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popculturebuffet · 2 years ago

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Tal'Dorei Travelouge: Makin My Way Downtown Through a Sea of Pexhalia(The Fey Realm, The Echo Tree and A Test of Pride)

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Hello all you happy critters and welcome back to Tal'Dorei travelouge where I take a weekly look at the legend of Vox Machina. We're almost done.

Even if I won't miss my stupidly self increased workload, I will miss covering this series and enjoying one of the best series on television. I still have a LOT to look forward to this year with the Owl House Finale, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Kiff (Which I previously had no intrest in but then I found out it stars Kimiko glenn so.... ) , and cumilating sometime late this year with Invincible's triumphant long awaited return. While the animation scene continues to be a waking nightmare, there's at least some daydreams to keep my hope alive and this is very much one of them. It's also just nice to know a show you love has a bright future: at least one more season, likely two more to finish it up as a whole, a spinoff coming in 2024 or 2025, and options for movies and other works which with tons of one shots, the exandria unlimited minis, and the various sequel one shots to this very campagin, means we will be eating good for some time provided amazon prime also dosen't loose it's shit. At any rate I have some episodes to make my way through so without further ado, full review and spoilers under the cut

So before I dig in, i'm doing things a bit diffrently this week. See thanks to the planeshift being mildly botched, our party is split this week, half to the feywild, which i'll call Team Double Date and half to somewhere near Vasslehiem, which i'll call Team On My Way. I was going to go with Team Grog nearly gets his penis bitten off by a wolf, but it was a bit too much of a mouthful. As such instead of covering each episode one at a time, i'll be covering each team on it's own, as their essentially a two episode long and three episode long arc respectively. Before I dive in I do want to talk about season 2 as we near the endgame. Last week I talked about the good side of this season being episodic, with our heroes going from city to city on their quest with arcs along the way, each leaving an impact. It keeps the sessiony nature of dnd, while still fitting tv fine and I stand by it as it, along with the conclave's wider focus as a whole, has allowed the whole cast to shine more after the percycentric first season. It's also likely this was just as intentional in building this section of the campaign: Briarwood was focused entirely around whitestone where, unlike the show, they stuck around for a bit after, and the two arcs before this were set entirely in Vasslehiem, the ones before that being entirely around Emon and a small backwoods town respectively. This was the first arc in the campagin to really travel around Tal'Dorei and build out the world, and thus is likely why they jumped right to the briarwoods instead as it'd do the heavy lifting for helping flesh out the rest of the cast's backstories, as it involves Keyleth's people, Vax and Vex's father, PIke's grandfather whose also Grog's surrgotate father, and Grog's evil uncle we formally met this week. It allows us to really get to know the cast's history after getting to know them the first season. The downside to it.. is it's fucking huge. This has upsides.. but it also means that this season really feels like part 1 of a two part story, and while it wasn't something I felt a ton in the first half as we approach the climax it's sinking in more. It feels like the story isn't close to done and that the final battle with Umbrasyl is more the big fight at the end of a disc of a ps1 rpg, than the actual end of things. IT's still cool to play, sets up a lot of stuff and feels climactic, but we both know the story isn't close to done nor the big bad actually here yet. I can't fault the team for this as the Conclave arc is fucking huge and you can already feel the compression a bit, with them having to cram a lot of character introductions from pre-stream and the stream itself into a shorter time frame.

I'ts not too bad honestly, though I haven't watched the stream to compare, but it's clear there's no way in hell they could've done this in one season and had it actually be good. It's just with a two season arc it means you won't know how it turns out till part 2 comes out, and it's hard on me as a critic as part 2 could be a great satisfying conclusion that feels just right and really makes this two magical seasons of television that takes this show to new heights or it could be entirely botched and make me regret the time and love I gave the show. I have all the faith it'll be the former and these fears will likely amount to jack shit, it's just nervewracking after seeing shows ended before their narritive could finish (Final Space) or suddenly take a massive nosedive that totally wrecks all the good will they've build up (Star Vs the Forces of Evil). I don't see either happening as Amazon is all in on this show and the crew actually give a shit about what fans think and have this story actually planned out more than five minutes ahead, but I still tense up a bit and I feel bad for doing it when the critical crew has given me no reason to. It just makes for a slightly less satisfying experience first go round, but i'm sure the ending will leave me begging for more and my doubts will be entirely crushed next year. We'll see. I just had to be honest, or there's no point in doing this. Anyways, let's get away from my crippling anxiety and talk about Percy's three Peni shall we?

Team Double Date:Of All-Too Relatable Fanart, Shitty Parents and Gaslighting Incels So naturally Team DD isn't in the best shape since half of them are missing and Keyleth has her requisite panic attack over it. Vax, even if he's in the middle of his "my future is horrible and thus everything is horrible" phase, can't help but help the love of his life and calms her down in a scene that's both heartwarming and well done as his points are right: Pike isn't alone and if Keyleth HADN'T done the spell they'd all be dead. Being seperated sucks and is difficult, but their alive and where one of the vestiges was. I also like a nice reason why they were likely seperated: Keyleth was taking them to the vestige.. but in her panic over Umbrasyl and the speed she had to do it and with Scanlan having mentioned two in quick succesion, her mind likely slipped to both and thus split the team roughly in half. And luckily didn't split them in half entirely. We also get to see my boy Percy in full on adorable dork mode. Seriously it was nice to see him happy as it almost never has happened in the span of almost two full seasons. Vex can do it , but outisde of her few things can make him actually smile, so seeing him giddy the whole ep about the feyrealm, having studied it as a boy, is adorable. Even if not entirely helpful as books on a realm where nothing makes sense and everything makes nonsense do'nt do diddly. It is a dope setting though, with the art department having gone all out to make it feel enchanting and otherwordly. It's also clear it does NOT like Vax, but grass trying to murder him, the deadliest of foes, is the least of their worries as they have a peeping tom, which contrary to certain one hit wonders jazzy songs, is not fun nor sexay.

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Your welcome for me inflicting this on you. Anyways, the peeper is Garmalie, a satyr, voiced by Billy Boyd. Yes they got a full on lord of the rings allumn for this, my boy pippin. Seriously I saw the Two Towers first and them riding a giant talking tree was one of the highlights... that and the fucking army of trees. He also played Chucky's seed Glenn in Seed of Chucky and the Series, and seems like a nice dude overall. Garm is a delight.. mostly for his introduction where the team capture him and assume his notebook is spy stuff... and instead it's fanart of varying quality. Yeah you can tell the nerdy voice actors who made this series have a LOT of experince with fanart because part of why his is so funny as i've seen all three types here before. Let me educate you Vex gets the worst, "Porn that horribly exagerates a characters sexy parts in a way that is not sexy just deeply horrifying. IN Vex's case her boobs are eleviated to propritions even Dennis Renoylds stellar artwork could never hope to match and also somehow twist around her body. I also don't like this kind because ther'es poor artmanship and then there's just greasy nightmares that show no respect for the subject. And yes you can draw art that's pornogrpahic and still you know respects the character. Second we have Vax and Keyleth who having sexual tension that can be seen from Tal'Dorei's moons, are drawn in bondage. Nicely done at that. I mean at worst Keyleth is out of character, but while she's drawn more muscular than we're aware of, it's not a terrible body type nor outright creepy like with vex and I do think they'd at least try it. Finally we have Percy of the "what the shit type" that's clearly drawn not to titliate but just to see if they could do it. He gets three pensises each with the face of one of the othe rparty members. IT's not offesnive just.. weird. Everyone's reactions are also perfect, with Vax just being stopped cold , Keyleth naturally all blushy, Vex amused, and Percy getting the absolute best with his utterly deadpan "Why do I have three Peni"? IT's easily the best joke of the week, and given a certain musical sequence we'll get to when we get to the other team, that was hard but much like Purvan and Playing WIth His Sword, this had me rewinding MULTIPLE times, evne more than either combined just to hear it again. It also has levels: it's funny enough he's asking, but the fact the weird faces on his peni aren't the part that he has questions he has is a nice subtle joke within the joke. Percy and Vax are both held back by their pride: Percy refuses Garmalie's help which, while he is shady as fuck, he also lives here and his info isn't as out of date or in cases wrong as some of Percy's, while Vax.. refuses to forgive percy and holds every incvoncince against him. The former.. is fair, as Percy did fuck up and while genuinely contrite it's only been two days, a week at most, since Vex died and undoing said death came at great personal cost. A cost he really needs to open up about to everyone else, but I get him being grumpy. But letting it interfere when Percy is genuinely doing his best and their stuck without a healer in a dimension they know little about with their only posisble help being a very suspect satyr.. that's less fair. It's what I mean abotu the character stuff: The episode gives the two a chance to short their issues out, but isn't too overt with it: Vax is more passive agressive, and what he's really mad about isn't brought up explicitly, and Percy's pride is baked into his character. It takes a stumble through some grass that leads to some delightful tripping balls from Vex and Keyleth to get them to work together well again. Said trip also has the best voice possible for Trinket so please...

The action sequence, as usual is great and allows Percy to debut Diplomacy, a gauntlet he apparently had in the game from day one, but gains here as his prostetic hand.. it requires a pull to get the juice flowing but proves the logical weakness. This also forces Vax to accept their going after him and after trying to brush off Percy apologizing again, Percy nicely refuses and says he'll have his friend and future brother in law's back no matter what.. which finally gets Vax to both kinda forgive him. It's a ncie moment as Vax admits he's been so distant.. because h'es scared of the path he's on and knows where he's going they can't follow. But percy decides Garm can as they need the help. Garmillee.. ends up being actually useful, in a nice shock. While he disappeared at the first sign of real danger, and thus won't be in for a fight he does give our heroes actually good directions and leads them to the elf captial of Sygorn. I mentioned last week that the city suddenly going up was clear setup.. well here's the payoff. Sneaking through a city isn't ideal but well.. Pixies are strong like bill bixby, so ti's best to go through... unfortunately even having the parties most subtle members along dosen't really help when your five (soon four as Garm nopes out) strangers in a town that shouldn't have vistors at all and the elves are forced to Namedrop dear old dad to avoid getting holes poked in them.

The ensuing conflict.. is tense and I was fully invested the whole time with the inevetibly nasty reunion between the twins and their father Syldor. I mean it helps the pre-show is Percy assuring Vex that while "Anyone can act like a noble just be an asshole and have a title" he assures her she has class. It's a taste of the fucking feast Percy and Vex shippers like myself got this episode. It helps that the show (and the campaign) avoids falling into an easy trap: We find out Vax and Vex have a step mom, Devana, played but the awesome Toks Olagundoye, aka Ms. Goddamn Beakley. I have to think part of the reason Sam knew to call on her was he was voice director on DuckTales, something I didn't know till art of ducktales but now cannot stop thinking about, as it means there's a VERY high chance the rest of the main cast could pop up here or on Mighty Nein. While Sam isn't voice director (That falls to his good friend Mary Elizabeth McGlynn), he still cleary has connections and the main cast for Ducktales, or hell the entire cast really, is all god tier. I"m not sure who they'd play as i'm only mostly familiar wtih the first campagin this shows based on and purpsofully barely familiar wtih the Mighty Nein as I want to watch that campagin with only moderate spoilers, but there's a lot of parts to play and several ducktales alums would be great for. At any rate, Devana... is kind and welcoming to the two: at most she just simply dosen't understand why it's been so long, making it likely she either dosen't get why their father's racisim hurt them so or simply hadn't seen the worst of it. Either way it's clear she treats them as family, when all too many shows fall into the "new wife is jealous of old kids" trap. Not that it dosen't happen, it can just be overused but she's not the reason they fled into the night only coming back to avoid a stabbing. She brings in a surpise though.. turns out the twins have a sister, Velora, played by Jayla Lavender Nichols, who I haven't heard of, child actor and all, but is nice in the roll capturing the girls innocence. And what I like is that.. neither of the twins put their shit with their dad on her. They could easily see him having her as simply replacing them or trying to have a child who has "pure" blood because racist is one of the many asshats he wears. Instead both's reaction once the shock wears off and they realize how delighted she is to finally meet her big siblings? Kneel down to her height, hug her and warmly interact with her. Vex who as we saw last season gets jealous very easily and as we see this episode has a relationship with her dad that can best be summed up as..

Is easily the sweetest with her: When Velora compliments her hair feather, she gladly gives it to her little sister as a reminder of her. It's clear the two love their new sibling, as big as the age gap is and as much as it's clear their father isn't embarassed she exists. It's also nice to see in Vax whose been somehow both grumpier and even more pissed off than usual since his bargin be genuinely happy.. for the five seconds before his father enters. So yeah how to best describe Syldor? Well normally i'd just use one reaction image, but Syldor is such a sea of asshole filled with asshole fish, asshole crabs, asshole whales, islands of pure assshole next to contents of calficied asshole dotted with rivers of pure asshole, not a one seemed to sum him up well.. though at the very least this one sums up how I feel well enough.

Syldor is one of the most punchable characters i've encountered in fiction. While he was bad enough in flashback, calling his children "diluted"

He somehow manages to make the worst second impression of all fucking time from there. He spends the episode being a massive knob to his children, only treating Keyleth and Percy with some degree of civility because he barely registers she's there and because he's nobliity respectively. The former is good both because Keyleth is so kind and loveable.. and because if he he got a wiff of her intrest in his son he likely would've done or said something so horrid there would be nothing left of him but a bloody pile of knife wounds and a traumtized widow and newly fatherless child to remember him by. And yeah I know as a big falutin lord he probably has collegues in such but even among elves I doubt anyone else can stand this arrogant, racist, selfish prick.

The city itsel is more sympatheic than him as while their in hiding their ACTIVELY preparing to come back and fight. IT's clear they left because they had the means queued up and unlike Vasslehiem I can support their being a bit cowardly: Vasslehiem is heavily guarded, full of powerful soldiers, healers and folks. It's army is likely smaller than tal doreis but prepared and they did not have to contribute said army, just goods or a dirction for our heroes. Instead they brushed them off and I hope they pay dearly for it before the arc's up. I dont' think they will canon wise but as seen last week, something not happening in canon.. dosen't mean it can't happen. Their not morally perfect, they could've waited to get refugees and didn't and clearly fled out of some form of racisim as much as preservation.. but the fact a bunch of assholes who took their city and ran are at least actively planning to help, traning to help and are simply hiding till their ready to fight.... is more sympathetic than turning away our heroes. Hell Syldor is somehow actually more helpful than the entire council despite being helpful by accident: When they bring up their after the vestiges he mentions exactly where it is, that it's nearbye and despite hating half of them, gives our heroes a scroll to let them get to the area. It's all condesceneding as fuck and if he dropped dead right after he'd be doing the world a favor, but it's telling that the biggest asshole in all of Tal'Dorei, very much including the four mass murdering dragons, was more help than a supposedly "Holy" council.

That said. .he's still...

So he spends the conversation doubting his children are capable of what's needed, despite Vax you know WEARING A VESTIGE IN FRONT OF HIM, mocking them and only not getting the uppercut he richly deserves because Vex STILL wants his approval

And because you know they need his help. Everyone has limits though and while Vax has been unduly patient with her dad, there's three things in her life you can't insult and expect to get away alive: Her brother, her bear, and her one true love. The former Syldor only gets a pass on because he always does this and she's just.. used to it, which is entirley sad. The next one is thankfully safe in his pokeball because Syldor is enough of an asshole to be a dick to a bear just because.. but Percy.. Percy is right there and made the valiant mistake of trying to do something nice for Vex. Having hit the end of his own patience since by this point they had everything they needed from the man, he simply gives Vex a title, mistress of the grey hunt. Unlike what I heard from the stream though.. this does nothing. Syldor isn't remotely impressed, sees he's just trying to help her, refuses to amend her title, and insults percy... and Vex finally tells her abusive dad to fuck off, that she will get the bow he dosen't think she can get and she's going to shove it down his fucking throat. This.. barely phases him because he has no feelings to phase, but it's also clear she's done.. and also taught her sister the word fuck. Awwww.... The conversation after this with my OTP. .is also great as Percy apologizes, feeling he overstepped.. only for Vex to make it clear that she found the gesture incredibly charming, and throughly apricates the title. In a sadly realistic touch she admits telling her father to fuck off iddn't feel good as it meant finally admitting to herself he dosen't care, but Percy perks her up by talking about her pure heart, and the scene is tender, shiptastic and generally sweet. And what I deserve after having to spend a good chunk of the episode with Syldor.

