#technically not a spoiler it was in the trailer but just in case

[moringmark]

[reverse-the-jellybaby]

I hope Mel keeps coming back as part of the UNIT crew like Kate does. It’s what she deserves.

[mimicha-arts]

Date: 09/29 SPOILERS FOR S2 Part 1

I don't know how many times I rewrote everything, my documents flew away for dozens of pages, so I will divide my post into several parts.

I like to theorize and explain things to myself, but at the moment every new question that comes up contradicts every answer I found. I don’t have a lot of time now, and unfortunately I have to write first, then translate. So I don't know when I will be able to edit the next part and post it.

In the first post I want to talk about time, number of attempts, and what the original reality is. My friendly reminder - this is all just empty speculation and I'm just having fun (while crying actually). I'm pretty sure that when we get trailers and more information about canon, I'll change my mind a lot. But that's it for now.

Time

The events in s2 take place in a short time. In the last interview it was said that about 3 days had passed. so. October, 23th - Lu Guang was stabbed, Cheng Xiaoshi was interrogated during the day, the events in the hospital placed during the evening. October, 24th - Chen Bin's funeral, Cheng Xiaoshi dived in his photo October, 25th - dive in Li Tianxi's photo, interrogation of Li Tianchen, time loop, Lu Guang's kidnapping October, 26th - everything that happened in the theater and in the tunnel Plus taking into account the time (about a month) they spent in the hospital, ep12 ends at the end of November/beginning of December, congratulations. The start of the new year is almost here, have we really crossed the critical point for Cheng Xiaoshi and he won't be forever 21? Heh.

9/13 is not the date of Cheng Xiaoshi's death,  it has to be 9/12. Below I will describe why I think that this is not his first attempt, and in this case more than 5 minutes have definitely passed. Time has not stood still, seconds are passing. Lu Guang's watch does not say five in the morning, but midnight and five minutes. The date of the password is Lu Guang's reminder, corresponding exactly to the time of the dive. If that's the case, I believe that each new reality is a new password corresponding to the time of  diving, as a reminder of the previous failure. 

Technically, I think that Cheng Xiaoshi actually died at 5:35 in the original timeline - this date was indicated, everything led to it, but in the end it was not shown  in s2 itself. The events in the tunnel do not correspond to this time, since the actions took place earlier (the meeting at the theater was scheduled for 3 am, the rest of the events happened very quickly, the whole action couldn't have lasted for 2 hours and a half, so I think everything happened before approximately 4 am or so).

It coincides too well with this broken time in the Overthink. So, I am desperate enough to believe that  Cheng Xiaoshi's death occurred at 05:35 (as actual time). Even if the specific time in the ED can be perceived as 5:20, because that is literally the reason why Lu Guang broke the time - his wish that Cheng Xiaoshi could live, his love for Cheng Xiaoshi. It is possible that time passed in the original reality - literally from this moment until the last attempt at 00:05. So maybe. While Lu Guang lives one life after another, in fact, Lu Guang is truly “frozen” in this 12-13 September, and not even a day has passed in the original timeline. Why do I think that exactly this amount of time has passed (more than five minutes, but less than a day)?

It’s difficult to say at all that Cheng Xiaoshi died in the photo studio in the first place.

There are changes in the design of their room.

Lu Guang probably washed the blood from his hands, so he spent some time for it, but did not change his clothes, still covered in blood, even has traces of blood on his face. (Did Cheng Xiaoshi touch his face before he died? Did Lu Guang himself cry, covering his face with hands? Oh, boy)

I'll talk about details in the next part.

Again and again

I feel sorry for him. He is the most pathetic, most selfish, most insane person in the universe. I love it so much.

I believe we have not yet seen the actual chronology in terms of events, but we have seen the original timeline in terms of Lu Guang's insane room.

I’m sure this is not his first dive; we have always had the symbolism of constant resets. Again and again, again and again, again and again. I think there have been many attempts. As many as there were photographs he could find - if the ability works the same way as Cheng Xiaoshi use it himself, and he should be the author of the photo, we can only cover our heads with our hands and cry.

This is Lu Guang's POV - Lu Guang already knew that the death node cannot be changed (meaning he already tried), but he still wants to use the very last attempt to try.

He looks so dead inside, it's impossible. In my understanding: he initially used earlier photographs that were closer to September, the death of Cheng Xiaoshi in the original reality, and then dived deeper and deeper into the past, into more distant events.

Let's go back to s1. It is still difficult to say how many times the events were repeated. Lu Guang himself confirmed it in his words that this happened more than once. There have been a lot of attempts, he himself said “no matter how hard you try".

I think that “last chance” meant just that, last chance. From what he said, we know that a photo can only be used once. If s1 showed us the events of the current timeline, which I believe, this was probably one of the earliest photos that Lu Guang could use - a photo that happened before their first meeting. Back to their real beginning. This… tritely has a beautiful and symbolic logic behind it. Current events are “all or nothing.”

The photo studio from the flashback is the original universe, this reality is not destroyed, he returns to it after each original attempt. We know that Cheng Xiaoshi died many times in many different ways. If there have been many attempts, if the attempts are limited to photographs, all he can do is use them from some original point.

Like I think he can't get an "infinite" number of attempts by using the photos again within the "past" he returned to. In my opinion, “dive within a dive” is impossible. I don't think that after diving, there is a possibility of another dive by the same person inside the diving - because it makes more sense if Lu Guang has an invisible timer that reminds him - the time is running out.

I think the design of their room in the original timeline confirms this. Their table is always full of books, there are things, lamps, even framed photo. Everything is empty. If these were the events immediately after Сheng Xiaoshi's death, would their room be so lifeless?

I'm inclined to think that Lu Guang went through all their belongings, used every possible attempt to find suitable photographs that would allow him to try to rewrite the events again.

I find destroyed or burned photographs more symbolic of failed attempts being burned, too - after all, a photo can only be used once, everything is changing, it’s not a time loop. Every used photo, every reality that doesn't turn out well, is another crossed out opportunity. But remembering his words about the destruction of photos - I think that we will see this again in the context of the fact that he destroyed the photos himself. It is quite possible that he destroys the photo after the dive to erase the reality/time where Cheng Xiaoshi died again as a fact. Because… otherwise a terrible situation will arise. If Lu Guang possesses himself from a photo, then after leaving it after Cheng Xiaoshi's death, the original!Lu Guang moves back to the original line, while Lu Guang from the rewritten timeline remains in the timeline where Cheng Xiaoshi is dead (and if the events are rewritten so deeply, it is not at all clear what will happen to his memory). Therefore, I am sure that the original Lu Guang must destroy the photographs because of this as well.

I was wondering if he destroys the photo while diving, right after it - maybe that's how the mechanics could work, I would say, of how he "locks" himself into a certain reality. But since I believe that he should return to the "original point", I do not think that this is possible - if he doesn't need to come back, if he just "dives after diving" further into the next timeline, it won't make sense: more photos can be taken, attempts won't end with a limit. But do I like this idea for the last attempt? That he has to live his entire life from the very beginning without a “save point” to return to? Oh. Yes. Note: I considered the possibility that there is no original timeline as a starting point for diving, that he dives again after diving inside the dive itself, destroys the photo immediately inside the dive, that everything is repeated again, no limit either. Just at some point Lu Guang himself decides there is no point in continuing to use any photos from this period, so decided to use a photo corresponding to the very very beginning. But in doesn't make sense, in any case he will have the opportunity to take more photos that he could use for further dives, this does not create a " the last try" point (even if it was possible, also knowing Lu Guang’s character, I don’t think that he could partly “give up”, partly take such risks voluntarily)

But it's still questionable. Because, if the original timeline exists, all dives were made from there, then a simple problem arises - given Cheng Xiaoshi's ability, all dives take place in “real time”, i.e. in the original reality the same amount of time should also pass. We all understand that this is impossible, it is difficult to imagine how many attempts Lu Guang made, how many years actually passed.

So, if we believe that the “original reality” is a thing, then the combination of their abilities, becoming a “perfect fusion,” has other limits, other specifics of using and/or the original timeline is so broken that time only passes when Lu Guang exists in it.

The original universe… or?

I hope I've made it clear enough before - in my opinion the original timeline was shown to us in terms of the timeline from where he dives into the photos. Their room. Because there must be something that creates a limited number of attempts.

But I have some doubts about the fact that what we saw in the vision or flashback is the original timeline, too. Yes, they could have shown us the very first death of Cheng Xiaoshi, this would even be logical, but the problem is that this is only relevant if we agree that Lu Guang has white hair from birth.

Considering that the hints themselves within the series may turn out to be a joke, I still haven't completely dismissed this idea. The only characters with unusual hair color are twins, but they are like that at least because of genetics, they inherited it from their mother. While the issue with Lu Guang remains open.

Therefore, I am considering 2 simple options: 1. Lu Guang's hair was originally white from birth, so we shouldn't expect him to have a different design in the original timeline. Or Lu Guang's hair turned white before Cheng Xiaoshi's death for some other reason. Then we can safely say that the events of the flashback is the original universe.

2. Lu Guang's hair was not originally white, but his hair gradually turned white with each dive attempt due to overpowering, trying too many times, and overusing his abilities.

If we consider the second option, then:

The flashback events shown to us are one of the later attempts, for example, the penultimate one, which is generally a possible option. That version of death, when Cheng Xiaoshi received a very similar injury to Lu Guang - that why the flashbacks were specifically about this late attempt.

The events shown to us are this current reality in which Cheng Xiaoshi was/has to be the 7th case, and this is exactly the death that was intended for him in this timeline - but this period of time, from April to September, was cut out and "stolen", just as case 7 disappeared. And that in the most recent attempt, not only was time rewritten “from the very beginning,” from the very first photo, but something else happened to prevent Cheng Xiaoshi’s death at the appointed time.

The one who was supposed to die in the photo studio when Lu Guang was stabbed - was Cheng Xiaoshi himself, and what was shown was not a flashback, but Lu Guang's vision of how things could have been different (if we perceive the forest not as a literal location, but a symbol) . I doubt it, but let's leave this possibility open.

Why do I even think that the white hair theory could be real? Of course, maybe it's just the light, but maybe… Due to Li Tianxi's memories and abilities, taking over the memories from the other reality in which Lu Guang lived, Qiao Ling's hair also changed a bit. Pay attention to the only white strain in her hair. This is an extremely interesting and rather intentional detail.

If this is the case, then Qiao Ling's white hair is a hint. This does not mean that every attempt is 1 white strand of hair. It's not that… literal. This is an artistic way of allowing the viewer to speculate if this is the case.

I'm not betting on any particular idea, given that things can't be that simple and we don't really know how September-April will be explained. Another problem is why Lu Guang is wearing a watch on his other hand in this shot. Everything may be different, case 7 may be about a completely different character. But I also think many things will be connected at some point.

Photos and OP

There are a lot of photographs. So many. As we remember from Dive Back in Time. There will be two key ones - thanks to Vortex.

One of which is precisely related to the moment that allowed Lu Guang to travel 6 years (or more) into the past - to the moment they even met. Would this be a photo at school? Was it an accidental photo left behind? I have much more painful though. Their “very beginning” has a huge chance of not being high school time, but as I mentioned before, I’ll leave that for a separate post.

But the other one? I can’t imagine clearly, of course, but for me there are 3 ways:

This is about the current timeline - September-October were influenced by the use of a different photo - it will let us understand what the 7th case and one of the main storylines.

The starting point from where Lu Guang began his attempts to save Cheng Xiaoshi and change his fate. The core one.

If we believe the hints in the art book, the intro, the dark design of Cheng Xiaoshi, then the photo will be from the moment where something happens to make CXS become depresso!CXS.

