#there will be filler episodes this season too btw

[ophernelia]

if lykaia was a Netflix series you guys would only be getting 3 more episodes of lykaia and then you wouldn’t see me for two years

[mozzzz05]

I hate to bitch but… I’m going to:

There was just? So much wrong this season and not even because I wasn’t a fan of the ending - in fact, I quite liked that they were 8 little marigolds together - but the rest of it!?

There’s at least three plot lines that added fuck all to the story - and I’m all for fluffing out the stories/characters, love me a filler episode - but not only did we not have time for a filler episode with 4 less episodes than usual those plot lines added nothing to the characters or the story or anything really.

Klaus getting kidnapped (again), no one noticing (again) - getting possessed & having sex, getting buried alive (again, if ykyk) apart from Alison going to save him - what did it add? - I love Klaus he’s literally my favourite character, I always want more Klaus but it kind of feels like they didn’t know what to do with him? - “let’s make him relapse and do some crazy stuff, for shits and giggles!”

Diego & Luther going to the CIA - this is the one I see the most sense in of course, but apart from making Diego realise that he shouldn’t take Lila and his kids for granted and announcing that the CIA guy was part of the whole Jean & Gene cult thing (and getting to see David Castañeda’s abs (despite supposedly having a Dad Bod now?)) it kind of went on too long? It felt like it was slightly misplaced? Idk

And of course, how could it go unmentioned - the Five/Lila romance? whAT THE FUCK!??? Like it’s creepy both ways bcos Ritu Arya is 15 years older than Aidan Gallagher - freshly legal - and because Five is nearly 70 at that point? And that’s without even mentioning the fact that, oh yeah - Lila’s married to his BROTHER? But if you took it out - what would change? Genuinely? That Lila will always choose her family? Choose Diego? Tbh she could easily come to that conclusion without any romance, she clearly longed to go back more than Five did (who btw, abandoned his family after spending his entire life trying to save them - WHAT?)

The only one making any progress was Viktor

And so many things left unexplained- why did Ray leave Alison? What happened to Dave? (Guessing he’s long dead now but we still don’t know if Klaus’ s2 plan had any effect & the only hint of him we got this season was the dog tags (more than last season at least)) Why is Reggie a fucking alien? How did he get to earth??

I just feel so unpleasantly underwhelmed for a show that has meant so much to me the past few years, for an ending that was mildly disappointing but not as much as the 4 episodes that came before it.

[chocostrwberry]

Since in your AU there's less seasons, plot changes, and some different akumas than canon, do you have an idea of what the order of the episodes would be? Or how many episodes are in each season?

Speaking of episodes, are you also planning on writing your AU and posting it as well? Or are you just drawing it out?

I love your art style and your AU (especially as a huge fan of the reverse crush and a marichat stan HAHA)

I have a semi-idea,, Not too much on filler episodes, but it’s paced like Gravity Falls and Danny Phantom in my head; there are fillers, but most of the episodes are plot driven. So maybe 20 episodes each season? Hypothetically?

AND TO BE DEAD HONEST… I DONT KNOW WHAT IM DOING ABAHAHAH

I hadn’t expected so many people to be interested in my au?? I’m sure the art helped tons but I expected people to be more into my illustrations than actually asking about the concept behind it WHICH I AM ETERNALLY GRATEFUL FOR BTW!! 🥹🫶

So,, once I completely flush out my AU (create the masterpost list, make sure everything you could ever know about it is on my blog, etc.) I think I’ll start making more mini-comics!! My dream is to turn it into a webtoon of some sort, but I have little experience with webcomic-making.

Even though all the spoilers for it will be on here and probably already common knowledge, that’s most likely the path I’ll be going down!!

(DW FELLOW MARICHAT STAN, IM WORKING ON MORE INFO ON THEM TOO!! I’m not very good at creating romantic dynamics 👉👈 so I’m struggling a bit on how I want to portray Marichat, since they’re so in love in my AU AHSJWH curse my limited knowledge in romance-)

[justanothersailorscout]

Thanks for responding! Honestly I feel like Qimir isn't really a villain not sure how to label him I could see him being in the gray. I like how the Jedi aren't being portrayed how they sometimes are we all know they're hypocrites they actually do a lot of damage to the children they taught. I do hope we get multiple seasons I know some shows only get 1 season since they were labeled miniseries but I didn't know that until I was wondering why they weren't renewed :( btw I think 8 eps a season is too short

Omg you’re welcome! Thank you for the ask and feel free to message me anytime.

Villains are my *favorite* characters. A good villain thinks they’re right. A great villain *is* right.

I’m honestly not entirely sure where Qimir is going to land in his use of the Force, but I think even if we get some sort of redemption, he almost certainly won’t be a Lightsider. I don’t think this is that kind of story.

But he is correct (and we see this line of thinking in the prequels and again from Luke in The Last Jedi) in that the stringent ways the Jedi have controlled the use of the Force are, well, wrong. The Force shouldn’t be beholden to one side or the other.

THE JEDI ARE GLORIFIED SPACE COPS WHO KIDNAP CHILDREN FROM THEIR HOME TO INDOCTRINATE THEM INTO THEIR WAY OF THINKING.

We can even look at the First Order, and how they took children to train them to be Stormtroopers *because* the Jedi did it first!

I so so so want more time with these characters. Ah! Bring back filler episodes! Here’s hoping for a season 2

[otakween]

Digimon Frontier - Episode 31

I like these quirky side episodes. No big battles, just shenanigans. I was grateful that they introduced a lil bit of new info at the end to take it out of filler territory. Also, it was kinda nice to have an episode without Takuya, Koji and the supporting digimon. Nice to give this trio some time to shine.

Notes:

Koji meeting Patamon and thanking him for the Beowolfmon evolution was cute. So far Patamon's personality is just "polite and well behaved" which is cute, but not particularly interesting. (Just like the other digimon in this show lol)

The art style shift when Junpei was talking about horror movies caught me off guard. I wish they'd do stuff like that more often

The Trailmon graveyard concept was neat but then Angler Trailmon was rejuvenated instead of dying? What does it mean...Also, it was kinda unclear if he knew that was going to happen or not. (Btw, I googled it and apparently elephant graveyards are more of a legend than a reality).

Angler Trailmon was mildly annoying in Japanese and extremely annoying in the dub (they gave him a heavy German accent for some reason). When the kids were crying over him I was rolling my eyes. They got way too emotionally invested in this old dude they just met.

I get that it's to show his age but that mustache they gave Trailmon is nasty (hair on metal in general is...no)

Tiny part of the episode, but I thought the way they used all 3 of the kids' powers to create an ice bowl to bring water to Trailmon was really clever. Always cool to see their powers used for practical things rather than fighting (it might be cool if there was a whole season like that, like digimon powers being used for jobs or hobbies instead of battles)

I feel like they went a little far when they just decided to beat Trailmon up (or maybe just threaten to beat him up) at the end there. It was funny tho. The fact that they all jumped to their strongest forms was the icing on the cake.

So they find out that Ophanimon is imprisoned at the Rose Morning Star which I kinda feel like I already knew based on context clues. Oh well, it's good to know why I should care about this next place their going. Guessing will switch back to Takuya and Koji first though. Maybe by the time they head to Rose Morning Star Koichi will be in the party

[headcanon-territory]

☆ ~ Part 6 review and rambles - by a person who has part 6 as their first TV series watch -> reasons why because of that one edit in instragram that made it look cool

☆ CHAPTER 1 - Herlock Shomes arc aka Lupin III snooze fest ☆

>Ok to simply start, Part 6 has one of my favorite character designs in the series, I really love work of the Art Director of this Part and 2 of the specials they worked in

-But Part 6 Lupin is too attractive for me that I'm not normal when he comes up sometimes

-On a scale of attractiveness Teal Jacket is up there with Koike Lupin and CGI Lupin

~☆

>Art direction good, Animation was rough on them though

> especially the car scenes girl those are part of this series' core that it's kinda funny - they could have cheesed their way in making it cool by yknow by cutting the fps and do some squashing magic but I dont think budget and time can make up anything for it

>I should watch Part 5 for more Albert and Yata especially Albert because Yata, in comparison to what I said in the movie review post is actually... ok just not as exceptional as Prison of the Past Yata

>Ok to the biggest flaw this part have done - The Sherlock Holmes arc that took half the season

-ive been 2x speeding that whole thing because to simply put: It's almost all talk, the characters are cramped into one scene standing so awkwardly, NERFED ZENIGATA

-they should have some time to flex out the thing with Lily and Lupin because it feels so off that she immediatly knew that Lupin didn't kill her father with ease. Girl let the mystery be a mystery like how did she easily move on when that girl is trauamatized by his mere presence the first time she saw him

>And Sherlock and Lupin immediatly resolved their conflict with eachother when Sherlock disguised himself as Zenigata despite how they advertised part 6 as Lupin vs Sherlock

>SERIOUSLY ONE EPISODE WITH THEM INSIDE A LITTLE RESTAURANT WITH CRIMINALS?? THE TALKING TOOK HALF THE EPISODE IN ONE SETTING

>The Angel Fossil episode was written by Mamoru Oshii right?? Man nice to know he got a chance to show off a piece of his cancelled idea back then

-but instead of The little girl actually being an angel from the original pitch it's that blonde dude from the beginning actually being The Archangel, Michael.