Anyways our heroes find the bow but also find a problem as not only is the bog it's in alive.. but as Gamilee (who rejoins them now he dosent' have to hide), puts it an archfey is in the middle of it named Saundor.. which as you can imagine is hell for me when Syldor is a major character in this episode. I get it for the stream as Syldor both came up long before this in a small arc (simply having his first in present apperance moved here to tighten things up), and the two weren't in the same episode. Here though.. he and the rest had no real excuse. Syldor is a through creep, trying to tempt Vex into giving him her heart and is generally apossievie incel who gets mad when he asks for it.. and is denied as, in a moment that made me cheer and percy get a look that now lives in my head rent free.. her heart belongs to someone else. A truly awesome fight insues as Vex goes one on one with the dick, without her trust bow after a point, and the rest of the team has to learn how to fight a tree.. an din a moment taken directly from the livestream and Marsha's on the spot thinking, Keyleth tears through their tree asses easily by combining two ablities: her minty fresh fire elemental transformation.. and woodwalking, alowying her to teleport from one to another and burn the fuckers from the inside. Bad... ass. Vex likely gets a great moment stabbing saundor in his blackened heart with a cool arrowhead Percy made for her, and our quartet prepares to head home and we get a hint for the future as Garmilee opens up a portal Tal'Dorei, likely somewhere near westrunn, effortlessly, as thanks for giving him the most fun he's had in a milenna.. and once their gone transforms into an arch fey himself. Curiouser and curiouser.

Team On My Way: Wolf Groin Attacks, Popop and Old Demons So while that's going on back with the other half of the team, things are.. less great. Grog is paralized with guilt over what he did, Scanlan is naturally panicked at PIke's peril and Pike is healing herself.. which I forgot she could do but thankfully saves her easily. Less easy.. is Grog breaking up with Craven Edge, which posses him.. but the memories of what he did to pike break him out of it and we get a badass sequence of him dulling the blade on every rock as it taunts him before finally shattering the fucker in half in a sea of blood. I also like that Scanlan and Pike are genuinely suprised it both drinks her blood and can talk, also making Scanlan come off as less of a dick for brushing off pike's concerns last episode: he HADN'T seen Grog go nuts with it like she had and as he correctly pointed out Grog is pretty weird to start with. It was hard to notice a change in behavior. Btu with his best friend and sisters support, Grog could vaniquish his inner demon. If I have one complaint, ti's that this goes a mite fast. it feels like they ran out of time and thus kinda had to speedrun grog breaking with the sword, and as a result it feels like a bit of an anti climax: the SCENE is good, but after this thing had such a grip on him and Grog had such insecuriteis about his own power and such a reliance on it it feels a bit quick and easy.. even with the aftermath.

Said aftermath is Grog is left skinny, a fate he considers worse than death, and is forced to rely on his friends to get by, leading to the amazing "On My Way" number. I cannot wait for the soundtrack to relase.. probbaly next week. I understand WHY, the last volume had spoilers and such and basically outlined the season via titles, if vauge enough not to ruin it, so in such a heavily packed season it was the last thing they wanted, but the wait is killing me on all the original music and I wish they'd relase this shit weekly at least. I didn't know I needed a country duet between pike and scanlan, or that Ashley Johnson could sing in fact, but god this was transcednant. Even better once I found out it was based on a gag from the second campagin: Matt had a habit of saying "you make your way", so they cast would chime in with the opening lines of a thousand miles.. and apparently it's evolved so much it gets it's own original song. We get a heartwarming roadtrip montage of Grog being a swiss army goliath, from a boat to a swing to a wolf chewtoy while our heroes drag him around.

They eventually get to a character i've been waiting all season for, partly because he's so important to PIke and Grog's backstories i'd read about.. and mostly because he's the goddamn fonz. Yes Henry Winkler is here and the crew was happy to get him. He's perfect as willhand, sinking easily into the wise but snarky and blunt gnome and i'm happy to see henry in anything, but especially here. It's also a sweet reunion as Pike gladly calls him pop pop despite being an adult, introdcues scanlan.. and Grog also adorably calls him pop pop while Willhand is eager to help his grandson. The problem is Grog needs to get his muscles stimulated... and after the obligtatory mastubation attempt explains they jsut need a jolt and whips up a cure, being an expert herbalist. Grog dosen't think he can swallow it..

No really. IT's... not one of the series better jokes, though Scanlan being the one to do it for obvious bead related reasons is, and judging from the trailer also foreshadowing. You know not every fantasy series can pull off a gnome shoving a lifesaving cure up a goliath's ass as foreshadowing, but Vox Machina somehow can. Problem is Grog's muscles while at least working again so he can walk normally and lift things, aren't back to full shape and need time to pop back up so our heroes are left a goliath down and decide to go investigate Westrunn for the gauntlets. This leads into our next episode as Grog is still trying to avoid it at all costs... only to explain their wielder Kevdak is not only his uncle.. but nearly killed him.

So we get things split again next episode, though just between this party as we wait for the rest to get back. Scanlan's story's pretty easy to run through if still important: he uses a new dragonfly form (after seeing one float by to comply with polymorph requiring you to have seen the creature first) to sneak in to grab the gauntlets and get out, and Pike even flirts with him to get his coperation. THe two. .have been actually doing better though we did get a very sad, well done moment where Pike is genuinely complimentary and it's almost working for once.. only for Scanlan to default to his horny shields, can relate and have her walk off mad.

Scanlan soon finds the local refugees led by Kaylie, played by Aisling Francosi, who I hadn't heard of and makes her Voice Acting debut here, but does a great job, not taking Scanlan's shit and being awfully paranoid about him leaving... she also looks a tad familiar don't she? I'll save the twist for next time, as it hasn't been revealed in show.. but let's just say I know what her deal is and it is a LOT. We also meet Dr. Dranzel, an orc leading a traveling troupe who weirdly dosen't know scanlan here. in the original campaign he discovered him.. mostly because the home game orignially just being a fun one off... Sam, being new to dnd and not sure what to do just had some fun and basically gave Scanlan Eminem's backstory. Maybe they don't want to piss him off, always a good strategy I don't know. So orc dr dre and kaylie need to escape and since they won't let Scanlan go get the calvary he helps sneak them out once Umbrasyl arrives. Umbra's been busy these eps, as he beliveis in the vestiges but Thordak, while wise mostly.. is also stupid abotu them and scoffs at needing them. He's also become best pals with Dr. Ripley, though Scanlan only vaugely recognizes her voice, so our heroes don't know yet. I DO like adding her as an active presence this season, as in the campagin she just vanished a while, which is fine for a tabletop as they had bigger issues and assumed she'd come back eventually, but for tv dosen't quite work, especailly since they had Victor hint at her. So having her play umbrasyl to further her own goals and survivial while forming something resembling an honest friendship is great.

Umbrasyl is getting tribute from the herd of storms....aka Grog's old herd, something he explains to pike. In the livestream I THINK she knew all this, but it was clever to have her not know: Wilhand simply didn't pry too deep because he knew better not to ask and Grog was too ashamed to tell pike, as we get his tragic backstory.. which is really this season's theme. Except for Percy but he had a whole tragic backstory season so it's fine.

Once upon a time a younger teenage grog was a happy mindless murder machine, a brutal monster woh gladly killed everyone he could with no thought to his victims as the herd carved it's way through any town unlucky enough to find their path, egged on by his adopted father Kevdak.. which is not nearly as confusing as the other naming situation as it's just two characters who happen to share a "dak" name, neither of which share an episode, played perfectly by Ralph Ineson, a character actor whose been in a LOT of things, including playing the Demoncisim guy in Star vs the Forces of Evil. The more you know and such. Kevdak is a brutal monster and Grog was on the path to become a spitting image of him.. till he met Wilhand. Wilhand begged for his life.. and in seeing a locket of Wilhand and his grandaughter, Grog for the first time in his life.. grew a concience. Maybe it was just how sad he looked, maybe the young goliath realized what he'd been doing all his life, maybe he just rembered his dad. The show leaves it vauge, but whatever it is.. Grog just coudln't kill the man and instead brains his cousin Zanror and tries to get Willhand to saftey without anyone noticing. He manages the first part.. but Kevdak kinda notices his son got his shit kicked out of him and confronts Grog who lets Wilhand go and gets ready to fight.. and we see why the poor guy is so afraid of him: As he has a vestige, which nicely crackles, Kevdak has super strength. A fun fact while he came up with this whole backstory, Travis both never thought he'd see Kevdak mid campaign, and the idea of the vestiges were matts, with him deciding it just lined up too perfectly not to use them as vestiges. This perfect storytelling syndergy.. results in a horrifying scene of a young man being beaten into a bloody pile, left in a pool of his own blood with no one to help him not even some poor kid to cry

Okay he's thankfully not as he's telling this story and in a nice bit of karma.. Willhand returns. He clearly figured Grog wasn't going to get out of that alive, and thus brought a young pike, her hair still brunette, long story, with him. Grog lost his herd.. but gained a family.

The two decide to go after Scanlan, but he does fine and gets the refugees to saftey, with Scanlan promising to reunite with them.. but the scared way they look at Grog gives him an ephinay: He realizes that his herd has done that to people, that HE used to.. and thus realizes where his strength comes from: it's about helping the helpless, and if he can't do that, it's worth nothing. So even without it he plans to confront kevdak, sending the other two off as he needs to do this one on one, to both clear his demons, and because it's the right thing.. as well as the only thing his uncle will understand. So thus as Kevdak beats his own child which despite being an adult I still think counts as child abuse at least on a technicality, and grog challenges him

See you next week.. or earlier if you follow my twitter. Untithen.. thanks for reading

#the legend of vox machina #legend of vox machina #critical role #percy x vex #vex'halia #percy de rolo #vax'ildan #grog strongjaw #henry winkler

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augustameretrix · 1 year ago

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last entry on my thread on gwitch season 2! as I said, following bandais shitty apology after the ace gundam debacle I will suspend any and all criticism of sulemio and hype them up as obnoxiously as i possibly can. I’m gonna put everything under the cut because I ended up having many thoughts.

the short of it is that im glad i rewatched gwitch with an impartial judge, that is my almost 60 yo dad who likes sci-fi and doesn’t watch anime. we agreed on many of the criticisms but disagreed on many of the praises, which was interesting and instructive. most of all, I got a better appreciation for both the good and the bad of gwitch, and settled on “definitely good and forever iconic but very frustrating”. in conclusion, I love gwitch and am currently obsessed. enough of this for a while.

first off, the bad

im thoroughly mixed on both 23 and 24 for two main reasons: one, the char’s/prospera’s arc has nothing to do with the benerit/earth plot, thematically speaking, meaning the epic final battle at quiet zero isn’t a climax for the whole series. two, presumably aware of this, the writers inserted benerit and the space assembly league via the humongous space laser that is usually reserved for 2-3 episodes in the middle of a gundam series and which here serves as the final final battle instead. maybe if the league had been a more significant presence throughout the series... who knows!

another problem I have is with the jeturks’ drama being placed in the second to last episode of the entire series. I could see a place for it in the fourth or third to last episode at best if it even provided a decent conclusion for guel’s arc instead of being an ad for the schwarzette model kit. sure guel HAS taken it upon himself and himself alone to carry on the family business without involving his less competent overall adopted younger brother (and also killed their dad, whatever), but is that really THE thing with his character? was anyone seriously worried he would be so callous as to really kill his brother or even let him kill himself with permet? I thought his arc was about being humbled, recognizing his and his father’s shortcomings and so on, and not not paying enough attention to lauda (ffs...). how can this be about lauda lets be serious rn.

speaking of the jeturk, the politics in this second half of gwitch are kinda shit. lol. why tf is guel trying to rebuild the company miorine had to sell because it was objectively bad for the people of earth (she learned about the laser AFTER the deal with shaddiq) portrayed as funny. jesus christ.

moving on, I get witches like el4n and sophie lingering in the data storm since they’ve intermingled with it by extensively piloting gundams, but what about professor cardo and nyla? is proximity to any form of gund format sufficient? ngl I didn’t fully grasp the mechanics of data storm haunting.

finally, while it does make sense in universe for shaddiq and nika to get the short end of the stick for the events of gwitch even though the class war obviously didn’t start with them, because they’re out-and-proud earthians who did some crimes which they confessed to, and delling & cathedra & dominicus and all the other spacians in positions of power minus the peil hags and, hell, even prospera remain fully unpunished, as they’re, well, spacians in positions of power, I don’t know if the finale properly conveyed that that’s what happened. the fact that shaddiq’s shown as self-sacrificing because of his conscience, and that nika announces that she has to pay her dues before she can get on with her life might make one believe its just a question of justice, while in fact justice has not been served at all.

now onto the things I did like

aliyah gets the funniest joke in the entire series, yes, possibly better than suletta forgetta.

prospera is insanely hot as always, even when she’s about to cry or upset because her wimpy kohai is shooting at her or her soon-to-be daughter-in-law is being kinda sassy; plus I love this perspective on her relationship to suletta that comes up in ep 22, which is reinforced by suletta’s motivational speech to her mom in ep 24. its not healthy but thats how it is with these two, and i like it. very mother and daughter. in the end it kinda feels like the only reason she gets to spend her last years in a wheat field with her daughters and not in jail is nepotism (being miorine’s poor little meow meow-in-law), which is very funny.

I also like the framing of suletta as someone stubborn and greedy. she may be kind and compassionate, but as episode 23′s name suggests, she’s also “relentless”. she wants it all and she’ll get it with all the nicest means necessary!

eri’s new life as a talking keychain that may or may not be able connect to any device nearby via bluetooth is a whole level of existential horror thats left completely unexplored. the exchange “I don’t get what’s so great about the countryside” “well, I don’t get why you even exist” “neither do i!” is extremely good.

im still sad we couldn’t learn more about notrette and her death and quieit zero given the lack of time, but i do love how she consistently works as an influence on miorine at least as much as suletta and arguably way more than delling from beginning to end. shes all about reaching out even if it means compromising yourself a little, and even then, while always remembering that the ultimate goal is sharing, connection, and of course unconditional love. sure the message in the tomato being the password to access quiet zero’s systems is stupid, but i cant find it in myself to care all that much.

now, as for our main girls. I dont need to tell you that the rescue scene is excellent, obviously. as for the final scene of the final episode, its very obvious production did their utmost in showing a married sulemio in spite of what the higher-ups at bandai might have said. at sunset, a wheat field with children playing and an elder idly watching, shiny matching rings, beaming smiles as the two spouses reunite after a long absence and cling to each other, sharing a long, silent, look of intimate affection, before being interrupted. as they leave, the clasp each other’s hand. it’s all very idyllic and bucolic and domestic and i daresay traditional. “up to interpretation”. gtfo. a more substantial qualm would be the lack of tomatoes, or the fact that while it is implied, we don’t see suletta’s school on mercury, which is a real shame, because we not only unfortunately lack PSAs from sulemio due to the cowards at bandai, we also lack a vision of their dreams come true.

in retrospect episode 12 of gwitch is kinda goofy given the relatively tame season 2 we got afterwards. watching it now knowing what happens later makes it clear it was mostly for shock-value

#the witch from mercury #gundam the witch from mercury #gundam

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ventureawaybitches · 3 years ago

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Campaign 1 Finale Feels

Ok, @lost-in-the-cosmos-lovely asked so here we are. Obviously contains major spoilers for campaign one, discussion of canon-typical violence, major character not-death, Rem apologist (kinda) musings.

This is all purely personal and probably incomprehensible. I also haven't listened to the last 15 or so episodes in A While so I hope I remembered everything correctly.

Character development feels: How the Maidens operate as a group has changed so much, from the first fight against Ethan where they didn't communicate at all and ended up killing him, to spending the first half of the episode discussing what they wanted to do and making sure that everyone is clear and fairly ok with the plan (there's also the whole mechanic of the boss battle that was basically the power of friendship), this is kinda a player thing but it's also totally a character development thing and it made me so happy. The power of the Squad Walk and Hug Unit.

Kara: Kara's character development from chaotic neutral to lawful good honestly makes me melt. From her impulsiveness and blind rage to how she's driven by justice and uses her rage tactically *chef's kiss*. Her decision to let Rem live (I was surprised, also that the others all deferred to that decision) no way would she have considered that at the start. Also the Order of the Furies is such a badass name. Kara matured so much and it feels silly to say I'm proud of her but I am.

Arrnodel: my Arrnodel feels mainly come from the legacy game, after the total breakdown of her relationship with Aaron at the climax of the story (it was a long time coming) the fact that they decided to stay together, to start over, to go to couples therapy and work on their communication. Wonderful. Also Arrnodel being the one who takes no damage in combat? Queen.

Sawyeh: Sawyeh's development from naïve and trusting (her terrible insight checks) to no we have to kill Rem otherwise it will come back to bite us, she had to learn the hard way and it's brilliant but also it hurts me cos the bath scene in Faelyn "In a sense I think of her as a sister, I mean we are sisters[...]I just want to understand and I want to listen, I want to know why she did what she did,[...]and understand what she's going through" she held onto her hope that Rem would reach out, that she would trust her enough to tell her what was going on, even after Rem rejected her she still wanted to help. Then Rem slit her throat at The Veil.