I had hopes that the teaser would be about s3, and thus something would become clearer in my head, but… For now, we can only build theories for the next year or two.

Thank you for reading ~

[prof-ramses]

MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT MAMMON IN A SUIT

So yea, I liked the new trailer. Also, I don't think this technically counts as a spoiler, but putting it under a cut just in case

According to some older leaks, I can confidently say that the hotel owner guy is probably not Leviathan in disguise, and just thematic build up, the same way both Robofizz and Crimson built up to Mammon.

[forthegamesmyguy]

putting this all under a read more bc it's technically spoilers (on the decisions that matter from prior games)

I'm ngl I'm pretty annoyed. I had already bought the game when I watched the release date trailer bc like I'm sorry but I've been waiting 10 years, 1/3rd of my life, for my Solas closure game and I'm going to play it. But I just read the ign article talking about the old installment choices and I'm genuinely getting a bit irritated. There is a have it both ways kind of talking point here. Epler is quoted going on about how they don't want to invalidate player choice which is why they just aren't mentioning shit anymore apparently (even though inquisition healthily respects your choices for the various possible states of the world).

But like. You aren't? Not mentioning things is one thing. I'm annoyed but I understand exponentiation happens at a rapid rate and it is unreasonable to keep adding more and more what ifs for all your random background chatter or codex entries (though I have to say, I think they've sort of taken on that responsibility by not moving the time/setting around like other series would be doing to avoid this very issue, on top of INSISTING on having some characters - leliana, morrigan, etc - appear even still!). But when you also do not accommodate the depth of choices? Bruh.

To explain: we are told the ONLY things we are being asked about are who your Inquisitor romances if anyone, if they disbanded the Inquisition, and if they said to redeem or stop Solas. Nothing else. Yet my character is going to appear in this game, I know that for certain. Will the Inquisitor be mute? I believe the old VAs have already said they're in it. Will I be given the option to choose my dialogue? I doubt it. It would ~confuse new players~ (which could be solved with a toggle on choice or something ...). It wasn't in the case of Hawke, though critically we had the BAREST of distinctions in choosing one of the three personality types to dictate our auto dialogue. This does NOT stop your Hawke, who can BE a blood mage, from having a cameo that almost entirely exists to say "blood magic is evil, it's basically the only thing I know for sure in this world"... How very respectful of my choices as a player, a creator of a player character in your role-playing game world. Presumably we are going to be defaulted to one of two (possibly a slight variant of a third for a romanced Solas though romanced to completion is NOT the same as breaking up, which these games always treat as simply never having happened) personality types for our Inquisitor, one who is kinda gruff bc they're sooo mad at Solas for ruining everything wow he's such a bastard gross, and one who is kinda somber bc theyre sooo sad about Solas for not listening to them wow he's such a fool tragic. I guarantee you I GUARANTEE you 99% of solavallens are NOT my Lavellan. I can tell you already the 20 odd Inquisitors I've made over the years are NOT the same people. Yet they're all gonna be... exactly the same. Because it isn't their game anymore. This sucked with Hawke but at least it was one tiny little main quest. Your Inquisitor is fundamental to Solas' character development. Yes I'm excited to meet Rook but not at the expense of my Inquisitors girl come on now.

Now we get to the "Chelsea is mad and angrily screenshotted your quote to say how dumb she thinks it is" portion of the post.

> "you can shape to a large degree" but only in the confines of this one specific game. What happened before? Does not matter. Mentioned in later material? Well, he actually turned into One Specific Mold. Yeah, they get bland when you do this but it's so much less contradictory, don't you think?!?! You really mattered! All that stuff you did and all that Shaping To A Large Degree really mattered!! Like, you don't even want to ask me if Solas had low approval or high approval with me? You just assume stop = one, redeem = the other?

> "something of a blank slate" ah yes my favourite protagonist, Guy Who Could Be Anyone. Just like the Inquisitor was, truly truly riveting. Like when all you do, in the role playing game, is make choices but you don't also have a place in the world, you're, in my mind, not actually in a role-playing game... There is a massive difference in weight to your protagonist as the Warden to as the Inquisitor, in terms of your place in the world. It isn't just "in one conversation, says one sentence". You could just say something totally different in the next conversation and it wouldn't even matter because no one reacts to you, no one cares, it is just you saying in one conversation "I'm from Haven and I was the only dwarf there" then in the next you say "I am from Rialto and I was raised by clowns" and no one registers any information. It was a system where people met you where you were, and then inside of that layer, you could react. It wasn't just you blabbing, people could see you and build base assumptions which sure isn't ideal but this is the world and how we live, if people hear a fereldan accent they'll have a reaction to that if they're familiar in a specific way. People could see an elf without tattoos and go yeah probably not dalish, and inside that, your elf could feel a certain way. This entirely blank slate model is just cutting out the part where you live in the world and people react to you in it. Instead, you are just constantly saying your story "oh I'm this person, this was my history". But does it mean anything? Are you actually there? I sure didn't feel like my Inquisitor was any meaningful part of the world, on any of the origins. Bro the dalish route gets so much flack for all the ppl saying since Solas/elven culture is so crucial to the narrative of the world that it's unfairly favoured but like siblings. Have you played it? You have to have MORRIGAN explain your culture to you. You don't live there at all, man, like, it's NOT substantively different... it's flavour. Barely. And now, if there's not even like, different world states to play in? The lack of my PC diversity means this just like lost miles and miles of replayability bc what is the point?!!??! It's like replaying BG3....what is the point once you did it twice and chose every different binary option? That's all there really is to explore

Ohhhhhh okay okay. She's even MORE important than I thought. Hey you know what that is so cool! Tell me! Do you think she's the exact same woman in a world where she's got a child with the Hero of Ferelden, who is approaching their Calling soon, as she is in a world where she always had low approval and was denied the dark ritual or always had high approval and was STILL denied, and each the same as a best friend for the very first time ever (possibly lover, with Kieran) to a Warden who did the ultimate sacrifice? 😊 Tell me. Please. How they're all the same. The exact same flavour of woman. And the well of sorrows choice not being relevant is genuinely insulting... I get it, they had Flemeth shove Mythal into her anyways with the post credits stinger. But my Inquisitor could've possibly spent the last ten years listening to the voices of the well, and now been on standby to be compelled...my elven Inquisitor could've spent the last decade studying their language. Apparently not though!

> "the Inquisitor to some degree feels guilty or responsible for Solas' actions" see this is what I mean. About not respecting my choices as a player in your ROLE. PLAYING. GAME. This is Hawke and blood magic all over again. There is nothing that says you ever HAVE to even talk to the man!!! Yes he is there. But so what. I can accept Hawke/Varric being a high rivalry/friendship relationship by default... But only because I'm being very generous. But this? No. Your Inquisitor is never in any world state required to give a single solitary fuck about Solas. Forcing guilt on my character to advance your plot is not cute. In a, again I cannot stress this enough, ROLE PLAYING game. It's not "decide the fate of the world, the simulator" where you just make a few key choices about political shit and slay the big bad. It's "decide the fate of the world while living in it and growing with this games host of companions" and that growth can be in any number of directions that the writers allow for. But this sort of thing turns this franchise into the former. And you can't go around saying you're a leader in player agency if you're doing this sort of thing

This idiot: "granted, that might not seem like a ton of choices" motherfucker you listed THREE. And one of them isn't even a world state choice, it's who you fuckin dated. Are you joking? Game four in a franchise of easily 100+ branching choices per game: 3.

Like even just the romance thing is so. Ugh it's so stupid! It's out of context!!!! You can romance Bull and then have to kill him bc you chose one of two paths in his quest, but there's no option for this, so it doesn't matter! Every Inquisitor that dates Bull now is with him in the exact same specific way! Presumably, don't pick it if he ended up fuckin DEAD. Bc there's no room for nuance! Oh, you romanced Cassandra and then made her Divine? Well, we don't care about who's Divine because it's Just One Line of Dialogue so guess what! You will just generically say "ah Cassandra, I really love that woman tee hee" and who gives a fuck about anything else.

Sorry but who's Divine actually would matter to Northern Thedas? Tevinter may scoff and not gaf, but the Qunari will certainly be very very aware of whatever political and religious machinations /anyone/ gets into. And why would the Nevarrans or Free Marchers not care??? The Anders? Like these are places that have Andrastian Chantry influence... This is still Thedas? Even it it's not Ferelden or Orlais???????? I don't get this. Tevinter, again, reasonable, but isn't that only one small place we're going?

Bringing up the Chargers... girl ... Sucks to be any Inquisitor that didn't save them and romanced Bull (I mean that already sucks right but like to be removed from the possibility of existing? Stone cold).

Idk I just. Can't get behind the notion that simply not referencing something is inherently more respectful. But I think I'm just mostly annoyed at this take bc it seems frankly to be kinda disrespectful, actually, to remove the nuance from my experience. You genuinely don't even care if we have low or high approval with this guy but you want to say that relationship was vital and shaped him and also force a position of responsibility on my PC? You don't want to know how my Inquisitor responds to things in terms of emotional response? Every single Inquisitor is the exact same person now, even moreso than before (and I rly genuinely think inquisitor is the weakest PC by far)?

And to just handwave and say oh well, we can get away with this because we're going north. Okay... Well...what about characters from or living in the north? We could've sent feynriel, the very first dreamer to be born since the veil was erected, to tevinter. we could've forced Fenris back to his slaver, in tevinter. How is Isabela fitting into this narrative? Will we be dealing with many or any other Pentaghasts? Obviously she's a default companion again but again I find it's crucial whether or not you have low or high approval, but apparently, these things don't matter actually. In fact you are always responded to exactly the same without fail. It's called role playing!!

I did already buy it and I will play it and I know I'm going to love it like I have the other three. But I did NOT love the inquisitor and I am not expecting to feel differently for rook, and I am really only here for Solas at this point... I mean, nothing else I ever did seems to matter anymore lol. But that's kinda worrying for me, like if the series continues with games set in the dragon age, are they all just going to be increasingly The Same? So why call it role-playing if we are actually all arriving at the same destination... You can stretch the definition to fit this mold, yes, but I personally do not care for it. If every character I put into your world turns out the same and if all the choices I made actually aren't meaningful enough to change the course of the world's history (even when they're as big as who is king, emperor and pope, and who is at war and who isn't), like, genuinely does it matter? Yeah yeah every story is a journey but Dragon Age is set in the DRAGON AGE. I admit I don't know anyone else trying such an experiment and it's always been a huge draw for me. I get that it's daunting. But they've shown they actually can handle this.

The pragmatist in me says the solution to a dangerously "quantum character," as they call them, is to just stop bringing them back. If you think Morrigan's got too many permutations between motherhood and relationship status then I'm sorry but just uh, don't bring her back. Ignoring those things? Is the worst possible option. The lyrium ghost shit with leliana did have a few lines of attempted explanation, which was in the end enough for me within the constraints of this world of magic. But saying NOTHING? would've been a slap in the face. Ugh. I love this setting I really do and I love these characters, but if you can't bring them back respectfully, then, well, respectfully, fucking don't!!!! I don't ever want to hear my blood mage Hawke talk shit about blood magic ever again lol. Just don't bring them back. An even simpler solution is moving the setting, and I don't mean moving from America to Canada bc that's what tf they're doing. Northern Thedas is *right there*. I'm talking, go to another continent. THEN I can believe no one knows who the fuck the pope is in a Catholic world 🙄 Ughhhh. Of course if you use the same host of characters in four games of choice, you're going to end up in a permutational nightmare!!! This much should have been obvious from game 2!! I feel like at that point you have a responsibility to address the encroaching beast and either wrap your story up sooner so you are dangling far far fewer variables or you shift setting/relevant characters to the plot so that you can avoid them, tactfully and respectfully. They are attempting to do the latter while still bringing in characters like Morrigan or your own PC, characters that require nuance to place in disparate world states! These characters are not one size fits all 😭

I cannot stress enough that I really do get it on a mathematical level. But to say bioware doesn't have a canon while not allowing there to be room for nuance from the canon thus far :/ :/ Idk. Just not looking forward to having to turn so much of the world building that's already there into headcanon

[ihaveforgortoomany]

Talking about a certain limited's character trailer release: (also a reaction, I guess Ill be doing a reaction to 2.2 because wow that trailer)

(Again major spoilers for the 2.0 story, major 1.9 spoilers so not Global friendly)

Alright so deffo its Kimberely and Anjo Nala. (Thats gonna be very awkward for Joe and Matilda to meet her then) and deffo a succubus.

