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queenhawke · 2 years ago

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ok here’s all my Thoughts about mq s3 and why it’s probably the weakest season so far.

tl;dr It just feels like they wrote themselves into a corner with how s2 ended and then didn’t know how to continue on from there. And it’s disappointing! It’s back to how it was in s1 where the only real strong character arc is Ian and Poppy’s, and the rest of the characters are just kinda… there to do funny stuff. And it’s not the worst thing in the world and they kiiiinda pull it together a little in the finale, but it’s disappointing because we know they can do good character arcs for all the characters simultaneously, because they did that in s2! Also fuck NFTs

Rest is under a read more bc I told y’all I’d write a novel

let’s compliment sandwich this so good things first:

The GrimPop storyline was good! Easily the strongest aspect of the season, tho I feel like Ian Winger-speeching himself out of the conflict was maybe a bit too easy? It was a good speech, I liked it, it fits their weird toxic codependent relationship well, but I would have liked to see him doing more for Poppy. Ah well, still good.

The bad is uhhh a lot. I don’t even know where to begin.

Actually let’s start with the metaverse/NFT shit, because it was shit and really soured me on the first half of the season. I get why these topics were included, it was a hot issue when they were writing the season, but it sucks how they were implemented. First off, it’s aged like milk, what with the multiple crypto crashes and NFTs kinda disappearing out of the collective consiousness (thank christ). Second, the fact that there’s no talk of the negative aspects of NFTs. Atrocious, especially concerning Rachel, who, being ostensibly the leftist of the group, should really at the very least have brought up the negative impact on the environment that NFTs/crypto has. Unfortunately, it does make sense why this happened. Ubisoft was one of the first game companies to use NFTs in their games, and Rob Mcelhenney owns one of those ugly fucking apes (I hope for his sake he’s sold it already), so he’s clearly invested in this shit. Obviously neither was gonna shittalk NFTs when they have such a big monetary stake in them. Hugely disappointing, but not surprising.

Now the characters... let’s start with Dana, because her “character development” was easily the most baffling to me. Like. Who is this? Where did this mini-Ian come from? This isn’t who Dana was. She had confidence, sure, but not Ian levels of delusional confidence. And like, what was the point of making her so much like Ian? How did that serve her character? Most she did was act like a kind of mediator between Ian and Poppy, but what did it do for her? The last ep kinda wrangles this into her being fed up with them and starting her own thing, but like, she was happy to hang out with Ian for most of the season. I dunno, I can kinda see what they were going for, but it doesn’t feel like there was a proper build-up to that final episode.

Let’s go to everyone’s favourite tumblr sexyman, Brad. Again, the last episode blatantly states his “arc” (working his way up to being in power again), but like. All the stuff inbetween doesn’t feel like it really adds up to anything. I mean, what did him being the janitor really... do. He acts like he’s up to something, but then he isn’t, and by ep 3 he’s already just doing HOMIE stuff again. I think it could have been so much more fun if he’d actually used his position as a janitor to weasel his way back into monetization. Like, digging up dirt on people and stuff. And again the build-up to the finale wasn’t really there. Oh, he wants a challenge now? He never talked about that. Where did that come from? Why not seed that more? Also, would have liked for his eating disorder to be addressed more. It’s so rare to see men with eating disorders on tv, it could’ve been something special. Maybe next season.

Rachel... I’m highly skeptical of her suddenly being “dumb”. Like sure, she was always shown to be a little airheaded, but it feels like they really turned it up to 11 and like... for what? It reminds me too much of how Britta was treated in later seasons of Community, and that was shitty then and is shitty now. It’s just wild to me that they’d have this whole arc in s2 about her finding her passion, and then they just throw it away. She could’ve been the new writer instead of the new HOMIE! Also, if she’s so dumb, how can she be made the new HOMIE at all. That’s a high fucking position, and you expect me to believe they just gave that to some rando ex-tester? I know MQ isn’t realistic, but I have my limits. And then they kinda lampshade that by having Brad be like “oh I engineered this” but that just feels lazy. Like my brother in christ you put her in this storyline, don’t act like it all meant nothing now. Also I know capitalism is a hell of a drug and I love me a corruption arc but could we for once have a leftist character on tv who like. Sticks to their guns and isn’t a massive hypocrite. Please.

THE LACK OF REAL STORYLINE BETWEEN BRAD AND JO. Hello he went to jail for her??? Hello?? Can we address this? Even a little? Maybe in the ep called TO CATCH A MOUSE?? It wasn’t even a mouse but you named it To Catch A Mouse and then you don’t have some sort of conversation between the mouse and the shark hello? Do I have to do everything myself around here??

Also, C.W. @kaitcake1289 already wrote a good post on this but I’d just like to reiterate what a disappointment it is that his death seemingly has zero impact on anyone. And it could have been such a good way to tie all the characters together, which I think was sorely needed with how divided they were between MQ and GrimPop. The grief they would all feel from losing the studio’s weirdo grandpa could have been such a nice overarching theme. And it could all impact them in different ways and drive their arcs this season! Just a missed opportunity, and frankly a weird way to treat the death of one of the major characters. Even Pierce’s death in Community was more impactful, and he left because there was major beef between the actor and the showrunner.