Fera: I am here for I worship the gods of fate cos it means that what is meant to happen will happen and I can just chill to as insurance I'm going to grab myself a demi-god and use their powers in case something happens to mine, fuck the gods of fate, fuck you for using me. Yass queen gain your independence and take control of your life.

Rem: I spent nearly a year whining to myself, my cats, and occasionally my mum that I knew something else was going on with Rem, that given what we had seen from her before it made no sense that she was actually evil (sidenote: the complex morality in VM is awesome). Freeing mortality from the control of the gods would always make Rem the villain, was she aware of what she would have to sacrifice? (I have no doubt that she genuinely loved Isolde and she must have known that Isolde would suffer so much for this, and the feels that she asks after her at the end, my otp, I should probably rant about them in a separate post). How long had she wanted to destroy fate, was it while she was still working for her father or after? What had she gone through that she decided that this was her only option? When did it become an actual possibility? Was it for the best? This is just a load of questions, we shall move on.

Overall feels: the whole story and the finale especially feels like a parallel with how society tells people (anyone who isn't a cishet white man) what they have to/should do/be and what they can do and (Celeste saying men have told her she shouldn't advertise she's a woman so much with her dnd work) the main characters choosing to say fuck no to their fate, to what they were told to do and that's so. Fucking. Powerful. The whole thing is about deciding your own path, not letting anyone control your life or tell you what to do and it's just what Celeste said in the kickstarter launch party vid

"You are powerful. You live in a world that constantly tells you you aren't but you are"

The finale was such a good ending (although it was left very open and the legacy games are a thing) because I wasn't dissatisfied with anything that had happened, all the character arcs worked. I don't find that many things empowering but Venture Maidens really really is.

#good for you if you read all that #i hope that was somewhat enjoyable #venture maidens #ramblings #musings #venture maidens podcast #spoilers #venture maidens spoilers #legacy game spoilers #venture maidens meta #venture maidens fate #fate spoilers

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takerfoxx · 3 years ago

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Wonder Egg Priority: I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.

Fine. Let's do this.

Okay, so if you've been following my blog over the last year, you'll know that I've been really high on Wonder Egg Priority. I love the characters, the concept, the direction, the weirdness, the gutsiness in directly tackling uncomfortable topic, and the relationships. I praised it highly and stand by that praise, and despite all the criticisms I'm about to lobby towards it, my feelings toward the show on the whole are mostly positive.

But then the show ended without resolving anything. It introduced a ton of characters and concepts that no one was really asking for, answering questions that very few people were asking while raising further questions in their place, and it ended on a cliffhanger.

But okay! A real finale was promised, a special hour-long episode to resolve things. We'd just have to wait for it to come out!

And then it did, and...

Everyone hated it.

It's was like the ending to Game of Thrones all over again. Well, maybe not on that scale, but I heard things like hot mess, waste of time, total disappointment, etc. Honestly, it put me off from watching it entirely for several months, because I still liked the show, and didn't want to be let down.

But I knew I had to tackle it sooner or later, and last night I did, and...

Well. Those were certainly...choices.

I mean, it might have helped had they not promised an hour but only delivered 45 minutes. And it also might have helped had half of that not been a recap of the series, leaving a normal-episode length for the actual finale.

But even then...

Look, we didn't need Frill and the bug girls in the show. No one was asking for a central villain. But if you're going to devote an entire episode to introducing her, then at least do something with her! Like, on its own, she's a cool concept! But instead of actually making use of that concept, everything...just sort of peters out. Nothing is really done with her.

And the wonder eggs? The girls that our cast was fighting so hard to bring back? Well, they do come back, but none of them actually remember any of the girls that were fighting for them, so I guess they weren't resurrected so much as pulled from an alternate universe, which just raises further questions that go answered. And our girls are upset at first, but then they just sort of shrug their shoulders, go "Oh well," and move on? Koito was a jerk the whole time who killed herself by accident? And then the girls all drift off and don't talk anymore? That's it?

And Neiru...did she kill herself or not? Her fellow clone friend shows up from another universe and then just sort of slips off. What's with Neiru's rat that gets swiftly forgotten? What's going on?

Look, I know this show had a very troubled production. And I know the writer admitted to making stuff up as they went along. I get that. And I'm not saying that anti-climaxes can't work. We didn't need a big, action-packed finale. We didn't need a huge battle against Frill. American Gods is my favorite book, and it very much ended on an anti-climax.

But that anti-climax worked because it still took the time to resolve everything! It still made sure to wrap up its plotlines and definitively end the story!

This isn't an ending. This resolves nothing. This feels more like the penultimate episode that leads into the finale. This feels like the writer tried to answer all the questions, threw a bunch of ideas at the wall, but then forgot to do anything with any of them.

And what's more frustrating is that when judged as a standalone episode, it's actually all right! Like I said, it's perfectly serviceable as a buildup episode. But as the finale? No. I'm sorry, it just doesn't work.

Now, this nothing of a finale hasn't soured me on the good parts. This isn't like how I felt about Future Diary, where all the bad bits made me come to dislike the story as a whole. What's good is still really good! But this really ought to have been better thought out. For everything that was great, there still was a lot of wasted potential here. And while writing by the seat of your pants can work, there are times in which it can blow up in your face. This is one of those examples.

So yeah. Those are my thoughts.

#wonder egg priority #spoilers

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darkpoisonouslove · 4 years ago

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Ranking the Winx Club Finales

I recently finished my rewatch (and first watch of a season and a half) of Winx Club and wrote out my thoughts on all of it. However, to send off a year that was in experience a lot like watching this series - meaning, generally frustrating and downright disappointing whenever I got excited over a thing with a few highlights that actually stuck the landing - and to get out any remaining feelings over the series, I have decided to rank the finales from least to most favorite. I just have a lot of rage to spare over season 8′s finale and needed an excuse to do so. Plus, I am being thematic here goddammit! Here we go:

8. Season 8

Yeah, I really spoiled that already. To sum it up:

But let me elaborate. Like I already said, this finale enraged the living fuck out of me. I just cannot comprehend whatever possessed them to write a finale so, so... excruciatingly devastating... to a season that started out with a lot of promise and had some extremely solid decisions (except for the art style, which is just NOT IT). This finale is an absolute disaster in every way. First, there is a new plot point introduced mere minutes before the finale and it is never tied into the overall narrative of the season which doesn’t do it any favors, especially after the two halves of the season already have trouble connecting together into one overarching story. The reason they brought in the creatures from the Dark Dimension was to distract Valtor while Winx make their attempt at stealing the stars which could have very well been a role filled by Arken confronting Valtor in an opportunity to clear up all the muddy details around their partnership and bring together the two halves of the season. The Winx’ plan had potential that was completely wasted by their own interruption instead of seeing each girl (provided Layla was playing Icy, Stella - Darcy and Musa/Tecna - Stormy) doing her best to pretend to be the Trix she’s posing as to give the Trix the due role they should have had in this finale. Instead, we get an Icy that is a complete opposite of the character we’ve known her to be for seven seasons all for the sake of a wish she doesn’t even get fulfilled despite her decision to help. Her motivation is a direct contradiction to the original plan of the Trix and disrespects her character from all previous instances of her being on the show for absolutely no reason as she is left with nothing in the end and the whole backstory they invented for her out of nowhere and couldn’t fit in any way with anything previously known about her was in vain because it was never resolved. Winx essentially manage to defeat Valtor once they wish for their own power-up and are gifted powers they haven’t really earned only to be pronounced great heroes who even get their own constellation in the sky. Come again? There was no narrative tension in this episode, no big climax to resolve what is supposedly the biggest threat in the universe at the moment, and no actual emotional conclusion to the season. It can’t even be called a messy wrap when so many threads were left hanging in there. A true disaster on every front.

7. Season 6

Even if you count both 6x25 and 6x26 as the finale of season 6, the structure is still lacking big time. Acheron who is the main drive of the entire season is defeated before the end of 6x25 and the Trix who are the other main villains were also more or less neutralized at that point to leave absolutely no stakes for the last episode so they had to pull some bullshit to fill it. The Winx are useless for the entire episode, including Bloom whose battle with the Trix is an absolute joke. Like, they can’t even think of syncing their attacks so that she can’t protect herself from all three of them with her ridiculously small shield and Bloom couldn’t even bother to actually buy herself enough time to leave the Legendarium. The only saving grace of that fight is the little emotional moment it causes for Bloom but that was also not really set up at any point of the season so it was just out of the blue. Selina changing her affiliations permanently even after the imminent threat for her life was neutralized made about as much sense as her turning evil in the first place and the fact that they needed her to lock the Legendarium made everything 1000% shittier because of how convenient it was that she just decided to turn good again without any justification for her course of actions. That coupled with the lack of consequences for any of her actions (she nearly killed Flora for heaven’s sake and no one even brought that up?) plus the dreadful info dump monologue they gave her just brought the whole thing down. The wrap-up of the season was also underwhelming after they had an entire episode that was mainly free of villains in order to close the other storylines... but, of course, there were no other storylines. Pretty disastrous.

6. Season 7

Just like in season 6, Winx were pretty useless here as they really didn’t do all that much for the plot. Luckily, the fact that the Trix were brought in allowed for the villains to have a battle that was more intriguing and provided some action as for a finale. The other key elements of the season (fairy animals, Trix, wild magic, Kalshara and Brafilius and the time travel) were actually woven together pretty well to make for a pretty satisfying finish to a season that really lacked any solid plot. The mini worlds and the Tynix transformation did not have use in the last episode but that wasn’t too catastrophic. There was actually a pretty emotional moment between the fairy animals and Winx that would have been even better if their relationships had been better developed throughout the season... You’d really think that since fairy animals were the main point of the season and there was no solid plot to account for, they would have taken the time to pay attention to Winx bonding with their fairy animals but nah. I am still impressed with how touching their goodbye was given the fact that they didn’t really have all that much time to actually become close so bonus points for that. The very last scene is a little generic but what else to expect from a season that has sung all its songs already (thank god that there were no musical numbers in this because I have a feeling it would have been even worse)?

5. Season 5

Season 5 could at least pat itself on the back for dealing with the main villain of the season even if there were a couple iffy things about the whole deal. I’m taking away consistency points for a) the fact that the Throne was supposed to be activated with the seals from the Pillars of the Infinite Ocean, yet suddenly stealing a random Sirenix would do, b) Tritannus being defeated by simply having his trident taken away even though he literally grew in body mass implying that the power of the Emperor’s Throne had seeped inside of him (also confirmed by Mystery of the Abyss) and c) the mutants inexplicably turning back into people once Tritannus lost his powers even though they never turned back during his times of relapsing back into a human thanks to running out of pollution. His defeat was just ridiculously easy and Bloom got to do it even though Layla was the one with the personal connection to Tritannus and the one most directly impacted by his actions as her family fell prey to him. Instead of getting to shine in a season that focused heavily not just on her home world but on the environment from which her powers come, she got benched in favor of Bloom getting to do everything again with only mild assist from Layla’s cousin. They should have kept it in the family and left Layla and Nereus deal with Tritannus. The Trix were blasted out of the narrative extremely conveniently and the rest of Winx were saved twice by the mutants just turning their back on them instead of destroying them right then and there and then being turned back into their original form as well. There wasn’t the usual teamwork of the whole Winx unit which I am still salty about despite being sick of all the time they reached for convergence in that season. Theredor fighting alongside Winx (different from his own daughter) was a nice touch but the king and queen of Andros coming off as so helpless (and apparently the only people in the castle unless you admit that everyone else drowned) was frustrating. Where was the Andros army? We only got Tressa, Roy, four of Winx and a handful of mermaids. Is that the whole population of the Heart of All Oceans? Additionally, the finale left no time for any emotional resolution of the season’s events, especially considering the big deal that Daphne’s revival was. Instead they opted for a musical number at the end. Not the best form.

4. Season 3

Season 3 had a finale and then another finale. Granted, better than season 6 that had a finale and then filler but there was not a lot of glory to the ending of a story with such a strong opening and emotional moments that send you bursting into tears. The spell of the four elements was pretty decent in its first appearance in 3x25 but the way Valtor lost it all was a real let down after the climatic confrontations between him and the Winx girls throughout the rest of the season. His return was more or less a desperate last attempt at personal revenge against Winx as his goal was mostly out of reach at this point. The spell of the elements was brought down in both its use to create clones of Winx’ boyfriends and in its power as it was much easier to undo in its reappearance. The saving graces of this season’s finale are the couple emotional moments sprinkled through both 3x25 and 3x26. Bloom’s willingness to sacrifice herself for her friends and the world was the thread that the finale hangs on as she is mostly the one resolving the whole conflict which was a bit dissatisfying after the emotional damage Valtor inflicted on all of them directly or indirectly. There is a few moments left to recover from the emotional intensity of their battles against Valtor but nothing that really addresses the seriousness of the trauma they had to survive because of him. The Trix didn’t even get to have a last stand of their own in either of the last two episodes despite the position in which they started the season but that was more or less unnecessary anyway since we’d already seen they can’t hold their ground against Enchantix Winx even with a boost from Valtor. Overall, the finale is pretty weak, especially as a follow-up of the dynamic and strong experiences that the season put them all through. It was the first finale that was confined to a single episode (or rather two separate battles spanning over an episode to end the season) and there wasn’t enough tension building in the confined storyline an episode told.

3. Season 4

The season 4 finale is overall a solid conclusion that delivers both a final battle with the Wizards and enough time left to address all the other storylines left unfinished. The final battle was pretty short but there was enough intensity in the previous couple episodes to have covered the action demand that the season had already set up and it also provided the opportunity to have Winx come back together as a team after Layla split up. Not only that, but Nebula and Roxy also get to play their part while the Wizards make their last desperate attempt to regain the upper hand. It’s pretty climatic for something that length that also left about 15 minutes of the episode still to fill. Everything that had to do with the closure of the Earth fairies storyline was emotional beyond belief and gave more depth to all of them and Layla’s decision to join them. Winx had to face all of the separate responsibilities they have on their shoulders and find a way to balance them all so that they can pursue their dreams. There was a plethora of emotional moments and a deserved spotlight shined on Layla’s situation and how she’s dealing with it, plus the others’ feelings. It was a really touching finale and also an inspiring one to see Winx stand behind their dreams while still balancing their responsibilities. It seemed to achieve the initial goal of the season to have them adapting to the adult life they were shifting into.

2. Season 2

I’m gonna be honest, I had a very hard time deciding whether this would be number one or two because the season 2 finale had a lot more character moments that were very moving. It really corresponds to the season since it was more character driven than the first one and the finale suited that. However, ultimately I decided that it would take silver because of a couple minor things that bring it down. To get that out of the way, the second portal to Realix that led Winx there was imo a copout that destroyed pretty much all of the tension that the entire season spent building around the search for the Codex. It just felt so wrong for there to be another way to enter that dimension and to me it was a big disappointment. Especially since the key to activating the copy of the Codex was the color riddle that was a ridiculous panicked attempt on the writers’ part to show that Stella isn’t useless and has what to give the team but it only made her look worse in my eyes. Also, minor gripe for the fact that there wasn’t that much of a final battle since everything ended with a single convergence. Of course, there were several battles across the episode between different sides that made for good action and tension and there was magic involved in more ways than simply the convergence in order to defeat Darkar but it was still a bit of a letdown to never truly see him put his everything in battle. And the fact that Griffin and Faragonda held him off for as long as they did on their own actually hurt his credibility as a threat as well. But hey, on the plus side, remember when the teachers actually helped and did not leave the fate of the whole universe in the hands of 16-year-olds? Good times! The MegaTrix and her? their? battle with Darkar was epic. 20/10 on that concept alone, plus it really brought a great feeling of vindication after the number Darkar did on them and felt so satisfying even if they were also part of the villain team of the season. They were portrayed as three-dimensional and weren’t cast out of the narrative without care just because they were villains and that was actually probably the most solid moment that the Trix have ever had on the show (just minor gripe for the fact that they were supposed to be trapped in Realix when the dimension was sealed forever but they were later somehow brought out of there which was never explained). Sky’s speech to Bloom was actually a pretty emotional moment and the payoff from it felt earned and allowed for Bloom’s victory against the darkness to feel natural and in place. It was probably one of their best moments as a couple. Plus, the cute little interactions that we got during the celebration party to send off the season on its merry way made for a great finale. (And a shoutout to the Musa x Riven scenes both in 2x25 and 2x26 because that was some good shit and some cute shit and it was exactly what we deserved).

