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ordinaryschmuck · 3 years

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Why I (Want to) Love Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Salutations, random people on the internet who most certainly won’t read this! I’m an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons. I also LOVE the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Whether as a kid, or an adult pretending to be a kid, this franchise is one that I’ll always revisit no matter how old I get. So when I heard that a new version of the series was coming out in 2018, titled as Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I was excited about it. Then I watched the series...and most of that excitement went down the sewer drain.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some elements that seemed like there was some definite promise for a good series, but other aspects...I’ll have to explain.

But keep in mind, I am going to be spoiling a lot about the series. So if you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend you do so to form your own opinions. Because while it may not have grabbed me as much, that doesn’t mean the same can’t be said for you. With that out of the way, let's get started with--

WHAT I LIKE

The Animation: If anybody ever tells you that Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has awful animation, they are objectively wrong. Rise of the TMNT has some of the best, if not the best, animated fight scenes I've seen from any action series in recent memory. Probably because the show understands the number one rule of action animation: Good animation is a requirement. Not an exception.

For an action-oriented animated series, the audience needs to feel the impact whenever characters punch, block, or dodge in each fight. Yes, even dodge. Because if you can feel even the tiniest gust of wind that passes by a character's face after a punch, then you know the animators are doing something right. And trust me when I say that is present in the majority of most fights in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Are there moments when the movements are slow and rigid? Yes...during the dialogue and comedic scenes. Moments where good and quality animation isn't really all that necessary. You see this same technique in most modern anime: The animation is rigid and cheap for the dialogue-heavy scenes so the animators can give extra attention to the epic action set pieces. Not a single person complains about this happening in their favorite anime of the week. But when Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles does this, apparently it's a bad thing? Explain that logic to me!

The animation is phenomenal in this show. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise because those people are either blind or insanely stupid. Either works.

It’s Pretty Funny: And that's about it. It's nowhere near one of the funniest shows I have seen, and previous iterations of the franchise did a much better job at balancing humor and heart, but Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did a great job at getting a laugh out of me from time to time. It has a very random sense of humor that works well with its manic energy, similar to what Star vs. the Forces of Evil did early on in its first season. Even if one joke fails, about ten more take its place, most of them funnier than the others. There may be an occasional issue where a joke spoils a dramatic moment, but Rise of the TMNT is one of the few shows where that issue doesn't happen often. Besides, the series sets itself up as more of a comedy than other reboots and reiterations, so it wouldn't look good if it wasn't funny. Thankfully, it is, and in a way, the show is a success because of it.

It Tries to be Something New: This is what I respect most about the series. The downside about a reboot is that writers have to find a way to tell the same story but with adjustments that make it seem different. That's the same way Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles operates as a franchise. The original concepts of the stories and characters are always iconic, and I'll love them with my whole heart, but I will admit, there's a point where the same thing over and over again can be a little tiring. Then there's Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which makes changes where other shows would ask "why," this is the one that asks "why not?"

Why not change the personality and backstories of characters that still fit with the spirit of the original?

Why not change the genders, races, and possibly sexualities of these iconic characters?

Why not make something new?

Now, some have argued that the show is a little too new. Which I can kind of see the point of. After all, what's the point of changing characters and concepts so drastically when you could just make an original series? But even then, most of the changes are pretty clever, that I think it’s worth remembering for future iterations. Like making Casey Jones a female. Casey is a gender-neutral name, and I legitimately thought this series would do it for that reason alone. So I feel bad that the writers never got a chance to allow the series to reach its full potential with ideas like this due to Nickelodeon screwing them over (Seriously, never pitch a show to Nickelodeon. It rarely ever works out, and it's not worth the risk). I can see how these ideas could result in an incredible show that might cement the series as one of the best iterations of the franchise. But I can't base a story on potential. I can only judge what I see, and what I see are brilliant changes that impress me from time to time.

The Creators Are Still Fans: Despite making something completely different, you can tell that everyone working on this show loves TMNT as the rest of the fans do. There are dozens of references to previous versions littered throughout the series. Whether it's shoutouts to the 90s cartoon to bringing back voice actors from the last one, there are moments where the crew behind the series emphasizes how much they care about the franchise. There are also times when a reference has such a deep cut to it. For example, the series has the previous VA for Splinter to voice the current version of Shredder. I shouldn't have to explain how that is a brilliant idea, especially given Shredder's relationship with Karai...which I can't fully explain due to it spoiling TMNT (2012). This might be a whole new experience, but it is clear that history is not ignored when it comes to Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The Cast is Colorful: It's not precisely a diversity win to have half the Turtles voiced by black VAs, but it is unquestionably some good sign of progress. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are...accurately what they are called. So they are not defined by the skin tone of the VAs themselves. So having half of them be voiced by people of color makes me hopeful that maybe future reboots would consider more colorful castings. Hell, maybe one day we'll have a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot where all of them are POCs, to the point that we'll have an all-Asian casting for these timeless heroes (which makes way too much sense to me).

And it's not just the casting of the turtles that impresses me. Because the series making April O'neil black is an idea that I'm more than ok with. It's implied that she's black in the original comics by Keven Eastman and Peter Laird, so it works as another deep-cut reference that proves how big of fans the crew is. Plus, who cares? I mean, if we're still having issues of changing the race of a character who was originally white, all I can say is grow the hell up. You can complain if they don't grab you, but if the issue is because of one decision that shouldn't negatively affect anybody, I don't see the problem. Besides, at this point, a character being white is basically the base plate for someone in the future to change their race at another time.

Also, let’s give the people behind the casting a pat on the back for casting Asian VAs for characters who are, well, Asian. It’s the bare minimum of common courtesy and avoids the trouble of having white VAs do asian accents that have become quite culturally insensitive nowadays. So it’s a pretty cool decision if you ask me.

Diversity is never an issue, especially since representation always matters for people who demand to be heard. It's definitive proof that anybody can be anything, whether it's a hero in fiction or the voice of that hero behind the scenes. And you can't really do that when everyone is so white that it's blinding.

Donatello: This is the best character in the series. Not only because Donatello has the most consistent personality (more on that later), but also because I'm a sucker for the cynical super-geniuses. These types of characters always have a quick and dry wit that never fails to get a laugh out of me, and this version of Donatello became my favorite just for that factor alone. Most of the credit goes to Josh Brener, who does a phenomenal job at his performance and comedic delivery. As for the emotional bits, he's...fine, but the drama isn't the show's best strength anyway, so it doesn't matter as much. Because the fact that it's Donatello who earns the spot as best character in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot is an impressive feat in itself that any criticism offered for him is moot in the process.

WHAT I DISLIKE

Leonardo: I'm willing to make half of this a personal issue because I have grown to despise Ben Schwarts in the last four years. No offense to the guy, I'm sure he's a really great person in real life...but he has done nothing but play the same character in FOURS YEARS! Whether he's Leonardo, Dewey Duck, Sonic the Hedgehog, or even M.O.D.O.K.'s son (yes, that's a thing), Ben Schwarts has practically played the exact same character each time. The highly energized, dimwitted, and egotistical character who slowly tries to learn to be a better person in the end. AND SOMETIMES, NOT EVEN THAT! I'm sick of it, as it always breaks the immersion of the series as all I hear is Ben Schwarts and not the character he's voicing. But it's not just the voice behind Leonardo that frustrates me. Because the thing is, I can see how this version of him can be incredible.

It doesn't take a genius to know that this version of Leonardo is meant to be more childlike and carefree so he can morph into the more mature leader we all know and respect him as. The issue is that the writers barely do anything with that idea. Sure some episodes make this Leonardo more like, well, Leonardo, but they're far and few between the ones where he's the same Ben Schwarts character that I've grown to hate. Even when he is at his most Leo-like, as seen in the episode "Man vs. Sewer," it's so drastically different from how he usually acts that it feels less like character development and more like inconsistency. It's a shame too because I really love this idea. With a little more polish, it could work out. As is, it's just a huge chunk of wasted potential.

Raph’s Too Good of a Leader: This is a similar issue to what I've mentioned about Leonardo. Because, again, I love this idea. Raphael, in multiple iterations, complained about how he should be the leader and just as frequently learns why the job rightly belongs to Leo instead. So starting with this role reversal should be a well-executed idea that gives Raph what he wants while eventually giving the fans what they want. And it would be if not for the fact that Raph seems to be too good at his job.

I get it. If Raphael was too incompetent, the turtles would have gotten nothing done, and it would get too tiring too quick as Leonardo constantly proves why he should lead and why Raph should follow. This actually happens from time to time, and it is already tiresom. The issue is that the intention was to make Leonardo the leader in the end. So why spend so much time showing how Raphael is capable at the job and barely any time showing why Leonardo is a better fit? There are even times when Raphael seems like he really is a better leader than Leo, which I feel as though it is contradictory to the point the writers are trying to get across. In the end, it's nothing more than another really great idea met with insanely poor execution.

Master Splinter (Early Season One): ...Did anybody like this version of Master Splinter in the first half of season one? Because this character was atrocious, especially compared to the previous Splinter from TMNT (2012). We went from what is easily the best interpretation of the character to what was, at the time, the worst. He was lazy, selfish, and emotionally distant with his sons to the point where he only acknowledges them by the color of their bandannas. I understand that the writers needed a more comedic version of the character due to leaning extra hard into comedy, but I don't think I laughed once with his antics in the first half of season one. Thankfully, he's been gifted with a softcore reboot during the second half and onward. This Splinter is awesome, serious, he works well as a straight man, and he has a backstory that's easy to follow while still being kind of heartbreaking. It's a tremendous improvement from what we've been given, but it still doesn't change how downright painful he initially was. I won't complain about the results, but I do have the right to complain about what we got beforehand.

Characters are Inconsistent: A common complaint you'll hear about Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is that the main characters are the same. That's not true because there are definite differences that separate each one apart from the other...the issue is that the writers are not consistent with those changes. I've touched upon it with Leo, but the truth is, everyone in the main cast suffers from inconsistency with their personalities. If Raph is supposed to be the meathead with a good heart, why are there times when he acts like the smart one who occasionally enjoys violence? If April is supposed to be as wild and carefree as the rest of the guys, why are there episodes where she seems to be the sane one? If Mikey is supposed to be kind yet somewhat stupid, why are there episodes where he's selfish and more intelligent than Leonardo? Even Donatello, who is the most consistent out of the whole cast, still suffers through moments when he isn't as clever and cynical as he usually is. These inconsistencies are annoying, and at times, it feels like their personalities are dependent on what the writers need for a joke or for the episode. Characters are the most essential aspect of any story for any medium. If audiences don't care about the characters, they'll find it hard to care about anything else. And how can we care about anyone if we're not one hundred percent sure what their personalities are in the first place?

The Pacing: I sort of expected this when it was announced that this reboot was swapping the franchise's usual half-hour runtime for a ten-minute one, but in all honesty, it isn't that bad. It is slightly fast at times, but that's just as quick to get used to. However, there is one strange phenomenon about this show that I can't let go of.

You see, this series somehow has worse pacing with extended episodes and specials than it does with its usual ten minutes. I don't know how this is possible either. Because despite having as much time as the writers want to establish each plot point, it still feels like they fly through them a little too fast than they regularly would. It makes no sense, but it's constant in every extended episode, especially the series finale (which, to be fair, is partially Nickelodeon's fault. AGAIN!). So keep that in mind when watching.

The Characters Are TOO Overpowered: It feels weird complaining about this. Because making the characters capable of doing anything and surviving much more leads to some of the most epic action sequences in animation history, not just the series or the TMNT franchise as a whole. Despite that, though, there is one crucial thing that is always missing from those fight scenes anyways: Tension.

To fully explain why tension is required in action, I'll have to use Samurai Jack as an example. You see, the titular character can, at times, be just as invincible as these versions of the Turtles and survive even worse. But regardless of him being victorious after nearly every episode, no matter how high the deck is stacked against him, there was always a sense that he fought hard, literally and figuratively, for those victories in the first place. Jack losing articles of clothing or getting cut up gives the illusion that he might not win in the end. He still does, and he always does, but showing the audience that he can and will get hurt makes seeing that victory feel earned. The only times the Turtles, April, or Splinter get hurt is either for comedic slapstick or because the story says so. This is why I consider Shredder destroying the lair is the best fight scene in the entire series. The second he starts destroying their weapons, it gives the tension required to believe maybe, just maybe, not everyone will make it out alive this time. Because if the characters aren't careful, they will face intense consequences as a result. Thus making an adrenaline-pounding moment in the process. Unfortunately, this is the one and only fight scene where that happens. Every action set piece is still epic, don't get me wrong. But there's a reason why writers make even Superman seem less invincible than typical in a fight.

Baron Draxum: THIS is the biggest issue that I have with the series.

As a villain, I didn't give a s**t about Baron Draxum. He was a dull antagonist with a generic evil plot, but other than that, he was perfectly serviceable for a series like this. Even getting a few chuckles now and again...but then the writers decided to make him REDEEMABLE!?

This guy?

The maniac who wanted to commit genocide on human beings, all because of insufficient proof that they'll do it to his species first?

Didn't we already learn how that's awful reasoning after Steven Universe?

Actually, that's not fair...because Steven Universe has a better explanation behind wanting to redeem the Diamonds than Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles does about Baron Draxum! And I'm not kidding! For Steven Universe, the characters believe that it's better to end things peacefully than killing anyone, even if they're the worst criminals. It's a flawed mentality, sure, but it's one you can grasp and understand. What's the reason for redeeming Baron Draxum? It's because he's the reason why Splinter and the turtles are a family...F**k all the physical torture Splinter went through on top of the social ostracization he experienced because of it. No, no, it totally validates the decision to forgive and forget...Oh, wait, no, it doesn't. BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE INSANE!

Who in the f**k honest to goodness thought that would be a good idea? I'm all for finding silver linings in a bad situation, but that is just flat-out lunacy! Because it's the equivalent of saying, "Yeah, this person was a complete a-hole, but they're still the a-hole that made you who you are today." But that is a very dangerous lesson to preach to kids. Because here's the--Hey *snaps fingers* Here's the thing: If a person treats you like garbage, you don't owe them anything for who you are. It's one thing if a person inspired you or cheered you on, but if someone basically ruined your life and physically harmed you and others, don't forgive them. They don't deserve it. ‘Cause f**k Baron Draxum. And whoever thought this was a good idea, you seriously need some help.

Man, is this how it feels to be Lily Orchard? IT SUCKS!

IN CONCLUSION

And that's what I think about Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

It's a fantastic series! I just like everything except for the execution of ideas, most of the characters, and the overall pacing of it...that means it's not a good series, is it?

Yeah, it's a real shame that I don't like this. Because I want to. I really want to. The pieces are there, and I can see how this could be a great and memorable version of a series I loved since I was a tater-tot myself. But I don't. I'm sorry, but I just don't consider this to be an A+ series. It's a solid C, for sure, because it's mostly just style with very little substance. I still respect the amount of effort everyone put into this reboot, but for me, it just never had its chance to fully rise to the occasion.

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #what i thought about #why i want to like

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Close Enough Season 2 Review! or Josh Murders About 10 People

It's been hard to put into words just how wonderful a surprise this season getting released this month was. For starters before JG Quintel announced it last year shortly after season 1, I honestly was convinced season 2 wasn't happened. Do NOT get me wrong, Season 1 of Close Enough was one of the best parts of last year: It was funny, had a lot of heart, a great voice cast, and a great cast of characters that was throughly likeable and broke sitcom stereotypes, having a doofy husband and more straight laced wife with layers who clearly love and respect each other and BOTH can be prone to taking things too far instead of JUST Josh screwing up. Add in two great fellow leads Bridgette and Alex played by two of my faviorite va's, Kimiko Glen and Jason Mantzokus, whose name I finally learned how to spell, an adorable daughter and neat but out of focus neighbors and supors pearle and randy, and the show was just damn near perfect and felt like an improvement on regular show, taking the same humor and animation style but to an older cast and audience with more nuanced and likeable characters, and far more character development per episode. I wanted to see where the show would go.. but I was convinced given the show was leftover inventory from an animation block that never happened held over to give HBO Max some content it'd be canceled after one season, because I can't have nice things. But....

And very happily so: JG Quintel revealed the show had been picked up for season 2 not long after season 1 dropped, having listned to fans. As it turns out though they hadn't.. they just had a ton of faith in the show as I got ANOTHER bombshell earlier this month. While the show had showed up on the schedule for this month late in January, with no release date on said schedule, I wasn't 100% sure the show was coming back this month or that it wasn't just an error. But once again, I was wrong, it was earth all along, and they merely saved it for the press release for their adult animation lineup: alongside the huge and welcome bombshell they were the ones picking up the Clone High reboot and for two seasons, Close enough not only got two more seasons publicly announced, but fimrly revealed season 2 launched February 25th. LIke they likely had with infinity train the show was quitely picked up for another season, and they simply waited to announce it till the right time. Though unlike infinity train, they had faith in it to become a big hit and while they SHOULD HAVE with infinity train and should've accepted it was already a big hit simply not with the target demographic, it's still nice to see that after all it went through Close Enough not only got renewed but is now the network's flagship adult animated show, closely tied with harley quinn, and will likely go on as long as it wants to.

So naturally given I reviewed all of season 1 in the hopes i'td get renewed, I was happy to make room for season 2 and continue covering it and over the moon it was happening so soon. However I'm doing things diffrently this time: instead of flooding the tag with individual longform reviews, i'm reviewing the season all one go, to see if this format could work for me as I have tons of other shows i'd love to cover in this format that are either heavily comedic like say the Great North, regular show or the simpsons and thus dont' lend themselves to riffing as much and leave me less to do per episode, or more seralized shows like she ra or ones that are entirely complete like Steven Universe or Gravity falls that I could cover alone but this format could help expidite covering. Gravity Falls is also one of my patreon stretch goals if your instrested as is a whole lot of ducktales stuff, link on my blog. It also works with my much larger workload with a much tighter schedule, 6 reviews a week with a flex day in case I get behind so everything comes out as good as it posisbly can be, versus my original method of...

TLDR: One big post with smaller reviews each episode and an overall coverage of what changed this season and how good it is as a whole. We good? Good, then join me under the cut for some delightful sentient presents, couch ghosts, and jim fucking crunch as we get close enough to the heart.

I will never get tired of that image. I want it blown up and put on a banner at my funeral. But death plans aside let's get into the season

Slight Tweaks to a Great Formula: Given it's slice of life format based largely around likeable multi layered characters in comedic absurdity, not a lot has changed nor did it need to. What has are just simple tweaks to make things even better. For starters a natural result of getting to the episodes now produced directly for the 11 minute format means the pacing is much focused, subbing in full subplots for the occasional runner instead, and often only using what characters the episode needs. It will use the main five often, but the lack of subplots for the most part allows stronger focus on one or two characters to give the stories added weight and nuance and often laughs. While i'll always love season 1, this allows for much tighter stories and allows for everyone to get some major screen time instead of mostly Josh and Emily in season 1. It does mean we sadly get less of my boy Alex per episode but it's a sacrifice i'm willing to make if it means the show can grow and take more risks and evolve naturally. Though the former probably wasn't help by two of his three episodes being kinda weak, but i'll get to that.

The other noticeable change is Pearle and Randy. While they were promoted as main characters, even getting profiles along with the rest, they were in practice recurring characters in season 1, showing up pretty frequently but with only one starring episode for Randy and none for Pearle. And givne Pearle has an interesting backstory as a cop who likely had to put up with a LOT being a black woman officer, as well as raising a white redneck, while also being hilarious and having a fun energy to her, I felt they kinda wasted her in season 1.

Here though? Both have been bumped up to main cast proper, getting two focus episodes a piece (compared to the other main adults each getting three, some of those shared, and Candace getting one, hopefully more in the future as it was really good, along with, to my delight, mr.cambell also getting one), appearing far more in supporting roles and generally showing up with the main group a lot more. They still don't hang out with our loveable family all the time, but it makes sense as they have their own apartment and stuff to deal with, but it feels far more like their part of the main group. The show always treated them like this mine, but showing up more makes their friendships with their tenants feel more genuine, as it feels like their part of their lives more, whlie having their own to deal with we get to see now.

So while the series didn't change much, as I said it didn't need to and all of this is stuff is the kind of thing I wanted, especially Pearle getting a larger role and Randy being fleshed out from a dollar store version of muscle man into his own similar but difference character, and i'm happy to have it. So now i've talked about how the seasons' changed, let's talk about the episodes themselves. Grab a snack this is going to take a bit.

