#their dynamic is funny and the most surprising cameos happen

[reineyday]

okay wait wait mishanks travel youtubers and their channel name is redhawk travel and it's a channel they started bc they retired early and they're kind of in their post-job era and can finally spend time with each other instead of working their respective jobs--basically whatever the modern equivalent is of luffy finding the one piece.

[lmelodie]

The Santa Clauses Season 2

It's here! And I have access to it, and all of my drably splintery thoughts on the first two episodes.

As an FYI, all my reviews are gonna be hella spoilery so I'll be doing all the reviewing under read mores and under the tags #TSCS spoilers and #Review2

Oh boy unsolicited thoughts HERE WE GO!

Episode 1:

I gotta say, Fluffy is not a bad character in this so far. Christmas Churros are a gold mine and I'm surprised no one has tried to capitalize on that yet.

Scott immediately assuming that Carol was going to kill Gary says a lot about the both of them and their dynamic that I wish was consistent. I love the idea that Carol is down for murder, keep that in cowards!

I have zero idea why Scott is so uptight about Riley keeping this secret when you literally gave EVERYONE IN THE WORLD MAGIC SNOW GLOBES. Nobody here is doing a good job of keeping any of this secret! No one!

And not the North Pole having a Gaslighting Department. Thats, just actually so funny to me. And you bet your sweet ass that Jack frequents that department, he might be employed there!

And once again to reiterate, these songs breaks are just NOT it. As someone who usually love musicals! The songs are mid at most and are just shoehorned into the most random places. Idk, still not vibing.

But Betty and Noel? STILL TOP TIER. I'll talk about them more in a bit, but they are literally perfect. The Blueprint. Betty and Noel get no notes from me. They made cardboard cutouts of each other's faces, like come on! They're cute as SHIT.

Mad Santa lore? Its aight. I appreciate the franchise trying to carve out its own lore after more than 15 years of inactivity. Its decent lore! For the world that it exists in at least. It's just not my personal cup of tea, and I don't see myself utilizing it in my own stories. But I appreciate that it is there.

And you cannot tell me that Jack hasn't tried to team up with Mad Santa before. It just seems like something he would do to, noticing that there was a Santa getting a bad rep and he could feasibly swoop in and break down the institution.

I wanna imagine he went up to him like, so I've heard you've been trying to subjugate a people. Here's my resume, I am all for murder, I do work well with gnomes, consider me. And then he got promptly ghosted.

Episode 2:

Bro the training vest is made out of St. Nicks robe?? What ISNT made out of that robe??? Isn't that like...an important artifact? I would assume it would be if it has that much Christmas magic in it. Why do we keep cutting it up and using it to make things? Is there any of it left?? Does it regenerate its own fabric??? None of these questions will ever be provided answers, I'm sure.

YO ITS MY BOY CUPID!!! LET'S GOOOOOOOO!!!!

Fucking LOVE Cupid! He's just as great as I remember! And because he had so little screen time, he didn't get too butchered!

And I like how he lists only specific Legends that are concerned with the succession. Implying in universe that Father Time and Tooth either think Cal is a good choice, or simply don't give a shit. And i love that for them.

But Cupid does list Sandy, EB and Mother Nature as people who do care. And we already know that were gonna get confirmed Sandy and EB cameos later, so I'm gonna CROSS MY FINGERS SO HARD for a possible Mother Nature cameo at some point. I just want her to lay down the LAW that's all I ask!

Let's how about, leave the puberty topic, out of this series entirely? Wish that whole miscommunication. DIDNT happen.

But we do have WITCH SANDRA!! This was the only possible choice for her, go off queen! Lucy and Sandra with the clasping hands meme: Teenage Girl with Magic Witch Powers. This was the best possible turn for her character, love that for you babe!

As I suspected, Befana in these episodes is a peach yet again. Fucking love Befana, no notes for her either, she's always great.

BUT LET'S TALK ABOUT NOEL AND BETTY!? and how they gave them the most romantic, whirlwind love story of the century? How they met was so FUCKING CUTE! Romeo and Juliet can pack it up! Because THEY are just better!

Betty really took one look at Noel and went, Tee hee, giggle, twirls hair, kicks feet. And I love that for her!

[nimata-beroya]

MY THOUGHTS ON THE MANDALORIAN - Chapter 21 "The Pirate"

I come with this review super late, oops! I was going to post it on the weekend, but rl got in the way. Anyhow, I love this episode so freaking much!! It might've jumped to one of my faves this season. It continued giving me more of Mandalorian culture, the dynamic within the cover, Mandalorian kicking asses like the badasses they are, and of course, ZEB!!! Woohoo!! \o/

To be honest, this episode was the only thing that has kept me since last Wednesday from spiraling to a bottomless pit and drown in my own tears because of TBB season finale. This episode was the exactly what I needed to lift my spirits.

Let's dive in…

Ok! Nevarro, pirates; this is the one where Mandos come to Nevarro to kick some asses. Good!

Damn! Pity that the pirates are destroying the city now that it was all so nice and at peace.

Where is this? A Republic pilot bar, ok, but where?

Wait! is that Dave and Deborah and Rick? Mandatory cameo per season!

Oh! Captain Teva! Greef Karga sent the message to him, I thought he'd sent it to Din, but ok. This works too, I guess.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! ZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEBBB!!! OMG OMG OMG OMG!!! THAT'S ZEB!! ZEB ZEB ZEB ZEB ZEB!!!

(Note from now that I've calmed down and watched the episode like 15 times already: I never imagine that they'd introduce live-action Zeb in the Mandalorian, and I cannot believe how GREAT he looks!! Oh my gosh! I always thought that he might be the character that wasn't going to look too well in live action, and I'm over the moon that I was so wrong! I love all the details, his new uniform, all his facial expression!! Not only that, but I'm ecstatic about his cameo. The scene didn't last long, but it was enough to cut off some of my funk because of TBB season finale. This cameo definitely pushed my hype for the Ahsoka show to the sky.

But also, it left very important questions unanswered: WHERE THE HELL IS KALLUS? and why he wasn't there next to his husband?)

Coruscant, hmm! I need to say that I'm not surprised by the lack of interest of the new republic for things happening in the outer rim. But I'm glad that Teva is picked up the bad vibes from that imp chick. At least we can count on him to be more aware than most.

Isn't that the planet where the covert is?

It is!! How Teva found them? And I don't think Mandos will be happy about that! See, I told you!

Wait, what? who? Oh!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 R5D4! Of course, I forgot!

Actually Teva, it IS his fight, it's just he doesn't know it yet.

Ooh! Mando council! Nice! (See, this is the kind of things I wanna see. I know there's plenty of people criticizing this and that about the season, but so far It has been giving me the look into Mandalorian culture I wanted to see, especially from the covert. I know they're setting things up for what's left of this season and next one, too.)

It's funny that they use the armorer's hammer as a talking stick, but I guess it makes sense. I mean, Mandos are prone to pick up fight for the littlest things so it seems a good way to put order to this council meetings, and not having everyone screaming at each other.

OOOOH! To me, Din hasn't looked more as the Mand'alor than right here, giving his speech. A leader that doesn't think in battles but about the future of his people, a future when they don't need to hide. (it's subtle things like this that show me, even if sometimes it goes over other people's head, Din's character growth this season. It might not be in your face as it was in seasons past, but it's there, and it's beautiful to witness)

Oh Paz! Don't fuck this up for Din, baby. You're better than that.

YES!!! This is the way!!! Good job, Paz! Let's kick some pirate asses!!

There he is! But why he brought Grogu with him (i mean I know why) but seems stupid bringing your kid to a battle when you could leave him perfectly safe back home. Altho, this might be the best, considering that foundlings and midagers are the ones left behind in the covert and I doubt any of them could control Grogu. Din said, nope, I'm taking my kid with me where I can keep an eye on him. Otherwise, we might find chaos when we return)

Mando dropping off the gauntlet! Nice! Watching Mandos being badasses is so freaking cool!! Oh! The armorer kicking ass too! YESSSSSS!!!! Omg! She threw her hammer!

This whole sequence was amazing!! I want more!!!! When can I get more?

Nice speech, Karga.

(And I can't wait to see Mandalorians walking around the city next episode during daylight. It's something that's been changing over the seasons. In season one, everything was in the shadows and pretty dark (both literally and figuratively), with a few exceptions. Season 2 started about the same, but I feel Din spent just a bit more time in less dark places. Season 3 has been pretty much in light most of the time. With the exceptions of the mines of Mandalore and the council meeting in this episode (and Coruscant) has been under the sun. The shift of Mandalorians coming out of hiding has also been represented visually with light.)

Oooh! The Armorer want to talk to Bo? Why?

Wait, What?!! remove her helmet?!! What is this?

OH! The armorer is realizing good things. That there are different ways to be mandalorians and that they need to band together despite the differences because in the end all ARE mandalorians. Nice!

Hmm, so she's sending Bo to fetch more Mandalorians. I think I understand why she's sending Bo and not Din, since he also walked both worlds, as she put it, but it makes sense tome that it's Bo instead.

LOL! All mandos are like wait what?! watching Bo walking by. And Bo is not exactly comfortable about it. Not that I blame her. And Paz is the one who likes it least!

I know it seems that everyone is joking that the moment the Armorer says that Bo will reunite Mandalorians and bring them, Din is like "I'm a joke to you?!" But i think he's not! He's more like "Thank the Manda! If she's the one bringing all tribes together, then she can take the laser sword from me and I'm free of the responsibility!" That's what he's thinking, and that's why he nods to Paz so Paz is ok with Bo taking her helmet off. Joke is on him because I don't think she will challenge him for the darksaber. I think the show is heading toward like both being leaders,, each representing different aspects of what's to be a mandalorian. A joined tenure in being Mand'alors.. Mand'alore

Besides, there's an aspect of the lore about the Darksaber that hasn't been mentioned in season 3 yet, but the Armorer DID mention it in TBoBF, which is the bit of "One warrior will defeat 20 and the multitude will fall before it", which is unclear if it is 20 challenges for the darksaber, if winning a fight with 20-to-1 odds against, or if it's the total of defeats they've had in since claiming the darksaber or whatever. What's worse, it could be applied to both Din and Bo, but it could be the thing that push the scale to either side to decide who will be Mand'alor if they go with just one leader at the head of all Mandalorians.

I knew I knew it I knew it!! I knew since that reformed imp mentioned it in Chapter 19 that the rumor of Moff Gideon escaping was true (and it crosses one of my Mando season 3 bingo's square). The question now is who broke him out and why? Because there are several possibilities here.

One, that it was Gideon's people, using Death troopers. Which could explained the Beskar alloy embedded in the wall. I have the impression that the armor of those troopers could be of a low quality beskar (hence beskar alloy) that was forged without the living waters and that's why it's not impervious to lightsaber (as we saw in the season 2 finale when Luke cut through them like butter with a hot knife) but it's much better than any armor of other metal alloy.

Two, that it was actually a group of Mandalorians, not Din's covert tho, perhaps Koska Reeves and company, or another group. But this isn't likely because, they'd have killed him on sight. Taking him prisoner makes no much sense if it's just about revenge. But I won't rule it out yet.

I heard comments about people thinking that could've been Ahsoka and Sabine, and that can't be right because they wouldn't have killed new republic officers. So, no, it wasn't them.

It could've been Imperial supercomandos, under whose orders? Gideon's or Thrawn's? I don't know but this makes sense. It's very possible that it was under Thrawn's orders, especially since I heard a rumor (I think it was the very Giancarlo Esposito who said it, but take it with a grain of salt) that Gideon and Thrawn are obviously the antagonists to Din and co., but that they're not on the exact same page, that there's some friction between them. So I'm thinking Thrawn extracted him, either to remove a hindrance to his plans or so GIdeon didn't talk about the plans. Thrawn might want him on a short leash at the moment.

And there's also the possibility that the piece of beskar has the only objective to incriminate the Mandalorians and who extracted Gideon is everything but Mandalorian.

I'm curious to see where this is going. Thankfully, Wednesday is around the corner!

[cloverinblue]

2021 Year in Review but Ajin 

--Since it's what I pretty much focused on this year.

This is probably because it ended in Feb 2021 and that made me want to revisit and wander with these characters that I first fell in love with back in 2016.

For this year, I will go into detail about the different pieces here. Extremely tldr!!

January: In this comic Naomi is on friendlier terms with Tanaka and he visits her and is happy to tell her he can finally die and she cries because she cares for him.

In the beginning of the year Naomi cameoed in a chapter so I became pretty invested in Naomi and Tanaka again. However, I guess I see their relationship as a painful one because there's a huge push and pull of power between them. Like, I don't think I can ever forget how she just braced herself for death the 2nd time she encounters Tanaka. She must have felt so much inner pain and guilt. Her falling in love with Tanaka would just mess with her mental state for real. I don't think she'd be very comfortable with those feelings and I feel like Tanaka would be utterly bewildered and feel sorry for her. Because of this, they became pretty difficult for me to write in a way that wasn't dark.

The rest of the months are below

February: In this short comic, Tanaka and Izumi see a movie together and Izumi thought it was great and Tanaka thought it was pretty meh

Created after the end of the last chapter of Ajin, I was so shocked that Izumi and Tanaka ended up living together. TBH, being real, I think Sakurai was making a suggestion of them ending up together. I could talk about why I think that but that should probably be its own post. Also, in the end, Sakurai deliberately left it ambiguous anyway, so I decided to explore that. I love both characters and I think they have a lot of potential to be pretty funny people to be around.

March: In this comic, Tanaka and Izumi walk home from a visit to the conbini and act like kids around each other

At this time, I was having a lot of fun imagining how Tanaka and Izumi would be as roommates and my imagination was demanding for this to exist because I wanted other people to see it too. I think the origin of this kind of thinking for their dynamic came from the scene after the car they were both in went flying (after Satou's explosion) and they woke up. Izumi is pounding Tanaka's chest to wake him up and he does and he gets irritated about it lol - in fact they both get irritated with each other for multiple moments. It was good to see Tanaka get a little feisty again after being so sad so long... :'( Also, it was surprising to see cool, calm, collected Izumi get snappy with someone lol.

For this comic I was trying out a new way of creating comics by starting with a script. I would write out dialogue and simple sentences describing what's happening. In this case, for this comic, it was pretty successful and it made it easier to get to thumbnailing. I would like to say I've adopted this as a part of my process but not really... Sometimes I have an idea that's really visual and I'm not great at being descriptive with writing so it can be difficult to work with sometimes.

April: One of my favorite pieces this year for sure; a family-like picture of Satou's squad.