No way we just got a whole load of Manus members other than just Ms Grace, if they all in Sao Paulo then Vertin and co are in real danger now. Poor Kimberly, she is being treated like a pet here, so even early on she does not trust the Manus completely and is only stuck due to being tied to the toy robot. (In that case how did it end up in that Eyepatch guy's hands? I don't think Ms Grace would hand out something so valuable to some random someone so likely he is either one of the mutineed Zeno or a part of the Apostles Brotherhood.)

Also the amount of violence and gore? Woah BP are really not holding back now. The fact that they used the same animation and shot where Vertin is getting strangled with a Foundation investigator who actually dies here is insane. (Also the amount of resistance Anjo Nala has here, the fact that in the same insistence with Vertin her neck literrally wasn't snapped immediately.)

A windup thing is on Kimberly's/ Anjo Nala's back is also interesting, Im guessing she might have an arcane array there as seen as the same colour as the ones found in 2.1. I wonder if in the story there is a possibility of us getting rid of this bond between her and the robot?

Also, oh god the giant furry form is back lol, didn't expect to see it so soon. Idk to say about it, also interesting how easily she can transform between those forms.

Forget the Isolde comparisons, design wise shes like Vila more in a sense with her hands and having a visible tail. And more importantly Schneider storywise, literally someone working with the Manus unwillingly (while for Schneider it was a last resort, Kimberly literally cannot refuse orders) that eventually will end up on Vertin's team.

Like with Lucy's trailer Im actually more interested in Anjo Nala now.

(This means Ms Grace and those Manus are gonna be present this patch?)

Edit: whose body is that at the end of the trailer, the one Kimberly is holding?

Edit: If we failed to save Schnieder, then Sophia this technically means Anjo Nala would be the first "Manus" character we actually save this time. (Not counting Isolde because uh obvious reasons and she was with Kakania and Marcus in Vienna)

Edit: excluding Digger because idk so far his deal in his anecdote

[serendertothesquad]

Seren's Studies: Odd Squad UK -- Episode Titles! Crackpot Theories! Venting! Excitement?

Honestly? I expected at least something from Odd Squad UK. It's the first of August (at the time of writing), advanced schedules have been put out and now go through October...I mean there was bound to be something, right?

Well, yes. Inverse Pandora's Box. (Or is it an actual Pandora's Box, given my criticisms?)

Episode titles. Synopses (of the basic kind). That promo image up there that came from PBS Kids themselves after I tweeted about my findings. It's like going to the bathroom after having not been in it for nearly a year, opening the door, and suddenly being hit with a flood of bathwater coming at you. When I say there was absolutely nothing of substance that I could dig up over the course of that time beyond a 30-second trailer and a Kidscreen Magazine image that everyone and their mothers use to talk about the series, I mean it. Go ahead. Go punch in "odd squad uk" into Google and get back to me with how long it takes to see my username in the search results.

I'm going to set aside my Seren's Study about PBS's mistreatment of Odd Squad and shift gears just a little bit. This Seren's Study will cover all of the theories, discussion, and thoughts I have about these episodes and characters, in lieu of a Seren Reacts video (an XP-era laptop does not good for OBS Studio recording make). You will see me scream, cry, melt (shit's hot outside), and ask if I can put any of this on my job resume.

Before we begin, I'm going to warn folks that there will be spoilers ahead for those that haven't seen the episode titles and synopses, nor the trailer for OSUK. If you want to take a peek at those, I made a handy-dandy Google doc here. As for the trailer, I made a Seren's Study on that a while back.

Oh yes, and I'll be referring to Odd Squad UK as a whole as a series, not a season. Technically, it is a spinoff series, just marketed in America as Season 4 of Odd Squad.

All right, warnings are out of the way...now we can dive in. Less'go!

A Refresher

Let's get caught up to speed on what we know so far. Couldn't hurt, y'know?

Odd Squad UK -- or Season 4 of the regular Odd Squad series, in the delulu minds of PBS Kids execs -- is a spinoff series of Odd Squad, following Odd Squad Mobile Unit (Season 3). The premise involves a girl named Orli, an Odd Squad agent working on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls who is transferred to a precinct in the UK to boost numbers and help deal with the rise of oddness. She eventually partners up with Ozzie, an agent of the UK precinct, and begins working under one Captain O, a Director who loves anything nautical and aquatic. From there, we see a lot of other characters who take the spotlight -- deadpan Security agent Orwell, quirky Scientist guy Onom, a Chef O, and a girl in a rather mysterious department.

Keeping in line with the reputation of Britain having series with shockingly low episode counts (there's even a trope for it!), Odd Squad UK has 12 episodes in total, the lowest of any season/series to date. However, the crew is open to making more episodes if there is enough demand for them -- a cliche that has plagued a ton of animated kids shows as of late due to the flakiness of the industry.

...That's really all I can give you in the way of a refresher. So let's move on to what the episodes contain.

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What's the Story, Seren?

Press releases and articles for Odd Squad UK have touted focus on Orli. Once. Exactly once. By all accounts, it seems like the focus of the series is on her struggling to fit in with British culture, customs, and of course, their wacky mathematics. That, however, is not the case -- instead, Ozzie is the focus of the series' story arc.

...Yeah, it has a story arc. They're pullin' an anime with this one and I don't know if I like that.

The arc features Ozzie and his relationship with the Terrible Three, a villainous trio of (what I can presume are) youngsters who seek to spread oddness throughout the town. And guys, I feel obligated to put this tweet from my moot here:

Because they're right. On every single account. This leads into my first criticism, which I will compile at the end. Moving on, though.

Due to that arc, a majority of these 12 episodes feature villains in some kind of capacity. This is not unusual for Odd Squad as a franchise, of course -- villains to them are what air is to a living being. Goes hand-in-hand, and there are many episodes that have villains as antagonists. What is unusual, however, is having well over half of your episodes feature a villain in a major capacity, and while I do love myself a good villain, it seems like one hell of an overdose.

Outside of that, though, the series will feature Orli attempting to fit in to British life. Because after all, she isn't just transferred to the UK -- she has to upright pack up and move nearly halfway across the world. Which I won't deny is a nice premise...but again, 12 episodes.

Enough complaining, though. Let's move on to what I'm sure y'all came here for.

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The Episodes, or: Netflix is Quaking in their Boots

ISS' CRACK THEORY TIIIIIIIIIME.

In this section, I'll go over each of the episodes revealed thus far, share my thoughts, theories, and what I, for one, hope to expect. (I'd use the colloquial "we", but different strokes for different folks and not even I know what's gonna happen.)

So let's dive into our very first one...

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Odd Ones In

James Rallison is marching his way on over with a nice fat happy lawsuit as we speak.

...Okay, I kid. He's not. He knows about PBS Kids, but trust...trust me guys, he is not suing anyone.

While this synopsis, like all the other synopses PBS Kids has ever put out ever, is barebones, most of the stuff in this episode can be gleaned from the trailer. The episode is split into two parts for a 22-minute episode in total.

The first part basically deals with Orli transferred, and by extension moving, from the Canadian side of Niagara Falls to good old Britain. Touted as being "the best agent in the world" to help solve oddness, the British agents realize that she sure as hell can't stand on the same pedestal as the thirteen already-existing living legends do, especially since she has no idea how the fuck British people go about their lives. The second part features Orli and Ozzie teaming up to deal with a creature known as an Icy Mousey that is freezing agents left and right.

Let's be honest right out the gate: this is already a better premise for a 22-minute season premiere than "Odd Beginnings" was in 44. And yeah, I know "First Day" is similar, but Olympia didn't have to move to an entirely different country when she graduated from the Odd Squad Academy, y'know? Nor was she branded a "best agent" because she wasn't one yet. Here, we have Orli becoming a Canadian transplant who echoes the sentiments of everyone who has ever traveled to another country and failed to do the research beforehand. Which makes sense, because she's supposed to be an audience surrogate.

I really can't discuss this episode at length without heading into the next episode, though, because it ties into that and the trailer. So, may I present:

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A Dish Served Odd

Died in 2015. Born in 2024. Welcome back, Seren Taking Food-Oriented Odd Squad Episode Titles to Reflect Episodes About Food That Are Not About Food At All.

*the longest sigh I have ever taken in my life*

Following up from the season premiere, this episode takes a look at the UK town of [REDACTED], where Orli wishes to explore. Most of the stuff in the trailer is taken from this episode, up to and including the alternate-angle image included in the initial press release of Orli and Ozzie telling someone to "stop right there". We have Orli fighting a woman for tour bus tickets using Rock-Paper-Scissors (and I am not talking about the Nickelodeon cartoon, thank you), Brits attending an Odd Squad movie event, and The Trifler.

...I mean okay, there's more, but the hell do you think I have, an eidetic memory or somethin'?

I do find it odd (hehehe lol obvious joke) that an episode out of 12 is dedicated to Orli learning about her new hometown. I get why -- if you discount the fact she does not magically learn all about a goddamn country within a day, she really needs the tour, and we really need the tour, because Let's Go Luna got the axe and someone needs to pick up the slack -- but to not, say, expand "Odd Ones In" to include a tour seems like a waste, especially since the "watch our shit or the show gets killed off" guillotine is hanging over this franchise's head. You can compare Toronto to this -- I'm a dumb lil' American who sees Canada as the land of free healthcare, maple syrup, and a choir of red-shirted children singing "O Canada" with an orchestra in the near-dead of night. Seasons 1 and 2 take place in Toronto, though they never say it outright. There's signage and places that scream Canadian. So why, then, did we not get lessons about Canadian culture? Because if Olive and Otto took the time to teach me lessons about Canada, the writers probably would have fumbled the bag and ruined the world tour story arc of Odd Todd. Which...wouldn't really be a good thing.

I don't know. My opinions will probably shift when I watch the episode itself. At the very least, it's gonna give us McDonald's product placement, which will give me good leverage the next time I roll up behind an asshole in the drive-thru.

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Odd Jubilee

Not to be confused with Ruby Jubilee, a popular pegasus character from G5 of My Little Pony. This is her...odder cousin.

...No, actually, if you think about it, it fits, because Pinkie Pie and Olympia. Bite me.

So this episode is the start of many, many Ozzie-centric episodes. Which, given whom this series' story arc is about, makes sense. In this one, "Party Agents" (Party Department?) arrive with a box that, of course, contains a party. Like Pinkie Pie's party ca- okay, you know, I joke a lot about Olympia being Pinkie Pie (and I even have a pretty smeggin' good fanfic goin' about it right now!), but the comparisons are fucking writing themselves here. Lest we forget this franchise made a Friendship is Magic reference back in Season 2 with Party Pam's balloon colors.

