#those are some of my thoughts on season 2 of strange new world

[allisonreader]

Mmm, since I just excitedly explained my current love of Star Trek Strange New Worlds to @fictionadventurer and ever so vaguely @e-louise-bates in the notes of fictionadventurer's one post, I thought that I now need to further explain my thoughts about the season now that it’s wrapped up. (All of it will be below the cut, so if you don’t want spoilers before watching, wait until then. Though I don’t really go into explaining what each episode was about.) Otherwise my thoughts on some of the episodes of season two.

I am going to start off with the fact that I don’t actually remember much of season 1. Enough of it to keep track of what happened, but not enough to give details at all. (I will also note that for some reason Star Trek horror episodes don’t really freak me out, thankfully. The Strange New Worlds ones have been more gory than anything. Which isn’t pleasant and there are some intense moments, but it doesn’t really scare me. I know that can be different for other people as we all have generally different sensitivities from each other. Though generally I am fairly sensitive to horror but it does depend on the type of horror. Like I don’t know if Lockwood and co. Is considered horror in any way or just paranormal, either way I’ve avoided that and Stranger Things because I think both of those are closer to things that actually freak me out and I don’t need to try going to sleep scared/freaked out. Anyways back on topic to Star Trek.) I know I enjoyed season 1, but not nearly as much as season 2 this year. So season 2 is what I’m focusing on.

Episode 1 of season 2, I would say wasn’t the strongest. It was okay, but I don’t think that it was anything special to rave over. There were certain parts that were better than others during it. Overall this particular episode was lower on my list. I’d rewatch it, but it wouldn’t be the first one I would chose or even recommend. I might think differently after a rewatch of it, but I’m in no rush to do so.

Episode 2 on the other hand is a different story. (I’m too lazy to look up the episode names.) This one was one of the episodes that felt like pure unadulterated Trek. The ever a classic courtroom episode. Is it preachy and hinting towards certain political views today? Of course it is. But it was well done and engaging and there were moments where you could see exactly how the case was being brought forward to get the wanted conclusion right before it was fully finished. It is an episode that I would be most willing to watch again.

Episode 3. Context before I state anything about this episode. This was one of the TWO time travel related episodes this season, that being said, I’m a sucker for a time travel storyline. If you know me at all, then you know that I have a major soft spot for almost anything time travel. (Hence Tales Of A Frozen Sailor being time travel when I got team Tolkien in the inklings challenge…) So this episode already had a leg up for me. This episode has ended up being in my top three episodes of the season. Mainly because I love the dynamic of La'an and alternate timeline Kirk. I was about ready to burn canon for these two with the chemistry they had on screen. This episode also really started to sell me on Paul Wesley for Captain James T. Kirk in a way that hadn’t been quite as convincing in season 1. And Toronto actually got to play Toronto instead of *insert big American city here*, which was a nice change for once.

Episode 4…. I don’t actually remember exactly which episode this one was. Which meant it was good, but had nothing in particular to really stand out above the crowd. Okay, scratch that, it was the episode that I was thinking that it might be, which had the crew returning to a planet that they had visited previously. It was a very Star Trek-y episode, didn’t hate it, but wasn’t my favourite. But also wasn’t something to turn my nose up at either.

Episode 5, this one had a very classic Star Trek trope told in a slightly new way. 'Oh no one of our people (Spock in this case) has been in an accident (shuttlepod) and is not himself because part of what makes him him has been removed!' (Shocked face). All is figured out after much trouble has been gone through. (Also I both love and feel sorry for T'Pring's father. He’s so clearly enjoying himself, but his wife has higher expectations and he follows her lead in that regard.

Episode 6… I had to look at a blurb about this one because I was blanking out about it. If episode 3 is what finally sold me on Paul Wesley as Kirk, this episode cemented it. Especially since it showed friendships being started between a certain set of characters that were in the OG series. Also Kirk and Uhura were really sweet together and it showed how much respect the two have for each other. So while I didn’t remember this episode at first, it really was a good one, even if it isn’t in my top three.

Episode 7, finally. This was my most anticipated episode for the season. The crossover episode and not only that but time travel beloved. This episode had surprises and references galore AND the cast was actually allowed to ad lib in the episode. So some of the moments are absolutely priceless and well worth the wait. This is one of the other ones that makes it into my top three episodes. They also pay homage to Star Trek Enterprise, mentioning Archer, Travis Mayweather, and Hoshi. Which was wonderful for them to get some acknowledgment since most other Star Trek shows had come out before that one. It was only 40 minutes long, but they packed a lot of fun into that episode.

Episode 8. This is the only episode that I truly despised. It just wasn’t a good episode and if I wrote it, I would have chosen a different way to end it. I didn’t like the way it was put together. I didn’t like how dark of an episode it was thematically and it was the least Star Trek-y of all the episodes. I think the main issue was with the characters they chose to tell this particular story with, were the wrong ones. For how the story went, I don’t think it should have been Dr. M'Benga and Nurse Chapel. If they told it a bit differently and changed the one aspect at the end, then maybe it would have worked better. As it was, I think it was the wrong “moral” (using moral loosely) to choose. To go more into a spoiler-y direction, it would have fit better into Star Trek's original theme/premise better if instead of the Klingon being killed, differences and the past could have been put aside for them to work together or at least have come to some sort of understanding instead of what happened. It just left a sour taste in my mouth and wasn’t an episode that I appreciated in any form. It could have been much better done.

Episode 9. The musical episode. The mentioned episode that got me started on this full train of thought in the first place. And also the other episode that makes it into my top three. Because this really is such a fun episode and is the perfectly corny type of camp that you expect from Star Trek and is reminiscent of certain other events that break out among the ship in other shows. The very fact that everyone on board is perfectly aware of how odd of a situation that they’re in and is working together towards finding a solution. The songs are catchy and one of the best moments has to be the surprise and shock of how the Klingons end up singing. My dad had to pause the show until I could catch my breath from laughing so hard. It was also extremely emotional at times as well and further included lore from TOS and the movies. Honestly it’s got to be among the best Star Trek episodes just in general. It’s just *chef’s kiss.*

Episode 10, the last one of the season and it ends on a cliffhanger, unfortunately. On the good side, we get Scotty for the first time properly and he sounds just right. Looks on the other hand will take getting used to as the actor doesn’t really look like James Doohan, but that will come in time, because he does fit the part and I love him. It’s the seasons horror (gore) episode. I’m still not sure what to think about what they’re doing with the Goran… only time will tell with that one.

[totallynotokguys]

Lego Monkie Kid Rewatch: Season 3

Episode 9, The King, the Prince, the Shadow Part 2/2

"Does anyone else feel like-" "We've been here before? Yeah. Its weird, right? But- I ah- know I haven't." "Me neither. And yet this place feels so familiar." "Nah. Not me, man. This is all new to me."

Remember when I said that a lot of characters keep wrongly comparing MK to Wukong, like MK is supposed to be the next Wukong. Well…. that wasn't just at the characters. That was at us the fans too. Up until this season, I too just thought of MK as the next Monkey King. It just felt right. Pigsy was Zhu Bajie, Tang Tang Sanzang, Mei as Ao Lie, and Sandy as Sha Wujing. Simplistically, I assumed MK was supposed to be this new version's Monkey King. But he's not. He's not like the rest. He's not part of their story- at least he wasn't supposed to be.

MK was never meant to be here... to experience this, or them. And this season is when the show really starts opening our eyes to it.

(Also… I think this proves pretty definitively that Sandy is not the still alive Sha Wujing. With his flashback in To Catch a Leaf, I was so sure. I mean, look at those old looking weaponry?!)

(But unless Sha Wujing has amnesia that conveniently lets him forget the Samadhi Fire incident, than he really is just the reincarnation instead of the original.)

"It is on brand for you to have a worse version of everyone elses powers."

Ouch. Also… is this a hint at Macaque having been a clone of Wukong once upon a time? Like, in Shadow Play, Macaque chooses to feature a lot of Wukong and his clones for some reason, especially when speaking of the Warrior and Hero being a team. Strangely, some of those clones look an awful lot like Macaque.

Or could this be a hint at season 5 where its revealed Macaque's shadow powers are more like certain other being who shall not be named for sake of spoilers?

Loud Annoying Wukong: "What? You got what you wanted, didn't you? Not going to gloat, monologue a little bit before scurrying off to your master?"

Inner Panicking Wukong: "Ah drat! He's totally gonna know those are fake. Quick! I gotta distract him into wasting more time!"

"Wukong!"

I'm pretty sure that's Ne Zha's favourite word. He says it almost every second. Might even be his catch phrase.

"Oh, so the piece of paper just magically made a bunch of light!" "That's exactly what happened and you know it!"

Ah, I love these two.

"Stop! If you hurt that kid I'll-" "What. Make things worse for MK?"

Like I said last time, bad hero, good mentor. He cares about MK more than anything else right now. This same kind of protective passion has happened before, back in the Journey to the West. Wukong is good at devoting himself to one person, and tolerating everyone else for the sake of that person.

"Glowy mystic symbol thingies are always never good!"

Proceeds to touch said glowy mystic symbol thingies.

AWWWW! Tang trying to protect Mei!

I love the majority of the adults in this show. They do their best to help the kiddos and protect them, even when those kiddo's are typically more powerful than them. Tang, Pigsy, and Sandy understand that young one's always need to be cared for.

THIS SHOT THIS SHOT THIS SHOT!

I totally missed this shot the first time around! OH MY GOSHNESS SANDY I LOvE YOU!

Once again Macaque forgets about Mei.

I'm starting to see why she and Macaque were put in a team together in season 4. She is, strangely enough, his blind spot.

And once again I am shaking my head at the way the show treated Macaque's supposed redemption arc. Look at the way he's treating her, the way he's treating them all! The fear and pain he causes them!

Bashes MK repeatedly into the ground until he is unconscious.

Threatens Mei's life while holding her by the throat.

Forces the parental figures to watch their kids get ruined.

Forces Tang to choose the life of his friends over the sake of the world.

The trauma this guy is causing them- and they just never bring it up? Mei should have held the largest grudge Katara style until Macaque made it up to her! Tang should be absolutely afraid to go near Macaque after the moral trauma the simian caused him. Pigsy should throw a spoon at him every time he darkens his door way with all his ping pong master might. Sandy should constantly keep Macaque between himself and the kids as a protective barrier everytime the shadow comes around.

Until Macaque makes it up to them, apologizes and tries to do right by them all... they should have continued to treat him with fear, anger, and wariness.

"But he was under LBD control' you say. 'He had no choice."

No he wasn't. This threatening, this danger he puts them in? That was for his own gain. Macaque wanted the Samadhi Fire to escape LBD. He was in control of his actions here. He was going to take the power needed to break her control over him and then dip, leaving the mortals to parish under LDB's rule. Sure, he was probably in pain and obviously scared for his life- but that doesn't excuse the choices he made and the trauma he caused.

It's like Macaque said last episode. You have to look out for yourself, no one else.