I drew this because I seriously missed them!! For so long the manga shifted to Kei trying to defeat Satou, that anyone reading the manga didn't get to spend a lot of time with these guys since they were long broken up and newer readers weren't waiting from week to week with them together. Satou squad was probably like a blip since the manga is pretty fast-paced, but man, I seriously loved them... I love how Takagen were always joking around together and getting on Tanaka's nerves. I love how Okuyama was the most competent and valuable member of the team -- and that he gave serious hints on how self-aware he was of everything. TBH I think he was the only member of the team that could see that Tanaka's loyalty was fraying. I also love how Tanaka is really trying to hard to get better at his shooting and is in serious denial over his real feelings over everything. I also loved that Satou was shaking his head at the guys leaving a mess in the fridge lol. I love how they're literally just a bunch of guys that Satou picked off the street. I love how they're not really your typical bishonen. I love how they're misfits and don't seem to fit in society. I love Satou Squad so much but like many great things, they came to an end! Satou squad forever in my heart...

May: In this comic we go back in time when Naomi and Tanaka first knew each other.

I've always wanted to spend time on a comic from this time period and dwell on the horror of it. Like, Tanaka's a person and the people around Naomi seem to turn that off but I don't think she can but she's going through the motions to do that anyway. Thinking from Tanaka's POV, a person speaks back to him finally and then, like everyone else, they continue on like nothing happened - that's got to hurt. Tosaki's comment that he thought it was odd that a secretary like her was targeted, in retrospect, was probably more about Keiichi Kai's weird practice of having his secretary involved with human experiments then it was about her standing out as someone Tanaka particularly hated. Nevertheless, this comic was a nod to that comment.

June: This comic is a prequel to a comic I made in January where Tanaka came to stay with Naomi. They meet again at time between the defeat of Satou and the last chapter.

This comic was planned parallel to the May comic. I think I wanted to juxtapose Naomi and Tanaka then and 'now' and confront the weirdness of Naomi inviting Tanaka to stay with her a bit and Tanaka being like, you know what okay. Like how could that happen?? I think Naomi is bewildered by how everything turned out and is trying to reconcile in a rare moment of alone time. Tanaka is wandering a wanted man and is, for the first time in a long time, alone with his thoughts which is probably not very fun... I think him approaching Naomi is kinda weird and comes from him wanting to revisit the decisions he made at Forge - a landmark in shaping his identity. Naomi is surprised to see Tanaka and tries to resist that feeling and overcorrects by inviting him to stay. lol, this is what I wanted to convey. I think Tanaka is so handsome in this comic!

July: This drawing is from a set I drew for Ajin week. This is a revisit to the early 2000s Ajin high school AU I created a while back. Satou and Tanaka are in a video store renting Die Hard. Naomi is a cameo as a bored employee.

You would not believe how tough it was to find a good picture of old Blockbuster fixtures I could put in the background. I even tried googling what kind of movies would be in the action section so I could add more variety to the DVDs behind Satou and Tanaka. I love this Tanaka so much. He's cute and grumpy. Satou's young here because I wanted to see young Satou and Tanaka interact. Also I think Tanaka would have a little crush on him but not really realize it until later in his life.

August: In this comic Tanaka and Okuyama have an interaction after meeting up again. Tanaka is working at a ramen shop and Okuyama's working at an office.

This comic comes after an Ajin week comic I made where they meet up again and I fell in love with the idea and it kinda snowballed from there lol. This comic came from one of those initial script drafts I wrote about times Tanaka called Okuyama smart. It was going to get progressively more romantic but then I had to take a break because I was contributing to a zine at the time. By the time I came back, my ideas went a different direction.

I never imagined I would spend so much time with these two but idk I love the idea of a 2nd impression after a long time of not seeing each other and I can't help but think of the different ways they'd connect (shared experience, loneliness, familiarity, identity, etc). I think manga Okuyama is pretty emotionally mature and self-aware but he restrains himself a lot - maybe because it's less painful to be that way. Meanwhile Tanaka wears his heart on his sleeve and is a person going through sooooo much change after what's happened to him. Actually, that's something I love about him - that he's kinda going through a coming of age so late in life.

Anyway, I could go on but I'll save it for another time.

September: This comes from an illustration where I drew Tanaka in different clothes.

It's kind of like a study I guess since I was exploring what he might look in some nice clothes. Part of it was to prepare for a future comic and another part of it was to get used to drawing him with short hair.

Japanese day-to-day dress is different from in the US so I had to google in Japanese to the best of my ability and search for outfits that way. TBH I think in day to day outfits, he'd dress more sporty but he's definitely a guy who wants to present in a way that makes him look good. I feel like he's the kind of guy that uses clothing as an extension of his identity a lot more than most. If he's going on a date, he's gonna probably dress a little like he's in a drama lol. Also, maybe I'm self-indulging a bit lol

October: This comic is about Okuyama and Tanaka going on a group date and discovering they have a connection that's unique to them.

This could be the longest comic I've made at 10 pages.

I think Okuyama is a guy who tries hard to protect himself and I think he'd feel conflict about being friends with Tanaka since he's a connection to his shady past (a liability lol). Additionally, I think it's hard for him maintain connections in general as evidenced by him confessing that there's not really anybody he really cares about towards the end of his appearance in the manga. I think he probably would have no issue saying hi and bye to Tanaka. This comic is about making that harder for him lol. He's re-integrated into society - as they would say - in an effort to blend in and not really stand out but I don't think he really loves that very much so maybe it's kind of exciting to see Tanaka again.

I think Tanaka would be drawn to him to as a person who he shares a lot of experiences with and possibly as another person he can be open with (I think Izumi would be the other person). But, I think he would leave Okuyama alone if he seemed to want that.

So, this comic is partly about dealing with the tenuous aspect of their relationship.

I think my favorite part is where Okuyama talks about himself.

November: This comes from a panel in a comic where Okuyama and Tanaka have a conversation and settle some matters.

Eventually, I think they would need to settle matters between them and what better time then while making some late night eats. I feel Okuyama knows that the only person who could have given info about the hideout would be Tanaka but I think he'd realize that it was out of desire to stop Satou which is something he also enables for Kei's team. So, they both wanted to stop Satou, but still lol - Okuyama had to think fast about how to make his escape.

With Tanaka, on the other hand, it's more ambiguous. Rereading, I think Okuyama was possibly aware of what Satou was planning to do since he had a part to play in it; perhaps he also knew that Satou would use Tanaka as a decoy. In this comic he's acknowledging that he's not exactly innocent here either.

This comic is done in a style that's super fast for me to draw to completion. Thinking hard about arranging panels in a set dimension is more difficult then amorphous blobs I can move around. The danger is it becoming difficult to read though.

December: This an illustration from my Ajin SS Tanaka x Okuyama gift

Its so nice to indulge and draw them being close and intimate with each other without thinking too much about the context which is what I do a lot these days. One of my favorite things to show visually is contrast and it's a reason why I drew that first image of the two of them as they were in canon. I also drew it because I worry my hand is a little strong drawing them as their future selves that they might not be recognizable lol.

I had wanted to do a comic but I was running out of time so I thought I might as well illustrate since I do miss it a lot.  It became one of those story-telling sets of illustrations I like so much. I wanted to sort of echo a set of lovey-dovey drawings I did for Monster's Grimmer/Tenma. A while back someone told me that set of drawings really affected them positively and it was very touching to read - I thought to myself, it's a shame I don't draw like that anymore so I wanted to try it again.

I think I refrain from drawing like that because I worry about it not being convincing - not just to the audience but to myself too. All this comics stuff is probably a roundabout way of convincing myself into believing what I'm drawing.

Anyway, for some reason, it's easy with Okuyama & Tanaka - probably bc I think about it a lot.

And that’s it! This year, I integrated ipad use into my workflow. In fact, I almost exclusively draw with it. It’s easier on my posture and I love the flexibility it provides. I’m fully drawing with Clip Studio now after years with Paint Tool Sai. The comics features in Clip Studio really do a lot to make making comics easier to do. I’m still refining my work process but I can say I’ve grown a lot!

[ultrahpfan5blog]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Season 5 Retrospective

Finished season 5 rewatch a few days ago. Season 5 was an eventful year for the show, on and off the screen. Off screen the show got cancelled on Fox, had a huge public outcry over the cancellation which included several celebrities, and then got picked up by NBC all in 48 hours. It was an exhilarating time as a B99 fan. Lot of stuff happened on screen as well, Jake and Rosa were in prison, team got them out, Jake and Amy got engaged, Rosa came out as bisexual to the precinct and her parents, Holt was in the running to be NYPD Commissioner, Amy became a Sergeant, and then Jake and Amy got married. Eventful season to say the least. Its also my favorite season of the show.

Honestly, this season is about as close to perfection I felt with a season. In other seasons there are at least an episode or two which I felt were meh or problematic. Season 5 is near flawless. I think Return to Skyfire is the weakest of the episodes but its still pretty fun. There are several episodes of season 5 that all rank in the top 10 B99 episodes in my opinion. The show also takes some risks with a couple of experimental episodes. There are episodes with a lot of heart, there are episodes that absolutely hilarious, there are ensemble episodes, there are two hander episode. some excellent new guest stars, and many great recurring stars.

I think the two prison episodes are pretty interesting. Tim Meadows as Caleb is absolutely amazing. He is so likable and low key hilarious that the fact that he's a cannibal who eats children always feels like a dark surprise. He and Andy Samberg make for a fun duo. The first of the two episodes is particularly fun. The show doesn't hesitate to show the danger of Jake being in the prison, especially the situation he finds himself by the end of the premiere. The show does connect one story to the next pretty seamlessly with the end of the Melanie Hawkins story connecting the the Seamus Murphy story which then connected to the Holt commissioner story. There are also a couple of really good experiments in experiments and story with The Box and Show Me Going. The Box is B99 at its most confident. Apart from Gina very briefly at the beginning and Boyle very briefly at the end, the entire episode really hinges on only three characters. Jake, Holt, and Sterling K. Brown's Dr. Davidson. Its a brilliant showcase for all three actors and all three characters. I believe Brown got a Guest Actor Emmy nomination for his performance and he's brilliant as the smarmy Dentist who really is in control for majority of the episode. Braugher and Samberg were old pros with their dynamic at this point and this is fantastic Jake and Holt episode because you completely get why Jake wants so badly to prove that he's right in front of Holt why being cast as the screw up and the idiot in the interrogation frustrates him so much because we know how much Holt's approval means to him. We also see why Terry call Jake his best detective back in season 1 because of how he riles up Davidson to get the confession at the end and getting the approval of Holt that he wanted. Its an incredibly satisfying episode and one of the show's best imo. Then there is also 'Show me Going' which is a surprisingly tense episode in which nothing tense actually happens on screen. The episode does a great job working with the fact that the only knowledge the squad has is that Rosa is on the scene of an active shooter situation. Basically we are in the same situation as the characters. Since all the characters are on edge, so are we. The show does a nice job balancing humor and recognize the danger of the situation.

The season has probably my favorite B99 episode and definitely by fav B99 Halloween episode with HalloVeen. Whereas the last three Halloween episodes were predictable or spoiled from the promos, this one actually threw a genuine surprise. I knew Jake and Amy would get engaged some point in the season, but I expected it to be on the much hyped 99th episode. Instead it can much earlier with HallowVeen and its a delight from start to finish. Its great to rewatch the episode because you pick up little signs that Jake was a bit more desperate to win than usual. First when he says that planning for the heist is what got him through prison time, and then when he says to Boyle that he has to win this time and this heist is way too important. On first watch, these details just slip by as regular overzealous Jake but they have additional poignancy on repeat. The actual proposal moment is handled beautifully in a very peraltiago way where it is both funny and romantic, with Charles' reaction being the cherry on top. There are quite a few strong related episodes that follow. The Venue being a fun return with the Vulture, Two Turkeys being a TWW reunion with Smits and Whitford returning as Amy and Jake's fathers. Its a better Thanksgiving episode than the previous season Smits appearance. Bachelor/ette party is another glorious episode with wild, fun shenanigans with Reginald VelJohnson appearing as himself. Jake & Amy is a very typical wedding episode where everything goes wrong but its perfect in all the right ways. Its heartwarming and sweet. You get more examples of how Jake and Amy are perfect for each other with Jake knowing the inside and outs of how Amy stresses out, and then ending on a wonderful B99 wedding with Fred Armisen returning to make a cameo appearance as Mlep(clay)nos. The episode was designed to work as a series finale since the potential for cancellation was there and while it leaves the season on a cliffhanger about Holt's job, its the sort of cliffhanger that we could have interpreted positively if the show hadn't gotten picked up by NBC.

The 99th and 100th episode of the show were also memorable. The creators chose to acknowledge the 99th episode in a way that most shows acknowledge the 100th episode, in true 99 style. Its a full ensemble episode barring the absence of Chelsea who would return on the 100th episode. Its a typical road trip episode which kickstarts the Holt commissioner storyline. It also is the episode where Rosa comes out as Bi to Charles. This was obviously a big story for Stephanie since she is bi as well and she championed this story. It gets explored in further depth next episode, but Stephanie Beatriz gets to do some of her best work in these two episodes, showing her vulnerability without losing her toughness. Game Night honestly feels very true to not just coming out as Bi to your parents but true to any child who has to confess something that would be against their conservatives parents' values. I think Game Night is a fantastically bittersweet episode and Danny Trejo is brilliantly cast as Rosa's father. The episode positions him as the parent whose reaction Rosa is most worried about and I love how they show that while its difficult for him to grasp the concept bisexuality, he comes around to accepting it and accepting Rosa. But the episode is still bittersweet with Rosa's mom not having come to terms with it. Its also an excellent Rosa and Jake episode where we see Jake endure incredibly uncomfortable situations to help Rosa. Its a characteristic that helps make Jake so endearing that he's willing to cross all limits for his friends.

There are lots of fun and hilarious episodes in between. Craig Robinson shows up as Doug Judy in The Negotiations which is another fun ep. Kevin and Jake get a great episode dealing with their dynamic in Safe House. Rosa and Amy have some fun in White Whale as the Sleuth Sisters. Pimento returns in Gray Star Mutual for some more crazy shenanigans. Gray Star Mutual also has my favorite cold open of all time with Jake leading a suspect lineup in a rendition of 'I got it that way', totally forgetting the crime that he's got the lineup for. Its pitch perfect and I've lost count of how many times I've seen that cold open on youtube. It basically has its own fanbase and introduced so many people to B99. We also get to see Naseem Pedrad as Jake's sister Katie and the end up having a cute dynamic. David Fumero shows up in The Puzzle Master. There are also pretty funny episodes dealing with some serious subject matter such Jake dealing with his own doubts in his ability to do his job after Prison in Kicks and Holt dealing with gambling addiction in Bad Beat. All handled very sensitively.