The Episodes!:

Josh Gets Shredded:

Our premier and honestly it's a solid one with a singular premise on poking fun at gym culture, though in a nice twist Jim Crunch, the guy who runs the Gym Josh ends up going to to strengthen his core to play with Candace and whose voiced wonderfully by Kevin Michael Richardson is a genuinely good guy and there's no horrifying twist with him. He just wants Josh to get ripped and dosen't know his training is keeping josh from candace. IT's a simple setup of a father doing something for his daughter but getting distracted by it and while not new it works well here and we get plenty of fun gym jokes, including an exchange from Jim and Josh when Josh wants to become an "absolute unit", which in this case ends up meaning turning into the hulk but with the glowing firey eyes of an angry god, feels like it came straight out of the hockey bros from letterkenny, which is a good feeling to have. There's also a nice setup with Candace wanting to play king kong with Josh due to seeing it in class (Specially the Peter Jackson remake, also Candace knows who jack black is which I buy because of who her daddy is. I wouldn’t be surprised if Josh had Saving Silverman on a loop for several days until emily threw it out the window like a frisbee. ), which kicks off the whole thing.. and ends with ultra instinct hulk josh taking her to the top of a building and swatting away helicopters. It’s more of an average episode for the series and the runner about Emily being REALLY hot for buff josh comes off as a weaker version of the plot from family guy where Lois likes a thinner peter, apart from one inspired bit where in order to talk to him about candace without getting distracted, Emily pours an entire bag of ice down her pants.. and subtly after Josh talks about becoming an absolute unit, it’s gone nad rather than animation I like to believe it melted. Still a decent start to a great season.

Meet the Frackers: A Randy Spotlight episode and unlike his season one episode rather than be a subplot in another episode it’s a full episode about him. And the starting incident is great as the gang gets their ancestry results back from costco, with Emily and Bridgette having ancestors in Guadalajara and Kiyoto.. and Josh being white (”Can you believe it?”). Alex coming from a long line of creeps is also pretty funny, those are his actual results by the way.

But what the episodes truly about is Randy finding out his parents are alive in Malibu after Pearle claimed they were dead when he was a kid. She had a very good reason though: Randy’s parents were serial gas thieves, and Pearle nearly caught them one night with the two chucking him at her to escape. And to her credit Pearle TRIED to reach out to them once they ended up in jail for their crimes.. but they again chucked him at her which is hilarious. She simply didn’t want him to feel abandoned. He instead feels betrayed.

His parents are hilariously white trash and played by two faviorite va’s of mine, David Kochner and Wendy Malick, who i’m happy is finally playing a lead roll on Owl House. They drink redneck maragretihas and eat mcribs (As Randy puts it “God’s favorite sandwich!”) every day and still steal gas, just legally now as frackers. Naturally though the two are still assholes and soon use a carnival as a cover to illegally frack and it’s up to Randy an dhis real mom to stop them> It’s a touching story with Randy genuinely wanting to hlep his mom, though I feel it would’ve been more interesting if Randy’s parents hadn’t been scum an dhe had to genuinely deal with having three parents now. Still it was worth it for some great lines from Malick and Kochner , so it works. Decent ep.

Sauceface: Now we come to both one of the best eps of the season, and the series so far, and one of it’s most unique as it stars Candace and dosen’t feature the other main cast hardly at all, only Emily who kicks things off by, in a great bit, breaking Candace’s illusion their rich as “they live in a castle with alex and bridgette”, with her slowly realizing “Were poor”. Which is just a very kid thing to think that your parents are rich when they very much aren’t.

But the episode really is a crime boss parody story, as the title would imply as Candace and her best friend start selling hot sauce, which is banned from the school due to it’s political correctness having gone mad and it being offensive to “sensitive palates” (They’ve also banned general tso’s chicken for mitlarialism and everything bagels for being “too much”). This leads where you’d expect: Candace getting drunk with power and forgetting why theys tarted, wet willies, and an art room brawl, all leading to candace’s friend getting pinched and candace having to use the money to buy Mr. Cambell a pelaton to get him off their backs, which leads to this lovely exchange “YOur letting them off just because they bought you a present?” “This is a 2000 dollar bike”. We also get the subtle reveal Mr. Cambell is gay which given how straight the main cast is, is nice. But this was a great one with too many good gags to mention, a great setup, a great rolling stones song played during the montage I do not know the name of, and I hope we get other candace advnetures at her school in the future, because this was a real delight. Again one of the best episodes of the season.

The House Guest From Hell: Speaking of best episodes, this is probably the best pairing of episodes yet, as both are standouts of the season.

Emily’s old friend Becca drops back into her life, to everyone’s annoyance as Becca is an utter leech who constantly take advantage of Emily’s lack of boundaries with her to constantly talk about whatever drama she’s wrapped herself in and mooch off her. Josh and Bridgette want her to set firm boundaries, but Emily fails to and instead only gets Becca to set boundaries with her boyfriend.. which leads to her moving into the apartment temporarily, and annoying the hell out of everyone. Becca is a great character, being that asshole in the most over the top and annoying way possible, to the point she takes alex’s room, watches tv on a loop and doesn’t seem to realize Emily is married (Despite being part of her bridal party), or that candace is Emily’s daughter and not a tiny butler (Which Candace assumes is a game. )

Naturally for this show things escalate hilariously as Emily finds out she’s pregnant when she tries to throw her out and the pregnancy is escalated.. and we soon find out it’s because the pregnancy is demonic: She has Hecate as her dula (And Alex naturally asks if she’s single, get it guy get it), needs goats hoves, locusts and the blood of the innocent (Which is the only item that trips josh up who hopes they can get it at costco, which made me have to pause as I could not stop laughing). This would be funny enough. .but what takes it into making this episode a classic is when Emily tricks her boyfriend Luke over he’s unsurprisingly a devil.. but also a hilariously over the top douchebag dudebro played by Beck Bennet, who it’s not only nice to see outside of ducktales, but is also just totally game. Luke is so odious it wraps around to being funny, to the point he unsurprisingly hits on Bridgette while his girlfriend is in labor, messily makes out with her and they try to move in, though thankfully Emily cathartically screams Becca out midbirth. Also they end up going to hell, with Luke getting there by doing donuts. Yes really. This episode is a treasure and does the series schitck of taking a relatable problem and escalating it to perfection.

Joint Break:

Another unsurprisingly good one, as Pearle deals with the fact that despite her decades of service, the force’s health plan doesn’t cover her needed hip surgery after she slides over a car wrong (Which also leads to a great riff on the old csi Miami parody). She then finds herself between her oath as an officer and her needs for help as she befriends a gang of saucy old women at water aerobics who are also bank robbers and want to cut her in. And they provide a tempting offer, getting what their owed and ti feels like a genuine dilemma, even if Pearle ends up siding with the police, not that she should. It’s also full of great bits of the old lady gang weaponizing stereotypes about old people, with the three of them dawning classic old lady getups to fool an officer, and having one of them i a walker slowly cross the street to stop an armored truck. Fun stuff helped by their leader being voiced by Jane Lynch, continuing this season’s red hot guest star streak, not that the series has ever been light on them (They got David Hasselhoff and weird al in season 1, so yeah), but this season ramps up the good guest voices to the point there’s one per episode almost.

Cyber Matrix: This one’s okay though the setup is good. Unsurprisingly given both his dale gribble-esque penchant for conspiracies and his hipster holier than thou ways, Alex has never had a smart phone, and has a very old flip hone that’s horrifc to look at and naturally gets destroyed, leading to him getting addicted to the thing.. and this being the show it is fusing with it. What makes this one is the climax, as the rest of the main group scramble to take out the cell tower so Alex’s phone doesn’t upload him to the cloud while Josha nd Alex open everything they can to slow her down. The result is the phone hacking Emily’s and ordering packages, task rabbits to punch her inthe face (With randy taking it so they can go) and outright hijacking a car in a clever chase. The ending though does sink this as suddenly their in veirutal reality again and it just feels weird given the series, while not really using continuity much so far, dosne’t have negavite continuity punch out endings outside of this one ep and I hope this dosen’t happen again. Otheriwse a decent one if sadly not one of Alex’s best and he equally sadly onlyg ets one truly great episode this season, compared to having a good chunk of the best plots last season. Still you can’t win em all and i’m sure my boy will return to form and said great episode, which we’ll get to soon, certainly shows they didn’t loose their touch. They just fumbled a bit and that’s okay.

Haunted Couch: Balancing that out is the fact that Bridgette, who didn’t get nearly as many good eps as Alex or as much focus as the rest, gets some great episodes this season with this one being my out and out favorite as it fleshes her out more and has some really great gags. Josh brings in a street couch (And he and Emily’s argument over it is great including him using the fact she forced them to get a savings account as leverage somehow), just as Bridgette is in emotional turmoil over her latest boyfriend suddenly ghosting her.

Naturally she ends up falling for a REAL ghost, a french couch designer who had a habit of cheating on his lovers, died for it by one of their hands, and his soul ended up bound to the couch. Naturally hea nd Bridgette hit it off and we get a LOT of good stuff in a montage as the two take the couch everywhere, and her friends, minus Alex who surprisingly rather than being jealous, simply dosen’t like the fact there’s a ghost in the house technically haunting them which surprisingly goes nowhere, are happy for her and like him after the initial shock wears off, though Josh still wants to sit on the couch. He and Bridgette even have really good sex using Randy’s body, with him being a willing vesel for Marcus. And i’d just like to point out that an intensely weird comedy show that also has a sentient present, bob vila with saw hands, and dude bro satan in this very season, 2/3 of those to come.. STILL did this better than wonder woman 87, as they actually asked someone to let the ghost of the couple use his body so they could fuck, and he gave full consent to it. And no I sitll haven’t let that go, it was a very bad plotline with nightmarish implications and the fact close enough did it better in a joke, they also have the song from ghost in the background by the by, than a big budget movie from the same company, is a really large bilboard saying:

But while the episode was thoroughly interesting and funny.. it’s what happens next that makes it one of the series best. While the series is amazing at comedy, it’s the character growth slid in between it that makes it so awesome and this episode is a great example. Bridgette turns cold towards Marcus as it’s clear he’s serious, and he’s even moved a tooth brush in. She gets more and more hostile until eventually Marcus calls her on it, and prevents her from leaving with a vortex of furniture.. which could’ve gone bad very quick but instead just means she has to face him.. and is hit with a rather painful relization when he asks “Do you what me to, how you say, ghost you?” (She explained the concept earlier). She says no.. but quickly a series of flashbacks puts the previous breakup in context as the guy she was seeing asked to leave a toothbrush, a simple escalation and she got real nasty real quick without saying what the problem was. We see more of this with a previous boyfriend and hilaroiusly one before that guy who not only had a toothbrush in a ringbox but was also in a hot air ballon she casually cuts the anchors too and has float away. Which does mean Bridgette probably killed a man but that’s one compared to josh’s 10 this season. Yes, 10. We’ll get to that.

Point is she realizes “oh shit i’m the dick”, and has a genuine talk with Marcus, realizing why: “You know how women feign being submissive because society’s taught them to so they don’t get raped or murdered or kidnapped?” “Oui”, best bit of the episode and damn if it ain’t horribly true. But due to tha Bridgette simply got terrible quick to scare guys off when she really just wanted to break it off instead of take things further and breaks it off with marcus.. and is surprised and relieved when he doesn’t want a big fight and takes it acceptably, Marcus having grown from his past of being a women using cad and genuinely wanting to treat them better. For once Bridget gets to have an emotionally mature breakup with someone, and while you could say her relationship with alex is like that, it’s very clear from an upcoming episode it wasn’t a very clean break at first and while their amicable now their marriage was a hot volcano of arguments. This allos Marcus to pass.. if also destroying the couch to Josh’s misery. An instant classic and one of the season’s highlights and one that really fleshes Bridgette out a bit by giving another reason for her relationships not working besides alex that fits the character perfectly and has her grow from it.

Also just a quick sidenote, this episode vaguely reminded me of the Nightmare Time, theater troupe team starkid’s zoomcast I highly recommend set in their hatchetfield multiverse, episode “Jane’s a Car” , which is about a man’s wife possessing his car and also involves an object. Both are very diffrent mind you, Jane’s a Car ends up way more depressing, but its’ stil la story involving ghost fucking though Bridgette found a vesel instead of straight up fucking a couch the way tom went to town on that car. It also involves the lead’s perosnal issues, if far more severe in Jane’s a Car’s case, reflected by their relationship with a ghost. I mean it is a stretch but these are the weird connectoins my brain makes and I mostly bring it up because an upcoming episode in the season goes from kind of similar but only to me to very similar, and a very fun concidence that these two episodes existed in the same year, especially since this happened last year with this show and Ducktales. But first josh doing a murder on some people.

Man Up:

Okay for starters the title man up reminds me of this short lived abc sitcom I never saw but given it was about three guys tapping into their “inner man” it sounds like aresnic somehow took the sentient form of a tv show. This actual poster for it not only proves the point but why it lasted one season if not why the hell I remembered this existed at all despite never seeing it, not recognizing anyone in it and not wanting anything to do with it.

Given I have 8 more episodes to go after this one, I do not have time to disect all the way that poster is a waking nightmare, though i’d love to, and instead i’m going to talk abotu the episode itself. The intro is funny enough, with the Ramierz-Singletons going to a bank for Candace’s first bank account, the Bank of Hollywood. An alien seemingly attacks, it turns out to be a promotional stunt with high budget effects a great gag in of itself, but Josh runs out on his family. Naturally he’s horribly rattled by this, and wants to be a better dad, a John McClane type. So two things: I now want a crossover with this show and brooklyn nine nine along with the hatchefield one in my head and the regular show one most fans want. And the second is that John wasn’t the best dad or husband, and both the original film, the sequel josh saw, and the fourth film all spell this out. The fifth does too but I feel if I wish hard enough a good day to die hard will just spontaneously cease to exist and we’ll all be happier that way.

So Pearle agrees to help him, and we get a fun training montage, with Josh protecting a candace made of eggs Alex made, because of course he did, and an emily made of the same because of course he did, and get punched in the junk by randy in a dog costume, as you do. He actually feels tough and is ready for phase 2, pearle hitting him with something unexpectdly.

Instead what he thinks is Phase 2 is actually a die hard style hyjacking of Emily’s company christmas party, which josh misses due to being in the bathroom after panickily running into corn. As a result.. we get josh killing about 8-10 people not realizing it’s not a simulation but not really caring about that part when it’s revealed. Which granted it is in self defense but he still kills a LOT of people this episode, and I will be forever haunted by the fact that stringbean can REALLY do some murders. Seriously who knew JOSH had it in him. That is terrifying to comprehend. Naturally after he john mclanes his way up, he finds out it wasn’t a simulation panics but instead of running away runs the hans gruber knockoff, whose sadly not very entertaining out of the building and onto some exploding corn, saving the day, earning his family’s respect and cemnting himself as a badass. The reveal of what the text actually was is just.. perfect as it’s just a bat on a string with Alex saying “he’s totally going to shit”. The perfect capper to good ep only hampred by hans being really weak.. seriously he just has a weird sentence sturcture tha’ts hte joke. They can do better. Otherwise a good die hard parody. John would be proud.

Handy:

Another decent one not a standout but it has a truly astounding bit. Randy finds out, after going to Guy Fieri’s flavor diaster for Pearle, that she hired another handyman and he’s not good at his job as as he puts it “I’m going to do what troubled young men have done for years : i’m going to sea!”. Which is funny enough but leads to him stranded on a desert island, hallucinating and then meeting his idols in handy manning who may or may not be hallucinations: Bob Vila, The Ikea Mascot (Who speaks only in pictures and is a fun gag despite never having seen him before this episode) and my favorite tim the tool man taylor, whose tie is constantly pointed up for some reason and who amazingly only speaks in grunts. I didn’t know I needed this so thank you close enough. We also get the three helping with bob turning his hands into buzzsaws, ikea man creating nails and screws and Tim using his head as a tool. All accurate to their original shows and in ikea man’s case brocures. Really good adaptation. But through this he discovers the clog the guy is trying to fix at the house is loadbearing and rushes home to save the house, leading to a fun actoin scene and a weird version of the celebration from the end of return of the jedi, complete with force ghosts. So we also get a tim taylor force ghost which I did not know I needed and as much as that show makes my stomach churn I badly hope shows up in the finale of last man standing. A decent one and givne how I keep sayin ga decent episode over and over you can kinda see why I didn’t review all these. LIke season 1 I simply don’t have a full review in me for every single one of these episodes. We’re now at the halfway mark, only 8 more to go, I envy the dead, let’s do this.

Birthdaze: This was the episode most heavily promoted in the trailer and for good reason as it’s the best of the season. Also relatable as while not having kids I do get how Kids Birthday parties feel and how they often end up weirdly close together. In this case both coalse as Josh and Emily have three birthdays in one weekend, their friends Emily’s friend Trish from “Cool Moms”, who is so far some of the only continuity the series has, but a nice sign it has it, and that we could see Jim Crunch (who rose from the grave after an utterly wonderful funeral) or Dog Boy again. Or this episode’s standout gifty. But we’ll get to that in a second. So Josh and Emily well intentiondly decide to throw a party for the parents at the same time as Candace’s.. but end up neglecting Candace. While their idea is good, to reward the other parents for having to sit through so many parties, putting it at the same time was a horrible idea as giving a bunch of pent up people with low alcohol tolerance booze ends up resulting in drunken antics and them heckling the magicain... and given the world we’re in, that’s a horrible mistake as he makes the children disappear to a world of perptual brithday parties and forces JOsh and Emily to follow him if they want their child back. What results is an utter delightly as we meet the wonderful and incomprable Gifty, a giant living present who works iwth the magician, named sardini, and is voiced by Kate Miccuci, heart eyes> Just.. evey bit with gifty is great, from her genuinely being animated and looking like a muppet, to her casually going demonic to explain if the kids stay too long they forget parents, to as seen up top playing a pipe organ that is apparently made of gold plated clown bones, and her best bit, which I posted on this very blog, where she assures the trapped kids if JOsh and Emily fail their final test, they’ll get to live of nutricious necco wafers before vomiting a giant cloud of them at the poor children. Those things are gross and we now knwo it’s because they come from a giant present’s stomach.

We get a great montage before most of that of our heroes treking through a weird and awesome birthday landscape with too many good parts to mentoin, before finding Sardini who puts them through tests before they can get candace back.. and one of those are you human image tests via the ball from phantasm. As gifty puts it “We have to make sure your not a bot”. But the tests, about candaces faviorite things, help the two realize she liked them because they did it together, and a final talk with candace, as the final test has her ask why theyd idn’t want to spend time with her, with the two warmly apologizing and explaning why they did it but that they went too far. Candace reconclies with her parent,s the kids and our heroes go home, and Sardini finds himself sad no one stayed.. but at least he has gifty... and then start making love to her “Unwrap me!” which is far and away the best gag in the season’s best episode by a mile.

Time Hooch:

Now to talk about two things I hinted at earlier: The only good Alex episode this season and the one that vaugely resembles one of the Nightmare Time episodes. And while their two very diffrent stories with very diffrent outcomes and only one of them involves this guy

And suprisingly it’s NOT close enough that has the eldtrich horrifying goat monster with a goofy cartoon voice who says things like “I’m coming for your ass Teddy Bear!” But both are stories about a sketchy (mildly for alex, entirely for Ted) middle aged man who feels one moment is where his life went wrong then accidently time travels after drinking 80 tons of liquor and decides to use said time travel to save a relationship, and fails at it in some fashion. There’s even a jaunt to a distopian future with robots and cyborgs. So while it’s not 1:1, alex is far more sympathetic than Ted, Time Bastard is dark horror comedy, and it again dosen’t involve a horrifying goat man suprisingly enough, it’s till way too many happy coincidences for me to outright ignore. Also check out nightmare time and especially the musicals it spun off from The Guy Who Didn’t LIke Musicals and Black Friday. It’s good stuff. But I couldn’t help but make the comparison, or now imagine Alex, Ted and Professor Hidgens as some weird diasterious power trio. This is how my brain works now.

But to the episode itself it’s just great from start to finish: Bridgette finds out while rumaging for an old photo in an old box of their stuff that Alex never signed the divorce papers. Turns out he was hoping they’d get back together.. and while not doing it and not telling her was a VERY selfish and horrible action.. you still sympathize with him. He hoped things would work out and they’d get back together, and given they had some close calls with that in season 1, to the point I shipped them, you can see where his sprig of hope came from. But with this he’s realized there probably isn’t any hope and drinks some old moonshine he and Josh made in college. Said moonshine was from a recipie in an old blues record, the titular time hooch that true to form, allows them to travel back in time. And since he was thinking of when he thought the relationship truly hit it’s breakig point, when Bridgette at a sandwitch of his and he’d said in the heat of it he wished he’d never met her, they end up there and Alex tries to use it to help. Also Jason’s delivery of Alex saying what the recipie was “rye, barely, a dead man’s pocket watch, mixed under a full moon (Laughs) okay we probably should’ve seen this coming.