1. Season 1

Season 1 reigns supreme with its finale. There is just no other finale that can rise to the level of the first one that was built for about one third of the season so that the last episode could dive right into the action without wasting time on setup. This is also the only place where we truly and fully get to see each of the Winx and the Trix (well, minus Layla who hasn’t been introduced yet) showcase their powers but especially Bloom and Icy. It is the longest battle we have seen and it builds a lot of tension on top of what was already there to leave you on the edge of your seat. The exploration of magic in this episode makes it so iconic and such a great watch even on the 300th time. There isn’t really much more to say than simply “It is epic”. What makes it even better though is the fact that there is enough time left in the episode to wrap up everything else and not in a rushed way. The battleground is extended to the locations that have already suffered the previous battles to show the full extension of the action and to setup the wrap-up that comes at the end. They even find the time to let some of the minor characters have distinct and touching moments as well and thus expand the universe of Winx further than just the main characters. Speaking off, they all get their moments, too, and the Specialists aren’t left out of that (you will never catch me not fangirling over Sky and Riven fighting back to back). The finale also doesn’t forget about the overarching story about Bloom’s origin which is commendable considering the constant lack of consistency the show suffers. This is really the only finale that isn’t lacking in any of the departments and manages to provide a truly fascinating story that keeps you entertained and in suspense while at the same time does not discard the emotional payoff or the logical continuation of events. It just excels in every way.

Well, this is my analysis on the finales of Winx Club. What started out as a bitch fest actually left on on a positive and uplifting note to make for a great ending to a harsh year. Let’s see what beginnings 2021 will bring! ;)

#winx club #winx club meta #winx meta #winx analysis #analysis #winx club season 1 #winx club season 2 #winx club season 3 #winx club season 4 #winx club season 5 #winx club season 6 #winx club season 7 #winx club season 8

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langernameohnebedeutung · 3 years ago

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ok so i'm mid-episode-7 right now and I'll just try to take a little break and wrap my head around all of this a little and collect my thoughts before I move on (spoilers!)

So far, episode 6 and Amenadiel's storyline is my favourite because it had actual emotional impact for me. I actually wish they had started this plot in the very first episode of the season so that we could spend more time on the problem.

Overall, I feel like the show really lacks the established structure it had since the beginning. Which were the murders and solve them. Most episodes were contained by one case with two sides: The actual police work which is where Chloe had her time to shine and then Lucifer dealing with whatever issues he is tackling in that episode, doing his projecting thing and maybe undergoing some personal growth. So we get a fully story per episode while the stakes of the season arc become higher and higher in the background. With Chloe and Lucifer no longer solving cases, this structure is gone. It feels like we're just spending time with some characters going this way or that at random, moving from plot-point to plot-point with very little pay-off. Everything just...blurs.

The stakes aren't really getting higher at all so far, there is no rising action as far as I can tell?

Like, in season 5 everything hit the fan constantly - Lucifer is actually Michael! Chloe gets abducted! Big battle at the precinct and God is there! Mojo switch! God is retiring! Vulnerability is gone! Lucifer is goign to become God! Dan dies! -- it was actually too much for me, towards the end, to the point where everything felt meaningless because the stakes were high beyond the frame of comprehension the show gives us, but this time...it's just seemingly not moving towards a climax.

In fact, they seem to be going down.

Rory is introduced as this big, bad mysterious figure who really, really wants Lucifer dead - and now it feels like she's just been an emo teen hanging out with him and Chloe for weeks? months? doing random stuff - until she remembers that she's pissed at Lucifer again and stomps off and it kinda f eels like it's been going on for ages. Which is okay, I actually like her but it kind of falls flat from her original introduction.

I could live with that if they gave me something to actually worry about. Show me Rory actually getting used to the world around her, finding out things about the people she thinks she knows - or thinks she knows. Going back in time, that's a gigantic premise! I actually really loved seeing her talk about Trixie and knowing immediately where she would hide her chocolate - I would love more stuff like this. I would love to see more stuff about what it was like for her to grow up knowing her father is/was the devil! About growing up as a half-angel. About Charlie who is also a half-angel but actually has a father. Stuff like that.

Then we have the "becoming God"/"becoming Queen of Hell" thing that the entire last season build up to, the biggest fattest finale they ever had- that was a really huge deal. But now both Maze and Lucifer just kinda decided they'd rather not do that and found reasons to hang around. And when a frog started coming from heaven and Ella says she can't feel god anymore and Lucifer runs to Linda so that she can teach him how to care- I thought things are building up now and we're going to have some WandaVision style reality collapse at our hands, I was hyped for that - buuuut nah, they're just all kind of hanging around.

Actually, pay-off in general seems to be kind of a problem. For example, Rory not calling Maze 'aunt' and not knowing Amenadiel appeare to set off an exciting little mystery - and considering that we're now no longer solving crimes, I would love if they really delved into the celestial side of mysterious. I would have loved to figure out some time-travel sheningans - buuuuut it was a joke.

See, I love Dan but honestly I'm kind of at odds with how to deal with his characterisation rn? Because he's been in hell for a thousand years, hanging out with demons and stuff and it's been a thousand years down there, that is torture even without the torture and I would have expected a bit more anything. The same thing with Chloe and the blade, tbh, I feel like this could have been so much bigger?

Overall, I feel like there are missing so many opportunities that I think the show would not only not have missed in seasons 1 or 2, but would have actively used:

The whole thing was always Lucifer projecting his problems on the cases and (maybe) learning something about himself on a good day. Now, let's take the Jimmy Barnes episode. I loved when Chloe looked at the throne and was like: "It looks so lonely" and Lucifer says "it was" - that was such a great moment. - because so far, Chloe doesn't know hell. She doesn't know the reality of hell or what it meant for Lucifer to rule over this place and it seemed like a great set-up for her to finally see his world and to understand what it meant for him to leave this place - but also to be sent back down there again and again. And also for Lucifer to actually see one of his most painful experiences acknowledged by the woman he loves and to actually...talk to her about that. After all, this is the big reversal: So far, Lucifer was the consultant on Chloe's cases, and now Chloe became the consultant and helping Lucifer tackle his celestial issues. So to see her go to hell and actually learn about the place seemed like a really cool start - and then we learn that Jimmy Barnes' backstory is about a son left behind by a parent! And Chloe even talks about how horrible and alone he must have felt! And let's not forget Chloe's own backstory - her father didn't leave, she lost him because he was killed, but she also once sat at home and realised her Dad wouldn't come home and then she got a phone call and realised he would never come home - but for entirely different reasons than Lucifer who was cast out or Jimmy Barnes who got left behind. It seemed like exactly the kind of threads that this show would bring together and have the character discuss and reflect on at the end of the episode. But they didn't. They...rarely do that, this season and it just feels like something is missing from the format - and its emotional impact.

Sometimes I actually used to feel like the show had a tendency of spelling out too much, being too direct - but this season around it's not like they're less subtle. It's just not really acknowledged and it doesn't feel organic.

Another example is in the episode where Lucifer seeks out his old lovers to find out whether they're Rory's mothers.

This obviously gave me vibes right from Stewardess Interruptus which is one of my all-time favourite episodes.

Stewardess Interruptus is one of my favourite episodes because it told us so much about our characters. Also, our characters learn about each other and themselves here: Along with Chloe, we learn Lucifer isn't just a person who really likes having a lot of sex, but that he actually has a pretty dysfunctional relationship with sexuality. We also learn how much Chloe, while actually trying to date Lucifer, struggles with the sex-life he has because for her its symptomatic of their very different lifestyles and it makes her wonder how compatible they are. We go from Chloe asking Lucifer's ex-partners whether he "basically used you for sex and then moved on" to realising that actually...it's kinda the other way around. Lucifer is the one who's letting himself be used because he doesn't know how else to connect with people. That was a good episode - - - now that we went on a similar journey in the season 6 episode, I was actually very interested! Especially now that Lucifer is in a proper relationship and I would have loved to see that brought up - for example if Chloe had been presented with the "meaningless"-thing again and we actually had a moment where Lucifer and her talk about what it means to have a "meaningful" relationship. Like, Chloe tells him that it's okay if he had a relationship before her or loved one of these women - which yes! of course it is! - actually, it would have been interesting to see them discuss what it means that he didn't have that kind of connection before despite being almost old as time.

I was especially interested in Esther as a character - who says she became a Rabbi because of Lucifer which is...something really, really interesting. For one, because this show has such a long history of acting like Christianity is the only religion in the world or at least as if the Christian take on the devil is universal (Amenadiel even says in the first season that "every religion has its version of the devil" and that he's always a "rebellious son" which...no. That's not true. At all.) when really, it's not. (I actually remember reading a really good fic once about Lucifer meeting a Rabbi and discussing the different ideas of evil but that's a whole different matter.)

In this episode, Lucifer is now confronted with someone who didn't find the encounter she had with him meaningless at all - she literally changed her life because of it. Also, when she says she became a Rabbi because of him and he's like "oh yeah guess I got that from your desires..." - much like in the Jimmy Barnes episode, I prepared myself for the classic twist at the end of the episode that the show would usually have had. The moment where Lucifer's immediate assumptions would be challenged. I was expecting that by the end of the episode, she would say something: "Hey, it was not actually your mojo, but ---" and we would learn something about her and have Lucifer reconsider his assumptions - For example her saying he seemed lost and that it inspired her to take on a role where she could offer people guidance. Or it would have been interesting if, like Father Frank, she actually realised at some point that he's really the devil and that made her think more deeply about her faith. That could have been really interesting. Like...I feel like in the first seasons of the show, this would definitely have lead to some emotional twist and impact, even in one of the weaker episodes. Some revelation or insight. Something memorable. But here...it's not.

In a similar vein, that kind of emotional twist is something I would have loved to see in Lucifer's interactions with Rory.

One of my favourite moments in the show was when Maze gave Linda that blanket for Charlie - and says that she got him something that she wished she had as a child.

That was so simple! So effective! Strong story-telling! We understood and learnt so much about what made Maze into Maze in just a few lines of dialogue! It's heart-wrenching! It was amazing. - and honestly, it would be so simple to give Lucifer and Rory a similar moment. Again and again we hear Lucifer insist that it cannot be true, he would never abandon his child but it's very "tell" and not much "show" - when Lucifer tries so desperately to find something that he can give Rory it would have been a really strong moment between Christmas-es and driving lessons and parties, if we had a scene where Lucifer tries to do something similar to what Maze did for Charlie:

Have him actually talk to Rory about what he felt like being abandoned by his father and try to give her something that he would have wanted or say something the would have wanted to hear. We would have learnt more about Lucifer, we would have more of an emotional impact beyond him just saying over and over again that he wouldn't abandon his child, we would actually see some development in the relationship between Lucifer and Rory, Rory might actually get a similar opportunity to shine when she reacts to that - giving her more depth and illustrating her pain in a new way rather than just the same thing over and over again. Their relationship has been seemingly stagnant for ages now. It would have been good.

Another example: Adam kidnaps Linda, Maze and Eve work together to get their hands on Adam because they have no idea what he did to her - and then get a really, really long scene discussion their wedding and relationship and stuff. And then, right at the end of the scene they're like: "oh uh btw we have to find Linda"- that one was...almost funny, because it was so bad and weirdly paced. This is Maze we're talking about! Maze who throws hands with everyone who even looks at her friends funny! And who just recently learnt what it felt like to lose a friend!

I feel like there is a similar tell vs. show problem with Eve and Maze and her family. I really, really liked the dinner-scene in the first episode of the season where Linda keeps asking Eve about what she was going to do in hell, about what her role would be, how she sees hell - and Eve keeps being really light-hearted and seemingly naive about it.

Because Eve's entire character flaw (by which I don't mean that it's "bad" or "evil" - but that it's actually something that causes Eve a lot of pain and holds her back) is that she always 100% adjusts herself to her current partner. That she wants to back them completely and be perfect for them. That is what made her so great in season 4: She was neither "the mean new woman ruining things between Chloe and Lucifer >:( " nor was she someone dangled over Chloe as "here is how you are a really good girlfriend to Lucifer" - no, the reason why she was seemingly perfect for Lucifer was was because she was making herself be perfect for him - to the point of self-negation where he cannot get her to break up with him, because she keeps and keeps and keeps adjusting to him. That is why their relationship was dysfunctional and eventually toxic. When she says in season 4 that Lucifer and her will simply go to hell and keep the party going there - that was the pinnacle of her self-deceit, that was the shining moment where we could tell just how desperate she is for love and acknowledgement and companionship that she's literally willing to go to HELL if that's what it takes.

When the dinner scene in 6.1 started, I was very excited to see this issue build up and then be resolved between Maze and her. I was looking forward to see Maze realise what Eve's actual issue is and to come to some clever solution over the course of the season, but so far...that's not really happening.

And yes, Eve wants to get to know Maze's siblings while Maze keeps saying that no, demons are evil - which would also be a super interesting conflict but it's again lacking the emotional impact because we know so little about the demons on the show and what the world-building is. It's much like with God and the fam in the last season: Up to that point, they were really, really wrapped in huge mystery but that's really why it falls kind of flat. But whereas God and especially the angels fell flat for me because I had them build up in this big, uncanny celestial mystery and they couldn't live up to that once they appeared in the flesh, here it's the opposite. I know so little about the actual horrors of hell that I struggle to sympathise with Maze's fears. If I knew literally any demons' thoughts on Maze being the new queen or having a human royal consort or anything, there would be real stakes. But this way, they can just shake anything out of their sleeves and that's it.

#lucifer season 6 #lucifer season 6 spoilers #fandom #lucifer #this is just stuff that I noticed and I didn't really like #this is not to say these are all my thoughts on it or that I completely hate it #it's just me trying to point out the things that don't work for me

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themattress · 3 years ago

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Battle of the Seasons

Infinity Train: Season 1 vs. Season 2 vs. Season 3 vs. Season 4

While I hope the present situation changes and the second half of this series gets made, at the moment these four seasons are all we have and I’d like to present my thoughts on them.

Book One: The Perennial Child tells the tale of Tulip, a girl whose frustration over her parents’ divorce reaches a breaking point and causes her to get swept aboard the Infinity Train. Traveling alongside the bipolar spherical robot One-One and Atticus, the noble king of the Corgis, Tulip goes from car to car working on her own personal issues while inadvertently becoming wrapped up in a conspiracy involving the train’s Conductor. This season was originally going to be the sum total for Infinity Train, and as such it is an immensely enjoyable and satisfying experience all on its own. The concept, the characters, the atmosphere, all of the twists and turns and the emotional stakes...everything is at the absolute height of quality. It’s the kind of story that resonates with both children and adults, as anyone can relate to struggling with feelings of helplessness and guilt over things in life that they cannot change.

If I had one nitpick, it’d be that the ending is kind of abrupt. After such an excellent climax aboard the train, the last scene with Tulip back home is way too brief - I feel we needed a little more time spent on that. Oh well, at least it still sends the closing message it needs to.

Book Two: Cracked Reflection centers around Mirror Tulip (”MT” for short) following her escape from the Chrome Car in the previous season. Still pursued by the Reflection Police who seek her destruction, MT joins up with a passenger named Jesse and a super-powered deer whom Jesse dubs “Alan Dracula”, and they travel together in the hopes of helping to resolve each other’s issues. While still of superb quality and getting to explore even deeper themes, I feel this season is a slight step down from the previous one since its focus isn’t quite so tight. Whereas Season 1 was undeniably Tulip’s story, Season 2 has a hard time conveying whether this is supposed to be just MT’s story or if Jesse is her equal as a protagonist. Also, it kind of peaks in the psychologically hard-hitting episode 8, with the following two episodes then going on to feel like something of a lackluster conclusion.

Book Three: Cult of the Conductor follows Grace and Simon, leaders of the heinous Apex cult from the previous season, as they become separated from their group and have a big, life-changing experience alongside a strange little girl named Hazel and her gorilla companion Tuba. I think just about everyone who watches this season has the same initial reaction: total numbness from shock, and a dazed “what the Hell did I just watch!?” feeling. There’s a damn good reason why this season is when the show switched from Cartoon Network to HBO Max: it is dark, it is twisted, it is miserable, it is bleak, it is frightening, it is uncomfortable, and it had no business being on a predominately child-oriented network; it’s frankly kind of a miracle it was even allowed to be made in the first place. Unlike the previous two seasons, I seldom had any fun watching this one the whole way through; it was an exercise in anxiety.

..........So yeah, Season 3 nabs my vote for “best season”.

Look, when you go Darker and Edgier on something and trade in fun for fucked-up, you had damn well be sure that what you are doing is compelling enough to warrant that. And by God, was this season compelling. From its horrifying beginning to its gut-wrenching middle to its bittersweet ending, I was captivated; I was downright enthralled. This isn’t some kind of cheap grimdark edge-fest: the psychological damage and painful emotions the characters go through here are so raw and so real, and it’s for that reason that even though its two leads are despicable people I found myself more emotionally invested in their journey than the previous main characters’. The presence of Hazel also helped: this is the kind of character that the “precious cinnamon roll too pure for this world” meme was invented for. More than anything else, I just wanted to see this poor child make it out of this terrible situation OK.

