#this is just a filler episode but still

[you-ren-emy]

I'm going to go off about some random filler episode that's supposedly at least somewhat Deidara centric, because...????

Shippuden ep 457 "Partners"

Right off the bat. Deidara's voice is....so deep. I was a little surprised because I haven't properly heard it in so long

(my timestamps are broken so...it's not exact.)

3:03 his height difference with Pein is surprising... You'd never really notice how short he is unless you looked into it. Really, Deidara has quite the aura.

4:04 Although I LOVE his half up half down hairstyle, I also loved his low ponytail. Realistically, it doesn't make sense for him to just switch up his style like that, he coulda kept it for a little longer, you know?...but they don't really care, I'd think so. (but for the fact that we see him tying his hair up, which is pretty pretty, it's forgivable you know)

(Timestamp inexact) For a few seconds in the overhead frame where they overlook the sand disc, I notice that Deidara is now wearing his socks. This is set in the past, so Dei wore beige "khakis" and sandals instead of the classic dark desaturated blue pants with matching "ninja shoes" with those.... Socks that have a stripe going OVER the shoe. So in this shot, he's supposed to be wearing his old clothes. It's not like he could just go "Hey wait here Danna, I'm going to go change my pants." (Which is weird and out of character, I should also mention that he already calls Sasori "Danna" despite having met him just today, which means Sasori has done NOTHING to earn Deidara's respect just yet. The disgrace.)

Also, Why'd they send the new kid out for the important mission of "take down the rogue member of our group"? To be fair, Dei has spark. Power. And they know that, but...? Oh, gee. It's a filler episode...

Somewhere around 5:20 Deidara opened up his cloak to reach out for clay. There are so many errors in these few frames? First of all, his nails ARE NOT supposed to be painted black yet! Why, did they just stop along the road, halting their important mission to get his nails done? Ludicrous. My attention is pointed to his clay pouch since he was reaching for that, and the chain dangling between said pouch and the belt is missing. At least they remembered that he had only one pouch on his left side at the time. He still has the bottom half of his cute kimono jacket but... It's that dark, desaturated blue like his new outfit. And he has the crop top and mesh undershirt above the belt now so HUH????? They didn't forget his new, shiny ring but they did forget the consistency of his clothing and... It's just kinda sad. Feels bad for the animators.

I should also mention that within the frame, his front hair fwips and flows, exposing his other eye sometimes. Though there isn't anything drawn there, which is fine enough, but in the next few frames when he turned to look at Sasori to his right, Deidara SUDDENLY has his eye scope even though at that point, he was fresh in and probably didn't develop it yet. (Okay but I kinda found it endearing how enthusiastic he was to perform his art.)

Somewhere in 5:30 something, Deidara's face is a lil derpy which is cute

Orochimaru appears. Knows Deidara immediately, calls him a kid which Deidara's opposes to. Look...orochi is like... A grandpa compared to him, so, that's fair enough to say, isn't it?

Sasori sent Deidara to go lookout, which Deidara looked annoyed about. Sasori said that Deidara, unless he had any grudges, wouldn't have any reason to fight the snake man. Which, fair. At that point, he probably held nothing against...but he looked and sounded miffed about it. Maybe just because he wants to preform his art and not because of a mysterious grudge? I don't know. This is a filler.

...well crap I ran out of image slots. Here's to hoping your imagination still works because I AM NOT DONE!

Sasori is fighting using a dead guy's corpse, Orochi summons said dead guy from the grave, Deidara looks somehow cute looking down from above. But he's also supposed to be handsome...hmmph.

Dang. Feels bad for the third Kazekage over there.

NOOO THE IRON SAND RAINED UP AT DEI AND ended up destroying the wing of his ride somehow...? He's coming crashing down.... Poor guy.

9:00 Deidara is raining explosives! Not much to comment.

In the subsequent scene, he's descending FAST into the ground. Which means you can catch his eye scope EVEN IF HES NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE IT YET

He's...getting a nice chance to shine, even if it's futile. Go, go Dei.

"After you two die, I'll resurrect you both in the same way."

...

Well...not you though, snake.

Gee, the Kazekage really has it rough being Sasori's puppet and Orochimaru's pawn at the same time.

5:48 something Dei's flock of creations are being sent after Orochimaru www, he gets to have his scene and his signature line is said! "Art is... An explosion!" And sounds so enthusiastic too!~ so glad he's happy here, blowing up the sand disc thing....

