#the last half of season 3 is honestly pretty disappointing

[madegeeky]

Hannibal (the TV series) seasons in one sentence:

Season 1: The least amount of police procedural you will ever see in a police procedural.

Season 2: Reins are off now, fuckers, let's do some goddamn character work!

Season 3: Wherein the first half is Hannibal writing fanfiction and the second half has completely new main characters.

[pedriache]

If you want to — Lamine Yamal.

Pairing: Lamine Yamal x Fem!Reader

Summary: Lamine noticed you hadn’t been sleeping and offers to spend the night with you so you aren’t alone. But you hadn’t expected his presence to relax you so much.

Word Count: 1.8K

Disclaimer/s: all fluff <3 talks of not sleeping (insomnia), cursing.

A/N: This is based off “If you want to” by Beabadoobee!

A nudge to your shoulder had snapped you to attention, your heart rate skyrocketing as you’d just been woken from a half-sleeping state. Rubbing your tired eyes, you turn your attention to your best friend, your eyebrows furrowed. “What? Did I miss something?”

A quiet chuckle leaves Lamine’s lips as he nods his head to the rest of the classroom. Everyone was packing up their things before shuffling their way out of your maths class.

“You practically slept through the whole period.” Lamine notes as you begin putting your own things into your backpack.

Even then, you were moving at a sluggish pace. “My bad.” You sigh, tugging on the metallic zipper with an irritated huff. It’d got caught on the fabric, not budging no matter how harshly you tugged on it.

Before you could lose your temper, Lamine gentle takes the black backpack from your grasp. You watch with a frown as he slowly and gently fixes it, zipping it all the way down without any more of a struggle.

He hands it back with a teasing look, “next time don’t try to rip it apart and maybe it’ll cooperate?”

“Shut up.” You huff, standing up to tug the straps onto your shoulders.

Exiting the classroom, you walk beside Lamine. It was now lunch time, which meant you had the whole thirty minutes to possibly nap in the Library while the athlete got his fair share of carbs in.

“How much sleep did you get last night?” The boy beside you asks, his eyebrows dipped in concern.

Chewing on your bottom lip you reply honestly, “three or four, give or take. Probably closer to three.”

You wish you were joking, but unfortunately your insomnia was taking a tole on you. Getting worse and worse since the school year had started. It was pretty evident in your face as well, as Lamine had pointed out a few times before. Large purple eye bags and heavy eyes had now become your normal. No makeup could conceal the tired look that was always on your face.

Lamine nods his head slowly, opening the light washed doors for the both of you. He says your name in a drawled out tone, cocking his head to the side as he watches you walk past him and into the bustling cafeteria, “you gotta get more sleep, man.”

“I know that!” You groan, “but I just can’t sleep, like ever. It sucks too because I get so bored, but my brain just doesn’t shut off.”

“What if I come over tonight? I’ll hang out with you and we can study for the exam on Monday, maybe it’ll tore you out?” Lamine suggests, his smile genuine as he grabs the red trey before entering the short line for food.

“Really?” You perk up, “I mean, only if you want to, don’t feel obligated or anything.” You add on quickly, grabbing your own trey.

Lamine laughs, “if I didn’t want to, I wouldn’t have suggested it.” He grins, his elbow lightly tapping your bicep, sending a flurry of something new to your stomach. Something you definitely needed to ignore.

—

That night, Lamine texted you to inform you he’d be over right after he helped his mom clean up dinner. You smiled as you typed back a quick response to let him know the door would be unlocked.

It’d taken very little convincing for your parents to give the all okay when you’d asked if Lamine could stay over, as it was a very normal thing between you since you were kids. Plus, it helped that it was a Friday night.

You were sitting comfortably on your bed, the TV on and playing season three of Criminal minds (your second rewatch of the month), when your door opened without a knock. Lamine’s pajama clad figure entering soon after.

“Hey—“ He stops short, looking to the TV with a disappointed look. “Didn’t you just finish season fifteen like.. last week?”

“Technically, five days ago actually.” You shrug, watching as he makes his way around the bed, setting his backpack on the edge of the bed before slipping onto the bed.

He grabs the remote, pausing the episode. “Have you ever considered that damn show is why you can’t sleep?” He quirks his eyebrow, pressing the red button at the top of the remote, turning the TV black.

“Hey—! I was—whatever, ugh.” You slump back onto your many pillows with a huff of air. “It is just background noise, honestly.”

“Whatever you say..” Lamine sighs, reaching for his laptop in his backpack, pausing and turning to you, “are you going to get yours or..”

You blink, realizing you’d been staring at him without a thought in your head. “Oh! Right.. Homework and studying.. how fun.” Not.

For the next thirty minutes you attempted to focus on the work in front of you, but your mind was trailing off to earlier that day. You’d felt a strange sensation at his touch, one you hadn’t felt before and it was consuming your thoughts now more than ever as he sat beside you, your legs touching.

With a defeating groan, you close your laptop. “I can’t do this. I’m so sick of school, I just want to sleep.” Your frown deepens on your lips as you tilt you head to the side, resting it against the wall as Lamine mirrors you.

“Then sleep?” He offers obviously. “Without the TV on.” He quickly adds, a small grin on his face.

“I’m gonna hit you.” You scowl, but begin to put your laptop and textbook onto the side table.

Lamine does the same, setting them aside and getting comfortable under your large white blanket. Once the two of you were settled, you close your eyes, begging sleep to find you easily.

It doesn’t.

You toss and you turn and you huff and puff, yet you cannot sleep.

A loud yelp escapes your lips as Lamine rolls over, placing an arm around your waist and securing you against him, forcing you to stop moving.

“You’re being loud.” He grumbles through a sleepy voice. And that was enough to shut you up.

Lying in his arms, your heart beat rapidly slowing in your chest the longer he held you. And then the unexplainable happened, you fell asleep, a small smile on your face at the feeling of his soft breaths on your shoulder.

—

Your eyes flutter open, immediately clamping shut as the bright sunlight that burned your eyes. Letting out a loud whine, you move to face away from the sun, only to find your movement halted by the weight of an arm around you.

Right.

You open your eyes again, slower this time as they adjust to the sight in front of you. Lamine was silently scrolling on TikTok, his phone resting against your pillow, his head still resting beside yours.

A smile creeps onto your face, “what are you doing?” You laugh, moving your head to catch sight of his.

“Watching TikTok, what does it look like?” He quips, a humor filled grin on his face as he stares into your eyes, drinking in the way the sunlight hits off your face. He finds himself getting lost in the way your eyes are twinkling with amusement.

Clearing your throat, you face his phone once again, “well turn up the sound, weirdo.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He says, clicking the side of his phone till it’s at the perfect level. Butterflies attack your stomach at his words, but you push the feeling aside as you two watch his for you page, laughing at the stupid and funny ones, occasionally teasing him when an edit of himself pops up.

It’s not until your eyes flicker up to the time when you gasp, “Lamine! It’s 1:30? Why did you let me sleep in so long!?”

“I didn’t want to wake you!” Lamine argues defensively, “you needed your sleep.” He says the last sentence a lot more softly, more out of care than to actually prove a point.

Your bottom lip juts out, “wait, thats sweet. Appreciate it.” You grin, turning around to place a peck on his cheek, which was a normal thing you did, but this time he hadn’t expected it.

Lamine turns to face you, just as your lips were supposed to connect with his cheek, his lips are suddenly in the way. Soft lips instead of soft cheeks catches you off guard, your eyes widening as you quickly pull away.

