#the pilot was so great I loved it so much

[idolomantises]

Have you watched Murder Drones, and if so what’s your opinion on it?

Also your art is great, keep it up.

Thank you!

And uh. Man. I may make an enemy out of another indie fandom because I don’t really like this show.

I actually loved the pilot and thought episodes 1-3 were incredible, if a bit too fast paced. But episode 4 was kind of a breaking point for me and I dropped off after that.

I don’t think it’s very funny. I think it relies too much on Bathos and it makes it hard to take its cast seriously. As a black comedy it mostly worked for episodes 1-3, but 4? No.

It does this thing I really despise in media where it has themes of genocide but like… heavily deprioritizes it and often portrays it like a comedy. It’s supposed to be funny when innocent characters are murdered because they’re just goofy side characters but when it’s a major character suddenly we have to care, and I don’t like that at all. The main character has a meltdown over finding out that murder drones are sent to kill her people at the end of the pilot, and then in episode 4 she’s murdering her classmates and crying because a boy she likes might think she’s weird. I actually find it pretty frustrating that the robots are portrayed as incredibly cowardly because they’re slowly dying off and scared to die and then they’re hanging out with V who casually murders random children and nobody reacts to it.

I actually do like the idea of a character who’s not reformed but is kind of forced to stick around but when I see her murder characters, traumatize children and then go “haha I just have mental problems” and everyone just��� moves on, I just cannot bring myself to care. It causes such a massive dissonance and not in a fun way.

I think it’s very frustrating and unengaging when a story about people doing the right thing and trying to help others has no interest in helping those they’re trying to save.

I think the female cast is solid but I did kind of raise my eye a bit when the only major female character that was killed off was a victim of genocide while the other genocidal characters, two of which gleefully murdered her fucking parents, are just allowed to hang out with the rest of the cast. Uzi especially lost a lot of sympathy for me when she was more emotional about freaking out N than murdering her classmates. Like yeah, they weren’t the nicest to her but it’s weird to establish a character wants to end genocide and then… barely reacts when they also indulge in that genocide.

I don’t really like the characters at all. I don’t like Uzi, I found N irritating and boring (and gives me anime harem protagonist vibes), I thought V was a tryhard and I couldn’t really care for the rest of the cast. I liked Doll but lol, you know how that turned out.

It also has this problem of having an overloaded cast with very little breathing room. I really wish the show just had one, low stakes episode, so we can actually get to know these characters and collect their thoughts. It’s actually one of my concerns for TADC, because as much as I do like that show, I think “no filler” with constant story is going to make or break the show for me. It’s too fast paced and no, I don’t think it’s good that you have to rewatch an episode 4 times to understand what’s going on. I don’t watch indie shows to play where’s Waldo, information should be explained to the audience in a way that feels digestible and natural.

The animation is incredible and the stuff that came out from the finale was insane, but at times it just felt like jangling keys in my face. Like don’t pay attention to rushed story, underdeveloped characters and bizarre tonal whiplash, look at the cool fights. I dont think it does horror well either. In fact I kind of cringe a bit when characters a big wide grins and giggle evilly and it’s mean to be intimidating and it just. Doesn’t work. Feels a bit juvenile honestly.

And. This is a very personal thing. I don’t like the robot designs.

[fallenrocket]

My god, Cassian is just so young in season 1 of Andor. On this last rewatch, it kept jumping out at me everywhere. Especially at the start of the show, which makes sense--he goes through a pretty intense education over the course of the season and transforms before our eyes. But there's just so much in Cassian that comes from being young, traumatized, and desperate.

We see it in his moments of unabashed fear, like when he's stopped by the two corpos in the pilot, the first time he sees the TIE fighter fly past on Aldhani, or as the prison transport takes off for Narkina 5. Even when he tries to hide it, we can see it in his eyes, the parts of him that are still that scared kid from Kenari.

We see it in the chip he has on his shoulder, like the attitude he cops with Luthen in their first meeting: "I don't know you." He's not just guarded and distrustful, he kind of actively resents this guy trying to get too familiar with him. When he's scared, uncertain, or guilty, he tends to push others away, a product of having to fight most of his life and of losing many of the things and people he's cared about. I also think of him coldly telling Bix, "You won't have to worry about me anymore," at the end of their argument in "Announcement."