But I digress. The conflict of the episode comes in the form of Ozzie, who has the key needed to open the box. Unfortunately for him, and for the rest of the UK precinct agents, he's vamooshed and needs to be found.

...If this isn't tying into the story arc, shove an apple into my mouth and send me to Walmart. You couldn't put a sign on any episode here that wouldn't make it any more obvious that there's a story arc. At least Season 1 was humble about it and kept all the 43s hidden as cool lil' Easter eggs. (Season 2 stumbled a little. Season 3 was when shit hit the fan and the smell and the sight of it was made obvious to everyone.)

I might as well get this out of the way now: there's a bit of a problem when it comes to whom, exactly, the series focuses on. We have a core cast of seven main characters. The franchise as a whole is notable for focusing on two agents in particular, mainly two Investigation agents. Orli is an audience surrogate and we're supposed to see the world through her eyes. Ozzie has a bitch-ass past and a wild-ass story arc, hence why he gets the most focus. While residing in seasons with higher episode counts, Olive and Otto, as well as Olympia and Otis, have an equal balance of screentime between each other, despite two of them having an ongoing story arc.

So lemme ask: who am I supposed to focus on here?

Looking at it now, a core cast of seven main characters instead of the four we've gotten before is a great shakeup, but not if you have 12 episodes and a threat of cancellation hanging over your head while your body's infected with Network-Don't-Care-Anymore Disease. Even the synopses alone tell me that this is 100% going to be a hell of a mess, and more than one main character is going to be lacking in the character development section.

Maybe I'm being a little too cynical, especially after Odd Squad Mobile Unit. But this is a franchise that is going on 10 years and made a "jumping the shark" joke only 3 years in. Odd Squad is not immune from rot, so I'm not surprised when it happens.

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The New Ozzie

Congrats everyone, we now have a name we can pin on the Mysterious Department Girl. Only took us nearly a year!

Opie -- not to be confused with the Opie from Season 1, mind you; different gender, precinct, and department -- is in the Department of Help and Human Services and is being promoted to its topmost position, called a Head. (The Season 3 episode "O For a Day" implied there were head agents of departments in Odd Squad, but nothing was outright confirmed in terms of the organization as a whole -- it likely was exclusively for the Seattle precinct.) Ozzie, who was the previous Head of the Department of Help and has since moved to the Investigation department (neither a promotion or a demotion; both departments have the same shape with the same number of sides), needs to help her learn the ropes. Problem is, he also has to solve oddness in town. What do?

This episode pretty much solves the question of "is he wearing an H on a hexagon or is that a bridge?" It's an H. The department's logo is an H. I can't even be mad at that, but I'm not happy about it either. Ozzie was a leader, and now he's a run-of-the-mill Investigation agent, which could raise some interesting conflicts given the story arc. It can be a superiority complex. It could be the "British people evil" cliche. Or it could lead to absolutely nothing. It's 12 episodes, take your pick.

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Bad-Luck-itis

Okay. They paid the "Find the Cure" fee. Can they please get their paychecks and go the fuck home already, guys?

Seems the gadget competition video served as some weird foreshadowing, if you replaced Orli and Osgood with Captain O and Orwell and the Mondays with...well, Bad-Luck-itis. Basically, Ozzie becomes a walking disaster area, and his partner, plus another agent named Osgood, have to find ingredients to make the cure.

This can reasonably go one of two ways: either we get an episode that's a direct copy, or we get an episode that's actually unique and puts a spin on things. Until we get a bigger and more explanatory synopsis, it can go either way, and, well...we don't right now. So I can't really say much about this. I will say, however, that given "Off the Clock" from Odd Squad Mobile Unit, I'm hoping "Bad Luck-Itis" "Bad-Luck-itis" can keep up the pace. That was a solid episode, for what it was worth.

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The Triangle Sisters

Not to be confused with the Triangle siblings from "Crime at Shapely Manor". Thass'...thass' a whole 'nother ball game.

There's really not much to this one either. The synopsis tells of Orli and Ozzie attempting to hunt down villains -- the eponymous siblings, natch -- who have stolen shapes from a museum. That's about it. Either this is "Crime at the Britain Museum" or it's something unique. Like with "Bad-Luck-itis", it's too soon to know yet.

...But that wording is very suspicious, given Ozzie's story arc...makes you wonder.

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Miss Information

Ah. Three for three with the "is originality as dead as chivalry" comments.

This one concerns "Bad Lemonade" in particular, in that it's about a villain using bar graphs to bring some kind of harm to a character. Imagine Odd Todd, then imagine him slandering an entire pseudo-government organization instead of just Polly Graph. Now make him an adult woman, and you've got this episode.

If they really wanna spice it up, they could slip in some wondrous British social commentary that dumb lil' Americans like myself would never get. But Odd Squad as a franchise has never really been about that (I am slapping the word "really" so hard my hand is red, thank you), so here I'll sit in my delusion for two months.

...Also, Canada slander. Just to get under Orli's skin.

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A Dicey Situation

Oh yeah, we had a Director character, didn't we? Let's employ her in a- ohhhhhhhhh, it's another one of those episodes.

Look, I love "Totally Odd Squad". Provides some excellent backstory for Oprah, gives us some lore as to the inner workings of Odd Squad as an organization, and it had O'Donahue flirting with his boss in one of the most expressive romantic things in the entire franchise. Same goes for "Fistful of Fruit Juice"; I loved that too.

On a more negative note, if you've ever seen my Seren Reacts video on it, you'd know that "Mission O Possible" is on the lower end of the ladder for me. Among other criticisms, it's a parody of Mission Impossible that utterly bombs due to network restrictions and poor choice of central character. I'm not exactly banking on "A Dicey Situation" to parody anything, but I'm not holding confidence that it's going to be good either.

At the very least, the villain's name is unique. If her last name is Doubloon, I'm hoping we can get a financial math moral that can put me and the rest of the fandom at ease when it comes to the sheer irony of this franchise tackling every aspect of math but finances. You can't say "kids today don't wanna work anymore" if the shows made for them are too afraid to teach them about a new app called The Fucking Dollar Bill.

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Lift Off

Now here's where shit gets good.

Imagine, if you will, me, going to Japan to buy some Precure merch and not understanding any cultural customs.

Now imagine Orli in the same spot, in Britain, with elevators. Oops, sorry, lifts.

Here's a fun fact some of you may not know: there was an episode with a working title of "See You Later Elevator", all the way back in Season 2. No one knows what that episode was turned into, if it went beyond the script and name-registering stage, or what it was about. And while it was made sometime in 2017, predating this episode by a good 7 years, it makes you stop and think for a moment about if "See You Later Elevator" did get past the script stage but was retooled to fit Orli instead. Depending on who you ask, it's at least a better title than "Lift Off".

This episode could best be summed up as "how does Britain work?", as Orli must send an interdimensional clam (God did not create enough animals to populate Europe, clearly) back to its home but has trouble working the lifts because they're different from the elevators she had in Canada. And I gotta be honest, folks...this might be one of my favorite episodes of the entire series. 11 minutes of Orli being a silly ding-dong and toying with a machine that can cause immediate death is gonna be real fun to watch. (Only...y'know...no gore. For obvious reasons.) It's like if you had 11 minutes of Orla trying to figure out some item in the modern world and kept messing things up, and I'd enjoy that too in spite of what I think about Season 3.

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A Tour of Odd Squad

Not to be confused with "Welcome to Odd Squad" from Odd Squad Mobile Unit; I'm sure this episode won't be as bad as this one.

...

I'm overshooting the mark, aren't I? Shit.

Old-timers to the fandom might remember all the tours held of the studio set the first two seasons used. In-universe, "Disorder in the Court" is the only episode I can vividly recall where a tour is offered someone who wasn't an Odd Squad agent. As a freebie, to boot. (When I first saw "A Tour of Odd Squad" as a title and its synopsis, I was under the impression that tours given to non-clients and non-agents were not a concept that existed. I was wrong.)

This episode, however, has an Odd Squad Superfan tour. A bit of a different breed, though if you want to believe the Odd Squad Superfan Tour exists in "Disorder in the Court", feel free! I know I will.

Basically, it's a "spot the imposter" type situation. One villain has come into the tour in disguise as a fan of Odd Squad, and Opie must stomp them out. This is another episode that raises quite a few suspicions concerning Ozzie's story arc, because we don't know if it's a child disguised as an adult, a child that looks like a child, or an adult that looks like an adult. The synopsis doesn't tell us that much. If it is a child that looks like a child, though, I have to wonder if they'll pull an "I'm separated from my mommy and she's in the group, help me get back to her" gambit. It's a villain trio that describes one of the worst periods in a parent's goddamn life. Kids are smarter than most would think. I can envision it.

Good premise either way, though. I look forward to seeing how things play out.

I am also expecting as much meta commentary as Oprah did in "First Day". Hey, they did it once 8 years ago, and I wanna see them do it again. Clap back!

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Club 37

Not to be confused with Club 24- okay, look, this is fucking annoying and I can't keep doing this. Just set your bars low, people. Set them seven feet from the ground and call it a day.

Oy...okay. So this episode involves the exclusive titular club. To gain access, an agent or a partner pair must solve a total of 37 cases, which Orli and Ozzie must do. Because...in 6 episodes, they haven't solved that many? There goes Orli being Odd Squad's best agent to stem the rise of oddness in the UK.

...I dunno, guys. You think the crew saw my "What Odd Squad Got Past Censors" video, realized the implications of Club 24, and made a kid-friendly variant instead? It's a very slim chance, next to nonexistent, but I can't help but wonder. After all, not every day you see two preteens enter a nightclub where the line is full of solely adults.

This episode does have a few similarities to "The O Team", though, just in the way Olympia and Otis have to solve a select amount of cases. Hoping it isn't a retread, because "The O Team" was a great way to shine some light on two side characters and "Club 37"...isn't. PBS synopses do not pull red herrings, people.

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Odd Way Round

Go ahead, take a shot for every "odd" pun they make in this season. At this point, Popularity Papers did a funnier thing with their Odd Squad title reference. (And also has better, more inspirational titles than just making puns out of "popularity" and "papers".)

Putting aside the title, though, the episode has a pretty straightforward premise -- Orli needs to get to the Odd Squad Test Center, but is repeatedly stopped by villains as she's trying to get there.

All right, first question: exactly what does Odd Squad need a Test Center for? I'm not buying that it's a British thing, because even with my dumb lil' American ways that's the stupidest shit I ever heard. And second of all, how the hell are they keeping that shit staffed? Who's staffing it? How much money does the Britain HQ have in the bank to keep that shit staffed?

Best way I can really sum this up is that it'll be 11 minutes of battle scenes with a payoff of her coming to the Test Center and being told "lol your test is on another day". Not exactly enthused, but I'm not going to actively hate it out the gate either.

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Strictly Odd Dancing

Now this. This is the kind of punny shit I live for with this franchise. It's another "odd" pun, sure, but it's also a pop culture reference very few people would get. Hell, it took someone in the Odd Squad Discord server to tell me they were referencing the British version of Dancing with the Stars! This is what I like!

Moving on to the premise: the episode features two minor characters, Ostin and Olyla (you'd think with the latter name, PBS would be all over it...'cuz Lyla in the Loop and all that), who tell a story to some agents about how they went from "singing and dancing gross" to "singing and dancing great" due to a villain's influence.

It's...another storytelling episode. Which, again, I'd be fine with, if there weren't 12 episodes in the entire damn series. Focusing on minor characters (not side characters; "minor" here refers to oneshots) is nothing new for the franchise, but most episodes that do it are in seasons with high episode counts. This series does not.