“Oh fuck—“ You stutter out, “i’m so—“

“No! No—it’s okay!” He’s stumbling over his own words, both of your cheeks are flushed as you look at each other in shock.

It’s quiet for a moment, both of you staring at one another with slightly parted lips, the silence deafening. You were still in his arms, he was still holding onto you, neither of you dared to move.

“I’m so sorry, I genuinely didn’t mean to do that.” You finally cough out, your eyes narrowing with worry. Did you just fuck everything up?

Lamine’s chocolate eyes soften, “don’t feel sorry.”

Maybe you were reading too into things, but was he trying to say something more?

“I just kissed you..?” You cringe at the way the words that come from your mouth, you sounded like an idiot. This was humiliating.

Lamine’s mouth opens, then closes, then he gives you that look. The one he gave you every time you were slow to catch a meaning behind something. The one that made his lips pull back and his cheeks puffed a little. A look you loved.

God, you loved it. You loved him.

“What? Why are you making that face?” You say through a nervous giggle.

“I don’t want you to be sorry for kissing me, I just want you to do it again.” Lamine says, a bit more confidence in his voice as he does so. He was looking at you with longing in his eyes, and you couldn’t deny him any longer.

Your lips press against his again, feeling the way his lips form a smile as he kisses you right back. His hand snakes through your hair, pulling you impossibly closer. The second you pull away, he’s peppering your lips with mini kisses, grinning like an idiot all the while.

You fall back against your pillows, a lovesick smile on your face as he leans over you, brushing stray strands of your bed hair out of your face.

“You look like a goof.” You tease, hand reaching up to touch his that was cupping your face.

“You’re not allowed to make fun of me, I just helped you get the best sleep of your life,” he points out, mater-of-factly before adding, “loser.”

Rolling your eyes, you swat his hand away, “ohhh, don’t let it get to your head.”

After a few more bickering exchanges, you both agree to start your day officially, both exiting your room to go make some ‘breakfast’.

Sickeningly sweet smiles on both of your faces as you make your way downstairs, Lamine’s hand never leaving yours.

(DT) @halfwayhearted ILY. Thank you for helping me on this my bonkkkk💟.

[xecutivecucumber]

Executive Cucumber's thoughts on the Bad Batch: Season 3x06 and 3x07 (I'm pretty sure I'm formatting this differently every time. Oh well)

Okay, there's a subject I'm going to have to postpone until the end of the post because I want all my thoughts on that to be together: the main operative clone. And the rest might be slightly out of order. I'm also doing this before I see anyone else's thoughts, just so we get the pure version.

Let's go!

I honestly thought that Senator Singh and Riyo were dead meat. But no, they're fine because REX IS COOLER THAN ANYONE. Ugh that man. Freaking throwing the grenade back at him.

Clones are beautiful. That is all.

THAT'S THAT ONE PLACE FROM THE OG CLONE WARS MOVIE!!! TETH!!!

Howzer I love you but if you touch Crosshair we will be having words.

I am actually really proud of Crosshair and his restraint this episode. He could have been really cutting to Howzer.

OMEGA WITH THE TOOTHPIIIIICKS and Hunter is jealouuuus

EDIT: ECHO AND THE CROSSBOW HE'S SO SWEET

WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU CROSSHAIR

It's really nice to see normal clones being normal again. (Too bad it doesn't last)

There's something up with Omega. I'm not going to lie, I think that she and Rex are going to plan to get her captured in order to track her back to Tantiss.

HOWZER STOP DISTRUSTING CROSSHAIR THIS MOMENT

I appreciate that Hunter doesn't seem to distrust Crosshair during this point.

...they really shouldn't have brought that operative back.

Rex is considering stealing Omega, I swear. I love that he gets down to her level.

WOOOOOOOOOOOLFFE (Plo would be so disappointed in you)

It's...odd to see these normal troopers with him.

It's also strange that he cannot comprehend that the clones could be traitors at first.

STOP DYING YOU BEAUTIFUL REGS

'She only bites half the time' I'm pretty sure Omega is lying here but I don't care.

CROSSHAIR IS SUCH A WORRIED DAD HOLY CRAP. 'Oh, I'm much worse' I LOVE YOU

And this just gives such a little insight into how the Batch was when they were together. I have a feeling that Crosshair was a fusser and a nagger.

And I love how Howzer's natural and correct conclusion is: 'no one evil could love that child.' (Unless you're Nala Se)

Hey, actual candor from Crosshair. I keep saying this is who he always was under it all, but I do think he's healed somewhat, at least towards regs. The healing power of Omega.

'Too bad' I LOVE THIS MAN

STOP DYING REGS

Rex talking down Wolffe reminded me so much of him trying to talk Jesse down. So ow.

Okay, what ROCK have they shoved Wolffe under for the last YEAR??? YES THE EMPIRE WOULD GET RID OF THE CLONES YOU DOG BRAINED IDIOT

(Plo would be proud that you let them go)

...they just killed all of Rex's clones, except Howzer and Gregor. And I have a bad feeling about Howzer. STOP TAKING THINGS FROM REX HASN'T HE LOST ENOUGH???

Okay here we are, at the big topic. Hold onto your pants.

That operative clone. Is. Tech. Because if he is not, they are purposefully using the narrative to deceive us.

I might miss a few things, but that's because I'm up past my bedtime and I've been up too late the last few days.

1. The falling and water parallels. This clone falls a LOT during this episode and dives into a lot of water. He even falls into mist. This time it's to kill and capture his siblings instead of save them.

2. The injury. This clone is hobbling around a lot after his injury, which was immediately reminiscent of Tech's broken leg at the beginning of season 2. Both of them are forcing themselves past their limit to achieve a mission. Specifically with injured legs.

3. General attitude and demeanor. In combination with the stealth and injury, this clone has a more hunched posture. His speech patterns are more formal, though we haven't really heard a lot of other clone operatives talk with their helmets on. But he's also apparently allergic to orders. I first thought that he'd be out of the chain of command, but they would have told Wolffe that he wasn't in charge of the operative if that were the case. Or the operative would have straight up told him 'I don't take orders from you' instead of staring awkwardly at him. Instead he runs off and does his own thing. While injured. Not to mention the buttons on his gauntlet. The other clone operatives don't have those.

4. The cybernetic legs. Now we don't know for sure if Tech would have cybernetic legs, but it seems likely for a severely injured trooper. And when Crosshair is looking at the heat signature, you can see that his legs are blue instead of yellow or red. No heat. Not organic.

5. What he says to Crosshair. 'You could have been one of us.' 'You chose the wrong side.' Yes, he's talking about Crosshair resisting the re-education. But flip it on its head real quick. 'You could have been one of us. One of the Bad Batch.' 'You chose the wrong side. The Empire.' Those lines very easily have double meanings.

6. An interesting one is when he starts moving rocks after the explosion. Why would he do that? Why not immediately go find another way in? He's moving only the smaller rocks. There's a large one in the way that he couldn't move himself. And he doesn't get the rest of the troopers to come move it when they arrive. He almost seems confused.

Like he's somewhere else after an explosion, having to move rocks. Like in the Crossing.

I know that this hardly seem like iron clad evidence. But in the language of story telling, it's practically screaming in our faces.

And I'm so glad he's back. I missed him. He won't be himself for a while, but I legitimately believe we'll get one last fight with the Batch all together. Because brain washing is a heck of a lot easier to fix than being dead.