All in all, this was a fantastic season for the show. I had a blast rewatching it and it ended the Fox era in spectacular note. A 9.5/10. Now on to season 6.

'

[glowstar826]

The Blacklist Rare Ships Week

DAY 5: “Come on closer...”

Let me begin by saying that this is a crossover pairing. I’d also like to say that I ship Reddington and Snape platonically. While I can see Sev getting together with a man, I can’t see that for Red. Besides, friendship is so underrated! It can be stronger than romance at times.

The similarities between Severus and Red are significant. Both of them are broken, damaged men who happen to be close in age (Severus is only a month older than Red, his birthday being January 9th, 1960). They both hide behind masks of confidence, whether it’s negative or positive. They both carry a lot of pain within themselves that they don’t dare share with others. They’re both immensely afraid of being vulnerable. Lastly — and most importantly — they’re both living in a state of purgatory.

They’re both morally gray.

Both of them have done utterly reprehensible things, and yet, they both have a deep sense of humanity. They’d certainly bond over their trauma if they ever met.

The difference between the two is that Red isn’t shy about telling people how he feels. Sev, on the other hand, uses Occlumency to prevent himself from feeling at all. There are moments when Severus’s rage is unleashed, but those are one-offs. That difference could balance out the dynamic quite nicely. Red would definitely be intrigued by the mystery of Severus, and using his abilities with charming small talk, he’d be able to draw a response from Sev.

These two would keep their distance, since I believe that Severus is sensitive to touch. He’s described as being twitchy, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he got a panic attack at the prospect of a hug. Red would have to learn that, though, since touch is literally his love language. But they’d be able to keep their friendship nonetheless, since neither of them are quitters.

A funny thing I’d like to think is that Red would be extremely drawn to Severus’s magic. He would definitely take Sev’s wand and examine it before asking Sev to perform some spells. Red would be absolutely enamored by the spell-casting. He’d be curious to learn about the Wizarding world and how witches and wizards operate.

Here’s an art piece I drew for my crossover fic on Sev and Red, Living in Purgatory. It’s the opening scene of the first chapter, where Red introduces himself in a similar way to how he introduced himself to Anne. If you’d like to read Living in Purgatory, you can find it on FFN and AO3.

FUN FACT: James Spader and Alan Rickman were actually in a film together. The film was Bob Roberts, a political comedy released in 1992. However, Spader and Rickman didn’t share any scenes since Spader’s appearance was a cameo as a news anchor.

[cat-26]

Okay so I basically wrote down all my impressions as I was watching Techno’s stream for MCC 9 (this is basically me commenting to the void)

My main takeaways were:

- Techno is so relaxed and calm!? This is great. Also he is getting back in contact with his friends, yes please. No need for pressure Techno.

- F1nn is awesome! (Also, the cosplay??)

- Techno has played too many Skywars game; even without knowing what is happening, he dominated Skybattle

- Techno might join them for Among Us tomorrow?!

- Apparently next MCC is different? (And Techno doesn’t know if he wants to sign up?)

Now, for all the void-screaming:

~Start of the stream~

F1nn5ter cosplayed as Techno!! I heard he would but this is awesome! 

Also poor Techno he can’t breathe Game 1: sky battles "Weeellllcooome guyys to another episode of Skywars!!" - YESSS Techno was so lost but thousands of skywars videos made him invincible Techno to F1nn: "Dress for the job you want, and you dressed as Technoblade!" Game 2: TGTTOSAWAF I actually like that Techno seems not to have so much pressure this time. Like, of course he wants to win but he seems more relaxed. I like the dynamic in this team. Techno has mentioned Tubbo multiple times. I really want to see them interact. (I would love a Tommy/Techno/Tubbo team next mcc, but it probably can’t happen) Decision dome: They get 4 crossbows to kill chickens? I thought it was 1/team, 4 is kinda too much? Game 3: parkour Pete is not doing well? Techno is on 8-1 and Pete just completed stage 6... I wonder what happened.I’ll see why in his VOD I guess. "Believe in the me that believes in myself" - Techno He was so happy to be tied for 1st in parkour hahaha Making fun of people for practicing: "they could have watched anime like me like a real winner" Game 4: HITW “What's battle box?" "It's PvP" "Now I really want to play hole in the wall" Tubbo won!!! GO TUBBO!!! The leafblower guy really knows Techno's schedule! (Please tell us Leafblower man, we would like to know) (Let's hope he's a good omen) TUBBO GOT TOP 5!!! Break time/audience takeover Tubbo is trending hahaha of course he is, he’s in Dream’s team

The whole discussion on the duel hahaha “How could we determine who is a better player? What if...” I definitely like this team dynamic

About his chat calling him bad: "My viewers know that I have the potential to be the best ... This is not a coping mechanism." TECHNO WON AUDIENCE TAKEOVER!!! HOW? The duel really was for who stayed on youtube Game 5: Battle Box "We might not win but it's fun" YES TECHNO PLEASE KEEP THIS MINDSET, HAVE FUN, NO PRESSURE!! The made it so you can't see the power ups hahaha Once again, Techno broke the game They destroyed the Blue Bats (poor fruit) Techno: “Good job Finn”  F1nn: “Someone clip that so I can hear it at night”

Techno is DESTROYING F1nn killed Dream!!! You go, Finn!! "Killing Dream is a lucrative business model" - Techno Techno dragging Scoot for stealing his team/friends. Tommy killed Techno hahaha he’ll never hear the end of it They lost to Green and Red! Did Red only win against them? I am amazed at Techno relaxed attitude. I really hope this stays the same.

Techno is truly too good at 1.16 PvP now Game 6: Ace Race He did so well. He is being suppotive :')

All of them making fun of F1nn pfff hahaha Game 7: Survival Games Calvin "you have me!" when Techno is stressed about doing SG Blue bats are GOOD they’re winning this Awww he went to spectate Phil specifically (before realizing he killed him hahaha) I love how people thought the Blue Bats were underdogs HAHAHAHA BUT 7000 POINTS? Game 8: Sands of Time Techno: How much sand do we have? Finn: A lot? Techno: How much!? I NEED A NUMBER Finn: 7, I have 7 Techno: Oh, ok, that's good"

Techno and his chat have a chaotic relationship Did Dream get the coal dispenser trap? The one Pete’s team got (~2 MCCs ago?)  I'm so mad at MrBeast about how he treats Techno... (I don't hate him, just his treatment of Techno) Dodgebolt: Techno is being so petty hahaha but honestly good for him, he’s had way too much hate and salt  "Last time I dropped out of the top 5 because Dream died in Sand of Times - to be fair he did really good in the rest of the tournament" - even when he is making fun of him he stays nice Dream fans: don't be mean to Techno! Dream is the 1st Techno fan, so hating him is dumb.  Long monologue vs Dream, go Techno! You deserve the love "For at the people that always cite MCC individual rankings: now they have to cite speedrunning!" I'm so surprised than Cyan didn't do better BLUE BATS!!!! What a comeback!!!! Also HBomb won 3 times now, right? He deserves it! He takes this championship so seriously, and he believed in his team from day 1 End of the stream: Okay I am so happy for Techno! He is so happy and relaxed and he deserves not having all the pressure in the world. Like, I know he wanted a good individual placement and that's pressure but that is nothing compared to usual. He seems way better now Techno joined Reeeed  He is so confused by George-simping hahaha I feel so bad for himm he can't talk to his friendsss

He left. Honestly, I would have done the same I really feel the jumping from call to call by Techno, that's me at parties He really wants to keep streaming, it seems like?

I hope we get a Techno-HBomb team one day. It would be great

Philzaaaa So many screenshootss hahahaha

DreamSMP CAMEO???!!!! YES PLEASE it would really funny Bannerlord got murdered by the the training arc "my wife, abandonned"... poor Sora and Dora Haha the screenshot bm to Clavin Among us YEAH "I feel like I've changed over the years (...) I just want to be a good guy that find the TRUTH" Philzaaa joined!!! Dream is so mad (Techno is so nice because he is really trying to not be too mean) "That reddit is going to rot your brain" - Philza, that is why I don't go there I love this chat with Philza. Yes I really want Techno playing Among Us! (And he wants to start playing tf2 with them again! Yes Techno be healthy and happy!) They are talking tf2, I understand nothing. But they are happy so good! Oh they didn't know he was still live hahaha typical Oh Tommy is here now, it'll be fun. Tommy: “I breathe good air” Techno: “That is one of your most admirable qualities” I can't, everything he says is gold "This is a hostile takeover of the Sleepy Bois" - Techno to Scott Tommy is part of the sleepy bois!! Hahaha but RIP vlog gun They are negotiating Philza hahaha (maybe a Phil-Techno team next time?) Tubbo is in the same call as Techno... good enough I guess?  Among us tomorrow?? Yes please Okay Tommy is really the little brother to Wilbur Techno is so uncomfortable with the Shubbles conversation, he just wants to beat up people with his knockback stick but no one is there

~this is the end of me screaming into the void!~

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised thoughts on Trails of Cold Steel IV:

WHY ARE THEY CALLED CLASS VII?

WHO ARE CLASS VI?

Anyway - I started playing Trails in August, and I’ve finally, finally caught up (yes I know Hajimari I can’t read Japanese) and like... what do I do now?

It’s a fantastic series and I’m so, so glad I picked up Trails in the Sky on a whim last summer

This game was long. Is it longer than the other ones? It felt that way

The best part was the first chapter because Rean wasn’t in it and yeah I still don’t like him!!! But seriously, it was astonishing how much more I was enjoying things without him

I audibly groaned when goddamn bonding points returned in the second chapter

Actually that was a lie, the best part was Any Time My Angel Estelle Was On Screen

I missed her so much

I let her get the final hit of the game against the boss because she’s the best

Speaking of angels I caught three Wazy cameos!!!

Also Gilbert came back and if there had been a camera on me... I quite literally teared up a little I was so thrilled

I hate the curse it is dumb and rips all the nuance out of the characters. People do not need a goddamn evil curse to be swayed to extremes by overzealous nationalism. Trails I know you are better than this, I played Sky and Crossbell

Fav new location was Milsante (liked Alster too, though). I really like going to tiny little outposts and villages in JRPGs, they make the world feel more real

What the hell was up with the Osgiliath Basin? As in, Giliath Osborne??? Is this going to be a Hajimari thing?

Oh yeah, HOT TAKE, Alan Richard >>> Giliath Osborne. I was reading an LP of Sky FC while playing the game, and Richard’s motivation is clearer and less over-complex, more sympathetic, and he’s just generally a far more human character

Alan Richard best political antagonist in the series fight me (Rufus Albarea distant second)

For best supernatural/cult-y antagonist I’m stuck between Weissmann and Joachim. Or maybe Campanella lol

Oh uh speaking of characters named Georg I will never not hate everything about the George and Angie subplot. Angie should have died and George should have stayed evil, or it shouldn’t have happened at all. As it is, it was a complete waste of time - you could take it all out and NOTHING would change

Angie would have been the perfect character to sacrifice as well, she’s just important enough that it would feel like ‘oh shit’s getting real’ but not so important that it’s unbelievable

(like Olivier. I could not fully believe they’d actually kill him, and the moment Laura told me ‘they never found the bodies’ I was like, oh, so they’re definitely all still alive, cool)

I mean, it would be a Bury Your Gays, but honestly... there are things I like about Angie, but is anyone really looking to her as a lesbian role model? I hope not. Yikes

So yeah I guess I hate George now for getting my hopes up and then being boring. Shame

I did the Towa romantic ending, of course. I genuinely think she’s the best match for Rean, of all his love interests

Chaaaracters

Rean: Still the least interesting person. Not a good sign when I’m sadder about the robot dying than the main protagonist yeeting himself into the sun (side note, the two endings thing? Unnecessary and dumb). There is no reason girls would like him this much, blah blah I’ve said it all before. Liked his new hair. Honestly would have respected it if they’d had the balls to kill him off. I basically never even used him in battle lol, Juna became my new team leader

Juna: Honourary protagonist imo. I’ve changed my mind since CS3, she’s my fav new Class VII without a doubt. She’s just really good and full of personality and depth and OH GOD WHY IS SHE CRUSHING ON REAN WHY FALCOM WHY

Kurt: pls falcom don’t try to force this aroace king into a nonsense ship with Sully I liked her but what are you doing, anyway Kurt is great and he got cool new swords and he got to hang out with Mueller, who I adore, I love Kurt

Altina: I also love this little bunny. Her relationship with Millium is so lovely and seeing her grow and become her own person made me so happy and OH GOD WHY IS SHE CRUSHING ON REAN WHY FALCOM I LITERALLY SAID SHE HAS THE BEST RELATIONSHIP WITH REAN OF ALL THE GIRLS BECAUSE SHE DOESN’T DO THAT IN THE LAST GAME WHY DO YOU HATE ME????

Musse: Yeah I’m still not sold on Musse but I liked her better this time! I like a smart, confident girl! Just stop being weird about your teacher and we’d be golden!