-its an interesting plot but sadly was boring

-Do like that Heaven is canon to Lupin

>The time period episodes are the ones I only enjoyed along with the episode with a treasure hunter Grandma - Sad that they were kinda fillers and could have been used for more stuff with Sherlock

>GOT YURI BAITED FUCK

>God I don't think the production crew was enjoying the first half the moment theyre done with that and immediatly up with some Lupgang shenanigans felt like they can stretch their legs again

>I'm not a Sherlock Holmes fan but the closest thing that I watched related to this series is The Great Mouse Detective and I'm telling you TMS, you guys fumbled such a concept about Lupin III against Sherlock Holmes

>the story was almost all talk, they explained that shit to you with no proper buildup I was 2x speeding this shit in one day before school starts

>"Pops is not a badass" TMS count your days

~ CHAPTER 2: The Tomoe Arc ~ Mommy issues fuckfest ~

>Now Tomoe arc is the good shit and I'm so mad that the Lupin vs Sherlock thing was the thing that advertised Part 6 primarily

>infact all of my screenshots from Part 6 is from this half of the series

>Ok we have the Lupin fangirl episode, a Fanfiction episode, the episode with the fashion designer and Goemon -- THOSE ARE MY FAVORITES - AND THEY ARE ALL CONNECTED TO THE ARC THEY WERENT FILLERS??

>Me rn

>She got most of them from Pinterest boards

>I would have those photos as my pfp btw

>I like sweet man Lupin alot that's why I refuse to watch the more harsher lupin media because sweet lupin is such a comfort character

>I'm sorry Part 6, that whole monologue of Lupin in the trailer going "I'm a villain, I do bad stuff" goes nowhere in this series because Teal Jacket Lupin acts specifically like Cagliostro Lupin especially when he's with Mattea

>also Mattea kinda deconstructs the trope of the innocent girl character that we always have in the movies especially how Lupin treats her

-man she is fucked up but sad they didn't show her story more clearly

>Actually all the "Dangerous Women" that appeared each episode also deconstucts the whole thing with the NPC girls from the movies existing there for Lupin to solve their problems with how all of them are containing pieces of a puzzle that Lupin has to solve for his own problems - only for that problem to escalate

>The episodes that distances itself from the plot were fun that I didn't mind

>I'm gonna peg you Lupin

>I'm so horny for Teal Jacket Lupin save my soul

>Stupid snork minimi outfits

>Also the fact they even explained why the Lupgang are shown cooking dinner and have turns is because of Poker

-isnt that the most (unconvetional) marriage thing ever

>Even the 2nd half dosent Yuri Bait you this immediatly is superior than whatever the first half tried to offer

>Ok now the Tomoe arc has some unavoidable flaws, of course the ending and the reveal was lackluster and turns out that Tomoe was just chilling somewhere but hey what else can they do

>But the 2 episodes before the ending was wow..

>slowly and surely we are trying to figure out the nature of Tomoe through all the perspective of the girls and only in Episode 22, we finally got a peak of what Tomoe is capable of

>and how fucked up she is - Tomoe is doing all of that just to get Lupin back??

[TW:S/A AND SUICIDE MENTION]

-She has to fuck up lives of girls especially with Mattea and Mariel like girl?? You are manipulating a girl that she loves the guy that raped her???? And even got another girl in the scene to shoot the men Mariel interacted with and shoot herself after

>Wow how everything is set up and all comes together is great. sad that they all end up standing there in the last confrontation

>Also the surreal parts and fucked up lupin is what I came for holy shit look at that

>Tomoe's plan can't work dawg has his gang on the back of his mind

-Also the cage symbolism

-i really fuck with these scenes

>tomoe those cards aren't meant for you and Lupin that's meant to represent The Lupgang and their poker nights in order to see who's cooking dinner

>Fujiko's symbol item was a lipstick?? but what else can represent Fujiko

>Should have some Zenigata in there because of them being in eachother's subconcious

>Also fucked up Lupin shots goes so hard

>I should watch Mamo I need to dissect the lupins

>I absolutely love Tony Oliver's performance I was interested on how hes gonna work this past episodes out especially that this cast started with this series on crack

>The ending was saved by the conclusion being Polycule love wins

>and the lupgang being important to Lupin kinda shows too during the episodes with the ladies and how they are also connected to some of them

>seriously hold up

-You woke up from a hypnotist's trance because of your "companions"

- Your 'partner' shoves a cigarette into your mouth that was from his MOUTH

-said that they have dinner duties when one of them lose to poker

>Yea Fujiko you simply said that one episode regarding the lupgang, "I wouldn't call them exactly friends"