My sister is doing the good work and creating a tik token about it, and I'll probably share it here when she's finished.

(We're getting the episode 'Identity Crisis ON MY BIRTHDAY and so help me if that's about Tech)

Honestly I thought I'd be more excited, but I spent the entire two episodes forcing myself into not having expectations and also I might be in shock.

[lunion]

I had a friend defend to me that the fourth season os Star vs the forces of evil was good and that the ending was actually good.

This triggered a bunch of memories that are hard to explain, so I'll just paste my messages to him on the topic:

"Star vs the forces of evil is essentially two different shows taped together and unfortunately, the second show it tries to be is not nearly as compelling as the first one.

The first half of the show (Seasons 1 and 2) are mostly centered around quirky, yet good hitting slice of life comedic stories that revolve around growing and maturing as a person, mostly Star learning how to handle her impulses and Marco learning how to go with the flow a little more.

They had good chemistry, but it felt a lot more organic and even if they didn't end together as a couple, their relationship was nice and enjoyable to see it through.

It was very nice well balanced with action segments either for light fun or some higher stakes as they built up Ludo and Toffee to be these forces to be dealt with.

The second half of the show devolves into political drama, history revisionism and full ship indulgence/relationship drama. Almost every tool used in season 3 and 4 has been underutilized at best and squandered at worst. Starting off simple, Mewni is just not as interesting to visit as it was to especulate based on the little information we had.

Moving to mewni lifted the veil and the authors couldn't fill it with anything interesting. Another thing is that the political drama followed all of its beats, but honestly never quite landed when it came to actually making the historical parts interesting. It was either very formulaic or very cut and dry to the point it felt like they really were just going off hitting the "history revivsionism" tangent by accident and seeing where they landed.

And of course, while relationship conflicts are still part of a teenager's life, at this point I feel it was just being stretched to its limit to make for the most drama. Who the characters dated/broke up with felt more in line with "what's going to generate more hype/drama" than "what makes for good character growth/compeling storytellling".

Marco breaking up with Kelly offscreen after having a whole dedicated episode to trying to branch off from Star really feels like "Okay, what the fuck was that supposed to be the point, then?"

And then we have things like Star obsessing over Marco's stinky hoodie as if that wasn't creepy as fuck, the show failing to acknowledge the massive problem they caused with Marco aging to 30 and dating Star and how they just felt not like evolutions or continuations of their previous arcs, but rather revised versions of themselves in the hands of different authors, it really makes them not feel like the characters I loved, but a Ruin version of them.

The final episodes were just the nail in the coffin because any organic chemistry between star and marco was pretty much dead at that point and I was almost rooting against them and then they go to the magic dimension and destroy it on a whim despite all they did to save it, because apparently Toffee was right all along. The death of all magical creatures and the joining of dimensions is completely shrugged off and, if anything, that ending undermines Star's road to learning about responsibility of not indulging your whims just because you want to as Star and Marco forcibly unleash chaos on the now united dimension just so they can be together.

I don't know what makes an ending "objectively good or bad", but I know that watching the final episode of Star vs the forces of evil made me feel absolutely robbed from everything I ever loved about the show. Not for the episode on its own, but what it has built up over the last two seasons slowly tearing down the things I loved about the first two seasons culminated in the greatest disappointment I ever felt in media ever since I watched that episode and that frustration is worse than any frustration I ever felt for every bad sonic game, every bad RWBY decision, every bad Homestuck page, every bad fanfiction I ever wrote COMBINED if you didn't feel like everything you cared about was stripped from you from those two final seasons, then I can only be happy for you, but I also realize (the rather obvious observation) that you never had the same engagement that I had with the show, so it makes sense that the ending wouldn't cast "testicular torsion" on you like it did to me"

[mosswitch219]

Some thoughts on Bad Batch Season 3

SPOILERS

First off I want to say this is going to be a very unpopular opinion and if you liked the szn this probably isnt the post for u, but I feel I have to speak my mind.

Overall after watching season 3 I honestly feel let down and unsatisfied with the events and especially the ending.

1. Techs death is probably the biggest thing that frustrated me because when you kill a character off you should either have your other characters morn and grieve them and learn to accept the loss or bring them back.

However they didn't either of those, instead they pretty much forget he existed they barely reference him and only say his name like twice, it would be fine to show characters in denial about someone's death but it's more like the show is in denial. This is why many bad batch fans were expecting tech to come back, if you don't morn a characters death than the story arch feels incomplete a ppl will wait for it to "end".

Not to mention techs story didn't seem over he left on weird unfinished terms with Phee and it seemed like they would touch on it again but nope.

Also they introduced CX-2 and made it seem like he might be tech, such as having the same build and teasing the identity like it's important and like it will mean something and then at the end for CX-2 and all these super soldiers to mean absolutely nothing.

2. So many unfinished questions, I can't believe this is the end of bad batch and apparently the last clone show. Especially when we still don't know where tf Cody is and all we're told is that he's gone AWOL (mentioned like it will mean something in the future) and then we never see or hear anything about him again.

Then there's Wolffe obviously we know he's in Rebels but what happens between then and now?

Then there's Echo same as Wolffe what happens to him as we never see him fighting alongside rex in Rebels.

Then ventress she was introduced back and then she leaves and we never see or hear about her ever again, she didn't rlly add much they revived and went "look ventress is back" for one episode and then that's it she's no longer important all she did was say "yup omega has a high M count" and then left.

3. Omega and the other force sensitive children could have patched up the plot hole of "somehow palatine is back" by saying using omegas clone DNA that can sustain high levels of a M count and a force sensitive child they were able to figure out how to clone palatine or smth but no it all meant nothing and we never rlly knew what the tests where for even when they had a golden opportunity to reveal it when Rampart forces Nala se to tell him everything abt the experiments

Honestly season 1&2 were great and so I went into season 3 expecting the same amount of quality but I didn't get that. They usually tie everything together and I never felt unsatisfied or confused in szn 1&2 but I did in szn 3. I kept waiting for things to start to tie together especially when the had so many moment where it seemed like the scenes where there just to make things make sense but no they were all there for nothing.

I walked away from szn 3 thinking it must have been rushed or gotten a new writers team bc wtf was any of this, it was so out of character for the writers to make such bad decisions.

I understand if other people like the ending bc we don't usually get somewhat happy endings but this was more like a half-assed happy ending to me, I would have preferred a well written devastating bad ending but this is what we got instead and I am so disappointed. All I could think of szn 3 was about how angry, let down and confused I was and that it was a lame and made me feel meh.

[lakesparkles]

so outside of lila and five, what are your thoughts on s4? because honestly I think it started kinda strong but totally fizzled out.

I'll start this apologizing because I'm sure this answer will be very long as I have.... Opinions.

In general, the word I would use to describe this season is "weird". Since the beggining of it I felt like something was out the place, but I wasn't sure why. The jokes weren't as funny and the characters felt off. Sometimes I even felt uncomfortable.

And one of the reasons for this is because the season had so much potential but too little time, so everything that happened was too fast and even pointless? And this upsets me a lot!

For example, the subway concept was a 10/10 idea, I was super excited to see where this part was going to but it was just an excuse to make Lila and Five kiss, ew. We barely saw any other timeline and it was a very wasted idea.