I’m a bit hmm about the idea of Dana/Jo/Brad in their own studio, bc I just don’t think splitting the characters up like this worked out this season, but we’ll see. I hope they have an actual plan this time lmao.

Okay other end of the compliment sandwich uhhhhh. I think David’s arc was decent. It was nice to see him get along with Jo and to see him stand up for himself. Um. The Christmas ep was very good. Sarian was another banger backstory ep. In general there were loads of jokes I liked! I’m just disappointed with how the characters that weren’t Ian or Poppy were treated.

#mythic quest #jo has thoughts #many thoughts #not sure it all makes sense #anyway #s2 > s1 > s3 u cannot change my mind

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oceanusborealis · 3 months ago

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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Doomed to Die – TV Review

TL;DR – From the opening deceptions to the closing metal romp, this was one of the strongest episodes of the season so far. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.5 out of 5. Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this episode. The Rings of Power Review – We are getting to the pointy part of the season, and things are starting to go down because all things must end. Indeed, there are a lot of…

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carbonatedjem · 3 years ago

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Kamen Rider Revice - Episode 1 Impressions

Okay so I literally just remembered I was gonna do this after finishing episode 1. I’ve been thinking about maybe doing like, review blogs or whatever you’d call this for my reactions to each new episode of Kamen Rider Revice. I also planned on doing this for some of the few Kamen Rider seasons i’ve yet to watch (Like Gaim and Hibiki). I’ll try and have a more cleaner format in mind for when I watch episode 2, but for now here’s my first impressions of the first episode of Kamen Rider Revice, the third Reiwa Kamen Rider. Spoilers from here on out! TL;DR is that I enjoyed the episode!

That was pretty dang good! I don’t have like, a lot to say in detail but I definitely enjoyed myself at least. Ikki already seems to be an interesting protagonist, and his implied backstory with Soccer takes me back to KR Wizard with Haruto; cept this will likely have more overall prominence. And I’m sure it’ll tie in some way to his reason for turning down the Rider Belt at the very end of the episode. Vice so far has been pretty fun, at the moment he kinda reminds me of Beetlejuice, especially with his fourth wall breaks. Hm, that might be some fanart for the future. Regardless he’s fun, I also like his fighting style once the action gets moving, he has a very hard boisterous persona, and I think him using wrestling moves fits that, plus he has a pretty cool design both in and out of Rider form. I’m hoping to see him develop in a way similar to Momotaros from Den-O (or really any of the Taros, they were all great), it already feels like I’m seeing the early episode interactions between Momo and Ryotaro so it wouldn’t be surprising if this is how it plays out. It’s also cool to see another Duo Rider like Kamen Rider Double, though in this case they’re taking it in a more literal sense with there actually being two Riders, I’m suspecting this will lead to some interesting fight choreography. And speaking of choreography, the fights in this episode were great, fun and energetic. Vice being a dumbass amidst it all was entertaining, and after Saber (Which I loved mind you) it’s so nice to see some regular ol’ kicking and punching as opposed to cool sword play. I like that Ikki uses an axe, I feel like I don’t see enough of those for the base forms of riders. I admit that when Ikki used his stamp to give himself big ol’ t-rex legs it looked really jarring but I can still vibe. Also I really, REALLY, like the transformation sequence. Ikki and Vice having a text conversation while the transformation happens is just, so bizarre and funny and just feels right y’know? And than the music kicked in and it was perfect. As for the other characters since I’ve mostly been scattershot talking about Ikki and Vice. Ikki’s family is fun, very wholesome, and I really enjoy the setting of the Bathhouse, definitely my favorite base for the Reiwa era at the moment, right up there with every time the main hangout is just some restaurant or cafe. The potential running gag of Ikki’s dad trying to break world records is gonna be fun, though obviously with it being only episode 1 for all i know that kind of joke might not be recurring. Daishi is the one I’m really interested in at the moment, his breakdown during the initial fight is likely going to be something that will be recurring in his character arc, and I fully suspect that at some point he’s going to take up the position of secondary Rider. (Something I’ll get to later) This is like the only image I have for this but

Our main villains are already looking to be fun. The outfits in this episode have been pretty strong, and I don’t know what the hell is up with the dude rocking the bowl cut and sombrero but holy shit I like his antagonist energy. Overall the antagonists this season sorta feel like a modern version of the Gurongi from Kamen Rider Kuuga (which is the second series this era that I feel has pulled that vibe, the first being Zero-One) They also have a little of the energy from the Roidmudes in Kamen Rider Drives. George seems fun. I’m runnin’ outta steam here I definitely have to plan this out better next time. I don’t really have a ton to say about him, other than that I can’t wait to see him be a Rider Fanboy like we saw in the last episode of Saber. Overall, very exciting start to a season i’ve been very excited for. My only real hope is that we get a few extra riders for this season (I like a season with a lot of riders), and we get like, a really good female rider. Zero-One was getting somewhere but was kinda rough around the edges, and Reika from Saber could be funny and had some cool fights, but like, she definitely wasn’t the strongest character, so if we could just get one good female Rider this season i’ll be happy. Hope you enjoyed me rambling about Kamen Rider, like I said i’ll try and have a better format prepared next weeks episode��

#Kamen Rider #Kamen Rider Revice #Reaction #Tokusatsu #Jem Jabbers

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clumsyghosts · 5 years ago

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I was tagged by @fandom-star

Choose 10 ships without looking at the questions:

1. Jedtavius

2. Trobed

3. Merthur

4. Clex

5. Cain/Glitch

6. Shelnard

7. Qiu Tong / Sun Jing

8. Olicity

9. RumBelle

10. Sherlock Holmes / John Watson (all forms)

1. Do you remember the episode/scene/chapter that you first started shipping 6? Shelnard - Definitely during season one. The first few seasons were the best as far as their relationship goes; I’ll die mad at how the writers slowly disintegrated their friendship for cheap laughs. All characters should have faults and growth arcs, but Leonard’s passive aggressive “I’m just putting up with you; you’re the worst” attitude broke my shipper heart.

2. Have you ever read a FanFiction about 2? Trobed - Yes, yes! I found a really good series that updates practically every day, so I’m happy and in awe.

3. Has a picture of 4 ever been your screen saver/profile picture/tumblr? Clex - Not tumblr, no, but back when I had LiveJournal, I had icons of Lex. I still have a few icons saved.

4. If 7 were to suddenly break-up today, what would your reaction be? Qiu Tong / Sun Jing - Confident that it’s just a plot device and they’ll be soon back together. They’re canon so… little worries there.

5. Why is 1 so important? Jedtavius - Mostly because of the people in the fandom!

I’ve been on the internet for a long time and while I’ve read a lot of fics for a variety of shows, there are very few fandoms I ever participated in or felt like I ‘belonged’ in. Shelnard was my first, full of lovely people. I have a soft spot for small fandoms / ships. After Shelnard, I was fandom-homeless for a while before I got into Jedtavius. I’ve met / followed a lot of lovely, talented people.

Also, even if people aren’t actively in the fandom, most people recognize Jedtavius and are fond of the movies. It’s a nice connection to others.

6. Is 9 a funny ship or a serious ship? RumBelle - Both? They have some funny line exchanges, but mostly their ship is angsty and sweet.

7. Out of all of the ships listed, which ship has the most chemistry? Jedtavius and Trobed.

8. Out of all of your ships listed, which ship has the strongest bond? Canon-wise, probably Olicity.

9. How many times have you read/watched 8’s fandom? Olicity - I actually STOPPED watching Arrow because I didn’t want any more drama to upset the main characters. Oliver was finally happy, so I stopped when he and Felicity drove off into sunset at the end of Season 3.

10. Which ship has lasted the longest? Clex - Smallville began in 2001; I never finished the series for various reasons, but I still follow a beloved fan fiction series and re-read it every few years. Besides my RP with my friend, this fanfic and one other is my heart and soul.

I do have older ships that I didn’t put on the list.

11. How many times, if ever, has 2 broken up? Trobed - When Troy gets back from sailing around the world, they never break up again.

12. If the world was suddenly thrust into a zombie apocalypse, which ship would make it out alive, 2 or 8? Olicity for sure - they’re both super heroes.

13. Did 5 ever have to hide their relationship for any reason? Cain/ Glitch: It seems to be a common fancanon that the restored Queen is not fond of their relationship (or maybe just Glitch in general; she prefers Ambrose.)

14. Is 4 still together? Clex: In my dreams.

15. Is 3 canon? Merthur - “We did, very genuinely, think of the episode as a love story between two men. Which is what I think it is, jokes and innuendo aside.” —Show creators on the finale.

See also “Well, he’s dying, the man he loves is dying, so he’s holding him.”

TL;DR: Basically canon without it being actual canon.

16. If all 10 ships were put into a couple’s Hunger Games, which couple would win? It would come down to Clex vs Olicity and in my opinion, Superman trumps Green Arrow.

17. Has anybody ever tried to sabotage 10’s ship? Holmes/Watson (all forms) - Moriarty? Hahaha. Um, let’s not get into the whole Johnlock stuff.

I read a lot of Sherlock Holmes pastiches and one of the rating factors is how well they do the Holmes/Watson friendship. If they make Watson a dummy, the book is out. I’mv very protective of Watson’s intelligence, which is why I adore the RDJ movie version.

18. Which ship would you defend to the death and beyond? Based on current feelings, probably Jedtavius.

19. Do you spend hours a day going through 1’s tumblr page? Jedtavius: Sadly, no; there’s not that much content for them. But I track the Jedtavius tag, so I happily look forward to seeing new stuff!

20. If an evil witch descended from the sky and told you that you had to pick one of the ten ships to break up forever or else she´d break them all forever, which ship would you choose? Much to my 23 year old self’s shock, Shelnard. TBBT is over and my memories are fond, but I’ve grown used to the canon couple endings.