Let's be honest for a moment: the only saving grace this episode has for me is if we get a musical number. It's a singing and dancing episode. It'd be a crime not to have a song. LET ME HEAR THE BELTING OF THE BRITISH CHILDREN, GOD DAMN IT. I DESERVE IT.

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Villain of the Year

If this synopsis refers to Ozzie as the "unlikely villain", I am going to throw myself onto my front lawn, scream into the grass, and let the ticks consume me.

And that's not even getting into the other times we've gotten award mentions and episodes. Do we really need a villain variant of the Agent of the Year award that Odd Squad Book of Games introduced? What is point? Why is point? I was fine with the villain report cards Season 2 introduced! Leave it at that!

I'm just...I'm tired. Only a select handful of these synopses are inspiring confidence in me. If Season 3 came up with more original synopses than this series, with a return to form, does, then we're in trouble. That is with a capital T. A T as big as the Titans Tower, that's right.

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Planes, Trains, and Oddmobiles

God this is a good pun. God I love this pun. Best title of the franchise, hands down. Even beats out "Assistants' Creed". Took them ten fucking years to make the pun, but...it's here, and I love it. It barely even relates to the episode from what I can tell from the synopsis, but damn if they didn't do good.

And speaking of the synopsis, this one has a sort of similar plotline to "Nature of the Sandbeast" from Odd Squad Mobile Unit, in that there is a female creature with eggs missing who is incredibly pissed off and is seeking to harm anyone and anything until she gets them back. That episode had the titular creature; this one features a Huggle Monster. That episode had Orla, Osmerelda, and Omar fighting off the creature; this episode has Orli and Ozzie. Not exactly a repeat, but we'll see where things go.

...Okay, I'm taking my above comment back about the title not relating to the episode, because I just figured out what the math moral is.

It's about which mode of transportation is the fastest: a plane, a train, or a car.

I don't know whether to cackle because kids can't drive either of those things (and for "car", I'm talking about big-boi cars like Audis and Toyotas, thank you), or clap because they made a pun that encapsulates the math moral.

God bless them.

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Part of the Furniture

Now here's an episode title I really am scratching my head about. It's not a pun. It's not some kind of typo. It doesn't relate to the episode as far as the synopsis goes. It looks like a lost memo from a Bob's Discount Furniture employee meeting.

You wanna know the best part, though? The episode deals with Orli joining a bunch of clubs but not having time for all of them and helping Orwell at the same time. Which...I...look, if she doesn't join some kind of furniture-related club, then what is point? Is this some British pun I don't- ah fucking hell, it's a British pun I don't get, isn't it. God damn it.

Not really much to go off of with this one, but man is that title gonna be eating away at me for the next two months. I have to sleep at night, people. 15 years of sleep deprivation weighs on a person!

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The Odd Ness Monster

Look. The Oddverse has kraken. It's only justified that it'd have the Loch Ness Monster, too.

Me, I'm just surprised it took them way too many franchise installments to get to this point.

The synopsis for the episode, however, is a little confusing. The best I can gather is this: Onom and Orwell are doing something when the Loch- shit, the Odd Ness Monster wakes up. From there, they have to put it to sleep before it destroys Headquarters (which, I will remind you, is fucking underground and doesn't need much protecting against a creature commonly depicted in fiction as a seafarer).

It's incorrect, but this is PBS we're talking about. Wait until mid-September when we get stuff from the BBC.

Outside of the "destroying HQ" stuff, I look forward to seeing how a Scientist and a Security agent with differing personalities handle Odd Squad's take on Nessie. I guess the Britain HQ lacks a Creature Care department, otherwise either Onom or Orwell would be replaced.

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Oddtober the Thirteenth

Died around 2016.

Born 2024.

Welcome the fuck back, Oddtober.

For those out of the loop, Oddtober is the name of an event PBS Kids held to celebrate Odd Squad having new episodes in October. Because, y'know, they actually loved the show back then and didn't treat it like shit. The event died off when Season 2 premiered and was replaced by a more generalized "Celebrate Halloween All Month Long with PBS Kids" event, which has been in place for years now and covers multiple shows on the lineup. And now it's back, in episode title form.

If this wasn't intentional, you're lying to my face. If this was intentional, you're giving me a chance to gloat.

But what about the episode itself? Well...it's not another Halloween episode, unfortunately. It's not even airing on October 13, which sucks, but...that's a Sunday and PBS Kids doesn't premiere new content on a Sunday in most cases. The episode's premise is actually pretty unique -- the British agents wants a day off from oddness, which villains are, surprisingly, more than happy to give them...provided their happiness meters break the limit. To do this, agents throw them a party.

I...another party episode? Really? The fuck were they celebrating over in the writers room, the fact that Odd Squad got greenlit for another season and PBS didn't kill it off like it was forest game? I mean it's a good thing to celebrate, but again...12 episodes. And the crew was the one who gave the "you want more OSUK stuff, watch what we got to offer" ultimatum to begin with!

Given the title of the episode, though, I expect things to go down south very quickly. At the very least, we know where it falls on the incredibly messy franchise timeline.

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Agent Overhill's Last Day

Oh, another episode focusing on a minor character. I'd actually spit more fire at this if it weren't for the fact that this episode inches the line closer to the season/series finale. It's up in the air whether the "one last villain" is Ozzie or not. However, I can appreciate the use of "Overhill" as a name. As in, "over the hill". As in...someone who is old and past their prime.

...Yeeeeeeah, 10 fuckin' cookies they won't touch on that shit. Established rules for that haven't changed in 10 years, and just because it's Britain doesn't mean it'll be changed. I do like how they're willing to go further into retirement from Odd Squad after only featuring it for a one-off gag or an offhand mention here and there, though.

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The Ne- Wait, I Mean The Other Ozzie

And the prize for Most Unoriginal Episode Title goes to.

Seriously, there are a host of puns involving the color purple they could have gone with. Instead, they pulled from a previous episode title and changed the goddamn adjective. Now there's something to confuse the kids.

But what is the episode about? Well, Orli's being featured this time around, partnering up with an agent named Oz from the Movie Star Dimension to find out who is turning civilians purple.

I'm going to shove the elephant in the room out the door and let it go back to its native habitat: this Oz has absolutely no relation to the Oz from Season 1, nor Ozelprazelwixelmist from Season 1, and if you believe otherwise then I will respect that but you are wrong. Realistically, they could bring Oz back, especially since Odd Squad Book of Games brought him back via a mention and...well, he's an invisible agent, so there's no need to cast another kid to act physically. But this episode looks to involve a counterpart of Ozzie, which neither Oz nor Ozelprazelwindowsmistplay is. And I highly doubt they'd bring the latter back from the "silly lol gag" dead and put them in a major role.

Putting that aside, though, this episode actually contains what is known in TV Tropes parlance as a Mythology Gag, which is when a franchise references previous installments that are not canon to the work containing the gag.

In this particular case, I'll direct your attention to the pilot. Some of you reading this may have seen it, others may have not, and others I probably melted your minds just by telling you it exists. (Mass apology to those people.) At the beginning of it, Olive explains what Odd Squad is and what they do, coupled with slides that show oddness in action. One of these incidents is a family and their dog, who are all colored purple.

And thus, you have the basis for this episode.

Given how the pilot and Odd Squad UK have different staff and different prodcos, I don't know if this was intentional or not...but Tim McKeon is at least working on it, so it makes you wonder. What better way to celebrate the franchise's 10th anniversary than a throwback to the piece of media that started it all 12 years ago?

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Three is the Oddest Number

Huh. Did I just crack the code for why this franchise is keen on four-person teamups? Because it feels like I just cracked the code for why this franchise is keen on four-person teamups. (Okay, fine, five if you count Odd Squad Mobile Unit with both Oprah and Orpita. But this episode's not called "Five is the Oddest Number" so weh to ye.)

Anyway, this episode kicks off the two-part sea- sorry, series finale. I have no confirmation it is the series finale, but I've seen PBS Kids execs throw this franchise around like a ragdoll for the past few years and I can see a very clear path ahead. Almost crystal, even.

This is an 11-minute episode, similar to past season finales ("Who is Agent Otis?" as well as "Odds and Ends", "Sunny Sides Add Up" as well as "Old Odd, New Tricks"). Here, we're introduced to the Terrible Three in proper, who begin to bring their reign of terror upon Britain. We also get to see why Ozzie seems to know them, and unravel the story arc.

Again, I will refer to my Twitter mutual's tweet at the beginning of this post, and reiterate that the "main character knows the villains somehow" schtick is getting a little old. They would have had something good going with Olando if they didn't fuck things up, because that story was actually kind of unique. (Yes, discounting that Olando is a male Orla.) If they want people to watch Odd Squad UK so it gets more episodes, then they better hit a homerun with this go-around of an apparently popular story.

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Should Odd Acquaintance Be Forgot

I won't lie: before I found out what this title was alluding to, I genuinely thought PBS fucked up on the grammar. I thought, "Shouldn't it be 'Should Odd Acquaintance Be Forgotten'?"

But lol, no...it's a reference to a lyric in "Auld Lang Syne". God bless Google. God bless search engines.

This episode, the second part of the two-part series finale that is 22 minutes in length, picks up where "Three is the Oddest Number" left off, natch. It seems that the Terrible Three have broken into Headquarters and are close to securing a win against Odd Squad, but have hidden from the agents, who need to find them.

...I don't know about you, but I'm getting some Secret Catch Teenieping vibes. Only, y'know, there's no "the Teenieping is hiding in one of three objects". The episode could lean that way, though...wouldn't be unlike them.

In any case, the second half of the episode has the Terrible Three still on a rampage, opening up some containment units that will spread oddness throughout the town. The Britain HQ's agents are now forced to answer the question that I'm sure they'll be asked: "Oh yeah? You and what army?"

By finding other kids to help them.

...I know exactly what the fuck you're thinking right now and I'm here with the thorn in my foot squashing your hopes and dreams and letting the thorn go even deeper in.

If you have ever seen any reaction I've ever had to "Odd Together Now", you're probably aware that I died a little inside. With the ending involving clips of past seasons, even moreso. The Seren Reacts video...I had already gotten up once and came back when they showed Olive and Otto. That ending made me want to physically leave my house. And I have depression.

Smart is knowing tomato is a fruit. Wise is not putting it in a fruit salad. Peak intelligence is realizing that nearly every single child actor that has been on Odd Squad is now too old to reprise their roles and then not begging for them to come back. I want them to come back too, but that's what fanworks are for. Fanfics, fan videos, animations and skits, all that jazz. It can be done. Hell, I've made fanfics with Odd Squad characters. Other people have too. There are Odd Squad fanpieces all over the 'Net, if you look. Some are good, some are bad. But the fact of the matter is that they all have the creator's own personal brand of creativity to them.

But fanworks are a topic for another Seren's Study on another day. For now, I'll just say that I hope they go out with a bang with this one, for being only 12 episodes.

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The Future of Odd Squad UK: Cancellation or Resuscitation?

I will forever stand by my theory that Odd Squad UK was birthed merely to fill a quota, and the extra win for SSE and FRP of financial gain. But the quota part is what I'm specifically focusing on, because when it comes to this franchise, my ire largely falls with PBS Kids execs. Last I read, Sara DeWitt wanted about twenty shows by end of year. I lost count somewhere around March, but I don't know...if you count the season premieres (and Lyla in the Loop), I'd say it's nearing or exceeding that number.

...No, actually, they probably do count season premieres. Look at our very own OSUK.

