out your tongue to lick my boots" What a line. Tilly taking on the role of her mirror counter part is amazing.

11. I.S.S. Shenzhou

The Mirror Shenzhou arrives, and she is beautiful. A former hero ships twisted mirror half.

12. Burnham kills Captain Connor

an amazing fight, and what a gut punch, as Burnham is forced to watch Connor die again, this time by her own hand. The crew clapping after the turbolift opens and his body falls out is chilling in the best way.

13. Reveal of the Imperial Palace

The I.S.S. Charon is an intimidating presense, and way cooler than a palace on a planet.

14. Destruction of the Charon and Discovery jumps Home

The bombing run Discovery makes on the Charon and her jump back to the prime universe using the resulting show wave is awesome, made even better on a personal layer by Burnham saving Mirror Georgiou-"I couldn't watch her die again"

15. Arrival at Qo'noS

Discovery jumps to a cave on Qo'nos, and I love the weight of the scene. You can feel gravity grabbing the ship and Discovery struggling against it.

16. We are Starfleet

The scene the show has been building to, Burnham stands up to command over the plan to destroy the Klingon homeworld, and the crew backs her up.

17. U.S.S. Enterprise

I remeber when I first saw her. The 1701 returned in all her glory. The TOS version is the definative U.S.S. Enterpise to me, but Discovery gave us an amazing earlier version. It had been decades since the prime 1701 had appeared on screen (we don't count certain series finalies) and its honestly still my favorite moment of the season.

Honorable mention: U.S.S. Discovery

the original teaser for the show showed a much different Discovery. While I understand this was never meant to be the final, I lover her all the same. It was also the moment Trek was back, after decades we had a new hero ship. I hope STO adds her someday, and that someone makes a model of her. She may not be the offical version, but she deserves love all the same.

[newsintheshell]

⛱️ CRUNCHYROLL: ECCO IL PALINSESTO ANIME DELL'ESTATE 2024

Signore e signori, la nuova season di Monogatari Series arriva ufficialmente in streaming anche in Italia! What a time to be alive!

In questi giorni è finalmente arrivato un po' di caldo e quale miglior modo per evitare le ondate di calore? Ma stando in casa, davanti al ventilatore, sparandosi qualche nuovo anime estivo, no? Ecco quelli che potremo seguire in simulcast su Crunchyroll, già a partire dalla prossima settimana! 

Di mio, per ora, ho adocchiato ovviamente Monogatari Series (incrociando le dita che l'adattamento sia fatto con la dovuta cura, visto quanto è sfaccettato di solito); Shoshimin che per un fan si Hyouka penso sia d'obbligo; Narenare e Mayonaka Punch per vedere se riusciranno a sostituire Girls Band Cry e La medusa non sa nuotare nella notte (non credo, ma i chad di P.A. Works si meritano una chance); Alya e Pseudo Harem per le doppiatrici e per una sana dose di romcom.

Runner up: Bye Bye Earth e Quality Assurance, visto che sembrano dei fantasy un po' diversi dal solito, VTuber Legend per vivere il paradosso delle anime girl che fanno finta di essere anime girl e Delico's Nursery, giusto per lo stile artistico, ma vedremo. Voi? Fatemelo sapere nei commenti!

🔶🔸NUOVE SERIE🔸🔶

📅 26 GIUGNO

THE STRONGEST MAGICIAN IN THE DEMON LORD'S ARMY WAS A HUMAN

Il terrificante capo dell'esercito dei demoni ha un'identità segreta, ma per quanto tempo ancora riuscirà a celare la verità?

▶️ GUARDA IL TRAILER

📅 29 GIUGNO

MY WIFE HAS NO EMOTION 🆕

Dopo che una nuova robot arriva nella sua vita, one man farà il grande salto del matrimonio con la tecnologia!

▶️ GUARDA IL TRAILER

📅 1 LUGLIO

SHY (Stagione 2)

Con l'arrivo di una nuova minaccia, riuscirà la nostra timida eroina a tenere il passo e salvare di nuovo il mondo?

▶️ GUARDA IL TRAILER

THE OSSAN NEWBIE ADVENTURER, TRAINED TO DEATH BY THE MOST POWERFUL PARTY, BECAME INVINCIBLE

A trent'anni, l'impiegato di una gilda rinuncia al suo posto fisso per una vita d'avventure, allenandosi coi migliori per diventare una forza inarrestabile!

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📅 2 LUGLIO

TASUKETSU -FATE OF THE MAJORITY-

Uno studente si trova invischiato in un gioco di sopravvivenza dopo che metà della popolazione svanisce ogni notte!