Naturally here’s where it really gets intresting. As you’d probably guess, our heroes are the ones who made the sandwitch disappear and in desperation, alex kidnaps his past self before he can say the fatal words> We also get another spectacular bit where all past alex needs from alex to know he’s really him from the future is what year he was born (1982), meaning he’s defintely older than the rest of the cast. Though I wouldn’t be suprised if he was held back.. like at all. Look i’m not thinking too hard into it this is also a story about whiskey based time travel.

But with that said intresting part takes hold as Josh’s past self reminds him of another fight that made things tense for a while.. and you can see where this goes. Alex keeps going back, and back, and back and back and back and back and back... and back, to try and stop the one fight, only to find a bigger one, leading to a montage.. to the point he ends up at the start of the relationship, the day they met at a college bar. The younger Alex’s have decided screw it it was always wrong, let’s end the relationship.

We also get more of Alex’s backstory as it turns out he’s at a community college rather than UCLA, where he used to teach because of his own dumb actions: He met bridgette, let her enroll in his class and didn’t try to convince her to take another one. Don’t get me wrong the decade age gap and power dynamics are iffy.. but it’s not as bad as it could be. They met before the class, and it comes off more as both being too stupid or too horny to realize how her being in his class came off before it was too late. She got with him entirely on his merits, and yes he has some trust me. Case in point.. Alex realizes a few things. The first is that no amount of time travel can save his relationship. They fought all the time clearly, and there were inherent problems. It’s also clear just from the series itself that while they have chemistry their just not that compatible as people. Bridgette is obessed with image, social media, and herself while Alex just two episodes ago called phones the downfall of society and likes feeling superior to the exact kind of person bridgette is. They have chemistry but sometimes it’s jut not enough. You have to have some common ground or your going to fall in a big hole. It’s honestly feels like a much more tolerable and realistic version of Leonard and Penny from the Big Bang Theory. And yes I know that show’s not the most popular with my core audience, nerds, and I bring it up because mom’s been watching it a lately, and any time I see Leonard and Penny on screen it annoys me into a tizzy as the two just have NO REASON to be together other than boning, and even then he’s apparently not a good partner so why then. They have nothing in common and she mocks and belittles him all the fucking time, mocking his hobbies, finding his job boring, and mocking him as a person. And not sharing hobbies or finding his job intresting would be fine, and still work but it’s the constant teasing about it that comes off far more vitrolic than probably intended that just makes me hope for a divorce. Here it’s not only much milder but they did actually get a divorce because their just diffrnet people and i’m not mad the ship was sunk. It was done in a poetic way.

And part of that poetry is Alex realizing that as doomed as things ended up being, via a very sweet montage of their time together.. he realizes he can’t loose this all together. That sure he’d gain a lot and porbably woudlnt’ be living in a closet, but he’d loose all the good times, and he’d loose a friend. His marriage wasn’t so bad he wants to erase it it just ended and that happens. Naturally the other alex’s don’t feel that way but Alex stops them.. Josh is too drunk at this point to help, and ends up creating a time vortex. The vortex sends our heroes home, where Alex realizes his mistake and apologizes for it to bridgette and signs the papers in front of her. As for the Alexs we get a horrifying and hilarous gag as, given they’ve all commented each other is handsome.. start having an orgy, and are later found in amber and their dna is used to create our alex apparently. How does that work?

Point is this episode.. is a masterwork. It’s emotoinal, hilarious, and really good character work, with Alex having a really stellar arc that shades him in and putts a final button in his and bridgettes relationship. And having seen many ships I like end horribly, it’s nice to have one end in a satsifying way like this. Also we see Alex in his borat thong, and i’d just like to point out how funny I find it that the same year they made a borat joke, specifically on it being from a decade or two ago, we ended up getting a second Borat movie. Very niceeee.

World’s Greatest Teacher: This one was alright. On the bright side we got a Mr.Cambell episode! I”ve loved the guy since first meeting him in 100% no stress day, it was the first episode and that hasn’t changed and he’s always a bright spot when he shows up. So an episode about him dealing with a rival teacher, MS. Lake a twice a week music teacher gunning for his job and his students love sounded made for me. In practice he gets a bit too petty to be symapthetic which takes things down a peg, even if it turns out Ms. Lake really is coming for his ass Teddy Bear, but it has enough good gags to help it still be a fun episode.

The biggest one and the biggest reason I sitll like the episode is Timothy’s coffe mug for world’s greatest teacher.. which naturally comes to life, possibly as a psychotic break possibly for real because of the show this is, and starts speaking in the dulcet tones of keith david. ANd i’ve made no secret I love and am thirsty for Keith David on this blog and never will, and having him voice an abusive fowl mouthed coffee mug is something I dind’t know I need but boy did I always need it my entire life. Yes even as a baby. It’s just glorious every time he shows up. The climax is also great as the two teachers end up bonding over the greatest love of all and george micheal after Candace invites River to a part sh’esd having for her tooth coming out, and end up becoming frinemies, a nice solution i was glad to see. Even if i’ll miss evil keith david coffee mug. Rest in power my dude.

Where’d You Go, Bridgette? The second major Bridgette episode of the season and like “Haunted Couch” this one’s an instant classic. After realizing Bridgtte’s already out of control addition to her phone has gotten even worse, Pearle confinscates it and takes her to detox. This leads to two great plots; Bridgette going into withdrawl, complete with an inspired nightmare sequence about her aps and missing her friends death because she was on her phone and the rest of the cast thinking sh’es been kidnapped because she’s not on social media, which while stupid is DELIGHTFULLY stupid and makes some sense given how glued to her phone she is. They end up calling a true crime podcast over, two egosticial college girls who quickly blame them for it despite it making no sense and their fans torm the apartment, and don’t belivie it when bridgette actually shows up.. It takes an inspired speech from Bridgette, whose developed as a person and after actually tasting a late for the first time sees how good they are, and Pearle posting that speech online to dismiss them and our heroes are saved. It’s an utterly amazing plot from josh being excited about the mob attacking them, to Pearle revealing part of the reason she’s so dedicated to helping bridgette is due to her own weird addiction to six flags, which is just so oddly specific I love it.

The Erotic Awakening of A.P. Lapearle This one STARTED well, with Alex reading his viking erotic to everyone, and not getting that Candace maybe shouldn’t be there, only for Pearle to be the only one to actually enjoy it and be inspired by her enjoyment of his work to submit it to a publisher. The publisher ends up making a valid point that women want erotic fantasy from someone they can feel safe by and alex is well.. alex, so he suggests using pearle as a front. it goes how you’d expect: he wants actual credit, the publisher slowly pushes him out, she regrets it, they fight an army of fans and make them vomit with alex reading the book.. standard stuff. It’s just not very funny or a great insight into either characters, and is easily the weakest episode of the season.. though the next one gave it close compettition.

Men Rock!

This one was a chore to sit through, and is only ahead of the last one because it has some really good josh bits and musical numbers which is more than the last one gave me so hey. In a nutshell Emily is on the verge of quitting her and Bridgette’s music careers as she feels they’ll never be famous only for their latest song Men Rock!, an ironic title for a sarcastic song poking fun at a bunch of toxic masculinty bs that is a good song, has hit it HUGE in a fictonal foreign dicatroship and get invited to go, reclutantly agreeing. If you haven’t seen the ep, you can still guess how this goes: say it with me THEY TOOK IT AT FACE VALUE. So our heroines have to help inspire the repressed women and inspire a bloody cou, helped by josh finding some improisoned femisinists in a bathroom. They also gain a fan. it has a few good gags, mostly Candace trying to remind her dad to help her find a place to pee after he keeps getting sidetracked by being taken back by Emily’s sucess. I’ts just a very bad, very predictable episode with very obvious misogyn is bad jokes. And misgoyny IS bad but other shows, paticuarlly tuca and bertie with one early episode, have tackeld this topic better. This episode did not. Last one.

Secret Horse:

This one in stark contrast is one of the series best and an utter joy to watch. On a bad day for the whole apartment with some santa anna winds, an adorable, poofy mained utterly precious horse gets free and ends up at the apartment. Thus we get a vingettte episode, as the horse has a delightful adventure with each of our main 7, and each up tot he last try and hide the horse badly only for the horse to suddenly sprout up and help their mood.

I do love a good vinegtte episode, with two of my faviorite simpsons episodes being 22 short films about springfiled (Minus kirk dragging MIlhouse away from the bathroom, fuck you you balding asshat, it makes the episode hard to watch) ,and trilogy of error, and this is a classic example of it as we get some fun adventures fro each of the housemates: Candace plays with the horse, adorably so, Josh finds it in the garage as his car breaks down and takes them on an install with him, even stuffing them into a suit and we get a great bit of the horse getting fed sugarcubes and josh money. Brigette gets help living in the now instead of posting about it all the time.

My faviorite comes next as Alex needs new patches for his suit but obviouslyc n’t afford them so he takes the ponyt ot he track.. to help him pick which horses to bet on. It’s just such an inherntly funny idea, especially since it works, and really the horse is just hilarious wherever it ends up. It next helps randy win a skating contest, we get a touching story as Pearle misses her old tragically dead horse partner and uses our boy as a subtitute and finlaly we get emily who needs help relaxing and while she naturally calls animal control she hangs up as she falls for hte horse. The group all fight over the horse in the end, the horse leaves and they let it go home, wonder if it was a hallucination and it whizes on thier car. Overall a really great finale and a wonderful note to go out on.

Overall Ranking I’ve decided eveyr time I do one of these, or a post season wrapup of a show i’ve covered every episode of the season to rank them from best to worst sooo

Birthdaze Time Hooch Haunted Couch Secret Horse Where’d You Go Bridgette? Sauce face Houseguest From Hell Joint Break Josh Gets Shredded World’s Greatest Teacher Meet the Frackers Handy Man Up Cyber Matrix Men Rock! The Erotic Awakening of A.P. Lapearle

And i’d like to note that outside of the bottom two hear.. I enjoyed ALL of these. WHich leads to

Final Thoughts; This season was excellent. It had everything the first season had the heart, the character and the utterly great sense of humor, and fine tuned it to be a well oiled machine I could hardly stop laughing at and with tons of great character stuff. Before it had the potetial to surpass regular show but now it has as despite having a few dud episodes itself, as is intievitble in any show, now, they still aren’t as bad as a lot of RS’s early misteps. And Regular SHow as a FANTASTIC show and really stuck the landing, so i’m only saying this is even better and can only go up from here. And even if it stays about the same quality wise, that won’t be a bad place to be. This season was near damn perfect, i’ll probably watch it again and again, and I can’t wait to devour more and given the current tragectory probably will this year. And I couldn’t be more excited.

If you like this blog follow for more reviews, become a patreon to help reach stretch goals or comission a review outright, details for the latter two on my blog. And i’ll see you at the next rainbow.

#close enough #josh singleton #emily rameriz-singleton #bridget yoshida #pearle watson #randy watson #candace ramirez-singleton #hbo max #animation #reviews

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lunchador · 4 years

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so when do we get the long post about your feelings about dragon age inquisition!!! i dunno if u wanna wait until dlc or not! i am i n t e r e s t e d (also its ok if u dont feel up to it im just!!!! again, interested in ur opinions/feelings)

kajsldkjf PLEASE I HAVE SO MANY DA FEELINGS ALL THE TIME and Inquisition was twice as long as the others so might as well do a word vomit now and I can always do another after the dlc (which several people have assured me are worth playing )

Yeah so inquisition is long. I dislike open world games so a lot of the (super repetitive!!) side quests did grate on my nerves and that docks this game a few points but over all the LORE IS SO GOOD, and it tying in so many choices in from 1+2 is the greatest butterfly effect I ever experienced in video games. I thought telltale + Until dawn were fun for that but good LORD bioware has showed up all of those games and I am really stoked to try mass effect when its out later and play more bw games. I only played Anthem before this and that game seemed...idk, gutted against BW’s wishes.

ANYWAY

Yeah, I managed to go into the whole DA series knowing very, very little, despite how many artists I followed did fanart for it. Once I started playing, I added all the words I could think of to my blacklist but a lot of untagged stuff came through (fair, series is 10+ years old and inq is like what 4-5?). I allowed my friends to pressure me into playing an elf mage for the lore and to romance solas cuz they said he was as important to the story as alistair was. A lot of online followers said I should play how I wanted, which I def would recommend to anyone else, but honestly I can see where they came from and while he never would have been my first choice, I think he actually paired REALLY well with my Inq and how I was playing her. I put her as sensitive but trying to put her responsibility above herself, she was definitely the least funny of my 3 characters, but not incredibly serious. A bit reserved? Just more mature. She’s got faith but she didn’t think she was the chosen one but she’ll do her role the best of her ability. She makes hard decisions and then sobs her chest empty over them because how is one to ever feel like its the right one? I really like how the game lets you choose how you wanna approach the responsibility. Like i said, I wasn’t a reluctant chosen one, but she will do what she can. Versus my friend playing at the same time as me said he played as the second coming of jesus essentially lmfao Having so many characters come back for different roles was so GOOD!!! Like everyone told me Varric was in this one but were like ‘teehee you still cant romance him though’ but you how you play drastically changes your relationships with each person. Tons of characters I met I knew would be personal favorites but I ended up interacting way less because others were more fitting to my inquisitor. So i.e while I love Varric and would’ve smooched him a heartbeat with Hawke, I didn’t get that vibe with Clover. They were really good friends, he was a grounded friend with a sense of humor that was a good escape from everyone else and the ~inquisition~. At least, until the Beyond the Abyss quest. That obviously heavily fractured their friendship and hurt them both :( And i felt that for a long time, until the end. He looked tired. Poor guy is gonna be borderline dead in 4 at this point. But so many side characters you talk to coming back like Dagna and Samson??? Speaking of that quest, I got Stroud because, yeah...Alistair was dead for me and APPARENTLY IT COULD ALSO BE LOGHAIN??? If he stays a grey warden?? wish I did that so def would’ve preferred to save Hawke even if I think the wardens are more important as a concept but like.......i wanted to behead him, so....But yes even tiny details like..Varric wrote home to kirkwall to Carver for me because the rest of my family was dead and I never completed a full romance in 2 lkajslkdjf but the fact that changes based on your play through. BUT YEAH THE way this game weaves all your decisions in and how yeah, overall the story is the same but it makes it so personal to YOU and so different from everyone else ;w;

But I could see my Inq genuinely falling for Solas, and I see her best friends as Cassandra and Blackwall/Thom. Really close to Leliana and the Iron Bull as well. I just loved all their interactions. All the characters were so cool to get to know?? Like I thought I would’ve hated Cullen (hes a dick in O) and tbh I just got into the series as the VA was being a complete shit. But I liked him a lot!! I love the work buddies vibes between the Inq and the advisors. I thought I was going to love Sera!! And like, I did, but she hated my Inquisitor and their personalities clashed a lot. Shes the only one i didn’t get a cut scene for in the end :’) I loved coming back from story quests and having to take like 20 minutes to go around skyhold and make sure I talked to /everyone/ for their new dialogue. You genuinely feel connected to all these wonderful npcs ljkasljdf

I wanted to make Cassandra the new divine but I made leliana on accident and kinda dug it so I stuck with it. VARRIC IS THE NEW VISCOUNT??? h i l a r i o u s.

One of the things I loved the most in this game in particular, and while this is something in all of them it just really struck me in this one, was....everyone gave up so so much to devote themselves to the cause, y’know?? Like, it’s almost heartbreaking how much everyone loses and they’re still looking towards you with their belief and willingness to follow you to the end ;-;

The final fight almost felt, Idk, underwhelming? Dude dragons are way tougher than him asdkjhfkhjd. I even went up a difficulty in this game after feeling like I got the hang of the series. But at the same time, we just spend how many hours knocking down each and one of his advantages so fuck him lol.

But yeah there are so many things I wanted to do but I felt so worn out by mindless sidequests and story being level locked in comparison to the previous games. askdjhflkd

One of the things that blows my mind is so so many people were stoked i was playing DA and they couldn’t wait til I got to Inq, and so I find out most people I know only ever played Inquisition? TBH if I didn’t play O+2 I think I would’ve dropped inquisition and never finished it *shrug* all of the build up just means SO MUCH!!! Everyones argument seems to be the older games are ugly and yeah O has rough battle system but its easy to get over imo. Like, you need the chaos of 2 to get the real weight of the mage/templar stuff?? Theres so many characters and story and dialogue that go over your head without Origins?? Like yes inq can stand alone pretty well but, idk, I’m in love with this entire series and the world building and THE!! WAY!!! IT!!! ALL!!! CONNECTS!!!!!!!!!!!

I love how a quest can go differently by whos in your party, I love you can have more dialogue based on lore you’ve managed to pick up around, I love HOW COMPANIONS BICKERRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! The lore of these games are so good. It’s like playing an epic line of novels. It’s so immersive and I don’t think I’ve played too many games to this level.

I didn’t like the skill trees to being a mage in this one, Idk why. It wasn’t nearly as fun for me as 2, but then again I really fucking liked being a force mage haha. I wanted to be a rogue to complete a diff class per game but everyone said mage brings a lot more interesting story/lore stuff so

but yeah I love having the full context now and seeing other peoples Wardens/Hawkes/Inquisitors and asking people how they played and how their options differed from mine and THERES JUST SO MANY POSSIBLE DECISION TREES!!!!! No wonder the fans play over and over.

but yeah ultimately so much fucking happened?? I’m probably missing a lot of key points.

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izuocha-temple · 4 years

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Fic #10: After a Good Rain [PODFIC] by MyPodficAcademia, inspired by the fic by Madam_Chauncey

Midoriya begins to partner with Yaoyorozu for long study sessions in order to take his mind off his burgeoning soft spot for a certain rosy-cheeked girl in his class. Uraraka's misunderstanding of the situation leads to old, unpleasant feelings she had been trying to shrug away rearing their heads once more. She then enlists the help of calm and collected Todoroki to learn how to keep her emotions in check, which only leads to more confusion.

Jealousy; a story told in four parts.

So a long long time ago, in January of this year, Cookie held an 8-hour reading session of Missing, where almost everyone who was there to listen was also taking part as Voice Actors. A lot of people wished we'd recorded it, and that kind of bloomed this crazy idea that...yeah. YEAH WE SHOULD. And Off was there as a new-ish member and said "Oh hey I can edit that kinda stuff" and we were like "fuck it, let's do it" and thus MPA [My Podfic Academia] was born.

[Ama, in reference to the hardest parts of running a podfic]- I think we all have a different opinion about what's the toughest part about making the podfic. Off, definitely share your opinion about this, Mr. Editor-in-Chief for me, casting is really difficult. We have a team of many many more VAs now than we did when we did the bulk of recording for After a Good Rain, but from now on, striking a balance between 1: giving everyone a chance to play the character or narrator they want, 2: availability, and 3: casting based on who actually can sound like this character, is extremely difficult [Dr. Off]- Editing in general isn't that difficult I feel, it's mostly just time consuming. I guess the most difficult part is just balancing audio from like 10+ different people and trying to make it all sound as good as I can since everyone has different microphones and speaks at different volumes.

[In reference to creative license] For After a Good Rain, Chels allowed us all the freedom in the world, whereas, with our current project working on 12 Fucking Hours by Amy, Amy is there with me every step of the way listening to every take from every VA, so it fluctuates with each project.

[Dr. Off, in reference to different VAs]- I am unsure how to answer this question. It probably varies from project to project and depends on how many takes they did and how they actually organized them when sending them in. And also if they edited them before hand themselves or not. (Though I like when I get bloopers cause those are often fun lol) [Ama]- everyone we've worked with so far is wonderful, but everyone works differently. Some VAs are very talkative and actively join in on conversations and voice calls, while others submit their lines, only. As long as everyone lets me know they aren't dead, I'm pretty happy...the best part about making these is seeing everyone so into it and wanting to put their best into it(edited), so if that means they need to redo a few (or a lot of) lines over again, they just do it, and it's always great

#izuocha #my hero academia #bnha #izuku x Ochako #dekuchako #month in review #november 2020

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garruson-vakarian · 4 years

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ME + DA Friend Pairings

Okay but hear me out...

Shepard x The Warden/The Inquisitor

They would share stories of their heroism and their incredible strokes of luck. They would enjoy each other’s company, but would respectfully leave each other be out of the fear that some conflict would spawn out of nowhere and threaten the world (again).