Lastly, we have Book Four: Duet, which focuses on childhood friends Ryan Akagi and Min-Gi Park whose friendship has become toxic as they near adulthood, and their numbers aboard the train are linked together so that they have no other choice to confront and repair what is broken in their bond if they are ever to leave. It’s definitely the weakest season, especially coming off of Season 3, as despite how old they are Ryan and Min-Gi’s personal conflict feels the most simplistic out of any seen thusfar (to make it worse, we hear about a past passenger named Jeremy who sounds like he’d have a more interesting story to follow) and their companion, a talking service bell named Kez, is more annoying than amusing. However, it’s by no means bad, and the writers did a smart by making it technically the first season chronologically, as its events precedes the previous three’s by several decades. That way, what we presently have of Infinity Train does kind of end on the high note that is Season 3.

Final score is Season 3 > Season 1 > Season 2 > Season 4. But this is subject to change if we hopefully are granted the second half of this outstanding animated anthology series.

#Battle of the Seasons #Infinity Train #HBO #Opinion #Analysis #Comparison

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duhragonball · 3 years ago

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JoJoLion Index

I’m in a list-y mood tonight, so here’s my groupings of all the arcs in JoJo Part 8. I’ll put them under the cut in case the titles have any spoilers.

Soft and Wet ch.1-6

California King Bed ch.7-11

Paisley Park and Born this Way ch.12-17

Shakedown Road ch.18-22

Paper Moon King ch.23-25

I am a Rock ch.26-32

Jobin Higashikata ch.33-38

Doobie Wah ch.39-42

Love Love Deluxe ch.43-46

Walking Heart ch.47-55

Milagro Man ch.56-57

Dolomite's Blue Lagoon ch.58-63

Urban Guerrilla ch.64-70

Ozone Baby ch.71-76

Doctor Wu ch.77-82

Wonder of You ch. 83-108

The Radio Gaga Incident ch.109-110

I sort-of liveblogged JoJo in 2017, and by the time I got to Part 8 I decided to do a post-per-chapter kind of thing, but this turned out to be extremely frustrating, because the individual chapters don’t get that much plot progression done on their own. Also, I had to keep starting and stopping, doing the first 69 chapters in 2017, then picking it up again in 2018 and maybe 2019, I forget. By 2020, I sort of lost interest in remembering where I left off.

The biggest hassle with liveblogging a JoJo Part in progress is that I felt like I had no idea where the story was heading. It always seemed like I would talk about something that ended up having nothing to do with the main plot. For example, Josuke got adopted by the Higashikata family, then he had a Stand Battle with Daiya. Then he had a Stand Battle with Kei Nijimura, the Higashikatas’ maid. Then the Shakedown Road arc.

At the time, I thought all three of these were connected, and that Daiya and Kei were part of a larger scheme laid out by Norisuke, a scheme that included Shakedown Road. But in hindsight, the arcs have nothing to do with one another. “California King Bed” is Josuke demonstrating that he can’t be manipulated by the Higashikatas. “Born this Way” is Kei’s revealing her true identity and explaining to Josuke his origin. And “Shakedown Road” ends with Josuke learning the connection between the Joestar and Higashikata families.

I wish I could have understood all of that on the first read, because it seems so clear to me now. Same deal with the final boss of Part 8. The main thing that frustrated me with the second half of Part 8 was that I had no idea when or if the final villain would arrive. Because I had no idea how long Part 8 would last, you see. So with each new bad guy, I kept feeling like things were beginning to approach a climax, but that didn’t really start rolling until much later on.

I had similar gripes with Parts 4, 5, and 7, because it just didn’t seem all that obvious to me that a particular moment in the story marked the beginning of the end. This is why Parts 2, 3, and 6 are so awesome, because there’s no such issue. Part 2 is awesome start to finish, so it doesn’t matter. Part 3 ends in Cairo, full stop, so you know what to expect. And Part 6 is set in prison, so you know when Jolyne leaves the prison that things are going to start happening very quickly. That’s not to say Parts 4, 5, 7, and 8 are bad, not at all. But I think it’s no coincidence that I had to experience Part 5 a second time to appreciate it more, and I’ve always enjoyed Part 4 episodes better on the rewatch. And it’s probably why I’ve got a hankerin’ to reread Part 8, now that I know how it plays out.

I think I might want to do a “””proper””” liveblog of JoJolion some day, and now that I have a general breakdown of the story arcs, I think it looks a lot more manageable. What I’m really interested in is exploring what all the characters are trying to do at any particular time. Their motives and reactions to events as they happen. But JJBA tends to play close to the vest with that stuff. I can’t really do what I want to do until I’ve learned who’s who and what Stand powers everyone has. So you almost have to read the whole thing twice. That probably doesn’t bode well for me reading Part 9. I don’t want to wait ten years to understand what’s going on.

#jojo's bizarre adventure #jojolion #spoilers

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zoeology31 · 4 years ago

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Opinions on Ash, Chatana, Zopilote, and the Four Shades?

That’s pretty broad lol but here goes.

I like Ash a lot as a villain. She’s very confident and competent, but has this anger just under the surface that comes out quite frequently because of just how poor her actual emotional health is. I have half an essay in my head about how she’s the third member of a narrative foil triangle with Elena and Esteban, with their similar tragic backstories. Also I love that while there are definitely angles to make her sympathetic, she’s still a horrible person. Not even because of her general villain actions-- we’ve seen plenty of characters come back from believing power was the solution to their problems-- but because of how she treats her family. It’s uncommon for the wife/mother to be the abuser in a situation like this, and I’m glad the writers didn’t pull any punches or try to excuse her in that respect.

Chatana is very cool in concept but super underused as a villain. She was really far more effective as an indirect threat in the episodes where Elena and company had to deal with the creatures she created: “Not Without My Magic”, “The Last Laugh”, and “Giant Steps”. If she had spent the gateway battle hanging back and just sending out waves of creatures, that would’ve been a lot more effective at showing her threat level, and also solved the logistics of a 16-on-5 fight by giving characters not currently onscreen something to plausibly be doing. I did like her whole Pokémon Mom thing though.

Zopilote’s cool. I like that he’s kinda feral, we’ve had a lot of posh establishment-type villains in cartoons lately so it’s fun to have a guy who’s literally a gremlin with vulture feet. He also didn’t have much screen time but did manage to establish himself as a threat by being competent and literally killing someone, so. I’m curious about his history with Alacazar and potentially Fiero, and definitely curious about the weird messed up dynamic he had with Ash.

I’m glad the Four Shades were the final villains and not Ash or Esteban, because Ash deserved the anticlimactic defeat she got and Esteban needed to figure things out before the climax of the episode, not after. Individually, the Shades would’ve been kinda boring, but the ensemble is a big chunk of why they work. Vuli, Hetz, and Yolo play off each other quite well, and the fact that Cahu mostly doesn’t participate in that really adds to her creepy factor. I was annoyed at first by the three guys/one girl thing, but the fact that Cahu’s the final final villain and sort of the subtle leader helps mitigate that. They all have very good and colorful designs as well, though I wish Cahu was a little more obviously inhuman like the others. Also the fact that the final villain is Time is so good thematically for both Elena and Esteban, as Amuel talked about here.

#elena of avalor #analysis #ash delgado #chatana #zopilote #answered asks #my stuff

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syncogon · 4 years ago

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[QZGS meta] what’s in an OP? dawning glory (pt 3)

(part 1) (part 2)

This is the third and last post in my little series analyzing the opening theme of The King’s Avatar Season 2! Honestly, this whole thing became way longer than I was expecting. I guess this is what happens when all my immense amount of love for this series, accumulated over years of no-donghua-updates, overlaps with my immense amount of love for anime openings.

Watched the first and second episodes yesterday, and they really sparked a lot of joy. :D I missed Blue River so much :D

Yesterday, they released the OST for Season 2, which includes the TV cut and full versions of the OP and ED, as well as two insert songs, and the instrumental versions of all of the above. I’ve yet to find anywhere that lets me download the audio files (hoping they’ll be reuploaded to youtube or bilibili soon), but in the meantime you can listen here. They’re really good songs! https: //www. kuwo. cn/album_detail/15792659

Anyway, let’s finish up this OP analysis!

Now here, we reach the true climax as we enter the chorus section. This next segment is definitely the highest-energy part of the entire opening. It’s a montage of Happy’s characters showing off their moves, timed to the music; there’s not too much deeper meaning, but damn if it doesn’t look fantastic. The animation flows from one character and scene to the next so smoothly, so beautifully, it’s just incredibly hype to see. This is what you get when you specifically choreograph/animate sequences for the opening instead of just reusing shots from the main show! (Parts of some of these shots appeared in episode 1, but I do honestly think that it’s more likely that the show reused shots from the opening than the other way around, just because of how perfectly the OP fits together. I also don’t think it’s super noticeable in-show; I’ve just been watching this obsessively.)

In particular I love the line that kicks this all off: “just put on your battle armor and step onto the road to the unknown.” Specifically, though, the rhythm of the lyric is, “jiu pi shang zhan jia ta shang wei zhi qian fang,” with emphasizing accents on the -ang sounds. This isn’t how you would divide the phrase naturally, but because the (syncopated!!) melody accents these notes/syllables, the rhyming effect really stands out and it feels as clever and satisfying as a rap lyric. Moreover, the emphasis times juuust right with the attacks of Soft Mist, Steamed Bun Invasion, and Windward Formation, a perfect example of how music and visuals mutually reinforce each other for maximum cool effect.

It’s generally easier to rhyme in Chinese than English, because of a smaller phonetic vocabulary. From the chorus onward, the key rhyme is on the “-ang” sound (think “ahng” or “ong”, not “aang” like the Avatar), which is a good choice - powerful, reverberant. The asymmetry of the syllable’s use in this section - the song’s lines are all different lengths at this part, so you’re kept on your toes as to when the pattern will reappear - helps add to the engaging excitement of the song. This is also the syllable used for most of the rhymes in the second half of the first OP.

jiu pi shang zhan jia ta shang wei zhi qian fang

hui qi shou zhong wo jin de na shu guang

you ni men zai lu shang__

shi li liang

I really love One Inch Ash’s design. Concealed Light had a big redesign for this season, and honestly I like it as well. And notice here that he’s holding a book - exactly how we left Luo Ji when we saw him last!

“Waving the light clenched tightly in our hand” - that is to say, brandishing our light as our weapon, no matter what form it may take - a sword, a book, our hope and determination.

On a purely musical note (ha), right at this point, specifically the measure beginning with “那束光,” you can hear a three-note “ooo” harmony line in the background, and wow it’s so subtle but I love it so much! A similar three-note line actually appears earlier too (during the “crossing the frozen finish line,” right as the music is building up), also to great effect.

We follow Concealed Light’s gaze upward to the building to see Deception running along the wall, from which he does a flip and slashes downward with twin blades. I love that transition a lot, but my favorite transition of this entire sequence has to be the following one:

Yes! Deception’s cross slash resolves perfectly into the cross held by Little Cold Hands. It’s so fast and so natural you don’t even notice it, and that’s the absolute beauty of it. The first time I saw this, I was in awe - the animators really brought their A-game to this, far better than I ever would have dared hope for this series.

And Little Cold Hands is so pretty! When we got our first art of her official design, the comments were filled with people simping for her, and honestly, valid. I’m surprised her hair is purple instead of pink, but that’s just a minor thing.

There’s something especially powerful about how she raises her cross in time with the lyric “having you all here [with me] on this road,” and then the cross flashing brilliantly with “it’s power.” More than any other role, the healer is a team player. And this theme of team togetherness is particularly important for An Wenyi, who is deeply moved by the team’s perhaps illogical faith in him. Remember that analogy Ye Xiu tells him, of the straw tied to the deluxe mitten crab?

An aside: listening to this, I always thought the line should be 有你们在身旁 instead of 有你们在路上, because it still fits the rhyme, because my past experience has somewhat conditioned me to expect that phrase, and because the full message of “having you by my side is power” just makes me wanna tear up like what a good line! So it felt like a missed opportunity that they didn’t use that. But as it turns out, the final iteration of this chorus in the full version of the OP does, in fact, use “by my side”! And I think making this tiny tweak to the lyric the final time you here it just makes it that much stronger :’)

I’m also just a big fan of the “it’s power” melodic flourish in general, since it comes as a surprise. You kind of expect the melody to end with the previous phrase, but the extra notes here add a really nice emphatic beat to finish off the line.

So to recap the transitions: we see Soft Mist falling from the sky and get a close up of her face as she stabs her spear; this takes us to a closeup of Steamed Bun’s face facing roughly the same direction before we zoom out to his torso and he slashes from lower left of the screen to upper right; following the motion of that slash we see Windward Formation’s torso rotate in that direction as the camera zooms out farther; we follow the rays of his attack to see One Inch Ash drawing his sword; we zoom in on the flashing blade and zoom out on Concealed Light’s glowing book; we follow his gaze upward to see Deception running along the building behind him; Deception leaps and slashes and the slash becomes Little Cold Hands’ cross, which raises up and triggers an explosion. It’s just so dynamic and smooth even without taking place in one continuous setting, and it just really, really gets you hyped.

Also, starting from Happy’s team picture at the start of the chorus, which is during the day, it feels like Soft Mist and Steamed Bun’s moves are at late afternoon, Windward Formation and One Inch Ash take us to nighttime, and then you can see the first rays of morning in Concealed Light and Deception’s segments. This continuity also definitely helps with the feeling of natural flow through these scenes.

Anyway, this entire action segment is just so beautiful, I could watch it on loop. But we still have the final segment of this OP to analyze, so let’s keep going.

After the action sequences of the climax, we settle down a bit now as we approach the end. Here we see the Excellent Era team picture, in the same style as the team pics we saw earlier, but presented separately. It makes sense, as the role they play in the story is different from the roles of all the other teams.

Sun Xiang, Liu Hao, and Cui Li are at the bottom. Because we’re panning up, these three are the first we see. At first glance, the way they’re positioned is fairly consistent with the team pics we’ve seen already: Captain Sun Xiang at center-right, the largest figure; vice-captain Liu Hao, manager Cui Li in the background.

Sun Xiang’s position and expression is really the only one that fits the healthy pattern of the teams we’ve seen already - looking toward the camera, a confident (though arrogant) smile. He might be misguided, but there’s hope for him yet. Notice how Liu Hao isn’t even looking at the camera, which as we’ve seen before is somewhat of an indication of how unified and focused the team is toward its goal; instead, Liu Hao is doing his own thing, determined to prioritize his own desires over what’s best for the team. And manager Cui Li is in this image too, despite not even being a player. His sinister presence reflects the unhealthy interference of the business side in the gaming side. Excellent Era’s downfall comes about because of its prioritization of profit over victory.

As we pan up, Excellent Era’s logo comes into view. It’s larger than any of the other team logos we’ve seen so far, spanning around three-quarters of the screen whereas the others looked to span no more than half. Excellent Era’s legacy is a weighty one, to date the only team to have ever won three championships, and consecutively to boot.

It��s this immense, shining logo that seems to be casting Tao Xuan on the left into shadow. He cuts a large figure, reflecting the deep impact his actions have had upon the main plot of this story, even though he’s only now appearing for the first time in the donghua.

However, he’s also turned away from the camera, such that we can barely even see his closed eye. Because of that, it’s difficult to read his expression, but the impression given by this pose is not one of vindictive pride, but one of shame, as though he can’t quite bear to face what he’s done. On some level, no matter how he might try to rationalize it as necessary, Tao Xuan knows that his profit-driven betrayal of Ye Xiu was a pretty awful thing to do. It might be this amount of guilt that leads him to offer Ye Xiu a wish granted, a tribute to their years of friendship and partnership before their ties are severed completely.

In the end, Tao Xuan’s greed leaves him with nothing really to show for it. What had he gained? What had he lost? Those realizations are still a ways off in the story, but I like how this OP is already hinting at the depth of his character. Tao Xuan isn’t some glasses-flashing, evil-laughing, one-dimensional antagonist; he is in fact very realistic for the setting. We can condemn his actions and priorities, but at the same time we can understand how he ended up here.

As for Su Mucheng, her eyes are closed as well. She’s brightly illuminated, but pointedly turned away from all of the others in Excellent Era; she knows the direction of her future, and that it no longer lies with Excellent Era. Her loyalty was always to Ye Xiu, and as soon as he was banished, her relationship to the team was professional and nothing more.