▶️ GUARDA IL TRAILER

📅 3 LUGLIO

ALYA SOMETIMES HIDES HER FEELINGS IN RUSSIAN

Questo pigro studente finge di non capire quando la sua compagna di classe Alya gli sussurra parole dolci in russo.

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📅 4 LUGLIO

DAYS WITH MY STEPSISTER

Inizia una peculiare storia d'amore, quando il padre di Yuuta si risposa e la sua nuova sorellastra è la ragazza più carina della scuola.

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PSEUDO HAREM

Rin interpreta vari personaggi per conquistare il cuore di Eiji, fan delle storie harem, ma gli confiderà mai i suoi veri sentimenti?

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SENPAI IS AN OTOKONOKO

Makoto si trova nel bel mezzo di un triangolo amoroso, quando sia Saki che Ryuji si dichiarano a lui. Riuscirà a barcamenarsi in quella situazione e magari divertirsi anche?

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THE CAFÉ TERRACE AND ITS GODDESSES (Stagione 2)

Il Familia Café Terrace apre di nuovo e con lui molti altri ristoranti che gli fanno concorrenza!

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TWILIGHT OUT OF FOCUS

Due coinquilini devono seguire regole ferree, ma finiranno per scoprire dei dettagli su loro stessi che mai avrebbero immaginato.

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FAILURE FRAME: I BECAME THE STRONGEST AND ANNIHILATED EVERYTHING WITH LOW-LEVEL SPELLS 🆕

Un mago di basso livello mostrerà quanto anche le più deboli magie possano essere utili!

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📅 5 LUGLIO

NIER:AUTOMATA VER1.1a (Parte 2)

2B e 9S tornano a portare alla luce delle verità a lungo sepolte. Riusciranno ad affrontare tutte le minacce e a svelare i misteri del loro mondo?

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QUALITY ASSURANCE IN ANOTHER WORLD

Un debugger di una ditta di garanzia della qualità salva una ragazza da un drago, il che accende la sua curiosità. Insieme, cercano di scoprire la vera natura di quel mondo.

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CARDFIGHT!! VANGUARD DIVINEZ (Stagione 2) 🆕

Akina Myodo torna per altre battaglie con le carte, nell'ultima stagione di Cardfight Vanguard Divinez!

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📅 6 LUGLIO

MONOGATARI SERIES: OFF & MONSTER SEASON

Studio Shaft torna con altre storie di Monogatari, regalandoci nuovi misteri, colpi di scena e momenti indimenticabili!

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SHOSHIMIN: HOW TO BECOME ORDINARY

Kobato e Osanai vogliono solo delle vite tranquille, ma il caos sembra seguirli. Troveranno la pace in mezzo a quel trambusto?

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A NOBODY’S WAY UP TO AN EXPLORATION HERO 🆕

Ora che ha il potere di una leggendaria valchiria, un esploratore è pronto ad affrontare ogni sfida!

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DAHLIA IN BLOOM: CRAFTING A FRESH START WITH MAGICAL TOOLS 🆕

Un'impiegata giapponese rinasce in un altro mondo e impara ad amare l'arte di creare strumenti magici!

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SAKUNA: OF RICE AND RUIN 🆕

Basato sull'omonimo videogioco, in questo anime una dea del raccolto scoprirà come tornare alle sue radici!

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THE ELUSIVE SAMURAI 🆕

Un giovane samurai deve imparare nuovi modi per sopravvivere, mentre si riprende dallo storico tradimento della sua famiglia!

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📅 7 LUGLIO

A JOURNEY THROUGH ANOTHER WORLD: RAISING KIDS WHILE ADVENTURING

Takumi, reincarnato con potenti abilità, crescerà due gemelli in un mondo pericoloso, mentre affrontano insieme molte avventure.

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NARENARE -CHEER FOR YOU!-

Segui le giornate di sei liceali, ognuna con una diversa personalità, mentre navigano nel mare della vita e trovano il supporto l'una dall'altra.

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TOWER OF GOD (Stagione 2)

Nuovi personaggi cercano di far diventare realtà i propri sogni, mentre i misteri della torre portano a nuovi amici e nemici.

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VTUBER LEGEND: HOW I WENT VIRAL AFTER FORGETTING TO TURN OFF MY STREAM

Una Vtuber finisce con la sua vita sottosopra dopo che credeva, erroneamente, di aver interrotto la stream e ha rivelato a tutti la sua vera personalità!

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WISTORIA: WAND AND SWORD

Will si iscrive nell'accademia di magia, senza dire a nessuno di non avere poteri magici!

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MY DEER FRIEND NOKOTAN 🆕

Shikanokonokonokokoshitantan!!

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📅 8 LUGLIO

MAYONAKA PUNCH

Segui Masaki e Live mentre fanno di tutto per raggiungere il milione di iscritti nel loro canale NewTube!