But focusing more on the characters themselves:

Luther - I liked him :) I mean, he was clearly being dumbed down during the seasons but he was funny to me. What helps is that he has my favorite VA in Brazil (who also voices Mr Peanutbutter, for reference). But Sloane not being important or there at all? I'm mad.

Diego - this one hurt me, he was my first big disappointment with the season. Just like Luther, his personality sudenly became "being dumb" only and his scenes got unfunny pretty fast :/ and no one will ever convince me he would dislike being around his family that much. His plot was weak and only got worse when I realized they might have done it so Five seemed like "the better option" for Lila...

Allison - I don't know how unpopular this opinion is but I really enjoyed seeing her this season, especially her scenes with Klaus when the season got closer to the ending. My only problem was, again, her arc in season 3. After that I kinda expected more? It was as if everything that happened before didn't matter... And I don't even want to start talking about the lack of Ray this season...

Klaus - I saw some people liking him this season and, I'm sorry, I'm not one of them. In fact, I think Klaus was my least favorite (before that Lila and Five mess ofc). I don't understand why his plot is so far away from the rest of the the family when their interactions are the best. And omg his scenes made me so uncomfortable I wanted to skip it everytime Klaus appeared on the screen.

Five - Ew ew I don't want to talk about him. They destroyed his whole character in a way I thought that was impossible.

Ben - before watching the season, I thought his plot would be my favorite. It was not. It was so boring and underwhelming and by the end it didn't even felt like I was watching TUA. Adding Jennifer in the last season was such an odd choice because they had no time to develop a character that was supposed to be that important.

Viktor: one of the only characters that wasn't totally destroyed. His conclusion with Reginald was fair to me but I don't have much to say about him? It was like they forgot he existed during the first half of the episodes.

Lila: who was that random woman in s4? Because it was not her! The part we were told she didn't like bracelets felt like a personal attack /hj

Now the ending? It sucked. What were they trying to tell us with that? "Life sucks and never gets better and it's better to die?" It's even a little dangerous conclusion to me...

[maggotwithanf]

it's come to my attention that not a lot of people know who the guy in my profile pic is and so i have made an effortpost about my favorite late 2000s adult animation sidekick character ever, Trans Icon Randall Skeffington from Ugly Americans:

Ugly Americans is a show about cryptids/monsters/etc living and adjusting to life in NYC and that doesn't matter WE'RE HERE TO TALK ABOUT RANDALL

Randall is a canonically bisexual zombie who's the main character, Mark's, roommate. He's also super fucking trans guy coded and I genuinely don't know if they did this on purpose or not but holy shit this speaks to me on another level.

He turned zombie for this chick he liked who decided she didn't like him that much, and came to terms with just being a zombie as an identity he chose for himself, and he sticks by it a lot. He's also got two (two?!?!?) full fucking episodes about losing his dick as it physically falls off his body and how he's pretty much okay with that but his dick isn't, and he learns to respect it and everything. And there's constantly background gags of Randall getting dick upgrades at the mechanic like he's modular b/c zombie dick

oh yeah and there's this:

Randall's bottom half gets ripped off for like the third time in the series and Mark has to carry him around in a garbage bag and Randall ends up rabbitholing onto a forum for transgender mummies and he's like ">:( it's no use they're just all tips on moisture retention" said with zero 2000s era irony for the trans thing or anything just genuine disappointment that this trans mummy forum has no advice for how to deal with his missing bottom half and is just dusty, like literally. like the last half of the sentence was the punchline, not the first half

okay more fun randall facts: he's a huge fucking slut and a massive whore (canon). he has big Karl from Workaholics energy but if Karl was like, disillusioned by the very fabric of life. he's kind of a creepoid in that 2000s way but he's also perfect and i love him so everybody shut the fuck up. there's a running gag that he definitely probably wants to fuck Mark and in the episode where Mark and Randall's ex Krystal (the girl he went zombie for) swap bodies, Mark's like "what am I supposed to do now" and Randall's like "well you can make one of my longtime dreams come true"

anyway i love this gay gay (canonically bisexual) zombie man and i went back and watched season 1 again and he's honestly treated with a lot more queer/trans coding and whatnot than I remember (and also I didn't remember that they just fucking made him bisexual and he says so in season 1 episode 3 so i'm just a big idiot) and I thought I was reinterpreting a bunch of 2000s era gay jokes but nope, randall skeffington trans icon. spends 1/3rd of his time dickless or with no bottom half and inspires us all. has 200000 STDs and a dream.

Also there's this fucking episode where Randall who's from New Jersey goes back to his home town and has to deal with his internlized homophobia (excuse me ZOMBIEPHOBIA) re: small town gays vs big city gays and it's just really fucking real idk idk idk. And you think it's gonna be straight people doing a hamfisted metaphor but at the end of the episode his dad does this:

anyway watch Ugly Americans which ran for 2 seasons on comedy central in fucking 2010

[calkestis]

season three is kinda bad tbh, the show went from great to another mediocre disney plus show. sad

*cracking knuckles* okay, here we go: i disagree and it's getting exhausting to see all the negativity surrounding s3 even if we only got 3 episodes.

i feel like everyone projected on what s3 was gonna be (after s2 left us with not much to build on, unlike the end of s1, when it was very obvious where the story was going) and now i see people are disappointed that those expectations aren't met. i like the uncertainty. i like not knowing where the story is going and having to put it all together week by week like a huge puzzle. am i picking the right pieces? well, i'm only gonna find out after the last episode of the show cause this is pretty much how weekly release works.

i think it's unfair to judge a show with one episode releasing every week after just 3 episodes - we won't be getting any payoff for this until the finale and that's been the case in the previous seasons as well. more than this, i think the first 3 episode of this season advanced the plot more than the first 3 episodes of season 2 did (din got redeemed and we're not even halfway through with this season; in s2, after 3 episodes, he was barely getting info about the jedi). but nobody complained about it then because s1 left us with a big quest that we knew would be the main plot of the season. right now, we don't know where this is going, but we should at least have patience before labelling this season as good, bad or mediocre.

yes, the first episode felt disjointed, but it was saved by the characters and their charming moments and interactions; isn't that what the mandalorian's been doing in the first place? the show has never been plot heavy and it was always carried by its characters and, honestly, the first 3 episodes of this season did a very good job at making me care about the characters and their journey. the greatest example here is bo-katan, whose story has great potential here, especially after episode 3. and yes, i care about the ex-imperials we saw in episode 3 and, as i said before, i loved the themes we saw in that episode and i think they parallel and will eventually tie into the bigger plot. i can't call it filler when we still have 5 episodes to go, not knowing anything about them.

i lost a lot of faith in filoni and favreau after tbobf, but at the same time i have a lot of faith in most of the people working on this show, from cast, to directors like rick famuyiwa (who was in charge of my favourite episodes in s1 and s2) and bryce dallas howard. and i'm also looking at the previous seasons and the way we also got "filler episodes" (the gunslinger? the passenger? - you need those to build characters) in the first half, before the story eventually picked up the crumbs from those and showed us where they were leading.

we can agree to disagree and it's totally fine not to like something, but in this case the discourse is just draining all the joy from watching something like this show, that offered us so many amazing moments

[ultrahpfan5blog]

Summer 2024 Movie Reviews

So, imo opinion, while the BO of the summer movie season has been pretty ordinary until Bad Boys 4 and Inside Out 2, I have to say that I think the quality of the summer movies have been pretty good.