Ash: Good boy. Sweet boy. Ash and Joshua game now Falcom

Alisa: Still cannot believe she’s presented as the deuteragonist by the marketing - but you know what? Solid arc, she got some closure with her parents, maybe she and Jusis can get together for tea and complain about their messed up families. She’s never going to be a character I like all that much, but I don’t dislike her. I just wish she hadn’t clearly been written as ‘Rean’s love interest’ before anything else

Elliot: I love Elliot, I really do. I mean, I wish he hadn’t been flanderised to the point of speaking in music puns half the time, but he’s a solid, consistently pleasant character

Laura: Goddamnit Falcom please give Laura anything resembling an emotion regarding her dad dying. Also you tell me she’s kind of oblivious and stuff but we never see it. I like Laura but she really could have been more

Machias: I love Machias, fight me fan base. He’s so funny to me. It feels like, at this point, all he really wants is a nice office job, near a nice coffee shop, where he files papers and sometimes gets to yell at corrupt rich people, but NO, he has to run about in dungeons and fight monsters, and are you FUCKING kidding me, ANOTHER crazy snake cultist!?!? It’s great, he’s the only one who’s just done with it all and love it

I low key headcanon that he and Jusis are kinda dating at this point, but we don’t see anything because the games are from Rean’s POV and they don’t want to tell him because they know he’d be weird about it

Jusis: I still really like Jusis! He’s interesting, and his surrogate brother-sister relationship with Millium is so sweet (yes, I saw that bouquet catch, Falcom, and I hate it, stop it, gross). Awesome to see him confront his brother, obviously I let him have the final blow. Rufus was a great antagonist. Jusis has some of the best development over the games, and is also really fun to use in battle (apparently I am the only one who feels this way though :/ ah well)

Fie: I was surprised by how much I liked Fie’s confession scene, seeing as I don’t like Rean/Fie at ALL. Fie finally gets to have feelings about her dad, and we see her working with Zin at the end! Very happy for Fie, best girl

Emma: Ahhh I still find Emma kinda dull and exposition heavy, but she also had a nice arc, I liked her relationship with Rose, all good

Rose beat me at Vantage Masters for 40 minutes lol

Gaius: It’s still extremely funny to me that Gaius became one of the most important people on the continent *off screen*. And he still doesn’t really do anything. He has his own airship now, I guess. Justice for Gaius

Sara: Kind of faded from relevance after CS1, but I do really like her all the same. And I loved her speech at the end

Crow: At the end his hair got darker and everyone was like ‘you’re back to normal!’ and I literally did not realise he was meant to have been looking different

But anyway Crow is a really good character and I literally never didn’t enjoy him. I love the bit where Jusis and Machias team up to call him a cringy edgelord, because they are right. Crow is fantastic

Towa: Towa has never done anything wrong in her life and all of Erebonia should pay for her therapy

Patrick: I cannot believe how much I love Patrick now, compared to CS1. He’s just such a sweetie. Good boy

Elise: Take her to the sun with you, Rean. Pointless character

Alfin: Is she the heir now? I hope so. She’s such a funny character, not my fav, but I enjoyed her

Angie and George: Should have died, moving on

Celine: I love her, but did she really need a human form? No, no she did not. Great character though

Tita: Special mention, because you know what? I do not like this version of Tita! Like I said, I was reading FC recently and she was so much better there! Now a third of her lines are just her saying ‘Agate’ in various different tones. And it feels like she’s lost a lot of her confidence, where’s the little girl who followed us up Carnelia Tower? I would have preferred them to just not bring her back at all

Duvalie: Haha I love Duvalie she’s great. Stop implying that she’s crushing on Rean. Literally WHY would she. Ugh

Rose: Everything about Rose is great, I would play a full game about her backstory. More Rose

Ships!

Obviously I like Machias/Jusis because I am BASIC

I didn’t like Olivier/Schera back in Sky, but you know what? They sold me. It’s cute (even if I feel Schera’s character was neglected in favour of Being A Love Interest, sigh). Though I’m not sure when Olivier made the switch from ‘Schera is one of many people I flirt with’ to ‘Schera is my one and only’?

But am I the only person who’s kinda on the Oliver/Schera/Mueller train? I’m not normally into OT3s, but Olivier and Mueller have one of the best dynamics in the series, and Schera and Mueller would probably get along great if they were ever allowed to properly interact. And you know Olivier would be down

Like I say, I do not like Jusis/Millium at all, it’s not a ‘I like another ship better’ thing, it just massively skeeves me out because of the maturity difference 

Ash/Tatiana was unexpected but adorable

Patrick/Elise, because I want Patrick to be happy and Rean to be mad

Also Elise/Alfin, sorry Patrick

I hope Anton and Sharon really do get together. Sharon deserves unconditional love and Anton deserves a happy ending

Sharon also deserves to hook up with Sara like once

I also sort of feel like Sara/Claire would be fun

I’ve actually like Gaius/Linde from CS1, I’m happy it’s kind of a thing now!

If Lila/Maybelle is the LET’S GO LESBIANS Trails ship, then Emily/Theresia is LET’S GO BABY LESBIANS

Vincent/Margarita. They’re both horrible people. At least this way no one else has to deal with them

Joining my Kloe/Josette in the ‘crack ships I love that have very, very little canon basis’ is Fritz/Kairi, based on their interactions in that one mission and then that they’re eating together at Mishelam. It’s pretty much just a height differences thing, lol

Miles/Elnan. I have literally no justification for this

Other stuff There was this one scene where Gaius says how nice it is that Mueller cares about Olivier and Mueller just snaps his head round and the scene ends, and I don’t think it was meant to be funny but I laughed for like a full minute

The intro to the music at Mishelam is extremely creepy to me

I love the Pom Party mini game a whole lot

There were... a lot of typos in the second half of the script. It’s massive, so I’m not mad, but I hope there’s a patch at some point

BERYL BERYL BERYL BERYL BERYL I love her

Uh if we’re still doing romance next arc please give us a gay option, no Crow did not count

I hate divine knight battles! I really do! That last one against Ishmelga was really hard and not in a fun way! In a ‘this is bullshit fake difficulty’ way. Please don’t bring them back!

The true final battle, though? FANTASTIC, now THAT is a final boss! One of the best in the series, like that’s such a fun gimmick!

I got it trapped in break state and spammed Heaven’s Kiss/Quick Star, because I’m a strategic gamer 

I am embarrassed by how long it took me to recognise Lucy

KLOE CAMEO!!!

Oh and I assume Kaela is going to be important next arc, since it’s in Calvard?

I love Thomas??? And Rosine???

Why was the grandmaster reveal hidden behind watching the ending twice, why do that? Great scene, though

My theory is that she is Aidios, I will cling to this for as long as possible

I probably have like a million other things to say that I’m just not remembering right now. Look forward to random shouts into the void about it in upcoming weeks, followers

I really enjoyed this overall, despite the problems I mentioned above. It was just fun, I like the cast, the gameplay is great... just a solid game

Trails is a really fantastic franchise - not perfect, but what is? I’ve had such a fun time with it over the past half-year, and I cannot wait to see what happens next. Thank you, Falcom, the localisation team, the VAs - stellar job all around

This is normally where I’d end on a joke but like. Nah, I’m just happy. Cue ‘The Whereabouts of Light’

[scoobydoominuscoobydoo]

An older ask had asked you how you would rewrite return to zombie island. How would you rewrite scoob?

Oh I’ve already put some thought into this while I was actually watching the movie simply because I was thirty minutes in and didn’t see it getting better.

The first change I would make is that I would get rid of the whole beginning scenes with them as kids. We didn’t need it and it literally added nothing to the story. You can convince your audience that the characters are close without needing to completely illustrate why.

I would definitely open the film up with them probably in mid-chase at the climax of a mystery because that’s just how you need to open up a Scooby movie. Right from the beginning this is where I would introduce the character conflict. Maybe after they’ve caught the guy and the police are commending them they wouldn’t really have anything to say to Shag and Scoob (who are probably disheveled and starving from running for their lives once again). Shaggy and Scooby have never felt bad about being cowards so I doubt this would really hurt them that much (maybe annoy them at the most). But it identifies where the story is going to focus.

We’d then move into some transitional scenes where you can watch how the gang’s dynamic works and this is where you sell their friendship. This ain’t just a Scooby and Shaggy movie, this is a whole gang movie (the central conflict just stems from Shaggy feeling under appreciated). So their relationships are an important part of getting the audience to care what happens. I would say you subtly show how Shaggy might break up little arguments or remind them to eat. Nothing in your face, more or less it would be weaved in with the gang’s standard banter.

Then we’d get to the gang talking about turning MI into a legitimate business by finding investors and stuff. I think this would be a good opportunity for a montage scene where we get to see a lot of other Scooby/HB characters without it taking too much out of the story (this is where I would show the Blue Falcon and Dyno Mutt). All of them seem to reject the proposition though. I didn’t have major issues with Simon Cowell because random celebrity cameos have always been a Scooby thing but I mean.... Why Simon Cowell of all people? I feel like there are way more suitable celebs to choose from. I feel like it would be funny if they brought in one of the actors from the 2002 live action film (playing themselves) and everyone is just like: “Who the heck is this?” And then Shaggy (who always knows who everyone is) just goes: “Um??? You uncultured swine??? That is obviously Linda Cardellini!” And then she’s the one who is finally willing to invest but says she’ll only do it if Shag is out (Scooby can stay because animal mascots are in and it doesn’t get anymore in than a talking Great Dane).

And the gang gets all offended at this and Linda (it doesn’t have to be Linda but for all intents and purposes I’m just saying it is) will just be like, “Fine, I’ll give you my money if you can tell me what he does for you. For your team.” 

And they’ll all stay silent, trying to think of something and that’s when Shaggy finally takes it personally. It’s one thing to be judged by people he hardly knows. But for his best friends to be given like the easiest ultimatum and they can’t even deliver on it? He wonders if he’s being taken for granted. He decides he is and explodes. Shaggy never explodes so it freaks the gang out.

I think he’d call them out for not considering his constant submission into being the bait as a contribution - despite the fact that he always states that he’ll never do it again. But of course they wouldn’t count that because they’re always too focused in on the details to miss the big picture in front of them. Because, ultimately, that is what Shag adds to the team. Daphne, Fred, and Velma tend to get so wrapped up in the small factors that they sometimes miss the obvious. And that’s when Shaggy will point out the big thing that they’re missing. Shag has always been big picture over nuts and bolts so of course he’s the one to bring up the primary detail missed. This has been an element in almost every single show so I feel like it’s funny that it’s never been spelled out.

Velma is a little hot-head who doesn’t love being demoralized by anyone so she might say something uncalled for and that’s when Shaggy walks out and Scoob follows suit. That’s a pretty major conflict to take up the runtime so there you go. 

Shag and Scoob being pissed at the gang makes a little more sense now and can be further elaborated and expand into Shag’s self-confidence issues. It’s at this point that the two of them can get kidnapped by an unrevealed villain because why the heck would I take the mystery out of it? 

It wouldn’t be by a group of semi-sentient robots because this the 70′s or 80′s and technology wouldn’t be that advanced. Instead, I’d shoot for classic, masked henchmen (maybe disguised as horrifying Greek gods or something) who swipe Shag and Scoob from the bowling alley without even giving them a chance at a comedic chase scene because the audience is supposed to feel unnerved.

We’d cut back to the gang, 1/3 of them a little steamed and the majority feeling bad for selling their best friend short. It’s revealed that they didn’t take the investment offer because there’s no way they would further exclude Shaggy from anything. They decide that they should let everyone cool down before they go and talk things out and while that’s happening Daphne is trying put together a list of all the things Shag and Scoob add to the team. She gets even more upset with herself because this is their best friend and this shouldn’t be that hard. 

In the background, Fred and Velma start arguing and it would act as a kind of callback to the beginning where we see Shag break up their bickering. But since he’s not here the fight begins to escalate and it’s only when they start yelling that Daphne comes between them. Then her face lights up and she gingerly adds that to the list. 

As the movies cuts back and forth between Shag and Scoob’s perspective and the gang’s perspective the list gets longer.

Speaking of, Shag and Scoob are being kept prisoner at the abandoned carnival because that’s always an interesting set-piece that just so happened to be totally pointless in the actual movie. At some point the two of them are split up and this is when it’s hinted that the kidnappers where originally aiming for just Scooby but Shag was also there so they just rolled with it. But because Shaggy isn’t important to them, nobody is really guarding him anymore (they were originally guarding him because Scooby was with him). 

Scooby being taken is the motivation he needs to try and escape and save his dog (in his head he’s pretty sure these whackos are gonna freaking sacrifice his dog to the powerful god of all things creepy). His escape attempts would be interspersed between scenes of the gang looking for him, and Scooby being intimidated by the masked big bad (who is of course explaining the plan in great detail). The gang’s hunt for their guys would be a lot more difficult since they can’t just Life 360 up where he is. It would rely more on visual clues, eyewitness testimonies and choppy security footage, which is overall more engaging and gives the gang an actual thing to do.

While Shaggy is formulating an escape he’s able to pick up bits and pieces of what the crazy people want to do with Scooby and this acts as him getting closer to finishing a puzzle. But he doesn’t analyze the puzzle pieces he gets and tries to guess what the puzzle will look like, that’s not his area or his goal at the moment.

In a big triumphant moment, Shaggy escaping and the gang figuring out where he is happen at the same time. This gets the spirits high before things go wrong again.

And when I say wrong - I mean the gang get capture by the villain. Shaggy isn’t aware of this as he’s sneaking around the carnival grounds trying to figure out where someone would keep the actually important prisoner. I feel like a comically large circus tent would be a cool location for the climax of a movie Scooby’s probably in there. But when Shag gets there he’s quick to hide (like under the seats or something) and this is how he’s able to finally see the whole puzzle put together.

The gang escapes rather quickly because say what you will about Danger Prone Daphne but she’s just as good at getting out of tough situations as she is at getting into them. And so begins the epic journey to find their boys (they escape and Velma just instantly goes, “It’s obviously the huge circus tent.”). And at this point it’s like a One Piece arc and all you want is the whole gang to be reunited again. But first we need a fun scene of the VFD trio trying to evade the henchmen to like a Smash Mouth song or something because remember this is Scooby-Doo.

Shaggy realizes he has to do something fast otherwise his dog is going to be used to open the Underworld. He runs out of the shadows without any real plan with just the goal of taking down the bad guy. But he doesn’t get there in time and the whole tent like erupts into green and blue flames as Cerberus stomps out of the gates and Shaggy is just frozen in place. The masked guy seems a tad surprised to run into Cerberus so fast but is quick to gain control of the beast. He orders the monster to start wreaking havoc on a nearby town something, he doesn’t care so long as he can enter the Underworld without distraction.

But before he can do that, he gets jumped by Shaggy who’s really only trying to keep him pinned down while he comes up with a step two. But Mr. Mask has some fight in him so it becomes this epic struggle between Shaggy, Scooby, and the bad guy while the place is still on fire and we have an epic orchestral score playing in the background.

Right when it seems like the villain has the upper hand, Daphne comes in and like roundhouse kicks him in the head, and he’s out cold. And before Shag and Scoob can react they’re dogpiled by the other three and it’s very heartwarming.

Fred eagerly ties the perp up and then we get our unmasking and it’s Scrappy-Doo!!! Just kidding that’d be stupid. I’m really not sure who would be the best surprise villain but if anyone has a good idea for one please let me know!

When the bad guy comes to, Velma starts shaking him to tell them how to get Cerberus back into the Underworld and how to close the gate. He reveals that all you need to do is whistle and he’ll go home (Cerberus is Hades’ domesticated puppy so obvi that would work). Maybe we get a gag where someone tries to whistle but it’s too hot in the tent for it to work and they’re like: “Does anyone have like some water?” And then Shaggy just rolls his eyes and whistles and boom, big angry puppy comes home. 