[teecupangel]

Hey, what you think about Desmond in Teenwolf universe? Like him working there in bar and eventually help gang with supernatural problems(because well he can fight and doesn't want these teenagers die?)

Oh, man. I was into Teen Wolf years ago so let’s see what we can do with this one.

First of all, we’ll put Desmond in the gap between Season 1 and 2. Why?

Because he’s there to investigate the killings of Season 1. It’s a personal thing.

Well…

It’s connected to Ratonhnhaké:ton because his Bleed of Ratonhnhaké:ton makes him believe that there is something familiar with the way those people were killed by a ‘wild animal’.

He’s not sure if it’s related to a POE though but it’s worth investigating (we will also be moving the timeline of Teen Wolf so S1 happened in 2013 instead of 2011 and this is after Desmond saves the world from the Solar Flare)

The real reason why he’s there though is because he’s supposed to be hiding. After his attack on Abstergo’s Rome facility, Interpol has been on his tail so he needs to lay low for a bit.

We’re also placing him between S1 and S2 so there’s some time for him to integrate himself to the plot. Specifically, he’s working in the Jungle where the problematic teenagers would get themselves in trouble later when the hunt of the Kanima starts.

That’s also when he becomes entangled with the plot because he’s been researching about the ‘new’ killings happening all around Beacon Hills and, Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, there were a lot of reds calling themselves ‘hunters’.

Desmond has a feeling that something more was going on.

In this one, Desmond actually spots the teenagers as they enter Jungle because he’s been a bartender long enough to spot problems (and Jungle doesn’t want problem, especially since being a gay club means they’re not unused to some… annoying flies) so he pats the other person working the bar with him, which is a silent signal that he was going to switch to being the teenage bouncer and give their actual bouncer another scolding (seriously, he doesn’t care if sweet boy Danny is planning to graduate early or whatever, he’s still in highschool)

Then he feels it.

Something about these teenagers that alerts him. A ghost of a Bleed from Ratonhnhaké:ton…

And then the Kamina attacks and all hell breaks loose.

Unorganized Notes:

Would absolutely push himself into Derek’s little pack because he sees the cool front that Derek is showing and calls bullshit on it. He doesn’t know they’re werewolves yet but he knows something is up and Derek’s pack has information. Caring for the pack later on was not the plan.

He sees Erica, Boyd and Isaac as recruits in need of care. Derek is annoyed with him though because he keeps butting in to tell him to be nicer or to explain it more and- Desmond has no idea what a Stiles is but he’s probably being insulted, the asshole.

He does learn what a Stiles is because Stiles annoyed him by visiting the club repeatedly. The Drag Queens love him and has adopted him and has band together to stop Desmond from throwing his underage ass out.

Stiles is the one who spills the whole werewolf hunter thing because he thought Desmond’s strange mannerism (“It reminds me of my dad but like… more spec ops?” “You play too many video games, squirt.”) might mean he’s a hunter.

Oh and Stiles being in the club a lot? Yeah. Sheriff Stilinski gets into this whole mess because he’s sus of Desmond. It doesn’t help that Desmond has been teaching Stiles a few tips of how to fight (“Why… why do you know that you should kick off the tail lights of a car if you’re inside the trunk?” “My dad’s a cop, dude. I know how to shoot too. Wanna see?” “With your flailing limbs? Nah, I’m good”)

Desmond is an annoying older brother to both Derek and Stiles. The pack loves him for it.

Scott thinks he’s cool too but he’s a bit wary of him since he’s close to Derek. He’s also worried that he’s being used to pull Stiles to Derek’s pack.

But that’s not really Desmond’s problem at the moment because the Bleed of Ratonhnhaké:ton he’s been ‘feeling’?

That’s because Ratonhnhaké:ton has confronted werewolf hunters before. To be more exact, the Argents during his time in France. Arno Dorian is actually the one who got the wrath of the Argents but that extends to the Brotherhood in general.

The Argents are not Templars but they definitely don’t like the Brotherhood. And Gerard Argent? He has a feeling an Assassin is snooping around their hunting ground. It’s only a matter of time before he finds the rat.

[theendorisit]

The Magnus Theories

Okay theory time! Spoilers for all of The Magnus Protocol Season 1 and all of The Magnus Archives.

Celia

- so two things I got right: 

the universe/crack trying to drag Celia back through it

Celia was previously in a cult, and remembers Georgie from that, and that was why Celia sought her out.

Situation: Celia does not seem to remember her previous life, only remembers The Change, Georgie and other characters. So there are some interesting questions:

Is the universe she came from an apocalyptic one? Is it a separate universe to TMA? (Unlikely given she remembers the same characters and each universe seems different in that regard). Or did she have nothing left even post-apocalypse TMA? Or get sucked in as the fears left? Certainly she is not the only person to fall through (though it is not clear how this happened to Darrien in Episode 17 - Saved Copy)

Because it really seems that Celia believes that she’s casting Sam into a kind of Hell. Which Season 5 TMA absolutely was. But is this the case? Is Sam ending up in a recovering TMA universe, an apocalyptic other world, or maybe even a different world that is barren and desolate because the fears ravaged it and left again?* I’m so excited to find out! 

* Because it seems bizarre that a crack in the multiverse would only have a path between two individual worlds. Except these are the two worlds the writers have created, so maybe not that strange.

What we do know that the balance is still fucked - Celia wanted to balance it with Sam, but Sam AND the Archivist went through. Oh dear. Unbalanced again!

(Or… is it? Did Darrien get pulled back in the same way? What’s up with him? Why isn’t he unbalancing things? Or were the Institute preventing him from being pulled back? Were lots of people transferred between universes all over the place?)

Also, what will Celia do if this doesn’t work? Her reasoning is that she is being pulled back because of the balance - but maybe the universe needs everyone to be exactly where they are meant to be, rather than balance per se. I still think that if the Jon and Martin in the computer are the TMA ones (not convinced by this) then they are causing unbalanced states as well.

Unconfirmed thoughts

presumably Celia had a doppelgänger in this universe - did Celia find her, kill her or maybe just see her die, and take over her life and baby?

Possible option - is Celia unbalanced because her doppelgänger isn’t dead? If her TMP other is in a coma, then perhaps that causes an issue, and would explain why Darrien was fine (he killed his other, so effectively took his place). This isn’t a theory I have a lot of stock in, it’s just me trying to understand the world logic. 

Archivist

Ah, everyone forgets that the archivist must’ve got the train down from Manchester in the first place 😅

It will be very interesting to see what happens to the archivist in season 2, current theories:

Arrives in a fear-less world (TMA post-change) and is transformed back into their original self (more Beth Eyre voice acting? YAY!🎉 ). Probably has no desire to return to the old self but helps Sam get back.

Arrives in a fear-less world (TMA post-change) and stays the same, becomes a new problem for TMA people to solve, and those people help Sam get back.

Arrives in an apocalyptic world, stays exactly the same, wanders off to eat. Sam tries to get back.

Or, a variation of the above, but Sam stays in the new world and someone else goes through for the balance. 

Or… we get WORLD HOPPING. Lots of stories, and the archivist acts very much like season 5 Jon - new world, new statement. Sam is the new Martin. Sort of. My secret hope is they find a world where there are lovely fields of cows, and a lovely little cabin, containing the lovely utterly fucked up corpses of two men destroyed by corruption. After taking a statement, Sam and the Archivist leave, setting the place on fire. If such a story happens, I will laugh til I choke. 

Sam

‘I’m not up to an apocalyptic conflict’, yes well Jonny Sims wrote this episode, so buckle up mate. 

I very much enjoyed the revelation that Celia has been playing Sam like a fiddle. She has discovered the connection with alchemy, the connection to the Magnus Institute, perhaps even been visiting former Magnus children to find someone to lure back, and finds Sam. She still checks on others (Gerry), but Sam is a willing participant, and once she finds Helen, and the list of Magnus Properties... well she has a reason to point him there, and Sam is only too happy to go (well... not happy, but you get my point).

One thing I don't quite understand about Sam's characterisation - if I wandered off alone into a strange place and saw a smiling skeleton shed its meat pepper, I think I would not go exploring as much as Sam does. That said, curiosity killed the cat is a central Magnus theme.

So, what’s happened to Sam? My earlier theorising is based on Celia - when she came through the wound in the world she is apparently in one piece - yet there is a current theory that Jon and Martin were split into fragments and scattered (hence voices in a computer). So it’s not impossible that Sam gets messed up by the transfer. In fact, what if Sam and Archivist get combined into a chimera? What would be delightful horror!

Narrative

So here’s the question are we getting a split narrative? Are we going to be following Gwen and Alice in one universe and also Sam and archivist in another? Or is Sam basically gone? Are people going to pop up later? Have we seen the last of Lena? 

Alice

Alice has ignored Teddy. Alice has ignored Colin. Alice didn’t get to Sam in time.

Methinks all the men around Alice are going to drop like flies. If Alice cares about a character, they are doomed. So Gwen is functionally immortal (yay!)

Lena

I can’t begin to tell you how heartbreakingly sad it is that Jonny and Alex won’t even murder one toxic line manager. Come on! I need my catharsis! Murdering fictional people in a grisly fashion is literally your job! /silly

Ah well, it took 200 episodes for Elias/Jonah to get his comeuppance, so I will be patient.

My current theory is Lena is the head of the OIAR which means monitoring incident team (our main characters): but actually her main job is heading the response team. I think Teddy is working for them, in the same building as shown in a previous episode. Perhaps it’s Teddy actually bringing the paperwork that Sam was filling in. 

I wonder if Lena is actually really happy to have gone. She’s just off to retire in Majorca or something 😅

Gwen

This means (if my theory is correct) that Gwen is going to be inducted into this new leading role. I’m really hopeful that we’re going to understand more of Lena’s motivations for what she was doing - fingers crossed. I also hope we’ll learn more about Gwen’s thoughts. Why was she so eager to get rid of Lena? Was it just ambition? What does it mean that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree? What did her grandfather do? Also, will she ever have to make a decision like Lena - why did Lena try to kill Klaus at the beginning of the series?

Colin

My poor sweet baby. I wonder if Colin realised that FR3-d1 was trying to help. However, maybe not? The question is, why did Colin ask Alice if she was in the office? Did he want the servers turned off? Did she need to type a message to FR3-d1? 

Though I wonder if Colin had a visit from the response team. Perhaps he was becoming a liability?

Possible survival - it could be that Colin gets rescued, OR that the danger he is in is being captured by the response team, or an external. So he’s been kidnapped. He might be experimented on? Whomst can say?

FR3-d1

This is a curious one. It seems that FR3-d1 has been trying to help, trying to share pertinent information: at least to Sam, maybe Alice. FR3-d1 is also apparently the one who has been giving Gwen information to get Lena fired. Is that what FR3-d1 wants? Does FR3-d1 want Gwen in charge? Is FR3-d1 just trying to get the OIAR disbanded? 