Yea because THEIR YOUR BOYFRINEDS!!!! YOUR STUPISF BOYFRIENDS!!!1!‼️‼️

>also the series after this was Lupin: Zero and weirdly never shows Lupin's mom but what they show is that Grandpa Lup and Dad Lup are also terrible parents so therefore: Lupin is the result of unproper care when he was a kid, genetics by horrible people and his only loving figure was a creepy woman that manipulated him

~~~~ END - What could've been & Zenigata ~~~~

How everything was set up in the tomoe arc and how that part of of the season was enjoyable enough I do wish They executed it better because alot of ideas had so much potential

Especially some scenes in the middle of the sherlock Holmes part

Like Zeni telling Yata to leave because the case is not safe for him since he knows the lengths Lupin can go and plus Sherlock Holmes but Yata refuses as he won't leave his teacher. Cool right?? And then got fucked over with the lack of Zenigata just for Sherlock to shine.

The overwhelming lack of Zenigata was the biggest flaw this part done even for the 2nd half. The writers don't wanna handle him that they put him in fucking jail for some Yata screentime. I love Yata but Yata content in exchange for Zenigata's??

And Zenigata was the guy that found out Tomoe's hiding spot for the audience to know but he came there last minute

And even they put the usual lupgang shenanigans in the last second

But in the end: Part 6 was saved in the second half but was still overshadowed by the very very undercooked first half that would have worked If the production team even tried

and The cast being so enjoyable kept me going but it really shows that without them I wouldn't have watched anything from the part at all..

~ ~ ~ ~

Sivhghgh,; you can even watch the 2nd half without the need of watching the 1st - It's fun and fun angst

[le--fruitcake]

In the meantime while I anxiously await your plentiful truths, might I ask for what cartoons you might recommend my humble self?

Ah, my vassal! I am neariy finished writing that essay, I promise. Just a while longer, I need to be sure my sources are accurate.

I will say you should watch Samurai Rabbit, despite it being almost painfully cringeworthy at times. It's surprisingly well-written, though! It's only on Netflix.

In terms of TMNT, the only one I can recommend with my whole chest is Rise of the TMNT. I like the others (mostly— 2012 is on Thin Fucking Ice with the Donnie/April thing), but Rise is the best by far! I am Extremely Biased and am going to say you should watch the Usagi crossover episodes of 2003 (S2E23-26, S3E01 [does not contain a whole lot of Usagi, but he and Leo uh. Exchange swords], S3E22-23, S4E13, and S7E13 [no speaking lines, appears as a background character only]) and 2012 (S5E15-17). The 1987 ones (S3E32/34) aren't as good, but you do get to watch Mikey slap Usagi in the face with a pizza. Fucking LMAO. All the TMNT is on Paramount Plus, but far be it from me to tell you not to hoist the colors, matey.

The Amazing World of Gumball... exists! It sure does. I really like the way they play with animation and art style, and it has some honestly amazing physical comedy, but it's very, um... 2012. I think it popularized a lot of tropes you see in more modern cartoons that make them borderline unbearable, but I found myself watching the entire thing and kind of wanting more! It's pretty good if you just want some batshit insane cartoon nonsense, but it has no story to speak of, really. The episodes are both startlingly interconnected and purely standalone. Anais is my favorite character, followed by Nicole, and honestly the men in that family are trash lmao. I think I watched it on Hulu, but it might have been HBO Max.

I like Star Wars, too, specifically Visions, Clone Wars (both 2003 and 2007), and, though I haven't finished it, Rebels. (I like the movies, too! Real shame they never made any past Episode VII. Had so much potential. Smh my head.) Visions S1E8 is my favorite thing Star Wars has ever done btw. Very Heavily Biased. All of this is on Disney Plus.

I have of course seen Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Legend of Korra, and recommend Avatar if by some miracle you haven't seen it, but tbh I don't know if I would recommend Korra. It has very interesting concepts, but the execution is um. Bad. Watching the Straights™️ frothing at the mouth over Korrasami was an Experience! "we poppin' the biggest bottles when Makorra happens tonight" is a regular part lo my vocabulary. Both are on Netflix, I think.

I like Teen Titans! I used to have the first two seasons on DVD. There are a lot of jokes I didn't get as a kid, and so rewatching it as an adult was interesting. I also didn't appreciate Cyborg enough as a kid, man has the best jokes. Robin was always my favorite, but on rewatch, I really can't say who's my favorite. I like Beast Boy's power the best, but Raven is p cool, and Starfire is wonderful, and Cyborg is funny. This is available on The Max Formerly Known as HBO.

I also watched all of the original animated Batman. Batman: The Animated Series, I think it was called? I really really liked that one, it was the perfect mix of edgy and funny, and is my favorite Batman iteration. Mark Hamill Joker also! That interpretation of Two-Face is my favorite, and made him my favorite Batman villain. I still want a silver dollar btw! I already have a $2 bill and several dollar coins, so if I get one of those and a half-dollar, I'll have one of every kind of defunct American currency. I think. I believe this is also available on The Max.

If you count anime as cartoons, Bleach and Fairy Tail are good, if you skip the filler. My Hero is... Pretty good. Mirko is of course my favorite character, and I am now only invested in the show for her sake. Crunchyroll is kinda the go-to for anime, but Hulu also has all three of these. I think Bleach might not be on Crunchyroll anymore also? Very Odd if so because it's one of the Big Ones, but I couldn't find it when I looked last.

Little Witch Academia is adorable! Lesbians abound, and features a surprising amount from actual Celtic lore. It's also quite possible the only anime featuring high school girls that doesn't make any blatant attempt to sexualize them, which is a breath of fresh air. The official anime is a Netflix original, but there apparently exists an OVA that I have not seen, and a movie, that I have, also on Netflix.

Castlevania is extremely good, but I guess it's technically an anime? It's originally in English and has some of the best lines I have ever heard come out of someone's mouth, ever, but it is heavily gorey, and S2 has some Unfortunate Rather Graphic Heterosexuality. Fortunately, one of the characters is confirmed bisexual! It is also a Netflix original.

This was a doozy to answer! I don't watch too many cartoons, per se, because I wasn't allowed watch most of them growing up. Never seen Spongebob, Powerpuff Girls, Phineas and Pherb, etc. etc. Despite that, I am a fan of animated shows over live-action shows, generally speaking, due to the liberties one can take, and the fact that you aren't limited by what you can achieve with human actors and such. The same goes for video games— I prefer heavy style to realism, though the GameCube/PS2 era games had the best of both worlds.

[stageplaymlp]

Hi I wanna start Trigun and you're the person in my feed who mentions it most, should I start with the manga, the old anime or Stampede?

Honestly? You can start wherever. The main three versions of Trigun (1998 anime, the manga, Stampede) are all incredibly varied and you'll get different things out of them. It's a "pick your poison" type deal. I'll give you a quick run down of the different versions so you can choose which is best for you, anon

It's also worth noting that my personal journey with Trigun went: '98 -> Stampede -> TriMax -> BLR

(Oh yeah, there's also a movie called Badlands Rumble. We'll get to it)

'Trigun' / 'Trigun: Maximum' manga: I think it'd be best to start this discussion with the source material. If you're looking for the most complete and rounded story of Trigun, this is it, mainly because it ran the for the longest out of all versions, and is a finished work (Stampede is ongoing). It's also worth noting that this is the darkest version of Trigun so far and goes into some very heavy subject matter (gore, (mostly offscreen) SA, suicidal ideation, etc.) There's a tumblr post listing the various trigger warnings that I'll link at the end of this section. That said, it is definitely my favourite version of Trigun narratively and BOY is it an emotional roller coaster. It's what gave me the brain worms. It's got a good mix of the silly and the sad, while also going BUCKWILD near the end. It's great. Highly reccomend

Oh, yeah, the manga is also split into Trigun and TriMax because the magazine it was published in got canned. Trigun was then picked up again by a new publisher with an added subtitle. Trigun is 2 volumes while TriMax is 14. The manga as a whole ran from 1995-2008. It's all one continous story so don't worry, with the events of TriMax picking up two years after the events of Trigun in-universe

Here's the post btw: https://www.tumblr.com/blackblockconsortia/719247451003977728/and-now-for-trimax-general-warnings-for-trimax

'Trigun' 1998 anime: Ah, the OG, for me at least. Watched this back in 2018 and started me on this ride. It should be worth noting that at the time of 98's creation, only the two volumes of Trigun and the first two volumes of TriMax were out at the time. Due to this, the 98 anime is about 60% filler (as in, anime original content) and it has its own ending, too. I consider it its own story compared to the manga, despite directly adapting a number of its storylines. 98 is only 26 episodes and leans very heavily into the comedic, episodic element in the first half of the story. The manga has this too, but 98 commits to the bit more. Then the second half rolls around and punches you square in the gut. It's great. Not nearly as dark as the manga or Stampede, but 14 y/o me was DEVASTATED by the end of it. Absolutely iconic. Also, while the ending is different to the manga with how things shake out, it's satisfying in its own way

'Trigun: Stampede' 2023 anime: This here is what reignited my love for this series. Now, Stampede is a VERY DIFFERENT BEAST to the 98 anime, which I think is part of why people were hesitant about it on reveal (including me). Stampede is a lot more serious in tone and less episodic, keeping to a consistent plot episode-to-episode (for the most part). It's also only 12 episodes in length as of season 1. The anime is also 3D, but the animation is BEAUTIFUL. Studio Orange know what the fuck they're doing. I also need to mention that Stampede is a reimagining of the manga, not a direct adaptation. It takes the same concepts, lore, characters and themes and moulds them into something new (kind of like the different versions of TMNT). If you watch 98 or read the manga before this one, you will have to go in with an open mind and heart. It's good, though, I promise. What's fun about Stampede is that it came out after the manga was finished, so characters and backstory elements that never got adapted into 98 (because they didn’t exist at the time) finally get animated. I'd say it's more faithful to the story and tone of the manga than 98, but with its own flavour mixed in. It was clearly made with a lot of love for the franchise, too