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📅 9 LUGLIO

NO LONGER ALLOWED IN ANOTHER WORLD

L'autore Osamu del ventesimo secolo brama una fine tranquilla per la sua vita, ma trova solo gesta eroiche in una bizzarra avventura in un altro mondo!

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THE MAGICL GIRL AND THE EVIL LIEUTENANT USED TO BE ARCHENEMIES 🆕

È amore a prima vista per questi due acerrimi nemici con storie completamente diverse!

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📅 10 LUGLIO

LOVE IS INDIVISIBLE BY TWINS

Un liceale è innamorato di due ragazze, che sono due gemelle amiche d'infanzia!

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OUR LAST CRUSADE OR THE RISE OF A NEW WORLD (Stagione 2)

Iska protegge Sisbell, il che accende la gelosia di Alice. Nel bel mezzo di una cospirazione, riusciranno ad affrontare sia le dispute personali che la guerra?

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📅 12 LUGLIO

BYE BYE, EARTH

Belle Leblac cerca di trovare se stessa dopo essere nata umana in un mondo di animali antropomorfi.

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📅 13 LUGLIO

WHY DOES NOBODY REMEMBER ME IN THIS WORLD?

Un "Mondo rinato" sorge improvvisamente dopo una guerra tra umani e altre razze di mostri.

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MAKEINE: TOO MANY LOSING HEROINES!

Kazuhiko si trova catapultato nell'inatteso dramma delle sue compagne di classe: le ragazze più popolari che sono state respinte!

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ATRI -MY DEAR MOMENTS-

Un ragazzo e una misteriosa ragazza robot vivranno un'indimenticabile estate, in un mondo quasi interamente sommerso!

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📅 14 LUGLIO

THEATRE OF DARKNESS: YAMISHIBAI (Stagione 13) 🆕

Preparati ad altre storie paurose, con l'inizio dell'ultima serie di Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai!

📅 17 LUGLIO

SENGOKY YOUKO (Stagione 2)

Demoni e umani continuano a combattere con l'inizio dell'arco narrativo Thousand Demons Chaos di Sengoku Youko

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📅 7 AGOSTO

DELICO'S NURSERY

Una prestigiosa famiglia di vampiri aristocratici rifiuta una missione perché…deve prendersi cura dei bambini!

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TRUE BEAUTY 🆕

La vita di Jugyeong sta per trasformarsi, dopo che diventa il centro gravitazionale delle attenzioni di tutti, grazie alle sue incredibili abilità nello stile!

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🔶🔸SERIE IN PROSECUZIONE🔸🔶

📆 LUNEDÌ

SPICE AND WOLF: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF - ⏰ 20:00

Lawerence e Holo il Saggio Lupo tornano finalmente a viaggiare in lungo e in largo alla ricerca di nuove avventure!

📆 VENERDÌ

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION (Versione serie) - ⏰ 05:00

Due migliori amiche imparano le complessità degli adulti, mentre il mondo è minacciato dalla comparsa degli alieni.

THAT TIME I GOT REINCARNATED AS A SLIME (Stagione 3) - ⏰ 17:30 SUB ITA / 23:30 DUB ITA

Limur deve confrontarsi con nuove minacce che si stagliano contro Tempest, con l'avvicinarsi del Sacro Impero!

📆 SABATO

MY HERO ACADEMIA (Stagione 7) - ⏰ 11:30 SUB ITA / 22:00 DUB ITA

Eroi e villain si preparano per battaglie più maestose che mai, col proseguimento di My Hero Academia stagione 7!

WONDERFUL PRECURE! - ⏰ IN GIORNATA

Continua la prossima serie Precure, con nuovi amici morbidi come compagni!

YATAGARASU: THE RAVEN DOES NOT CHOOSE ITS MASTER - ⏰ 20:30

Un giovane principe senza ambizioni si trova suo malgrado in un mondo fatto di intrighi di palazzo e creature sovrannaturali.

📆 DOMENICA

ONE PIECE ⏰ IN GIORNATA

La ciurma di Cappello di Paglia continua la sua avventura nella fantascientifica Isola di Egghead!

Come sempre, la lista delle novità è ancora incompleta, al momento. Tante altre serie si aggiungeranno nel corso delle prossime settimane e tenete sempre sott'occhio questo post, perché lo aggiornerò man mano (Tumblr permettendo, visto che mi rompe continuamente le scatole che faccio post troppo grossi: "Troppe immagini! Troppi link! Troppi video!" 🤪🤬💀).