Jon and Martin

The original theory for these characters were as follows:

TMA J&M have been sucked through the crack, along with the body of Jonah, got messed up in the change and the consciousnesses of all 3 are trapped in the computer.

TMP J&M died at a much younger age, in approximately 2005. They never met. If identical characters (across universes) are born on the same years (seems to be true), J&M died aged around 18.

However, I have a new proposal - The Magnus Institute figured out a way to extract and store consciousnesses. I am intensely curious if Alex or Jonny has played SOMA. 

TMA J&M were sucked through the crack, as Celia was, and have been living quietly or maybe trying to figure out how the world works. Perhaps the orchid stroking pervert and receptionist were them. Perhaps they’ve changed names. Maybe we’ll see them later?

TMP J&M were the same ages as many of the Magnus Institute’s children. Perhaps they were experimented on. Perhaps J&M died aged exactly 18, and their consciousnesses uploaded with Jonah’s, all 3 are trapped in the computer. Which means that they’ve been suffering for nearly 2 decades.

The real question is, if this is true, who uploaded JMJ to a computer, if the Magnus Institute burned down in 1999?

The other question is, regardless of which option is correct (or unknown option 3) WHY did the computer start reading out cases a year ago? Did Colin do something? Alice has been here years, Lena too. I get the impression that Celia has been around for more than a year… but maybe not? Is it her presence (the unbalancing) causing the voices to wake? (Again, Darrien??)

So which is it? On the one hand, I know that J&A love to make us suffer by making us hear J&M died, and our original bois suffering in a computer is way more poignant - but I don’t believe the ‘Jonah’ in the computer is our original TMA one, as he was dead as a doornail. But then, so was Jon maybe. So who knows? But I do think it’s the TMP Jonah in there. It feels…more correct, somehow. But I’m not good at predicting stuff, so whomst can say?

Also, for those who aren't Early Access and didn't see Jonny’s contributions to the live chat, quoted here

Everyone will be OK*

Sam will be fine*

Glad everyone enjoyed* this episode

Someone please confiscate this man’s asterisk key, he’s being irresponsible with it.

Also:

Can confirm scots taste better to supernatural horrors than the english

I fucking KNEW it!! Though I can't say the welsh are faring much better.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Game Changer (Seasons 1 to 5)

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

A.K.A. a small love letter to dropout.

One day you are a simple person scrolling through shorts/reels/tiktoks, just mindlessly looking for something entertaining to watch for like a minute at a time, suddenly you stumble upon a weird game show with ridiculous stipulations and incredibly funny rants in the middle of it, you think to yourself wow I really wanna watch the full show but then you find out it’s exclusive to a streaming network called Dropout and you don’t really want to spend money on it, but you keep stumbling upon the shorts and suddenly you start getting other shows like Um, Actually, Dirty Laundry and Dimension20, your curiosity gets the better of you and you subscribe on either the main page or become a member on their youtube channel and boom, your world has been turned completely upside down by a new hyperfixation that might be some of the best and highest quality streaming every made, a community of people that truly care for each other and feel like they are creating things they really love, this is about one of those, the darling of CEO and host Sam Reich, the always entertaining Game Changer the only game show where the game changes every show, my favorite show on Dropout and just one of my favorite shows of all time. But as we know the only way to learn is by playing, the only way to win is by learning and the only way to begin is by beginning.

Season 1 is short but a swat and beautiful little beginning, it starts with the iconic Lie Detector episode where a lot of the popular clips come from, a brilliant idea by Sam to bamboozle his players with the twist that the robot indicating if they are lying is really their partners in the next room just pressing a button, a very ingenious and funny concept that would be fully perfected in season 6 but for now it starts the show with the right leg with both concept and contestants as this is also the debut of all time favorite Brenan Lee Mulligan, one of the most fun to watch comedians in general be it improv or not. The episode is followed by a 3 time game samer that would eventually turn into its own show making some noise which I will probably explain further if I cover the full show. Being two for two is fantastic but the show still hit us with some other great episodes such as a Game of Prizes which sees the contestants guessing what prizes are real and which are just made up words put together to sound appealing, Whodunnit which is a who would have thought a whodunnit and finally Nom Nom Nom a flavor guessing game with a big disembodied mouth approving or disapproving their choices. The selection of Season 1 was small but a strong start for the show and setting what we would come to know as the game changer formula plus it gave us a lot of the shorts that we still see promoting it to this day even 4 years and 6 seasons later.

Season 2 begins with a game samer that being the previously mentioned second part of the segment that would turn into Make Some Noise which is a little strange of a start but the waters where still being tested and Dropout was still CollegeHumor which was owned and operated by IAC, a company that expected ridiculous profits from the young streamer that even with its high quality programming was nearly impossible. Episode 2 in a way is revenge against IAC as Sam very clearly is just giving away money for making the contestants do ridiculous challenges testing the good old phrase, how much money would you do that for to it’s full extend, this is follow by Sleeper Agents, one of my favorite underrated episodes where the contestants must go outside and talk to random people trying to trigger a response from a set of questions to see if they are hired actors playing the titular sleeper agents or just normal people walking down the street. Another banger and progenitor of some of the other popular clips is A Sponsored Episode were in a fun twist the contestants must become infomercial hosts and sell Sam on some ridiculous and stupid products like the iconic only p keyboard or flavored toilet paper for eating ass it’s just hit after hit and even with all that it’s not the best episode this season. Next we get another underrated episode with The Everything Factory where contestant most essentially become workers with an assembly line and construct different contraptions all to the glee of Sam and his wicked imagination but as fun as it is being sandwiched between the sponsor and the finale is a tough spot as the grand ending to season 2 brings us possibly the most iconic Brendan moment and by extension the greatest rant in the history of game changer with the episode Yes or No which I implore you to watch before I spoil the twist. The episode is simple, Sam will keep asking continuously yes or no and awarding points with seemingly no rhyme or reason with the objective of figuring out the rules of the game and why he awards points, at first it seems completely random until something weird starts to come to our attention, Brenan isn’t scoring points, which in game about 50/50 you would think would be impossible and you would be right as it is slowly figured out by everyone and finally by Brenan himself that the rule is simply that he cannot win anything which trigger the mother of all monologues as he compares himself to Icarus flying too close to the sun as a competitor and a statistical wonder before delivering the punchline at the end and wrapping this season with one of the greatest moments in the show’s history as the ending theme kicks in and Sam says goodbye until season 3 arrives.

Season 3 was heavily affected by the covid19 pandemic as episodes had to be filmed remotely via zoom or an equivalent, a lot of is a little forgettable as the struggle to make the show work was front and center but still a few gems came out of it like the premier Tell Us About Yourself in which they have to figure out the identity of a secret masked individual (who turns out to be Tony Hawk), the game samer Sell Outs which is a repeat of the sponsored episode, the always fun Secret Samta duology in which well they do a secret santa spin on a competitive game to a really hilarious extend, a personal favorite in Make It Fashion which is about well making outfits out of nothing, Tome of Terror follows as a horror story maker and the finale Next Slide Please which weaponizes random ted talk slides to create funny presentations in a very Jackbox way that is still very entertaining regardless. Overall Season 3 struggled but it did the best it could with the hand that it was dealt and Sam should be commended for his handling of the situation and the way he still made the show work and be fun while people needed it most, it hits a little different now that it’s all over but it is by no means a skip and has the same classic laughs even if they are from different points in the map.

Season 4, one of my favorite preview graphics of all time that I really really want as poster Sam please I need this. S4 gives us many many iconic episodes, possibly the highest number of them to date and some really special episodes so this section might be a little long as I want to talk extensively about this season. First off it starts with Sam Says that while pretty tame this time around grows into possibly the single best series of game samers in the entire show with the ways it twists such a simple game as simon says into pure chaos and fun which is then followed up by another progenitor for a game samer with Like My Coffee which birthed some incredibly iconic clips like the green virginal one from Grant and was just incredibly funny the first time around and also when it came back again, now we just need a third one to wrap up the samer. Noise Boys follows which at this point I’ve explained enough and you should know what it is and then another game samer (are you getting tired of reading game samer yet) with the last and possibly greatest Secret Samta which just ups the ante by making it happen in the actual studio this time and works wonders on giving this samer a proper closure. Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience is one of the most interesting and experimental episodes yet with essentially a clap and boo track slowly leading the contestants into a sort of sketch action by action and thrive on their bewilderment at the situation they are in. Then comes one of my favorite episodes with The Official Cast Recording and this one is special, the sheer amount of talent being shown by improvising an entire musical even with it’s wonky story is fantastical, the numbers are all so incredibly good and the ongoing jokes make me laugh every time, it is truly a wonder that it was even possible to create this entire game which also spun off into it’s own series with Play It By Ear. The episode is just a marvel to behold and while not a recommendation to introduce people to Game Changer it is an incredible showcase on what makes this show unique and interesting so enjoy your temporary stay on Mounport. We then reach one of the most beautiful displays of love you can ever see with Don’t Cry, the episode starts of as a seemingly normal challenge about not crying with some games but as it goes on it starts to get really emotional and lovely till it reveals itself to be a tribute to Jess Ross their friend who had a really rough pandemic that canceled her wedding. This episode is so special, it never fails to make me cry and just makes me feel like so incredibly happy. I won’t spoil much more because it really is an experience you should have but I do wanna say that if there is anything I can ever ask for in life it is to be loved by the people around me at least a little like how everyone at dropout loves Jessica Ross.

Resuming the normalcy in this random collection of words I’ve been rambling on for a while now we have Race to the Bottom which also turned into a game samer, can you tell this season is good? it’s basically a reverse bidding war with the twist that the contestants have to unionize to win the game, which is kind of a really cool and interesting message  that was somehow given through a game show. It’s a great episode and will hopefully turn into a great trilogy when the third one drops. Then we have the final two parter, another progenitor of game samer and of technically it’s own mini season during season 5 Survivor which puts the contestants in a game of well Survivor, a simple but really fun idea since Survivor the actual show is an incredibly entertaining reality but with the unhinged cast of dropout anything can go so further beyond, particularly because Brenan is in this episode and it turns out he really loves Survivor so he will do anything to win and the twists and turns this creates are so mesmerizing and shocking you won’t know what to expect until the season ends and you are watching the extra episode on the things this season Cut For Time which is a new addition that has Sam talking you through everything that happened during the episodes and what they couldn’t show, think of it as extra features on a DVD/Bluray. It is quite short but it wraps an incredible season just reminding you of how great of a run it was as you see small parts of all previous episodes and at this point you can just smile as Game Changer has been fully realized and shown that it is one of the greatest pieces of TV to ever exist.