I tag @boycottinglove and anyone who wishes to do this!

#long post #ask and answer #Thank you for tagging me!!!!!

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acrobaticcatfeline · 5 years ago

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Ok ok but guys what if janus wasnt just deceit??? Maybe that's only half of him!!!

Both patton and logan are philosophies. Hes supposed to mirror patton and be very similar to logan. So if we see logan as representing informal logic, and patton representing moral absolutism, then janus could represent moral relativism. It makes sense!!! Absolutism says that all things are intrinsically good or bad, right or wrong, where relativism says that nobody is objectively right or wrong. Two halves of the same coin I tell you!!!

So janus is a representation of moral relativism. But he also finds great importance in self care. Why? Is it really because its "selfish" and therefore the villainous character is responsible for it? No I dont think so. Part of his urgency about it is likely, that when thomas doesnt take care of himself, his mental health problems get worse.

Both virgil and remus are depicted as mental health problems. Not simply the issues themselves, but symptoms. While anxiety is a diagnosis, it's also a symptom of many other mental health issues. And remember the first episode with virgil? He was acting up because thomas wasnt taking care of himself. The minute he started practicing what lilly was telling him to do, virgil was powerless, he was only there being a frustrating voice making him annoyed. Throughout season one the main thing causing virgil to step out of line was when thomas wasnt taking care of himself. Even in season two, virgil was always scarier when thomas was doing something bad for his mental health. He lost it when thomas called his ex, because it was harmful for his wellbeing to dwell on that.

Remus was easily, easily reigned in once logan took over because wasnt trying to repress or deny or hide remus. Those things only make them stronger. The dark sides are strongest when thomas pretends they arent real or ignores them. It's why virgil was so daunting at the beginning but slowly stopped and became more like a black cat. He wasnt strong anymore, because thomas was accepting that anxiety was something he was always going to have. Virgil cant hurt him if thomas knows and is fully aware of him.

The things you dont want to believe dwell inside you are always the scariest. Because they're still there no matter how much you want to pretend they arent. And that's when they hurt. When you acknowledge anxiety and intrusive thoughts then you can start to address them and deal with them so you can still function. It's only when left untreated that things can go way too far.

Or at least that's what I think I think janus is moral relativism and self preservation. Because the worse thomas takes care of himself, the worse the dark sides are for him to handle and then he cant focus on protecting thomas cuz hes got so much else to manage.

Tl;dr janus has to do so much to keep patton from overtaking thomas completely to his deficit. When thomas neglects himself the dark sides get stronger which means that as self preservation his first job is to reign them back so thomas isnt smothered and his second job is to help thomas make decisions with patton. This second job gets neglected as all of his time and efforts are spent on keeping the dark sides from making thomas go insane. Thomas give yourself a break, your poor snekey boy desperately needs a nap.

#fe rambles #ts spoilers #deceit sanders #ts deceit #ts janus #janus sanders

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billyscamar0 · 5 years ago

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Stranger things 3 rant so spoilers !! Not major plot points but I need to vent (mostly about billy hargrove and my love and appreciation for Dacre Montgomery) so pls excuse me

Also side note, the hurt is still fresh here so I might come off more aggressive than I usually would lmao

First off, I literally want to say it: Billy deserved better. That's not even coming from a major Billy stan or a harringrove fan standpoint - he fucking deserved better. They gave him less than ONE episode (hint: it's the first one) to be a normal human with no posession and what do we get with it? We get him OGLING AT FUCKING KAREN. I will take the hatred for the d*ffer brothers to my grave for that. The poor boy was made to be the main antagonist of this season and he is given LITTLE TO NO HUMANIZATION. we see NO continuation from season 2's finale with him agreeing to have a somewhat truce with max. Do not get me wrong, dacre's performance is phenomenal and he deserves the entire world but for fuck's sake, they really screwed us over there. Wouldn't his entire story have been more effective if we had gotten some NORMAL qualities or some affection towards his sister? The lack of care for Billy hargrove as a character actually hurts my heart and soul because of all of the time and effort I have put into him. I've spent hours writing about, drawing, and hoping for this abused kid to be able to overcome his demons and escape his dad and have friends and people who care for him. But NOPE he has none of that at all, in fact, the entire cast spends all this time focusing on getting rid of the mind flayer VS saving Billy. When the roles were reversed and it was will who was under possession, he had an entire group of people fighting for him and Billy had nothing of the sort. Will has human qualities seeping through, making us feel for him and Billy ONLY did because of dacre's astonishing performance. He didn't have actual plot points to do it save for eleven viewing his memories! And even that was not to save Billy, it was a means to eliminating the MF. Which is important, I understand, however FUCK. everything ABOUT HIS PLOT was forced and quick and i felt like I had no time at all properly grasp it all. It bounced back and forth so fast and even though Dacre did amazing, I felt like his shit was cut as far as options went. Why did we get NOTHING wholesome from him before he was possessed? Having friends? Getting an ice cream? Talking to his little fucking sister? A morning routine? SOMETHING OTHER THAN FUCKING KAREN WHEELER. Watching this season sparked little to no joy from me solely because it felt like an attack on myself and the love I have in my heart for these characters. Imagine how much deeper all of the storylines COULD have been if they were more intertwined instead of completely separate. It felt like such a disappointment because I had SO MUCH ANXIETY about it, about Billy, about the show in general that I felt nauseated nearly the whole thing!!! ALSO....let me touch on the predictability of most of the show. Without even reading spoilers, one could easily figure out almost the entire fucking plot (hence why I had so much anxiety and I was 99% correct on EVERYTHING I thought would happen) so much so to the point where I started to rethink solely because it was all too obvious!!! And i wont say it directly because it is a major plot point, but the ONE Thing that Billy has all to himself, the ONE GOOD he has got is fucking taken from him by another plot. Almost immediately. Because why would we need any sort of important moment to truly cement Billy's character when something else can swoop in literally 30 seconds later and steal all of the attention? (Not that that was not also important but I'm specifically talking about Billy rn) AND ALSO. There is not ONE specific interaction with Steve, which was basically his ENTIRE storyline last season? It just felt so random and out of left field and like they really just didn't want him to get better.