In seguito, ovviamente, arriverà anche la nuova guida stagionale con il calendario completo e i palinsesti degli altri servizi di streaming, le prossime uscite home video e quelle al cinema, che vi ho già anticipato con i vari post che trovate fissati su Facebook e Instagram.

⫸ NON VUOI PERDERTI NEANCHE UN POST? ENTRA NEL CANALE TELEGRAM!⫷

Autore: SilenziO))) Se usate Twitter, mi trovate lì! 

blogger // anime enthusiast // twitch addict // unorthodox blackster - synthwave lover // penniless gamer // INFJ-T magus

[FONTE]

[wily-one24]

Top 5 SVU episodes. Or if you want to break it down more can choose any/all to answer: top 5 overall, top 5 eo episodes, top 5 olivia centric episodes, top 5 elliot centric episodes, top 5 whatever other character or partnership you want episodes

Do you understand what you are asking me to do? Like, there are over 500 episodes. Top 5?!?! That's, like, 1%. I can't... I just can't... I have been going over season by season and I'm up to S13, I already have a list of over 70 episodes and so will definitely have to narrow it down. Scrap that, I'm gonna go into headings.

Top 5 SVU Episodes Overall In SVU 1.0:

"911". Season 7, episode 3. Without a doubt, I love this one. The drama, the suspense, a child in danger, Olivia all dressed up, Olivia showing emotion, Olivia going absolutely feral as she cracks a guy's nose with her elbow, then pushes him down on the bed and threatens his life? Fuckin' A. Will watch that one forever and ever.

"Signature". Season 9, episode 12. Erika Christenson as Agent Cooper, plus Olivia pairing up to hunt a psychotic serial killer/torturer? Lack of Elliot? Yes please. Give me some angst... oh, that's right. You do. A victim that may have lived if different choices had been made. A multi-state FBI case. The moral dilemma of how right it is to kill a purely evil psychopath, which we can all understand, but there is supposed to the law and you can't just go off and shoot who you want. Olivia being slightly (a lot) traumatised because she has over-identified with Agent Cooper and then Cooper shoots herself in front of Liv while saying "Those who hunt monsters should be careful, lest they become monsters". It has everything.

"Zebras", Season 10, episode 22. This is just fun all around. There's a puzzling murder mystery. Inept crime techs we all love to hate. Over protective Elliot almost punching out a guy for suggesting Olivia might be a good victim. Cragen not even caring and telling the guy he'd deserve it. THEN, well, we all know what happens, right? With the hostage taking and Olivia pretending to take sides and slapping the ever living fuck out Elliot and screaming at him? Then fake kissing the perp? Yeah, we know. We love it.

"Locum"/"Bullseye", Season 12, episodes 1 and 2. Originally shown together as a season opener and later edited to be streamed separately. Bailey Madison as a little lost girl (score one more for Olivia's orphanage of lost case children) who tries so desperately to escape her batshit crazy parents (hi Joan Cusack, we love you) and is ultimately left in a bad situation while everyone else around her gets a happy ending? That poor child. I still believe Olivia should have just taken her. Then pad it out with a horrific pedophilia case with Henry Ian Cusick and a bunch of traumatised ten year old girls. Like, it's a lot, but it's a good set of episodes. The angst. The drama. The absolute absurdity of ANYONE calling Olivia dried up and repulsive. (Man, have you no eyes?).

"Behave", Season 12, episode 3. I cannot. Jennifer Love Hewitt. The trauma. Olivia stepping up and lending her power until she can find it in herself again. Olivia being all badass "You're my bitch now". The entire squad getting up in that guy's face, like the absurdity of a bunch of detectives following this guy into the bathroom to watch him pee, and sitting in his medical conferences to publicly ask why he rapes women. And Olivia being all go get 'em and travelling interstate to get her evidence. And JLH at the end, all "Be a good boy". The absolute satisfaction of it. It's a good episode with a good outcome and a good story.

Top 5 Episodes in later seasons, post Elliot:

"Hunting Ground", Season 13, episode 15. Not only do we get a psycho killer abducting young women and taking them out into the woods to drug them and hunt them down for sport (and the odd rape now and again, it *is* SVU after all). This is the first episode that really cements Nick as Olivia's new partner, the building of a great bond. I adore it.

"Institutional Fail", Season 17, episode 4. This will always hold a place in my heart. This is the episode that got me hooked on SVU. I had never seen the show, it wasn't even on my radar, until about November last year when I saw clips of this episode on FB. I was only able to track down what show it was from, because I knew Whoopi Goldberg (I mean, who doesn't, let's be real). It's a good story, it tugs on the heart strings. And it has abolutely no characters from the early seasons (except Olivia, who is radically different seventeen years earlier) which lead me to actually question if it was the right show for the first few episodes of season 1, but then I was hooked so it didn't matter.