Now it’s a little awkward to go into Season 5 after how I ended the last segment but rest assured the momentum didn’t stop and it will never stop as we kick off the new season with Sam Says 2 a game samer from last season that is as funny as it was previously with new running jokes and some incredibly smart and weird prompts from Sam to keep the contestants on their toes even in a game as simple as simon says. If you are watching this in a playlist you’ll immediately see this season’s new feature in the BTS videos which are short 6 to 10 minute episodes about well the making of the episode with Sam explaining the origin of the game and the why of the selected contestants which in general is just very interesting ad a cool extra feature that we got along the Cut For Time at the end so it’s a general gain plus it’s pretty good. A game samer into a game changer it’s Karaoke Night a kind of spiritual successor to my beloved The Official Cast Recording but with pop music instead of musicals and there is no structure it’s more about impersonating styles of several musician correctly and well this is another incredible display of raw talent and a very fun episode that while it starts a little slow it wraps up magnificently into a crescendo of it’s own making which drops us off into the next episode, another game samer with Like My Coffee 2 a funnier and stupider evolution to a very simple concept that somehow keeps finding ways to entertain and just bring me joy whenever I click on the video on dropout. So far we’ve had two samers and one changer which means that we need a changer and what a game changer we got with an absolute top 5 Name A Number which comes with an all time cast rivaled by few in Becca Scott, Izzy Roland and Erika Ishii bringing in pure chaos to a game that at first seemed simple with just prompts that they had to name how many times they could perform until midway through the game the prompts become unknown until the number has been named, the absolute diabolical connivingless of Sam has been fully realized and deliver some of the absolute funniest of laughs and some incredibly hard to watch cringe. I hope Becca got her money for the feet stuff. A Game Most Changed seems to be a somewhat divisive episode that people either really like or don’t seem to care for at all, it’s an improvised shakespearian play with random prompts throw in about the topic and things that need to be mentioned which just in the raw concept you should know if that appeals to you or not so moving on to the next episode which is another instantly iconic one As A Cucumber which in case you can’t tell it’s an episode about remaining calm but with Katie, Brennan and Carolyn onboard you know shit is about to go down. The way this episode works is by attaching heart rate monitors to the players and by maintaining their resting heart rate below 20 above they can score points and hence win the game. The approach taken by each one of them was varied with Katie’s not so good attempt at just remaining cheerful and normal, Brenan’s competitive enlightenment and Carolyn’s laid bad chill switch we see all kinds of reactions and ways people can be driven to madness, particularly in what might be the peak of all Game Changer clips is the name that bird segment in which Brennan completely loses his temporarily acquired enlightenment in a sort of calm rage as he gets more and more upset as the segment continues before it’s revealed to be roose to upset Brennan and break his streak. This episode is just great, I hope it become as samer with season 7 later this year and so we move to the next episode which happens to be a double parter, the first non finale one which is The Bi Bachelor a show that does well The Bachelor with Grant O’Brien being the contestant and having to choose from a pool of candidates to go on a trip to Cabo San Lucas.

The game has so many twists and turns that covering it would just be a retelling of the entire thing and you don’t need that, you need to sit down and watch this great parody of trashy tv with an ending you are just not ready for. The finale not finale is Escape The Green Room, why finale not finale well because the true end of Season 5 is an extended semi season that will get it’s own spot after this but now Escape the Green Room, Game Changer’s take on the escape room. The episode begins with the contestants on a room that is not the normal show floor awaiting the order to go proceed downstairs and begin the episode, Sam is there with them until he is called downstairs mid magic trick and then the door locks and the screen turns on, the game begins. Secretly the entire room has been customized and modified around the classic escape room concept that if you’ve ever been to one you know how the episode will go with the exception that Siobhan, Brenna and Lou just really don’t give a shit and will tear through everything to get out in another banger of an episode that had my laughing the whole way through, this one also has one of the most interesting BTS videos as it goes into the making and design of what was basically making a escape room from scratch. I would love for this to be made into an actual place I can visit but at least I got to see it happen and it was wonderful. This sort of ends the season as the next few episodes are kind of it’s own thing but the Cut For Time episode is after them in the playlist but it also has its own playlist so I’ll just handle it like a limited series sort of event that will be talked about as a single episode instead of the 5 episodes it is.

Game Changer Battle Royale a 3 hour plus spectacular semi samer to the original survivor episode that takes all that made that episode great and dials it up to 11, as the show is longer, the totems are harder to find, the challenges are harder and there is more on the line than ever before. Everything about this mini series is gold with it being incredibly funny and sometimes even impressive in what it’s capable of doing and a very funny surprise guest that showed up out of nowhere, the one and only fault I can think of that is not even a fault is that Ana Garcia who was making her debut in Game Changer got injured on episode one and we missed out on her antics since she has proven to be an incredibly funny comedian in every other show she has show up on dropout. Battle Royale was just so much fun and reached the apex of the reality idea for Game Changer which I’m not sure if it can be topped but it can for sure be iterated upon and I do hope we come back to see it again every few years.

Now to wrap up this massive massive post I just wanna say that I love dropout, they are a wonderful set of people that truly do care and deserve all the support they get, a lot of entertainers and comedians have been recently trying to leave youtube and copy the dropout system without getting what made dropout great to begin with, it is the charm, the effort and pure love they put into everything they make that makes it so great, not the production values or how much money they spend on it, it’s about the people it gives a home to and what they are able to accomplish when you give a genius free reign to make whatever they think is best, dropout is a special place and Game Changer is a great signature show to lead the brand, I will always love it and be here to support it, it is as Brennan once said to Sam “You’ve made a home where my favorite people get to show the world how brilliant and amazing they are.”

[metatronhateblog]

Not to Be a Bearer of News pt 2 with some essence of Duck Duck what the Fuck

Something fowl is afoot. Between the newspapers and the ducks and the content of the newspapers. I have had the drafts for these posts sitting on my account for about a month or so now and was immediately screaming at the responses I was getting on the first part of this series of posts. So let's get further into this bit of a mind fuckery.

This one is gonna be a long one so just hang in there, I promise it's worth it. There's A LOT going on with this.

Back to the newspapers.

Last go 'round we talked about Mr. Brown (of Brown's world of carpets) and his very strange newspaper that is the cause of the opening sequence having an accordion duck in it, as well as some of the other appearances of ducks throughout the series.

This time, we're going to look more at the newspapers, with a touch of me screaming about my thoughts from the comments on part one of this mini-series of posts.

We already know Mr Brown (of Brown's world of carpets) holds a weird ass newspaper...

and how he practically waves it around like a billboard every time he's on screen, going so far as to even cover his face with it at some point.

Now I could go on about how the way time works in Soho seems practically non-existent, but we'll save that for a later day because we're talking about the newspapers. At least...the newspapers in season 2 specifically.

As we already know, thanks to the X-Rays on Amazon, Nina's coffee shop strangely holds the magazines that Adam read in season 1 (a very strange and deliberate choice to be making...) but those aren't newspapers so to speak.

(Screenshots for the people who didn't know)

So I'm gonna get started with the FIRST newspaper(s) we see in season 2.

And that would be a stack of them on the street right next to Aziraphale's bookshop.

Now unlike most of the other newspapers, you can't exactly see what these ones have to say, which is fine. I'm more intrigued by the fact that there just so happens to be (I assume that red thing is a newspaper thing because I'm from the US and that's not what those normally look like) a place to buy newspapers right outside the bookshop. The building itself says 'The News Agency' but I'm more intrigued by the little red cylindrical thing. How intriguing that so many characters wave their newspapers around for us to see and the News Paper building is literally right next to the bookshop.

Even more importantly this thing ALSO makes an appearance in the opening sequence. I know, I know, you're all probably tired of me screaming about the opening sequence at this point but seriously. Look.

And then this extra right here appears to be holding a stack of presumably newspapers, possibly making a delivery to The Dirty Donkey based off trajectory.

But I've also noticed we never really see anyone on the street holding newspapers, only in isolated locations where you can very clearly see the front page of their papers.

Which brings me to our second newspaper appearance (technically the first if you're going by readability)

Crowley (notice the ducks in the background, but kind of a given based on the location.)

We have three big 'headlines' on this one page we see right here.

"Maple Lane Post Box Becomes Home to Spider Species Not Seen in 45 Years."

"Norton Institute Reports its Highest Intake of Students Since Opening in 1888."

"Billions Still Owed to Millions."

Little weird. we have two things that are an increase in happenings since a certain time period...and a not so surprising 'billions owed to millions.'

Then we flip it around a bit (and ignore the...weird way he's holding his hand)

And we have the name of the newspaper. "TADFIELD ADVERTISER." With the main headline 'Is Tadfield the Best Village in England?' and no surprise that Crowley is keeping up to date and looking to see if anything else continues to happen with Adam.

The mini headline under the big bold one says 'According to voters of latest 'Best Village in England' poll Tadfield really is the loveliest place to live.' And in the tiny little blue box 'Entirely perfect weather AGAIN for Tadfield.'

So even after the end of season 1, it appears we still have some strange happenings in Tadfield. Right on.

By the by for those of you who didn't know, pretty sure every single page of Crowley's newspaper is the exact same.

But I think another important detail is, same as Mr Brown (of Brown's world of carpets) Crowley also seems to be holding the newspaper so you can very clearly see what's on it.

Next time something news related appears, we have our little red vessel appearing while Crowley loses his shit.

Now we don't actually see newspapers again until episode 2. This specific one is a doozy and had me and @lady-of-the-puddle screaming over it.

When Aziraphale is looking for clues over the Buddy Holly record, we see him pouring over some newspapers.

SO! Here we see Aziraphale reading a Scottish newspaper with an article titled "Everyday It's a gettin' closer" and we can see a couple more on the desk next to him. Now I've gone through and read the article (I'll post a screenshot so you can too if you want) and to sum it up it's basically the owner of The Resurrectionist discussing the records that keep changing to 'Everyday' by Buddy Holly and how he thinks it's a group of pranksters but never can catch them and the security measures he's tried to put up to prevent it from happening again.

Now the thing that's weird to me is actually the variety of newspaper articles Aziraphale seems to have...from different countries.

Now you might just kind of brush that off....but why on Earth would this news be important enough to make world news? Why would it be in news articles from different countries.

But most importantly...there's a typo.

Now. I don't speak German (so correct me if I'm wrong) but I do know how to use Google Translate.

This German article is titled 'Eden Tag nähert es sich... dem Wahnsinn des Wirts!'

And I don't speak German (though I'd love to) but I plugged this in to Google Translate and what I found was insane. Now when it translates you'll notice that the word Eden doesn't translate.

And there's a little suggestion underneath the German sentence, indicating you probably had a typo, and here's what you're probably looking for, which when you allow it to translate as such gives you...

Weird right? You'd assume the correct version of the news article would be where they're quoting the song they're talking about (unless it's a different dialect or slang of course.) But it's interesting that if I'm correct and that is a typo...it says 'Eden.' Now if you watched season 1 or have some Biblical knowledge of sorts, you might be on the same page as me...

Why Eden? Why create an article that translates to 'Eden Day' instead of 'Every day.' I wonder how many of the other news articles seemingly have a typo?

If this show has taught us anything, what do we know about typos? (Insert Markiplier voice here) DEMONS, JIM! So could that news article possibly have been written by a demon?