And yet, by the same token, he can also be surprisingly open and earnest in his affections. For me, this is most apparent in his scenes with Maarva in "Announcement." There, we see his naive optimism that the money he got from Aldhani can solve all their problems. He's so buoyant and hopeful and loving as he suggests running away, saying, "What do we need but the three of us?" Later in the episode, we see that same naivety when he insists, "We'll find a place they haven't ruined yet." But it crops up in other places too. On Aldhani, he chooses Clem's name as his pseudonym, even though he already realizes Luthen has a lot of intel on him and will probably recognize it--in that moment, his distrust of Luthen is outweighed by his desire to go into this dangerous mission carrying a small piece of his dad with him. Then there's that beautiful hug with Brasso in "Rix Road," especially those few extra beats past when you'd expect them to part. When he hugs Melshi in the previous episode, Cassian is rushed, on the brink of falling apart and not wanting Melshi to see. But with Brasso, Cassian needs that touch for a few extra seconds, and he's not afraid to hold on a little longer.

Most of Cassian's dumbest mistakes in the season are very youthful ones. He's an incredibly smart and observant guy, so he's not dumb very often, but when he is, it tends to come back to being young, traumatized, and desperate. We see this especially in the opening Ferrix arc: insisting on bringing an unsecured comm to his meeting with Luthen (oh my god, the way he bickers with B2EMO about them beforehand!) and trying to go back for the starpath unit when the shit hits the fan, even after Luthen repeatedly tells him to leave it. With the starpath unit, part of it is naivety--"What if it's just one guy left?"--and part of it is growing up poor and scrappy. This box represents more money than he's ever had at any one time, and he simply can't process the idea that his buyer would just leave it behind.

Finally, every now and then, Cassian has this subtle but impeccable "little shit" energy. We definitely see it when he messes with Timm in the pilot, deliberately goading him instead of trying to defuse the situation when he sees that Timm is jealous. It's a dumb, petty moment of cheap satisfaction that winds up with some intense blowback when Timm IDs him to Pre-Mor. And I love Cassian's refusal to give up on Kino on Narkina 5, always believing he can be brought into the fold no matter how many times Kino tells him to forget about it. It's a great reflection of how Cassian rejects the Empire's attempts to divide the inmates by pitting them against each other, but part of why he's able to keep at it is his annoying-kid tenacity. I love the scene where Kino brushes him off by saying how many shifts he has left and Cassian immediately responds with, "So...tell me what you know before you go."

It's simply wild to compare the Cassian we see in "Kassa" to the one in "Rix Road." He goes through so much in twelve episodes and really comes into his own, and it's fantastic to see some of the qualities he displays in Rogue One starting to peek through. He's already come so far in his character growth--I cannot wait to see how season 2 gets us from "Rix Road" to Rogue One!

Oh yeah, and Diego Luna is simply stunning. You can really feel how he traced Cassian's life backwards to this point, see how different the Cassian of "Kassa" is from the Cassian of Rogue One and yet still fully believe that this is the same character. All the little hints he drops, all the tiny moments where you can see Rogue One Cassian starting to gestate. It's such beautiful, brilliant work!

[thisisnotthenerd]

misfits & magic ii stat tracking: episode 10

the spreadsheet, for all to see

the penultimate episode.

i cannot believe we got criss angel mindfreak, clint kelmp, hell, and evan eating both of them in the first 45 minutes. he ate them, barfed up miskoro, and then had the meat sweats so badly that he was immobile until they were transfigured into hamburgers.

and we've gotten the final component of magic with erika stone cold clocking it! intention, material, performance, location, and time as elements that channel the magic of the world best into great workings. i love the process and it makes so much sense for an organic magic system rather than a rigid one. big magic is harder but the magicians can be better.

they've arrived at gowpenny and the gowcentric orrery. bombini is somehow still alive beneath the school. evan's killed him and yet somehow i think that's not quite the end of him. tabby's broken and they

as always, the tag is #mismag ii stat tracking if you want to follow along.