"Townhouse Incident", Season 17, episode 11. I mean, let's face it. Olivia being taken hostage (yet again, for all perpetuity, come on girl, you need to have a lojack installed on your person or something... a personal alarm necklace or something... please) yet again is always fun. Bloody her up a little. Bring back her Lewis PTSD. What's not to like?

"The Book of Esther", Season 19, episode 20. This one draws me in every time. I don't know why. I almost always end up hoping it ends different, when I know it doesn't. The way it draws Amanda in and Olivia can tell her time and time again from experience not to get too involved, but she won't listen, and it nearly breaks her. The absolute absurdity of her being the one to take that shot and the cruelty (and necessity) of Olivia being the one to tell her.

"Remember Me/Remember Me Too", Season 19, episodes 23 and 24. Okay, okay, I know it. Olivia is taken hostage again (that personal alarm necklace is lookin' pretty good right about now, huh?). But it's more than that. It's the return of Feral Liv. Like, full out, balls to the wall, screaming red faced and incoherent in the face of a tied up man. And, honestly, the first time I saw this episode, I did not know whether or not she was playing a part to pacify the victim/hostage taker, or whether she believed her and this was honest emotion and it gets me everytime. Because it could have gone either way.

I mean, I'm already at five and there's still five season to go!!! C'mon here. It's not fair. I've already culled so MANY good ones. I'm sad. Sad Jacqui. 😞

Top 5 Storylines:

William Lewis, beginning at the end of S14 and continuing throughout S15. I am a sucker for threatening my favourite female characters. Hell yeah, let's kidnap Olivia and tie her up and get her all bloody and make her fight for her life. Then show us the aftermath and the horrific trial and her therapy and the subtle signs of trauma and PTSD afterwards... and THEN bring him back to fuck up her life some more so that it carries with her for years afterwards and is given to us in small doses of her trauma recall. I am ALL FOR THAT SHIT. Let's go.

Olivia's ongoing child hunt, trawling through all her cases for the perfect baby/child. Like, from a popstar's neglected daughter, to a crack addicted dying baby, to poor fostered Calvin being wrested screaming from her broken hearted arms... YES. Give me more. Oh, you will? A baby sold to child pornographers and kept in a drawer? That turns out to be the love child of a junkie prostitute and the devil incarnate human trafficker/pimp that she gets to adopt? That later turns out to be insane Psycho Brooke Sheild's grandson? This is my crack. Oh, what's that? He has blood relatives and decides to decimate her by calling complete strangers the only real family he has? Mmmmmm, fine wine.

Olivia as collateral damage. All of it. From her tragic conception, the rape of her mother, to her mother's inability to love her, her mother's psychological (bordering on physical) abuse of her, the absolute cruelty of her childhood that leads her to pursue a career in SVU so she can heal people the way her mother (and she herself) were never healed. That she can get the justic for others that she and her mother were always denied. Yesss. Give it. Bring it back in tantalising doses, like her inability to trust others, her inability to let others help, that poor neglected little girl that rises to the surface all the time, that locks herself in an interrogation room and bares her soul to a victim/killer despite Fin and Carisi trying to pull her out... that makes her look women in the eye when they tell her they cannot raise a monster baby left to them by their rapist. The way it leads her to never trust affection and keep everyone at bay. No, Cassidy, she'll never love you. No, Ed, she'll never trust happiness with you because happiness never lasts, not for her. The only one she'll ever really open up to is the ONE PERSON WHO IS UNAVAILABLE forever and ever. In every aspect is he unavailable, her work partner, her MARRIED work partner. The only one she can trust, because she never feels worthy of anything good. It's like they reached into my brain and looked at all the shiny buttons and decided to push them all.

Amanda forever and ever (at least in the early years) putting herself out there as bait, as a potential victim with no thought to her safety, because she refuses to see herself as anything but a victim and carries so much guilt, feeling complicit in her own rape, so she has to try to make it happen again to prove to herself that she DESERVES IT. That it was inevitable. That putting herself there gives her a modicum of control over the narrative. Mmm, delicious, yes, Give me a messy bench. Give me gambling addiction and smoking and the inability to see her family for what they are.

Fin, being Olivia's Ride or Die. He's so loyal. He would anything and he would also kill anyone for her. I absolutely believe he knows enough people that nobody would ever find the body. He has secret connections and knows things no normal person should know. I love it. He's like a secret agent, always there to protect Liv and solve cases. She deserves him.

Top 5 Guest Stars (other than the ones I have already mentioned):

Ally Walker. My old Profiler fave come back as a fucked up psychiatrist that fakes schizophrenia in a young boy so she can institutionalise him and rape him and have him father her baby? Oh, dear lord, fandoms collide. I love it. Bring it On.