'Badlands Rumble' movie: BLR came out in 2010 and treats itself like an extra episode of the 98 anime for the most part. It's its own self-contained story, and plays off of the dynamics and characterisation of 98 than other versions, with a number of nods to the anime mixed in. Hell, a new version of the 98 anime opening 'H.T.' even shows up in the soundtrack. It doesn't tie into the wider story of any version of Trigun, but if you want another silly adventure with some killer action scenes, then I'd reccomend it. I'd suggest watching 98 before this, though, but it won't ruin the movie if you don't. You can know fuck all about Trigun and enjoy this. Although, warning for Vash being a bit of a weirdo to the leading lady. He needs to calm down

There was also a tie-in manga for the release of the movie called 'Trigun: Multiple Bullets'. The first two chapters directly follow the events of BLR, while the rest of the chapters are an anthology made by guest artists. Warning, though, most of the other chapters take place after the events of TriMax and can contain spoilers. In terms of quality, the chapters are... Okay. I like some more than others. Boichi (mangaka of Dr. Stone) drew a Very Manly Vash and he scares me. Also, I should mention the storyline about the side-character, Rei-Dei the Blade, has offscreen SA and CSA. It took me off guard because I didn't know it was in there, and it's pretty messed up. I'd still recommend MB if you want some extra Trigun, and some of the chapters are genuinely funny and heart warming, but I wanted to give the heads up

Now, with all this considered, there are two places I'd reccomend starting Trigun: the 98 anime or Stampede

The 98 anime is more lighthearted and keeps a lot of answers to the lore close to its chest. I found discovering more about the world through other versions to be narratively satisfying, like one big unravelling mystery. TriMax and Stampede also greatly expand and improve upon concepts in 98 as well. It's a good way to ease you in to the world of Trigun while making you want more. You fall in love with the characters, and THEN the plot whacks you upside the head with a frying pan. I like the slow burn

Stampede is the opposite. You get right into the action out the gate. It offers answers to questions far quicker than 98 ever did. The ball is rolling and it rolls FAST. You want the meat and potatoes of Trigun shoved in your face? Stampede is for you. It's also better if you prefer serious, story-driven media. Although, Stampede isn't complete yet, so you will have to wait for 'Trigun: Stargaze' to come out for the full narrative to resolve

AND THAT'S WHERE THE MANGA COMES IN BABYYYYYYY!!!!! It has the humour and slow build of 98 AND the complex story and tone of Stampede. It's the best of both worlds. You get all the answers, you get that satisfying resolution, and you get to cry on the side of your bed from the amazing writing (like I did). You won't even get that spoiled for what will come after Stampede, because who knows how much of it Studio Orange will take from and how. All roads lead to the manga. That is my advice

Also all the OSTs for Trigun (98, BLR and Stampede) are AMAZING. Go listen to them. They're all on Spotify, if that helps

I wrote this at 3am. I hope this is coherent

[mdhwrites]

So, what do you think would have happened to Amphibia if its third season got shortened down to three hour long specials like Owl House did?

So A: this question is flawed. The shortening wasn't told to TOH's crew post S2. They were told WELL in advance. Dana is on record (source) for having said as much. The news came down on episode 7 of S2. Reasonably, this probably meant not a lot of S2A could have been changed due to deadlines but I don't know how all this works that well. For the sake of this, I'm going to mostly assume that something could have started changing starting episode eight and more drastic changes could be done after the mid season hiatus.

B: TOH needed S2B to mostly look identical to setup for going into the human realm, for having the Day of Unity as the finale and for the Collector to be set up as a villain by then. There are maybe two episodes you could change but nothing that is emblematic of the problems of S2B as a whole. Here's an entire blog about that. Btw, I published that blog before the finale came out and my opinion is mostly that that blog is kinder than it should have been.

C: I am not going to say this is a better version of Amphibia. Some might though. A lot of people think S2B and S3 of Amphibia is loaded with what they see as filler. Even I agree that you could probably cut a fair amount and not lose the core of the show. I'm about to demonstrate that. Also, just inherently because of a faster pace, the show would have to be more about the trio, or feel that way at least (again, I'll get into it), which the majority of the Amphibia fandom argues is what the show should have done anyways. So yeah, it's kind of an interesting conundrum.

D: I'll mostly talk about the weaknesses of this rewrite once I'm done. For anyone who needs a refresher though: S2, Episode 7 of Amphibia, the last one before this change, is one after Marcy at the Gates and has the segments "Scavenger Hunt" and "The Plantars Check In." Oh and before I get to the three specials, I'll mostly just be trying to slot in episode segments because that feels the most fair to actually capture a reasonable timeline for the show. Like I'm not coming up with cheats to handwave issues that this change would cause. As such, I'm not going to do something like cut The First Temple in half just for the sake of claiming more time. Once we get to the specials, that will change because those episodes' structures would have inherently changed, kind of like how The Hardest Thing has a different structure due to its extended run time. Until then though? I'll mostly be trying to effectively Mad Libs this off of what we already have despite the fact that the creators would have, at least if they're responsible, made changes to work within their new time frame. I'm going to give myself one unreasonable shift in return for this handicap effectively of not being able to change the core structure of the show or its plot points.

ANYWAYS. With that out of the way:

For the sake of pacing, you probably do Lost in Newtopia and then the Sleepover to End All Sleepovers as episode 8 because we can't literally go straight into leaving Newtopia and one could argue that the sleepover is important foreshadowing. However, the next episode is then a double whammy of A Day at the Aquarium to say farewell to Newtopia and still have that touching confirmation of the found family before then skipping Night Drivers and going straight to Return to Wartwood for the second segment, bringing us up to nine.

Then I would actually move Toad to Redemption into the first slot for episode ten because it is thematically important and a good rallying moment for Wartwood. You could also replace with Ivy on the Run for the sake of Sprivy and just make episode 13 into episode 10 by making After the Rain be the mid season finale. It's dramatic enough to do so and lets:

The First Temple opens S2B and episode 15 of the normal show, New Wartwood and Friend or Frobo stays too in order to help setup Wartwood's relationship with humans besides Anne and to get Frobo in. That brings the count to 12.

Then you do episode 17 as episode 13, Barrel's Warhammer and The Second Temple, because we do still need a bit more time with Sasha to prep for True Colors and The Second Temple is obvious. However, I'd probably swap their positions because then episode 14 is The Third Temple (so you don't have two temples literally back to back, even if the two are different episodes like in the actual show) and The Dinner... With Battle of the Bands being cut. It's Sasha's weakest episode, is just kind of reinforcement of a few elements and some expansion on the three's relationship, though mostly Anne and Sasha. The Dinner is needed though to get Sasha with the other two and heading to Newtopia because...

There is a quarter season finale now with True Colors. It is ABSOLUTELY the most radical choice in this rewrite and you could arguably say that it's not fair because Disney wouldn't have allowed them to have that episode as anything but a season finale. This is the only 'cheat' I'll give myself since I'm not altering episodes drastically or the like to fit in with the new time frame. Plus side: They'd have the compelling pitch that in five episodes, they CAN get back to Amphibia to make that the season finale. Otherwise there isn't really much to change before S3 because so much has to wait on the major turn of Andrias becoming the main villain. That version of this outline though, that S2 doesn't change at ALL, is... A genuine nightmare on a lot of fronts and honestly less reasonable than thinking this would be allowed and I'll get to why after the outline. Oh, there is one change that needs to happen unfortunately: Frobo probably doesn't make it in this version after this. Polly and him unfortunately just aren't important enough to really get the wrap up they do in S3. It does mean that mechanic Polly during the ending probably has an RC robo or the like with her to help explain where her being a mechanic came from.

Anywhos: Episode 16 is The New Normal... Mixed with Anne-sterminator. Anne is honest about the danger they're in from go and instead of the quarantine montage, we get her actually beating the Cloak Bot first try to show how far she's come to her parents and to show off the new powers alongside their cost.

Then you do Fight at the Museum followed by Turning Point for episode 17 to start the ball rolling on getting back as well as get Sasha into place and finish up her arc.

Episode 18 has Temple Frogs because the Plantars DO need to still connect with Earth and Temple Frogs is EASILY the best episode of that as it explores how different Anne is from the start of the show and how that isn't entirely a good thing because of the things she's now ignoring, fits thematically with the show as a whole and is just a lot of fun. The other side meanwhile is Olivia and Yunan. I would almost not advocate for keeping this episode for a lot of reasons but it's kind of necessary in order to set up for:

The Core and the King is in episode 19 because Andrias' backstory is REALLY important to how he is beat and to also understand what the Core is and what the kingdom of Amphibia can do. What the stakes are to all of this. It is also the one segment in the actual show itself that explores the villain so you can't really cut it. The other half of the episode though is If You Give a Frog a Cookie because we need Terry.

Especially because you might have noticed that I didn't include Mr. X. There just isn't room for them for the most part which luckily... Is okay. He's fun but his parts can be mostly replaced either with faceless people or Terry. You can also just go with his first appearance actually being him taking the Plantars in this episode. Maybe there's been foreshadowing at the end of Earth segments of someone watching. Something that only takes a few seconds but builds up to honestly having Escape to Amphibia be mostly the same as it was but with a reduced cast and less familiarity with Mr. X as a villain.

So that covers S2. Now there are 3 45 minute specials on average to cover all of S3B. Or more so there's two specials to cover the seven episodes between Escape to Amphibia and The Hardest Thing because Amphibia's finale already had an extended time slot. As 45 minutes is effectively two episodes each, you need to save on three episodes. Six segments.