Anyways as we continue on, the next (and most frequent appearance of newspapers) is Mr Brown (of Brown's world of carpets.) And I won't add all the instances of that because if you read my last post, you already saw them.

But there he is, with his strange recurring article about accordion ducks.

But I actually want to focus on a different newspaper that appears in this scene. This gentleman right here.

Looks normal right? Except you can just barely make out the corner of something peaking out next to his leg. Well guess what? This is the same guy who was sitting at the table Aziraphale emptied.

In which his newspaper never comes 100% into focus, but it's right there on screen, flashing and saying 'HEY LOOK AT ME!'

in which he folds over his 'your travel' 'Milton Keynes' newspaper as such

to a completely new side of the newspaper and walks away. But wait there's more.

Check this out.

In which he turns to look at his newspaper AND ROTATES IT before going back to standing there looking like there's nothing in his hand. Look at these back to back shots though.

Would you look at that. Our newspaper is back. Guess what though. When we look away from him again and back, the newspaper is once again gone.

Mind you this whole time, when the newspaper appears, you see Aziraphale's eyes continuously flickering away from his conversation with Mr Brown (of Brown's world of carpets) and directly past him. Possibly to the newspaper? Maybe trying to direct your attention?

Here we have 'Thenewspaper' with articles

"Unearthed mysteries of sealed library basement."

and "Government approves funding for citywide [insert word here because i can't make it out thanks to his finger] stations."

Interesting....library basements and citywide funding. Huh.

Now as far as I'm aware, the only other times you see newspapers in the rest of the season, are Mr Brown (of Brown's world of carpets.) And even if there were more, I'd have to make a part 2 because I actually reached the image amount on this post.

That being said...there's a lot of weird shit going on with the newspapers, including our strange little accordion duck which has me absolutely bewildered. But I can't help but feel like the newspapers are important when everyone holding one seems to be holding it like a sign, just so that you can read it. Not to mention the freaking typo has me wide awake every night staring at my ceiling.

But for now, that's all I have. Stay tuned for another mental breakdown over something in this show that is preventing me from sleeping.

(Upon further examination I might be making yet another post about this.)

[raayllum]

im new to the fandom, so I miss a lot of the discourse (helped ofc by the fact you're kinda the only dp blog I follow), so everytime you mention the s4 backlash I'm like....how in the world could people hate that season or rayllum in it? It doesn't compute for me!

The last ship I was particularly engaged with, has a lot of similarities with rayllum. They were best friends, life partners before they were ever /romantic/ life partners. And they went through a /lot/ of trauma, miscommunication, and being on opposite sides of the same fight, etc etc.

the difference to rayllum was that they never rlly gave each other the grace they need. They also never talked on screen, but unlike rayllum it wasn't because it was the best option for them, it's just that the writers didn't want to include it ever - to the point that when they finally did an episode addressing it, it landed...very flat? Because it was about six seasons in, addressing things as far back as the second season, that they'd apparently never spoken to each other about before (they were tragically engaged when this happened).

Rayllum GENERALLY but especially in s4 have a really special place in my heart, because they feel very realistically messy - but it doesn't feel like it's there so there's some drama to keep audiences hooked. It feels authentic, and is one of those rare cases where it strengthens their relationship. I definitely could buy that rayllum would survive anything that hit their relationship by the end of s3, but getting to actually SEE that and see how much they're willing to work through out of love and respect for each other? Fantastic.

(also like it's such good character development....i am with u in the s4 defense squad. is there a squad? If there is I'm in it)

First off welcome to the fandom and I hope you're having a good time!!

The fact that my blog is mostly discourse free cause while I tag accordingly (fandom nonsense and dragons gets salty for potential blacklisting purposes) I always worry I can dip too far into that on occasion (I do my best not to unless being called out by name, and even then mostly do my best to ignore stuff), but there's not too much discourse within TDP in general — at least not in the Rayllum corner, luckily.

I think that's why the S4 backlash really surprised and threw me for a loop, because my partner and I finished the season at like 7AM on release day and while different than expected, we loved it and thought it was great from the start. Then we went online and people in the fandom who I'd largely always agreed with were having a really hard time with the season and it was disheartening at least to not have many people to talk to about why 1) S4 is TDP's thematically strongest season thus far and that's still true, 2) it's Ezran's best season imo, and 3) it does a lot of things really really well in really interesting ways.

I always try to never come down Too Hard on the s4 backlash just because people are of course entitled to their feelings/opinions then as well as now (even if some people's tunes have definitely changed), but a lot of it did feel sometimes short sighted if not immature.

Like soo many people are still mad that Rayla and Callum broke up in an offscreen graphic novel, when S4 would still be S4 regardless of whether TTM existed and like... if Rayla worrying that she failed (again) and went off on her own (again) to protect Callum was a big logical leap, then that person honestly just wasn't paying attention; there's not much else to say there. I also think it's just a strange choice to assume that Nothing Major would change the second you find out about a timeskip; like, almost everything else is status quo, Rayla being gone is the One Major Change and people couldn't handle that being a Surprise?

Like you said, conflict between a couple is not inherently a bad thing; it can be good and interesting, and this was always a relationship hurdle I think a lot of Rayllums (myself included) expected Rayla and Callum to have to tackle. Not liking how extreme or 'dramatic' it was (ie. season long arc > just a few episodes, or Rayla leaving > just trying to leave) is fair enough, but given that it's rooted in so much of Rayla's character, I'd much rather take a long way around approach that's in depth. I'm also just Glad and Grateful that the show is tackling it and treating it like the issue it is rather than sweeping things under the rug.

The fact that Callum's version of anger wasn't the one people wanted is another issue, but again — his anger went the way I'd always thought it might if he just went through enough trauma, and even if he had yelled at her, I don't think the season would've necessarily gone any different than it did other than them crying more early on. Which I've written and wouldn't have minded, but I also don't dislike the alternative route canon took — of course they were never going to get all variations out there, but Callum is cold as hell and being a bit of a jerk while also being valid and tempering himself because he doesn't want to hurt her anymore than she wants to hurt him (and Callum has always been very very bad at being/staying mad with Rayla or Ezran anyway).

I saw a lot of pushback against Rayllum being 'platonic' (which was annoying as an aromantic person lemme tell you, as though platonic is lesser), being "broken up for no reason" (Rayla being hyper-independent was not a secret and always going to be what threatened to rip them apart; they are also still Visibly and Repeatedly In Love with each other how is that broken up), or that they didn't get to have a Big Feelings Time in S4.

With that in mind, there's a lot that also matters in a relationship beyond just Open Communication, tbh. There's going to be times in life where you're not able to or unwilling to talk about certain things (given that S4 is maybe a week, I think that's reasonable; especially when Rayllum still haven't talked to each other about it as of s5 and no one I saw have an issue in S4 about it has complained about it there) and like... how do you treat each other when you're still mad or confused and haven't talked everything out? Do you still take care of each other, are you still doing your best to be considerate of each other (even if you're also not going to be perfect)? That shit matters just as much if not more as people able to sit down and hash things out.

I think the truth is a lot of the things that pissed people off about S4 would've been true even if the opposite things had happened:

N'than is flat and under developed unlike Ellis → N'than is more developed → why is N'than taking away from screentime for other characters?

The Sunfire plotline feels disconnected from the rest of the story (nvm that Viren's arc from 1x06 onwards doesn't affect any main character again until 3x04) → the Sunfire plot line has more connections to the main cast crammed in → more complaints about pacing and things feeling overly stuffed, as scenes already change from one to the next quite clearly

Callum and Rayla have a big talk sometime between 4x03-4x07 → this doesn't give Callum enough time to be angry / makes him seem unreasonable because he's admitted he was mostly worried but is still not fully letting her in despite her spilling her guts to him (and in what world would Rayla give excuses, again, when she knows he's the one hurting and taking priority in her mind)

S4's humor was bad because there were fart jokes (in one episode) → the crowlord's joke is so much worse than the fart jokes imo and is on par with the walnut joke in 1x06. also 1-2 scenes with jokes that didn't work for you out of 9 whole ass episodes is like. you're just a wuss i'm sorry

The Sunfire plot line is boring → will never not feel like "I just can't connect or be interested in politics and religious disagreements when it's mostly about Black people for Some Reason (racism)" to me tbh

There was no way to please everyone especially after a three year hiatus (because people think, For Some Reason, that how much time it takes for a story to come out should change how that story is written and it really, really doesn't) but yeah. The internet showed their asses and I was Not Impressed lmao

TLDR; a lot of the S4 backlash was "I'm mad this isn't happening now and I'm stressed out/worried that it won't be" as opposed to "this is only a problem if it never happens at all, but I have faith that it will," and I will love S4 forever. The Callum-Viren parallels being ramped up, the theme of duality and moving "doing terrible things for love" to the forefront with multiple characters (Rayla, Terry, Viren, Claudia), seeing Ezran step into his role as king, Callum's arc being shown > told, the set up for the possession plot line, Janaya's engagement and relationship development + Amaya and Janai's independent arcs? Chef's kiss. S4 is my best friend and its Rayllum dynamic is on par with S3 for me, and I am very grateful the fandom's attitude towards s4 and s4 Rayllum is a lot warmer / more reasonable now

When Callum says "unconditionally" in 5x01 and all their stuff in S5 we know and believe it because we've seen them fight and work so hard to come back from some pretty terrible brinks in imperfect ways, and I'll always love s4 for that. The most aspec Rayllum season by far

[synergysilhouette]

Guide to my Rewrites (and other content)

I post a lot of things, and some of those things are rewrites. As such, I thought this would be a nice guide for fans of my rewrites in particular. I'm still adding new things! Lemme know what you think.

Alternate Takes (Disney)

These are projects that have the same characters and settings (for the most part), but different plot points. These particular alternate takes suggest ideas that would've made me enjoy the movie more (or at all) and aren't a fanfic so much as bullet points with pictures.

Aida

Pocahontas

Hercules

The Princess and the Frog

Tangled

Frozen

Big Hero 6

Moana

Frozen 2

Raya and the Last Dragon

Encanto

Strange World

Wish (Note: working on a full-length rewrite unrelated to the ideas used here)

I also did rewrites for two Dreamworks movies:

The Road to El Dorado

Sinbad

Reimagining Disney Movies

These are projects that take Disney's framework (ie a fairy tale) and create my own characters, plot, setting, and song titles for it.

The Snow Queen

Kingdom of the Sun

Rapunzel

Reimagining Disney eras

These posts are designed based on what if Disney eras made different decisions (either based on my own ideas or rejected concepts) for their films. Note: I made the revival post before the renaissance and post-renaissance posts, so they kind of flow in different continuities. I also wanted to include future ideas for Disney's next era. These posts also work independent of my "Alternate Take" posts.

Reimagining the Renaissance

Reimagining the Post-renaissance

Reimagining the Revival era

Plotting out the Reinvention era

Marvel

Not quite as detailed as my other rewrites, but I thought I'd include them.