John Stamos. You knew I was gonna say this. Anyone with the balls to bring up Elliot's pregnancy kink is a winner in my book.

Mary Stuart Masterson, little gay Jacqui loves her some Idgie Threadgoode and Benny & Joon. MSM coming into CANONICALLY point out the toxic codependency of Elliot and Olivia and how it legitimately effects their ability to work together? YASSSS.

The Rizzoli and Isles group... aka... Sasha Alexander, Jacqueline Bisset and Sharon Lawrence (Maura and both her mommies), my faves, not to mention Angie Harmon and Jordan Bridges, Michael Masse, Bruce McGill, John Damon, Chazz Palminterri, and so many more.

The Orange is the New Black gang, like, so many I cannot even mention. They're pretty much ALL there. Over and over again, in nearly every season. (If you missed Pablo Schrieber, I cannot help you), but even minor roles, nearly all the gang is there. Except Piper and Alex, but.. they were never my faves anyway.

I could keep going all day, fave characters (other than Olivia, because that's a gimme), favourite one liners, favourite relationships, favourite outfits, favourite undercover stints. What's not to like about this show?

[chaoshaven]

Chaotic Card 15- Maxxor

Here he is, the leader of the Overworld tribe, Maxxor! this art done by Khary Randolph, Etienne St.Laurent, Maxxor inherited the role from his father, who we haven’t seen in the show. Hopefully retired, but considering Maxxor is a punch first and ask questions later, they probably died in a war. His advisors are the hero Intress, muge Najarin, and the Danian ambassador Raznus. Possibly others too, but these are the confirmed ones in the tv show card lore.

Stat Spread:

Courage: 90-110

Power:55-75

Wisdom: 70-90

Speed: 40-60

Energy: 55-65

Mugic Counters: 2

Elements:

Fire

Air

Earth

Water

Ability:

Maxxor is able to use his Mugic Counter to heal himself or an ally, just like Donmar. This is very useful, but similar to what I talked about in Laarina’s post, you need to make a decision; Make a team with 8 Mugic Counters, to use this ability? Or pick 2 cards to not use, or ignore this ability? It’s something to consider.

Playstyle:

Maxxor is good, in any deck, Wisdom with Bodal, or a courage based one with Frafdo. You might even have all three front liners in an Earth based deck, with him, Crawsectus, and Maglax. Maybe you even put him in the middle for the support as a healer or to cast Mugic. He is good in many decks...but not great. He has no ability that gives him a damage buff, but a Battlegear could fix that. He’s a jack of all trades, but master of none, and as the series went on, we got better healers who can increase the maximum energy of a creature instead of just healing damage., and better offensive Creatures with high Disciplines and damage buffs like Crawsectus. If you have him, and are playing any of the first 3 sets, he can fill in any space in just about any deck. I’d recommend him over Donmar due to the higher stats, but there is also other Creatures I’d reccomend over Maxxor.

Biography:

Okay, so there’s a lot to go over here! We learn more as the tv show goes on, but Maxxor is the Leader of the Overworld, and willingly goes on one man missions for recon or to re route enemy armies. Preferring to settle things with his fists than his words, he needs his advisors to help him see reason. In the TV show, also called Chaotic, MajorTom is the protagonist of the show, and in his friend group, the one who mainly uses Overworlders. He idolizes Maxxor, and does everything he can to help the Overworld tribe. 

Chaotic only lasted 2.5 seasons, due to a lawsuit that 4Kidz created. They claimed that, they weren’t making enough money for the work they made in creating the tv show. That TC Digital Games, the card producing side owned by Bryan Gannon, (also it was a subsidiary/child company of 4Kidz) was getting too much of a profit. Notably because it was about money, all the cards in production had to be stopped. A lot of store even took cards off the shelves. The online tcg website was down and the show pulled from air. All of this was done because it was about money, so they needed to stop all incoming profit streams before discussing how the profit was split up. Also interestingly, this lawsuit came after 4Kidz lost a lawsuit against Konami, for breaking contract and making dubs in languages other than English.

With Chaotic, 4Kidz did not lose their case; instead, they went bankrupt and bought out, twice. for 10 years. Because of this, the case was closed, with all rights going towards TC Digital and Bryan Gannon, now the sole owner of Chaotic. Most of the episodes (one is gone, and another is only half there) is on a youtube channel called Chaotic and I implore you to watch it.

The show focuses on Tom Majors, getting a code that his friend Kaz tells him to connect to his Chaotic account. It will let you play Chaotic, “for real.” Eventually he does so and finds a VR world called Chaotic, where you can challenge people to drome matches. 7 dromes, which act as simulation rooms; because when your Creature fights the enemy’s, you become those Creatures and duke it out to decide the victory.