That's... easier said than done because the segments are actually incredibly important to Amphibia's storytelling and these specials could technically be split into four segments each but more likely they actually have to tell a through line story per special. You can't jump AS MUCH as you could before.

So Special 1 starts with effectively Commander. The reintroduction to Wartwood and the finalizing of Sasha's new self after her character arc is not something you can really leave out. Plus side is that Commander Anne is a really efficient eleven minutes to introduce what Amphibia is like now and you probably don't do the pampered brat routine with the Plantars which is not a real loss. The theme of this special though is allies so the target of Sasha's mission when Anne gets back changes.

The goal is now to free Mother Olm. This way you can skip the Olms themselves and still get the prophecy and foresight from Mother Olm that sets up the finale. It also allows a smooth transition into meeting with Mother Olm in general. She warns them they'll need allies once they're done and we get a montage of the a lot of what people consider filler in S3 with getting allies, though mostly the Toads, Newts and the Killerpillars probably. You could also do this with people splitting up so that each one gets a truncated version of the full segment to get them. Then the final portion of the special is Sasha and Anne hoping their efforts paid off before Sprig shows Lief's hidden room to get Lief's letter.

Then Special 2 is effectively episodes 16 and 17 of S3. Just consolidating the army, heading out, then protecting Earth after midway through the special everything goes wrong. Not really anything even has to be changed here really except just smoothing out the transitions between segments. Admittedly, the Plantars probably rely more on Domino 2 to replace the loss of Frobo and unfortunately Polly just doesn't have a lot to do in All In.

Then Special 3 is literally just The Hardest Thing. Pretty much no changes I think because the elements for it have still been covered.

And that's it. It's not by any means perfect of course. Elements are rushed and some elements probably feel neglected or abandoned entirely. I already mentioned Polly but this version also means Sprivy is ignored post S1 effectively and just has a nice come back at the end of the finale (which is a good argument for Ivy on the Run over Toad of Redemption for the filler segment in episode 10 of the rewrite). Worse yet... Sprig is kind of ignored and Anne and his friendship is mostly left fallow. I admittedly don't think the show does the best job keeping it burning post S1 but S1 sells it HARD already as part of the stable base of the show so it's not a big problem. It also harms the connection to Amphibia itself so a line like "They aren't Amphibia's greatest treasure" doesn't hit as hard.

It would almost certainly feel actually rushed... Which is a fuckton better than what happened with TOH because TOH doesn't feel rushed. Its three specials are incredibly bloated with plotlines THEY introduce, or S2B introduced, that go nowhere. Or hell, resolutions that mean nothing, like how Luz finishes her character arc THREE. FUCKING. TIMES. Even people who love TOH still will admit the majority of For the Future is filler. That it does nothing to actually move anything forward, wrap much of anything up that couldn't have been left alone (besides Stringbean but that moment is cut off at the knees immediately by the finale's dream sequence) and those are people who won't bring up how Willow had her power problems resolved literally two seasons ago. S3 is so bankrupt on what to do to fill the time that they bring it back anyways, alongside Kikimora who has NO REASON to still be a villain we're dealing with.

That is the HUGE difference here. TOH doesn't actually feel like we're missing out on anything with its S3 besides fluff and maybe a bit of exploration on the whole Grimmwalker thing. The specials just don't feel like they actually know what to do in the first place though. It makes it feel like we're mostly missing out on filler but there's already so much of that in these episodes. Even the elements that could have been expanded, like Belos backstory, the human realm shenanigans and the Collector's redemption are rough because none of these are from before the shortening. Only Hunter's arc is really something stared BEFORE THE SHORTENING. Belos' backstory and the contradictory nature of The Collector, like how he absolutely knows what death is during Hollow Mind and is a complete evil fucker there... Are written in S2B. They were included and written as part of the shortening. Hell, the human realm and the Collector as a whole weren't even planned for S3 supposedly. They were things they wanted to do but didn't have a place for them and so just jammed in these MASSIVE new elements that needed more time than was available with no care for the fact that they had NO TIME. (I don't have a source for this unfortunately.)

Admit you didn't have a plan for your show without admitting you didn't have a plan.

That also brings up an element that I brought up at the top: How much the story might have actually changed. I'm having to work off of the main outline provided by the show but it's entirely possible that The Core might not have been included. That Earth might not have. Changes would have happened to the overall story and it's kind of impossible to reasonably guess how. After all, I wouldn't have guessed that an all powerful child and a trip to the human realm would have been responses to a shortening for The Owl House.

So I did my best and I still stand by that this would still be a fine to good version of the show. That it wouldn't have been impossible to tell a full narrative with the time given. One that is still thematically coherent, has a strong finale that doesn't contradict itself and still has plenty of fun in it to counterbalance the higher focus on the more dramatic elements.

That's still a LOT better than can be said for TOH's finale, let alone its three specials.

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

I ended up just rewriting the outline as a way to give it more thought instead of copy and pasting the first one I wrote. *whimpers*

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

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

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[soapdispensersalesman]

I finished watching The Cleveland Show last Friday, been wanting to write a review of some sort about it but couldn't really find the words to do so yet.

It's an interesting spin-off, I remembered when it first started airing in the Netherlands around 2010-ish that I was intrigued by the idea of a "black" Family Guy spin-off, not yet realising that Cleveland was being voiced by a white guy at the time until shortly afterwards. I did remember the characters from the show, the slightly uncanny character designs compared to Family Guy, and of course Cleveland's rap! I used to keep an mp4 of that rap on my MDA Vario IV Windows Mobile PDA, playing that on the Windows Media Player app as I fantasized about becoming a musician as I was listening to very niche music from chiptune to underground rap music I came across on YouTube that mostly sounded catchy as my English listening skills weren't up to scratch yet.

I vaguely remembered episodes where the stories just felt "off"

But enough rambling, let's get to the actual review:

(Beware of spoilers)

The first episode was MUCH funnier than I remembered, I was prepared for the absolute worst and poorly aged jokes for a 15 year old show but I honestly thought it was hilarious! The meta joke of the "black show written by white people" sets an interesting tone for what I think the idea of The Cleveland Show was. I genuinely enjoyed the first season of The Cleveland Show, the cutaway gags were neat too, although one might notice that there's just a different vibe in the air, I still struggle to put it into words in a way that makes sense, but the animation style feels different from Family Guy and American Dad. I should mention that beyond looking up the writers, I have not yet looked into the team behind The Cleveland Show (or any of Seth's shows for that matter), so it wouldn't surprise if different animators worked on this.

I've mentioned this before, but The Cleveland Show's animation style resembles that of a Playstation 2 game. It might be the fast-paced "stop and go" animation where characters quickly move from pose A to B when talking ans background characters sometimes being so static that they keep staring at a subject that has since disappeared. There are so many scenes where you could add a loading screen behind and it would feel natural lol I'm on the spectrum btw

Season two was also pretty funny and enjoyable! I do start to notice that the whole "black comedy" part of the show starts to disappear, but the stories surrounding Cleveland's family still make sense to me and show interesting characters dynamics and growth.

Season three is where the show started to lose me a little. Even though this show has little to none necessary need for canon events and continuity just like Family Guy and American Dad, the stories just did not make sense to me strangely enough. What might have been a contributing factor for me is the character designs on The Cleveland Show being far more detailed than any character I've seen in Family Guy and American Dad, most camera compositions being in medium-medium close added to those details as it felt more like a "single camera sitcom" compared to those total shot multi camera sitcoms.

I feel like I was "hate watching" season four to some extent. But the episodes just did not feel interesting to watch. A large majority of season three and four felt like "filler episodes" if that make sense. Not literally but there's that feeling you experience when watching those episodes that feels similar to watching a filler episode of any show with a more canon storyline.

I can see why the show got cancelled because you could feel the decline, I do wonder what a "finale" would've looked like. In any scenario, the family would probably return to Quahog either way but it would be nice to give the characters some closure.

Here's a list of other thoughts as the formatting of this pose is already messy enough:

Love the guest stars brought on this show, Ye's character Kenny West still gotta be my favourite character. Ye's voice acting sounds a bit monotonous as of he's either reading the script out loud or having a difficult time saying his lines with the time codes. I'd kinda love for his character to make a return to Family Guy or American Dad.

Gus is another character I love and HOLY MOLY you're telling me that David Lynch voiced Gus?! That discovery made me love Gus' character even more!

The hurricane episode missed the mark for me! The family trying to navigate around Junior being an atheist has such potential to make for a powerful storyline, but sadly misses the mark so much! The family does not find common ground with Junior and then completely ruins it when Cleveland sneezes and Junior says "god bless you!"

Choni's introduction to the show feels so unfortunate. They painted her so cocky and it made it difficult for me to sympathize with her during her first episode. it's sad because her character in general is pretty lovely.