“This light hidden in my heart is burning” - there are many ways to read this lyric and what exactly the light referenced here is, but because the line is paired with this image, I naturally think about Su Mucheng’s situation. Despite her pretty-vase, sweet-girl appearance, she holds a deep, profound anger at everything that happened regarding Excellent Era. It’s a testament to her immense strength of character that she lasted the remaining one and a half years of her contract in this hostile environment.

Yet even as she resolves to cut ties, there’s a sadness in her expression. She was here from the very beginning as well, when Excellent Era was no more than an internet cafe, and it pains her immensely that the powerhouse, championship team that they and her brother had built from the ground up would ultimately meet this tragic end.

It’s interesting to note that both of the “redeemable” characters here (namely Su Mucheng and Sun Xiang) are on the right, more brightly-lit side of the screen, so there’s a nice little dividing line you can draw there. Sun Xiang’s eyes are still looking toward the left, though, revealing how his character development still has yet to play out.

From there we cut to Ye Xiu holding Lord Grim’s account card. He’s standing back on top of the roof from the beginning of the OP, now in full daylight.

As mentioned… the animators really went ham on the bangs animation.

Ye Xiu turns away from the railing, the camera cuts to an image of Happy’s logo on a flag waving in the wind, and then we zoom out to see the current members of Team Happy gathered together in uniform, standing proud in the light of day. Left to right, Steamed Bun, Tang Rou, Luo Ji, Ye Xiu, An Wenyi, Wei Chen, Chen Guo. Presumably, this will be Happy’s lineup by the end of the season.

Up until now, we’ve only seen the real players separate from each other - they’ve all been in different places, never even in the same frame together. (This, of course, also contrasts the pro team pics that we have, which show everyone together.) Halfway through the OP, we got the group shot of them meeting in game with their characters. And now, they’ve finally met up in the real world as well.

One thing I like about this final pose is how it compares to the final pose of the OVA OP. It’s the same kind of power-pose vibe, but there we only had Ye Xiu, Chen Guo, and Tang Rou. Look at how we’ve grown since then! They’re well on their way to being a proper pro team!

And that’s a wrap! With this final image of Team Happy gathered together, we’re ready to enter the episode proper.

So let’s talk about the OP as a whole. Generally, an OP serves a couple of main roles: a) tells you a bit about what the show is about, b) gives you an overall feeling / mood for the show, c) gets you hyped and ready to watch the upcoming episode.

How well does this opening achieve those goals? Pretty well, as we’ve seen. Past OPs did a pretty good job of setting the mood, but they honestly just put some pretty visuals on the screen, only vaguely aligned to the music, and called it a day. This OP, however, has a cohesive storyline to tell, framed around Team Happy’s coming together (following the tagline of this season). Even in such a short span of time, it manages to convey so much information about its story and characters, both overt and implicit (as I hope this series of posts has managed to convince you). Paired with the music, which has its own deeper meanings encoded in the lyrics, the OP becomes incredibly effective and memorable as it makes its statement.

I mentioned an “interest curve” earlier (interest in the sense of interesting, not the money); this is part of the standard formula for anime opening songs, in my experience. I’m a little too lazy to draw a graph myself, so take a look at this image:

(source: https: //www. researchgate. net/figure/Example-of-an-interest-curve-for-a-successful-entertainment-experience_fig1_333917625 )

Although not all of the relative heights and segment lengths are accurate in this specific case, hopefully the general shape of the interest curve is enough to demonstrate my point. You’ve got the A-B peak at the opening instrumental segment, the C-D peak/arc over verse 1, the D-E-F peak/arc over verse 2, then the sharp F-G-H peak over the chorus before dropping off for a smooth landing right into the episode. This general pattern is effective at holding the viewer’s focus and managing their excitement over the course of this one and a half minutes.

Visually, the OP is just such a treat for the eyes. I’ve already talked about many of the little details I love - lighting, character designs, animations, transitions, etc. - but all in all the new animation studio is doing a really good job here. An OP is how you hook people, and I’d definitely feel comfortable using this to try and bait people into watching this show.

One comment I want to add is about the incorporation of the credits, which we didn’t see until the episode premiere. I don’t think there’s anything too exciting to say (and I also don’t have access to any images right now since the OP was only shown in episode 2), but the fonts and styling were a nice choice - it gave a gaming vibe, but if I recall it still used a serif font, so it didn’t feel overly modern - and the text positioning generally complements instead of distracting. I also liked how they showed the lyrics! I didn’t really expect them to include them onscreen, or if they did, I thought they would just be plain subs like they were in this video. But in the actual OP that plays at the beginning of the episode, they’re as much a part of the art as the credits!

If I had to make any criticism, my biggest complaint about the OP is, I think, the singers. I think having two different singers trade off can work nicely, but in this case, the switches are jarring because their voices are so different. The first singer has a lower, gravely voice, while the second singer’s voice sounds much brighter and more nasally. Furthermore, the first switch doesn’t come until we’re fully halfway through the song, which means that by that point we’re already used to this first singer. It’s also strange that they’d switch back to the first voice at the climax of the song, when I think the second voice would suit the high-energy segment much better. Switching from second to first right at this point feels like we’re actually taking a step down in energy, which is the opposite of what should be happening here.

Still, my main problem isn’t with the voice switching but with the voices themselves, and I think the voices are something I could get used to. The third switch, going from the first voice back to the second voice during the shot of Excellent Era, is much less jarring than the others - I actually like how it feels like the solo is passing naturally from one person to the next, emphasizing the ideals of this not being a single-player game and all that. For that transition in particular, I think (because of the added “it’s power” flourish) it happens too quickly for one person to sing it comfortably, so having another person pick up the line works best. And I do like how the voices sound when they overlay together for the final lines of the song.

So, overall? Overall, this OP is really damn good. It’s everything I could have asked for and more. After such a long wait, the OP, at least, does not disappoint, and I’m extremely excited to see what the series has in store for us.

If you’ve read to this point, thank you! I like this series a lot, as you can probably see, and I’m treating it as my glory :)

#quan zhi gao shou #qzgs #the king's avatar #tka #全职高手 #mine #qzgs commentary #synco talks

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nonbinaryhatboxghost · 4 years ago

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Okay, today has been a quiet Saturday morning so far, I have some time, and I like lists. So here is my random (personal) ranking of Star Trek series and movies, out of what I’ve seen, which is everything but seasons 5-7 of Voyager, all of Enterprise, and all of Picard. I’m only counting shows with three or more seasons because it’s easier. But let the record show that I love Lower Decks so far and The Animated Series is actually a blast.

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT

Series Ranking

The Original Series - As influential of a show as it is, I constantly forget how much damn fun the original Trek is. There is an almost Community-like variance in tone and genre throughout the show. And I’m a sucker for a future that embraces primary colors. It is the Trek show I revisit the most so far, and it remains my favorite.

Deep Space Nine - This one comes close, though. It starts out as a solid spinoff with very well-defined characters, and then becomes a big, sprawling epic that had my eyes welling up by the end. It feels more like a sequel to The Original Series than The Next Generation did to me. It dealt with subject matter both different and darker than was expected for the time. It had characters at odds with each other. Religion was explored in a way that balanced brutal honesty with genuine respect. War and the various traumas it induces were acknowledged. And it had “Take Me Out to the Holosuite”. I only finished this one recently but I look forward to watching it again.

Discovery - I was rooting for this show to be good even as it went through so much behind-the-scenes drama during its first two seasons. Even with all of that going on, the show became a fascinating watch as you saw it change from its arguably-too-dark beginnings as a prequel, to the almost Doctor Who-like second season with its joyful embracing of classic Trek, and finally to its current iteration that at long last gives us a Trek show that’s not bound by prequel limitations. Michael Burnham is such a great character and getting to see her arc alone makes this one of my favorite Trek stories. The queer/nonbinary representation also warms my heart.

Voyager - I’m just starting the fifth season, but the show has settled into an interesting groove with its characters. And Voyager’s characters are so damn good that they counterbalance a lot of the show’s early problems. It takes a while for Voyager to realize that the Kazon do not work very well as villains. But once the show realizes that, it begins an upward trajectory in quality that reminds me of Deep Space Nine after it began doing Dominion plots. And Seven of Nine’s effect on the crew dynamic lives up to the hype. Any scene between her and Janeway demonstrates such a unique relationship between captain and crewmate that an episode plot can be meh and still worth it for a scene with those two. Also, Janeway is the best captain character. No other Trek show (that I’ve seen so far) comes close to showing us the weight of leadership like Voyager, and Mulgrew constantly brings it.

The Next Generation - This is my first Trek show. It’s the one that my dad watched. There are several standout episodes to me, but I find myself less drawn to revisiting TNG than the other Trek shows because ultimately it took me too long to understand and care about its cast of characters. If you were to ask me to describe any character from any other Trek show, I would be able to. Ask me to describe a TNG character and I would likely fail to give any good adjectives for any character besides Data and Worf. As iconic as the show is, and as great as it became, it doesn’t have the same pull on me as other Trek shows. But it was the template for the spinoffs that followed, and the portrayal of Picard’s trauma post-Borg assimilation earns its reputation as an all-timer for me.

Movie Ranking

VI: The Undiscovered Country - I’m surprised this one isn’t talked about as much as other Trek movies. It’s a very frank depiction of prejudices and learning to deal with them. It has one of the best Kirk/Spock scenes ever. Christopher Plummer as a Klingon. The ORIGINAL cast credits sign-off (yes, Avengers: Endgame borrowed from this). A score that carefully balances menace with eventual hope. A fun whodunit structure. I could go on and on. It’s just so damn great, and so far the only successful send-off to a Trek crew in any of the movies.

II: The Wrath of Khan - It’s a classic for a reason. I’ve probably rewatched this more than any other Trek movie. You got your great villain, your classic crew beginning to deal with their mortality, an all-timer death scene, a kickass early James Horner score. What more could you want?

The Motion Picture - This is an interesting one. When I first watched it as a teen, I hated it. I agreed with every critique of it being thinly plotted and having an excessive runtime. When I revisited it in my 20s, it became a favorite. It’s Star Trek’s exploration of existential dread, and the struggle to find agency and identity within that dread. It has possibly Jerry Goldsmith’s greatest score. It is the best that the Enterprise has ever looked. This movie envelopes you with eerie and epic imagery, culminating in a finale with interesting philosophical ramifications and a well-earned return to optimism from its crew. This one is criminally underrated.

First Contact - This one is just rock solid all around. The best-ever TNG villains, further exploration of Picard’s trauma from Borg assimilation, Alfre Woodard, Alice Krige, fun action, the genesis of the Federation. It has the best balance of darkness and fun out of all of the Trek movies. It also has a character actually say the words “star trek” in a way that never ceases to make me smile. I don’t know if it’s a good line, but it’s funny regardless.

Beyond - Like The Motion Picture, I initially disliked this upon first viewing. I was still in the middle of watching The Original Series and was in the wrong mindset for this mashup of TOS and Fast & Furious. But it’s one of the most underrated Treks because it’s a perfect balance of the more kinetic action found in the 2010s with a very well-done breakdown of the inherent point and value of Star Trek: learning to be better and move beyond fighting the same battles among ourselves.

IV: The Voyage Home - This one is such a satisfying culmination of the crew’s arc starting in The Wrath of Khan that the joy of the 1980s material is almost just a bonus to me. Nimoy does a good job of keeping things light without disregarding stakes. He gets the best portrayal of the crew’s camaraderie in this and The Search for Spock. And Spock’s reaction to the concept of “exact change” always makes me laugh.

III: The Search for Spock - I revisited this one recently and it held up better than I expected. Seeing the weight of Spock’s death on Kirk in the beginning hits hard. Christopher Lloyd as the Klingon villain is casually one of the best Trek movie villains. And seeing the crew uniting over trying to bring back Spock gives us some of the best on-screen moments of this cast.

Star Trek - One of the reasons I love Beyond so much is that it retroactively makes this one better. I was crazy for this movie when it came out. I was in high school, Star Trek in general was something I was only really aware of because of my dad. But this is the thing that got me into Trek. And as mixed of a bag as it now plays to me, ‘09 Star Trek being a gateway for me to general Trek, combined with the perfect casting of the crew, the excellent Giacchino score, and the emotion of the opening sequence, thankfully makes this one still a blast to revisit.

Nemesis - I have only seen this twice, and both of those times without having seen TNG in its entirety. This was also the very first Trek movie I ever saw. Nostalgia is a factor for why this is higher than the others on the list. Curiosity is another, as I was unaware of Tom Hardy when I watched this, and have no idea what my opinion will be on rewatch. But what I always remembered of this movie was its ending, which even to a novice like myself when I first saw it had an impact.

Generations - There are quite a few great scenes that Stewart gets in this movie. Malcolm McDowell is also great in it. But the whole plot feels too forced for me to get actually swept up in it. And as fun as it is to see Shatner and Stewart share the screen... it ultimately has no impact and leads to a strangely lame death for Kirk.

Insurrection - The idea of Enterprise going rogue against the Federation for forcibly relocating a population for a natural resource is such a good concept... which makes the goofiness and half-baked writing of this entry all the more confusing. All the elements are there, but it feels like the tone was forced to be lighter than the material warranted. It’s frustrating because Frakes’ directing chops that he showed off on First Contact are still visible here. But for whatever reason, this one just falls apart.

Into Darkness - This one is low on the list mainly because it represents almost all the negative traits of the modern blockbuster to me. Darkness without depth, franchise callbacks without substance, and no character development/change by the end. Another reason why Beyond works better as a sequel to ‘09 Star Trek than this one is that Into Darkness feels more like it’s trying to make Star Trek a bigger movie franchise rather than develop this iteration of the Enterprise crew. Nothing and no one is changed by the end of this story.

V: The Final Frontier - It is the most difficult Trek movie to sit through, and yet I can’t call it a disaster. For all of its misfirings on the comedy front (dancing Uhura, for instance), the camping material with Kirk, Spock and McCoy is genuinely great. The premise of its villain being on a quest to find God is ultimately a misfire, but it leads to a very engagingly ridiculous climax centered around the question “What does God need with a starship?” There are far too many undeveloped ideas in this one, but that scene is worth seeing this movie for. At least, now that we know it didn’t kill the franchise, as so many apparently feared when this came out.

#star trek #kyle rants

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pkmnjesus · 5 years ago

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The 2010s Decade of PokéAni (An overview - Part 2 of 2)

← Continuing on from the first half of this PokéAni 2010s overview....

2015: Serena cuts her hair to chase a dream

February 12, 2015 Serena’s character arc had a rocky start with her not really sure what to do after becoming a Pokémon trainer meeting her Fennekin for the first time. I was really excited when her character was first announced, but I wanted to like her more than just being “that pretty girl who has a crush on Ash”. Maybe it’s because I’m not that shippy of a person, nor a romantic type of guy whatsoever but I didn’t want a main character to just be defined as a potential love interest. With her development slowly leaning towards a clear goal on wanting to become a top Pokémon Performer, I was happy she was finally carving her own path. However it was this specific episode that marked a major turning point for her ambitions, and made me truly invest in the new and improved Serena.

It was finally Serena’s debut as a Pokémon performer competing in her first Pokémon Showcase in Coumarine City, along with her friend, rival, and fellow-performer, Shauna. The performers in this showcase are divided into groups, and only one from each group gets to move on to the next round. Going into the first round, Serena was nervous yet confident. It was a Pokémon styling contest, and Serena put a lot of care and effort into making Fennekin look as cute and gorgeous as possible. But maybe it was a bit too much...

As they walk down the runway showcasing Fennekin’s fashion, everything went well and both were having a great experience in their first showcase...until something terribly went wrong. Fennekin accidentally trips over its ribbon while walking the runway which ends up scattering all the decorations Serena had styled over her. She made a crucial mistake in making the ends of the ribbon too long, thus costing them the round and ultimately eliminated her from the competition. Shauna was able to advance from her her group easily, and all Serena could do now was watch the rest of the competition from the stands. Shauna ended up winning the Showcase and her first Princess Key. It was devastating defeat going into your first performance having to lose like that. On the outside, she tried to put up a good face for her friends comforting Fennekin and even congratulating Shauna on her first victory.

But in the inside, she was grieving and blames herself for not realizing the error she made while styling Fennekin. Even Ash knew that she would be alright all along knowing her strength. The following early morning when no once was watching her besides her Pokémon, she decides to let it all out and break down in front of the ocean. It really broke my heart seeing her crying like that knowing that she really did care about pursuing a performer career. Fennekin and Pancham immediately try and cheer her up as they engaged in a lovely group hug. After understanding the disappointment in defeat, she knew that this was a part of every dream. You can’t be successful without making a couple of mistakes and that it’s okay to cry sometimes to let the bad stress out. No one is perfect, and that same goes for some of Ash’s gym battles or what happened to some of May and Dawn’s contests in the past. It was all part of the process of chasing her newly found dream and Serena finally realized that. It was just the beginning, and she wants to keep going until she gets to Aria. She decides that going forward in this new chapter, there needs to be a change. She got her big scissors out and starts trimming her own hair (for her to do that on the spot without a mirror, she was pretty darn impressive to properly cut her hair like wow lol) as Palermo watches in the distance from her limo. She knew that was the same performer with the tripping Fennekin. It’s possible she saw potential in her that early. Serena rejoins her friends and surprises them with a new look!