The issue with PBS Kids and OSUK is something I'm setting aside for another Seren's Study that is currently a work in progress. However, it's no surprise that execs frown upon Odd Squad as a whole and include it in promotional media only for gratuity purposes. Like a way to remind the audience that yes, however creator-driven they may be, they do own the Odd Squad IP and they will shove it up as many hairy nostrils as humanly possible.

Because of this, it's entirely up in the air whether Odd Squad UK will get greenlit for another season, maybe with a higher episode count than just a meager 12.

...You would think. Bitch you would think.

It is worth noting that this is a coproduction, so PBS didn't solely produce this -- BBC Studios Kids and Family had a hefty hand in it, because, y'know, it's their own damn fault country. Hence, it's largely up to them whether Odd Squad UK will continue. And unlike PBS, they salivate over ratings over most anything else, and Odd Squad's is pretty well up there...so it does make you wonder.

Either way, I can't reiterate this enough: if you want OSUK to continue, watch it. TV, on the app, through official streaming services, anything that's legal. Hatewatch it, even; like I've said before, hatewatching is a nice happy form of reverse psychology at work, and everyone involved on OSUK could not even give a shit about you satisfying your curiosity if you gave them Bezos level of monies. Every little bit counts.

As for me, I'm not going to hatewatch OSUK, but rather, I'm going to try and go in with a relatively open mind and then rip into episodes accordingly. We do still have that gadget competition results video coming in September, so that'll be another tease that people who have read titles and synopses can see. And then they can judge the quality of the show itself with that in mind, of course.

If you've read all this and digested it and didn't just click on the links above, then thank you. Expect another Seren's Study on PBS's mistreatment of Odd Squad as a whole franchise soon.

(Would you believe me if I said I wanted to take a break for August? But the franchise never sleeps, and apparently neither do I.)

Seren out.

[thefirstknife]

Looks like bungie plagiarized some fanart for that awesome cutscene this week, which is very unfortunate. (IIRC Bungie is based in America which means that fair use laws apply so they don't actually own full copyright over all fanart the way some people are claiming, it's a lot more complicated than that. It's technically legal what they did, I think, but it's widely considered extremely rude and disrespectful to the artist who's piece is amazing by the way)

Yeah, saw it yesterday. Really bad situation to be in for such an impactful cutscene. Link to the comparison from the artist, spoilers for the cutscene.

This isn't the first time either, the famous example is the time they accidentally included Xivu Arath fanart in a trailer for WQ. It was an accident then and they apologised and all so I'm expecting them to do so again. It would also be in order to compensate the artist in this case. Because in this case it's not just an accidental use of a picture, an artist had to redraw the whole scene from scratch with this source.

I'm sure they'll make comment on it when they figure things out. Really hoping for the artist to be compensated and for Bungie to have some sort of an internal check for this to avoid it in the future.

Also yeah, I've seen people saying that technically Bungie has a right to use any art that's been posted to their site for art of the week, but that would be an absolute PR nightmare if they decided to enforce it literally. Nobody would ever want to post their art on there again. It would effectively end art of the week feature in TWAB and would piss off literally every single artist and fans.

[raylin-creates]

What Tears of the Kingdom Means for the Timeline

(The timeline I made as reference for my major LU+First Hero fanfiction project, I mean, but a lot of it, most of it, applies to canon as well)

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR TOTK AHEAD

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Surprisingly TotK actuality fits pretty well with the larger Zelda timeline I put together for my Toss Another Stone AU.

I know a lot of fans headcanon Sky as the first king of Hyrule, and I've read some amazing fics where that's the case, but seeing how Skyloft functions and Sky's personality I just couldn't see that happening. So I had Sky and Sun co-founding the surface settlement and the kingdom being established from that settlement generations later and Sky being posthumously named the first king when the monarchy is established.

So Rauru and Sonia being the founders of the kingdom of Hyrule fits extremely well and saves me a lot of work with the half baked backstory I was trying to build for the founding of the kingdom. (It was mostly the names. I am shit at naming things. Luckily Rauru and Sonia have names! Unfortunately the original sages still don't.) Making Sonia be Sky and Sun's descendant makes it fit even better, especially with my headcanon of Hylia being the goddess of time and Sonia's time power.

The game didn't confirm my theory about this being the end of the cycle, but it didn't refute it either and we don't know what effects swallowing a secret stone and having that stone destroyed could have so I'm keeping that the same until a new game refutes it.

My Link OC I've been calling Wraith who I based off of the sealing hand in the trailers we now know is Rauru, can no longer be claimed as canon compliant, which I expected but I'm still reluctant to part with him. Though honestly Wraith's backstory that lead to him becoming a spirit hand is actually very similar to Rauru's so other than the exact timeline placement (Wraith sealed Ganondorf a couple centuries after 10k while Rauru's era is clearly long before 10k since we have no sign of Guardians or Sheikah tech even ignoring the 'founding Hyrule' thing) it doesn't affect events too much, which I'm happy with.

There are two main tangles the backstory of TotK throws into my nicely constructed timeline.

The first, which is less of a tangle and more of a missing detail my brain won't stop chewing on: WHERE IS SONIA AND RAURU'S CHILD?? For Zelda to be their descendant they have to have had at least one kid and we don't get even a hint of their existence. It's easy to see how the developers maybe forgot about this detail with all the *gestures in demon king* you know, and it's easy to imagine they exist outside of the limited scope of the handful of memories we see, but it's something to think about. Also who ruled Hyrule after them? Rauru and Sonia are dead or as good as, and Mineru and Zelda, the only known relatives of them, are ALSO unreachable now. The kingdom must have been a mess after. You ever think of how those poor sages had to deal with the fallout?

The second, bigger tangle:

If this really is the original founding of Hyrule as a kingdom, it would take place before every other game except Skyward Sword, but Rauru seals Ganondorf and Zelda has the sages promise their powers will reawaken when the demon king rises again... but what does this mean for every other time Ganon/Ganondorf rose up as the enemy in another game (which is most of them)?

I can think of two explanations at the moment:

One: This is not the original founding of Hyrule.

It is in fact, a refounding of the kingdom after a time when the kingdom fell and the monarchy dissolved. This is not unheard of in the series, for the kingdom to be defeated or destroyed. In the Adult timeline the kingdom is swallowed by the ocean and destroyed entirely and is refounded later in the timeline. In the Fallen timeline (I haven't played the Adventure of Link yet so lmk if any of this is refuted in that game) There's still technically a princess and a castle at least, but the world is overrun by monsters and the people we see are mostly hiding and fending for themselves. The "kingdom" seems to exist in name only and the monarchy is defunct as a governing entity. Rauru and Sonia could have founded a new kingdom of Hyrule after the Fallen timeline, or during any of the large gaps between games.

Two: Ganondorf had not qualified as the true demon king until now to bring those promises into action.

Anyone who's played Skyward Sword to the end knows of The Bringer of Demise: the literal Demon King that put the entire cursed cycle into motion, and Ganondorf's... predecessor? Creator? Regardless, Demise is certainly responsible for why Ganon just keeps coming back in one form or another. And in TotK, when Ganondorf transforms into the "Demon King Ganondorf", he looks A LOT like how Demise appears in SS. I believe that this Ganondorf is closer to being the demonic god of hatred that started all this than any other prior instance of Ganon. He's more powerful, more obsessed, and had more time to let his hated fester. (So much so that that hated manifested as a writhing semi-sentient mass of malice known as Calamity Ganon, but that's a different topic.) He's become the Demon King on a level prior Ganondorfs simply hadn't achieved.

I think the most likely answer is a combination of both.

I think it makes most sense for Sonia and Rauru's era to be taking place prior to the 10k Calamity but after the three timelines either merge or become synonymous (with botw's and therefore totk's canonical timeline placement being "at the end of all of them"), after an unseen event causes the kingdom to completely collapse and they refound it as a new kingdom and reestablishing the royal lineage of Hylia's blood.

This easily fits within the looseness of the canon timeline and avoids contradictions with having Ganondorf sealed by Rauru while another Ganondorf is running around causing havoc in Ocarina of Time.

I Also think that this Ganondorf DID become a being closer to Demise than a mortal man when he took the secret stone (which,remember, amplifies the power already there, which in this case would be his connection to Demise), his appearance, speech, and powers all reflect that.

TL;DR:

TotK mostly fits well with my headcanon timeline, the main snag being: if Rauru is sealing Ganondorf underground from near the beginning of the canon timeline all the way to the events of TotK, what does that mean for the games that take place between that period where Ganondorf/Ganon appears? I've concluded that Sonia and Rauru are in fact refounding Hyrule in an era after the other games but still long prior to the 10k Calamity, and that the Ganondorf in TotK became something closer to Demise than any other version of himself.

[mooshs-crack-headcanons]

Not marking this as spoilers because it was literally in the launch trailer, but yeah. That's The End and it's actually rather... creepy if you really think about it, like sure it could be a fun little easter egg of current 2d sonic game pointing at current 3d sonic game but let's do what sonic fans are known for and over analyze it, shall we?

So, first off the Ancients sealed it off and trapped it inside Supreme as we learned in DLC 3, The End even referring to it as it's prison - that being said if we really are taking it at face value then it shouldn't make sense for it to be here, in a game set before SA1 no less.

...but I want to bring up a line brought up in the base game ending that I find interesting that changes the thought a bit:

"Regain" Obtained something lost.

"True form" It's original form. It's original body, the moon or however you perceive it as. It's true form that still remains on the "battlefield" of its initial defeat. The body left behind.

Like a body the Ancients couldn't seal, they only sealed the "soul" and power of the entity in the Titan but not the body, leaving it as an empty, floating husk that can float around earth for probably millions of years until its defeat after the ending of Frontiers.

So what if The End has retroactively been here this whole time? Well, technically not "The End" but it's shell. If the "corpse" has been floating here this entire time since its initial sealage then of course it would show up in Superstars. Nothing has been done with it since its "spirit" was sealed away. It's just a powerless rock at this point that can't do anything but be purple and lifeless. But it's been up there, this entire time.

Honestly if this is the case and make more classic games set before SA1 or they remake older games that feature space I wouldn't be surprised if we do see it again as like a retroactive "yeah its been there this entire time", looming, like a dark reminder.

It is the inevitable.

[emerxshiu]

[SIDE ORDER]

tw// slight blood and body horror

not sure if it could classify like it but im adding a warning just in case

Speedrun agent 8 for side order release

I remember mentioning in my instagram when posting for valentine's that i would be back when side order drops, i mostly meant it as kind of a joke since i had some drawing to post. i did not expect that to actually become true lol.

Im definitly staying up tonight (not like i could sleep these past days anyway)

It felt kinda nice drawing some splatoon stuff again, last time was in like december, wich were just doodles, and technically yesterday but that was me making a kirby x splatoon crossover so it doesnt count, so actually last time i did an actual finished drawing for splatoon was the fuzzy neo in november.

Im really hyped up for this, i have played basically just one roguelike in my life (candies n' curses, its fun you should play it too) so i dont have much experience in the genere, but its okay! tho having to restart from floor 1 makes me a bit nervous, wich is funny cuz in candies and curses i also had to restart from floor one yet i kept trying so im not really sure why im worrying, tho it did take me months just to finish the main story in that game, and i want to experience the entierity of side order as blind as i can, maybe thats why. but i managed to avoid magolor epilogue spoilers for a year this might not be that bad.

here's an inverted version i did just for fun.