TL;DR I feel empty and hollow and so hurt and distraught by this season. I feel like someone has betrayed one of my best and strongest friends and reduced them to nothing. But I am so so so proud of Dacre Montgomery for his skill and wonderful talent and I'm proud of Billy for actually ending up being a "main" character, but for the love of fucking god, why couldn't we just have something good? Something happy? Something more than what we got? I truly believe we deserved it. Because all of us Billy fans (and a lot of the harringrove fandom) are the most creative and talented and loving people I've ever met and I know we have put our hearts and souls into this and I can't help but feel destroyed.

#stranger things #billy hargrove #stranger things 3 #stranger things season 3 #rambles

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siren-theories · 5 years ago

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The Siren Song

(ICYMI: Here is an index with the previously published analyses. My previous piece was “Repeating the past - Ben and Ryn as modern parallels to Charles Pownall and his mermaid?”)

The Siren Song is probably the most important part of the Sirens’ abilities besides their ability to transform from water into land forms. So let*s take a look at what the song is and what effects it has on humans.

TL, DR.: There is most likely not one Siren Song, but three different versions. These are differentiated by which frequencies in the song are accentuated. They all have different effects on the target of the song and also have an effect on the siren singing it.

A big thank you to @imaginejolls for allowing me to bounce ideas off them.

Common facts about the song

The song can only be sung by female Sirens as confirmed by Levi in Episode 212.

In Episode 211 “Mixed Signals” we get a direct look at what the song consists of, namely hundreds of frequencies and layers which the Sirens can produce with their vocal cords.

SCIENTIST: “One song composed of hundreds of frequencies and layers.” BEN: "This many layered frequencies from one voice. How is that possible?" SCIENTIST: “All different levels, polyphonics, amplitudes. I've never seen anything like it, not even from whales or dolphins.”

In a later scene in the same episode the range of those frequencies is revealed.

SCIENTISTt: Incredible. NICOLE: What? SCIENTIST: Most humans can hear frequencies between 20 hertz and 20.000. Sea creatures, like some dolphins, can hear frequencies of up to 100.000 hertz, while some whales can hear infrasonic sounds as low as seven hertz. The range of these frequencies, they're unlike anything I have ever seen.

The song works by stimulating the brain with the sonic frequencies, but causes Brain damage in humans.

(Damage from Ryn’s song to Maddie and Ben’s brain as seen in Episode 211 “Mixed signals”).

This damage is reversible by exposing the damaged brain to the sound of the echo chamber as shown in Episode 212 “Serenity”.

We see the effect of the frequencies on the human brain when Ben plays test subject for the military in Episode 211 “Mixed Signals”:

(Bens Brain under the effect of the full song. Notice how the whole brain is stimulated.)

By testing several of the layers on Ben and witnessing his reaction to this the military (and we, the audience) learn more about the song. While the song as a whole caused him to relax, some of the layers when played in isolation caused Ben immense stress, causing him to relieve his drowning in Episode 110 and Ryn attacking him in Episode 101.

(The Brain when only aggressive frequencies are played)

Had Ryn not stepped in it is quite possible he might even have suffered a brain hemorrhage right there in the lab.

RYN:: ”Ben is in pain! Stop this!”

I would therefore argue that the effect of the song on the person is likely dependant on what layers of the song are emphasized by the singer, thus explaining the different versions of the song and the different effects on humans that we see in the show.

However, there might also be a visual component to the song.

It is noticeable that every time Ryn sings - no matter what variant - the camera zooms in on her face and focuses especially on her eyes, suggesting there is an almost hypnotic pull associated with the song. Ryn also looks the target directly in the eyes at all times.

Episode 101: “The Mermaid Discovery”:

Episode 108: “Being Human” (note how far she looks up to maintain eye contact with Ben, suggesting this is a required element of the song):

Episode 203: “Natural Order”:

Episode 211: "Mixed Signals”:

Maddie for example clearly reacts to this visual element in Episode 203 “Natural Order” even though she cannot hear the song. Maybe the missing visual element is what makes the recorded version of the song somewhat less stronger than the live version.