Dr. Strange: Multiverse of Madness

Thor: Love and Thunder

X-Men (Because they have more content than my other Marvel things)

This pretty much just includes my rewrites.

X-Men: Evolution--New roster, Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Roster (Timeskip), Season 4, and Season 5 (I did a poll months ago, and maybe I'll do a post brainstorming a Marauders spinoff).

Wolverine & the X-Men--New Roster, Season 1

Fox's X-Men films (I may remake this)--Part I (First 3 films) and Part II (Phoenix, NM, and Dark Phoenix)

Extensive rewrites

TV shows that I've remade episode-for--episode, perhaps removing and adding some as I see fit.

Miraculous Ladybug--Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4 (currently working on Season 5; been dragging my feet with that!)

Anime as comic books

Yes, this is a topic. I remember when I was in this headspace, and it was really fun. I basically reimagined what if popular anime had been created as superhero comic books that golden or silver age.

Dragon Ball

Naruto

Anime rewrites

Black Butler

Naruto: Part I

High Card: Season 1

Video Game Rewrites

These aren't quite as detailed as my usual rewrites.

Bayonetta

Fire Emblem: Awakening

Fire Emblem: Fates

Fire Emblem: 3 Houses

Kingdom Hearts

Hogwarts Mystery (MAYBE; ongoing internal discussion)

My OCs

This section covers my original characters for a few fandoms. Thinking of making OCs for books/anime/comics, but I do not have the confidence that I know the universe(s) well enough.

Fictif

The Arcana

Hogwarts Legacy

Baldur's Gate 3

Mood Boards

Just something I've made for fun to inspire others! Not an expert on making them, but it was still something I wanted to do.

My Wish rewrite (temporary)

Disney's Swan Lake

Disney's Hansel & Gretel

Disney's Rumpelstiltskin

Disney's Red Riding Hood

Sub-Saharan Disney musical

Disney Superhero Film

Japanese Disney musical

Actors who could play Disney villains

Choices: Stories You Play

REALLY into this game for a period--but it started to get awful when "Witness" came into play. Here's a list of reviews (which I've stopped doing) as well as concepts for new books (originally on Reddit before I got banned).

"Before I Say I Do"

"Celebrity Status"

"Summoned to Court"

"Arkikara"

"Fairy Godparent"

"Hierarchy: Scheming University"

"Willow Falls"

"Late at Night"

"Spellcaster"

"Four"

"America's Most Eligible" (Review)

"Desire & Decorum" (Review)

"High School Story" (Review)

"Rules of Engagement" (Review)

"The Freshman" (Review)

"Queen B" (Review)

Winx Club Content

Rewriting the Winx

Rewriting the Specialists

Rewriting the Villains

Monster High Content

Plotting out Gen 4

[agenericplaceholdername]

Dragons Rising E11-15 Thoughts

Here’s some thoughts on each episode in the first half of Dragons Rising, Season 1 Part 2:

The Temple of the Dragon Cores:

The Merge music starts playing before the MergeQuake starts 

This does kinda make me wonder how many people in Ninjago have interacted directly with the Ninja

Commented last time on the other empty holes in the portal gate room, but I guess those are just used for dragon stables

“My bathroom is everywhere” tbf with all the dragons there Wyldfyre probably isn’t making things that much worse

Lloyd was fixing the monastery from where the bounty hit it in E4

Zane: “The world is gonna end” Lloyd: “yeah I knew that, can I get back to my plants?”

“among us”

LaRow wait- what were you about to say about Lord Ras?

On one hand, Zane is really unintelligent in this scene. On the other hand, it’s nice to see the other Ninja just lounging around

Arin how did you know there were 3 dragon cores

RAPTON

This is such a strange resolution of this scene

Correct use of precision over accuracy

Did the FSM actually create the other realms? or just the landmasses like he did with Ninjago

“It never came up” is prob true and also such a funny way to address that you’re actually the grandson of God

“And the Wyldness” isn’t that a whole realm? Imagine if the Spirit said one of the cores is “in Ninjago”— how would they know where?

Frohicky!

Gangs of the Sea:

The first hint at a Rapton defection?

Arin volunteering to be with Lloyd immediately :)

Nya faces the problem of any teacher who has two people in their class with the same name

Naps are awesome Kai

It’s interesting that Lloyd frames Arin’s inability to do Spinjitzu as something holding him back, since that usually seems reserved for True Potentials, while Spinjitzu is just doing certain body movements

Is this training music new? It’s good

Ninjago has *never* done this trope before (except when they did)

Have any non-human characters had glasses in Ninjago (Glutinous had a monocle, but idk anyone else)

Lloyd is just trolling this guy lol

So the crab used mind control though the crown to control the Merlopian leader. But how did it control the rest of the Merlopians?

The crab’s tooth being planted is a leap in logic but I’ll take it to be true (meaning some mystery that’ll be resolved later)

Even when small that crab looks evil

And we go right into the next episode

Wyldly Inappropriate:

So were these guys in the Underworld the whole time, but some other kingdom or something?

I wonder if this recipe differs from the one Frohicky makes for Lloyd later

PIXAL :(

“That’s the second fastest I’ve ever seen someone grow a mustache” lol

Zane went into the Crossroads with the intent to purchase something and brought no money?

So they can’t say “We should kill you” (outside of that one Nya line which is meant as a joke) but “We should eviscerate you” is fine?

Did Nya run into the Lava-Tides before she started working with the Craglings?

I love the scroll of grievances

THE Chancellor Gulch? Absolutely crazy that he was the first side character to return in DR

All the mucoids have hyphens in their names (Grab-Barg, Tope-Epot, Zant-Tanz)

Moral about bullying (similar to what S1 of the original show would do)

Good development for Wyldfyre

There’s a Never-Realm samurai in the crowd. What does he think about Zane

“I’ll let everyone know what happened to you. Maybe someone will be sad.” Great line but not only is it funny but in the context of what happens in S2…

I’d like Zane’s tax filing toaster

Yet another Lobbo win

Is this meta-commentary on how Zane has been written? Or just incidentally responding to criticism in recent years

Good to see Kai and Wyldfyre working together

And now into the next episode

The Last Djinn:

Poor Zane

Both Frohicky and Lobbo have problems with their moms

“Anything that isn’t alive” ok so that’s just there so that they can’t use the seeker stones to find the missing characters right lol

“Not all Spinjitzu lessons are about fighting” this is a callback to Can of Worms, so a deep cut

So in just 7 years, Frohicky could clean the monastery with a toothbrush

No, Nya doesn’t know that her destruction of the Cursed Realm resulted in Djinjago’s destruction

“Why am I not Sora One?”

So I know the Howlers aren’t ghosts (they don’t seem dead or alive) but they do remind me of Bansha

Nya immediately gets in front of Sora to protect her from Arrakore

A “special energy” about Riyu? Why don’t you elaborate, Arrakore?

Arrakore’s lower body looks like cotton candy

“The Howlers will hunt you to the ends of the known realms and beyond” I assume this is a figure of speech but it would be wild if the Howlers could follow someone into and out of Nether-Space, for example

Nya’s eyebrow raise lol. “No comment.”

“No one is ever powerless!” It’s true but also funny that Nya says stuff like this as if her arc in Crystalized made sense and actually proved this (obv it’s clear that the writers thought it did)

Great scene - the Sora development, the music, “Your wish is yours to keep”

Good lesson from Zane

Having a Djinn on your side is pretty overpowered, so they’re clearly trying to limit Arrakore’s abilities

Easily the best of the 5 episodes covered today, although E13 is solid too and none are outright bad

They Call it Doom:

Kai head jumpscare

Dorama’s Imperium guards have top hats lol

Kai how’d you fall for that

Could a wish like this help locate PIXAl or Jay?

The pie stuff is great bc it comes from Arin’s VA, Deven Mack

“Acting general” why is Zant-Tanz only an acting general? Was there another general before who had to be replaced? What’s the policy on Mucoid Warrior promotions? 

Not the doom mucus! This episode does everything it can to replace “death,” “die,” and “kill” with “doom” and “destroy” … even though Ninjago has used those words before?

“Teams are for people too weak to work alone” let’s see if Wyldfyre still has this anti-Kai, anti-team mindset by the end of S1

Dorama flying with his staff is incredible

When did Rapton try to “stomp [the Ninja] into oblivion”? Lloyd isn’t talking about the Photacs since that’s what Arin brings up next

“Be destroyed. Obliterated. Pass away. Cease to be among the living—” okay maybe it’s a little funny but cmon

“ All life is important.” “But that’s Rapton.”

Hey Dorama is a union man!

So when did Dorama switch the cores?

Zant-Tanz and Arin’s dialogue is great

Couldn’t a Mucoid just wear high quality shoes and be fine?

Rapton I know you help the Ninja later but you also really suck

The Administration is super cool here

Sora and Nya — you do understand why children would run away from two older people carrying weapons right?

COLE! yeah Nya and him could have recognized each other faster but whatever

This is an okay batch of episodes - it’s good to see various new locations, but it does feel very fetch quest-y

Next up, the finale of Dragons Rising Season 1!

[muqingapologist]

Can I ask your top 10 fav fics ever (from any fandom, if you don't mind)?

Also, just curious, is there a story behind your name "muqingapologist "?

i go through phases with fanfiction, wavering between never reading any and then reading it consistently over a period of time. so my ao3 account only has bookmarks from the last year or so, so i’ll just include those! i did read some reeeally good fics for pairings that i was really into in the past, but i won’t include them here

as for my username, i used to have the apologist format with another character for my finsta, and i because obsessed over mu qing in my recent read through of tgcf. so i’ll defend him from the haters heh.

ok fics. no particular order.

1. Resurrection by heyholmesletsgo

one thing about me is that im going to eat up every songxiao fix-it fic i come across. this one i think follows the logic of the untamed rather than just mdzs, but i don’t think it’s a big change either way. this fic is so beautiful i thought about it for weeks afterward. it’s pretty short, but the slow, gentle pining as xiao xingchen returns to the world, the way they figure out communication, it’s all so good.

2. some new beginning by liesmyth

i got into good omens after season 2 being released this past summer, and i have to say the fics have been very hit or miss for me. the characterizations in fics are always some strange combination of characterizations of season 2 crowley and season 1 crowley and book crowley. this is post-season 1 though so this isn’t really an issue. i loved this one. i think my favorite form of aziracrow is when they’re both just idiots following the momentum of their feelings without really realizing the significance of their actions until, well, they live together hahah. highly recommend this one for that dynamic! it’s also pretty short.

3. Protagonist Rehabilitation Programme by cinnamonsnaps

this one i actually read entirely on my flight from japan last week after randomly stumbling across it. it’s an SVSSS AU where the original luo binghe transmigrates(?) into shen yuan’s world. im not usually a fan of AU fiction because i think much of the time, the events of the source material are very much what shape the personalities of the characters, but this one works for me. it’s so good at matching the tone and writing style of mxtx while being funny in its own way too.