Jeff “Joker” Moreau x Hawke / Varric Tethras

They would absolutely need tissues from crying out of laughter. No one would be safe from the treachery of their humor. Joker would spin stories at a rate that even Hawke was impressed with... Varric may have met his match. That begs the question, though: How much of their stories are true?

Garrus Vakarian x Cullen Rutherford

Calibrations, strategy, and weaponry. Need I say more? These two would deliberate on their dreadful pasts and reflect on how they have changed their lives little by little to ensure that those tragedies don’t repeat themselves as long as they are still alive.

Kaidan Alenko x Alistair Theirin

Strong connections to their homeland. Would probably argue over who has the best national anthem, but laugh about it later over a warm homemade brew of Canadian-Fereldan craft beer.

Liara T’Soni x Lace Harding / Shaper Valta (same voice actress!)

Precious cinnamon rolls. All three of them. Each of them are curious about the world around them and are passionate when they talk about their work. However, they would not need to be protected at all costs, for they could easily protect themselves.

James Vega x The Iron Bull (same voice actor!)

They would host public contests to showcase who is stronger. Iron Bull would either hit James or hit on him. There’s no telling which would take place (first). There would be lots of competing and dancing between the two of them. Jimmy and Patches would have trouble getting bored.

Zaeed Massani x Fenris

Vengefully brooding in some corner, no doubt leaving a trail of dead bodies behind them. Zaeed would tell Fenris stories of how he killed a number of slavers as a mercenary, which would make him feel more comfortable in his company. Fenris, in turn, humored Zaeed by explaining how his hate for mages applies to biotics.

Urdnot Wrex x Sten

Severe levels of loyalty to their kin, to the point where they can make questionable decisions out of blind loyalty. They find respect for each other after questioning each other in their decisions and finding that they both learned from their experiences, and that an outsider’s influence may not have been the worst thing that could have happened to them.

Grunt x Oghren

Would absolutely attempt to out-drink each other. Grunt would learn to respect Oghren after he drank four bottles of ryncol and still managed to swing his axe in a 360 motion seven times without falling over. Grunt could do double that, but it was still more than anything a being half of his height could do.

Samara x Wynne

These two would talk about their need to protect others, and how their motherly love has grown to benefit those who need it. While Samara is dictated by the code, Wynne is aided by the spirit that possesses her. They ponder how they are lucky to be born with the gifts they are given, and that they are content with whatever fate has in store for them.

Thane Krios x Solas

I would be surprised if they did not discuss the meaning of life. They take pride in the fact that their role in their own lives is to serve as they are needed, and accept that some powers are greater than their own. However, this would not stop either of them in their endeavors to ensure that the ones they love are safe. Solas would attempt to replicate Thane’s reflective and vivid memories in the Fade, and invite him to experience it to lighten his burdens.

Morinth x Zevran Arainai

A dangerously provocative duo. These two would constantly tease each other into a bed somewhere, where Morinth could attempt to get Zevran to embrace eternity. Luckily, Zevran is smart enough to know when he is about to be overwhelmed by a woman (in a bad way), and can easily weasel his way out of her grasp. Regardless, the cycle continues.

Miranda Lawson x Isabella

These ladies would likely find comfort in talking about the little things that give them so much in common. It would help take away from their hectic lives, and allow peace to be found in fashion catalogs and their fierce independence.

Jack x Sera

At first, Jack would be incredibly annoyed by Sera. I mean, really, really annoyed. That is, until Jack stumbles upon some brownies in her quarters. Sera’s baking skills have improved since the bad cookies, and have evolved into a mastery of a red sand and lyrium brownies. It started out as a prank, but Jack makes sure to carry a few of them with her wherever she goes now, usually to remind herself not to destroy Sera the next time she sees her.

Kasumi Goto x Leliana

These girls would create some kind of secret language they could use to share information in a normal conversation with their peers. Even though they would refuse to share any secrets of their own, they would at least have fun with each other in the new world they have created together.

Ashley Williams x Anders

Both of these characters would share their constant strife with their unpopular opinions, which they do not hesitate to share. While they may find it difficult to get along with their peers because of this, they manage to get along with each other due to their dedication to their morals.

Commander Bailey x Blackwall

Would sit in immeasurable amounts of guilt and silence and avoid eye contact like the plague. Still, they could do that together and have a mutual understanding without speaking a word. The crossed arms would be enough.

Tali’Zorah vas Normandy x Josephine Montiliyet

They would share stories of their people’s history, which took place in ships that led to the success of generations. Each of them would explain the logistics of the ships they speak of, and be shocked in the stark difference between them. However, they would no doubt take notes of the intricate and fragile operations they function within.

Legion x Cole / Justice

An interesting combination, these three are. They have had the most elaborate journeys in self discovery, that they find it most beneficial that they share their knowledge. They also face identity crises, and find the experience most enlightening. They share the fear of becoming corrupted in the world they live in, which is a fear that is often shared with organics outside of the veil.

Mordin Solus x Merrill

Two researchers who are known for their questionable work, Mordin and Merrill would have the most interesting interactions. Merrill would be too anxious to cut Mordin off to explain how her magic works, so she would just silently sit and watch him pace back and forth and wait until he got close to passing out.

Dr. Karin Chakwas x Flemeth

Incredible amounts of wisdom. Essentially cares for others as needed, and they would go out of their way to ensure that others heed their warnings. Chakwas would share her grief about Joker and his resistance to take his medicine, while Flemeth would share her grief about Morrigan and her resistance to take her seriously.

Aria x Morrigan

They have both worked hard to attain their knowledge and power, and they will fight others to the death over what is theirs. However, if they grow close enough, they ~might~ show each other some vulnerability out of the sheer confidence that they are strong enough to destroy the other. However, Aria would remember Nyreen’s ethics and try to ensure that Kieran remains untouched.

#dragon age #dragon age origins #dragon age awakening #dragon age 2 #dragon age inquisition #mass effect #mass effect trilogy #mass effect 2 #mass effect 3 #mass effect andromeda

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starcrossedyanderes · 4 years

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Xavier w/ Big Sick Darling

You knew it was going to be a bad day the moment you woke up and felt that acid coming out your mouth.

You knew it the moment you started to hunch over the toilet and started retching.

Oh and as if Captain Obvious was screaming in your ear you knew it was most certainly an awful day when you felt that awful taste on your teeth and felt your mom help pull back your hair.

For today was a bad day because it seemed you were indeed the big sick.

With a thermometer stuck in your ear you limply laid under your warm covers in an attempt to get comfortable.

With a beep and a sigh the thermometer was pulled out to reveal in black numbers that spelled your fate.

“Degree of 100. Looks like somebody won’t be going to school.”

Reaching over your body your mom’s hands wrapped around a white bottle and started to fight against the lid before it popped off and 2 tablets laid in her hands.

“Okay, there’s some flavored water in that big tervis cup, you got advil right next to you, bowl by your bed, cozy blankets, the only thing we’re missing is some good food. How about we get you some doordash from that breakfast place you like so much?”

Your eyes pitifully looked into your mother’s as you barely whispered out a “please.”

Her pink lips pressed against your forehead before she pulled away.

“I’m so sorry honey, but you’re a big girl now and your father and I have to go to work. But feel free to get DoorDash and call us if you need anything. Hope you feel better sweetie.”

As soon as your mom left your room and you could hear the door shut and a car start up did you turn around on your side to stare at your wall whilst your arm wrapped like a boa constrictor around your beloved plushie.

You were quite tired from such a rude awakening and loosing all the contents of your stomach but still you choose to stay awake so you would be ready for when your food gets here.

But it seemed your plan had failed as your eyes slowly became heavier, breathing got slower, and the brain became slugger. Right as your eyes were about to close and succumb to a land of dreams it was rudely stopped in its tracks by a loud BRRRRINNNG!

Your body shot up from its lying position as a slight cursed was whispered under your breath. Can’t a girl sleep for once!?

A hand harshly gripped your phone and with a quick tug it was put right against your ear.

“Hello?”

Wow, was your voice that pathetic when sick? “Dahling, I’m headed your vay. I’m afraid ve may be a bit late though because i vas.. um, occupied vith something.”

Your eyes slowly blinked like a lizard.

Oh yeah, you completely forgot about this guy.

“Er, your highness I won’t be coming to school?”

You had to hold your ear after hearing quite the earsplitting noise.

“YOU VHAT!? Vhy in the vorld vould you do zo?”

“Oh, I’m uh.. sick your majesty.”

And just like a switch turning in his head his voice and composure changed in an instance to hushed whispers and soft coos.

“Oh, my poor dahling. You should have yust said zo.”

And once again he did a complete 160 as your heard him yell,

“Drivah! Gun it! BYSTRO!”

Oh and you were already getting a migraine from his mood swings just listening to him.

“I’ll be there az soon az I can sveetie. And don’t even think about going outzide. Tata!”

And just like that he hung up.

Now that was the sure sign of today being a bad day.

・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

The long, sleek vehicle pulled up into the suburban neighborhood that was practically dead quiet as all the parents were now at work and children were at school.

A tinted black window rolled down just the slightest as the car was slowly coming to a stop so only his harsh emerald green eyes could be seen. Only the smallest of glances was gifted to his guards as only the mere words of “go get them for me.” were spoken.

A door swung open and 5 buff men stepped out dressed in black suits and each of them had the stereotypical little white earcoms. Each of them looked like the could take out 10 men and a bear just by themselves.

“Yes your majesty.”

Only 2 of the burly men walked up to your door and quite ironically gently knocked on your door thrice. Despite the lack of response once reaching into a pocket and pulling out a little box that held a far too ornamental of a key.

With just a swift turn there were allowed access and didn’t waste a moment to quickly walk up stairs and swoop you, who was just happening to be brushing her teeth again from another throwing up session, up into their arms and proceeded to carry a confused (y/n) down the stairs in a variant of an arm throne.

“Uh.. could you put me down?”

You received no response and knowing these bodyguards you knew that you would not be able to get down yourself.

“He does realize he could just knock.. right?”

Once again no response.

You cursed Xavier for having such robotic like protectors.

The front door was now in view and was swung open by another guard outside.

The men carrying you carefully stepped inside and once passing the remanding 3 guards bowed down to you before rushing to get into their places. One of them while bowing opened the limousine door where you could already see Xavier’s golden locks practically taunting you as the 2 guards carefully lowered onto one of the seats in the limousine.

Once safely on the leather and door being shut you let out a string of grumbles questioning how necessary that whole procedure was. But you didn’t have long to do that before Xavier’s body practically rammed into you in a hug.

“Dahling!”

His head nuzzled into your neck as you could see the content look on his face.

“Um. Your highness that may not be the best idea since I am, you know, sick..”

His once closed eyes opened up with a glint shining in them as his arms tightened around you more.

“Do not care. My princess iz zick and I will take care of her.”

The glint immediately dissapeared in his eyes as he let out a gasp.

“Oh my! Vhat if I get zick?”

At that sentence your body relaxed in his hold, finally he was starting to understand something and would just leave you alone at home.

“Then I could have my printsessa take care of me, like I am vith her.”

And you think his grip got tighter and his head started to rub against hers more aggresively.

“Oh, how I vould love that. My own printsessa doting over me vhilst I am frail. Oh now that truly zounds zomething like a dream.

Vait, vhat am I doing? If I am planning on taking care ov you I need to know your zymptoms. So vhat iz wrong vith you?”

Your body slightly teetered as you nibbled on your lip.

“Well I have a fever of 100 and I’ve been throwi- why are you looking at me like that?”

Xavier’s emerald green eyes looked into yours with what could only be described as shock before he seemed to force a smile on his face and make his face appear more kind.

“Uh my sveet princess, my dahling dearest. You mozt certainly do not have a fever of 100. For your vlood vould boil and you vould be dead.”

A cough was heard from the other side of the limousine causing the prince to snap his head to that direction and practically hiss out “vhat?”

His bodyguard spoke up by politely and quietly saying, “Your majesty, I believe th- er- your princess meant she had a fever of 38.”

Xavier’s mouth went from a scowl to an ‘o’ before he quickly pulled himself together and turned back to you.

“Yes, yes. A fever of vun hundred iz concerning. That zort of fever is uzually caused by an illness. Don’t vorry my dahling, I’ll be zure you get the best care.”

・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

As much as you hated to admit it you were getting shockingly good care in Xavier’s penthouse. He gave you excellent medicine and food along with having his own personal doctor coming to you to check you over.

It turns out you just had the basic stomach bug.

Yet despite this fact Xavier was still being his over-dramatic self.

You were surprised he wasn’t a king yet. A drama king that is.

But still you had to admit it was quite nice here. You managed to get a couple hours of sleep thanks to the oh so heavenly soft sheets that just engulfed you in their warmth. Also his pets were just so nice and cute!

Marciel, Xavier’s monkey, was nice enough to take care of your messy hair by cleaning it strand by strand until there was probably not even a speck of dirt.

Indigo was also nice enough to honk more quietly and even sat down next to your side and decided to nap with you.

And Ebony seemed to think Indigo had an excellent idea as well and fell asleep with her head your leg.

You’ll have to admit all of these awesome animals almost make putting up with Xavier bearable. Almost.

Remember if you make a wish on a shooting star your wish

sʜᴀʟʟ ʙᴇ ᴡʀɪᴛᴛᴇɴ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ sᴛᴀʀs

#yandere prince #yandere oc #yandere male #yandere #yandere king #xavier devorsky #Xavier #colvakia #big sick #illness #fluff #uwu #peacock #monkey #panther #limo #kidnapping

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

Text

Jake Reviews Stuff: Amphibia: Marcy at the Gates

Marcy arrives! The Plantars make it to Newtopia but first have to deal with a slight ant problem and a new addition to the family, as we finally meet the adorkable Marcy. Legs in two months under the cut.

So as you could probably tell by the tone the last few weeks, doing this has weighed on me a bit. While I do love talking about this show week after week, as well as having a recurring series here to bring in readers, the split quality of the Season thus far has been a challenge. Now when I say split I don’t mean like star vs season 3 where it was either really damn good and some of the show’s best writing or “oh god what have they done to marco’s character this time”, it’s more either really good standout episodes ore more forgetable average ones. See a good episode I can gush about, dive into big charcter stuff, motviations, that sort of thing. I defintley will with owl house at some point and have with other shows. A bad episode can be taken apart and taken to the cleaners, which I haven’t done much of but probably should and if you want any taken to task yourself, I do comissions. But self promotion aside, the point is a meh episode just dosen’t leave me with a lot tot alk about and hte recaps became really dry as a result as I just couldn’t find a lot of jokes, and having a busy few weeks on top of that didn’t really help, nor did the antipciation for this week and the intersting setting of newtopia.

Thankfully a combination of a really good few days, a better sleep schedule, and a really good episode this week, and a pile of scary go round collections for a dollar have reinvgorated me, so hopefully I can get back to doing what I love: Overanalizing children’s cartoons. So with that we can dive right into the episode. The keithdavidpocalypse is upon us! Pitter Patter! We open with Spring and Anne in the cart. Their close to newtopia, but Anne is worried they never found Marcy, while Sprig isn’t because her last friend turned out to be “Evil”... which Anne harshly rebuffs. And both sides are understandable: To Anne, Sasha was her friend.. a manipualtive and bossy friend sure but one who genuinely cared for her, she just may not know how to deal with people. To Sprig, Sasha is some asshole who abused his friend, tried to murder his Pop Pop, and works for a guy who tried to murder his whole town. It’s really understandable he woudln’t have the same warm fuzzy feelings Anne has.. insert your own Sashanne joke here. We also get our first actual look at Marcy who to my suprise, rather than be another form of manipulative.. is simply an awkward nerd, constnatly playing video games, reading books , cataloging shit, and trying to get her friends to play d and d. So me if I knew what d and d was in high school.

Anyways, the family finally DOES make it to Newtopia, impressive as you’d expect when the guard won’t let them see the wizard no way no how. Antique references aside, the guard at the gate actually has good reason for not letting them in as they have a tiny barbari-ant problem. A species Hop Pop is, in a nice touch, unfamiliar with due to the Valley not having them. We quickly see them in action as one approaches the plantars, basically a giant ant with ant-lers. Yes I used a pun there sue me. Anyway, our heroes ward off the ant they do find with some really cool team manuvering, and Polly showing she has spiked teeth. It’s a cool sequence. However they quickly find themselves outgunned, outplanned, outnumbered and outmanned. They gotta make an all out stand. Their gonna need a right hand man. Also I finally saw the film version of hamilton, as you can tell. Utterly magic.

Said Right Hand Man, er woman, er tween comes in the nick of time as a cloaked Marcy sprays some black goo and sets it ablaze, scaring the ants off, snatching a stalemate from the jaws of defeat, then rappeling down on a rope shot from a crossbow, also making polly want one because of course. She then.. Faceplants. Still a solid 8/10 entrance Marcy. Marcy is played by Haley Tju who you may remember from such shows as The Loud House. And that’s all I know her from but given Stella’s one of my faviorites and Haley’s performance is part of that, so it’s unsuprising she’s great here. Also fun fact I learned by looking at her trope page: She actually played a younger version of London, brenda song’s character, on the Suite Life I Pray for Death but Death Won’t Come.. or On Deck for those who’ve never watched it. But I like the fact two londons are now on the same show together.. and an actually good noe at that! Horay. But yeah Haley is a great VA and what little i’ve seen her in and a welcome addition. Marcy and Anne happily reunite once htey both realize who the other is, and hug and etc, before Marcy decends on the plantars, talking on and on and on about geeky stuff and how she likes the found family trope. ... I may really relate to this mediums sized child, as I too am a huge nerd with no filter and was probably a lot like her at that age. It’s also clear she very transparently sees this as a combinaton of a video game and a d and d session, but said skills have actually benifited her as rping a rogue allowed her to easily bluff her way into the kingdom’s good graces and now she’s a sworn agent of the king as we’ll find out. She quickly wins over the Plantars, measuring hop pop’s head, gushing over him being a farmer (which he almost instantly adopts her over and asks to point blank later), and then noticing Polly’s legs are about to come in and giving her the note seen in the review image, my faviorite gag. Sprig however is more out and out hostile and has his reasons we’ll get to in a second. Marcy escorts her new family and sorta girlfriend to the makeshift war room set up by three scholoary newts who quickly resolve their planning disagreements by beating the piss out of each other. Just like real politics.. and that’s not a cheeky jab between the actual caning in the sentate that happened once and the various duels in the revolutionary and early america eras.. yeah the only reason the preisdent hasn’t been shot for challening one of hte many people he hates for a duel without realizing he really can’t see through that squint too good is that it’s now illegal and not the kind of illegal he can hide like usual. Anyways after the Newts scoff at our heroes, but Marcy vouches for them and reveals that the ants are getting closer because i’ts gotten warmer....

Marcy has a plan though: Spread scentshrroms around that will release a pheremone which will drive them off, having throughly studied Amphibia’s various flora and fauna and thus knowing how to deal with them. I’ts something I like about the character and how she adds to the other huamns group dynamics. Alll three deal with issues diffrent ways; Anne has plans, but rarely thinks them through, Sasha does think hers through and is a master manipulator while Marcy is a ballance between the two: She does throughly think things out and have well thought out clever plans.. she just also tens to rush into things or go forward with a nose in a book or without a thought to how dangerous soemthing is. She’s prepared, she’s just not very aware of her surrondings, which is amood.

But Anne is nervous about her coming along as is sprig which sets up both’s conflicts with her for the episode: Anne wants to protect Marcy, since she just got her back and her only other remaning friend now clearly wants to stab her and she has a better option now love interest wise. However Marcy convinces Anne, 2nd capefire this episode nonwithstanding, she can handle herself. She also calsl her annabannna which is fucking adorable. The other conflict is that Sprig dosen’t trust her.. he has no rational reason not to give she’s a sweetie, but is a bit gunshy about another human girl working for a dictator popping up in their life. And while he’s probably wrong, while I think Marcy isn’t working for the best people probably she’s likely too oblivious to genuinely relaize she’s doing crimes if they have her doing them or was given a fake justification. I could be wrong, and will gladly eat crow. Metphorically i’m not going to bake a real crow. I don’t have the right seasoning. And i’d also be cursed but eh I doubt I can get poorer. But it’s understandable he has reservations, especially since while he dosen’t say it he’s likely worried Anne will get hurt again. He’s a good boy, he’s just being paranoid over probably nothing. Anyways onoto the plan: The plantars and new girl marcy are gonna:

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Okay phermone them whatever, the point is they head into the Ant Hole, witht he conflicts continuing as the plantars progress; Sprig is naturally suspcious and Anne is worried about her precious gurl. The group fight some more ants, and Marcy seemingly wonders off.. only to instead BLOW THEM A FUCKING TUNNEL with some chemicals from some flowers she found, then instant sprout a plant cage.. and accidently trap polly. NOOOOO.> Thankfully she frees her and tosses some plants on the ants, which is fun to say. We then get to our climax. OUr group find the queen who ihs horrifying.. a good mom as sprig points out but horrfing. Nice design though i’m just.. not an insect guy and sometimes this show leaves me in abject terror. this is one of those times. Our heroes plant the mushrooms, phrasing I know but this review is late as is and i’ve already used up my archer refrence for the day. Anne dives to Save a seemingly oblovious Marcy.. whose mad at Anne over it.. while Anne is udnerstandable Marcy wants her , NEEDS her to understand...