Throughout the show three motivations of singing the song are depicted (with different singing techniques and effects). I have classed the different versions of the song according to the motivations of the mermaid singing. - the defensive, the curiosity and the love variant.

The defensive variant of the Siren song

The Defensive variant is the strongest version of the song and the one most detrimental to the human target(s). It is the first song we see in the show.

I would posit that the defensive variant consists of the siren emphatizing the most "harmful" layers of the song.

It is the only version of the Siren Song that has an area affect and can target more than one human. It does not require visual contact between the target and the siren (unlike all other variants).

Donna first demonstrated this when she sang to the North Star crew from inside the hold of said ship in Episode 101 “The Mermaid Discovery”. Even with multiple layers of steel seperating her from Xander&Co the song was strong enough to lure them from the inside of the ship to the deck. She even nearly caused Xander to lift the hold cover and freeing her, an action that was only stopped by the timely arrival of the US military.

(notice their similar body posture, signifying them being under the thrall of the Siren)

Donna later used the defensive song on Chris in Episode 107 “Dead in the water”, using it to lure Chris towards her.

The effects are profound - despite Calvin's pleading, Chris drops his speargun and starts walking towards certain death.

In Episode 211, no longer in control of herself due to stress hormones taking over, Ryn reverts to her basic predator instincts and views Maddie no longer as her mate but as a tasty snack.

(when your lover looks at you and thinks “literally yummy”)

When Maddie points a gun towards her, Ryn starts using the defensive variant against Maddie, rendering her into a cataconic state.

(It is worth noting that Ryns hormone imbalance even caused her pupils to widen. At first I thought this was due to the song but as @imaginejolls pointed out they were like that even in the previous episode.)

The defensive version of the song has the most detrimental effect on humans out of all three versions. As we see by the examples of Chris and Maddie it is strong enough to render a human completely enthralled and defenseless. Both Maddie and Chris drop their weapons and walk towards certain death.

If left untreated, single exposure to the song can be strong enough to destroy a Human's brain to the point that the memories are affected.

Chris for example was exposed to the full defensive song only once. When first we see him in Episode 207 after an abscence of about a month he is a human wreck, barely coherent and all he can think about is the song. After another month or so (don't @ me on this, the timeline in the later half of Siren Season 2 is confusing and weird as @imaginejolls covered in their post) the situation has gotten so bad that he does not even remember his friends in Episode 214 “The Last Mermaid”.

Chris’ situation has by that time deteriorated to the point that his brain is almost completely covered with lesions.

KYLE: "His EEG showed disturbing changes from that song. It was devouring his frontal cortex."

Maddie does not suffer quite the same effects in Episode 211. However, she - unlike Chris - immediately manifests symptoms. Considering that Chris acted normally at least for one or two days after exposure and Maddie immediately saw visions and lost impulse control. This leaves us with three possible explanations for this difference:

1) Maddie experienced an immediate effect because she had already heard a recording of the "love" version of the song 2) Ryn is a stronger singer than Donna. Which might be the case considering that Ryn is stronger than the other sirens in other physical aspects on the show as well,, most notably being the fastest (Episode 103) and strongest of the Sirens (Episode 109 and 203). 3) The strength of the song might vary according to how much stress the Siren is under. As Ryn was probably "maxed out" on stress hormones and adrenalin her song might have become stronger as well

Without more information it is impossible to figure out which one of the above explanations is true, it might even be a combination of those. Based on the arguments below however I would lean towards explanation C.

Maddie’s symptoms - visions and immediate lack of impulse control - were stronger than Ben’s in Episode 109 “Street fight” and Episode 110 “Aftermath”. Ben touched Ryn a lot but it did not develop into something sexual whereas Maddie would have kissed Xander had he not stopped her and kisses both Ryn and Ben later on. It took two full days for Ben to see visions when awake (unlike Maddie who experienced visions the day after). Maddie also experienced two different visions immediately after each other with only a few minutes between them, the second resulting in quite probably the most memorable dinner scene in a TV show from recent memory.

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This again speaks to the defensive variant being the strongest and most harmful one.

The defensive version also impacts the Siren singing it, however besides reducing the effect of stress hormones (as with Ryn in episode 211) we do not know of any other effects.

So, to recap:

- the defensive version has an area effect and can be sung without visual contact with the target - its effect can reach the target even through multiple layers of steel - single exposure can destroy a brain within 2 months if left untreated - the effects on the victim seems double that of the love version in intensity

The curiosity variant of the song

On the other end of the spectrum is the curiosity version, which is the lleast impactful on the human.

RYN: "The first time I sang, I am curious about you. It brings us close" BEN: "It did"

(dialogue from Episode 110: Aftermath)

Curiosity is maybe the weakest category with only one observed instance. Yet I would argue that the possibility exists that the Siren can change the intensity of the song according to the motivation. And this definitely seems a version that has almost zero impact on the human target.