Aight now i need to talk about the actual drawing, honestly i just sketched something quick with a vague idea of agent 8 with coral growing from them. the real struggle was the background, the colors werent looking nice togheter, it was hard to see what was going on etc, and in the end i decided it would be cool to add images for texture, and that saved it. i used the images from side order's teaser trailer, superimposed over the background and ink. and then i decided to add the side order text to add something, i originally drew some color chips but they looked off in there so i got rid of em

also version without text

btw my birthday is next monday (sobbing rn) this is the third time nintendo releases stuff around my birthday, im so lucky lol

I hope y'all have a nice day

Jambuhbye! :3

[gibbearish]

it is with a heavy heart that i must announce. the five nights at freddy's movie was really good

sorry for how much of a behemoth this post is im fnaf autism just bear with me also i can't keep my thoughts straight for the life of me so this will be a bumpy ride. as an additional note i got very lucky and had literally 0 spoilers whatsoever for this movie, i haven't even seen the trailer

so first of all: i thought all the changes they made to the plot to make it work for a movie were good decisions, altho some of them did take a minute to actually feel like good changes lmao. once i thought about em a bit more though they made sense.

one of the things i really liked was that they also did include a lot of the things i wanted them to, or more specifically things that you're like "you literally can't have a fnaf movie without these, it just wouldn't be right", like we got mike schmidt, we got fucking VANESSA??? altho she might be in the trailer so that might not be the same reveal for yall as it was for me but still. they heavily alluded to vanny? (altho that's a part i'm kinda sad abt is they didn't /actually/ include vanny, vanessa just makes an offhand comment about how she "wouldn't be much help" if she was around afton and then. comes to help anyways and doesnt have any issues? lame they shouldve had him hypnotise her and then she fought her way out to help mike and abby. or alternatively they couldve used the family restructuring to make vanny be a result of afton giving vanessa osdd-2, like thats kinda functionally what he does with the mask anyways but this would make it more obvious).

also swinging back to changes they made that i liked!! VANESSA AFTON?? like this is the one that took me a while to get used to bc it feels like such a cliche from an outside perspective but it also kind of Super Isn't considering what the original plot is? like all the family restructuring they did makes pretty good sense to me, i do think it loses a bit of the weight having michael be Just Some Guy Whose Brother Happened To Be Kidnapped By Afton Forever Ago and now coincidentally has this weird guy offering him a job as a night guard, but also the og lore. absolutely would not fit into a movie lmao. so i like that they kept the characters everyone wanted around while also rearranging it to keep the spirit of "learning about all of this for the first time through the eyes of a security guard" you get from playing the games. it's fun for people who don't know the lore because it's easy to follow and it's fun for people who /do/ know the lore because they can pull apart all the differences.

oh right back to things they included that i wanted them to. we gotttt chica's cupcake murdering people, we got FUCKING MATPAT? SAYING THE ITS JUST A THEORY LINE? SOUNDING THRILLED OFF HIS ASS TO BE THERE??? i dont like the man and his opinions vis a vis addressing nonbinary characters but. goddamn was that a funny cameo. why couldnt you include markiplier too you fucking cowards. who said that. anyways. oh we kind of tangentially have a canon name for crying child? aka garrett? like idk this one could go either way because like. yeah he's mike's younger brother that died tragically and scarred him for life, makes sense that theyd be the same character in function but also it is technically a different family so who knows.

umm what else. oh this doesnt rlly fall into either category i just really liked it, the intro sequence for all the animatronics? showing what they can /really/ do with the breaking and entering dudes?? that was such a cool sequence i really liked the whole thing honestly. chica being introduced in the kitchen and the dude finding the cupcake then looking back and it's gone? bonnie in the supply closet? foxysprint??? AND FREDDY!! THE BITE!!! in case anyones reading this before watching the movie so they know what to expect: youll know when this moment is coming and if youre watching it at home with friends i HIGHLY recommend having the "was that the bite of 87" clip ready to play right after, they WILL lose their shit. i had it queued up from the very beginning of the movie cause i was like. they can't not include it /somehow/, it's the fnaf movie there has to be A Bite. and sure enough. oh also it's not at the same time but the golden freddy reveal is really good too, they did a good job of setting it up so even if youre already aware of golden freddy conceptually you still go "oh freddy's here? i mean i guess that makes sense he's the leader and all. or wait what happened to his eye why's he only got one? oh. oh i see. ohohohohohohohoho" 100/10. also very funny that they just straight up. MURDER THE AUNT? AND SHE NEVER GETS MENTIONED AGAIN SHE JUST IS DEAD??? the kid isnt like. hey what happened to aunt jane?? i get none of them liked her and with good reason but youd think at least one of em would be like "damn she sucked but she didnt deserve that, rip jane"

oh and the springlocks of course the springlocks. like as soon as we saw aftons name in the cast list we all knew he was gonna get springlocked, it's such a cherished memory for so many of us and there's no way in hell The Fnaf Movie™ wouldnt include afton getting springlocked, they just legally can't leave that out. and they do it pretty well too like yeah if you know what's gonna happen you can see it coming way ahead of time and it's kind of a slow crawl to get there but like. idk i think it still works pretty well. i don't personally like how long the actual springlocking itself took, i think they couldve milked that a little bit less cause i was under the impression that if one springlock failed they All Would Instantaneously And Your Flesh Body Will Become Occupied By A Full Endoskeleton. but no we just get very slow rib beartrap. w/e though still cool and again the leadup to it was really good even knowing exactly how it would end, like just the really slow shuffling of the animatronics towards him? like yeah it's slow and kinda tedious but its also like. theres literally nothing you can do, youre surrounded and defenseless and theyre infinitely faster and stronger than you and now they remember that you killed them. and you just have to sit there and watch them slowly slowly get closer all while trying to talk your way out of it knowing youre fucked. 10/10 they did that part well

oh and that also falls under changes i liked, i liked that instead of "afton tries to escape intangible ghosts by getting into old decrepit suit which then fails and kills him" it was "afton was already in the suit to do murders in and has brainwashed the bots to follow him" wait omg point postponed i just realized that part is from security breach. i thought vanessa was the only thing they brought over from that i didnt even notice that they werent doing the theyre-attacking-all-adults-indiscriminately thing goddamn. omg wait and the fact that the restaurants already closed in this one, it really is just a blend of all the games huh. scott do you see how much more coherent your plot couldve been if there wasnt So much going on. anyways. back to what i was saying. instead of "afton tries to escape intangible ghosts by getting into old decrepit suit which then fails and kills him" it was "afton was already in the suit to do murders in and brainwashed the ghosts into thinking he was their friend so they would help him do murders while possessing the robots. then they get their memories back and the robots turn on him and.. i think deliberately? set off the springlocks, or were just aiming to regular kill him and the springlocks failing was a happy accident? then the robots drag him away as they keep slowly one by one collapsing into him", like the first one made a lot of sense for the game and the timeline and the second one just feels right for this too. it's still his hubris that kills him, still his springlocks, it's just in one version the hubris is "trusting his springlock design to still work after however many years" and in the other its "thinking he has conplete control over the ghosts he killed", plus the ghosts finally get a bit more direct participation in his death than in the other version lol.

one change i did not like. forced het romance. like i dunno i guess im happy for them, both of those characters have certainly earned happy endings by this point so its nice they can get something cutesy. but also. like cmon man it's vanessa and mike do we have to do this she just got stabbed stop holding her hand

oh also this change wasnt really good or bad i just thought it was funny, vanessas a full on cop now? like i get they prolly just dont wanna have two security guards or something but i mean. it wouldve been really easy to just say she was the day shift guard? thatd explain why she had more information on the bots and the place's history than him, why she's always Around, it wouldve even flowed into the vanessa afton reveal pretty well too because like. yeah obviously a guy doing murders would want his main security guard to be someone he trusts and who better than his theoretically brainwashed daughter yknow? as it was she just kinda Showed Up Knowing Stuff And Ignoring Questions and later afton's like "you were supposed to be keeping an eye on him" but like of course Mike was getting dodgy about the weirdo cop loitering nearby for no reason, thats sus as hell lmao. vs "experienced security guard here to show you the ropes" he would have a much easier time trusting that she actually did have his best interests at heart. idk it just seemed like a weird change to me lmao

ummm oh my roommate pointed out the fact that when they tried to springlock abby the suit they were aiming for looked suspiciously like circus baby and abby and baby are anagrams so thats fun. it's hard to tell though if shes intended to be a rework of elizabeth or if vanessa's filling that role now. cause like on the one hand, michael's younger sister whose name is v close to baby, on the other hand, vanessa is afton's daughter. so idk i feel like it could go either way. if abby's elizabeth i guess that negates the thing about garret maybe being crying child's name bc then theyd prolly just be keeping mike's name the same. w/e

oh my god i completely forgot when i was talking about changes to the afton springlock thing, they had him deliberately put his mask on after the other springlocks started releasing and say the "i always come back" line, i thought that was an excellent touch. like he's actively dying a horrific death and is like. no no. im not leaving this bot. this shit is going to suck ass no matter what so i might as well do all i can to ENSURE my soul gets locked in this fuckin thing, go on stab me in the brain lets do this. i will however also say that having him say "i always come back"... before he's even come back the first time? is a little bit weird, i know thats another one of the "we have to include this in the fnaf movie" things so im not mad but just in the moment it def flows a bit weird. like mf you don't even have one example of that yet much less several to be saying "always" about

OH AND THE BIGGEST ONE. THE ANIMATRONICS. theyre so good. like im so glad they went all in on that, i think they probably knew that if there was one single thing they had to get absolutely 100% right to avoid a fan uprising it was those and by god did they deliver, theyre so big and so unsettling and so fun. chica's wink at abby was the best part of the movie no questions asked. or alternatively bonnie falling over after they built the fort. like theyre all just so good. OH MY GOD OR IN CHICA'S INTRODUCTION SEQUENCE WHERE YOU CAN SEE HER JUST. SCOOTING BY THROUGH THE VENT?? THAT WAS THE FUNNIEST THING OF ALL TIME HELLO???

god. but yeah i was honestly expecting it to be a lot worse than it was. also this mike is a bad brother/dad figure. but i guess in the games he also kind of is the pinnacle of bad brother so i mean it couldve been a lot worse. theres definitely some rough parts, i mightve mentioned this already but i felt like a few of the dramatic pause things were a bit too drawn out, like i said the springlocks locking is one good example of that but another that i REALLY found slow was like. in the opening we watch a guy get turbomurdered by the swirly blade mask and it takes. way longer than i feel like was necessary. also unnecessary: a jumpcut a second from scared eyes to swirly blades to hands fumbling and repeating during that. oh another thing that was weird to me, why was mike so insistent on sleeping specifically at night? to the point of deliberately sleeping on the job? like i get he wanted to revisit the kidnapping dream but like. presumably he could dream just as well during the day, no? done his night shift then once it was up rolled out a sleeping bag for a quick powernap before heading home? idk that just felt. forced to me

more random things, i am sad we didnt get a whiff of henry emily (my fringe theory was that their twist to change it from the games was they were gonna make henry be evil, rip to that idea) or the puppet/charlie, and kinda sad they changed the kid possessing golden freddy to be a boy like. we love cassidy and her Undying Rage Towards Afton's Soul smh why would you get rid of her. also loved balloon boy, kinda wish mangle had gotten like a similar level appearance but thats w/e. oh also while i did appreciate the low gore level there were also a few times where it was a bit weird how minor the injuries the dead people had were. like this man just had his face put in a blender mask and he just has like. some forehead gashes or whatever? he should look like someone stirred up jello

anyways with that gross thought i think i am out of things to say about the movie for now. if anyone else watched it already and somehow read all of this blease tell me your thoughts

[ericaxkobi]

SPOILERS for the new Mario Bros. Movie

…

..

.

Okay, so I’m not typically the type of person to share my thoughts and opinions like this on social media. Not for anything that’s brand new and just came out and there’s a chance someone will see spoilers for it if they read my post.