mechanical/lore notes:

the fundamental rules of magic: intention, material, performance, location, and time

evan's father, who dances in a dark forest that composes hell, is named clint kelmp. he and his wife performed a ritual to turn evan into a vessel for demons during his childhood--the ritual killed them and cast clint into hell, where he would open his rib cage and invite evan to dance in order to consume himed

older magic, older items, store greater potential. bombini's wand held 50 motes of magic. tabby, as a being, can serve as a ritual component and focus for the breaking of the orrery.

island/creature tracking:

the gowcentric orrery tracked the funnels of magic to the well at gowpenny. the orrery functioned to create a cistern of magic that could be drawn upon by those wizards that bound it initially and their subsequent societies--its dispelling will disperse magic through the world more evenly. great workings must follow the ancient principles in order to be accomplished.

galamanis, the blind hellbender of creation. feeds into the chaos. things can be drawn from the ether, and that which is brought forth may be shaped by channeling through the self or through the material that has been created. currently channeled by whitney jammer.

qohlye, the winged goat of divination. truth and all that it means, opening the eyes of the viewer to the world in all of its potential. but the things that exist there do not always want to leave. who takes human form to communicate. currently channeled by sam butler.

seegenpelater, the double headed camel of captivation. can convince the mind of anything and the body with it. but the doing of magic takes a great price, of destruction and violence, and the island will gild the edges so it does not feel as though the world has changed.

weugan, the inverted wolf of amplification. symbols that speak to the increase of extant energy, matter and system. the condensed amplification of magic bleeding across deadened ground. currently channeled by k tanaka

tadershecourt, the skull antlered bear of defense and depletion, who warns of the necessary fear of the capabilities of magic and draws away from that which exists. protection of the self and others, of mind and body and soul. the full aspect of which the tadeshacourt is a part. currently channeled by evan kelmp.

miskoro, the fish-tailed bat of transmutation. taking energy or matter and maintaining the amount and intensity, but changing its identity. at one point consumed criss angel mindfreak but freed by evan kelmp eating his father in hell.

the skye serpent who surrounded these pillars of magic in the storm, who was summoned to protect the orrery from a plane long forgotten and bound for millennia. who was freed from a eternity of servitude by the pilot program in their improvised ritual.

character profiles:

whitney jammer:

items: familiar (spalding), band-aid

motive: teamwork (+1) 2nd Progression

injuries: minor + major

melee: d10 (+1)

mind: d6 (+1)

magnetism: d6

maneuver: d12 (+2)

matter: d20 (+1)

mettle: d10 (+1)

mark*: d20 (+1)

magic: d20 (3rd progression)

k tanaka:

items: familiar (teddy), shadow boon

motive: network (0) 2nd Progression

injures: none

melee: d6 (+1)

mind: d12 (+1)

magnetism: d12 (+1)

maneuver: d10 (+1)

matter: d4 (+2)

mettle: d20 (+2)

mark*: d10 (+1)

magic: d20 (4th progression)

sam britain:

items: familiar (terminator 2), broom, avail oneselfie stick, shadow boon

motive: community (0) 2nd Progression

injuries: minor

melee: d8 (+1)

mind*: d20 (+1)

magnetism: d20 (+3)

maneuver: d20

matter: d4 (+1)

mettle: d12

mark*: d10

magic: d12 (3rd progression)

evan kelmp:

items: familiar (shadow), broom (pushbroom), backpack of holding, wingtip shoes, tome of nimble workings, wrench of fixing

motive: belonging (0) 2nd Progression

injuries: minor + major

melee: d20 (+8)

mind: d20 (+2)

magnetism*: d20

maneuver: d6

matter: d6 (+1)

mettle: d10

mark: d8

magic: d20 (5th progression)

[abowlofsourcream]

💥🍾The kitty cat goes-RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!🍾💥

[vaggieslefteye]

ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴍᴇ ᴄʜᴏᴏꜱᴇ ↳ anonymous asked: HUSK and ALASTOR or angel and valentino?