The Fall Guy was honestly a lot of fun. I feel bad this film has flopped but Gosling and Blunt were excellent and Gosling's comic timing was pitch perfection. Great action and a fun mystery story made for a really entertaining movie. An 8/10 for me.

IF was another winner from John Krasinski. A little on the slower side, but the second half of the film is a real winner emotionally, even if the final twist was relatively predictable. Reynolds takes a back seat, allowing Cailey Fleming to drive the film with both him and Krasinki providing solid support, along with a host of celebrity voices for all the IFs, with Steve Carrell's Blue being the adorable standout. A 7/10 for me.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was a film that released far too removed from Fury Road. Its a really well made film, with great vehicular action set pieces, but it really is a companion peace to Fury Road and should have been released within a few years of that. Hemsworth arguably delivers his best performance, stealing the show, with Anya Taylor-Joy and Alyla Browne both impressive as Furiosa. Film falls into the category of films that probably wasn't really necessary, but was still damn entertaining. A 7.5/10.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was a worthy successor the excellent Apes trilogy. These films are much better than they had any right to be, somehow able to make genuinely thoughtful movies. This one was on the slower side, and the human aspect of the story sometimes takes too much time, but I appreciated how they showed the positive and negative impact of Caesar and the world of this movie is fascinating. Noa was a likable lead. Idk if they would follow this character though, as compared to Caesar, who was the leader of the Apes. Curious to see where this franchise goes next. A 7/10.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die continues the winning run of the Bad Boys franchise. It may be controversial to say this, but I have enjoyed Bad Boys 3 and 4 more than the first 2. I feel they are better constructed movies and the more matured characters mean that there is less yelling at each other constantly. I didn't completely get the villain motivations in this movie, but I thought it was hilarious. Like with the last film, Lawrence carries the humor and Smith handles the drama. Lawrence is a riot in this movie and Smith continues to be one of the few stars who just oozes movie star charisma. Well support by the supporting cast. A 8/10.

Inside Out 2 is another winner for Pixar. I loved last year's Elemental, and I have generally thought the recent Pixar run has been pretty good, having liked Luca, Turning Red, Onward, and Soul. Lightyear was also decent thought relatively disappointing. But Inside Out is still a return to form, while not a top tier Pixar film, which I reserve for the Toy Story films, Finding Nemo, Up, The Incredibles, and the first Inside Out, but it is very much in the top of the second tier. It doesn't have the emotional gut wrenching scenes that the first one had with Bing Bong and the climax, but it has a strong message and impactful climax. Best film of the summer so far. An 8.5/10.

All in all, summer has been good quality wise. Wish Furiosa and The Fall Guy had done better at the BO. IF and KOTPOTA have done decently and honestly, The Fall Guy should have had a slightly lower budget because a non IP action movie making around $90 million domestic is not bad. Furiosa just was a film made way too late. It needed to pick up on Fury Road's popularity but 9 years later, no one really cared, despite it being a good movie. Mad Max is too niche of a franchise for gaps like that. Bad Boys 4 seems to be doing well and IO2 seems to be a monster opener.

[softpine]

i’ve been so busy lately and then i get extremely sick and i’ve been in a haze from all the pain meds the past 2 weeks so if i already answered any of these asks or if i forgot any, please forgive me 😩 i really have no memory at the moment jfksjds

awww thank you :’) i have such a soft spot for those moments where a character who isn’t normally vulnerable opens up (but only for one special person). and so does elaine!!

@lullabysimblr​ omg thank you so much!!! reading my story from the beginning is a herculean task fjskjds i really appreciate it 💖 i looove giving my characters flaws, it’s one of my favorite aspects of writing!

technically they all have iphones because i just use the same phone accessory so that i can reuse poses and just quickly recolor the screen depending on the scene :/ but i honestly can’t imagine any of my characters dick riding for any corporations fjksjds

 @alltimefail​ fksdjskj words have never been casper’s strong suit but it’s always fun to write dialogue for him!! and i’m so happy you like reading the bts posts because i feel like a self absorbed weirdo if i post them without someone prompting me first lmao so i’ll definitely post one for you!! i know i already sent you a dm but yeah i plan to combine the last 3-ish posts into one behind the scenes post because i can barely remember what i’ve already said or didn’t say 😭

so let me just say that it’s been a while since i watched season 1 and i haven’t started season 2 yet, so some of this might not be accurate. but!! i had the same gripes when i watched it but i eventually changed my own mind. the shrooms scene is definitely not a realistic portrayal of what shrooms would make a normal person act like, but these aren’t normal people. they’re teenagers who have been removed from society, are starving, scared, beginning to think they’ll never go home again, combined with alcohol, and they don’t even know they’ve been drugged (that can make you feel real crazy REAL quick). the madness was already started to take hold in them while they were sober, the shrooms were just the gentlest little push they needed to give into it. personally i dislike how media treats shrooms in general (or like any hallucinogen) because it’s never realistic, but i don’t think yellowjackets was any more unrealistic than any other trip scene i’ve seen on tv. i agree that it was a cop-out and nothing more than a plot device which is pretty disappointing. i would’ve rather seen them descend into madness more gradually.

as for jackie’s death... if i remember correctly, all the girls had just fallen asleep outside the previous night and it was only a bit chilly, not dangerously cold. no one had reason to believe they were sending jackie to her death that night by making her sleep outside. and i live in an area where the weather fluctuates rapidly especially in the fall or spring, where one day i can be wearing a t-shirt outside but within a couple hours we’ll get 6 inches of snow. homeless people tragically die all the time in my city if they’re not able to take shelter when this kind of weather hits, because it happens so suddenly that you might not even wake up in time to realize that you’re freezing (or you’re half awake but your body is in shock and you become delirious). so i don’t find that part to be unrealistic at all. i can’t really remember where nat and travis were at the time so i can’t say why they would ignore jackie, but if it hadn’t started snowing yet, they probably just weren’t concerned. same with ben, he’s a voice of reason but he’s not really good at putting his foot down. taissa didn’t want to disagree with shauna and she didn’t think jackie would die, so she didn’t say anything. that’s all just my interpretation obviously but i’ve seen a lot of people call jackie’s death unrealistic and i just don’t agree

i don’t even know what the bed glitch is, i’m sorry :( is it not the same glitch you can fix with an s4s batch fix?

thank you so much for the advice! now that the weather is warming up i’ve been able to spend more time outside which has helped a lot. i’m sorry about your grandparents, i’m sending you & your family all the peace and love ♥

i believe they’re still these eyes but i’ve customized so much of my main sims cc that i can’t say it’ll look the same. i also edited their eyes in that post to make stevie look like she’d been crying and to make elaine’s eyes more dramatic!

i think they’re these ones :)

[formulaorange]

Winter 2023 Anime Review

This has got to be the longest season ever. I swear I stopped watching anime for a good few months and came back and the season's still going. I definitely cut down the amount of shows I watched this season since I burnt out but the upcoming Spring season should be a banger. My top 3 for this season: Buddy Daddies Sugar Apple Fairy Tail The Vampire Dies in No Time Season 2 Here's this seasons final reviews:

Giant Beasts of Ars - 12 Episodes Definitely one of the better anime originals I've seen in a while. This is a new sci-fi fantasy concept that felt a little reminiscent of Ghibli content. I was satisfied with the story but was a little disappointed they didn't end it off with 1 season. 8/10- Very Good

Trigun Stampede - 12 Episodes I honestly loved this. Studio Orange killed it with the 3d animations (they did Beastars) and the story is well rounded. I think the series is definitely underated and many people skipped it due to the animation style but it's 100% worth a watch. 8/10 - Very Good