Ben first meets Ryn when she steps in front of his car. His behaviour here is important to note for it establishes a baseline for later comparisons. In this instance he behaves how any decent person would behave when a vulnerable, naked and scared person collapses in front of them.

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(The scene starts at 00:50, here is a timestap link for you. )

When Ben first meets Ryn he immediately covers her up without even giving her naked body a once-over. He then calls a doctor, clothes her and when she wakes up he gives her plenty of personal space. She then sings to him.

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His behaviour after Ryn sings to him and they meet again mirrors his earlier decent behaviour. Ryn, who had earlier been the victim of an attempted rape, is at this point naturally distrustful of human males who tower over her. She hisses at him in multiple short, panicked breaths. Ben immediately adopts a non-threatening pose, lowering himself so that Ryn has the height advantage. He does not touch Ryn without her permission.

“It’s okay...I’m not gonna hurt you. My name is Ben.”

Likewise his behaviour in the following episodes is unaffected, especially when Ryn moves to kiss him in 103 and he declines said kiss despite there being a clear attraction.

All of this speaks to somebody who is in full control of his actions and whose judgement is unaffected. The only thing out of the ordinary would be his night-time trips on the water between Episode 104 and 105 and not being able to sleep for a few nights.

The song does create some sort of addiction - albeit one that a human can control rather easily. Ben was fine for over a month and a half until the unique stress situation of Sean’s death, Decker messing with his mother and him having insulted Ryn arises, which causes him to request Ryn to sing to him again.

Therefore I would argue that given the overall direct lack of effect on Ben I would classify this as the least harmful and least impactful version of the song.

To recap:

- the curiosity version does not change the behaviour of the target - it causes a slight addiction but overall is the least impactful variant of the Siren Song.

The Love variant of the Song

The love version is different from the defensive version in that it does not render the target cataconic but causes strong feelings in the target which mainly manifest in an intense need to protect the Siren. It is by far the variant which we know the most about.

1. The Love variant needs direct visual contact and close proximity

One requirement for its usage is that unlike the defensive variant it needs direct visual contact and close proximity as confirmed by Ryn in Episode 203 “Natural Order” when our trio runs into a slight problem recording Ryn’s song.

RYN: “Ben will be safe when I sing?" BEN: "Uh, we're not gonna be in here. We're gonna set it to record, and then we're gonna leave the room. RYN: If you leave, who do I sing to? MADDIE: The Machine. It captures sound. RYN: Song only comes when I sing to a human.

This also confirms there are different versions of the song - because otherwise Ryn could start singing despite them being in another room (as Donna did with the North Star Crew in Episode 101 “The Mermaid Discovery”)

[Speculation: This version might also need some sort of existing feeling to function (with Decker it was his scientific curiosity and sympathy for the suffering Donna, with Ben it was his developing feelings for Ryn).]

This version is used multiple times in the show:

Ryn used this variant on Ben in Episode 108 after he requested that she sing to him. It is this instance which cause the most lasting damage and which will be the focus of the analysis from here on.

Also, recordings of the song are used by Decker throughout Season 1, Ben in Episode 204 “Oil and Water”, Ben in the time period between 208 “Leverage” and 209 “No North Star”, Maddie and Ben in 209, by the military on Ben in 211 “Mixed Signals” and again by Ben in 214 “The last mermaid”.

Donna used this variant on Decker to get him to stop experiments on her and thus allow her to recover enough of her strength to survive.

[Sidenote: The version Donna used on Decker could not have been the defensive version as Decker did not become entranced and did not adopt the typical body posture that Maddie, Xander, Chris etc. did. Decker also was the only one affected.]

What are its effects on humans and how does it differ from the other two versions already covered in this article?

2. The love variant causes addiction in Humans

This can be as strong as driving somebody to suicide in case the human loses permanent access to the song. Decker was the poster child for this. Likewise, Ben struggles with addiction to this version of the song and unlike his previous exposure (with the milder curiosity version) he cannot control it even without extenuating circumstances in Episode 203/204.

3. The love variant affects how humans feel about the Siren

The song affects the humans feelings, but it cannot cause genuine love between Human and Siren as Ryn explains multiple times.

A snake and our favourite mermaid discussing the effect of the song on the relationship in Episode 211: “Mixed Signals” :

Nicole: Ben and Maddie are very close to you. Very protective of you. Does your song have anything to do with that? Ryn: Not just song. With Ben and Maddie, it is more. Nicole: More? Ryn: Yes. Ryn loves Ben and Maddie. Ryn makes love with Ben and Maddie.

This of course echoes earlier conversations Ryn had with Ben, for example in Episode 202 “The Wolf At The Door” and 204 “Oil and Water”.

BEN: It’s not just the song. It’s more. RYN: “Yes. More.”

Which to be fair makes sense - after all in real life drugs exist that can cause other people to behave a certain way but those are not genuine, lasting feelings as Maddie and Ben develop for Ryn (and vice versa).

However, while the song apparently cannot create lasting feelings of love it can have several other effects on the human target. Let us review those effects on the human by looking at its effects on a specific person, namely Ben.