[sdrose93]

Pete Maverick 😍

[reginamillls]

I had to remind myself so I'm reminding all of you

take care of yourself

drink water, eat some food

if you have the energy, treat yourself to something that brings you some happiness

and try and get a good night's rest

[writer-room]

Rewatching the earlier, and even pilots episodes, of Ninjago are so WILD man. First of all, you notice all the things that are just plain forgotten about or pushed aside in later seasons. Kai originally being the main character, sure, we all know that one, but Cole was heavily implied to be, or become, the leader of the Ninja, that was Cole’s thing. Zane was automatically described with having a sixth seer sense, when nowadays it shows up very, very infrequently. Lloyd used to basically be the Avatar, does anyone remember that? This kid was just the Avatar.

And then you remember the silly things. Like how the skeleton army was once a threat. Like...the skeletons. We battled a giant snake, smaller snakes, robot armies, sentient video games, Garmadon a billion different times, the Overlord, Oni...and the skeletons used to be a worthy adversary. The skeletons.

Did you all remember that Cole’s earth dragon used to...breathe earth? I’ve been forced to remember. Rocky used to breathe earth as a form of attack. It was shown through brown swirly wisps in that beautiful, incredibly shitty 2011 effect. The Underworld used to be implied to be the place where all dead people went, or at least the bad ones. We never heard of a Departed Realm. Do we remember the time Cole had a scene that was a direct parody of Michael Jackson? I sure do. Genuinely the highlight simply because I don’t know how to describe the emotion I felt upon seeing it.

[pixelbumblebee]

I just really like how some of the dialogue has double meaning in the show once you get the full context. Crystal saying: "I get angry [...] knowing you have a home but being unable to get there" makes sense the first time, sure. I'd be upset if I didn't remember my family. But once you know what her family is like, there's this whole other interpretation opening up: of her being sad and toxic before because despite her best effort, she probably could never get through to her parents to earn their love and affection. She couldn't go home. Because her home was not home for her.

[the-eclectic-wonderer]

fav golden girl 👁️👁️

You do realize this is like asking me to choose my favourite hand, right? Or my favourite leg? It's like choosing my favourite eye, my favourite strand of hair, my favourite organ, my favourite --

Blanche. It's-it's Blanche.

[supnerds]

Yu Ijin: I've only had my sister for a day and a half but if anything happened to her I will destroy everyone in this school and then myself. Fantastic in just the first few chapters, thanks for the recommendation!

oh it’s so good!!! I’m glad you’re enjoying it!!

I need to reread that one again, I binged the whole thing over a few days ago month or so ago and I wanna see ijin and his sister again I love them

[danothan]

sniffs. what changed 😢

[our-inspire-verse]

I love being plural. Oh, how i love being plural!

I love it, and all it's struggles. It is not to say to be plural does not hurt. That it cannot be torture or agony. Like it isnt sometimes the most woeful, painful part of my life sometimes.

When is anything permanent, at any point? The trauma slowed down. It will never fully stop, as life itself is designed to tear a soul apart, i do fully believe it cannot end. However, i will dance with glee at the opportunity to feel pain. To live, and to feel and to breathe. My gratitude has saved me.

I now thank my system for being my soul, for being as alive as it is and for continuing to fluctuate. I thank it for its confusing complexity and the secrets it keeps. Thank you for being as loving and daring and sometimes cruel as you are. For your differences and relations and your stories and lives. You make me Me and complete Micheal.

I love my system, my system was with me and helped me survive life. And now we are out to share one we're building together.

[milquetoast-on-acid]

The struggle is real. Mostly the struggle to finish watching Picard season 1. It's bad y'all. They weren't even kidding.

[unusualshrimp]

hey sorry i can't come to work today im thinking about the various implications of zombie horror and the way it affects people

[the-force-awakens]

sighs, y'know I don't talk about it much on here, but I do wish fandom was....better. I wish it was better! I wish that there was an air of community again, where people aren't bullied, or compared to one another, where there's no sense of competition because everyone's gettin' attention. I wish artists (fanartists, writers, graphics and gifmakers and fanvidders and everything and everyone in between) were more appreciated. I wish people didn't have to use the block button so liberally. I wish fandom experiences were more positive, end of, because I am so....so tired of hearing absolute horror stories of how people I know have been treated in fandom, or hearing stuff in my periphery. I wish fandom was a celebration of love again, something that lasts for a good long while. I wish it could be a positive experience for people, instead of something awful that turns them away from stories that mean so much to them, because of the grief and bitterness and anxiety that fandom drowned it in.