Vinland Saga Season 2 - (Still airing - 12/24 Episodes) Who knew we'd see Facebook's farmville be animated in such detail. But honestly, the first half of this season is absolutely brutal. I know they're keeping it real and the slow pace makes the rest of the season stand out all that much more but damn. Doesn't pick up until episode 9 but somehow I still have high hopes for the rest of the season. (Side note - Mappa is killing it as usual with this take-over) 7/10 - Good

Blue Lock - Part 2 (Episodes 13-24) This is definitely still one of the best sports anime I've seen in the last few years. All the characters are unique and enjoyable to watch, the art style is solid and well executed and the story progresses at a decent rate. I honestly don't have many complaints about this series. (of course other than the usual butchering of english in the last 2 episodes) If you like sports anime, soccer or just want to watcha battle royal, this is one to check out. 8/10 - Very Good Endo and Kobayashi Live! - 12 Episodes This honestly didn't feel like a novel concept but I had a lot of fun. It's 2 romance stories in 1 but with all the fun of shitty otome game intervention animes. (I can't believe this is a genre now). Just overall wholesome fun. 7/10 - Good Revenger - 12 Episodes I really thought this series could've been better. While I did enjoy it to some extent, the story ended up feeling very superficial and didn't feel like it really went in depth on any of the characters and just floated along the surface story for the whole season. 5/10 - Average Tomo-Chan is a Girl - 13 Episodes I nearly stopped at the first episode. I'm still not 100% sold on the concept where this strong girl just wants to be seen as a romantic interest and a lot of the gender stuff was really on the edge but I think they managed to walk around it. The story did end up being cute without it stepping all over tomboys. Was fun to watch but not as good as the hype behind the manga. 6/10 - Fine Campfire Cooking in Another World with my Absurd Skill - 12 Episodes I really enjoyed the manga for this series and I was stoked that Mappa picked it up. I found that as long as you don't try to look for a serious story from this series it's a fun lighthearted watch. Definitely made me hungry while watching. 7/10 - Good The Eminence In Shadow - Second Half I think this show was actually pretty fun. Definitely more of a fantasy than isekai since it has nothing to do with his previous life. I had fun with Shadow's character but found that it got boring for a few episodes until the end. If it continues I'll likely still check it out. 7/10 - Good

The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague - 12 Episodes This was really cute and I liked the change of pace from other romance series where they're all workforce adults, like in Wotakoi. Still felt that it didn't really go anywhere. Enjoyed it but likely won't continue to watch if there's a second season. 6/10 - Fine

[mdhwrites]

So I know you adore Amphibia, have flaws with Owl House, and only saw the first episode and three parter series finale for Gravity Falls, but ever see the other two of the big 5 story driven Disney cartoons with DuckTales 2017 and Star vs the Forces of Evil? Thoughts on them?

I don't think I've EVER seen an episode of Ducktales. It looks like a lot of fun from the clips I've seen, just never have happened into watching any or getting sat down to watch it. Also in general, I'm slow about watching television, even if I'm trying to get better about trying new media.

Star Vs. I believe went that I saw the first season with my brother, enjoyed it, was REALLY rooting for Marco and Jackie because I think their relationship was honestly really cute and I thought they had way better chemistry than Star and Marco, watched a little of S2 and then my busy life and depression made me drop off. Then my brother told me about the clusterfuck that show becomes and the BS ending to Marco and Jackie's relationship and any interest in picking it back up died there.

I don't really have any critical thoughts about Star Vs. It's a very good concept for what many would perceive as a reverse isekai, an other worldly being coming to us, with lots of charm and fun in the time I spent with it. I think the biggest issue I had with it was that while it was fun, I didn't ever really grab onto anyone besides Marco. Star is a little too brain dead at times, a lot of the side characters are either underutilized or kind of boring/annoying to me (I straight up did not like Pony Head because she's just not the sort of character I usually like as an example.) None of it was actually bad, a lot of it came down to personal taste and that's okay, kind of like how personal taste made me bounce off of Steven Universe pretty hard when I tried an episode of it.

I think, and this might not be comprehensive, that if you want a full list of shows I've seen in the past seven years, since there were a few years where I didn't watch anything, it would be: One Punch Man S1

My Hero Academia S1-3

Wednesday

The Owl House

Amphibia

The Ghost and Molly McGee S1

A good chunk of Komi Can't Communicate, at least S1

...And that might be it? When I moved out of my parent's place, I kind of just stopped watching most stuff. Part of that was being busy, part of that is that I tend to overthink stuff when I watch professionally scripted content so I prefer streams and Youtube. There's also stuff I've probably seen an episode or two of here and there, especially when I last lived with my parents for half a year, but nothing I stuck with too well. It's kind of why I want some recommendations for what to watch now that I've finished Amphibia, or what might be coming out soon because honestly I'd LOVE to join at the start of a fandom and hope that helps motivate me to get more writing done.

Sorry for the potentially disappointing answer admittedly. I'm trying to do more, get my brain to be okay with sitting for 20 minutes like that and chill, but it'll be a process after so long.

======+++++======

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

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

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[quirkychaoticraptor]

Carmen Sandiego Thoughts

Ok, mostly really random, and I know I don't really get on Tumblr, anymore....

But, I've recently rewatched "Carmen Sandiego" on Netflix, mostly for a fanfic of mine that's now being rewritten. I totally thought there had been a season 5, but then again, I am an idiot, lol!

I gotta say, though...(spoiler alert for those of you who have not seen the show, yet) the last half of season 4 really disappointed me. Personally, I hate it when creators or show writers decide to just make the main character evil, especially out of the blue. I never grew up or watched the original "Carmen Sandiego", but I know that in the original, I think Carmen was evil. For the most part, anyway. Even so, in this reboot of "Carmen Sandiego", I didn't like what they did with her in the last half of season 4. That was just...very strange, and like I said, I personally don't like when main characters just suddenly turn evil.

I also didn't like that V.I.L.E. was so easy to take down when they're supposed to be...what, the most powerful evil organization on the planet? They had like, over a hundred operatives or something, and even the faculty members were supposed to be pretty powerful! Not just physically (Coach Brunt), but also mentally (Maelstrom). I feel like Cleo and Bellum would've been a combo of both, especially with Bellum's tools. Out of the four of them, I would've thought Maelstrom and Brunt to be the hardest to take down. But instead, every faculty member (except Shadowsan, of course) were so easily caught? What?!

Carmen being evil was just...pointless. It didn't even last very long, and there was nothing shown for it, other than a random time-skip. I just don't think it was very necessary.

About the Gray/Carmen thing.... I'm not much of a shipper, and I never shipped those two, together, anyway (honestly, if anything, Carmen and Julia being a thing would make more sense, but...ship whoever, I guess...just don't war over it, please). So, I'm not sure how to really feel about that, other than to me, it was just weird.

And if I remember, correctly, from the last time I watched the show's finale, Carmen just up and split with everyone? Ivy, Zack, Player...did Shadowsan go with her? And what about Carmen's mom? They never found her! Did they?! I don't quite remember....

Overall, I do think the last half of season 4 was very rushed (no thanks to Netflix probably pounding on the show's door to hurry things up or whatever...because it's Netflix), and I also think that yeah, there should have been a season 5, and made that the last season. I don't think I'll be rewatching season 4, again, if I'm being completely honest. I mean, first half of it was fine, and I liked the episode with Ivy/Dash Haber (I do ship them, sue me). But other than that, I think I'll be rewriting things for my fanfic or something.