...though there is one thing to mention. And it's that his ring, though on the correct hand and finger, is on the upper part of his finger just under the nail for some reason.

Man, that explosion was so dramatic.

Heh, everyone's having a holographic zoom meeting. No comment here... Well, one. Deidara. He's very cute there.

Oh. Second half. Hidan's there. I find it funny how he has a modern day jacket as his original fit... Either that or he hasn't got a top on. Inconsistencies. I much prefer the jacket though.

Now....many a minutes later. 18:55. Deidara's there, fleeting cherry blossoms. Deidara's doing his thing, performing his art. He blows up a castle! He looks very happy, he's in his element, he's where he's supposed to be! I don't know what art makes him feel like...but it seems to be good.

Dei... always so flashy.

There isn't Deidara anymore, so, I'm signing out.

[oifaaa]

I do wonder if people who used to constantly complain about "filler" are finally happy now if they're enjoying the state of television series or if they're now complaining that tv shows only have 8 episodes per season like the rest of us

[gunsatthaphan]

"finish your chapter first."

[autistic-danieljackson]

Not to be all 'back in my day' but I think the problem with TV today is that shows don't get 100-200 episodes anymore.

[lambda-core]

I am way too tired/jetlagged to make this post right now, but the reason Armada Starscream is so specifically well done to me actually isn't just the way he's got more depth than just wanting to take over Megatron. It's the way he falls back on this image he has of himself as someone who is solely focused on Megatron. And he is obsessed with Megatron, but the disconnect between Starscream and his image of himself is what gives him actual depth.

The reason this is so cool to me is like, that self-image--that he is single-mindedly obsessed with Megatron and will sacrifice everything else for that goal, no matter who gets hurt--is pretty close to what every other Starscream is. (The selfishness you associate with Starscream is a little more subtle, but it's there in the "no matter who gets hurt" clause imo.)

So if you go into this as a Transformers fan, you're already expecting Starscream to betray Megatron and try to best him and rule the Decepticons. But so does Starscream, even when he's demonstrably proven to both his peers and the audience that he's more than that. It's almost like his past incarnations--or the audience's expectation of him--haunt him. It turns his own internal man-versus-self conflict into this really cool man-versus-narrative conflict.

And what's crazy about this is, through the last moments of this arc, Starscream does grow beyond the narrative we'd expect from other Starscreams! But he never admits that to himself, because it's easier for him to cling to the idea that he's laser-focused on his hatred of Megatron. Every time he helps the minicons--every time he helps the humans--even in his last words, he LIES to himself and everyone around him that everything he did was always about Megatron. Because it's easier to simplify himself than to grasp that he might be a complex character. Because he's a person and he has all the messy conflicts that come with that. He falls back on the same ideas every single other Starscream did, and THAT is his undoing. Not that he is self-centered because he's Starscream. Not that he is obsessed with Megatron because he's Starscream. That he THINKS he is all of those things and he will not LET himself be anything else.

I would argue that that's a bigger theme in Armada, as well. Optimus and Megatron more or less spend their final fight coming to terms with their story roles in Transformers. I really feel like if you sneezed on them, they would realize they do this in every universe and in every timeline. Starscream's is the most interesting example to me, though, because he's such a departure from other versions of Starscream; hell, he acts (and looks, lol) a lot more like some incarnations of Thundercracker. But he's still got classic Starscream in him in this roundabout meta reference. He's like an homage to his namesake. It's so cool! And it works perfectly with the story he's a part of.

[geekynichelle]

I take it that people calling Invincible Fight Girl slow have either never watched anime or only watch shows that are on streaming services.

[n7punk]

now ive finished the series im actually going to go on record and say im pretty sure if you enjoyed the owl house or amphibia you'll like jentry chau vs the underworld (its on netflix). it starts a little slow with high school shit but it picks up FAST and gets crazy. honestly felt like a lot more than one season of content in 13 half hour episodes. also its just fucking gorgeous and the music is amazing. and some of the characters suck morally in a way stuff in its bracket can be afraid to do which is fun

[rockin-robin19]

Just a little thought I had about the finale.. I know the teaser feels like it’s just another silly episode without much plot or character development, BUT, I’m holding out hope. IF Nandermo were to become canon, or the Guide were to have an actual satisfying arc, or the documentary crew were to become important, (insert other plot-line that needs a conclusion,) etc. etc.. They definitely wouldn’t allude to any of it in the teaser.