Cleveland Junior being a spy who got rid of the original Junior is so funny to me and I choose to believe that this is (still) canon in Family Guy

I disliked the international episode with a passion, but the German segment parodied a certain "Persona 2 character" that acquainted me about info surrounding the writers that suddenly made me aware why so many characters were... like the writers (Forgive me for the vague wording for I'm not informed enough but have zero issues with these characters, it was just a bit notable, especially as they kinda took the place of what I feel like initially was supposed to be black characters)

I watched multiple reviews about the show on YouTube to see if they experienced similar things I did and could put them into words, I agree with how all of them point out the bond in Cleveland's family and how everyone learns to get along, make mistakes, and learn/grow from them!

Like most other fans, I wish that Family Guy involved Cleveland's family more often! Seeing Rallo and Roberta just standing in the background despite probably being the strongest two characters back in The Cleveland Show is such a shame to seeing them reduced to a "Boondocks ripoff" punchline.

Donna's ex husband getting together with her mom makes me realize that Donna is now technically canonically also the older sister of Roberta and Rallo.

That's pretty much all, might add more thoughts later.

[robinreflects]

I got an ask for you!

For both Hazbin and Helluva, what episodes of each respective series do you hate/are your least favorites thus far? And what are the main issues you have with them, if any specifically call out to you?

Personally for Hazbin it's Episode 3. It feels the weakest to me structurally speaking compared to most of the other episodes, like Alastor was going and doing this thing he's up to while the B plot does fuck all to actually show the characters bonding together. Charlie and Vaggie's conflict there felt like the most nothing thing ever, too. Zestial deserved way more than Episode 3, I hope he has something to do in Season 2.

I think Carmilla definitely needed to have more time at that point to have the Vaggie parallel as well -- Whatever It Takes was a great song but the parallel felt kinda out of left field to me beyond the premise of the two having people to defend/protect (though I suppose it could be interpreted as foreshadowing for the characters' interaction later on). Until Episode 7 with Out For Love, not only are the two characters actually interacting with each other, but Vaggie's character is a lot stronger here, and her conflict with Charlie was stronger than the one in Episode 3.

For Helluva, GOD it's a 1v1 against S2E4 and S2E5. Besides the stupid dick joke that killed the energy for S2E3 I liked the rest of it enough compared to these ones. It felt like they kinda character assassinated Striker for the sake of, yet again, ANOTHER dick joke despite...Also making him hate sex/dick jokes???

And the camp one was fun but just felt really unproductive to the narrative besides the stuff with Blitz and Barbie. Then again, I thought that should've been its own episode, instead of some forced B plot in an episode that could've easily been more like S1E1, where we get to see the characters actively doing their job and it being actually funny and entertaining. (Murder Family is one of my favorites btw, I've seen it several times when we only had the first few episodes out. I wish the show had a bit more episodes like it.)

Hello! Thanks so much for the ask anon! I started writing this as a short post, but it ended up being way longer than I intended so... the Keep Reading option it is!

I don't particularly hate any episode of either show, but there are a few where I stopped and thought this... isn't that important in an 8 episode season, especially for Hazbin Hotel. Both of those shows are framed like sitcoms; where you have an ensemble cast of characters in the same setting and put them into semi-realistic situations which creates a comedic effect, the problem is sitcoms are usually at least 13 episodes a season long, but most times one season of a sitcom has the standard of making their season a 20-25 episode one (or... at least they did before).

For Hazbin Hotel, the lack of extra episodes shows very much, episodes 3 and 5 are so far the best examples of this in my opinion, they both very much feel like filler episodes. There are some very important establishments in both of those episodes, as you mentioned for episode 3. The setting up for Vaggie and Carmilla as an interactable duo later on in the show, as well as most likely foreshadowing Vaggie's and Charlie's argument later on in the season. Alastor's plot serves as a "subtle" hint for his ties to Heaven, which is (I'd confidently say) revealed in the last episode.

The song between Carmilla and Vaggie felt really forced and it's my least favorite of the bunch, I have a general problem with the songs in the show, which I will talk about later on. Carmilla's part of the song I understood or rather I understood why she was singing her parts; Vaggie's worry came out of nowhere. It can be argued that the entire B plot of Vaggie trying and failing to take on Charlie's role served as build-up, which then culminated into her part of the song, however, it didn't come across that way. Characters trying something that is typically not in their comfort zone and failing due to the circumstances or characters around them is a popular tactic in sitcoms for a funny scene (I mean the reason why s6 ep15 of Brooklyn 99 is funny is because Rosa needs help but is unwilling to ask for it and it gets to an absurd point) so seeing Vaggie trying and failing didn't come across as serious and as of deeply ingrained insecurity of her's as it was intended, which adds to the song feeling forced on her part. The problem isn't the fact that her plot of the episode had that surprise sad moment, but rather the fact that it went way too deep into her insecurities; the start of this was the "never fail you" part, and most that came after.

Episode 5 is way more of a character-focused episode and a filler episode than episode 3. Again, it is an important episode and serves as a very nice segue to episode 6 (my personal favorite), as well as giving us, the viewers (not the fandom, but new viewers who have found this show and decided to watch it, maybe having not even seen the pilot) some context into Alastor's character and status. Which is a good thing, Alastor's backstory is good character-building. And of course, introduces Lucifer to us for the first time, we finally see the King of Hell.

But that's.... just what it is, establishing. I can establish Character A in my own personal story, however, if I don't use or mention said character at all until later on in the story, so much so that people might have even forgotten about them, then I didn't do a really good job. I believe it's safe to say that Carmilla and Lucifer are both iconic characters within the show, so I don't believe people have forgotten about them, but I don't remember Carmilla or her weapons being mentioned once throughout episodes 4-6 when she and her weapons were an essential part in the finale. These points apply to Zestial as well, as you said I really do hope he gets at least somewhat of a bigger role within the show in the second season.

I genuinely hate being a person who says this, as I am a big musical theatre fan, but the songs come out of nowhere; the characters just start singing for no reason whatsoever other than the crew saying "I'd like a song here", most of them are really good (and I won't even go into the fact they got so many Broadway legends on the show), but that doesn't take away from the fact that most of the time there is no reason for a song to be placed in that scene. As well as most of the visuals of the songs looking like a mesh of those cool shots we've all seen in animatics on YouTube.

For Helluva... Fuck that'll be somewhat of a convoluted answer. The entire show kind of got away from what it was presented as in the pilot, so I have very much a hard time picking out which episodes are my least favorite. What I got from the pilot (which is always there to set the overall tone of the show and characters, as well as just test out how successful the show/premise would be) is that it's a modern sitcom-y spin-off (think Brooklyn 99, New Girl, Modern Family, etc; also those sitcoms that have cut to the funny event mentioned scenes) of Hazbin Hotel. So I went into it with that mindset, and the first episode does keep up with the premise we were originally given, which is why I like it so much. As well as Unhappy Campers, I really enjoyed that episode because it felt like it was keeping true to the original premise of the show. The other episodes... it's not that I dislike them, I dislike the abrupt tonal shifts the episodes give us; for example, Murder Family (as I mentioned) gives us that funny quirky sitcom tone the pilot gave us, but then Loo Loo Land is a much more serious episode. It's not a bad thing for a comedy series or a sitcom to have serious moments or serious episodes, it's great in fact. That being said, those scenes/episodes need to be done either later on in the show when we are already connected with the characters (such as Marvin's death in HIMYM) or have to be shown later on in the episode itself (Angel's abuse in episode 4) because the introduction scene (or first scene) introduces us to the tone of the episode and most of the time in sitcoms or comedy series the tone of the episode is supposed to be comedic. The serious scenes hit so hard because of the emotional plot twist we as the viewers are experiencing. In Helluva Boss though, most of the "serious" episodes' intros already have a serious introduction scene, which gives off the effect of drastic episodic tonal shifts.

[tmntkiseki]

The miscellaneous recurring 2003 turtle thoughts

It's ironic that one of the complaints I've seen regarding the 2003 series is that it's too serious and the turtles don't act like teenagers enough, yet the two seasons where they have the most opportunities to behave like normal kids—Fast Forward and Back to the Sewer—have mixed to negative reception among fans.

Overall, the turtles are one of those "tragic teenage protagonist" cases. The fact that they're giant mutant turtles already denies them a normal social life with other teenagers their age, but they're constantly being thrown into traumatic life or death situations that would break the toughest of trained army soldiers and rarely get a moment to breathe. It makes the brief moments where we see them goofing around, joking with each other, and otherwise just acting their age that much more meaningful. (And also why Leo's PTSD arc from Season 4 hurt so bad; the All Hallows Thieves filler episode in particular stands out because it's a Halloween episode and yet Leo is the only one not having fun.)

Side note: It really is difficult to tell how much time passes in 2003. The first five seasons take place over the course of about two years, but sometimes it feels like they apply seasonal weather such as snow not because it makes sense chronologically, but because the plot of the episode wouldn't work otherwise ("The Golden Puck" from Season 2, which is a very good episode btw, is a prime example of this.)