If you ask me, I like this new outfit of hers way better (and I think girls with shorter hair cuter ^///^). Also you can’t forget about the blue ribbon Ash gave her prior to this, it was a really cute touch knowing that he helped her get stronger through her personal journey as a trainer. Now that’s fitting ;) You know even though it was spoiled early on that she was going to have a redesign, I’m really happy on how they did it and it wasn’t just random day where Serena decides she wanted to cut her hair. I’m no girl, but apparently (I researched this) when a woman cuts her hair shorter, it symbolizes a change or a major life event that has happened. To Serena, it was a major shift in her character after the embarrassing loss. She eventually went on to win future performances evolving her Braxien, and even got to be friends with Aria! Remember, Serena is MORE than just AmourShipping...she is our Kalos Queen <3

Honorable mentions from this year: There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to 2015 PokéAni. Ash had 4 gym battles that year, including his battle with Clemont which I was very hyped about. To the point of him temporarily leaving the group to prepare himself at the Lumiose gym, that’s how much he cared about being in the best battling shape for Ash. There was that infamous “date” episode that Ash & Serena had, Meowth & Bonnie being stuck together, Cosplay Pikachu everywhere, Trevor trying to get a picture of a Moltres, and the debut of Sawyer, the Treeko trainer who was fascinated by Ash. One of my personal favorites too was when Bonnie wanted to ‘keep’ a Tyrunt/Tyrantrum (matched her pajamas too :3) she helped and befriended but unfortunately already had a trainer </3 It was a year of a couple of catches like Ash’s Noibat, Serena’s Eevee, Clemont reminiscing the time he caught a Bunnelby, and of course the lost Goomy. Within months after Ash caring for the Goomy, he was able to evolve it to a Goodra but had to leave it behind when they finally found its homeland it had to watch over with a Floette. We got two more Mega Evolution Specials before it merges with the main anime the following year, but we did get start of the XY&Z arc where Ash’s (then) Frogadier would fulfill a prophecy to save Kalos from a great danger. When they met up with Sanpei in the Ninja Village, Frogadier would finally evolve into Greninja. It would be the year when Team Flare would initiate their plans, attempting to capture all the Zygarde cores. There was one specific Zygarde core that Bonnie was able to befriend and bring it along with them naming it Squishy/Puni-chan. If you thought 2015 was awesome, wait until what PokéAni does in 2016!

2016: Gym Leaders assemble - the last line of defense

September 15, 2016 The fallout following the Kalos League took a dark turn when Lysandre broadcasts Team Flare’s manifesto to create a new world order, where only the “chosen ones” will join them. Alain, feeling betrayed with Lysandre’s true nature, decides to team up with Ash and the others to take down Team Flare. Lysandre’s gone mad, and even Malva thinks that this is too much. On other side of the story, Mairin with Serena, Professor Sycamore, and Hoenn League Champion Steven, rescued Chespie/Hari-san from Lysandre Labs.

While all the chaos is going on outside, Clemont reclaims the Lumiose Gym from Xerosic at the cost of terminating his good ol’ Clembot/Citroid assistant he invented for the Gym. I can’t remember how sad I was on robot’s death and nearly cried on it...they really made this scene heartbreaking for Clemont to push that shut down button. You can see the bot’s loyalty towards him volunteering to sacrifice himself for the greater good. But thanks to their bravery, Team Flare no longer controls one of their Zygarde (Z2). Squishy was also able to show its true form (50% so far) when it called upon the other Zygarde cells under Team Flare’s control, but thanks to Bonnie’s bond with it, she was able to breakthrough that mind control by singing Puni-chan’s song (don’t think the dub has an actual name for their version) she often sings when they’re together. The development Bonnie had with Squishy throughout this whole arc was fantastic, because it gave her more responsibility and sense of friendship even after Squishy was under the control of Team Flare destroying every thing. This was her own trial to prepare her for what’s to come when she eventually becomes an official Pokémon trainer and own an overpowered Zygarde in the future xD. Squishy also trusted Bonnie as a human it can rely on.

With Team Flare looking to be defeated, there was one more threat looming over Kalos. What was that threat? A ROCK. But no ordinary rock, it was The Giant Rock (Meaglith) that Lysandre created based off Primal energy form a beast like creature similar to Zygarde’s 50% forme. It was his last ditch effort in creating a new world, and we have never seen anything this catastrophic from an evil boss since probably Cryus. The Zygarde-like rock beast even absorbed Mairin’s Chespie which makes it even more difficult for them to stop it. It’s destination was the Anistar City Sundial to trigger a massive explosion that could destroy Kalos and the world! Everyone joins up to stop this calamity from happening, but is their strength with Mega Evolution enough to bring it down?

Then, the epic back-up finally arrives! The whole Kalos crew is here with Champion Diantha uniting all the Gym Leaders (minus Clemont/Clembot) within the region. They even got their own solo introductions. This never happened in the previous regions of the anime, where the Gym Leader would just appear once battling with Ash, but in here they interjected themselves to the Zygarde’s story arc. This really reminded me of what happened during the climax of the Black & White games, where the Gym Leaders joined forces to stop Team Plasma. But this isn’t Unova, this is Kalos, and this is their last line of heavy defense against Lysandre! With 2 League Champions, a Blaziken Mask, Ash-Greninja, Z2′s army of cores, and 7 Gym Leaders, this Giant Rock wont stand a chance! When Zygrade finally reached its 100% forme, it uses Core Enforcer to end Lysandre’s evil plot once and for all (RIP him btw). From Steven Stone’s assistance, to Clembot’s sacrifice, to Team Rocket’s aide, and Diantha leading the region’s top gym leaders, this was an epic way to end the XY&Z saga with. For them saving Chespie, and bring back peace to Kalos.

Honorable mentions from this year: The closing year for the Kalos ended in epic fashion before taking flight to Alola. Who could forget the episode where Serena wore or should I say cosplayed as Ash? She even almost got to a dance with him during Monsieur Pierre’s party. She wasn’t able to, but at least got to evolve her Eevee into a Sylveon! Clemont also had a new bride that Bonnie wasn’t too fond of (despite her asking multiple ladies to ‘keep’ for him) when her jealousy kicks in. Ash’s Noibat also evolved into Noivern, and briefly reunited with Goodra. Serena got all her Princess Keys needed to compete in the Pokémon Showcase Master Class, and even went head to head with Kalos Queen Aria for her title! She was unsuccessful, but it still won’t stop her from getting better. It was also the official birth of Ash-Greninja when he had a battle with the Kalos Champion, Diantha! Ash finally meets our Mega Evolution protagonist Alain and gained a new rival for the League. Before the Kalos League, he struggled a bit with getting his final badge from Wulfric eventually perfecting Ash-Greninja. In the Kalos League, he had a great battle with Sawyer (who can now use Mega Evolution), but came up short against Alain in the finals. It was a loss everybody was bummed about, and it would take another 3 years for him to compete in another league...we’ll get to that :> But the farewells were unforgettable. Greninja had to be let go in order to destroy the reappearing roots with Squishy and Z2 protecting Kalos from further calamity. And I know y’all can’t forget about the ‘kiss’ heard around the world when Serena leaned in for her parting gift to Ash <3 Him and Clemont have one final battle (just like how the XY series started) before heading back to Pallet Town...”And to our own way”. But 2016 had to end on a happy note, where we see Ash finding a new home in Alola enrolling in their Pokémon School program. Upon arriving, he was blessed with a Z-ring from Tapu Koko, an Alola deity, because he saw something in our boy. Through his class he made 5 new friends, got a Rotom Dex, a little Rowlet birb chilling in his backpack, and meeting a feisty Litten. WHAT. A. YEAR. !!!

2017: Stoutland’s final days with Litten

April 6, 2017 In possibly one of the most depressing and emotional episodes the Pokémon anime has to offer, the wild Litten that always stole Ash’s food finally gets to be apart of his team. But what made this little kitty finally gave Ash a chance to train it after escaping him so many times when he tried to reach out to it?

Ash tried to help the loyal Stoutland Litten was living with after following it from stealing his groceries, but due to Stoutland’s old age and declining health, there wasn’t much Nurse Joy could do. The tree shots with the falling leaves throughout the episode pretty symbolize the time Stoutland has left.

Litten, bringing back his mentor to their old spot after spending the night at the Pokémon Center, still wanted to spend as much time with Stoutland and master the Fire Fang move it was trying to learn. Then the leaves were out, and the finals days of this Stoutland were up. Litten slept with his friend one last time, and even had a dream of Stoutland attempting to chase after it going off in the distance. This symbolizes Stoutland’s departure from being under its care.

It wasn’t directly shown, nor mentioned, but it is clear to me that the Stoudland had passed away. *sobs* The gloomy rainy weather, and the dark tone shown during this part of the episode signifies the sadness and mourning every character that was involved during Litten’s struggle to find help for its good ol’ friend, not immediately realizing that Stoutland was gone for good. Meowth tried to communicate with his fellow feline to understand what it was feeling, while Ash even spends the entire duration of the rainfall with Litten even though it refused his food offer many times and didn’t want his help. This definitely took me into a feels trip because it is rare for this anime to even do an episode about a death of a Pokémon, even though it was indirect with how they presented it. Not mention, every time I was on my Stoutland ride Pokémon when playing Pokémon Moon (to help detect hidden items), ridding the big doggo always made me think about this particular episode. ;_;

Eventually the rain stopped, and a rainbow bloomed in a distance that made Litten feel better remembering the good memories it had with Stoutland. Finally, Litten decides to give Ash a chance, but didn’t want his pity over what happened. Litten was a tough little cat and wanted Ash to earn its respect through battle. Litten finally joins Ash’s team after battling with Pikachu and successfully catching it. Ash was also able to feed Litten after accepting it as its trainer. This was probably what Stoutland would have wanted for Litten.

Stoutland knew what kind of trainer he was and wanted Litten to go with Ash to finish the training they started. Besides mastering Fire Fang, they did a lot more in the future to come. When Litten saw the rainbow and familiar cloud formation, both smiled in peace. Stoutland knew that Litten was in very good hands. The memories learning and training with Stoutland are never forgotten, as Litten embarks on a new journey with brand new friends and a caring trainer.

Honorable mentions from this year: The first fully fledge year of Alola! Ash owning the first discovered Dusk Lycanroc in the anime verse, Lana getting her own Z-ring and how can I not forget Brock and Misty’s (especially MISTY) big return to the anime when the class went to Kanto! We had new Pokémon caught added to the main cast such as the birth of Lillie’s Snowy/Shiron, James’s touchy Mareanie and Kiawe’s Alolan Marowak. It was Gladion’s debut year becoming Ash’s new rival. Ash’s Z-Crystal collection kept on growing bigger through his adventures in Melemele and Akala Islands, and even clears its respective grand trials. We were also introduced to a little Cosmog turned Solgaleo, Nebby. The bad guy in Faba to steals Nebby however to summon, an Ultra Beast (Nihilego) that would eventually consume Lusamine (just like in the games, only she is less obsessed here). Thus, a Z-Powered ganbaLilie was born to save her mom! With the help of her brother and friends of course. We had family matters like Sophocles thought he was moving a way for good, and fun little fillers like the pancake and Charjabug races, or raving with an Alolan Dugtrio blonde wig. A personal favorite of mine was when Rowlet, Litten, and Popplio had mini-adventure of their own, and outsmarted Team Rocket nasty schemes. Speaking of Team Rocket, we got a short glimpse of them versus a trio of Team Skull members. Kukui’s class activities like the baseball teams, camping outdoors, switching Pokémon partners with fellow classmates for the weekend, and sleeping over at the professor’s house were awesome too! Their field trip seeing the beautiful white-colored Aether Paradise, and traveling through the mysterious Ultra Space were treat as well. We got to see the development of Kukui and Burnet’s pre-married relationship, which wasn’t featured in the games…AND WE GOT A PROPOSAL AND WEDDING OUT OF IT! There’s a reason for the animation change, and to be honest I’m happy that they did! The art style definitely fits the tone and theme of the jolly Alola region. In conclusion, 2017 was a pretty cool year if you ask me!

2018: The People of Alola vs. Necrozma

September 13, 2018 The conclusion to the Poipole/Necrozma arc is probably the biggest highlight for this year. In Japan, this marked a major end of an era because this was also the final episode on a Thursday night (for 20 years!) since the series was officially moving to Sundays starting with the episode after this (~pika ;3).

From Gladion joining the Ultra Guardians, to Team Rocket’s Matori Matrix attempting catch a fused Necrozma, to Nebby returning to assist with the mission, to rescuing and healing a weakened Lunala, to visiting Poipole’s home world and hear a Naganadel talk in their minds…I’m at the edge of my seat! The Masked Royal’s identity was first exposed here too when Faba fought alongside Kukui to ward off the Matori Matrix. Luckily Faba can keep a secret. The whole time this arc felt like it could be one Pokémon movie. This should probably make-up for why there really isn’t an Alola region based Pokémon movie for this series specifically. But going back on topic, the entire region of Alola was still in crisis as Necrozma absorbs all the Z-Power the Ultra Guardians tried to strike back with. At this point, Nebby was already fused with the Necrozma and they knew that they had to separate them just like what happened with Lunala. So what does everyone do in a time like this? UNITE! Not just the Guardian deities, not just the Ultra Guardians, not just the Aether Foundation, not just the Kahunas participating in the Manalo Festival, but Alola as a whole teamed up in various locations where citizens swarmed together and gave their “light” by doing Tapu Koko’s pose to bring Necrozma back to its original form, The Blinding/Radiant One! Nebby has been freed, and rejoins the Ultra Guardians.

In one last Ultra stand, Nebby (with Ash holding Solganium Z) and Lunala (with Gladion holding Lunalium Z) gave one final blow to Necrozma with some Ultra Aura. After unleashing the combination of Z-moves, Ultra Necrozma rises from the light and uses its power to restore all the damage that has been done to Alola, thus ending the chaos ensuing in the region. The Matori Matrix did try to go to Ultra Space when an Ultra Wormhole opened, but Tapu Koko was like “not so fast!” eventually forcing this Team Rocket unit to retreat.

Not only did they save Alola, but also brings back light to the Poipole home world. Of course the most emotional thing out of all this was saying goodbye to our little sticky Poipole friend who had remain in its home world. It left its home world to find a better home, and it did when Ash gave Poipole a spot in his team and is even an official member of the Ultra Guardians squad. Now that the home world has been restored, Poipole knew it needed to stay and protect its original home from further threats. As the Ultra Wormhole closes with Nebby and Lunala accompanying the Ultra Guardians back to Alola, Poipole painted Ash & Pikachu’s face as a sweet goodbye gesture. The flashback scenes, and the music in the end was absolutely magnificent to top it all off! This teary goodbye even had me tears. We’ll forever “like, like, love” you, Poipole <3 Maybe Ash will see it again one day...oh who am I kidding xD If you’re up to date with the anime, you know already what happens in the future ;]

Honorable mentions from this year: The year of Ultra Guardians! They’ve had multiple missions in bringing back the Ultra Beasts to where they came from. Anime debuts of Ilima, Mina, and the long-awaited Hau make their respective appearances. We also got to see James “fighting” a Toxapex, Lana & Mallow’s childhood past, Lillie getting her first Z-Crystal and even Rotom Dex joining the set of Detective Laki. There were significant evolutions like Ash’s Litten evolving to Torracat starting its rivalry with Masked Royal’s Incineroar (while Burnet fangirls over them) and Mallow’s Steenee evolving to a Tsareena. And how can I forget Sandy/Nagisa? Those Eevee mini-specials ultimately led it to Alola for our great Lana to catch! The Ula’ula trials were highly significant too when Ash trained with Acerola and tested his strength against Kahuna Nanu. Specials include Mallow’s big brother visiting home, and the 2-parter with Dia and his Zeraora in the mysterious Ultra Ruin. For Team Rocket, they temporarily get an Alolan Meowth, but got a permanent family member with a Stufful later on (Bewear’s child!). I’ve gotta mention the fun ones too like Ash dressing up as a female nurse the class helping Nurse Joy at the Pokémon Center, the class making their own school play, and Faba accidentally shrinking Ash, Lillie & Sophocles. Finally, in another emotional themed episode, Molayne showed everyone the beauty and sad reality of the Minior Pokémon at the Hokulani Observatory. Such a strong theme of having precious memories with a sad outcome due to the nature of that certain Pokémon :( Just look at the variety! I could still go on, but in summary was 2018 one heck of an ULTRA year!