No not that erik. That, much like Anne herself, Marcy’s grown and changed over these past three months. She can handle herself now and she needs her ot see that. Also sprig gets attacked by an ant baby, which not only wakes up the queen, who can hear but can’t see but now knows something’s arry, but causes said queen to unleash a hoarde of ants. Marcy however naturally has a plan: She’ll dive into the queen’s belly and get sprig, the plantars will hold them off and Anne finally trusts her lady enough to fiht off. I don’t have a lot to say I just really like this character arc and Marcy’s character: She’s a bit oblivious, ab it obessed with nerdy things which again relate.. but when push comes to shove she’s also clever, a master planner and has clearly studied her ass off about this world and knows it well. She’s throughly likeable. And that likeablity finally gets through to sprig when she gets him out and swings him. Trust earned, anne’s faith in her gained and the mushrooms go off and send the ants running. Misson Complete. With the mission complete our heroes finally enter Newtopia and meet the mysterious Lady Olivia, whose been sending Marcy on her missions, and is likely her spymaster. Not that i think Marcy realizes that but Marcy’s love of midevil fantasy means she blends in well with thier courty apperance and introduces anne and co to her.. Olvia isn’t impressed but is cordial about it at least.. even with Sprig breaking shit. And yeah , Amphibia has a king over all of it, as Hop Pop puts it “We aren’t savages”. It does make sense it woudln’t come up every day though, it’s not as if the king really cares about the valley... but more on speculation about him in a minute. Hop Pop wisely gives the two “Friends’ some alone time, and the two talk things over: Anne explains how she found sasha.. and it didn’t go great, and Marcy vows that the two of them can go their own way now. Maybe iwth tounge. we dunno. The two then look over anne’s phone while anne recounts her anne-tics.. and we get to the king. And it’s KEITH DAVID BITCHES AS WAS PROHPISED A FEW WEEKS AGO. And he has myserious plans and wood carven figures of both our heroines and possible gaybies. “The game can finally begin. “

Final Thoughts: This was a really damn good episode. Whiel I summarized more than usual , both conflicts were great, all the plantars got to shine, there were gags a plenty, an intriguing new member of the main cast and a mysterious new antagonist. I mean given it was revealed the Newts were behind Toad tower a few episodes back, I figured Andidas wouldn’t be a good guy, even if he’s played by upstanding gentleman and god among men keith david, , but it’s a question of what his end goal is, how the girls got here, and what his plan ofr them is that i’m curious to see play out as the season goes on, as well as see if Marcy is a pawn or not. Newtopia also looks intresting and i’ts nice to have a new solid setting to build on now we’re here, as well as new mysteries to unlock> Ther’es also the honest possibliity marcy, who claims to have found bubkuss, might simply want to stay in a world where she gets to live out her dreams and isn’t picked on or bullied. Again we’ll see all speculation but this episode was damn good. For now this is the clear highlight of the season and i’tll be intresting to see where it goes from here. Until next time courage.

#amphibia #anne boonchuy #marcy wu #hopidiah plantar #sprig plantar #polly plantar #marcy at the gates

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askthewitchlady · 4 years

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Revisions Review

THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

I’d seen the trailers a couple times before deciding to watch this one, There was something I couldn’t quiet put my finger on about it but it annoyed me, I dis’t know why, after watching it, now I know.

Our ‘protagonist’ is just so douchey I could feel it in the trailers.

I’m not even kidding here this guy is Omega level douche from the word go.

Basically a huge chunk of the Shibuya ward in Tokyo is suddenly transported to the year 2388 a world wide Pandemic has decimated humanity leaving only two surviving species, humans of the team ARHV Of whom we only ever meet Milo, but who Have specialised brains that allow them to jump through time and predict the future. And the Revisions, people who where not immune to the pandemic and became bloated monster like creatures who eventually learned to use Machines to support the weight of their bodies. these are commonly referred to as civilians and in order to maintain a level of control they break down human bodies on a cellular level and absorb those new healthy cells to replace what has decayed from the illness.

A lot of this you don’t find out till half way through the series.

STORY TIME

When they where young a group of five friends while on a trip for the summer get separated from one of their number Daisuke who is kidnapped as a result. The kidnapper uses his cell phone to call one of his friends as they wait at his home for news and he tearfully explains if they don’t come alone the kidnapper will kill him as they debate what to do they meet a pink hair woman named Milo who helps them find and save Daisuke before giving them advice which it is later discovered plays an important role in their futures.

She tells Daisuke that a prophecy has told he has a great destiny and must protect everyone. Several years later Daisuke has taken this to such an extreme that he’s constantly causing trouble for his friend by picking fights with people who he perceives as slighting them such as Punching a businessman asking his female friend Marin for directions.

He insists something bad is going to happen it will happen soon and he will be ready he will protect everyone, it’s revealed the five friends have drifted apart because of Daisukes attitude and his only remaining close friend is Keisaku. It’s also revealed that Daiske constantly carries weapons even to school such as a switch blade so he is ‘prepared’ but that he has made no plans for his future like collage or Career choices.

Everyone has resigned to the fact Daisuke is delusional and following a mass text to all five friends Gai leads a confrontation Demanding Daisuke knock it off, Gais twin sisters Lu admits Daisuke has gone to far this time but Daisuke admits he never sent the text. Suddenly there is a pulse and everyone is lifted off the ground for an instant before falling, upon investigation it is revealed a large area of Shibuya has been transported to another time.

after heading to the roof to investigate and try to get a cell phone signal the students including Daisuke and Marin are attacked by a massive robotic monster that kills some students and collects others., While attempting to flee the roof with Marin Daisukes Counsellor Miss Yumiko panics and shuts the door preventing any more students from escaping the roof. Daisuke realises he’s not actually prepared for the situation and thinks he’s about to die when Milo appears attacking the creature.

She doesn't seem to know Daisuke and Marin however after he tells her his name she grabs him and jumps from the roof rappelling to a waiting mechsuit that is apparently coded for his brain.

PROBLEMS

The dog ear girls didn’t need to be dog ear girls. it’s explained that the looks ‘communication vessels’, the only way the revisions can communicate with the people of Shibuya, were selected based on data to encourage empathy in the people they talked with. Sooo we got A tall dark skinned dog ear girl who is overtly sextualized ((The dark skin isn’t the problem By the way it’s the fact that the ONLY dark skinned character in the show is a hyper sexualized woman it’s just wrong in a mecha show full of people in skintight suits she didn’t get a better design)) a dog ear lolita girl, and a walking dog mascot character... yeah....

Daisuke, as I said in the beginning is almost irredeemably Douchy I mean for some he might not be redeemable at all, I thought ok character arch and growth is good, but by episode 9 I had a sneaking suspicion he wasn’t going to learn anything. AND HE DOESN’T the show kind of sandbags his weird hero complex and desperation to ‘protect everyone’ and instead gives it... justification? I dunno how to explain it but basically you never feel like Daisuke learns a lesson from anything he does, not the times he ignores direct orders, or even steals one of the mech suits to help his friend Keisaku find his missing mother.

Daisuke is imprisoned along with Keisaku for stealing the mechs known as string puppets, but while Keisaku comes around to understanding what they did wrong, Daisuke never does instead coming to this pseudo philosophical conclusion of, I understand that others understand me, it was stupid.

when the characters learn that the civilians they have been fighting and killing aren’t monsters but infected human Marin has a major beakdown which you think is going to be like a thing but Nope, an episode later she’s back to smiley giggling Marin, because even though there are six main characters this story isn’t about them it’s about Daisuke and the anime reminds you of that... all... the... time

which is a shame because the other characters when given screen time are really good! Milo is fascinating with her abilities, Gai and Lu as twins have a great dynamic with each other and the others around them. when they first realise a real disaster has happened Gai take Lu to the nearest convenience store to get supplies because he knows the ones in the school won’t be enough.

Marin is a sweety and seeing her bits of character growth are satisfying but rushed because it’s not her story. and Keisaku? OMG this guy gets the shaft!

Not only does he see the horrifying way his mother is dissolved and dies (which was unexpectedly graphic for the show and I was kind of pissed about that) but he’s then killed but not just killed, he’s ‘ripped out of time’ because he doesn't have a special future brain, so the last remaining piece of him is used by the big bad who constructs a body that looks just like Keisaku to taunt Daisuke during the final battle which becomes a massive timeline fight and then Because they became merged and free of the timeline Keisaku Dies while Daiskle lived, The whiney bitch lived but not the best freaking character in the show WTF?

you find out during the climax of the show that the reality was that the prophecy was that Keisaku was actually meant to lead the five friends and you see hints of that through the series where he consistently mediates between characters and works in the background to help move things along as well as offering everyone support even while he’s worried for his mother, he calls people out but is also willing to help them. THAT BEING SAID THERE ARE GOOD THINGS Other then Daisuke all the characters are really interesting, even the teacher who shut the students on the roof later admits that people act on instinct when scared, and that she regrets what she did even actively trying to help the Shibuya survivors.

The plot isn’t bad, a little convoluted at points but not terrible

The 2D animation and 3D rendering is a little different this time around so there were moments I wasn’t sure which was which, unfortunately the weaknesses in the CG rigs eventually gave away but the moments were I really had to look gave me hope for future CG projects.

It’s really easy for a show with timeline shenanigans to just revive everyone so no one dies and there’s no consequences and blah blah blah. This didn’t do that and in fact at the very end there’s a memorial for everyone who died while Shibuya was stuck in 2388 I love happy endings don’t get me wrong but I can appreciate that they didn’t do that here.

FINAL THOUGHTS?

I’m on the fence on this one, I would recommend it t was interesting to watch But you really gotta power through Daisuke and his hero complex, and some of his scenes are really hard to get through with out wanting to smack him through the screen, it’s just a shame he’s the main character. Interestingly because he has the same English VA (Bryce Papenbrook) as Kirito from SAO (which I enjoy don’t @ me) I found myself comparing the two characters and while both of them have this need to protect people and this drive to ensure the ones they care for are safe even to the point of self sacrifice in the dangerous situations they find themselves in. Kiritos comes off more genuine. so the younger guy from the pseudo fantasy harem Anime is way more mature then the Highschool kid who knows he has a responsibility and a destiny (supposedly)

If you’re a fan of Mech battles you might enjoy it, if you like lots of intersecting plot lines you might like it. It’s got it’s goods and bads and the goods are really good, the problem is the Main Bad is the Main Character which is probably the reason I won’t watch it again.

Great concept, amazing side characters, okish ending... really really really terrible protagonist.

#Revisions #Anime #Anime reveiw #netflix #netflix reveiw #spoilers #Daisuke #Keisaku #Marin #Gai #Lu #Marin is best girl

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spiftynifty · 6 years

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How come it seems like lm and jds can talk more candidly about their intentions regarding other ships like allurance and even k/l but not sheith? I don't understand why they can clarify things like allurance and how it was there from the beginning or flat out state that they never intended for k/l to be a thing, but when it comes to the topic of shiro and keith they won't just clarify what they did or did not intend/want their relationship to be? I'm confused by it. :(

Ooof this is an excellent question and I suspect a complicated one.

First off, they can be candid about Allurance because 1) it’s a hetero couple (and therefore “acceptable” to executives and conservative parents) and 2) it was strongly implied and built up for almost the entirety of the series before they officially, canonically, became a couple. There’s no ambiguity there. They can be candid about kl because Allurance technically “kills” the ship by virtue of existing, but more importantly kl is the fanship that they have been directly asked about on more than one occasion and probably straight up badgered about it more times than we’re aware of. When your production studio gets blackmailed in the hopes of making k/l canon, that ship is being brought to your attention.

Also, Afterbuzz is run by kl fans who have anti-like tendencies. They angle kl questions in nearly every interview, and I was pretty miffed by the way in this interview they heavily, heavily implied that only Sheith fans hated s8 “because their ship didn’t become canon” and yet in the same breath talked about how Allurance wasn’t good and came out of nowhere (something JDS delightfully shut down). In the live chat for the recent interview, people from all ship alignments kept begging the hosts to ask about why SK’s friendship wasn’t included in the final season. In the saltiest tone you can imagine, one of the more vocal kl hosts decided to answer the question (”they helped each other grow and evolve and since they’ve done that, we don’t need to see their friendship anymore, it got lots of screentime in other seasons”) and never let the showrunners actually speak on it, instead moving swiftly to another topic that aligned more with the hosts’ own interests. It was almost like she was afraid of what the answer would be. Was she afraid they’d say “well actually, on the matter of that, Sheith was our intended endgame” or was she trying to save them from having to talk about something NDAs prevented them from talking about?

So why CAN’T they talk Sheith? I have a few theories. This gets long and a little rambly, so I’ve thrown it under a cut.

1) Don’t ask, don’t tell. Except for post-s7, the showrunners themselves have never been asked about Sheith’s relationship in an interview. I think most Sheiths were afraid of rocking the boat and potentially upending a SK endgame by drawing too much attention to it. We were/are definitely the quieter side of the primary vld ships and honestly most of us were not expecting our ship to be canon.

But vld ships and the ship wars are notorious across geekdom for vitriol and death threats, and the creators didn’t want to add any fodder to either side. In the middle of production it would have benefited no one for the EPs to say, “yeah sheith is meant to be viewed romantically” or “no, we can’t go back and change the story to make that true”. Either one would have resulted in an uptick of harassment from antis towards them, towards other fans. And nevermind the production side where DW/WEP weren’t ready for even a hint of m/m until right before s7 dropped. It was only AFTER they got the greenlight on gay Shiro that showrunners could finally be vague and say “some people will interpret [sk] as brothers, others will say it’s 100% confirmed they’re in a relationship”. Which is, in my opinion, a pretty interesting way to respond to that question. But again, if that interviewer hadn’t been brave enough to ask it, I highly doubt it’s something that the showrunners themselves would have ever brought up.

2) Sheith was actually intended to be romantic, but was blocked. We know now that Adam being greenlit as Shiro’s boyfriend happened right before (like a week or less) before s7 dropped. This was a show that had been in production for almost 4 years by this point, and the showrunners stated they picked Shiro to be their rep early on in the process. When they planted that idea in executive’s heads is anyone’s guess, as is when the proper fight for it began. I suspect their immediate team of directors, writers, and in-house producers were well aware and supportive, but kicking that up the chain was another story. I also have a suspicion that it wasn’t until season 6 was complete that the matter was brought up because greenlighting everything we got in s6 knowing Shiro was gay the whole time puts a lot of eyes on Keith.

And really, it was Keith who was the problem all along.

In every version of Voltron, Keith is the main protagonist. He’s the leader of the team, the primary “image” of Voltron, and thus, certain things about him need to be maintained. I’m not sure if this is sheer coincidence or not, but he is the only person on the team who stayed visually the same to his OG counterpart. All of the other paladins have gone from white dudes (and a white lady) to POC, or have had a genderswap. There is much debate about Keith’s race with people creating their own headcanons but ultimately Keith can pass as white. While the handbook states Lance is Cuban, Hunk is half black-half Samoan, Shiro is Japanese and even Pidge gets “Italian”, Keith is just listed as... human. Which is a surefire way to not upset fans who have HC’d him as POC while also not-NOT saying he’s white. Everybody “wins”.

In addition I’m confident a major stipulation of the OG Voltron owners (the “gatekeepers”, as a few of the VAs and the showrunners themselves have darkly alluded to) was that Keith could not be LGBT. We know now he was meant to end up with Acxa, a fact that was already obvious to many of us from their Weblum meetcute. But that relationship was never scripted.

Setting aside the fact that the OG Voltron owners (WEP) didn’t want Keith to be LGBT, I’m sure executives at Dreamworks would have struggled with the idea as well. Shiro stans can come at me all they like about this but Keith was always meant to be the primary protagonist of the show, of every version of Voltron, and making the main, masculine hero of a well-trodden, oft-rebooted franchise gay/bi would have been an ENORMOUS move for animation. Making him end up with the other main, masculine hero would have honestly broken the internet and the minds of countless conservative executives, and been a major benchmark not just for cartoons, but ALL media. Animation often trails behind TV and movies in terms of social progress because something something “protect the chillllldrennn”. And right now I’m struggling to think of a popular live action TV show, or movie, with an older audience, where the main masculine hero is lgbt, and in a relationship with the other main masculine hero. Feel free to offer me examples in replies but the fact that I’m struggling to think of anything is pretty telling. In short, if this revolutionary move still isn’t happening for the live action 13+ audience, asking for it to happen on a cartoon with a 7-11yo boy demographic is like asking for the moon. Keith couldn’t be gay, because immediately it would have been obvious to anyone that he was already very much in love with the other LGBT character on the show. Hell, it’s already pretty obvious in canon that this is the case, and dodging the question about his sexuality is dodging the confirmation that he’s in love with Shiro.

I’d like to believe that one of the solutions to the Adam Problem that was proposed was that KEITH ends up with Shiro, but they were laughed out of the office. The pair’s incredibly close bond aside, it would have been the absolute easiest fix production-wise. They already have their shared history doing most of the legwork, all that’d have to be changed is:

-adding Shiro to the L/K scene in 8x01, just sitting there as Keith encouraged Lance.-Re-recording a couple of Shiro’s lines in 8x05 to make him seem at least somewhat upset that Keith was kidnapped-Showing Keith and Shiro hanging out in the video episode. You could just use the shot of Keith and Pidge but replace Pidge with Shiro.

And the best part is, you could change just one or two of these and then do the wedding epilogue you always intended (but write something that doesn’t insist Shiro retired) but with Keith instead of Rando. Not to mention, there is a slight, slight possibility there was a S/K scene (or two) cut along the way. I strongly disagree with the theories that have floated around about the “massive edits” done to s8, but I think there could be truth to the idea that a Sheith scene was cut to make room for Crew Member, or an effort made to downplay the Sheith friendship that comes off way more intimate than any interaction Shiro has with [man]. It’s more likely that SK scenes never existed at all in this season as the showrunners had to cave to pressures to “have more action”, had no idea what to do with Shiro besides relegate him to a stiff cardboard general, and perhaps had to follow strict instructions about the kind of friendliness an out & proud gay man could show to the men he’d enjoyed good interactions with before.

All this to say, the Sheith battle is messy. It’s fine for the showrunners to say “getting the greenlight for Shiro was a battle” because it’s a battle they won that makes everyone look pretty good. It makes Dreamworks look like they Learned Something and are going to be more open to LGBT content in future properties. It makes WEP look not-terrible because they can add “allowed a character who wasn’t really an OG Voltron character to be gay” to their list of “generous” things they allowed for this re-envisioning of their property. It’s self-congrats all around.

Blocking Sheith has the opposite effect. It reveals that WEP is homophobic because they could allow Pidge to be a girl and Allura to be black but making the hero a non-straight man? That’s TOO FAR. It reveals that Dreamworks higherups are homophobic because they weren’t ready for two LGBT protagonists, just one plus a background character with 3 lines who is literally never named. No one wins, and to be asked about Shiro and Keith and be honest about it could potentially be the showrunners saying, “god, we wanted to, but we were blocked at every single turn”. And thus DW and WEP are the outed villains of the story.

3) Shiro and Keith were never meant to be read as romantic. The showrunners don’t say anything because there’s simply nothing to say. Sometimes the most incredible ships are happy accidents. Sometimes people genuinely don’t realize what they’re doing. I felt a little disheartened watching the AB interview because the way they talked about wanting to include more [man], or how they “hoped viewers would read between the lines” re:Shiro/Curtains, was so casual and flippant it was like they genuinely thought most people would be fine with Shirando if only there had been more scenes between them, as though completely severing Shiro’s relationship with Keith and instead only showing scenes of Shiro bonding with a new character would come off as a good move rather than a baffling (and somewhat hurtful) one.