4. hometown comforts by nyoomerr

this is another bingqiu one, post-canon, and it’s an identity reveal. it’s my ideal identity reveal fic because it’s incredibly low stakes and binghe is just curious about shen yuan’s world. no system warnings and stuff. just bonding. im a simple gal.

5. still waters by marichen

went through a beefleaf phase where i read a bunch of fics. this was the best one by far. unmatched. beefleaf, imo, is a very difficult couple to write for. there’s so much to unpack. it’s hard to make their relationship feel genuine because so much care needs to go into shi qingxuan trusting he xuan again. in this fic, it is the classic he xuan lingering around, but also we see sqx building his own life back up on his own, as well. it’s he xuan pov. so good so good.

6. Bring it back, bring it back [don’t take it away from me] by wednesdaisy

another good omens fic, also post-season 1, aziraphale pov. in this one, crowley fucks off to new zealand because he thinks his relationship with aziraphale is fantasy and it’s too painful to keep seeing him after everything they’ve been through. and aziraphale tracks him down and has to convince crowley that he does indeed want him in his life and loves him and ah, it’s really sweet.

7. the round moon by orphan_account and the hazy sun by orphan_account

this is a 2 part quanyin fic (pre-canon qyz for part 1, post-canon yin yu pov for part 2). i’m also incredibly picky about quanyin fics. this one was so beautifully done. it didn’t make quan yizhen feel overly-childish as an adult like many others do, and it made yin yu’s conflicting feelings about him so vivid and believable. highly recommend for quanyin nation out there.

8. This Is Me Trying by Piper_Emerald

another post-canon identity reveal. this one is a little more angsty than the one above but also so well done! a deep part of me needs an identity reveal to happen for them at some point hahaha…like binghe is smart ok…he suspects already.

9. some good mistakes by Lise

everyone forgive me for not really having any wangxian recs. my post-untamed fic phase was on my old ao3 account i can’t find. anyway, i remember this one being really good. wei wuxian goes missing. jiang cheng pov, teaming up with lan zhan to find wwx. post-canon untamed. personal preference but i love post-canon untamed wangxian fics the most because i just reading about all the ways they might get together.

10. Not Easily Conquered by dropdeaddream, WhatAreFears

(i keep getting error when i post the link but it’s on ao3)

i’m including this one because i’d be lying if it wasn’t always in my top 10. i never think about stevebucky these days and cannot stand marvel, but damn this fic holds up like 8 years later!! 3-parter, AU where steve never gets frozen but bucky is still the winter soldier. told over decades. some cringe US cold war propaganda but ignoring that…a beautiful story. if you ever carried any attachment for these two, worth the read.

so that’s my very inaccurate too 10 fics. thank you for asking so i have an excuse to discuss hahaha.

[aboutiroh]

I'm not sure if this is something that has been discussed before, but the pacing of book 3 has always bothered me a little (not enough to consider the writing as less than phenomenal, but still). There's actually a few things that I think could have been handled better and I just grouped them under 'pacing issues' as an umbrella term, even though it's not always the most fitting term. Most of these aren't even really issues, but just my personal preference.

For instance, I always thought it's a pity we didn't get more episodes with the Gaang after Zuko joined the team. I love the fieldtrip episodes, but we barely got to see team avatar travelling together (and Toph didn't even get a fieldtrip!). There's a lot of untapped potential there and we're free to explore that ourselves of course, but having more canon storylines would've been nice and I think it wasn't impossible. (This is a segue into issue nr. 1):

Book 3 spends too much time preparing for the invasion.

The Gaang spends half a season to prepare for the invasion (they mostly just travel to the meeting point). This makes no sense to me as we, the viewers, know that Azula knows all about it (as King Kuei so nicely tells her about those plans in 2x19 "The Guru"). (Which btw, he could have mentioned to the Gaang after learning that Azula was not a Kyoshi warrior, but I'll let that slide as Kuei is canonically a useless person).

They build up towards a fight that we know is doomed to fail and that on itself is okay, but that moment could've happened earlier in the season (not so early that Zuko doesn't have the time to finally understand what his destiny truly is). If the invasion failed earlier in the season, Zuko (and Suki) would have joined earlier. Many episodes in early book 3 could easily take place after the invasion (thinking of "The painted lady" or "The puppetmaster", maybe(?) "Sokka's master" and "The runaway", though some elements would have needed altering, e.g. the Sparky Sparky Boom Man subplot (I say we get rid of it entirely)).

Conversely, there's one episode, or rather conflict, that should have occurred before the invasion. (Segue to issue nr. 2!):

2. What even was the invasion plan, really?

After the invasion fails, we learn during a beach party that the Fire Lord is planning to literally burn the entire world when the comet arrives, so the Gaang's new plan of discretely hiding and training until the comet passes turns out to be pretty pointless. Aang suddenly has to face the Fire Lord much earlier and more importantly, when Ozai's at his most powerful, which is less than ideal. So the combat training recommences. It is at this point that Aang suddenly realizes he's not willing to kill Ozai. He's of course right to feel conflicted about it, and it's understandable that his friends don't completely understand just how important this is for him. It's a necessary and significant moment in the show, but it's just strange that they haven't had the discussion before.

Aang knows he has to defeat the Fire Lord pretty early on. Throughout book 1 and book 2 he's preoccupied with learning to bend the elements (when he's not riding animals or escaping imprisonment or facing whatever other problem the plot throws his way). It's too early to think about the technicalities of what that defeat exactly entails because priorities, I totally get it. But by book 3, they have a pretty elaborate plan to invade the Royal Palace. It's just never explained how they will defeat the Fire Lord. Hakoda explains the plan as follows:

The eclipse only lasts eight minutes, not enough time for the whole invasion. And the Royal Palace is heavily guarded by firebenders. So that's where we'll need the eclipse's advantage the most. When this is finished, the Avatar will have defeated the Fire Lord. We will have control of the Fire Nation capital, and this war will be over!

Assuming the plan was not to kill Ozai (because Aang would have felt conflicted about that), how exactly would Aang defeat the Fire Lord in those eight minutes? Was he just supposed to knock him unconscious and then immediately put him in a cooler cell? If that's the case, I didn't see them carry one around. Aang had thought about the possibility of not coming back from the battle (as he tells Katara just before leaving), so it would only make sense for him to consider the possibility that it could be Ozai who would not make it out alive because of him.

[princesstarfire1234]

I saw your RMA Post but before i ask, first i love your artstyle its so beautiful and each time i see it, it makes my day :] and second what are your thoughts of S2 part 1 and 2? And if you can rewrite it what will it be?

Aha hello!! I didn't think that RMA post would actually catch any eyes but I'm it did!!

First off, thank you so much! It's the best feeling ever knowing my art can make people happy just like that :]]

As for your question, I recently just rewatched a good chunk of S2 Part 2 but some of the details around the later bits are still fuzzy (rewatching em is quite hard for me as the english dubs aren't exactly that easy to find out there unfortunately)

I will say though, rewatching it really opened my eyes to just how much of a downgrade Part2 is compared to S1 and even just S2 Part1 itself, not just in story but in like the voice acting and animation. The voice direction is a bit off, characters sound flat, and the animation just feels... weirder, if that makes sense. It's not the worst thing in the world though, it's just an unfortunate thing I happen to notice. They also changed some of the VAs I think (liek Rema's) which was a strange decision but alright ig... There's also the reusing of so many games instead of new ones but oh well... Despite all my problems with it though, I like the inclusion of the new characters (Manus and all the other Leos Valiants). The Leos are all such silly guys :]] I do wish the DV7s got more screentime and played a bigger role though, the first episode for part2 really fooled me into thinking they would lmaoo

S2 Part1 still holds up, certainly not as good as S1 but still, it's got charm! I love the setting actually, Old City is such a bright and colorful place with like all these abstract and messed up winding pathways, it's so weird and funkyy, I dig it a lot!

So pretty!! God... just like how funky the cities look with all of them being like giant floating islands, it will always be cool af to me

Ik most of my followers don't care about runningman much but in the off chance some non-rma fan sees this, look at Tree City (pic below), I love it so much

Although... sometimes it really does feel like Season 2 is where the studio decided to lean more into it being a children's show. It's a lot less "dark" compared to S1 which is a tad disappointing. Like just compare Akong's battle (where the dude literally uses a bunch of the old guys to power up his thingy 😭) compared to CG's big mech fight. Still, I liked it! I like the neat guardians (the lil pullulu spirits who guard the gate, Vivace and Ensemble twins my beloved <3).

ALSO ALSO THE IRON BEAST, I can always appreciate a big robot guy aha

That's all I really got for the ramble aha, I'd say more stuff about S2 and maybe my views on it will change overtime but as of now, I haven't even really gotten around to properly finishing it yet. I remember watching it waaayyy back but it was all in korean with zero subtitles 😭 luckily, I am in a server with people sharing english versions so I'll probably watch those when I get more free time!

I really just miss talking about this show really and I feel like I've largely outgrown the fandom in old spaces where I used to talk in (like Facebook groups and Amino lmfaoo), so it's absolutely awesome to find RMA fans over here on tumblr!

[roguetelepaths]

byron + 1, 2, 5, 24,

Oh fuck yeah I was hoping someone would do this. This is going to be a massive wall of text and I'm sorry but also I'm really not. You have unleashed the infodump dragon and it's not leaving until it's run off some of its zoomies.

Why do you like or dislike this character?

You know a fun fact about me is that I was on Team Byron Disliker when I first started Season 5 just due to what I'd heard through pop culture osmosis. I even made a post to that effect after watching a couple of his episodes (deleted now because I was sick of seeing it in my notes) that got some circulation in the fandom. But the further I got into that arc and the more I thought about him, the less I saw what I expected to see when I started. Instead I saw someone who, though flawed, spent most of the time he was on screen trying to be gentle and compassionate and trying to protect his people in a situation that was hell bent on making it as hard as possible for him to do those things.

I do think he has a manipulative streak, and I do think he's the type to occasionally do very hurtful things because he believes he's doing so for the right reasons (see for example that fucking "doesn't it feel nice to be asked" scene between him and Lyta in The Paragon of Animals, even as a Lyta/Byron shipper that makes me SO ANGRY because that point could be made in LITERALLY any other way that didn't involve demeaning her and shouting at her, I get that you're pissed off at the people who did that to her but taking it out on her isn't gonna help anyone so stop) but those flaws when combined with his genuine good intentions and abundance of care are fascinating.

A big part of why I think people dislike him as a character is because those flaws are presented as an immutable Fact Of Who He Is, which, yeah, I can see why someone would find that insufferable, but I like writing character growth and he deserves some.

Tl;dr, I like him because he's complicated. I dislike the way canon never seemed to want to grapple with those complications.

Favorite canon thing about this character?

That scene with the one guy in Downbelow. You know the one. Letting someone punch you repeatedly because you want to teach them a lesson about how finding a target to beat up on isn't actually going to solve their problems is... genuinely fucking baller and I wish we'd gotten to see more of that side of him.