Daphne smiles and says, “I’m gonna have to add that to the list.” And Shag is like, “Like, the list of what?” And she explains that the gang has been putting together a list of all the things he brings to the team and it makes him happy that they’re putting in the effort.

We cut back to Velma torturing the info out of our mask on how to close the gates and he just evilly laughs and only a dog or dog’s best friend can close the gate. But, unfortunately, the gate will take them back down to the Underworld. The gang just sits in shock because there is no better option there.

But without missing a beat, Scooby decides he’s gonna do it and runs for the lock. He’s about to put his paw on the thingy when Shaggy beats him to it and nobody even gets a second to process before he’s sucked in and the gate vanishes.

The whole gang run to the spot where the gate used to be and Daphne falls to her knees crying, Scooby is digging at the ground trying to get to the gate and Fred has to get him to stop.

“I never even got to give him the list...” And Daph pulls it out and just drops it on the ground. Velma is on the verge of tears as she adds, “I still owe him an apology. I owe him a lot of apologies...” And as Fred is comforting Scooby he says, “We all do...” The scene ends with the gang all hugging Scooby and the list bursts into flames and disappears.

Then we cut to Shag in the Underworld and he’s just leaning against the gate and crying because what else is he gonna do? “At least I was finally useful to them...” He thinks and slowly begins to walk around and is surprised to see that the Underworld is prettier than he expected. 

“Thank my wife. She’s always looking for ways to brighten this place up so I don’t feel so miserable when she’s gone. “

Shag screams bloody murder and jumps like a ten feet before turning around and seeing a dude in a chiton. Surprise surprise, it’s Hades (Who can also be a celebrity cameo whatever). We get some nice banter before Hades holds up something and asks, “Is this yours?” 

Shaggy looks down and sees that it’s a piece of paper, he shakes his head.

“Really? Because it mentions you an awful lot.”

Evidently it got snagged on the way down and ended up in Hades’ lap - he’s certain he wouldn’t have even noticed that Shaggy was there if it weren’t for that. And then Shag’s face lights up and he realizes it must be the list, as he reads it we cut to all of the times Daphne thought to write these down on their trip. Finally he believes that he’s useful to the team, that he is a valuable part of the gang. 

Hades looks at him and just says, “How do they survive without you?” 

And Shag just shrugs and goes, “Believe me, like, I have no idea.”

Hades smiles and replies, “Then you best not keep them waiting.” Before snapping his fingers and poofing Shaggy back home.

When he gets there, the gang are slowly making their way out of the tent so they don’t see him. So Shag takes the opportunity to say, “I read y’all’s list.” And everyone instantly makes a 180 turn with their eyes super wide and he continues, “You know I think you missed a few but it’s the thought that counts.” And then we get dogpile number two of the movie.

The final scene is the gang opening up Mystery Inc. and them asking Shag where the entertainment is and he’s just like, “I asked our surprise investors to put something together for us...” And then we get the Hex Girls performance we deserve and I can totally buy them investing in Mystery Inc. because they freaking love Shaggy and Scooby so.

We get an ending shot of the gang going off to solve their first monetized mystery (we could have like a soft instrumental version of the first theme song playing) and then we fade to the end credits where we get the What’s New Scooby-Doo theme.

[multimetaverse]

Andi Mack 3x19 Review

A Moving Day was a lovely episode though one that had too much filler for such a late episode. Let’s dig in!

Positives:

Despite the cut ep and the re-shoots they were able to give Bex and Bowie a lovely wedding. Bex and Bowie have really been one of the core story lines for the show and it’s nice to see them get such a happy ending. There was a lot of history packed into Bex thanking Bowie for sticking it out and boy was the pay off ever worth it.

This smaller wedding works much better for their dynamic than the big farm wedding did and having it just be a main character affair makes the show more equal. And the snow and the trees and mountains and gazebo made for one of the most visually stunning eps of the show. Almost like a farewell to filming on location in Utah.

Asher’s performance of You Girl was awesome, glad they played what seemed like the whole song. 

Like Celia, I’m also glad no one said ‘um’!

It was nice to see Celia again. I’m glad they were able to give her ample screen time this ep to somewhat make up for what she’s lost. It makes so much sense that she’d be so into puzzles. And really showcases her personality that she climbs a mountain in heels. 

This really was a nice send off for the whole Mack family. Andi gets the nuclear family she’s always wanted, Bex and Bowie get the happy ending they’ve waited 14 years for, and Celia gets to see her wayward daughter take charge of her life. 

It took until the penultimate episode but we finally met Jonah’s mom, Judy Beck née Bartholomew (Terri really does like her Biblical names). That she ended up marrying one of her background helpers is a love story for the ages. 

I’m glad they gave Jonah a happy ending and we can end the series knowing that his family is in a better place and on track to recover from bankruptcy. 

I’ll have more to say about the filler in the negatives section but I did like Buffy’s deconstructed toast line, Cyrus not being self deprecating about his strength, and Asher almost breaking character while doing his mom’s dance. 

Nice that they snuck in one more Buffy picking up Cyrus moment. Truly those two have the best friendship on this show. 

I’m almost certain that Bowie scaring Celia was a nod to Trent scaring people on set, he has a whole instagram story dedicated to him spooking his co-workers. 

They brought in one of their casting directors, Steven O’Connor, to play the officiant which was a nice gesture and of course we got one last family cameo with Coco Angel playing Judy. 

Re-Shoots:

Bringing in this section since most of this ep were re-shoots. I’m not going to nit pick the plot holes that arose because of them: like how did Jonah learn You Girl without Bowie teaching him, how did he write the extended version, how Jonah and Cyrus and Buffy got to the Gazebo, why Cyrus and Buffy were dressed as waiters and didn’t actually do any waitering. Obviously whatever the original Gazebo event was would have had differences and production had limited time and budget to turn it into a new wedding as smoothly as possible. 

Not much actually happened in this ep and that was a sad side effect of the re-shoots. Scenes like the Macks in the car and the Macks hiking dragged on so long because they were easy to film fairly quickly, just like the party scenes in A Good Hair Day were quite long. 

I’m actually glad that they didn’t bother giving a reason for Bex suddenly deciding to get married. I don’t think it would have made all that much sense in otl anyway but without Ham I don’t think they could have come up with a good enough justification. At least with Ham it would have made some sense that he could have mended the rifts between Bex and Bowie and Bex and Celia since he was always the peacemaker and reasonable authority figure as well as a surrogate father and best man for Bowie. 

It seems that every story line except for Tyrus was damaged in some way by the cuts and re-shoots but definitely Celia suffered the most, which is such a shame.

Negatives:

I can’t believe the show decided to waste precious time on a toast making competition in the second to last ep of the entire series. It might have been fine in 3a but to have that filler for a cold open so late in the game is awful.

I gasped when Judy asked Jonah if she could finally meet his friends. He’s been friends with the GHC for like 14 months at this point and they still know nothing about his family? They’ve always kept Jonah apart from the GHC in a lot of ways which hasn’t been to the show’s credit. And while I’m glad that we finally met Jonah’s mom, it shouldn’t have taken this long. 

I’m not surprised but I was disappointed that we never heard that Jonah told his parents about his panic attacks. I get that in America’s horrifying healthcare system that they probably wouldn’t have been able to afford treatment but at least if they knew they could support him and try to help.

Looking Ahead:

Terri must love Winnie the Pooh if she’s having Cyrus quote him as shown in the most recent finale promo. The way Disney cuts the quote with clips from the ep is very clever: we have Tyrus being brave enough to confess their feelings, Muffy strong enough to be vulnerable and get together, and Jandi smart enough to know that now is not a good time for them go get back together. 

Looks like Terri was able to get ample screen time for TJ and Marty so Tyrus and Muffy won’t feel rushed. 

Very glad that Cyrus is the one who approaches TJ at the bench. I’m very interested to see how we go from delusion to confession on Cyrus’ part. Certainly they look happy when Cyrus asks if he can sit and Cyrus is obviously there because he wants to confess.

I assume the bench scene will come late in the ep. Cyrus seeing TJ talk to Kira must be what causes him to feel like he was deluding himself but what spurs him to decide it’s worth the risk to confess to TJ I don’t know. If the music performance is after Kira’s appearance than maybe Cyrus is feeling forlorn and then TJ appears to perform with him, in a way making up for costume day, and that gives Cyrus hope. Or if the performance is before Kira than maybe it’s what gets Cyrus’ hopes up only to have them crushed before someone or something gives him hope. Regardless of which scene is when, I do think that Cyrus and Buffy both give each other the final push to go seek out TJ and Marty and lay it all on the line. 

I’m trying to keep my expectations low since it’s still Disney but I do think we get hand holding based on their bench scene positioning and the fact that Ciris got to hold hands. I think it’s likely they’ll use the word boyfriend and I do think they have some brief post canon scene inside before the party clears out and that’s likely where Tyrus and Muffy have an interaction. I would also like Andi at least to congratulate them but I’m not holding my breath. Having TJ use the word gay would be amazing but seems unlikely and Luke will be able to confirm it on social media anyways. Having Cyrus compliment TJ’s outfit and say it brings out his eyes would be a nice little moment if Terri could swing it. Josh has heavily hinted that we’d see some pay off to Cyrus calling TJ oblivious back in 3x07 and it would be great if we could see Cyrus using a mashup name for him and TJ like was able to with Iris. 

Nice to see them make use of Luke’s piano skills and that means we’ll learn something new about TJ as well as learning his name and of course for most of the audience, the reveal that TJ is gay and likes Cyrus. 

Seems like Cyrus, TJ, Buffy, Bex, Bowie, Amber, Jonah, and Andi are involved in the song, not sure where Marty is. Buffy compliments Marty and says he was funny and I wonder if he did some solo performance beforehand or after. 

If they sing the theme song that’s cheesy af but I can’t see what else they’d have the rights to. 

Muffy confession is outside which makes sense since they’d want some privacy for the Muffy kiss. Very smart to have them canon in the place they first met and once again I’m so glad they got Marty back, a Wuffy endgame just wouldn’t have been anywhere near as good. 

I think the scene of Cyrus and Buffy standing inside in their jackets watching Bex and Bowie dance in their dress and tux is likely after they come in from confessing to their boyfriends and near the very end of the ep. I think Andi showing the mains that she’s cleared out Andi Shack because she got into SAVA is probably at the very end and one of the last scenes.  I don’t know if the show is gonna pretend she’s starting at SAVA immediately because the finale is in December and she would’t be starting high school for 9 months which takes away a lot of the emotional impact of her moving. Or maybe she gets to start early or has to transfer to some new art middle school to finish up 8th grade in order to beef up her skills before starting at SAVA. 

No sign of Kira in any of the promo clips and TJ arrives at the party alone which fits with her appearance meant to be a surprise twist as well as brief since Raquel was only on set for one day and that was the day all the other main and recurring kids were on set and her screen time comes out of TJ’s screen time. I think her 30-60 seconds of screen time will be by far the worst part of the finale. She’s been the most poorly written character on the show; her motvation going from trying to hurt Buffy to trying to date a guy she knows is gay and I’m sure her apology will probably introduce a new motivation, she just wanted a friend or some crap like that. On the plus side it doesn’t look like she sticks around so we don’t have to see TJ befriend her for no justifiable reason though I do think that ‘’sometimes there’s a nice person inside trying to get out’’ line is said to her by TJ or about her by TJ which is awful. I do think that she encourages TJ to talk to or hang out with Cyrus or something and that begins the ‘redemption’ we’ll luckily never have to see. 

We’ll see such growth on Amber’s part from her behaviour at the first party to now.

Jonah gives Andi the bracelet maybe? I don’t think they canon but I do think they leave the door open to get back together in the future. 

I wonder if Celia is coming back to Shadyside or if she’s leaving for good and I wonder if we’ll get a hint for a Bexie baby.

I’ve been hard on Terri but I do trust that the vast majority of the finale will be great and that she got the best ending possible for the show and I’m glad she fought as hard as I’m sure she did for the wonderful Tyrus ending we’re getting. 

It’s going to be bittersweet getting that payoff while also saying goodbye to the show but at least with the longer length we’ll get to see pretty much all of what they filmed. 

We’re on the cusp of watching history being made as Tyrus becomes the first gay couple on Disney Channel. With that in mind, I’d like to remind everyone that Tyrus week starts Monday July 22nd at 4pm eastern standard time and I hope everyone reading this will participate in whatever way they can so we can get Tyrus to number 1 on fandometrics. 

Can’t believe I only have one more review to write. It’s gonna be a great week and a great ep and I can’t wait for us all to see it!