I do believe that certain directors were absolutely fans of the pair and angled in what they could. Chris Palmer is behind the famous “shiro loves you baby” art and responsible for the eps that include Shiro’s gay panic, the Sheith hug, “As many times as it takes”, Shiro falling into Keith’s arms, and “We have to stop, Shiro’s out there!!” among others. Steve Ahn was the director behind 2x01, 3x01 with heavily grieving Keith, Blade of Marmora, and the episode where Keith screams Shiro’s name so loud he astral projects and then Shiro holds his hands over the controls. He also got really soft when he talked about the pair in an episode of Form Podcast (before JDS kinda hastily shut him down). And even Eugene Lee, he directed The Black Paladins which is an episode so Sheith I still can’t believe it’s real, and 7x01, the other episode so Sheith I can’t believe it’s real. All three of these guys were the original series directors, which is pretty inchresting.

But that doesn’t mean the showrunners were necessarily onboard. Maybe it was really important to them to show a positive male friendship since that never happens in media, just as they felt having Allura sacrifice herself was a powerful feminist move. However the thing I keep circling back to is JDS’ early interview about The Winter Soldier and how if he ever got the chance to do that, he hoped it would be in the future when things could be more progressive, hinting that he wanted to throw more overt romantic undertones if he himself ever got a fight like that to write or direct. It’s pretty interesting that he wrote the Black Paladins, which mirrors the Stucky fight in Winter Soldier so much that it actually rotoscopes one of Bucky’s moves. I’d also point out that JDS’ favorite characters are Shiro and Keith, and I find it impossible to be a fan of both and not also be a fan of how much they love each other, and how much that love straddles the line between romantic love and friendship.

This got long, but I hope it was helpful. The likely final-ever showrunner interview will be on Let’s Voltron sometime this month, and I do hope that now that the series is over someone is brave enough to ask them, “so... what was going on between Shiro and Keith? In a perfect world, what would have happened there?”. In a way it doesn’t matter though. There is always the risk of them saying “nothing was going on there” and us agonizing over whether that was a lie to protect their careers or bald-faced honesty in the face of an NDA or fucks-given that might have expired with their contracts.

But I think the best we can hope for is the same situation that happened with the Avatar creators and that live action movie: 3 years from now when the NDAs are well and truly expired, JDS & LM may come out and say, “SO, on the matter of Shiro and Keith, it’s time to come clean.”

#sheith #vld meta #voltron #askspifty #it's still wild to me that people say they're brothers #like really i have questions about your siblings if that's the case #Anonymous

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littlepurinsesu · 5 years

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IDOLiSH7 REUNION LIVE VIEWING RECAP

I once said that I had no interest in idol anime. And then I got into IDOLiSH7. I then said that I still wouldn’t go to their concert. And then I got tickets for the REUNION live viewing. I then said that I don’t think I’ll scream very much, if at all. Yesterday, I slapped past me three times in the face as I defied all of these predictions.

I’m gonna skip out on some of the details of what happened since most people have already shared all that good stuff, so this post will be a lot more personal instead—what had the biggest impact on me, what made me go crazy, and my general impressions and feels. More like a long diary entry for future me, I guess ^^

As soon as the first song, “Natsu Shiyouze,” started, I literally started tearing up. I used to be such a big Kpop fan and loved SHINee so, so much. Their concerts were the only idol concerts I’d ever attended, and I thought I’d never ever watch an idol concert in my life again. But as soon as “Natsu Shiyouze” started, I felt this overwhelming rush of excitement that I could only ever experience when watching a live concert… I thought of SHINee and the way I felt when I saw them live, and then I thought of Jonghyun, and I started crying. But then they quickly turned to happy tears… I was just… so thankful that I found and got into IDOLiSH7, and so thankful that i7 gave me the chance to experience this feeling again… “Natsu Shiyouze” is such a fun and upbeat song, yet so many emotions, a mixture of happy and sad, were rushing through my mind already. It’s a complex and bittersweet feeling, but in that moment I was truly happy :’)

The sad sentimental stuff only lasted for one song, so the rest is just lots and lots of fangirling and screaming xD

I am in awe at the length the voice actors go to embody and present their characters. Just… it was a perfect balance of portraying their roles and also being themselves. This concert allowed me to appreciate the voice actors for who they are—more than simply “so-and-so character’s VA” ^^ I still remember the hype I felt when they all assembled themselves to replicate the REUNION poster image, with Onoken holding the huge flag… And also… seeing ZOOL standing up there with them was so askjdfh;askjdfhj;sad I’m so happy for them omg ;_____;

IDOLiSH7 (the group) is just so full of fun and full of life, and watching them together never fails to put a smile on my face. They’re so lively and energetic and they’re all absolute sweethearts. The most adorable and sweetest family ever <333 Every member had their own moments to shine (which I’ll get into in detail later), and it was literally impossible to not love every single one of these talented dorks ;~; <333

TRIGGER were just… legendary. They literally OWNED the stage. The amount of charisma and stage presence they have is just AMAZING. As a group, they were probably the strongest and most stable live singers, in my opinion, and DEFINITELY the most LETHAL in fanservice. Holy smokes were they ON FIRE. THEY’RE SEXY AND THEY KNOW IT, AND BOY DO THEY SELL IT. THEY OOZED SEX APPEAL. I’M ALREADY TRIGGER-BIASED BUT THEY DEFINITELY STOOD OUT THE MOST AND LEFT THE BIGGEST IMPRESSION ON ME. THEIR MERE PRESENCE IS ENOUGH TO HAVE ME SCREAMING.

Re:vale didn’t give as much fanservice as the other groups, but they were still KINGS. Their interactions and whenever they spoke in their characters’ voices oh my gosh as;dkjfha;skjfhas;j <33333 And the VAs were just… so “senior” and “experienced,” like actual SENPAIS. So much respect ;___;

And ZOOL… oh my gosh I’m just SO HAPPY FOR THEM. I cheered extra loud for them because I was so scared that some people wouldn’t, so I wanted to make sure that they got the love and support they deserved. But ak;dsjfha;skdj everyone was so supportive of them; the screams were SO LOUD and it made me so, so, so incredibly happy ;_____; They were badass and also had amazing stage charisma, almost like a Kpop idol group!!! And I’m glad they shuffled the lines so that Minami and Torao got to sing in their earlier songs, too ^^

Gonna list some of the highlights and parts that left the most lasting impressions and got me the most excited during the concert (not in chronological order):

- “HOSHIKUZU MAGIC.” OMG. WHEN THE STARS APPEARED AND HOPE APPEARED WE ALL LITERALLY SCREECHED. I CAN’T BELIEVE WE GOT TO SEE HOPE AND CURSE MOVE. HOPE AND CURSE MOVED. THEY LOOK ETHEREAL AND JUST AS;DKJFHA;SKDJFH;SAJ I NEED THAT ANIMATED VIDEO IN HD SO I CAN WATCH AND SCREAM OVER IT REPEATEDLY. AND OMG THE VAS WEARING THE ETERNO OUTFITS A;SKJDFH;ASKJFH;AJSKD IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?!?!? IS THIS REAL LIFE?!?!?!? AND ALL THE FABRICS REPRESENTING ALL THE STARS USED TO SEPARATE THE TWO WHILE THEY WERE PERFORMING. AND OMG THAT ENDING WHEN HOPE LEAPT INTO CURSE’S ARMS WITH TEARS IN HIS EYES? WE ALL LOST IT. I think this may have been my loudest screech in the entire concert. My friend was losing her sanity and I even had to pat her to calm her down omg xDDD I honestly was expecting them to announce a Hoshimeguri movie or something, since they animated a video already, but alas, one can dream xDDD (still not giving up HOPE hehe)

- TRIGGER’S NEW SONG. OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG. I BARELY SURVIVED THE SNEAK PEEKS WE GOT OF THE MV. HOW AM I GONNA COPE WHEN THE FULL MV DROPS. THERE ARE WOLF HOWLS AND LOTS OF HIGH NOTES AND OMG IT LOOKS AND SOUNDS AMAZING AS;DKJFH;ASKJFHD;AJSK I NEED THIS SONG AND VIDEO IN MY LIFE. TRIGGER FANS (ESPECIALLY GAKU FANS)… *SCAR VOICE* BE PREPAAAAAAARED.

- Massun pulling Onoken to the middle again because he’s the centre omg he sounded EXACTLY LIKE IORI and that’s TOTALLY SOMETHING IORI WOULD DO A;SDKJFHA;SKJFHAS;J

- Massun angrily throwing the towel on the ground OMGGGGG HE’S SO ADORABLE IT’S LIKE HE’S THROWING A TANTRUM AS;DKJFHA;SKJF TOO CUUUUUTE DX

- SUBARU PIGGY-BACKED ONOKEN TOWARDS THE END OMG MY TOURIKU BROSHIP FEELS ARE GOING THROUGH THE ROOF THEY’RE SO ADORABLE ASDKJFH;ASKJ I’M SO GLAD THE CAMERA CAUGHT THAT BLESSED MOMENT

- There was a part when Re:vale were walking down the long part of the stage together and people around me were saying “play the wedding song play the wedding song” LOLLLLL like they aren’t married already ;P

- Re:vale and TRIGGER made us do the “kanpai” thing twice each, and I ended up really, really needing to go to the toilet LOL but I just couldn’t leave? No I ain’t leaving during speaking segments and I was too scared to go even during the encore break for fear of missing out on anything as;dkjfhas;kj D:

- Sogo’s VA twirling around in the frilly blue outfit with the big bow on the back omg SO CUTE. Tachibana also twirled around quite a few times during Re:vale’s performance xD Their outfits were all so beautiful. Especially the Eterno outfits omg the amount of detail and lace and sparkles and the gloves ahhhhh *___* But it must have been really hot and heavy, since they took them off pretty quickly after performing “Hoshikuzu Magic” only >_<

- Speaking of outfits… TRIGGER’s outfits. So, so, SO COOL. Especially that one pink outfit of Tenn’s omg I can’t get enough of the criss-cross at the back and the long flowy skirt thing as;djkfha;sjkfh;asj it’s like an upgraded version of his Heavenly Visitor outfit and I LOVE IT *_____*

- “ZONE OF OVERLAP” FULL VERSION. THAT IS ALL. *grabby hands*

- I’d already been spoiled that Ryu would start off singing “Shine on the Sea” by himself, but it was still SO EMOTIONAL seeing the other two members rising up and joining him onstage ;___; Listening to this song and “In the meantime” seriously made me feel this sharp pang of guilt because moments ago I was screeching for ZOOL and then TRIGGER had to come out and make me remember all the terrible stuff that happened in Part 3 and I just a;sdjkfhas;kj Dx

- “Daybreak Interlude” was AMAZING. THE WAY TRIGGER ENTERED FROM THE BACK AND WALKED THROUGH THE AUDIENCE SECTION. THEY COMPLETELY OWNED THAT STAGE AND IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST EPIC PERFORMANCES OF THE ENTIRE CONCERT.

- I can’t remember which song it was, but there was a part where MEZZO were pretending to look really sad so they were kneeling together with their heads down and they looked like lost puppies omg awwwww a;sdkjfh;asjkhsa;j MUST ADOPT.

- During the encore songs, everyone was on carts and grouped randomly or on one by himself. And they grouped Momo with the twins and it was the most adorable thing ever xD Soma and Onoken were being all sweet and cute and putting their arms around each other’s shoulders, and Momo’s just… awkwardly standing there third-wheeling xDDD

- Nishiyama and Eguchi put their arms around each other’s shoulders OMGGGGGG I JUST WANT MINA AND NAGI TO BE FRIENDS ALREADY AS;DFKJHAS;DJK I hope this is a sign ;~;

- There was one point where Saito Soma looked at Onoken with THE MOST SOFT AND LOVING EYES EVER OMG AS;DKJFH;ASJKHF;AJSD IT’S JUST LIKE THE WAY TENN WOULD LOOK AT RIKU ;_____; It reminds me of that one Tenn sprite from the game where he has his hand on his chin and his eyes kinda soften a;skdjhf;aksjh;asj SWEETEST TWIN MOMENT OF THE DAY DX

- SAITO SOMA’S “DA ME~” OMGGGGGGG. JUST THINKING BACK ON IT STILL MAKES ME FRIGGIN BLUSH LIKE MAD. I CAN’T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT HE ASKED US. ALL I REMEMBER IS THAT THE ANSWER WAS AN OBVIOUS YES/WANT, AND THEN HE A;KSDJFH;AJSK DOES THAT POSE AND MAKES THAT EXPRESSION AND USES THAT VOICE AND EFFING DARES TO GO “DA ME~” AND INSTANTLY AHHILIATE MY ENTIRE EXISTENCE A;SDKJFH;ASKJFH;ASJK

- Re:vale said that they were a family ;___; I can’t remember it very clearly so this may not be exactly accurate, but something about how they were the parents, IDOLiSH7/MEZZO were the cute children (cue i7’s cute expressions), TRIGGER were the cool children (cue TRG’s sexy poses), and ZOOL were the bad/naughty kids (cue ZOOL doing gangster hand gestures LOLLLLL). And they even debated who was the dad and who was the mum ahhhhh what a happy family ;_____; ZOOL have been officially adopted by Re:vale. You are now part of the family. There’s no leaving. Ever >:D

Okay now I’m gonna go by characters/VAs and talk (more like yell) a bit about my overall impressions hehe prepare for lots more caps~

MASSUN. OMG. OKAY I REMEMBER WATCHING A FEW I7 VIDEOS WITH THE SEIYUU AND SAYING “HEY IORI’S VA IS ACTUALLY PRETTY CUTE.” TODAY? I EFFING FELL FOR HIM. HARD. OMG HE’S SO GORGEOUS?! HE LITERALLY FEELS LIKE A PRINCE A;SKDJFH;AKSJHAS He’s so in-character during the whole live that I always wonder if he’s actually serious and sensible all the time, but no my friend says he’s just trying to channel Iori xD And omg all the Ioriku interactions ;___; THIS MAN IS BOTH BEAUTIFUL AND CUTE AND TALENTED. WHAT A THREAT. I LOVE HIM. OFFICIAL NEW SEIYUU CRUSH.

Yamato was my least-favourite character initially because I don’t like green and I don’t like glasses (SORRY ONII-SAN) xDDD I’ve grown to love him as I progressed with the story (and fell deeper into i7 hell), but today? ONII-SAN SLAYED. OMG SHIRAI SOUNDS EFFORTLESSLY LIKE YAMATO AND ALL THE FINGER POSES AND EXPRESSIONS AND THE GOOD NIGHT AWESOME AS;KDJFH;ASKJFH;SAJ AND EVERY TIME HE REFERS TO HIMSELF AS “ONII-SAN” I AS;DJKFH;AKJSFH;AJ I YELL

Wingu is another one that seems to sound effortlessly like his character omg HE’S SO CUTE?!?!? AND SO SINCERE?!?!?!? Like he’s just… always smiling and energetic and happy, like he’s truly enjoying himself, and it’s like you can just SEE Mitsuki’s soul in him omg. And he also has this strangely comforting vibe where you feel so safe and relaxed in his presence? Yet hyped up at the same time? I can’t describe it but omg perfect Mikki a;skdjfh;askjdfh;asdjkhfjas

KENN OMG. I didn’t really know him that well or care much for him beforehand; I just thought he did a really good job as Tamaki and really adored his sexy singing voice. But today? DUDE HE’S THE CUTEST THING EVER OMG. HE’S LITERALLY LIKE… A REAL-LIFE TAMAKI WITH HIS CHILDISH INNOCENCE AND ENERGY. LIKE AN EXCITED CHILD RUNNING ALL OVER THE PLACE. HE WAS HAVING SO MUCH FUN AND I JUST. A;SKDJFH;ASKJFHD;J TOO PRECIOUS ;_____; And he was so good at finding cameras and giving bright smiles a;sdjkfha;skj he was one of the most lively and energetic and really kept the mood going <3 He’s also a REALLY good live singer. Among the top 3, in my opinion. I ended up loving and appreciating him a lot more than expected <33333

Awwwww Abeshi as So-chan ahhhhh he’s such a sweetheart? MEZZO were practically on fire with their fan service and there were just so many adorable and sweet moments between them. You can just see how much fun he’s having, especially with KENN, and he was just such a cutie throughout?!?!? He had a bit of that shy and reserved So-chan vibe whenever he spoke but you could really see him give his all whenever he performed <333

Nagi ;_____; I feel like every time Eguchi did anything, everyone screamed extra loudly, probably because of all the Part 4 feels ;_____; He didn’t speak in Nagi’s voice or accent very much, but whenever he did, he just… stole all the attention xDDD SO ADORABLE OMG. AND HE’S SO FRIGGIN TALL ASD;KJFA;SHFKJDASHF;J TOWERING OVER THEM ALL XDDD AND I CAN’T BELIEVE HE MADE US ASK HIM “ARE YOU HAPPY” OMGGGGG AS;KDJFHA;SJKFH;SADJ WHY DX

Onoken was the most ADORABLE THING EVER. He was seriously JUST LIKE RIKU throughout the entire concert. He was an actual ball of sunshine, super upbeat, energetic, cute, and just so good at leading everyone a;skdjfh;askjfh;asjk I don’t know if he’s just being in-character for Riku or if he’s always like this but omg I LOVED HIM. HE WAS THE LIFE OF THE CONCERT, SERIOUSLY. His singing voice is seriously like an angel, too!!!!!!!!! One of the best live singers of the entire cast. He was just the most precious and adorable thing ever and literally LIT UP the arena with his voice and smile and presence and just a;sdjfkhas;kjfhsa;j PERFECT.

WACCHAN AHHHHHHH I REALLY LIKE THIS GUY? I don’t know that much about him but I’ve liked him for a while (ever since I got to know him through Yuri on Ice) :O I dunno, like he just seems like SUCH a sincere and nice man? And omg I love it when he puts on Gaku’s super deep and sexy voice a;skjdfhs;aj *___* He’s also a really stable live singer and a really good performer <3 And during the end when he looked like he was gonna tear up omg as;kdjfha;skjfha;sj DON’T CRY AHHHHH But omg when he said “sobaya ja nee” ASJKDFH;ASJKFH WHY ARE YOU SO CUTE?!?!?

SKIPPING TENN/SAITO SOMA AND LEAVING HIM FOR LAST (FOR OBVIOUS REASONS)

SATOTAKU WAS… JUST LIKE RYU OMG. He had that super pure and bright kind of joy on his face throughout the entire thing. You could just see and feel how happy he was to be there ;A; Another actual ray of sunshine and just… he has the brightest and happiest smile and I felt so happy seeing him so happy and just a;ksdjfh;askjdhf;aj WHY ARE THEY ALL SO PURE AND GOOD HUH?!?!? HE REALLY GAVE HIS ALL FOR EVERY LINE OF EVERY SONG, AND THE SINCERITY IN EVERY ONE OF HIS ACTIONS AND WORDS IS JUST INCREDIBLE

Momo’s VA didn’t really give as much fanservice, but whenever he spoke in Momo’s voice… CUTENESS OVERLOAD!!! It’s so difficult to imagine such a cute and childish voice coming out of his VA, but he just… AS;KJDFHA;SKJ HE DID THE “HAPPY~” THING TWICE (ONCE AT THE START AND ONCE AT THE END) WHILE TWIRLING AROUND AND AHHHH SO CUTEEEE OMG ;___; AND YESSSSS HE SAID “YUKI IKEMEN~!” WHEN YUKI’S VA ASKED HIM TO AS;DKJFH;ASJKFHA;SJK

Tachibana was such a blessing omg you could also see how happy he was to be there and how dedicated he was to the concert ;_____; He gave SO much fanservice, and every time he spoke in Yuki’s voice we all just collectively lost it. He’s SO GOOD at interacting with the audience and making us happy, and he really was like a big senpai who was not only taking care of everyone, but like… also returning to his own childish roots, just letting go and having the time of his life ;___; In some ways he felt more like Momo while Momo’s VA felt more like Yuki LOL xDDD

HIROSE YUYA OMG. DUDE THIS GUY HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE A KPOP IDOL OR SOMETHING. HIS SINGING IS AMAZING AND HIS DANCING AND STAGE CHARISMA OMG. He kind of commands attention as soon as he opens his mouth a;skdjfhs;aj AND OMG HE SPOKE IN HARU’S VOICE SO MUCH. AND SO EFFORTLESSLY. HE JUST PULLS OFF HIS CHARACTER SO WELL AND EVERY TIME HE EFFORTLESSLY SWITCHES TO HARU’S VOICE I JUST A;SDJFHA;SKDJFH;ASJ WHY IS HE SO GOOD?!?!?!? HE’S SO YOUNG AND HE’S ALREADY THIS GOOD AT WHAT HE DOES. SERIOUSLY. MAD RESPECT.