Also that thing with Lyta in Strange Relations that's basically a mutual "I'm not overextending myself YOU'RE overextending yourself! Please slow down and rest 🥺" is probably what made me ship them as hard as I do. Dipping out of canon and into my fic for a second, but that interaction is so different from their first interaction that I kind of have to wonder if someone talked to him about the way he treated her. (I may have written a missing scene about that but it needs some fine tuning before I feel good about posting it.)

What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

oh my god!!! so many. SO MANY. But uhhhh I can narrow it down to like four?

Runaway by The National as a general theme song

I, Carrion (Icarian) by Hozier as a soft and sad song for him and Lyta

The Deserter's Song by Radical Face as a backstory reveal song

New World Coming (any version but I like the one by Nina Simone best because. Come on. It's Nina fucking Simone how can you top that) because I'm almost certain it was one of the songs JMS pulled from when he was writing That Song For That Scene.

What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

I've been saying this from the very beginning— The Signless from Homestuck. (Yes, I'm a Homestuck enjoyer. Sorry.) I just love my pacifist resistance leaders with feral partners and tragic endings okay.

[whimsicallyenchantedrose]

whimsicallyenchantedrose

Season 2 Rewatch Drabbles--2x21-2x22 Second Star to the Right ... And Straight on Til Morning

Summary:  A series of 100-500 word drabbles to accompany my    rewatch of season 2 of Once Upon a Time as an attempt to finally jump    start the muse again.  There will be a drabble–either a deleted scene, a    “fix it” fic or a character musing for each episode of the season.  Focus will be on Emma, Henry, the Charmings and Killian–with an emphasis on the very beginnings of Captain Swan’s epic love story, as soon as a certain dashing pirate makes his appearance.  

Word Count: 766 (why did I think I could stick to a word count again?)

@jrob64​  @anmylica​   @booksteaandtoomuchtv

Other Chapters: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (17.5) (18) (19) (20) (22)

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Hook stood at the wheel of the Jolly Roger looking out at the horizon as he sailed determinedly out of Storybrooke.

They’d all gone mad.  All of them, even Swan.  What manner of fools these heroes were.  Willing to risk all of their lives–the lives of everyone in the town–for the miniscule chance of saving the Evil Queen, of all people.

The Evil Queen whom they should rightly want to see dead for her part in trapping her in this strange little town in the first place.

He’d returned to town with Greg and Tamara, seduced by their vow to help him kill his Crocodile once and for all, but it had been the work of mere moments to realize the pair were blithering idiots, mindless zealots for a cause they didn’t understand at the behest of a master they didn’t even know.

When they’d revealed the full extent of their plan to him–destroying the town and everyone not born in this land, he’d realized he’d been an utter fool to throw in his lot with them.  Aye, their plan would kill the Dark One, but it would also kill everyone else in this town, including him.

Including Swan.  How she’d so thoroughly gotten under his skin, even after she’d betrayed him–twice: once on the beanstalk and then again when she locked him in a broom closet in New York–he didn’t know.  All he knew for sure was that she’d been right.

The two of them understood each other.  There was some manner of tether connecting her to him, one that he hardly had time to ponder with the end of the word staring him in the face.

For a split second he’d actually considered staying the course, letting the failsafe do its job and ridding the world of the Dark One forever.

But then he’d remembered the conversation he’d had with Regina in the mines. Do you ever think this constant pursuit of revenge is the reason we have no one to care for us?

He’d spent centuries hunting his Crocodile, willing to do all manner of dastardly deeds in the furtherance of that goal, but this … this was a step too far.  Hook had never minded committing villainous acts to those who deserved it, those who got in his way, but Greg and Tamara proposed massacring an entire town of innocents.

It was the height of bad form.

And so he’d turned to the heroes, and for a moment he’d thought they’d found a solution to their problems–until Queen Snow had convinced the rest to go along with her hare-brained scheme of tossing the failsafe into a portal.

He’d taken his leave then, ready to wash his hand of the entire town–heroes, villains, all of them.  The only one he could depend on was himself.

As he continued to sail, he looked down at the sparkly magic bean in his hand, and his eye caught the letters he’d carved into the helm on that day so many years ago.

Bae.

He’d let the boy down, serving him up to Pan on a silver platter, as it were.  Of all of his deeds, that was perhaps the one of which he was the most ashamed.  He’d chosen himself over the boy, over his Milah’s son.

And now he was doing the same to Bae’s lad.

Hook closed his eyes as the pain washed over him.  He didn’t want to be that man any more.  He’d made the selfish choice centuries ago, but he needn’t repeat that error.  He blew out a long breath and then pocketed the bean, slowly turning the wheel to head back into port.

This plan was still reckless.  It was still stupid. 

But it was the right thing to do.  He might well perish in a matter of hours, but at least he would die doing the right thing.

He would die a hero.

Notes:  Sorry for the delay!  I got caught up writing birthday fics, and this rewatch drabbles series fell a bit to the wayside.

–As you can see from the title, this particular chapter kind of encompasses both 2x21 and 2x22.  The truth is, there wasn’t much in 2x21 that inspired me, aside from themes I’ve already explored earlier in the series.  In contrast, I really, really wanted to explore things from both Hook’s and Emma’s perspectives in the events of 2x22, so I decided this was the best option.  Combining 2x21 and 2x22 and writing a chapter from each character.  Emma’s reflection should be up (assuming the muse cooperates) tomorrow, and then it’s on to Neverland!

NEXT CHAPTER-->

[blysse-and-blunder]

In lieu of a week in the woods

sunday, august 27, 2023 ~ 11:30pm

just got back from 6+ days off the grid, swimming, drinking tea, porch sittin’, and generally revisiting old stomping grounds. somehow it still wasn’t long enough.

(you can add a read more on mobile now??!!)

Reading picked out some specific weird old trade paperbacks to read at the cottage, and successfully finished one: margaret atwood’s lady oracle. one of those books where I will be thinking about it forever, but not necessarily because I enjoyed it? good prose moments, good turns of phrase or moments of clear perception, but i found the main character sort of perplexing—the bits of old Toronto, vintage mid century canadian childhood and adolescence, were probably what will stick with me. That and the way that I think it was trying to get psychonanalytic but, in classic 80s feminist fiction style, it didn’t make a ton of sense. also the fatphobia? like, experimenting with the pov of someone with intense body dysmorphia / weight shaming / internalized fatphobia felt unempathetic? like i was supposed to be impressed or titillated or surprised by this choice, that the book would even consider having a main character who was fat. period typical, sure, part of the mid century setting, sure, but also like. gratuitous.

also finished italo calvino’s the baron in the trees, and a.k. larkwood’s the unspoken name, and started the audiobook for the long way to a small angry planet. Also began my harrow the ninth reread, and wow this book is good. and even more so when you can follow what’s happening.

listening only the fact that I did spend so long literally in the woods has prevented me from having in-depth thoughts and feelings about hozier’s unreal earth. more to come as I sit with it longer, but so far—strong positive feelings. some new ground, some old ground, and some things that bridge the two nicely. worth listening to with headphones or however you can pick up all the layers in the mix. I really like ‘Icarian carrion’ on this listen.

watching watched a couple of episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds this evening, since being back— ‘lost in translation,’ and the lower decks cross-over. loved seeing boimler and mariner in the flesh, and the different gags they fit into that one, despite the fact that one of the things I’ve liked most about this season has been the show gradually giving time to some of the more philosophical questions trek can explore—but lower decks does that too, sometimes better, and these two episodes back to back fit pretty well.

playing it was a very boardgame forward week at the cottage— clue, PARKS, and a new one for me, shadows over Camelot. not an uncomplicated setup, but some of the tie-ins to actual arthurian themes (the grail quest keeps pulling players in but it will grind them up and spit them out! the next generation are the ones who survive!) caught and held my enjoyment when the different mechanics threatened to lose it. I also tuned in to d&d remotely for a bit, though my connection was bad, and my rig was rated ‘haunted’ by the other players. they could hear crickets over the voice chat 😌🌲

making sewed a new patch onto my jacket and moved another two—picture to follow. didn’t do any of the mending I brought, but have had thoughts about what makes sense and what I might buy to supplement the projects. new fabric store on my commute deserves a visit, methinks.

working on truly the answer here is ‘not overthinking or delaying out of perfectionism’. which I have already done. finished all but the last eng 385 essay feedback, finished proofing for joe and responding to the department’s newsletter person for the piece she’s writing; still have to finish this letter of recommendation and these two (2!?) chapter drafts. the point is to be able to write a final sentence and just. let them go. learn how to not stop shy of finishing something. learn how to bring something (anything) to a state of some kind of completion. sure, right. sure.

if you need me, I’ll be back in the woods.

[itssomethingcosmic]

mag 113 — breathing room

@a-mag-a-day

- I genuinely love Jon and Martin’s catching up!!! It’s so cute how Jon is super excited to tell Martin about all of the statement celebs he met in America!!! I love this infodumping dork <3 And Martin is so excited to listen 🥺

- LMAO I love how the music kicked up when Martin was reaching for the book. Martin, bestie, one of the statements you read in the last few months was about a Leitner!!! Never trust anything resembling a book!!!

- I also can’t get over how Jon was the one to pick it up and see what it was… He’s always protecting his friends, especially around strange books... 🥺😭

- The C4 bit is so Iconic!! Martin and his sticky fingers <3 Jon has some of the best lines here as always <3 I think this “Good lord!” is probably my favorite xD

Statement thoughts under the cut (+ a podcast rec w/ VERY similar vibes)!

- “I’ll even make it a statement. Give your patron something to keep it satisfied. It’s not like I sleep enough to worry about dreams.” — This part is confusing to me. I thought that only people who give a direct statement get bad dreams? Or does everyone who gives a statement, even if they write it down, still get a few bad dreams?? (w/ the exclusion of the Archivist staring at them?)

- This is something about the gruesome nature of The End that REALLY gets me. The End and those who serve it know that everyone and everything must eventually end (even It is aware of its inevitable end). But it also seems to savor it??? Justin was dying for 52 SECONDS before he finally died! The End takes pleasure in dragging out the end as much as it can… well, at least until people see Death as a mercy and run into Its waiting arms…

- This string of episodes is so fascinating!!!! Jon only just learned about Smirke’s 14, but now here he is learning about a potential Emergence of Something New. I am an Extinction!Truther so I’m so glad Jonny dropped these crumbs of a 15th Fear basically right after the reveal of the main 14 !!!!!!!

BONUS: Podcast Recommendation!

If you like this episode, but need more of The Extinction in your life, I highly suggest you check out The Edge of Sleep — a highly immersive horror audio drama!!! Millions of people around the world mysteriously die in their sleep overnight, and the few people still alive are now forced to stay awake. Something dark has been released; it stalks the earth killing anyone who falls asleep...

Season 2 (+ a TV show) coming soon!