2019: Ash wins the Alola Pokémon League 🏆

September 15, 2019 In the last highlight of this 2010s decade, it may probably be the biggest one. Ash vs. Gladion. Pokémon League finals to determine the first ever champion of Alola. I’ve already made several posts about this (maybe one too many) in my blog, so let me quickly reiterate the significance of this special event one last time. First thing I have to mention, is that Ash’s rivalry with Gladion has been amazing from the get-go. From their first meeting at the beach by Kukui’s place with a feisty Rockruff that wanted to battle, to the Manalo Stadium battling for a prestigious championship title with Ash’s Lycanroc fully controlled over its rage with dirt. It wasn’t a traditional full 6-on-6 battle, but the 3-on-3 showdown still gave us one heck of battle! It may not be considered the best battle of all time, but it was still an amazing and fun match between two trainers who promised each other to meet in the finals of the big stage since the start of the League.

The laugh they shared, the flashbacks that was shown to us (with the awesome Type: Wild! music playing in the background), and their storytelling on who wants the W more makes you invested, and cheering for Ash all the way to finally win a major Pokémon League. Ash’s newly evolved Melmetal showcased it’s new strength but still wasn’t able to beat Gladion’s Silvally. Then, when Zoroark and Pikachu knocked each other out, it was the 1v1 Lycanroc battle that really put this friendly and competitive rivalry full circle.

Ash has NEVER defeated Gladion…until this moment. He’s been training for this, and it finally paid off. The two Lycanroc’s took no prisoners and went back and forth with one another. In the final blow of that match, Gladion’s Lycanroc used Counter against Ash’s Lycanroc that was charging towards it, but then our big brained hero fights back with their own Counter attack.

Never have I heard of countering a Counter in the Pokémon universe, but using it in this one moment nobody expected, was a perfect opportunity to swerve fans with Ash almost losing the match but ultimately gave the hypest and sickest counterattack ever that would knock out Gladion’s Lycanroc to the wall. And for the first time since the Orange League, Ash is a Champion. Only this time it is a way bigger deal! Mostly because this is a game-based series which has more meaning when it comes to the Pokémon League. He proved non-believers wrong thinking that the Kalos League was the closest he’ll ever get to victory, but I always knew he would win this one since this League started. If you look at my Twitter, I predicted it since last July and this is speaking from a person that DIDN’T believe he would have won at Kalos (I must be good at League predictions then lol). But even Ash himself couldn’t believe it. The moment his named was announced the victor and everyone cheering him, it took a moment for him to process it all until he realized he won the whole shabang. Old fans, new fans, and casual viewers a like were buzzing within 24 hours after this episode released in Japan that caught mainstream media attention. People who have never seen a Pokémon anime episode in their life (or a subbed episode for that matter) past the original series, wanted to see how this episode went down to see a childhood hero achieve a major trophy.

This is how big of a pop-culture icon Ash & Pikachu was among many generations of fans since the show’s launch internationally. To me personally, it was the reason why I’ve always watched this anime for years since 1998 as a kid and NEVER stopped watching (took a few breaks here and there growing up but still have been consistent and up to date! Never grew out of it whatsoever ...why would I even made this decade post?). I was waiting all that time for him to win the big one and he finally did it in 2019. The long journey was worth watching all those episodes (NEVER skipped a “filler”). I doubted at times, but deep down I know I always believed. I grew up with Ash and he feels like an imaginary brother. Seeing him hold that trophy felt like my childhood had closure. He became the FIRST EVER champion in the Alola anime-verse and no one can take that away from him. BUT, the journey isn’t over yet. Remember, his dream is to become Pokémon MASTER, NOT a CHAMPION which people often treat the two as the same. He probably still wants to go to more places, so he can get stronger and be friends with even more Pokémon. Finally, I’m glad that it was Gladion who was Ash’s opponent in order to get the title. The boys and the doggos shake hands in the end as sign of respect for one another. Unfortunately, Guzzlord had to ruin the closing ceremony afterparty…but our Alola Champion and his friends were able to take care of that properly :)

Honorable mentions from this year: Another marked an end of an era, but a start of a new one too! From overcoming his final Grand Trial and gathering his Z-Crystals, Ash was ready for the League. If you ask me, this was one of the best Pokémon Leagues ever because of how much importance each competitor played a role in that tournament, and the match-ups were good. It wasn’t just filler characters or last minute rivals. Alola had a lot of great characters! I couldn’t stress that enough. But besides the historic Alola League, we also saw the continuation of Brock & Misty’s trip to Alola, the class’ crash-course golf lessons with none other than Kahili! Ash catching a rare Meltan that appeared out of nowhere, Guzma’s debut that EVERYONE was excited about, Ash challenging Ryuki’s Kantonian Gym, Lana’s fully evolving Primarina (thanks to hooking a Kyogre mind you!), Mallow’s meal for Tapu Koko, and Matori’s unexpected visit to the Team Rocket base in Alola. Ash even time-traveled to the past and met Kukui when he was little. It would ultimately build up to the actual final full 6-on-6 battle between Ash faces Kukui (just like in the original Sun & Moon games), and it was a 5-STAR BATTLE in my book for this 5-PARTER battle. Seriously, they didn’t had to make an exhibition match that good but they did, and Ash WON that too! Ash’s Incineroar evolved and Pikachu finally defeats Tapu Koko in a battle. For the feels portion of this year, Mallow briefly reunited with her mom and getting a Shaymin to care for in the process. The whole side-arc with Lillie, Magearna and a missing Mohn had a huge impact on our young miss. She got a Z-Ring out of it, just like everyone else in the class with their respective focus. And, the final episode of Sun & Moon was probably the most emotional farewell episodes in the anime’s history similar (or even greater) than Brock & Misty’s goodbye in Johto for you nostalgia fans out there. Everyone in the Alola crew knew what to do post-League, but for Ash, he wanted to explore the Pokémon world more, which transitions to the new on-going series today. 2019 of the Pokémon anime will never be forgotten!

LET’S GO to the 2020s and beyond!

We already got a taste of what the new series brought us late 2019, from Pikachu’s pre-series background story to our newly appointed research fellows, Ash & Go. It is was Lugia brought these two together, and are now living under the same roof. And with Go having his newly caught Scorbunny by his side after that Gigantamax Snorlax incident, it shows us a little taste of the cool new adventures await them when traveling in the Galar region. It’s also refreshing to see updated animation within Kanto where they’re home base is at, and I absolutely cannot wait for them to go back to other past regions with this fresh new art style. With Go’s goal to catch every Pokémon there is for him to index, he’s bound to meet Mew again one day! He’s literally every Pokémon games’ protagonist and I’m glad we have a main character like him who actually focuses on catching them all. As for Ash, he’s still our Ash carving his own unique path on his continuing journey to become a Pokémon Master because it’s more than being the strongest trainer and more than just catching Pokémon.

Some people may not be invested in this series yet, but it’s okay as it is still new! Everyone has that “pacing is slow” excuse from EVERY anime series, or it may not just be your cup of tea. But, I’m sure it will definitely pick up the pace sooner or later especially with the upcoming episodes announced (as of this posting) getting a Koharu-focus episode and the debut of Galar Champion Leon facing off against another League Champion...the return of Lance! Now that’s hype...and that’s what I’m looking forward to in this series more returns and cameo appearances hopefully. They gotta make it special of course and not just some fan-service to please series-specific fans. Oh, and Ash competing in the Galar gym challenge too of course! In addition to that, we can look forward to the new movies in the 2020s! We already got a preview of the 23rd PokéAni film, Pokémon the Movie - Coco...so we Tarzan now?! and it looks like they’re still continuing the AU-verse Ash instead of using the canon series’ universe. I mean if The Power of Us was great, you gotta give this movie a watch too! This is what I love about the anime because it separates itself from their game counterparts. The anime is doing its own thing with their original stories to tell.

WOW! What a decade. I’ve put in a lot of time reminiscing my experience watching the anime this past decade on these 2-part posts, and I had a lot of fun. From being a high school student all the way to being a full-time working adult...time truly flies by quickly. If you’ve read everything I had to say (I’m sure there are a few typos I probably missed), then thank you for your time (and sorry for the dash spam lol)! Feel free share your own favorite PokéAni moment decade in the replies if you choose to do so. Also, check out the strawpolls I made for what you think the best Pokémon anime battle and movie is in the 2010s. Now, it’s time for us to GO to 2020 and the next decade of PokéAni to witness multiple generations of new Pokémon series to come (hopefully they’ll still be making them by the end of 2029...and your boy P J will still be watching as a 30+ year old adult, heh). Alrighty, let’s have some fun! ϞϞ(๑⚈ ․̫ ⚈๑)∩

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bestworstcase · 5 years ago

Text

on the whole i quite liked season three, and it has some of my favorite individual episodes in the entire series, but now that rta is finished and i’ve had some time to mull it over i think my final opinion is that s3 the weakest of the show’s three seasons, not because of the widely-disliked gothel twist and handling thereof or cassandra’s... polarizing villain arc, but because of a single structural problem that hamstrung the whole season. to wit:

rapunzel is not the protagonist.

the word is not synonymous with “hero,” though it is often incorrectly used that way. rather, the protagonist is the central character in a narrative; the person around whom the plot revolves and the one whose goals push the plot forward. for the first two seasons of the show, rapunzel is the protagonist. her goals, her choices, and her mistakes drive the plot.

but in the third season, the protagonist is cassandra.

(“but wait,” you may be thinking, “cassandra is the villain of season three.” yes. she is also the protagonist. both can be true.)

further discussion under the cut for reasons of length!

to illustrate this point, i slapped the plot of season three down on my preferred variation of freytag’s pyramid [link instead of inline because it’s big and tumblr will render it illegible]. blue boxes are for the plot points, yellow boxes cover the broad strokes of what rapunzel is doing in corona.

here’s a transcript of the blue boxes:

Exposition: Cassandra reveals what happened to her behind the door and sings Crossing the Line, expressing her resentment and dissatisfaction with her position as Rapunzel’s servant and declaring her intention to leave to fulfill her own destiny.

Inciting Incident: Cassandra steals the moonstone and abandons Team Corona.

Rising Action: Zhan Tiri approaches Cassandra with the promise that she can help Cass master the power of the moonstone, working to slowly gain Cassandra’s trust while fueling the rage and hurt Cass feels over her life as a servant in Corona and the abandonment by her mother in favor of Rapunzel. After Rapunzel appears to effortlessly neutralize Cassandra’s first breakthrough in controlling the rocks during Be Very Afraid, Cassandra wholeheartedly accepts Zhan Tiri’s friendship and assessment of the situation and the two of them travel back to Corona to take the fight to Rapunzel.

Crisis: Cassandra attacks Rapunzel, but suffers a crushing defeat when Rapunzel unlocks the full power of the Sundrop. She barely survives, and the battle frees Zhan Tiri from her prison. Cassandra seeks to strengthen her position for the coming war by drawing powerful allies to her side using the Mind Trap.

Complication: After discovering Zhan Tiri’s true identity, Cassandra suffers a crisis of conscience and attempts to make amends with Rapunzel. But after being shot while attempting to surrender, she embraces her role as the “bad guy” and angrily takes over Corona. Now completely alone, she plots to steal the sundrop from Rapunzel during the eclipse and imprisons Zhan Tiri to stop her from interfering.

Climax: During the eclipse, Cassandra battles Rapunzel to a standstill and prepares to steal the sundrop for herself. However, Zhan Tiri attacks her before she can take the sundrop and claims both it and the moonstone for herself, leaving Rapunzel and Cassandra both powerless and trapped while she goes to destroy Corona.

Falling Action: Now devastated and completely broken, Cassandra apologizes to Rapunzel for all her wrongs and is inspired to do better when Rapunzel shows how deeply she values Cass—not simply as a useful servant, but as a person. Cassandra willingly hands over the last fragment of the moonstone so that Rapunzel can use it to free them from Zhan Tiri’s cage, and the two of them work together to take Zhan Tiri down.

Denouement: With Zhan Tiri destroyed and her conflict with Rapunzel resolved, Cassandra leaves Corona to pursue her own adventures.

and here’s a transcript of the yellow boxes:

Inciting Incident: Rapunzel and the rest of Team Corona return to Corona and boot out the Separatists.

Rising Action: Team Corona works on rebuilding and cleaning up Corona. Rapunzel grieves for her broken friendship with Cass. The fear rocks are the only plot relevant incident; the rest is all episodic character-building fluff.

Crisis: Rapunzel throws Eugene a surprise birthday party and plans to propose, but Cassandra’s attack interrupts before she has the chance.

Complication: Team Corona waits for Cassandra to attack while making some token preparations like the Rooster, which ultimately proves pointless, and Project Obsidian.

Climax/Falling Action: Team Corona tries to take the kingdom back. Rapunzel tries one last time to get through to Cass, and this time, it works.

Denouement: Rapunzel settles happily into her role as a princess / future queen.

in short, the plot of season three is put into motion when cassandra steals the moonstone, and it is driven forward by her desperation for a destiny of her own, a life outside of rapunzel’s shadow, and a reprieve from the lifelong pain of abandonment. all the conflict is generated when zhan tiri manipulatively hijacks cassandra’s pursuit of her goals in order to further her own ends instead. cassandra is our protagonist, zhan tiri is her antagonist, and rapunzel is narratively inconsequential. rapunzel spends the entirety of season three either doing side quests or treading water in the waves cass creates.

rapunzel’s story, the story of which she is the protagonist, doesn’t resume until cassandra surrenders the shard of the moonstone to rapunzel and allows her to unite the drops and fulfill her destiny at last.

this is a fascinating narrative choice and on one level i think it was the correct one. cassandra takes the moonstone because she is tired of being forever cast aside and overlooked; she wants importance, she wants personal agency, and she wants her choices to matter. in effect, cassandra wants to be the protagonist. and that is exactly what she gets; making her the protagonist of the story of season three is in and of itself a neat, effective storytelling choice.

what makes this a weakness is that cassandra is offscreen for a lot of s3.

she has her big reveal and her song in rapunzel’s return, a handful of stingers leading up to be very afraid, a plot important role as the villain of be very afraid, a flashback and another stinger in islands apart, and strong appearances in cassandra’s revenge, race to the spire, tale of two sisters, once a handmaiden, and plus est en vous.

and that is not an insignificant amount of screen time, especially in the latter half of the season! but the thing is, the protagonist of a story... carries the story with them. some plot points will certainly happen without their presence or awareness, due to the actions of the antagonist or of the supporting cast, but the meat of the plot is always going to be wherever the protagonist is. so when a protagonist is offscreen, the plot is offscreen too.

and this is exactly what happened with season three! the narrative maintains its focus on rapunzel, and the story is told largely through her perspective. it dwells at great (and often confusing and contradictory) length on rapunzel’s feelings about what cass is doing, and meanders from one character-building side-quest to the next. the stakes never get very high—unless cassandra is there. rapunzel never does anything particularly important to the plot—unless she’s interacting with cassandra.

return of the king, big bad wolf, lost treasure, no time like the past, beginnings, king and queen of hearts, day of the animals, pascal’s dragon, flynnposter—none of these episodes have any bearing whatsoever on the overarching plot of the season. and what do they all have in common? they’re disconnected from what cassandra is doing. they are the there’s something about hookfoots of season three.

[which is not to say that they are Bad Episodes. the character writing in all of these episodes ranges from good to impeccable, and unlike tsah most of them are important to the overall plot of the show as a whole in the sense that they further the character development of rapunzel and eugene.]

thus, the plot is taking place offscreen, and we are left watching a supporting cast whose actions have only a small relevance to the plot. the stakes in corona feel bizarrely low throughout much of the season, and the reactions by team corona when the stakes finally escalate feels disjointed and lackadaisical. compare the crisis response in secret of the sundrop to the crisis responses in cassandra’s revenge, or race to the spire, or even plus est en vous and you’ll see what i mean.

and that, at the heart of it, is the problem with s3: it’s the story of a slow-burn power struggle between cassandra and zhan tiri, told almost exclusively through the eyes of a supporting cast that spends the first half of the story clueless and the second half scrambling to avoid the shrapnel and mitigate the damage of the aftershocks. opportunities to more clearly tie team corona’s actions to the plot (e.g., by framing the story as a mystery wherein cassandra’s plan is the Mystery and rapunzel is the Detective) existed but were not taken, and the end result is that season three lacks cohesion and narrative tension is largely nonexistent.

#rta #tts #rapunzel's tangled adventure #not tagging this as negativity bc #while it is discussing weaknesses of the text #its still just regular analysis.

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