But I cannot stay silent on this one. I NEED to talk about the Mario Bros. Movie.

I saw it on Good Friday with my friend since we had both been looking forward to it.

I’ll start off by saying, I went into the theater with very low hopes. Not because I wasn’t impressed by the trailers and tv spots, but because I didn’t want to be let down if I didn’t see something I had hoped to see.

I wasn’t disappointed. At all.

I won’t lie, the Voice Actors were my biggest nitpick. (That and the overall pacing of the movie), but I feel like there was enough going on that I wasn’t CONSTANTLY reminded that Chris Pratt isn’t even Italian and Peach didn’t sound like Peach, etc. etc.

I liked Mario a lot more than I expected to. I like how they made him more relatable and not just this untouchable hero that he’s often depicted as. He felt like a normal guy thrown into a crazy world and just trying to find his little brother. The overall plot of the story is pretty simple. Peach and Bowser are at way and Mario and Luigi get caught in the middle of it—on opposing sides. They’re just trying to make it out alive.

I’m pretty sure I was smiling like an idiot 90% of the movie because I was just so in awe by the beautiful animation and designs. Hundreds of tiny details and Easter eggs and references from the Mario franchise EVERYWHERE. It just shows that the creators really took the time to add those details and little sounds and music bits to honor the games. I loved that.

So, we get to see Mario and Luigi’s family. That was a lovely surprise. We don’t see them for very long, but we get a sense that Mario isn’t taken very seriously in his family—which is often the complete opposite of how we’re used to seeing him. It’s a nice change that I do like. It technically is a commonly used trope where the hero is looked down at the start and praised later but it feels more refreshing in this case.

Mario’s dad comments that Mario is going down with his new plumbing business and “dragging his brother with him”.

Okay, since when was Mario the one dragging Luigi down? That was a nice change. Luigi wasn’t exactly the golden child either, since everyone at the table but their mother and Mario himself ignored him, but I was still not expecting that.

Mario hates mushrooms. I love that. He gives Luigi his mushrooms the second Lu says he likes them. (Also, “Lu” as Mario’s nickname for him. ❤️)

It’s shown straight off the bat that Mario and Luigi are close. They’re best friends. They do everything together. They’re in sync and truly twin brothers (don’t think it’s ever stated they’re legit twins but to me it seemed heavily implied and has been stated so in the games). Luigi comforts Mario and encourages him to keep going.

I think that’s the pivotal message in the movie: brotherly love. They’re a set. They’re better together and nothing bad can happen so long as they have each other.

Luigi….I could talk forever about how adorable Luigi was. The same can be said about Mario. Just too cute for words.

Toad….. I would have liked him better if not for his voice. Didn’t sound right at all. But ignoring that, I liked him. He was a bit much at times but not necessarily in a bad way.

Peach was badass. Her voice didn’t bother me…but I would have preferred it had they gotten someone who sounded MORE like Peach. I think what I don’t understand is, why didn’t Peach do anything about Bowser before the start of the movie? Clearly Bowser had been taking over lands before reaching the Ice Kingdom (penguins). I get that Bowser found the Power Star, but shouldn’t she have been trying to rally supporters before then? Maybe not, but I did wonder it.

Bowser was the perfect combination of terrifying and ridiculous. Jack Black did a fabulous job and I loved his portrayal.

The REUNION HUG!! If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m feeling just thinking about it!

Omg! That was one of the few things I was secretly demanding— an emotional hug from the brothers and I was not disappointed!

DK and Mario rivalry? Amusing and enjoyable.

Luigi. ❤️ (That’s it. I just wanted to say that amazing man’s name again).

The Mario Kart stuff was cool. They executed the whole sequence better than I thought.

I also liked the end battle. I was not expecting things to end up in Brooklyn but I feel like it helped tie in the beginning stuff so that it wasn’t left unfinished.

Overall, loved the movie. Can’t wait see it again and own it. I will definitely be buying it when it comes out!

Thanks for reading and listening to my opinion!

Lemme know what you guys thought of it too!

[saturnskyline]

getting to know your bl mutuals ♡

rules: answer the questions and tag some people. include the tag 'g2ky bl mutuals 2022' on your post so we can find everyone's answer.

i was tagged by @braceletofteeth, thank you so much!! :)

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what were the bls that took you by surprise last year?

well... that would have to be kinnporsche. i saw the "i know you feel it too" bathroom clip the filmania trailer and was intrigued, but lost track of it amidst the initial release drama, only to come back around when i saw the first kiss scene (true chemistry fr). i wasn't fully invested until then, but i guess you can say it spiraled from there 😅 it looked cinematic and very horny (spoiler: it was both), but i never could have expected to be so... oh, what's the word..... consumed by it? (case in point: me writing a mini essay in here eh oh el)

what were the bls that you felt a bit disappointed with last year?

i had to really think back for this one bc i feel like there were so many good bls happening last year. the one that finally occurred to me is gonna sound so stupid... but probably kissable lips? 😭😭 i do not know what i expected or wanted it to be, nor do i really remember it that well tbh, but i feel like it did have potential to be better. again though, i'm not sure what standards i was holding it to so maybe it actually did deliver lol. i could be absolutely crazy, who knows!

what was your favorite bl last year?

i have already waxed poetic many a time about kinnporsche on this website, so you already know that one hehe. and speaking of bls that hit me like a truck... between us! (for me, "favorite" and "surprise" seem to be the same. i guess i like to be pleasantly surprised)

favorite bl/gl couples (not just of 2022)

in no particular order:

patpran

seanwhite

kinnporsche

inkpa

payurain

vegaspete

deanpharm

monsam

prapaisky

winteam

kimchay

i'm sure i'm missing some but here's a solid list 🙃

if you had to suggest a bl for someone what would it be?

this one is tricky bc i would want to take the person's preferences into account.... but i am a bad buddy truther through and through 🫶🫶 just feel like you couldn't go wrong with that rec tbh. the acting is incredible, the writing is top-notch, and everything adds up for a drama that is so refreshing and magical and authentically queer. ohmnanon's chemistry has me breathless to this day, and milklove really helped me come to terms with my sexuality :') i can't say enough good things about it honestly, what a special little show

what was your non-bl favorite last year?

that's gonna have to be gap 🙏 technically i haven't even finished it sdhsdfhj, i just don't want it to be over! a true game changer, and it just has a very special place in my heart. freenbecky my beloveds <3

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tagging @coffeeyuqi @vegaseatsass @theoryofarson @darkthestars @fuckyeah-itme @crystallinemoonlight and anyone else who wants to do this! i'm trying so hard to switch up who i tag in these so i don't spam people lol. as always, feel free to ignore though

[sylusjinwoon]

Hi yes, the Shadow House AU prompter here. So, just to warn in case anybody is going to see the manga/anime and don’t want to be spoiled

[SPOILER ALERT🚨 ]

.

Shadows are the nobles living in the Shadow House manor. Technically, a Shadow is a Morph (a type of forest fairy in the story) that has gone through “Mimicry” process. By imitating a chosen human, they can look exactly like that person’s shadow (hence the titular name). They will also gain internal organs and certain personality traits too. Additionally, the Shadow can have certain supernatural abilities as well (but not too godlike, just above average natural ability). After “Mimicry”, the Shadow children will be educated in isolation about themselves and their Doll servants until they are proper to join the “Debut”.

Meanwhile, Living Dolls are human children chosen from a nearby village, and was educated at a young age until the “Debut” event. (This process is involved with the “Mimicry” process too). When they are considered suitable to serve, they will be brainwashed to lose all memories of prior life and to only dedicate themselves as loyal servants to the Shadow noble. At this point, they are also known as the Faces for their Shadow nobles. Despite the difference in rankings, the Shadows and the Dolls are encouraged to develop close bonds and to understand each other personalities. (Ironically, in the story, Shadows tend to have a somewhat opposite personality to their human counterparts). The sinister truth behind this “close bond” is because when a Shadow has grown up and is deemed qualified, they will conduct “Fusion” with their human counterparts. If this succeeds, the human’s consciousness will cease to exist and the Shadow will take over the human body, having gain a “Face”. But should the ritual fails, both are doomed.

So I just kinda went with this AU idea based on Gemini’s voicelines in the demo and trailer. Gemini could be someone who is talkative, always cheerful and supportive, in contrast to P who is the quiet one and acts more than speaks. Gemini has similar ability to P’s machinery arm except he can morph more weapons and doesn’t need to recharge the weapons with typical bullets (but with his own material). Gemini at first is super oblivious about the process and just in general very excited about the “Fusion” and gaining in face. But when he learns the truth, he just wishes they could do something and escapes from this harsh reality….

this seems so angsty and perfect as an AU for LOP 🥹

[rookie-critic]

Fear (2023, dir. Deon Taylor) - review by Rookie-Critic

Sometimes you see a trailer for something, and you know that, most likely, it's not gonna be good. I hate to say it, and I try not to judge any particular book by its cover, but we all do it, we can't help it. It's almost impossible not to put a perception on something. I know I shouldn't, because it's happened so many times just in the past couple years where I was anticipating something being bad or just ok, and it ended up blowing my socks off. It's almost gotten to a point where I'm more inclined to go see something if I have a negative knee-jerk reaction to it. Still, sometimes that inclination is right, and it most definitely was in the case of Fear.

This film, that clearly only got a theatrical release because its only release competition was Brandon Cronenberg's Infinity Pool, a very niche psychological thriller, and the star-studded, but massively undermarketed rom-com Maybe I Do. I could talk about how the film is edited in way that seems like they ran out of production time/budget and didn't have enough footage to make a cohesive plot, I could talk about the rushed digital effects that look like they were made in just shy of two weeks by college freshman in Adobe After Effects, I could talk about the ADR that was clearly added in with complete disregard for whether or not a character that is supposed to be speaking on screen's mouth is even moving, or the absurd amount of re-used dialogue. I could talk about a million different little technical things I noticed while watching this movie, but really I think the most crushing thing for Fear is that it is a horror movie, one that desperately wants to be taken seriously, that just flat out isn't scary. The premise, that your deepest fears manifest themselves in reality at the lodge where the film take place, and that's what eventually kills you, while interesting from a baseline perspective, seems to be of mostly tangential interest to the filmmakers. [MILD SPOILERS AHEAD] They have a sliver of a unique idea in giving some of the ensemble more abstract fears (stuff like "my friends not being able to trust me" or "not being in control"), but its almost like they just get bored after taking those concepts three-quarters of the way to their conclusions and just kill those characters off through some half-hearted, supernatural other thing than actually having their fears kill them. Even the character whose fear is literally just blood has a completely unrelated death. He doesn't drown in blood (his significant other in the film's biggest fear was drowning, they could have easily knocked out two birds with one stone there), he doesn't even bleed out (even though he does get stabbed and one of the hallucinations he has is his stab wound bleeding profusely), none of that vastly more on-theme stuff happens. His neck gets snapped. That's it.

It's just unbelievably underwhelming on almost every front. It's a horror movie with no horror, a slasher film with unoriginal, uninteresting death scenes, it packs no punch, offers no lasting impact, and the acting isn't even bad enough to be funny. In fact, a couple of the performances borderline on good (Andrew Bachelor, a.k.a. King Bach, whose production company helped make this film, actually delivers a decent performance, and TI has at least one decently funny moment). I think the only thing I've seen recently that was worse was Jeepers Creepers: Reborn, but I can barely even call that a film, so that was a pretty low bar to pass. Please, if you were thinking about seeing this, don't. Save your money and your time, it's not worth it.

Score: 2/10

Only in theaters.