I haven't actually watched a whole lot of Demon Slayer (I think I watched through episode 20 of the first season before I forgot about it) but the opening themes fit the turtles so well. NateWantsToBattle's English cover of Gurenge is especially good if you're imagining it as being sung from Leo's perspective.

How does Silver's theme from Sonic 06 fit Don so well? Maybe not in terms of lyrical content, but in terms of instrumentals. The LB vs JS Remix and Nightlight versions especially.

I know I was giving The Next Mutation grief for giving Venus plastron boobs, but I was looking through the official character art for the 2003 series and the way the turtles stomachs are shaded on occasion... I'm not denying that they have six packs hidden inside of their shells considering how well built they are, but I don't think those muscles are capable of bulging through their plastrons.

Demisexual Leonardo. I have made my final decision on this and will stand by it.

[fiumedivita]

Miriam watches: The Bear 3x10

I'm honestly terrified coming into this finale, because this could go wrong in so many ways. I really don't know what to expect and that scares me. A lot.

This show is so fucked up that I get emotional over a chef not treating Carmy like shit.

LUCA MY BABY. Fun fact, every boy I crushed on irl for the first 14 years of my life was a Luca. Like their name was Luca.

I need Jessica/Richie and Carmy/Claire to happen.

I think I need a break to prep my self for the second-hand embarrassment. brb.

"I think about you too much" AND KISS. sorry. but not really.

You're giving a panic attack rn Carmy, I'm sweating

Carmy don't cry baby 😭

Ayo looks fabulous with that updo btw.

Oh we got a Syd panic attack. Nice 😀

The Bear is closing, isn't it?

What a great episode. I loved the table talk, it felt so real. The dialogue work in the show is unreal.

Overall I really like this season! I get why people had doubts, because it definitely felt like one huge filler, but I think it's one of those cases where you need to watch the entire show to really understand its flow.

Anyway, I'll go cry over on ao3 while I try not to think about the restaurant possibly closing, see you later chefs

[princehendir]

Play by play on the Easter hunt this is like I've been watching filler episodes and this is the big finale of your work™️ posts

PREVIOUSLY ON:

we do movies at my theatre sometimes because we have a screen. This showing of [REDACTED RABBIT THEMED FILM] has been planned since the beginning of the season, but in February it was decided that since the movies haven't been selling so great we wanted to add an extra event to help draw people in. Several ideas were pitched (by me) but what we (they) landed on was an Easter egg hunt before the movie.

I hated this idea, but was out voted. 

The plan was this: at 1:00pm, we will open the house (eggs will be hidden in the house) and let everyone in. And then the movie will start at 2:00 and everyone will sit down.

I hated this plan, mostly because it's not actually a plan. “Let’s just have kids look for eggs and then the movie will start” is just like, an idea. Its not a plan, there’s no structure. A plan would be something like, between 12:30 & 1:00 kids are free to search for eggs, at 1:00 everyone will be asked to leave the house so they can go see the easter bunny over by concessions! (wink wink) The children can then be entertained by the easter bunny until 1:30, when we will re-open the house for seating, or their parents have the option of leaving and coming back at that time, whatever works best for them. In that half-hour gap the house can be cleaned up and reset for a business-as-usual film screening. 

That is the plan I put forward at our first event planning meeting. It was shot down, very rudely and aggressively, by my coworker Katrina. She insisted that i was “maing this too difficult” and over thinking this” and “we don’t need any of that”. She interrupted me, loudly, multiple times to say these things. And then my boss went with this non-plan that she presented over mine, even though she’s from marketing and doesn’t ever interact with customers and I’m literally the house manager a.k.a the person who is in charge of the house & the lobby whenever it is in use? Because she’s been here longer and can speak more words faster and louder than I can, I guess? I was too flabbergasted to that this woman who is not my boss and not in my department and who I’ve met in person exactly once before was talking to me like this (and that no one else, including my boss, felt the need to intervene).

I tried several more times over the next two months to add structure to this event but was shut down and told to relax by either Katrina (who again, is from marketing so why does she have any say here?) or my boss, who would always side with her. Eventually, because i was demoralized (and because my boss literally told me she was sick of talking about this with me and not to bring it up again) I just gave up.

SATURDAY THE FIRST (24 HOURS REMAIN)

2pm. I & several other coworkers (but not Katrina…🤔) + our boss arrive to hide 700 eggs in the house

 it's kinda hard because there's not really a lot of places to hide anything? Because it's just rows & rows of theatre chairs? I warned them about this btw.

 also an issue! The floor is sloped. Because it is a theatre :) So eggs just kind of keep, rolling towards the orchestra pit. And it's really loud the whole way down. I literally told them this would happen  but I guess we all just have to pretend this is a surprise.

at finish, none of the eggs are like, at all hidden. They are all 100% visible from all angles. Also something about them all being in there suddenly makes it really clear how many forbidden dangerous areas, delicate historical features, finger-crunching mechanisms, and weird little trip-fall-break-your-leg-and-sue-us ledges & stairs there are in this room.

my coworker April (heavily involved in the planning, but only because the poor thing can't say no, she is a victim here too imo) privately admits to me that she's dreading this event and just wants it to be over. 

previously it was agreed, MULTIPLE TIMES, that we were going to set a limit on number of eggs per kid, and exclusively allow only the bags we provide (small) to be used. But when I brought it up my boss (Kelly) said "oh no we won't need a limit that's not necessary :) and people can bring their own bags who cares"

whatever. 

SUNDAY.

arrive at 11:30.

April is already there. This is way earlier than she said she was coming. She admits that she was too anxious to stay at home.

also, the gal who was going to wear the Easter Bunny costume sprained her ankle. So now April is doing it. Good lord. Anyways

Also now we’re apparently going to have the Bunny in the main lobby? Greeting kids? Instead of else where so that bored kids could Go and do something else/split the crowd so as to ease congestion in our small historic lobby? Which has been the plan the entire time until just now????

whatever.

further backstory: I couldn't get any fucking volunteers to staff this stupid thing. So my mom finally took pity, volunteered herself & my father and bribed two family friends with lambshanks into coming and helping also.

further further backstory: our good popcorn machine is broken. Started out that it was just tripping the breaker every single time it got plugged in, but now it's throwing sparks when plugged in also lollllll. So we're using the small, older, back-up machine. This will become relevant soon.

Katrina arrives, two of her grandchildren in tow. She lets them into the lobby even though we aren't open yet. They are EXTREMELY badly behaved. Loud. Throwing things, hitting each other. She's not managing them very well and I feel uncomfortable intervening. Eventually she takes them outside (confusing, is she working today or here as a patron?)

volunteers arrive. Parents + friends + the one other volunteer I could get. I explain to them the "plan". They are confused. Why isn't there a distinct end time for the egg hunt & start time seating? What about people who show up for just the film? Do they have to sit with an egg hunt happening around them? Are we really letting people bring their own bags? This room seems like a terrible place to let children run around in? I tell them that I brought up literally all of these issues, AND had clear solutions for all of them, and was rejected every time :) oh well!

there's a lot of people lining up out front. Way more than expected. You can hear crowd noises through the glass. It's kind of intense.

some big 12-year-old literally charges the doors, Jurassic Park velociraptor style. Building is 95 years old so it's loud AF and everything on the whole wall shakes.

its Katrina's grandson. Because fucking of course it is.

one last check on the concessions stand before we open. The credit card machine has no power. Oh shit, I think, is this machine tripping the breaker too now? no, breaker is fine. It's just somehow this one wall plug has stopped working. Suddenly. Whatever. I plug the machine into a different socket and decide to fix the other issue later because the doors need to be open in 5 minutes 

i get the lobby doors open at exactly 1:00. Check with tech to make sure we're good to open all the way up, get the ok. We start taking tickets and letting people in to hunt at about 1:01.

A mother approaches me to tell me that her kid got no eggs, and there are no more eggs to be found. It is 1:07.

Multiple complaints now that there are no eggs left. It's been less than ten minutes. 

check in with my mom, she confirms that the first couple of kids to get let in had shopping bags, and since the eggs were not actually hidden they were just kinda laying there those kids just basically..... Cleared the room.

extra gift bags full of the leftover eggs are quickly made up by my boss. Easter Bunny passes out a lot of those.

meanwhile, a line is forming at concessions. The popcorn machine is not quite keeping up. It's not an.... emergency yet. Though.

meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, my mother has corrected this one boy for his bad behavior three separate times. On the third time, the adult with him got really nasty with her. When I come by again mom reports this interaction to me in case there's a complaint. After she describes the boy and adult to me, I inform her that that was Katrina & her grandson.

"Katrina... Is she that cunt who cc'd you in that really nasty email you showed me?"

yeah mom. That very same cunt.

because there are no eggs left, most people have just taken a seat. It's still only 1:20. There's 40 minutes until the movie starts. The children are restless and tense because there is nothing for them to do. Eggs gone. They already saw the Easter Bunny. They are bored now. I predicted this btw.

several parents talk to the volunteers to confirm that there really is nothing else to do but sit until the movie starts. "I don't know if I can keep my kids focused  and still that long, plus the movie runtime" “you really expect people to sit and do nothing for 40 minutes?”

I'm sure you're sick of hearing me say this but I literally predicted this issue. And I tried to prevent it! But I was told I was "making this way too complicated" and "overreacting 🙄"

fuck them.

April, despite being in a mascot suit, is still very visibly miserable.