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

@shattered-catalyst asked me what underused female Marvel characters that I’d like to see in the RPC. I misread it as asking what underused female characters I would like to see in a canon Marvel story, and started making this list. Then I realized what they ACTUALLY asked me---and answered it HERE-- but since I had this list started I thought I would post it! As a note, I tried to overlook my own biases for whom *I* simply want to see back in action, versus if there’s actually story potential there that I think other fans would genuinely want to see. It’s also by no means complete/comprehensive, so if you think someone is missing and deserves to be on here---you’re probably right! Feel free to add to it! BLINDSPOT - Blindspot is a female member of Mystique’s Brotherhood who was friends with Rogue, and had the powers of memory manipulation. After several missions, Mystique decided to cut ties with her due to lack of trust. Blindspot left, but not without wiping herself out of Mystique and Rogue's memories first, as she always covered her tracks, which is why Rogue doesn’t remember her (actual reason is she was retconned in, she’s a 2000s creation) Years later, when Rogue had become an X-Men, they would come into conflict once more, as Blindspot wanted to ‘save” Rogue from Xavier’s “brainwashing”, but Rogue would still leave Blindspot with her X-uniform to remember her by. Blindspot is unique in having been a Brotherhood friend to Rogue, as she was never shown as close to any of the other members, and was also mysteriously immune to Rogue’s powers. I think Rogue fans might enjoy seeing her in a Rogue story again, and perhaps learning more about their time together. CATSEYE - I think ALL the Hellions were criminally underused, and I know from X-Men/comics discussion boards that there’s an audience for their return. Catseye seems to be the favorite in terms of who people found most interesting, and I agree. A girl who believes she’s a cat who can turn into a human form, rather than the reverse, is a really neat concept, not to mention Sharon had a charming personality with surprising depth for what little time she got. There’s a lot that could be done with her return, and I think she could totally be the lead in a revived Hellions story on Krakoa, or a story depicting their time as Frost’s students at the Massachusetts Academy. CORDELIA FROST - Look, everyone loves Emma Frost, I think it’d be easy to get people interested in a Cordelia story. Not to mention the fact that like...Adrienne is dead, Christian was institutionalized, but Cordelia has been running around this whole time. She seems to have had some big plans once upon a time, what happened to that? Nothing ever came of it. Why not? What’s she been up to all this time? Also, we should finally get to see what kind of powers she has! I’ve seen it quoted around the Internet that Emma claims Cordy is “the Professor Xavier of empaths” but I’ve not only never seen the source for where she says this, she’s never demonstrated ANY kind of powers in canon, besides Emma not being able to read her mind. I would like to see what the “subtle, dark, and devious” Frost baby gets up to! DARKSTAR - Darkstar is a mutant and she’s been present in the comics since 1976. She’s been a member of X-Corps, as well as served in the Champions with Angel and Iceman back in the day. Yet her loyalty (coughBRAINWASHINGcough) has always brought her back to serving Mother Russia first and foremost. We saw recently though that Russia has gone back to its “All mutants serve the State or die!” position, and not allowing its mutants to go to Krakoa. It’s pretty easy to work Darkstar into a story about that, and finally exploring the way she was deeply conditioned to the point her “choice” to serve her country is probably anything but, and coming to terms with that at last. I’d really like to see a story like this, because Darkstar is kind of unique in that her brainwashing wasn’t a dramatic trauma-conga full of torture and abuse, she actually seems to have been treated well, she was just also kidnapped as a baby and never knew anything else. I think it’s about time we get a story that shows abuse doesn’t always “look like abuse” and how denial of someone’s agency can run so deep that their own choices that they THINK they’re making of their own free will, really are products of that. Also, her story could be an easy way to get my STARLIGHT fix, and FANTASMA on top of that. Remember, Fantasma was banished to Limbo, and pulled Starlight in after her. Why WOULDN’T Darkstar want to go rescue her teammate? And there’s a member of the X-Men who is mistress of Limbo and can open portals there, it’s totally easy! Darkstar enlists Magik (who has a huge fan following, and thus would get people interested) to guide her through Limbo so they can find Starlight and bring her home, but on the way they run afoul of Fantasma! Who, being a Dire Wraith sorceress, makes a great foe for Magik! PHANTAZIA - During 1990s, Toad struck out on his own and formed his own Brotherhood, which consisted of several old faces---Pyro, Blob, and Sauron (despite Sauron not being a mutant)---and a new one, the woman known as Phantazia, aka Eileen Harsaw. Phantazia had the power to manipulate electromagnetic energy fields. This allowed her to fly, disrupt machinery, and  disrupt the bioelectric energy fields and nervous systems of other living beings as well, resulting in pain, paralysis, loss of physical coordination, and in the case of superhumans, the inability to control their powers, causing them to fluctuate in strength, cease functioning altogether, or spew out uncontrollably. Not much is known about her personality, but she seems to have been well-educated, as Blob refers to her as “Ms. PhD” and tended to stay out of the arguments between her male teammates, ignoring them while she read books on scientific subjects, such as astrophysics. . She also displayed loyalty, such as when she also opted to stay with her teammates when only she among them was invited to Magneto’s new mutant sanctuary of Avalon. Alas, Eileen met a wicked fate---for some reason, she was one of the few mutants to retain their memories of the “House of M” reality shift, and the shifting back and forth drove her insane. She was last seen in a S.H.I.E.L.D. custody cell, babbling “House of M” over and over. I think Eileen was interesting. She had a cool powerset, hints of a personality, and was never much of a “bad guy” certainly not enough to deserve what happened to her. Female Brotherhood members are also pretty rare, so she catches my eye for that too. I like to think Xavier found her and fixed her mind, and she’s going to hang out with her old pals Pyro, Blob, and Toad on Krakoa. HAVEN - I’ve been yelling about her on this blog for like 5 years, but if you’re not familiar with her, Radha Dastoor aka Haven was a villain who ran a cult dedicated to bringing about the end of the world as we know it in order to usher in a golden age of peace. She only did this, however, because she was being possessed by a demon. Her real self was a kind, charitable woman who was just all about feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and, as it happens, advocating for mutants. Though it had little to do with her villainy, Haven still found time to be a demon-posessed super-terrorist AND write books promoting mutant/human peace and give lectures condemning bigotry. She seems like someone who SHOULD have gotten saved from said demon, but no, she dies alone in the mud after being victim-blamed by a Marvel deity. Her entire arc is really misogynistic, she’s only possessed because she had sex once and then got pregnant, she’s basically punished for breaking the purity taboos of her culture once, and it’s also pretty...racist isn’t the right word, but she’s the first Indian and Hindu character in the X-Men comics, and a lot of her terrorist philosophy fed to her by the demon comes from actual Hinduism, which has unfortunate implications, as does the fact that the “brown woman with a funny religion ended up being a terrorist just like the government said so X-Factor attacking her before they were sure of this is okay” was part of her story. Eesh. Anyway, she was a very good person and an interesting character, I think bringing her back as someone trying to do good in the world again as a human ally to mutants while also dealing with what happened to her and what she did and her loss of 20 years of agency to possession, would be a good story. I at least want to see a cameo of her taking care of a bunch of orphan and refugee kids who are a mix of mutants, Inhumans, Warpies, aliens, and humans. LORELEI - Lorelei is another little-known woman from the Brotherhood of Mutants, and unique in that she’s NOT a mutant. At one point, Magneto used a machine to mutate members of the native tribes in the Savage Land, giving them super-powers. These Savage Land Mutates served him in their homeland, fighting the X-Men at his command, but he left them behind when he returned back to the rest of the world...all save Lorelei, who he took with him for his new Brotherhood, citing a possible “Pygmalion complex” for why. Lorelei was a beautiful blonde woman who could control men with her voice. However, she seems to have a childlike intellect, as she speaks very simply and in the third person, and doesn’t really seem aware of what she’s doing or why she’s being told by Magneto to do it. It’s a really worrying dynamic, and I also worry about Lorelei once Magneto just...kinda ditched her, I guess, and left her with Unus, Blob, and the Vanisher. Then she turns up back in the Savage Land serving yet another bad guy. Lorelei--or Lani Ubanu, as seems to be her name before Magneto transformed her--comes off as an unaware innocent that just gets constantly picked up and used by greater villains because she doesn’t know any better, and given that this is because of the powers Magneto gave her, I’d like to see that come back and have him take responsibility for her. And if she’s NOT as unaware and innocent as she seems, I’d like to see that, because she’s been around since 1969 and she doesn’t have a personality and she barely speaks! Flesh this girl out! MADELYNE PRYOR - I feel like this one is cheating a bit, because I’m not sure I’d say Maddy is under-used. She’s seen more action just this decade than all the others on this list saw in their entire careers COMBINED. It’s more than she’s just...not used well, in my opinion. 2000s writers generally seem to forget that her stint as the Goblyn Queen came from being infected by demonic energy and also insane (for VERY understandable reasons), and seem to think she’s just evil on her own. Not to mention they take all the depth out of her; she’s a character with a full personality of her own and some very fucked up struggles that she was not to blame for, but that all gets boiled down to “Scott’s sexy evil ex who is mad he left her so now she trounces around in skimpy clothes she never actually wore when she wasn’t possessed because EVIL LADIES ARE SEXY CUZ FEMALE SEXUALITY IS EVIL” and it’s just....u g h. When Maddy was herself, she actually was very heroic, to the point she sacrificed her life to save the world (her FIRST death, which everyone forgets). But she also has good reason to be really angry and bitter at the X-Men, and I don’t see her letting go of that even when she’s back in her right mind. So I think depicting her as an anti-hero, who saves innocent people yet works against the X-Men, would be a neat story, with the ultimate conclusion being her letting go of her grudge, not for THEIR sake but for HERS, to not have her be tethered to them any longer, not even by hate, and finally live a life that is HERS. MISS SINISTER - So, Miss Sinister is NOT Nathaniel Essex in a lady suit. She’s actually an entirely different person, and actually has a very sympathetic situation. She’s a woman named Claudine Renko, whom Mr. Sinister injected with a virus containing his own DNA. The idea was that in the event of his death, the virus would activate in her or one of his other test subjects, transforming them into Sinister complete with his consciousness replacing their own. But when it activated in Claudine after Sinister’s apparent (but in fact only temporary) death in the “Messiah Complex” story, Claudine did not become possessed by Mr. Sinister nor become him---not exactly. She became essentially a female clone of him, gaining aspects of his appearance (such as the chalk white skin) as well as his telepathic powers. He might also be how she got her wicked personality, but since we don’t know anything about her prior to this, that could just be how she was already. But she also suffered invasive memories of Essex's life, and that as a malignant presence within her mind, he was slowly killing her as a means of self-resurrection. He even managed to manifest briefly before being re-absorbed back into her. It was for this reason that she wanted to switch bodies with X-23, thus gaining Laura's healing factor, something she had wanted after her stabbing, and thereby freeing herself of Essex. The plan backfired when Essex took control of Laura's body and used her to mortally wound Claudine. Laura managed to overcome Essex's presence in her mind, expelling it through force of will. She was next seen working with Emma Frost on using The Mothervine, though Emma ended up turning on her. I remember feeling bad for Claudine when I read her story with X-23. Having someone else trying to take over your body is a pretty good motive for doing something as evil as trying to steal someone else’s, while also being inexcusable to do. It’s unlikely she was a willing subject for Sinister, so she probably isn’t to blame for what happened to her, but is to blame for her actions after, which is the kind of villain I like. Also, while she’s usually in lingerie ala a Black Queen of the Hellfire Club, she wore a really cute little normal outfit in a story with Sebastian Shaw and Daken...which ironically is when she actually was Black Queen! I’d like to see more of Claudine, and find out more about her story and who she was before all this, and whether or not she’s REALLY free of Sinister, as she seems to be now. After all...is anyone ever free of him? Bonus if she teams up with Madelyne Pryor! NOCTURNE - No not TJ Wagner, THIS LADY! I don’t think anyone (except me) is hoping for her return, as I don’t think anyone else really knows about her, but Spider-Man stuff is still popular so there’s no reason she couldn’t come back and have a prominent role in that. I really hope they go with the interpretation that she’s gay, since now is a time that they can actually have that open instead of coded, but more than just the representation of a gay WOC (which is awesome) I really am interested in her adjustment and journey into her new identity, and in particular her communication via empathy powers rather than speech. That really intrigues me about her. I think she could become very compelling and popular if brought back and handled well, perhaps in a story that brings back other neglected characters in the Spider franchise as well. SAT-YR-9 - Okay, so in the Captain Britain/Excalibur comics of the 80s, there was a woman named Courtney Ross. She was a banker and Captain Britain’s ex, and she became a side character, having adventures with the team and even besting none other than ARCADE through STAND UP COMEDY. Then one night, a version of her from another universe emerged in apartment, killed her, and took her place. This evil counterpart was Sat-Yr-9, who had been a cruel dictator in homeworld, and has been running around doing evil in 616 since while masquerading as Courtney. Captain Britain discovered the ruse and vowed revenge...but has yet to really do anything, probably because Sat-Yr-9 herself really hasn’t done anything since either. She popped up for a brief moment in the 2000s as the new White Queen of the Hellfire Club, but that’s it. I would like to see more of her, in that role or outside it. Given her connection to both the Hellfire Club and to Kitty (whom she was grooming under the guise of “Courtney Ross” and seemed to have big plans for, as well as some mysterious connection to that was never explained) I think she’d be great for the Marauders series. Or in the new “Excalibur” series that stars Psylocke as the new Captain Britain! I also think there would be interest in a story that finally resolves her murder of Courtney and shows Brian finally at least TRYING to make her pay, I still see it talked about on Marvel boards how unsatisfying and frustrating it is that Brian vowed revenge DECADES ago and has yet to do anything about it, and how much of a waste that makes Courtney’s death (Courtney was surprisingly popular with fans even to this day due to how she handled Arcade, it instantly endeared them to her...and then that’s RIGHT when she got killed off, literally the evening after) Maybe Betsy is the one who finally gets her at last! THRENODY - I think that Threnody’s coming back in the recent Deadpool series revived enough interest to justify bring her back yet again, and I think her baby being killed, however monstrous it was, means that fans are probably ready to see her get a happy ending for once. I know I sure am. ZALADANE - Zaladane was a personal villain to Polaris, and given that Polaris has never really had a book that was about her (as far as I know, I’m far from a Lorna expert) I think bringing her back as the bad guy for a Lorna solo series would be cool. I also would like it resolved if she’s Lorna’s sister or not. It seems to add up at the time it was written, but changes to Lorna’s backstory continuity since make it impossible. I think that a suitably comic-booky explanation could work for that, such as “she *is* Lorna’s sister but from another dimension, not 616, and also that explains how/why she’s in the Savage Land” or something like that. Plus it satisfies both the people who think she is and who think she isn’t.

[adventure-hearts]

comments on the third adventure novel!

In case you’ve missed it (like I did), the lovely onkei-kunhas begun translating the long-awaited third volume of the digimon adventure novels! 

All the novels are truly worth a read, but here’s some parts I found really interesting.

NOTES: Some events happen differently than in the show. Overall, character motivations/transformations post the events of Vamdemon arc are written in a very direct, clear way in the novels, clarifying things that in the show are more “suggested” than told. The novelisationhave the benefit of hindsight, so they are able to connect the different arcs and 02 in a smoother way. Additionally, you can tell the people behind tri. paid a lot of attention to these books.

There are brief cameos from Daisuke, Iori and their respective families during the Vamdemon arc. It’s confirmed that Daisuke and Taichi knew each other before Adventure.

We get some insights about the Takenouchi family dynamics and few interesting theories are confirmed: Takenouchi is actually Yoshiko’s family surname, and Sora’s parents have a somehow complicated marriage (or, at least, it’s perceived like that from the outside). Sora rebelled against her mother as she felt she “treated her apprentices highly, but her own husband frivolously”.

Natsuko’s backstory also gets more developed. It’s explicitly confirmed that her father is French (something I called years ago!) and that she used to live in France. She works as a translator and as a non-fiction writer who starts investigating the Hikarigaoka attacks. While investigating this, she was contacted by Oikawa, but he stood her up before they could meet.

Natsuko is so cool, man. No wonder she married Hiroaki freaking Ishida:

Most of her work involved being a reportage writer for physics and chemistry research. Although she couldn’t say that she was paid well for it, she felt that this suited her better than a regular desk job. Among her normal jobs, a side project that she was working on involved investigating the “Hikarigaoka terrorist bombing incident” four years ago. It was an incident that occured in the very place where they had lived. Not only did it capture her interest, but as she kept investigating it, she found many aspects about it that weren’t acceptable explanations to her. 