Subaru just… It warms my heart seeing him looking so genuinely happy from the bottom of his heart to be there at the live ;_____; You can just hear his joy and pride for his members whenever he speaks, and he’s REALLY good at getting the crowd hyped. He’s like ZOOL’s personal cheerleader when he’s not singing or something?!? And when he got the whole audience to say/chant ZOOL’s name… I may just be reading too much into this and filling in the gaps myself, but it’s almost like he’s just… taking in all the cheers and living in the moment where he can feel that everyone really does accept, appreciate, and support ZOOL. That all this is real—they really are standing there as part of the main cast and everyone really does love them. It just looks like it means so much to him, and I feel so warm and fuzzy seeing him looking so proud and happy asd;lfha;skjfs I’M PROUD OF YOU TOO ;_____;

NISHIYAMA. EXCUSE ME MR. MINAMI WHO ALLOWED YOU. WHO ENABLED YOU. OMG. So I was warned beforehand that a lot of people were swept away by Haruka and Minami’s VAs and prepared myself. But boy oh boy, if I thought I could prepare myself and become immune to the greatness that is Nishiyama, I was DEAD WRONG. AN ABSOLUTELY PERFECT EMBODIMENT OF EVERYTHING I LOVE ABOUT MINAMI. THE POSES, THE EXPRESSIONS, THE MOVEMENTS, THE GESTURES, AND THE FRIGGIN VOICE. I’M A SUCKER FOR MINAMI’S SPEAKING VOICE, AND HIS VA JUST KEEPS DOING IT AND MAKING ME FREAKING FEEL THINGS. RUDE!!!!! HE’S AN ABOSLUTE TEASEEEEEE AND JUST… I DUNNO IF IT WAS THE EYELINER OR THE HAIR OR WHATEVER, BUT I FELL FOR HIM HARD. ANOTHER NEW SEIYUU CRUSH RIGHT THERE. AND IT LOOKS LIKE HE ONLY INCREASED MY LOVE FOR MINAMI LMAOOOO SORRY TENN

Torao’s VA seriously took me by surprise because I really was not expecting him to look like that!!! I was expecting a big gruff man or something, but he’s so… smol and kinda cute? <3 But then he lowers his voice and IT’S STILL THE DEEP AND SEXY TORA VOICE OMG?!? He didn’t seem to give that much fanservice either, but he was clearly having a blast and getting SUPER HYPED UP during all of ZOOL’s performances, which was a joy to watch ^^

(Okay, if you don’t want to read through a huge slab of caps and witness a fangirl completely lose her sanity, skip the next “paragraph” xDDD)

S A I T O S O M A. SAITO SOMA SAITO SOMA SAITO SOMA OMGGGGGGGGGGGG WTFFFFFFF A;SDKJHF;AKSJDHF;AKJSDHF;JKASHD;FKHASD;KFJHAS;JKDSA!!! I?!?!?!?!? CANNOT EVEN CONTROL MY FEELINGS OMG AS;DKJFHA;SDKJFH;ASKJDFHD;ASJ AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OKAY SO YEAH TENN’S MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER, BUT SAITO SOMA HAS ALSO SOMEHOW BECOME MY FAVOURITE SEIYUU OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS, SO PUT THE TWO TOGETHER AND YOU ALREADY GOT YOURSELF A KILLER. BUT LIKE?!?!?!? HOW DOES THIS MAN. LIVE HIS LIFE. KNOWING THE DEADLY EFFECT HE HAS ON EVERYONE?!??!?! HOW DOES HE SHAMELESSLY DO WHAT HE DOES AND SLEEP WELL AT NIGHT?!?!? OKAY I KNEW THAT SAITO SOMA WAS A TEASE AND REALLY GOOD AT FLIRTING WITH THE CAMERA. I WAS PREPARED FOR LOTS OF WINKING AND FANSERVICE. BUT NOTHING. PREPARED ME. FOR THAAAAAAAAAAAT. OMG WTF WAS ALL THAT, MAN?!?!?!? I LOST COUNT HOW MANY TIMES HE MADE US LOSE OUR SH*T TONIGHT LIKE HOLY CHEESE CAN YOU NOT?!?!? BUT ALSO AS;DKJFHA;DSJK NO DON’T STOP LIKE OMG HE LITERALLY KNEW WHERE EVERY SINGLE CAMERA WAS AND NEVER FAILED TO LOOK RIGHT INTO IT WITH THAT LOOK. WINKING, FINGER GUNS, TOUCHING HIS FACE, TEASING EXPRESSIONS, COME HITHER EYES… EVERYTHING. ANY KIND OF FANSERVICE THAT COULD MAKE A GIRL LOSE HER MIND? SAITO SOMA KNOWS AND DELIVERS. AND EVERY TIME HE SPOKE IN TENN’S VOICE I JUST A;SDKJFH;ASJKHF;ASKJHF;AKJSDHFAJS OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WANTING US TO FEEL “DOKI DOKI” TONIGHT? HELL YEAH DUDE YOU MADE ME FEEL WAY MORE THAN JUST DOKI DOKI. I FELL FOR HIM FOR HIS VOICE AND JUST A;SKDJFHS;AKJFHASD;JKF I GOT TO HEAR SO MUCH OF THAT SEXY VOICE LIVE AND IN-CHARACTER OF TENN BUT HE’S ALSO SO ILLEGALLY CUTE AND I JUST AS;DKJFHA;SKJFHASJ CANNOT HANDLE THIS OMG. AND HE ALWAYS HAS THAT… “I’M CUTE AND I KNOW IT” CONFIDENCE GOING ON AS;DKJFHA;SKJFHA;SJDKFH;ASKJD HE IS THE WORLD’S FRIGGIN BIGGEST FLIRT AND TEASE I HAVE EVER SEEN AND I WAS LOVING EVERY SINGLE MOMENT OF IT. I HAD ALREADY KINDA FALLEN FOR HIM BEFORE, BUT TONIGHT? SEALED THE DEAL. I FELL H A R D. I WENT FROM A CASUAL SAITO SOMA FAN TO ACTUAL SAITO SOMA T R A S H. HE FED US SO WELL. AT THE TIME OF WRITING THIS, I STILL CANNOT LOOK AT ANY PICTURE OF HIM WITHOUT LOSING MY SH*T. JUST THINKING OF HIS STUPIDLY ATTRACTIVE FACE AND STUPIDLY SEXY FANSERVICE STILL MAKES ME GO CRAY. YOU FRIGGIN AS;DKJFHADS;FKJHSA; HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME. AND WHEN HE CRIED? HOLY SH*T OMG PRECIOUS BBY DON’T CRY AS;DJKFHA;SKJFHS;AJKFH;SAJ AND TRIGGER HUGGING HIM TO HIDE HIS CRYING FACE AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH DDDDDDDDXXXXXXX HIS FINAL SPEECH DURING THE ENDING WAS SO SINCERE AND SO HEARTFELT AND HE KINDA ALMOST TEARED UP A BIT AGAIN AND I JUST… IS IT POSSIBLE TO FEEL BOTH EMOTIONAL AND THIRSTY FOR SOMEONE ALL IN ONE NIGHT? YEAH, IF IT’S TENN/SAITO SOMA, IT SURE IS. Okay stopping now before this gets outta hand lmaooooo

As anyone (including future me reading back on this) can see, the biggest highlight of the live for me was obviously Saito Soma lol. I basically came home screaming incoherently about him and announcing that I was going to marry this man LOL (jks jks). I also secured Massun as my other infatuation, and gained two more new seiyuu crushes in Nishiyama and Hirose lmaooooo xDDD These four had the biggest impact on me thirst-wise, and Onoken, Soma, and KENN impressed me the most performance-wise.

I’ll DEFINITELY be going again next year (if possible). And this time I’m gonna want to go to BOTH days. And this time I’ll have one of those cool penlights D:< I still can’t believe I actually ended up at a Nanalive live viewing, considering my mindset before I caved and watched the anime and eventually downloaded the game late last year. I guess the phrase “never say never” really is true xD

I wasn’t even there at MetLife Dome, but it’s so easy to forget that you’re only staring at a screen when the entire concert was just SO AMAZING AND SO IMMERSIVE. The VAs never failed to acknowledge and address the people at the live viewing, so the experience is almost just as good as if I had gone to the live in person. People who got to go to the live, you’re super lucky and I hope you had the time of your lives! And for anyone who didn’t and is feeling disappointed, don’t lose hope! There’s always next year, and the year after, and many more to come!!! And there are live and delayed viewings! And in the end, there’s always the DVD/BluRay, so no one has to miss out <3 It’s definitely an experience I would recommend to all i7 fans ;___;

Thank you so much to all the performers and staff for giving so many of us two truly magical days filled with good music, happy tears, and plenty of love <333 We really are all under one sky ^^ <3

#idolish7 #idolish7 reunion #ainana #nanalive #trigger #re:vale #zool #saito soma #fandom #anime #mine #personal #fanaccount #oh my god i'm so sorry for all the keyboard smashing and caps #i'm probably gonna be super embarrassed when i look back on this in the future #but i really wanted to capture the raw emotions that i felt #if you actually got through all that #especially that saito soma slab #wow i'm so touched ;_____;

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acabang · 5 years

Text

Nerding out on the Borderlands

I finally got around to playing Borderlands 3 and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Personal order of preference for the franchise: Tales ≥ BL2 > BL3 > BL1 > TPS

Depending on how the DLC goes though, 3 could be just as good as 2 for me. Unlikely but it’s possible.

I really enjoyed playing all the Vault Hunters, Zane in particular, even if it seems like he lags behind the rest of them. And while she’s fun as just a straight up gunner, my only real bummer is Moze. For me when it comes to the playable characters, it’s all about their Action Skills and if I don’t find myself using it regularly then I hope they have something fun in their skill trees to make up for the lack of it other than shooting guns exceptionally well (ie. Gaige with Ricochet-Anarchy stacking abuse, Krieg with Flame of the Firehawk-Raving Retribution Hellborn madness, etc.). The idea of Iron Bear is rad but vehicles have never been useful outside of a means of map traversal, which this mech isn’t for, and if I’m gonna give up the benefits of my gear then it better be fucking OP or at least viable, especially at the highest of difficulties. So far it’s not looking like it is and I don’t expect it ever will get to that level. For the most part though, she’s still a lot of fun to use as a Plain Jane FPS character.

Overall, I actually enjoy all four initial characters pretty much equally which I can’t say about the other games. I still had fun with them but I didn’t like Roland, Salvador and Nisha as much as their fellow Vault Hunters in their respective games. I’m really looking forward to what DLC Vault Hunters they have in store though, they’ve all been pretty solid and just plain fun to play as.

-SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT-

I liked the story well enough and felt engaged the entire time. I didn’t really feel bogged down throughout and enjoyed the pace. Even the sidequests I thought played along well with the storyline missions, they didn’t feel as jarring with too much backtracking or as tediously boring as The Pre-Sequel had it. Although, all the games are guilty of this, the Underdome/Circle of Slaughter missions are still lame.

I loved pretty much most of the new NPCs, however major or minor a role they played. Lorelei was interesting and I want to know more about her, the same goes for Clay, who I could both see becoming Vault Hunters themselves (hopefully) in a future game. The Katagawa-Rhys dynamic was fun, as was BALEX and GenIVIV. I loved Wainwright Jakobs and I especially loved Typhon DeLeon, two of the more likable and wholesome characters in the entire franchise. They don’t hold a candle to Loader Bot & Gortys from Tales but still very admirable in a universe full of assholes and psychopaths. Even some of the minor villains were fun, the Traunt Brothers and Pain & Terror specifically.

Now it’s going to be unfair to compare the Twins to Jack but... they still could've been written better. Brats with god complexes and one with an inferiority complex to boot is fine, not the most compelling, but wait! They’re also streamers because *nudge, nudge, wink, wink*. Despite that, the VA performances of what they were given were both still very well done. When they start to actively antagonize each other is when they started to turn around for me, especially with the power corrupting Troy to the point of almost killing off Tyreen. The Twins being the children of Typhon is a neat twist reveal but I feel like if you’ve been discovering his logs throughout the maps you can put two and two together long before they outright state it.

Though I should probably give credit to the Twins for being a part of why I love Typhon so much. With him being revered the way he was, especially by Tannis, as the first Vault Hunter, it’s refreshing to see a fabricated myth actually turn out to be mostly a myth and not a 100% accurate depiction or historic event like most other games usually do. Even the damn posters of Typhon got him all wrong which I loved. He’s endearingly flawed and his admittance to not being the best father to Tyreen & Troy after they lost their mother actually really got to me. He wasn’t around for long but it was smart of Gearbox to have built up his backstory through those logs, it allowed his character to make some sort of impact like it did on me which made his death actually quite poignant.

Thus leading to probably what I can only assume, since I haven’t bothered to read other people’s reaction to it, is the most controversial part of the game. I love character deaths, especially for ones I adore. When done properly it brings more meaning to them and for the character that may have taken their lives. Bloodwing and Roland helped build Jack up to be even more of the villain that most people love (to hate). Hell, even Sasha’s death in Tales actually had me crying... then immediately laughing because I totally got baited by it especially after already losing Scooter.

youtube

Now, like I said, I love character deaths and I’m totally fine with Maya being the one we lose but the way she dies was more of a pathetic wail than whatever Gearbox was hoping to achieve. And for what? All I hope for in a character death is to have more meaning to it than a passing of the torch to a cipher of a character that was basically just introduced and I have no real connection towards, good or bad, because going forward from then on certainly isn’t going to be positive at all. Who knows, she could end up being a favourite character of mine in the future as she develops more but as of right now, no, the only reason for her existence in this game world so far was to take the place from two beloved characters that hasn’t been earned yet.

The other character being Lilith as she sacrifices herself to keep Pandora closed. I don’t believe she’s actually dead, gone for now but at least not dead. It’ll probably be the main focus of the next game, if not in a DLC, in figuring out a way to get her back from Elpis, if she’s even stuck up there. It’s sad to lose her immediately after regaining her powers back but at least she went out with Alicia Keys singing her a fire swan song. Unfortunately, before going off to save the day and Gearbox not being entirely satisfied yet with shoving Ava down our throats the first time, Lilith hands over protection of Sanctuary III to her. Hopefully Ava is given an extremely satisfying character arc in the proceeding games because woof, that’s going to be a tough mountain to climb especially if it takes another 2-5 years for the next game to release.

I don’t actually hate Ava, I just don’t care about her. Also our Vault Hunter(s) were right there, technically, and as was Tannis. She may not be able to fight but she’s more than capable of leading the Crimson Raiders. She’s also the most consistently well written character that’s shown growth over the games that she’s been a part of in the franchise, in my opinion.

As for the rest of the characters, I’m good with moving on from Vaughn now. He was unexpectedly funny to okay during Tales but yeah, he’s already worn out his welcome for me. Rhys was fine, not as good as he was in Tales but he wasn’t really even my favourite character from that game anyway. Who I was missing was Fiona, I really wish that she had shown up but hopefully that might still be a possibility in DLC. Maybe she’ll show up alongside Athena & Janey, continuing her VH training somehow saved from wherever she disappeared off to. Preferably with Loader Bot and Gortys as well. It’d also be nice to run into Axton, Sal, Gaige and especially Kreig considering the whole Maya situation and her promising to see him again.

Then there’s also the B-Team, which a part of me wanted to interact with more but another part where I think I’m okay with what we got. I was disappointed in Tina’s development however, I didn’t expect a full maturation of character but I also hoped she wouldn’t be the spaz that she was when she was a young teen. Even in Dragon Keep she showed a little bit of growth with her acceptance of Roland’s death but I guess they wanted to keep her annoying, which was fine back in 2 and TPS when she was basically a kid but I believe she’s supposed to be at least 18 now? I guess it’s fine as long as it fits the dynamic between her, Brick and Mordecai. I will also say that Mordecai’s side quest to attend his protégé’s birthday party was really bittersweet, I loved that brief respite from the chaos that is the rest of the game and a stark reminder that Pandora sucks.

Aside from the actual plot and characters, I thought they did an even better job at world building the rest of the universe. The mega-corporations side of Borderlands has always been fascinating to me and I feel like they often take a backseat by most fans since they’re just these ever present entities in the universe and not actual characters themselves, despite each of them having quite unique “personalities” in the products they manufacture and the individuals that represent them. We had Commandant Steele & General Knoxx show off a militaristic side of the original Atlas as The Crimson Lance, then there was Jack as the face of the Hyperion we knew, and the fallout from his demise during Tales. There’s also Tannis giving us slight tidbits of how Dahl operated on Pandora between the first & second game and, of course, Mr. Torgue with, well, Torgue and I guess now he’s in charge of the battle arenas. Now we get insight on the current incarnation of Atlas with Rhys at the helm, Maliwan with Katagawa Jr. and Wainwright as the heir to Jakobs. It’s just fun to see these corporations steadily being fleshed out with each game and I’m interested to see how Tediore, Vladof and maybe even S&S Munitions, if they ever make a return, will turn out.

On the other end of the spectrum and more of an active danger to the universe are the Vaults, their purpose and the monsters contained within, one of them called the Timekeeper who we have yet to encounter. Also more insight into who the Eridians were, the siren Nyriad’s role with their eradication and warning of a seventh siren who shouldn’t be found. There’s definitely plenty of seeds that were planted, it’s just a shame that it’ll probably be a long time from now before any of them get answered unless they start pumping out these games which I hope they don’t. Oversaturation and fatigue can ruin a franchise.

This has been my TED Talk, thank you for reading.

#Borderlands #BL1 #BL2 #BL3 #TPS #The Pre-Sequel #Tales from the Borderlands #gaming

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a-memory-of · 6 years

Text

Ruran Vas was waiting, clad in his usual armor, dust in the crevices. He stood outside the ward, and would wave and approach Ellere when she was within view.

A high wall surrounded the yard, secured by an iron gate at its entrance. Beyond it, the facility’s clean walls gleamed against the coastal sun’s rays. A man in a green uniform guarded the gate; the place seemed professional. Secure.

“Thank you for coming so quickly,” Ruran murmured apologetically, reaching to help carry her cases. Ellere Valahan blinked up at the large building, taking in its peculiarities. In her time living in the Mist, she had not heard of a facility like this. Though, perhaps they simply did their job well, in that regard. She dropped her eyes down as Ruran got closer, giving a nod of her head in greeting.

"Think nothing of it, dear, I owed the poor girl this much, after... I failed her while she was in my care," Ellere let him take her cases, gratefully. "What... is this place?" Ruran looked toward the gates. “Saint Arquette’s Sanitarium. It is a newer facility, suggested to me by a small group of voidhunters I met. They take care of...those who may endanger others—or themselves.”

He glanced over his shoulder toward Ellere. “You did not fail her. She—her sanity is...not all it should be. There was only so much you could do. I can only hope that the removal of the ring and corrupted flesh will be enough...” Ellere hummed again, following him inside and still studying the imposing building. At first glance, she would not have thought it to be a place that held those affected by the Void. She gave a small nod to the guard posted outside as she passed. She suddenly felt far more at ease than she had ever passing through the Metaphysick doors.

"It is kind of you to say, but I know that I have failed her," she said quietly. "Had I not been otherwise... occupied while she was in our care, perhaps I could have found a solution in the runes upon her ring." Ellere sighed, shaking her head, "And I admit, even after, I had let it slip my mind." The inside of the facility was clean, La Noscea's iconic white stone pillars rising toward the ceiling, but it retained its warmth through wooden floors and doors, and earthen-tone rugs and seats in a waiting area. A circular bronze plaque hung on the back wall, up high for all to see. The symbols for Althyk and Nophica were carved upon an etching of a tree. Ellere may recognize this as related to the constellation known as the Bole.

"There was much going on," he softly defended. "I hope you do not fault yourself for the relic–and even after, I am to blame. My hesitance toward you...could have brought her damnation." His shoulders fell, but he shook his head. "B-but we have a chance, now, to save her. Yes? That is what matters."

The sanitarium had been expecting Ellere–and of course Ruran, who had informed the facility that he would be waiting for her outside. A woman at a nearby counter dipped her head in welcome. Ruran moved to the counter, gently ushering Ellere to follow. As they approached, the woman reached for some forms and a quill. It seemed this place had security measures, or at least kept record of who was coming in and out. It was impressive. It was everything she had hoped it might have been. Her eyes softened, perhaps even unknowingly to her as she took in the familiar star-map and the two symbols of the Twelve. The guilt-ridden and bitter part of her still buried inside after the relic had the thought that if it had been like this, perhaps it would have never happened at all. But she pushed it aside.

Ellere was here now, she had things to focus on that were far more important. And she had drudged up the memory in poor Ruran now as well. With a sigh, she consented with a nod of her head, but not fully, "Do not hold blame on that. But it is as you say... we are here now. That is what matters."