On top of all of this, you’re able to travel from the online world to Perim, the land where all the creatures actually live. You can scan Creatures with a Scanner, what is essentially an advanced phone circa 2008, or Battlegear, Mugic, Locations, to then use in future drome matches.

[williamvapespeare]

First Ten Lines game

Rules: Share the first line of ten of your most recent fanfics (/one fanfic and original fiction) and then tag ten people. Don't have ten? Not to worry, just share what you have.

Thank you so much to @starkey for the tag and for supporting my need to yell about my own writing :’)

1. “Eddie’s pretty good at taking punches.” [There’s no sign of the morning coming, a Steddie fic that I wrote two chapters of, I’m so sorry everyone)

2. “ René swears the corridor has grown smaller since the last time he walked it.” [Wine-Dark, a very rough draft of a dark academia novel)

3. “ I must admit I barely noticed at first.” (Currently untitled story ft. paranormal mystery, haunted boarding school, and queer intimacy)

4. “ You kiss like a man about to be hanged, he was told once.” (Hanged Man, a novella I’m redrafting for Camp Nano! A historical romance between a doctor and a serial killer who donates bodies to the hospital to be dissected, takes place in a decaying dystopian city.)

5. “ The air tastes like autumn, like cinnamon and scarves wound tight around thin necks to keep them from snapping.” (October Story, a horror-adjacent, romance-adjacent flash fiction piece)

6. “He thought it had always been there, growing up from the ground in a flourish that begged attention, lush green moss mottled with grey-brown bark, roots protruding from the earth beneath the porch, and encroaching, year after year, on the foundations beneath.” (Currently untitled story born from my desire for the vibes of “When Marnie Was There” but for it to actually be the queer coming of age romance we all deserved)

7. “ The van belonged to Claudia’s mother and we spent the first week of summer fixing it up.” (Nowhere, New England, a novella about teenagers who road trip to a graduation beach party that turns out to be a yearly sacrifice to an eldritch sea god)

8. “Today, I open my eyes to yellow; it streams through the half-open curtains, curls in patches on the concrete walls, drips down to congeal in puddles with the dust on the floor.” (Colourfall, a short story about a strange world and finding connection in dark places)

9. “ God fucking dammit! Nothing. There’s nothing. You bougie assholes have three fucking kids and you’re telling me you deal with them all completely sober?” (Currently untitled script about three people hiding in a house during a zombie apocalypse - the first lines are technically stage directions, but this is the first spoken one)

10. ‘“They’ll be here soon,” he says.’ (Hot Season, a short story about sad gay post-apocalyptic farmers. I know it’s not a very interesting first line, but I had to include it because this story has recently consumed my soul!)

Tagging @orestesdreams-pyladesloves @adorablecrab @buildarocketboys @montparnassee and anyone else who wants to!

[cc-kirby]

Ranking the Summer 2024 Anime I Watched This Year

I watched *nine* (!!!!!) different series this season, which was a lot on my plate to deal with, and I even had to finally drop some before I could even start them (Sorry 2.5 Dimensional Seduction, maybe some other time. I just didn't have the time man). But the nine I watched, I watched to completion, so I figured I'd take the time to air out my thoughts on them as well as rank them from best to worst. Mostly short takes, a handful of longer ones because for a handful of them I actually had a lot to say:

Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines! Not only the best anime of the season, but one of the best new anime I've seen in YEARS. The one that I would tell everyone to go out of their way to watch. In-between the comedy you get some of the most genuine, thought-provoking monologues and stories about the politics of dating, friendships, and relationships, done by people who nail the high school mindset the entire time in writing that doesn't talk down to its audience. Wonderful characters and characterization. Even the one-note absurdist comedy characters are done very well. Made me emotional on multiple occasions throughout the entire time it was on. If it doesn't get a second season it will be a god damned travesty. Incredible series.

2. Pseudo Harem. This was a series that snuck up on me in a great way!! The last five or so episodes of this series were the best of any series this entire season. This was the comforting hug that I needed every week, especially in its last few weeks. Pseudo Harem is about the two biggest dweebs on the entire planet slowly falling in love with each other. Watching and rooting for Rin especially, since the show heavily focuses on her perspective and feelings, is some of the most fun I've had this entire season. Saori Hayami knocks it out of the park with her performance, Rin is the cutest girl of this season. Oh man oh man I am going to miss this series a ton.

3. Mayonaka Punch. The best voice cast out of anything I watched, with all incredible characters like Live, Tokage, Masaki, and Yuki my beloved. But everyone was great. Maybe had the best single episode of any series this season (Fu's origin episode which had me and the two friends I watched it with crying hard) on top of being really funny.