Some people say that season 3 was pretty useless, but I don't know, I liked it. To me, the different shift in tone was nice, and giving the V.I.L.E. faculty a lighter side made me laugh. I don't know, maybe I'm just easily amused by that kind of thing. I don't really see anything wrong with the 3rd season...but, that's probably just me.

Anyway, those are my thoughts for today. If you agree with me, cool. If you don't, cool but please don't get at me for my opinions and feelings. Please, respect them.

Later!

[greydiminishing]

2/3/24

yesterday was my birthday. I had a good day.

My first class yesterday was fun, we came up with project ideas as a class, then someone would pick one of the ideas, and those who liked it could come together and form a group. I'm excited about my project topic (developing a daily outfit picker), AND everybody I secretly hoped to be in a group with JOINED MY GROUP!! I'm so lucky!

Between this and my next class, I ate a granola bar. I got these Sunbelt banana granola bars and they're probably the best granola bars I've ever had. They taste like dessert, it made me happy lol. Now I have to try all the flavors.

I worked a bit on the project for my next class, its writing python methods and unit tests for a postgres database. I found that it seemed to be pretty straightforward and kinda fun. As long as I don't leave it to the last minute like last time :p. This next class was just lecture, so not too bad, but then we ended class 20 minutes early?? lucky again!!

After this I have 4 hours till my next class. I got a bagel and a brownie from a cafe on campus. I asked for a plain bagel with cream cheese. I kinda expected to get it how you get bagels in NJ, loaded with cream cheese, sandwiched together and wrapped in foil. They handed me a parchment bag with a bagel and 2 of those mini Philadelphia cream cheese cups. Honestly I was a little disappointed, I mean, as disappointed as you can be over just a bagel lmao. But you mean I gotta make it myself?!? I took it home and toasted it, and had half with cream cheese and half with butter. Tell me why this was one of the best bagels I've ever had?? The outside was crispy and shattering, the inside was still soft and chewy, it was so good omg.

A few days ago my mom sent me a package with my meds, and some "other stuff" that she wanted me to call before I opened. The "other stuff" was birthday presents!! In the box was a lovely card, a pack of mini red velvet muffins, some of my favorite cashews and macadamia nuts, a bag of these lattice cut chips I really like, a packet of fajita seasoning I really like lol, a cute purple pepper spray that goes on your keychain, and a really nice mug. So much stuff, I really wasn't expecting it haha! I had a quick call with my mom before I had to get to my next class.

Physics can be pretty boring and annoying sometimes. Idk if it was just because it was my birthday so everything was great, but class wasn't that bad. Pretty average. It is a two hour class though :/

After class I went to check out a "no-sew blankets and hot chocolate" campus event thing. When I went in they said they were out of blanket materials, and the line for the hot chocolate was crazy long (especially when I have hot chocolate at home lol), but then they gave me a $5 dunkin gift card?? huh?? That's pretty cool lol.

Then I stopped by Salsaritas for dinner, I got a burrito and chips and queso. This was a birthday treat for myself cause one small burrito and a bag of chips with queso was $15. That's crazy to me. I guess that's probably normal, but idk I can't justify that cost, so its a once in a while thing. It was good tho.

I stayed in for the night, watched Bocchi the rock, ate my burrito, had a red velvet cupcake. It was a good time.

I told my roommates it was my birthday and they asked if I had any plans. It's always so embarrassing to be like "ahh no, no plans I'm too tired and too busy with homework and stuff haha". But screw that! I DID have plans, and those plans were to enjoy my peaceful solitude in my cozy dark room (I didn't say that though lol).

It's very easy to be sad and sorry for myself because I didn't have any "plans" or do anything special. But I stayed in and watched anime, which is exactly what my INTP self likes to do on a friday night after a socially exhausting week of classes.

I had a good day and a good birthday :)

[italeteller]

Ok, so you've told us what you think the best anime were last year. What are the anime you've been most disappointed by the last few years then, if you don't mind me asking?

Oooh a spicy ask, and a chance to complain about anime? Don't mind if I do!

This got long so I'm gonna put it under a readmore

First of all, gotta kill my darlings and go for Undead Unluck. Because like. The animation, the voice acting, the soundtrack, the sound effects, the little anime original things they add to filler some episodes, they're all amazing, and as someone who deeply loves the manga I am genuinely So Glad we've gotten an adaptation, even if it hasn't boosted the manga sales

But!

THAT. FUCKING. PACING! IS DRIVING ME NUTS!

WE HAVE COVERED 28 AND A HALF MANGA CHAPTERS IN 14 ANIME EPISODES! THAT'S 2 MANGA CHAPTERS PER EPISODE! THAT'S "ANIME'S CURRENTLY RELEASING AND WE NEED TO FILLER THIS BITCH UP TO BURST LEST WE CATCH UP" PACING, NOT "WE HAVE LITERALLY MORE THAN 150 CHAPTERS LEFT TO COVER" PACING!

THERE'S SO MANY FLASHBACKS! WHY'S THERE SO MANY FLASHBACKS!? SHIT'S WAY TOO SLOW, WHICH MEANS SEASON 1'S LIKELY GONNA END ON CHAPTER 53 WHICH MEANS CHAPTER 132 IS LIKELY NOT GONNA COME UNTIL SEASON 3 WHICH MEANS THE MOMENT WHERE UU GOES FROM GOOD TO TOP 3 CURRENTLY AIRING SHONEN IS LIKELY TWO WHOLE ASS SEASONS AWAY!!! WHAT THE FUCK!!!

I have a theory about why they're doing the pacing so slow, but honestly at this point I wish the season had been 20 episodes like To Your Eternity instead of 24, because this pacing's unbearable

Anyways, enough complaining on a full stomach, time to shit on My Hero Academia. The manga's gone to shit, and the anime's following the story which means it's also gone to shit, but additionally the anime feels less quality than it used to be. While there are some impressive battle scenes and high-speed movement scenes every now and then, there's also some noticeable lower quality moments, characters speaking facing away from the camera so they don't have to animate their mouths, repetitive scenes with moving camerawork to disguise the lack of animation... maybe it's because BONES has been doing the mha movies at the same time as the series, but you compare stuff from seasons 2 and 3 with stuff from seasons 5 and 6 and it's a really bad difference. I used to be really hype about this series, and it breaks my heart to see how far it's fallen

Kimetsu no Yaiba's secret village arc was also pretty meh. It might be the only time the manga's better than the anime, which felt unnecessarily padded and killed a lot of the tension of the fight scenes

The second season of My Next Life as the Villainess was pretty mediocre, flanderizing characters and bouncing aimlessly around with the plot. Here's hoping the movie raises the quality back up

Beastars season 2 was. Not as good as season 1. I don't remember exactly what ticked me off, but I remember I didn't like how Haru got sidelines, and I found Legosi very annoying this time around

The second season of Reincarnated as a Slime was also pretty mediocre. The first half was full of filler which killed the pacing, and when the main character's village was raided and some important characters killed, he conveniently met an elven princess who knew the secret to unlock resurrection magic, which meant that from there on out there are no stakes. Honestly a shame, I loved the first season, tho I gotta admit it peaked at the Orc Disaster arc