With @weepingknight

The doctor greeted the woman at the counter with a smile and a cheerful hello, doing well to hide what upset, if any, remained from the conversation. Ellere placed her name upon the papers where directed, signing without much hesitation. Ruran trusted this place, she had no reason not to. With the papers signed, the woman motioned for them to head toward the back hall. Beyond it were rows of doors, each labeled, and a few branches winding toward other corridors. It would have been a maze, if not for the well-marked signs at nearly every turn. Ruran seemed comfortable in his gait, leading on.

“She continues to speak in riddles, in shapes and colors—symbolism, I think. My stone blinds her, she says. She still refuses to talk to me directly...” Following along, Ellere once again marveled at the place. It rivaled the grand hospitals of her homeland even, and certainly was far grander than any place of healing she had ever worked for. It was remarkable.

"It probably means whatever has a hold on her fears Ari'doram, do not take it personally. And I would be far more worried if she did not cower in its presence," she reached up and patted his arm. "I do not believe there is much we can do for her until the corruption has been removed. Even if we gain no information, we can take comfort in knowing she is alive, and her own again." “That is true,” Ruran replied with a knowing sigh. Removing the ring was top priority.

Finally, they approached a door. Standing outside, an elezen in uniform with a longsword at his hip eyed them, but said nothing as Ruran opened the door and allowed Ellere to enter.

Inside, the space was roomy—not terribly so, but made to serve a single purpose: surgery. It was equipped with all the essentials, and on the operating table lay Melinda, wrists and feet strapped with leather cuffs. She occasionally stirred and quietly murmured, still awake but not all there.

Another elezen greeted them, this time a woman with blonde hair and a kind smile. She wore a simple dress with an apron.

“This is Doctor Ellere Valahan.” Ruran did the honors of introducing the two. “Ellere, this is Nurse Liandine. She has been keeping me informed of Melinda’s condition and will help you with whatever you might need.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Doctor,” Liandine smiled.

Giving the two a chance to meet, Ruran moved away to a nearby table to set down Ellere’s bags. Admittedly, Ellere was starting to feel a bit out of her element then. Armed guards posted at doors was certainly not customary at many clinics or hospitals she had ever been in. She understood why, but was suddenly feeling a bit ill-equipped.

When her eyes fell on the poor girl however, she tried to steel herself. This whole procedure likely would determine if she was allowed to live, or have any semblance of a normal life. Ellere hated to think if the corruption was not so easily removed and the consequences that would come.

Ellere gave the elezen woman a nod of her own, "Quite a pleasure. I admit I am unused to Ruran addressing me so, but then again I understand the need for formality in this instance." Moving over the table-side, she looked Melinda over. She seemed far worse than she had last seen her in the basement that evening.

"Has she been given any medication? Or under any form of spell at this time?" If Ellere glanced Ruran’s way, she could catch him subtly fidgeting, doing his best to remain undaunted by the place. Its formality intimidated him too, despite being more rigid in personality than she.

When he saw Melinda’s condition, he froze. And stared.

The skin of her right forearm had dulled and blackened, deepening the closer it was toward her fingers. The hand occasionally writhed against her bindings, though it seemed more of a habitual tic due to being restrained, than any sort of threat. Her eyes were hazy and unfocused, looking upwards.

“Medication, no. A spell, yes.” The nurse replied with a curt nod, kind but firm. “The patient has been put under a mild tranquility spell to calm her down until the procedure is ready. She should also be more susceptible to whatever method you may use to put her under.”

Ruran continued to stare, not yet shaken from his thoughts. Ellere listened to what Liandine said, giving a quiet nod. She, too, had seen the severity of the girl's arm and while it unsettled her, she could not allow herself to lose focus. Moving up, she put a hand over Melinda's forehead, not unlike what she had done in the basement of the Bastion some time ago. She eased a calming sleep spell, urging her completely unconscious, "Hello Melinda dear, I do not know if you remember me, but I did promise to help you, hm?"

She was well aware it was likely to be unheard, both with the spell she had already been under and this new one, as well as the distant place her mind likely was due to the corruption. Ellere turned from Melinda, moving passed Ruran toward her bags. As she neared the knight, she wordlessly took his hand and gave him a smile to hopefully reassure him.

As she dug about her bag for things, a white coat, gloves, a familiar wooden case for her glasses, she released his hand and spoke softly, "Now, Ruran, I'll not ask you watch this whole thing if you do not wish, but I would perhaps ask if Ari'doram would keep an eye out all the same? If whatever force resides in the ring attempts to move up her arm or... escape, as I do this, it will likely be our best chance in noticing." Perhaps some part of Melinda’s buried mind could hear Ellere’s words, and perhaps she might one day recall them, when this was all over. For now, however, glazed hazel eyes drifted closed, and a lazy smile faded with her consciousness. Not even her cursed fingers twitched.

Liandine remained on standby, ready to assist in ways where Ruran was inept.

Ruran gave a soft start as Ellere touched him, blinking from his thoughts. It took him a few moments to catch up with what she was saying, but he nodded after a pause. “Y-yes, of course. We...we shall keep a close eye on the corruption, and be ready to deal with it...should any retaliation occur.” He took a breath, both to push away his thoughts and steady himself. “I pray this goes well. She is in good hands.”

#ffxiv #ff14 #rp #rp logs #roleplay #Ellere Valahan #Ruran Vas #The Lies of the Seven #Memories of the Romantic Doctor

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eledritch · 6 years

Text

a pinch of (important) salt

Just went on twitter, saw a letter a 26 year old teacher wrote to the Voltron staff about how they should be ashamed of themselves even though she straight up admitted she hyped up Adam/Shadam for two actual children even knowing full well that, and I quote, “Adam and Shiro’s relationship hadn’t even been formally introduced and already two LGBT identifying 12/13 year old girls were super happy about the news.”

why would you do this, as an authority figure who these kids trust, without having any idea what role Adam was going to play in the upcoming season??? Additionally, if she knew about Shiro and Adam, presumably she was also aware he broke up with Shiro, and in a pretty harsh way, at that! The show doesn’t make any attempts to paint Adam in a sympathetic light in this scene, imo.

Conveniently, the author never mentions this, even though Adam did this within 20 seconds of being on screen with Shiro. It wasn’t ambiguous. He straight up said, “if you do this I’m leaving you,” and considering we, the viewer, know that Shiro went on the Kerberos mission...it’s not really a question as to whether they broke up or not. They broke up, and it wasn’t drawn out or agonized over, it happened quickly and in a flashback. But that’s a moot point, here, apparently.

She goes on to say that she “demands an apology for the hurt [she] felt when [she] watched Adam, a gay man of color who you had marketed and held up as a groundbreaking achievement for LGBT representation, get needlessly killed after you had made [her] feel [she] could trust you to represent [her].”

A gay man of color was marketed and held up as a groundbreaking achievement for LGBT representation, but it wasn’t Adam, and he ain’t dead. He’s busy piloting a giant badass mechship and rebuilding Earth.

The entire letter was just a massive guilt trip aimed at the staff, and everyone in the replies was supporting it and agreeing with it despite the letter being a thinly veiled and quite unfair attack on the staff for something they never promised.

Needless to say, I immediately logged off twitter after that...

For the last time, Adam isn’t the LGBT rep anyone was promised. He was never meant to be a major character at all, and I never got the idea that he was going to be from any of the official promos (many of which, for the record, the showrunners have little to no control over) or statements from the staff.

People are claiming that Lauren Montgomery and JDS said things that made them think things would be different, but I didn’t hear them say anything that merits this kind of outrage. It’s also important to consider that Lauren & JDS don’t necessarily have the final say on what gets into their show. They’re at the mercy of studio executives, ultimately, and since Voltron is both technically a kids’ show and a reboot of a classic 80′s show, it’s unsurprising that there would be backlash to more LGBT rep.

It’s very possible that Lauren & JDS wanted to do more with it but weren’t able to, and the most representation they were thus able to give was in the interviews and at the panels that people are now using as proof of being lied to. This behavior is unfair to the showrunners, and it’s even more unfair to take out your anger on the VA’s, who have little to no control over what goes into the show. @bext-k was actually one of the voices who made LGBT rep of any kind possible on Voltron, and yet now y’all are attacking her for it.

By the way, the twitter letter, which was clearly meant to shame and demand an apology for a very harmful and serious trope that the show did not commit, was tacked on to one of @joshkeaton‘s posts.

I understand that LGBT rep is both important and exciting, and it was disappointing to lose an LGBT character, but Adam was a minor character who was on screen for maybe a minute and I don’t think the Voltron team ever intended to cause the viewers this amount of hurt over his loss. They didn’t play it up in the show, which is typically what happens in the “bury your gays” trope; Adam was a piece of Shiro’s backstory, not a major character who was killed after reuniting and reconciling with Shiro. They had been broken up for years.

The “bury your gays” trope does not mean all gay characters should be immortal and are never allowed to die (although Shiro fits the bill for this perfectly, lol). Here’s an important excerpt for the TV Tropes Guide page for “Bury Your Gays:”

Sometimes gay characters die in fiction because, well, sometimes people die (this is particularly true of soldiers at war, where Situational Sexuality and Anyone Can Die are both common tropes); this isn't an if-then correlation, and it's not always meant to "teach us something", nor is it necessarily indicative of some prejudice on the part of the creator.

Additionally, the problem isn't merely that gay characters are killed off: the problem is the tendency that gay characters are killed off in a story full of mostly straight characters, or when the characters are killed off because they are gay.

Season 7 is about war. Earth is under attack by the Galra and sadly lots and lots of people die. Adam’s death wasn’t used as some sick example of “if you’re gay, this is what you have to look forward to,” which is what makes “bury your gays” so harmful in the first place. He wasn’t killed off because he was gay or in a relationship with Shiro, he was killed off because he was the last line of defense in a group of heroic pilots who gave their lives to try their best to save humanity.

Contrast this with one of the most egregious instances of “Bury Your Gays,” one which hurt me (for the record, a bi woman) so deeply that I stopped watching the show - (spoilers ahead) killing off Lexa in the show The 100. Clarke and Lexa reunited after the show (NOT THE FANDOM) had knowingly hyped them up for well over a season, made them canon, got viewers invested in them, and appeared to imply they would have a future together after a long and drawn out reconciliation and consummation of their relationship.

Then, out of nowhere, Lexa was accidentally shot and killed while in bed with Clarke. It was a pointless death, one meant only to further the plot and make the protagonist, Clarke, a bi woman, sad, angry, and potentially open to another (male) love interest. That is “Bury Your Gays,” and that is wrong and hurtful to LGBT rep as a whole.

This is not that. We’ve had Shiro for seven seasons and he’s not going anywhere.

I thoroughly enjoyed Season 7. There was incredible animation, voice acting, and so many new and wonderful characters, especially female characters, which are ALWAYS appreciated and needed in media. We got to see arcs for characters who had gotten less screentime and attention in the past, as well as fun moments with old favs. We got to see badass mechs punching each other in some fabulously choreographed and animated fight sequences. We got beautiful scenery and soundtracks, exciting character & relationship development, and some very emotional reunions. The season was about some heavy stuff, but had delightful humor sprinkled throughout in a very effective and entertaining way.

That being said, no, the season was not perfect. No season of any show is perfect. I have my own issues with it, and I do think the Adam stuff could have been done better differently, but ultimately it’s not my call, and I understand why they did it the way they did.

It’s important to voice criticisms, don’t get me wrong. But please, voice your criticisms thoughtfully, maturely, and with empathy for the staff’s hard work on this show in mind, rather than being entitled, rude, and attacking the showrunners/VA’s about LGBT rep that we have no idea how hard they probably had to work for. I love Shiro, I love that Shiro is a canonically gay character, and I love Voltron. I’m so excited for the final season. This show isn’t about shipping or fulfilling fanon expectations and never should be. It’s a show about friends and robots and space and saving the Universe.

And a gay character named Shiro.

#voltron #vld s7 #discourse #voltron spoilers #salt #i just have so many issues with people throwing around that trope #because not only is it untrue #it downplays the real and actually harmful instances of the trope like in clexa #and unfortunately makes other media creators afraid to make lgbt characters at all.#i wish no lgbt characters died! ever!#i wish they were all immortal gays that would be great #but it's understandable to me in this case that adam died the way he did. they were at war. HIS ENTIRE SQUADRON DIED.#not because they were gay. because they were at war.#anyway. had to get this off my chest.

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hari-writes · 6 years

Text

Break It In Two And Keep The Pieces For Yourself - Chapter 3

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug

Pairings: Marinette/Nathaniel, Adrien/Marinette, Chloe/Nathaniel

Summary: When Marinette and Nathaniel start dating, everyone is happy for them. Except for Adrien and Chloe. Chloe has a crush on Nathaniel and Adrien finally realises his feelings for Marinette. They decide to work together to split the happy couple up, but it’s not as simple as it seems.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

Read on A03

“Kid, you can’t be serious about this.” Plagg pleaded with his charge.

“I’m perfectly serious, Plagg. I was going to drive her home the other night, it could have been me she spent the night with.” Adrien was adamant.

“I’m not sure that’s how it works. In my thousands of years of experience with romance and soulmates and I’ve never encountered a first-come-first-served policy in matters of love.”

The black kwami was exasperated. He knew deep down that Marinette and Adrien were meant to be together (after all, he knew who Marinette really was better than Adrien did), but he also knew that messing with other people’s relationships was a recipe for disaster.

“You’ll drive her away.” He warned before going off to sulk with a large wedge of Camembert.

Adrien knew Plagg was probably right, but the feeling of regret and jealousy he felt when he saw Marinette and Nathaniel making out in the park was too painful to let him see reason. Every time he remembered it, his resolve was strengthened.

He reached for his phone, trying to concoct a plausible reason to text her, but there was already a message waiting for him.

[10.01] Nino: Hey bro, you wanna hang today? Al’s out with Mari and I’m bored.

Adrien sighed. Ignoring Nino would make him a terrible friend and he already felt like a horrible person for what he was plotting against Marinette and Nathaniel.

[10.10] Adrien: Sure, dude. Shall I come to yours or we can meet at the park?

[10.11] Nino: Park sounds good. See you in 30?

[10.11] Adrien: See you then.

♥♡♥

“It was amazing, Mari. He took me to this great cocktail bar and we talked for hours.” Alya was still recounting her date from Saturday night. “And he reads the Ladyblog, did I tell you? He loves it.”

“That’s nice,” It was a lukewarm response, but Marinette wasn’t sure she even meant that.

“Isn’t it? And his apartment is huge! Afterwards, he made me an omelette and we drank wine before going again. Do you know the last time Nino and I did it twice in one night?”

“Should I?”

“Of course not, it’s been years. Seeing other people was the best idea we ever had.” Alya said.

“Best idea you ever had,” Marinette corrected her friend.

“Yes, but he’s on board,” Alya clarified.

“Is he?” Marinette couldn’t believe how single-minded Alya was being. “Because the times I’ve seen him since you downloaded that app, he hasn’t been very happy.”

“Oh, he just needs time to come round, it’s fine. So, what’s new with you?” Alya asked.

Marinette glanced at the time on her phone. It had taken her best friend forty-five minutes to ask Marinette a single question about her. Not even a ‘ça-va?’ when the first greeted each other.

“I’m good, actually. I have some news. Nathaniel and I are together, as of Saturday night.” She revealed.

“Girl! I’m so pleased for you. He’s a great guy.” Alya hugged her. “Tell me everything.”

Marinette filled in all the events of Saturday night and Sunday brunch, enjoying Alya’s reaction to Chloe’s insistence on giving a speech and her laughter at the mental image of Marinette and Nathaniel blushing like tomatoes under the glare of all their friends. Soon, they were discussing how quiet Hawk Moth had been lately and Marinette listened to Alya’s theory that he must work in the fashion industry because he was always inactive in the lead up to Fashion Week, with a sudden flurry of activity the weekend before it all began. He’d go silent again for the week of shows before resuming business as usual.

“If only Gabriel Agreste hadn’t been akumatised, he’s got all the personality traits to be an excellent maniacal supervillain.” Alya laughed and in spite of herself, so did Marinette.

They were still giggling when they wandered into the Tom & Sabine Boulangerie for pastries. Tom greeted them with a smile before drawing them both into his hulking chest for a floury hug.

“I’ve missed you, girls,” His booming voice enveloped them with the comfort as his arms provided.

“Papa,” Marinette laughed, “I saw you yesterday!”

“Ah, yes,” Tom wiggled his eyebrows comically and addressed Alya, “Did she tell you about her new man?”

Alya nodded, “She sure did. Are they disgustingly cute together?”

“Sooo disgusting,” Tom said and he and Alya laughed.

♥♡♥

“Is Nino still depressed about his girlfriend dating other guys?” Plagg asked from his hiding place in Adrien’s collar.

“What do you think?” Adrien quipped.

“You should pick up some cookies then, that bakery near the park make his favourites,” Plagg suggested.

Adrien couldn’t quite believe his ears, Plagg was actually being considerate for once.

“And get me some cheese gougères while you’re in there.” The kwami added.

Nope, not considerate after all. Adrien should have known, Plagg was only interested in cheese. The bakery was on his way to the park, though, so he pushed open the door to find Marinette and Alya already there. Tom Dupain was joking with them about something and both the girls were laughing heartily.

“Adrien!” Tom noticed him. “How lovely to see you, come on in. I’m getting to see all of Marinette’s school friends this week.”

“Hi, Mr Dupain, how are you?”

“I’m very well, thanks. And, it’s ‘Tom’, please. We’re all friends here.” Tom grinned.

“Okay… Tom, I’m just here for some of your amazing salted caramel cookies and half a dozen cheese gougères.” Adrien always felt a little overwhelmed by Tom and Sabine’s generosity and kindness; his own father wasn’t as solicitous towards him.

“Ooh, those cookies are a good choice,” Marinette said approvingly.

He smiled, “Thanks, they’re Nino’s favourite. I’m going to meet him at the park.”

Tom handed him a paper bag full of cookies and busied himself with the gougères. Adrien had a sudden thought.

“Do you two want to join us? We don’t have any real plans, we’re just at a loose end. Maybe we could hang in the park for a bit then get some food and come back to mine for dinner?” He suggested.

“I’m up for that,” Alya shrugged.

“Sure,” Marinette was hesitant. “I was going to see Nath tonight, though.”

“Invite him,” Adrien tried to sound nonchalant.

“Really? Brilliant, thanks.” Marinette smiled.

“It’s nothing,” Adrien grinned winningly and took out his phone to text Chloé.

♥♡♥

Marinette could fit her studio flat into Adrien’s apartment at least six times, she worked out during the tour. The bathroom alone was probably bigger. He moved out of the mansion after university, his father finally accepting that he needed his own space. Marinette suspected Gabriel carefully chose this place, given its vicinity to home.

“It’s amazing, Adrien,” She breathed, taking in the enormous open plan living room and kitchen.

“Come with me,” He smiled, eyes twinkling and he took her hand.

He led her to his bedroom and opened a set of double doors at the far end, revealing a Juliette balcony. Inviting her to step into the small space, he stood behind her. With one hand on her shoulder, he brought his head in line with hers, their cheeks almost touching. He pointed to a gap between two buildings on the opposite side of the courtyard.

“Notice anything familiar?” His voice was low and conspiratorial.

She faltered, his proximity making her cheeks flush. She was with Nathaniel now and she cared deeply for him, but her feelings for Adrien would take time to fade. Their closeness now was disconcerting and exciting. Looking at the spot beyond his outstretched finger, she focussed.

“Is that… my terrace?” She asked.

Adrien’s bedroom overlooked the top of the bakery and the roof terrace where Marinette spent so many happy hours. It was where she relaxed with Tikki and tended to her flowers, where Chat Noir would stop by and flirt and where she and Alya would hang out after school, talking about her latest theory on Ladybug. Happy memories washed over her and a contented sigh escaped her lips. She leaned into Adrien, his strong chest taking her weight.

“It’s a shame you don’t live there anymore, we could have waved to each other in the mornings,” He said longingly.

“Mmhmm,” Marinette agreed, closing her eyes as his voice washed over her.

Simultaneously, though, they both remembered themselves and suddenly straightened up, putting as much distance between themselves as the small balcony area would allow.

“Uh,” Adrien scratched the back of his neck, “We should go back and join Nino and Alya.”

“Y-y-yes.” Oh, no. Why was she stuttering again?

The arrived in the living room in time to answer a knock at the door.

“Adrikins! Look who I found on my way over,” Chloé stood in the hallway, draped over Nathaniel.

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