4. Days with My Stepsister. This one genuinely caught me by surprise. Two lonely, depressed, broken human beings who find comfort and solitude in each other after realizing they are first person to understand each other. The premise from the onset makes you think you're gonna be in for some eyerolling-ly poor way of handling this subject but they give it a thoughtful nuance that makes you feel for the bond these two share with each other. Far and away the best soundtrack of any show I watched this season. The Saki monologues from her diary that start or end some of the episodes were the best voice acting work of the entire season, from any series. This was one that I was very late in starting, but once I did, I basically binged through it over a very short amount of time. The ending is beautiful, and done in such a way that while it feels like a finality for the series, is also a little open enough just in case a second season comes through, and I am really hoping that this will be the case. A beautiful, melancholic tale about finding love.

5. VTuber Legend: How I Went Viral after Forgetting to Turn Off My Stream. This show was just a fucking trip from start to finish. Absurdist comedy (they literally do gooning jokes for fuck's sake) that lands every single time. The funniest show I watched this season by far.

6. My Deer Friend Nokotan. I feel like me and my friends who I watched this with were the only people who didn't get weirdly angry or feel betrayed by this series. We saw it for what it was, goofy head-empty comedy, and had a good time every week. Nokotan and Koshitan are ABSOLUTELY dating.

7. Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian. Hoo boy. I've got a lot to say about this one. My biggest disappointment of the season. It kills me to say this because Alya became one of my favorite girls ever IMMEDIATELY. A gorgeous bully tsundere girl will grab ahold of my heart and never ever let go. They even gave her Lum's voice actress. Her whispering in Russian was heart-meltingly cute. What was not to love?

Well to start, here's the deal. The first two episodes of this series? Absolutely tremendous. This series immediately got high marks from everyone and it was easy to understand why. It was absolutely what the trailers was selling itself as. Lighthearted romantic comedy with lots of bully teasing. And then starting with like, episode three, it pivots HARD into being a high school drama with light romantic comedy sprinklings every now and then like it wants to remind you "oh yeah it says we're a romantic comedy on the tin" and that's when, as each episode goes by, you start seeing more and more people turn on this series. Was it justified? I stuck with it because I don't mind drama stuff, but I completely understand why people dropped off like they did. And even I cracked finally. Alya's Russian out loud asides are treated very much as afterthoughts after the fourth or fifth episode. It's the series' entire main gimmick!! It's in the title!! You'd think they'd showcase it way more than they do!! The second to last episode of the series, when we're knee-deep in the new antagonist characterization of Yuki, even *I* was finally at one point like "can we have some fun in this series again for more than like a minute?" And in the finale they do lean towards it just a little bit again, but unfortunately just too little too late for me.

Am I going to watch the already announced second season? Yes, absolutely. Because again, while I was a little frustrated like everyone else in how they should have called this a dramedy rather than a romantic comedy, I still liked this series. I adore Alya and her sister Masha is *so* good and sweet and I need her in my life to tell me I'm doing my best while patting my head. It's just that, from the first few minutes of episode one I was already proclaiming that this was going to be my favorite thing of the season. And for those of you who watched the first few episodes, could you blame me? Who'd have thunk it'd screw itself up like that as time went on if you weren't reading the light novels and going into it blind? Everything in the buildup leading to the release of this series sold it as something completely different from what it was.

8. Shy Season 2. I like Shy, but I find myself, like with the first season, enjoying the early "slice of life, but she happens to be a superhero" aspect of the series way more than I do the latter half of each season when it delves into the serious business fighting aspect. But I realize I am in the minority here. But even then, that doesn't mean I dislike the serious stuff at all!! I honestly thought the sister drama was even better than Pepesha's mother issues in the first season, and we got so much more of Piltz in this season who I adore. I really enjoy Shy a lot, even if some of the villains are a little too cornball for my taste, but I am adoring seeing Teru's growth into a dependable, relied on superhero, and seeing her get her flowers at the end of this season from all of her peers was so good and had me cheering her on too.

9. Plus-Sized Elf. The only series of the season that I didn't like at all. Stuck with it because once you skip the, and I hate to use this word but it actually works here, cringe-y opening as well as the end credits each episode is barely under ten minutes and I felt like it would've been stupid to not just finish that shit out. But man, that was brutal. I think there's room for an ecchi comedy series that's done well every season, but this one was not in the slightest. They overload you on characters that are hard to remember after awhile (and to be honest the only two I super liked were the main elf girl, who is adorable, and the convenience store girl) which is the kiss of death for a series that is meant to air in 15 minute time slots. Just not worth your time.