Mimi’s father is a “freelance audio mixer for rock music” (makes sense why he moved so easily to America).

We got more details about where each kid lives:

Taichi’s family lived in a four-unit condominium that was partitioned by a road from the condominium of Sora and Koushiro’s families. Yamato lived in yet another unit that was closer to Fuji TV station.

It’s confirmed directly that Vamdemon, Etemon, and Devimon were working under the Dark Masters. In fact, with the benefit of hindsight, the novels tie all the different arcs together in a more coherent way.

You also get an explanation about how the Holy Beasts were sealed by the Dark Masters.

The argument around the graveyard plays in a somehow different way from the show, and motivations and feelings are made much more explicit. The ideological positions of Taichi and Yamato are given a lot more nuance here.

Yamato is really nasty in this scene, but conversely, you get to really figure out what is going on with his head, and why he is losing confidence in Taichi as a leader and feeling dejected that Takeru is growing up.

Taichi’s evolution into becoming less impulsive and reckless are explicitly linked to the fact that Hikari is now a part of the team and how it made Taichi more empathic with other people.

Koushirou directly and empathically tells Yamato that he’s too emotional to be a good leader. 

For example, Yamato reflects how he went from blocking his emotions to being an overly emotional mess:

Ever since coming to the Digital World, even Yamato was surprised by how much emotion he expressed. All of the emotion that he’d held back while at home, at school, had come bursting out without pause. And this Yamato was the only one that Koushiro knew. That was why Koushiro’s view of Yamato was “an emotionally unstable upperclassman.

Actually, Yamato’s feelings during his whole “breakdown” arc are so well done here. You’ve got to read the whole thing.

Jou offers to accompany Mimi instead of Sora because he felt that it was his job.

Sora understands Yamato going away because she felt the same way when she left the group earlier.

There is actually no MetalGarurumon vs WarGreymon battle at this point.

“Ogremon took a moment to imagine everyone living together as friends, but it made him feel ill.“ (No comment, I just found this line funny).

The reason why MetalGarurumon defeats Pinnochimon so easily is that he is powered by the hatred on Yamato’s heart (after he witnesses Pinnochi murdering his own soldiers).

Yamato goes really dark in this part and thinks allowing himself to bask in merciless hatred will allow him to kill the Dark Masters on his own. This leads directly to him being taken by a “dark gas” (the rough equivalent of the Dark Cave).

Many mentions of Idea — probaby where tri’s writters came up with some ideas... they really went through these novels!

The equivalent to the Dark Cave scene is. SO. GREAT. (Though Sora doesn’t get to be a victim in the novel)

OMG 

“As the gas thinned out around them, Yamato saw the shadows of other people ahead. It was Takeru and Sora, but to Yamato, Sora looked like someone else. Mom…”

(As a shipper, I honestly can’t tell if this is sweet or really messed up.)

To be continued as the translation is out… meanwhile, do yourself a favour and read it! And, while you’re at it, check out onkei’sko-fi page because honestly, we do not deserve her.

[minaminokyoko]

Spider-Man: Far from Home--A Spoilertastic Review

Oh, my baby boy is back and it feels good.

Like many of you, I was looking forward to FFH due to the trauma left behind by our final film with all the Avengers present, and I needed to see my sweet Spider Son to try to dry my tears. I'm happy to say Far from Home is just the popcorn flick we need this summer: light, enjoyable, fun. I do admit to a bias right off the bat, before I begin the review: I am one of the hugest fans of the Iron Dad and Spider Son dynamic, and so I knew by default that I wasn't going to like this movie as much as the first one. Sorry. I am a skank for adopted family tropes, and I think Iron Dad and Spider Son was one of the strongest relationships developed in the MCU period. Losing Tony is just...agonizing. I've sectioned it off in my brain as Did Not Happen just to get by, honestly, and so keep that in mind as we proceed.

Spoilers ahead.

Overall Grade: B

Pros:

-Lemme get this out of the way: MY SONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN MY SPIDER SON OH MY GOSH PETER PARKER IS SUCH A GOOD BOI AND A SWEET SMOL BEAN AND I HAVE NO MATERNAL INSTINCTS EXCEPT WHEN IT COMES TO MCU PETER PARKER AND I LOVE THIS CHILD MORE THAN ANYTHING AND I JUST WANT TO PROTECT HIM AND HUG HIM AND BRUSH HIS HAIR AND COOK HIM DINNER I LOVE MY LITTLE BOY Y'ALL.

-Ahem. Tom Holland still shines in this role. I really, solidly care about Peter Parker. He's a great kid and he's very realistic in the way that he's written and acted. He's just a shy, awkward little nerd with a heart of gold who unfortunately has been forced into the worst situations that he's not ready for. I wanted to punch "Nick" in the face for how much goddamn pressure he put on a kid who is literally still in the goddamn mourning process just like everyone else. Peter has so much to deal with and he's only had these powers for a short amount of time, so it's natural that he's so frustrated and anxious and he wants time to go after things that are important to him. I found that very understandable and sympathetic, even if the "I just want to be normal" trope has been done to death in superhero media. MCU Peter has so much heart and I'm proud of this baby for what he's able to accomplish.

-The allusions to Tony and the void left behind hit home quite hard. Especially that fucking gravestone part of the Mysterio sequence. That was just...cruel. Tony taught Peter so much, and he genuinely loved that kid. He grew to love him and trust him and worry about him, and it's so awful that Tony won't get to see him grow up to be his own man. I'm grateful for the time they had together, and I really love Tony leaving Peter the glasses and the A.I., knowing that while he might still make a mistake, he would do the right thing in the end. (Side note: EDITH is as funny as it is fucked up, "Even Dead, I'm the Hero." God fucking damn you, Tony, that is so in-character and it hurts my soul.) "Nick" shoving all that pressure onto Peter made me want to kick his ass, especially since he talks down to him and tries to blame him for not being ready when he only just got into the game relatively speaking. But I also loved the sequence of him in the plane doing exactly what Tony used to do in his lab. It's such a great parallel, showing that Peter is his own person but he's also a chip off the old block, and that is very sweet to see. (I also squealed at the Led Zeppelin comment, oh my son, such a cutie.)

-I was extremely hesitant about them choosing Gyllenhaal for the role of Mysterio (not because of his skill as an actor, just because he looks like a giant puppy, sorry) but now I see why. He's an unstable narcissist and it fits him. What a jerkoff. I was furious with how callous he was and how he shifted blame everywhere like it's just SO necessary to kill all these people for fame, fortune, and money. Ugh, what a shitbird. So kudos to him. I didn't think he could pull it off, but he sure as hell did.

-The effects were fantastic. I really do think the illusion sequence will go down in MCU history as one of the most visually creative, disorienting, heartbreaking things we've seen so far in the saga. It was harrowing, especially the Iron Man suit crawling out of the grave. What a kick in the fucking nuts for Peter, and for us.

-Peter and MJ, while it did get a little overwhelming, were cute as shit. And I'm glad that the modern films are removing the stigma of the "I can't let my family and friends know I'm the hero" thing. It was definitely heavily done in the 80's, 90's, and early to mid 2000's and I'm fine to see it being phased out at least in terms of the MCU. It's a little more realistic that most of your family or friends would be able to handle your secret, and not only that, help you out on occasion. I'm glad she knows and their kisses were freaking adorable. Sweet babies.

-That. First. End. Credits. Scene. What a fucking killer. First off, God bless whoever at Marvel Studios listened to the thousands of fans begging them to cast J. K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson again, continuity be damned. The man IS the embodiment of the character, and I absolutely fucking ADORE that they gave us the nod and the wink we all wanted even back when Spidey was Andrew Garfield. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Next, oh my God, my sweet baby boy, my smol bean, got called out and branded as a murderer. Fuck, this is gonna be a serious problem, and considering the fact that we don't have the next MCU film lined up yet (at the time this was posted, and mind you, San Diego Comic Con is in two weeks, so maybe they'll clarify) the consequences could definitely be crazy. Poor Peter. He's gonna have a lot of work to do in order to undo this mess and prove that he's not Spidey, but this could also mean they're adapting some part of the Civil War story, maybe. We'll see, but that was a big ass bomb to drop.

-The Skrulls second credit scene was a genuine surprise, and it made sense. I thought Nick felt a little off the whole movie, and that really does explain why--it's someone else doing an impression of him and trying their best. Nick would've been smart enough to know probably right off the bat that Beck wasn't who he said he was. His story was way too noble and convenient. Nick would've probably have run facial recognition and then it would ping for a former Stark Industries employee, and that would've been a wrap. I like that it being a Skrull justifies what would be a plothole. Neat idea.

-I appreciated the Spidey's eye view of the action. Those were some cool shots and they were centered well, so you didn't feel nauseous or anything. It kept you in the action and was very engrossing and cool.

Cons:

-The bystander syndrome that everyone got this time around is a little irksome. It's the same reason that while I really, really love Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, I default don't like it as much as the first one since everyone got put into the bystander spot except for basically Peter in the very end. While it was nice to have them defend themselves, I'd have liked it more of MJ and Ned and the others figured their own way out of escaping the drones. Why? Because it would show Peter that it's not always on just his shoulders. His friends are competent and they can help, and I think that would've been a better way to go rather than him doing it himself.

-Some of the humor was flat. JB Smooth and the other teacher are the worst offenders, I'd say. They were given too much screentime and they're not that funny.

-The May and Happy subplot goes almost nowhere and isn't fully explored, and I kind of would've been fine if it hadn't been in the movie at all. It doesn't add much.

-The ending was kind of unclear? Did Beck actually get shot and die from his wounds? If so, then what was the official story about the drones and his body and whatnot? It's all pretty damn vague. If Beck is dead, that's disappointing. I kinda wish Marvel would stop killing the villains at the end of almost all the films. Longest running recurring villains are Loki and Thanos, I think. Vulture lived, and I'd like him to return in the future if possible. You can use actors more than once, Marvel, they're not tissue paper.

-Nitpick: It did almost feel like we missed a movie where Peter likes MJ. She was more a cameo in the first one than a full lead, so it almost felt like there's a short film somewhere of them getting closer and him getting over Liz and liking MJ instead.

-Nitpick: Same with the whole "other guy also likes MJ" subplot. Eh, I could leave it out and not miss it.

-Nitpick: I still can't with how they expect anyone to buy that Night Monkey story. I mean, it's black suited Spidey no matter which way you look at it. And yes, people should immediately notice he's at the very least one of the students at Peter's high school, and then it can't be too hard after that. I mean, Peter doesn't even change his voice while he's in the suit.

-Nitpick: I was kind of hoping for more clues or reactions to half of everyone, you know, being fucking murdered by Thanos for five years and returning to their lives. But I guess that was just pushed aside because it could become a whole rabbit hole issue. Still, though, I was hoping someone would tell us if the Snapped just don't remember being dead or if there is some kind of afterlife they experienced. (Side note: wow, holy shit, the teacher's mini story about it was dark and awful but I did laugh out of shock. I mean, damn. Low blow, wifey. Low fucking blow.)

-They mention spidey sense but I'd have liked it if they explicitly explain why he has it sometimes but other times he doesn't? It seems to fluctuate, but why and how? Is it more like anxiety or an extra sense? Is it based on his emotional health? I want clarification.

All in all, I had a good time and I'd put this in the middlegrade MCU films. I still really enjoy Holland in the role and I want nothing but good things for him and this franchise.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Supernatural Season 14 Wishlist

It's getting close to season 14. Not close enough, unfortunately but we're getting there. So here's some thoughts on things I would like to see in this upcoming season. Keep in mind when reading this, I don't really watch the panels where they hint at what's going to happen or hang out in the spoilers section of the fandom community. I like to go into the season blind for the most part. So if you know any of these aren't going to come true, keep it to yourself. Let this small time blogger dream, okay.

1) Obviously my SPN Season 14 Theory 1. I really want that to come true. I feel like most of my SPN followers found me through that post but if there are some of you out there who don't know what I'm talking about, I'll give you the cliff notes version.

Basically, I want a flashback of the moment Dean said yes to Michael. But before he gives the ok for Michael to jump his meat suit, he embraces Cas and whispers to Cas, "Yes." Meaning he's giving Cas permission to possess him if Michael takes complete control and refuses to leave Dean. Then we have episodes where Cas possesses Dean and within the confines of Dean's body, helps him boot Michael out. This could take a few episodes though as in order to do this, they need to catch Michael and subdue him in some way so once Cas gets to Dean, Michael won't destroy Cas immediately upon entrance.

2) Moments with my brotp, Sam and Cas. They have such a fun friendship, Jared and Misha have such fun chemistry, it completely boggles my mind why the show doesn't play into it more.

3) An Adventure with Castiel. You know how the show kind of explains episodes Misha isn't in? It's usually, "Cas is on a mission." It would be fun to actually see an episode of a day in the life of Cas. To go with him on one of these missions. Like, his trip to Syria sounded so amazing. I don't understand why the show chose to skip the Syria trip and instead show us their rendition of the Godfather with Sam and Dean. Watching Cas's Excellent Adventure in Syria sounded way more fun.

4) It would be great to have scenes with Dean and Cas that lasts more than 30 seconds.

5) More of the Sam and Rowena dynamic. These two and their relationship with each other is so fucking interesting. Seriously. I need more of these two.

6) I want to see more of Jessica The Reaper. It could be really cool if it was revealed that she was actually Sam's Jessica.

7) More of Billie as death. I love Billie, plain and simple and I want more of her.

8) Obviously, Wayward Sisters. I want to see my girls again. I want to know what's going on with au!Kaia. I also want more scenes of Cas and Claire interacting. I really enjoyed those two in season 10. I personally believe that Cas's endgame is a human endgame but another part of me likes this idea of Cas watching over the Novak family for generations to come as part of the promise he made to Jimmy.

9) Father-Son moments between Cas and Jack. You know, considering Jack essentially "chose" Cas to be his father, it's surprising they didn't have too much of a relationship in Season 13. They had some stuff and it was good stuff but I'd like to see more.

10) Gabriel not be dead. I mean, come on. How bad was that story arc last season? It had its good moments i.e. the Loki stuff but it was such a half-assed and rushed redemption arc that really just made all the hoops the writers had to jump through to get him back feel kind of pointless. Although the scene with Gabriel and Rowena was pretty funny.

11) See more of Ketch. I'm not that happy he got a redemption arc, he definitely didn't deserve one, but whatever. He was given one and it was poorly done but it happened. Let's see more of him in his redemption to change my feelings on him in season 13.