The teasers never prepare you for the big plot stuff, in fact, FX seems to go out of their way to make every episode seem super normal before it airs. The past two (9 and 10), as well as Nandor’s army, were teased to be the usual light-hearted, fun episodes. But we got a lot of huge plot moments in those episodes! The teaser for Sean’s episode this season didn’t remotely imply anything about Lazlo and Nandor having to cope with the fact that humans die. That episode got pretty heavy, despite the trailer making it look like we were just going to be following around this demon and watching the vamps struggle to un-possess Sean.

And, not to mention, the teasers aren’t even 20 seconds long.

SO, if you’re feeling pessimistic because of the direction the season has taken, I totally get it. But ffs, don’t take the teaser too seriously. I guarantee a lot more is going to happen than just Monster-bride search and crime-fighting in stupid outfits.

[racke7]

From a fanfic-writing perspective, One Piece is incredibly frustrating on a few counts.

The first is that... One Piece is actually pretty damn good, as far as stories go. So trying to nudge it into something "better" is pretty much a lost cause overall.

The second is that One Piece has this huge and incredible world that's filled with lots and lots of things... that we never see. As in, outside of the very local environment of the Strawhats, the world is incredibly vast and largely empty.

Basically? Because of OP's good story-telling, it's really difficult to really add someone new to the Strawhat-crew. But because everything outside of the Strawhats are both incredibly unknown (in the Grand Line anything can happen) and incredibly disconnected (the world is too big for people to really stumble into the plot "accidentally" with any frequency)?

Trying to write a non-Strawhat fanfic is a bit like just... inventing an entirely new world of vaguely pirate-themed shenanigans from scratch. It ain't fucking easy, is basically what I'm saying.

[idontmindifuforgetme]

having a straight man and a gay man co host a podcast about bad books is sooooo silly . I love it

[heyclickadee]

“Well, my interest is certainly piqued.” In the ancient puzzle game of horrors or in Phee, Tech? Both? It’s both, isn’t it.

[deanpinterester]

is it a hot take to say i actually hate filler. i don't think tv has lost the art of filler. i think they've lost the art of low-stakes episodes.

[galehowl]

Totally random Digimon thought, but I feel like one of my more minor gripes ( which I have a number of, despite it being my favorite season ) with Tamers is that I kinda wish they gave a bit more time for Beelzemon to go off the deep end, and actually showed it.

We mostly just got shots of him riding around, and that one scene of killing Chrysalimon/Infermon, but I think it we had a few more scenes where he's rampaging across the Digital World, destroying Digimon, it'd be a bit more effective. Maybe have him go after some he could've otherwise left alone, something weaker, due to him slowly losing his shit, and show a bit more of his general mental state, etc..

Nothing much, even just a few extra scenes of him doing anything but driving would've been nice, though. Otherwise he just kinda does nothing at all for episodes after evolving lol.

[rangersoup]

I’ve decided. Turn and Burn (the Carlos horse girl fic) is gonna get a rewrite/revamp once I’m done with The Lone Ranger. It’s gonna be the second installment of my Rangers spinoff fic. It will be both a direct continuation of the Lone Ranger and set up for some other stuff on down the line.

[mellohiizz]

What do you think devious duo or parrot doing?

Honestly? No idea. I've been pondering this, but I can't really tell you exactly what I think they might be up to.

Devious duo are probably just fooling around, just doing silly things. Maybe the carrot civilization is real, who knows... I hope Minute is still with them, though. <3

Parrot, judging by the ending of his POV, might be actually searching for stuff regarding the Director?? Seems like a very plausible thing for him to quickly get on the case of it. At least that would be consistent with his character, I think.

Honestly, I want Parrot to just be doing... nothing. I want him to sit back for once and give himself time to grieve, to finally have a chance acknowledge how many losses he went through.

[sammrz320]

Seriously peeps, how can I feel mad with all that perfection that was given to us?

This episode had a lot of little things that made it so enjoyable, even if it felt shorter.

First off, we feel Chopper getting attacked by Xiono's racist assumption towards droids which was both funny, and something I'm sure that ended up with us wanting our droid kick that insensitive mofo's ass.

C-3PO making his appearance in the Mandoverse at Leia's behest, backing up Hera during her trial.

Ahsoka slowly learning her final lesson as she trained.

MORE General Skywalker, even tho it was holographic.

SABEZRA MARRIED COUPLE VIBES WITH THEIR INTERACTIONS AND ARGUEMENTS!!

OUR SPACE KIDS KICKING ASS TOGETHER AGAIN!!!