the line at concessions is now the length of the entire hallway between the lobby and the concessions area. This is like two car lengths. There's a separate line that's just people who have already paid and are waiting for popcorn. I literally don't know anything about what happened in the house after this point because I spent every single moment until the movie started helping them try to get through this. They ran out of water bottles and I had to raid the bar fridge of every single bottle there and we went through those too. People are ordering like 3-6 popcorns per group and the machine can really only kick out about 5 per batch. The coffee machine ran out of water which has never happened before? We ran out of napkins and I had to go raid the upstairs bar for those?

my off-duty coworker who showed up as a customer with her kids (very polite, unlike some people's) literally jumped in to help me because she could see how crazy it was.

I need you to understand that this is only 35 minutes in.

boss will not make eye contact with me. General guilty puppy vibes. I fucking told you bro

finally, eventually, the line dies down enough that I feel like I can leave the concessions volunteers alone for a bit. (Sidenote: they are almost completely out of candy at this point.) I go to the bathroom for the first time in like an hour. I'm coated in sweat from running back and forth. I scream into my hands for a couple of seconds to decompress. And then I get right back out there.

unbeknownst to me: my mom has pulled aside the technical director (they know each other sorta) because he seems irritated, asks him what he thinks of all this. He repeats literally every complaint I have. Mom says "yeah, Ashland predicted all of this in a meeting two months ago and she says that no one listened". He laughs for 20 straight seconds.

some adults came to just see the film. They came close to the start time hoping to not be bothered by the egg hunt, but because there was no real cut off/end time, and no reset of the room, it was still kinda sorta maybe not really happening around them, and they were annoyed. WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT I TOLD MY BOSS WOULD HAPPEN.

several volunteers now have now independently reported to me that they've had to intervene with this same ill-behaved boy. He tried to go backstage, tried to pull the fire extinguisher off the wall, running even though we keep saying not to, climbing things, pulling on curtains. I'm tired of being nice and inform every one of them, bitchily, that yeah, that's my coworker's grandson. Crazy huh. Yeah really inappropriate and unprofessional I agree. Yeah :)

THE MOVIE FINALLY STARTS. Ten minutes late for some reason. A lot of people end up leaving about 20 minutes in because their kids are under/over stimulated and can't sit still any longer. WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT- * I am pulled off stage with a shepherd's crook*

anyways, funny detail! Two weeks ago I went to my boss and said look, I'm really stressed out about this Easter thing, I genuinely think it's going to go badly if it's done the way you're asking me to do it, please just let me use the schedule of events I wrote up in our first meeting it will go so much better. And she said no :) and said "Ashland I think it will go fine if we do it the way me & Katrina are planning. And if it doesn't I will eat crow" and I said do you promise. And she said "of course :)" and I said okay I'm holding you to that :) And we both laughed. But I wasn't joking.

 ANYWAYYYYYS I spent like an hour and a half in the lobby with my boss while the movie was going, covered in sweat because I’m the one who was Actually Working, and she awkwardly made small talk and avoided all eye contact the whole time. I think she's really hoping I drop it. I won't though.

Katrina is nowhere to be seen for some time now. Again, I'm really confused as to whether she was supposed to be working or not, as she did nothing 

after its all over and all the volunteers (tired and annoyed) are getting their coats. Family Friend A invites us all over to her and Family Friend B's place for drinks because "what the fuck was that. I mean you warned us it was going to be bad but what the hell was that".

the day wrapped up pretty well at least. I got to drink soooo much alcohol at A & B's house and it was so fun to bitch and complain for three hours and then my mom bought my drunk ass fast food :) love is real btw.

tune in to the season premiere this Tuesday to see the thrilling conclusion (my staff meeting is on Tuesday) (I have four pages of notes) (and I fully intend to take up the whole meeting talking about what a shit show this was) (lol + rofl + neener neener + told you so + get fucked)

[aninounettear]

After rewatching both ATLA and TLOK recently, here's my tierlist! Completely subjective!!

I may be harsh on tlok, but it is how I felt. 10 years have passed since its completion, and I'm still disappointed in many things. At least it has a great and complex main protagonist who can face bad writing and still be great, phew... When it comes to the seasons, book 3 is the best one imo, its constancy and dynamism were great and the finale was insanely amazing! BUT I appreciate the good side of book 1 waaaaaayyyy more because it's so refreshing and captivating, but since its finale and a few other things bother me so much, it's below book 3 unfortunately. Also I liked the probending stuff and always will!!!! Book 4 was overall bad imo BUT I appreciated a few things in the beginning (the second half of the season was awful though, that's why it's that low in the ranking). And book 2 is a failure in everything... like, it's scandalous. I can't name any good thing coming from it, even the origins of the Avatar that I can't see as something connected to atla. Overall, tlok had a lot of timing and writing issues, and even with great qualities, its flaws are too big not to notice, even a decade later, and it is what it is. It brought many things to the Avatarverse, but at what cost... At least there's Korra ig.

On the other hand, atla was built beforehand and it shows. Even though there's a bunch of filler episodes in the series, they always (except great divide lmaooooo) have a connection to the main plot at some point, and that's what made them enjoyable, even though sometimes they could've just showed us an empty wall, I would've had a similar feeling of enjoyment looooool, but that's a part of the whole package I would say, and realizing most of the time that it had a bigger purpose, it's satisfying in the end. This show started almost 20 years ago and it's still so good and relevant to this day. Book 2, from Toph's appearance to the finale, is a flawless ride. Book 1 has the 3rd place because it was more childish and has lots of filler eps, but it helped build the Avatar World and it was cute too so it's still pretty good (and the finale in the North Pole is amazing). Book 3 and its finale have a special place in my heart but there were a bunch of forgettable episodes and subplots, especially for a more serious season that marks the end of the series, so that's why it's below book 2, but it's a stunning season anyway and watching it again made me emotional a bit.

In conclusion, I know tlok had a lot of issues cause it wasn't meant to be a 4-season show in the first place (that's why book 1's animation quality is out of this world btw) and that Nickelodeon tried to sabotage it by giving a high budget for the other seasons because ppl were hyped and then taking it back cause they couldn't promote it properly and gave little to no time to the staff and other stuff, but this is what has been given to us, and it's still there, so I gotta be honest with my feelings. Also, even though a lot of people worked on both shows, the episodes' writers are quite different from one to another, and the same creators being on both shows don't guarantee the same way to create and write the episodes (besides, even their own mentality can change, AND BY THE WAY IT ACTUALLY CHANGED FROM TLOK BOOK 1 TO BOOK 4). In my case, I like atla's writing team better tbh and I do think they had a huge impact on the way the story has been told.

And finally, I think that if tlok wasn't atla's sequel and had its own universe, it could've been a better show. Here I said it. Atla feels like a brake on tlok at some point.

I won't go deep into shipping, animation studios, plots, villains, etc in this review cause it can be too long and pointless. I suppose everything I said above is more than enough.

[daydream-the-demon]

(Ignore the caption btw)

I FUCKING HATE THIS SCENE OF THAT EPISODE

The fucking "Bam bam BAAAAM" AND THEN ZOOM IN ON THIS STUPID FUCKING FRAME FOR WAY FUCKING LONGER THEN NECESSARY

Sorry was re-watching hazbin and jesus christ I hate that scene.

The song overall is okay, but the stupid ass overly fucking dramatic zoom-in on Charlie's over-the-top shocked expression is just-

AAAAAAAAAAAA I hate it!

*Slow dramatic zoom in for like 10 seconds while the most cliche fucking sound plays* Like just FUCKING GET ON WITH IT.

The most build-up for this one quote-unquote "plot twist" of a detail they've been so fucking obviously hinting at for the entirety of that episode and quite a bit of the one before.

AND THE WORST PART IS THAT ADAM EVEN SAYS HE'S GOING TO TELL CHARLIE. BUT WHEN HE DOES, THEY DO THAT FUCKING ZOOM IN, AS LIKE "OH WOW IT'S SUCH A SHOCKER WOOOOAHHH LOOK AT THIS PLOT TWIST OOOOOOOOO!!!"

It would have been so much better if A) they didn't fucking announce this was going to happen like 3 different times throughout the episode and B) if it wasn't so god damn overly exaggerated and emphasized that "Oh no! Charlie is shocked and worried and etc etc!" Well like NO SHIT SHERLOCK, of COURSE Charlie would be shocked! Why the FUCK was that the focus when you FUCKING TOLD US IN THE EPISODE LIKE NOT EVEN 5 MINUTES AGO THATS EXACTLY WHAT WAS ABOUT TO HAPPEN

Sorry about the random af rant btw

I love the show, but it honestly could have been so much better if it had coherent writing

Yeah, reminds me of those Indian film editing that just zoom in and stuff way too much.

The show has trouble with using too much exposition and too on-point writing like it's TELLING the audience right in the face about it.

Like in the first episode, it was like "Yeah so these Exorcists come and kill us all and blah blah blah" and it's just too much tell and not show (and this event is tell, not show).

The audience shouldn't be treated as little kids (because it's an adult show) and it sometimes feels like what happened was

"Okay, so what happens in the episode is that this causes this and this along with this" and they just said "Yup let's put that in so the audience can understand it, DO YOU UNDERSTAND IT?"

Also, the show is too fast-paced which is a problem (so much plot and new characters in 8 episodes that are each 20 minutes, ARE YOU SERIOUS??? The pilot did it better with it being 30 minutes, showing all the personalities and quirks and things of characters, and doesn't struggle as much with "show don't tell").

And the zoom-in? Sure it's visual, but in concept, it's tell. Also not the best. Shock is one and done. It should be only a couple of frames, enough for a gasp.

Yeah, the show could use a rewrite, like the idea is good, but the execution could use a little work.

A lot of people complain with "omg so many filler episodes it sucks" but this is complaining of "it's too fast-paced." And I think the "show don't tell" rule gets broken because they don't have time to show. They should've gotten an extra 2-4 more episodes for the season like 8 episodes is a VERY short season to explain that much especially.