12) These AU characters become their own individuals. If you want my honest opinion, I didn't want these AU characters to cross over into the main SPN universe. But now that they're here, I want them to be their own characters and not be used as a cheap ploy to have the old characters back.

13) Some resolution on the angels plotline. The season was coming to a close and this plot just kind of stopped.

14) For Chucks sake, get Adam out of hell. Hilly and Hannah did it, why can't these writers? Poor Adam has been trapped there long enough. It could be cool to have a Michael vs Michael showdown.

15) Hilly and Hannah from the The Hillywood Show should totally make a guest appearance. Even if it's just a cameo.

16) I'm super happy Lucifer is dead. He's long out stayed his welcome. Please, Andrew Dabb, reign in Bucklemming. Do not let them give Lucifer a redemption arc. It's too late at this point. But with that said, I do enjoy Mark Pellegrino as an actor so I wouldn't mind seeing him back on the show.

I think that's all I've got for right now. I'm sure I'll add on later as I think up more stuff. Plus, the season 13 DVD will be dropping next week so I'll definitely re-watch the season then and maybe it'll give me more ideas.

As always, feel free to let me know how you feel about this list. The only thing I ask is you respect my views and opinions like I'll respect yours. Fandom is fun. Fandom toxicity is not fun.

[ultrahpfan5blog]

Rewatching Snyderverse Part 2 - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Before this movie came out, I was unimaginably excited. I am a 90′s kid, so I grew up watching BTAS and STAS and then Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. So watching Batman and Superman interact on screen for the first time was something I was so ready for. Plus, on top of that we had Wonder Woman in the movie as well. There was no way this movie could be less than awesome. I hadn’t loved Man of Steel, but I thought it was decent enough that Snyder could build on it if he kept his worst impulses a bit more restrained. Unfortunately what happened was that he just doubled down on a lot of things that I had a problem with in MoS and introduced a host of new issues as well. When I had initially walked out of the theatrical edition, I was desperately trying to convince myself that I liked the movie. It took a couple of more rewatched to get over my denial that I really didn’t like it much at all. I watched the UE much later and while its an improvement, it doesn’t convert it into a good movie.

Firstly the good parts, Ben Affleck essentially carries the film. When he was cast, I was indifferent because I hadn’t seen enough of him to have an opinion either way. But he was really good. He’s not quite Christian Bale, but Bale had the benefit of better writing. But he really delivers as the bitter and hardened Bruce Wayne/Batman. He carries off the charismatic womenizing business man side as well as the brutal Batman side of the character with equal ease. Jeremy Irons is also an excellent Alfred. I quite enjoyed how Snyder made the Bruce/Alfred dynamic more of two colleagues working together compared to the more father/son relationship of the Nolan movies, Irons really delivers the only bits of humor in the movie. Gal Gadot as WW was a surprise bit of casting. I didn’t think much of her as an actress from the F&F movies and sometimes her dialogue delivery is still a little suspect but she was quite a badass as Diana/WW. And her appearances and scenes, especially alongside Affleck, are pretty good. The visual aspect of this scene is impeccable. There are some glorious shots accompanied perfectly by the score. The shot of Superman saving the girl from a burning building and the people treating him like a god, the Superman memorial sequence, its all very well shot and composed. The entire opening sequence is glorious and you truly get the weight of the horror that regular people would have experienced when the battle of Metropolis happened. You can never make complaints of Zack Snyder as a visual director. The action is superb. The Batman warehouse scene might be the most badass superhero fight sequence I have ever seen, rivalled only by the Spider-man 2 train sequence and TWS highway fight. The Batman and Superman titular fight is also well done as is the final fight sequence. There are interesting ideas planted in this movie. The idea of a world grappling with the existence of Superman and how he fits within our society is genuinely fascinating.

But unfortunately, Snyder does a lot more wrong in this movie than he does right. Firstly, I just felt embarrassed for Henry Cavill in this movie. Any charisma and warmth he showed in MoS is just sucked dry by the layers of misery the film just piles on. Cavill spends the entire movie just scowling and grimacing and I don’t even feel I can blame him because that’s what Snyder has him do. Its just a royal waste of an actor who looks like he is the perfect casting for the role. Amy Adams has a reasonably substantial role and Lois and she’s fine, but it feels throughout that the film is trying to find a way to keep her relevant because they have committed to the idea of her being the key. There is an entire sequence where she throws away the Kryptonite spear, then has to retrieve it, and then almost drowns in the process. That’s where the film feels like its trying way too hard to give Lois Lane something to do. Like with MoS, I just don’t buy the Cavill and Adams chemistry and therefore its all the more difficult to accept the idea that she’s the key to Superman. Jesse Eisenberg is pretty terrible as Lex Luthor. I don’t know what Snyder was thinking. Again, I kind of have difficulty laying blame on Eisenberg because he gives a very Eisenberg performance, which is what Snyder must have been going for. It just doesn’t work at all. He just comes off as an unstable person right from the beginning. There are one or two scenes where he hits the right note, but otherwise its a very cringey performances and it really affects the film negatively. There is a whole host of talented actors who are wasted like Holly Hunter, Laurence Fishburne, and Diane Lane. 

The film is just so over plotted. Its like 3 movies fighting for space in one movie and it works against each movie. There is a compelling Batman movie in here, along with a pretty dull Superman movie, along with a Justice League setup film. The theatrical edition had some terrible editing and there were subplots that just didn’t make sense. The UE is definitely a more coherent movie as it makes the africa plot make more sense and gives some of the scenes more room to breathe, but the truth is that I was bored for about 2 hours of the UE. So much of it is just dull conversation and posturing between characters. The only parts where the film comes to life is when Affleck and Irons are on screen. I have no problem with an action lite superhero movie, but then the dialogue and the situations need to be compelling and not so monotonous. The film also just does not have enough time to suitably come up with a reason why Batman and Superman would want to fight. I mean, I really liked Affleck but the justifications he comes up with to want to straight up murder Superman make no sense. He’s a bit of an idiot and gets manipulated by Lex way too easily. If you really pick apart the Lex Luthor plot, it would unravel so easily because it relied on some many things that were beyond his control. Superman’s reason to be against Batman has a bit more in the UE, but its still not enough. Then there is the completely ham handed Justice League setup. I mean, someone who has no idea of Injustice or deep DC mythology would have no clue what the Knightmare sequence was and what the Flash cameo meant. I now have more context having read what Snyder planned to do, but at the time it didn’t make any sense. We still have no clue why Bruce is having these future memory flashes/dreams. Not to mention the ridiculous JL setup videos, set with logos for all the heroes. The idea that someone at Lexcorp spent the time to come up with the superhero logos for WW, Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg was just too funny. Its just the most lazy way to do a JL setup. Of course there is the infamous Martha scene which is a ridiculous scene no matter how you choose to explain it. I know what the point was. Doesn’t make the execution an less silly. Then on top of that we get thrown into a Doomsday/death of Superman story in the last half hour. Doomsday basically looks like a big mutated turtle. I recognize that Doomsday is not the most nuanced character, even in the comics, but surely he deserves better than this. There have been animated films and cartoons that have adapted Doomsday much better. Like with MoS, this film also ends with an three back to back action sequences with no room to breathe, though I admit that I enjoyed the action sequences here more than in MoS.

Anyways, the film ended up a big disappointment for me and a lot of my issues stem with decisions that Snyder clearly made with the characters and with the story. The UE was definitely better but not by a huge amount. The theatrical edition was a 3/10, and the UE was about a 4-4.5/10 for me. I have heard that ZSJL is the best of his DC movies. Hopefully that turns out to be the case.

[meganmazing]

another phlint rec list*

i’ve done one of these before (1), and phlint also shows up in one of my multi-fandom rec lists (2), so if you want more of these two, check those out!

click the titles and author names for links and remember to show love to your authors in the form of comments/kudos, they love it all, i promise.

READ THE TAGS AND WARNINGS ON EVERYTHING, PLEASE <3

(*except for one fic that is technically not phlint-centered, but it’s a sequel to a phlint fic and it is important and 100% recommended reading, plus Clint plays a role, so.)

Phil Comes Back

Never Sold a Lie by nerdwegian        Words: 7k+  Rating: M

"The Life Model Decoys are designed with a self-sustaining Artificial Intelligence, with the project goal being for them to be able to pass as their Target Model in any given situation."

Road trip fic. Obviously.

EDIT: Now also available as podfic by the lovely, amazing shell!

YEAH, YOU DID READ THAT RIGHT. This story broke my heart, but becasue I am who I am (read: a massive sap), it has a happy ending. It’s Clint’s perspective and so the Clint feels are front and center, but I was thrown by how hard it hit me with the PHEELS. The grief is so well done on Clint’s part, and I love how the author dug right into that, BUT PHIL. 

It’s not the road trip trope you’re expecting. No spoilers, becasue it’s better if you don’t know a ton going in.

ask ourselves what road to take by topaz     Words: 47k+    Rating: E

Clint knew it was going to be bad as soon as he looked up from whatever the hell Nat had gotten for him to eat and saw Fury standing in front of him.

Clint and Steve being friends is generally overlooked in a lot of the stuff I’ve read, so every time it pops up in a fic’s tags I’m like, “oh right, this is a thing!”

It’s the most Hawkeye thing I've read in a long time, and I love it. It follows along with MCU movies, too, but GOD. It hurts, and hurts so good. The ending totally melted my soul.

(Barney shows up ~kinda~ but this is not the fic I referenced earlier. I read this before I actually cared about Barney, so when he ~kinda~ popped up I didn’t give a shit, BUT EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT NOW)

AU

I Could Live by the Light of Your Eyes by nerdwegian  Words: 43k+  Rating: E

All Clint wanted was to get laid.

(In which Clint meets a mysterious man who may or may not be named Phil, and accidentally stumbles into a big conspiracy where very few things are what they seem to be.)

The quote that won me over:  ""You're going to get me fired," Clint says, which is also dumb as hell. He's going to get his own ass fired, all because he can't turn down a fucking blowjob from an assassin in a three-piece suit, what the actual fuck, Barton-- ”

This is amazing. The way they play with the lore/canon of the MCU is incredible, and honestly, that universe is so interesting I wish there was more of it. I audibly when “OOOOHHHH...hell yeah” more than once. Phil is awesome. Clint has a complicated relationship with impulse control. Life is bad ass and messy.

Good Publicity (is worth its weight in tequila) by aftersoon   Words: 18k+ Rating: M

All Phil wanted was a quiet drink. What he got was a devastatingly handsome archer, one meddling boss, and a job in PR for the most destructive team of superheroes he'd ever heard of.

I thought I hated AUs that had Clint as an Avenger and Phil as a civilian, but damn. Add this to the list of things I can’t say anymore. The way he gets tied into the whole team is great, and I loved how involved everyone was. Plus, obviously, Clint. Always. 

If you’re looking for a good Phil-centered fic, and you like AU, definitely don’t skip this one. 

Chilling with the Avengers

There's a Dog-Related Pun in There Somewhere (Don't Worry; Tony's On It) by Perpetual Motion  Words: 11k+  Rating: G  

Phil gets turned into a corgi. There are emotions involving Clint. That's literally the entire plot.

Tony’s name is in the title. Is it a surprise that I clicked on this story? At this point, it really shouldn’t be.

The corgi!Clint fics in this fandom are the best, and so hell yeah I clicked on a corgi!Phil one. And I am so glad I did, because it’s the cutest thing and so funny. Out of all the recs on this list, this is the one that’s pure fluff and goodness.

Pre-MCU

This One Time in Shanghai by Eligh         Words: 9k+ Rating: E

Clint and Phil just keep on accidentally having sex. And then Phil screws it up with (ugh) feelings.

HELL YEAH HE DOES.  The way this is written is so Phil, and the style/flow of it changes as Phil's understanding of his own feelings change, and it was just so damn well done. Plus, there are expertly done sexytimes with FEELINGS (a lot of both in this fic, tbh). All the love to the author, seriously.

(The cameo in the end had me going: is that...? IT IS.)

Series 

Line of Sight (series) by shadowen      8 Works Total  Ratings: E/M/T

My series bookmark just reads: If you haven’t read this series you’re doing so many things wrong. So, clearly, I kinda like it. Just a little. And can I just give all the kudos to the author for making 8 whole works in the series? Bless.

By the time I got to the tags in Part 8 (Anchor Point), I was walking on air.

The first installment is below, and it pretty much cemented my love for the author.

Fifty Pound Draw by shadowen          Words: 30k+  Rating: E

There was always a chance the mission would go wrong.

This fic quite literally builds the relationship from the ground up, and I still vividly remember getting to the end of the very first chapter and thinking, “Oh, Clint”, and wanting to wrap him in a million blankets forever. Dude has been through the ringer.

The final chapter is one of Phil’s mission reports, and holy shit only in this fandom do formal mission reports make me tear up, what the hell. I love Phil so much in this. I mean, I love him always, but the way he’s written here just kills me because the characterization is so spot-on. And so is Clint’s. This is that backstory fic to stomp all backstory fics, and (at least this first part) could be stuck right into the MCU as is with zero change to any of the properties, and that kills me just a little bit more.

And Here’s That Series I Referenced in the Beginning

Landslide by JHSC  Words: 91k+  Rating: E

Clint is seventeen. He has a girlfriend, a baby on the way, and a headlining act in the circus.

Then, he doesn’t.

When I think of amazing OCs, I think of JHSC. The world created here is honestly in a class of it’s own, like an elseworlds tale that my brain just immediately accepts as alternate universe canon - no questions asked. Landslide (and it’s sequel) are very heavy reads, and so I would say know what you can and can’t handle before going into this regarding depression. 

Found family dynamics get me, man, and Landslide is a gut punch. It digs into Clint’s life in a way I don’t often see, and I love this series all the more for how it handles backstory. In my bookmark I rave about the pacing and oh boy, THAT CLIFFHANGER.

Under Pressure by JHSC  WIP, Current Word Count: 83k+   Rating: E 

Barney has a plan: leave the circus, support his family, and get control over his life.

Then his plan gets shot to hell.

I’ll be honest. I hate Barney. Rather, I did, before this fic. Honestly, I knew from how hard I fell for JHSC’s character portraylas las time that there was a good chance it would all happen again, but I’m a little mad about how much I care now.

I will go to the mat for Barney and Paul at this point, and the most recent update was so GOOD. If you want a raw, emotional story that is so real it hurts, but also sweet and romantic, then HERE YA GO. The latest update is getting into THAT CLIFFHANGER in Landslide that left me screaming, and I’m on the edge of my seat for the conclusion, guys, send help.