Sakugan began with incredible promise and a super straightforward plot premise, and then meandered away on meaningless, boring sidequests from episode 3 onwards, wasting a perfectly good plot, setting and characters

A very similar thing happened with Giant Beasts of Ars, which looked like a great fantasy series and then just... did nothing with anything

And the same with Synduality: Noir, a really high value tie in anime to an upcoming game with a postapocalyptic setting and the most insufferably boring main duo I've ever seen in anime. I gave it like 8 episodes and it's like that shit was allergic to moving the plot or the characters forward. It dedicated a whole episode to the obligatory tsundere character working up the courage to confess, and then she didn't

Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko could've been great if it had been 24 episodes, instead of hypercondensing the whole ass series into 13. I had to stop watching because I was getting mad with all the stuff they were skipping

Cells at Work Black was a pretty good drama until literally the last moment where the main cells, whose host body has finally started improving his health, thus giving them a better work and life environment, are sucked into a blood transfussion and taken to a body that's in an even worse state. So like, fuck you and abandon all hopes of things getting better I guess

And speaking of saying "fuck you!" to your audience, we can't forget about Science Fell in Love, the romcom that decided to end it's season 2 with an attempted gang rape of one of the main girls, intercut with the main guy putting on a powerpoint presentation on why she didn't deserve it. I would like to know what the fuck the mangaka was thinking

And if we're speaking about disasters, we can't not talk about the absolute trash fire clusterfuck that was Wonder Egg Priority

WEP, for those who don't know, was a delightfully dark original series about four girls who lost someone to suicide, entering their dreams to fight monsters to save the souls of girls who killed themselves, with the promise that one day they'd find those they'd lost and bring them to life. Lots of action, lots of kickass animation, very interesting character drama and mystery both human and magical

In the last three episodes (this was a 13 episode series btw), the series added the concepts of the multiverse, multiversal travel, syntetic humans, none of which it could do justice. And then the final episode breaks off the main group. All their goals are revived, but they're girls from other universes which means they had no bonds with the main characters. One of the girls dissappears into another dimension, another gets traumatized and leaves, another is implied to be looking for excuses to kill herself, and the MC spirals into depression before ending the series with a hopeful scene of her going back into the dreamworld, which would never happen because the series ended there and then, and there were never any plans to continue. A dissappointment on all fronts the likes you had to see to believe

Another series that shat the bed during the last three episodes was Takt Op Destiny. It wasn't as dramatic because the series wasn't as good as WEP, but still. Absolute disaster of an ending

Annnnd yeah, I think that's it for the last five years. Sure have been a lot of disappointments huh

[survey--s]

682.

1 - When you wake up, do you get up straight away or do you lie around in bed for a while?  I remember making this survey years ago, lol. Anyway, it depends. I set my alarm for when I need to be up but if I wake up before then I'll lay around and doze or read my phone. At weekends I often get up, feed the animals, make a coffee and go back to bed for an hour.

2 - Who was the last person you video-called with? Have you done this more often since COVID hit?  My mum, and yes, most definitely.

3 - How many times a week do you go out for food or drink?  Less than once a week as eating out is just so expensive and is often really disappointing imo. We tend to go maybe every 6-8 weeks but we do get takeaway more often.

4 - Do you prefer getting takeaway or actually sitting in a restaurant and eating your meal there?  I prefer going out for lunch or breakfast and then getting a takeaway for an evening meal.

5 - Where’s your favourite place to get takeaway coffee (or whatever your drink of choice is)?  If I had one nearby then I'd go to Starbucks but the nearest is like, a half hour drive and I'm not that desperate. I tend to go to the local coffee/ice-cream place near the beach.

6 - Do you tend to keep your phone on silent, vibrate or loud?  Silent at night or at home, loud at work.

7 - If you have pets, when was the last time one of them annoyed you? What happened?  Archie when he came home from his walk and straight to the litter trays - yes, he is gross and yes, they'd been emptied, he was just being an opportunist lol.

8 - When was the last time you went into a bookshop?  Uh, about August I think? We don't have one anywhere near us.

9 - What was the last thing you ordered off Amazon?  Cat food and dog treats.

10 - When was the last time you took a dog out for a walk? Is this your own dog or did you borrow someone else’s?  Friday and they were someone else's dogs. Oakley and Ollie are my last walk of the week and they're so great to take out. Super obedient, excellent recall and very friendly.

11 - What jewellery do you have on at the moment?  My piercings and my wedding and engagement rings.

12 - Do you have any products in your hair right now? What are they?  No.

13 - Have you ever used a VPN to access foreign content online?  Yeah, mostly just to watch US TV shows for free.

14 - Who was the last artist you listened to? Is this someone you’re a fan of? Bishop Gunn and yeah, they're okay.

15 - What was the last thing you had to drink?  Tea, which is really unusual for me.

16 - When was the last time you cooked something for the first time? Did it work out the way it was supposed to?  I honestly have no idea. I never really cook anything.

17 - Black cats are considered to be bad luck - is this a superstition that you’ve ever believed in?  Nope. Two of our cats are black cats.

18 - Would you ever eat blue cheese or do you find the idea of eating mould to be pretty repulsive?  I love blue cheese. We have loads in the fridge right now, lol.

19 - Do you visit the dentist every six months like you should? I go once a year as it's covered for free under my dental plan.

20 - How old were you when you first used the internet? Was it dial-up or did you have access to proper broadband?  I think I was about ten or so. Broadband didn't exist in homes back then so it was dial-up or nothing.

21 - Are you old enough to remember using floppy discs? Yeah, I had loads of games that ran off floppy discs lol.

22 - When was the last time you purchased an actual DVD or CD?  I bought some DVD's a few months ago but I haven't bought a CD for years - probably over a decade tbh.

23 - Do you shave? Which body parts and how often?  Yeah, legs, pits and bits, and everyday.

24 - What’s your favourite season, and what are some of your favourite things about that season?  Autumn - the colours, the weather, the atmosphere.

25 - When was the last time you burned yourself?  Yesterday, I think?

26 - Have you ever been the victim of a theft or robbery? What was stolen? Did the police ever catch the person who did it? Yeah, I was pick-pocketed in France (luckily they didn't take much and I never reported it). My parents have had their car/house broken in to a couple of times - my rollerblades were stolen once. The second time they stole my mum's handbag and the car off the drive.

27 - What was the last TV show you discovered that you really liked? What was it that got you to watch it in the first place? I haven't started a new TV show in months. I did like Young Sheldon for a bit but I got bored after the first few seasons.

28 - Have you seen any of the live-action Disney remakes? Which one is your favourite? What about your least favourite?  Yeah, all of them. I like Mulan and Alice in Wonderland and I LOVED the first Maleficent. Hated The Lion King and Aladdin. Little Mermaid and Jungle Book were good too. Lady and the Tramp was meh, so was Cruella.

29 - Do you have any exciting plans for tomorrow? If not, how are you planning to spend your day?  Just work. I'll be up at half seven to feed the animals, then it's breakfast and get myself ready. I leave at half eight - then it's off to my final visit with Charley (cat) before I walk Sparky. Then it's two group walks before I pick Archie up and take him out with Ollie for the last walk of the day. Then back home, feed the animals again, shower and chill.

30 - Would you ever keep a working dog as a pet? Do you think it’s fair to keep dogs like huskies in flats when it’s so different to their natural environments? I have a beagle in a small house - I don't think your home environment really matters as long as you have the time and energy to give them the exercise and enrichment they need.