4. The love variant of the song causes lowered impulse control and lowers the inhibitions of the target

In Episode 108 Ryn asks Ben to sing to him.

BEN: “Will you sing to me? Again?”

The effects are immediate. In Episode 109 Ben has nightmares about Ryn having sex with him, then attacking him and drowning him.

(Whelp, that dream escalated quickly.)

[A caveat: It is not exactly clear whether this is a normal nightmare due to his past experiences and conflicting feelings about Ryn. I would imagine falling in love with someone who tried to literally eat you would cause some weird nightmares in any case. But I would classify it as another effect of the song based on how he acts the rest of the episode.]

We see an immediate effect the next morning when Ben is completely fixated on Ryn. And what we can see over the course of Episode 109 are definitely changes in behaviour.

The first one are lowered inhibitions and lowered impulse control as Ben constantly touches Ryn. Ben previously did not mind Ryn touching him and he definitely reacted to that kiss in Episode 106 but in all those cases Ryn was the one initiating contact. Here, over the whole episode Ben constantly seeks to be close to Ryn, touching her as often as he can.

The touching is light - nothing sexual, just touching her back or holding hands. However this is definitely not normal behaviour for Ben.Donna immediately notices this and tries to step in to protect her little sister, only to be told by Ryn that she does not mind (and might even want the touch).

RYN: "It's okay. Ben is love." DONNA: "Love?" RYN: "Yes.

Honestly I am not sure how to classify the physical touch here. I would argue that it is more troubling for Sirens than it is for Humans to have people in their personal space (cf, Ryn hissing at and later attacking Helen in Episode 102 just for coming near her). But while it might only be slight touching it definitely is a departure from how Ben normally acted around Ryn before this episode. I don’t think he would have enough self-control to resist a kiss from her in this state as he previously did in Episode 103.

Even more troubling than the touching however is way the song changes Ben Judgement.

5. The love variant of the song alters the judgement of the human target, creating an intense need to protect the siren

It is hard to describe but it seems as if the song gradually rearranges his priorities, resulting in an intense need to protect Ryn. See for example the following discussion in Episode 109 “Street Fight”:

BEN: "They're after Ryn, Maddie. And Donna, too. They want to kill them. MADDIE: "Maybe you should take them somewhere?" BEN: "Where?" MADDIE: "I don't know. Somewhere out of here." BEN: "And if we get them away, what then? Those two are still here. We let them murder people, destroy the town? These two are dangerous. They're the ones who killed Sean. We need to keep Ryn safe. Whatever it takes. MADDIE: I'm here with my dad, I am gonna talk to him. Get the police involved. That's what makes sense here. You guys just wait. Nobody's hurting anyone".

To be fair to Ben, none of what he says is illogical or even a bad idea. He clearly wants to protect the town and other humans too. However it is the "Whatever it takes" part that signals his impaired judgement. Yet Ben still tries to follow Maddie's advice and tries to calm Ryn down when she gets tired of waiting, only to be interrupted by Xander. The following conversation reveales how much his judgement has shifted by that point:

XANDER : “Aw come on man. All I'm asking is to go after the thing that killed my dad. You could at least pretend to give a damn. “ BEN : “Of course I give--"

It is at this point when Ryn interrupts.

RYN: Maybe this is what we need to do. What Xander says. Maybe this is the only way. DONNA: Yes BEN: Ryn, you sure about this? RYN: *to Xander* We will help you find him. XANDER You down with this? BEN: Yeah.

Ben previously would have trusted Maddie's judgement more than Ryn. He would not agree to a plan that involves violence as the only tool, especially not with Xander who cannot think straight at this point. Remember this is the same person that rejects a life in luxury to save unintelligent sea life - and suddenly he is ok with killing two Sirens?

Again, to be fair as the events showed Ryn’s plan was sound as she was able to defeat Katrina. But the Ben before 109 would not have just gone along with Ryn and certainly would not have agreed to let Xander tag along. At the very least he would have informed Maddie about it.

Ben's changed priorities due to the song are even more evident wen talking to Maddie later on. Here Ben flat out accuses Maddie to not caring about Ryn because Maddie wants to call in more cops to help with the Mermaids. It is quite clear that the only thing on Bens mind at that point is to protect Ryn, something Maddie accurately calls out as his judgement being totally screwed up.

(I have to confess that I kinda wanted Maddie to slap him at that point.)

BEN: "If we call the cops now there's no way we will ever contain that thing" MADDIE: "It's already out of control. We have no choice." BEN: "Okay, and what happens if the cops find Ryn? What happens then? Look we can solve this on our own. We can protect her." MADDIE: "No, we can't. It's too late. What is going on with you? Your judgement is totally screwed up." BEN: "Don't you care about her?" MADDIE: "Of course I do. Of course I do. You're the one putting her in danger, going out with Xander like some crazed vigilante. You're acting insane." BEN: "*grabs shotgun* "Yeah." MADDIE: "Hey. Where the hell are you going?" BEN: "To help Ryn."

So what we see here is a gradual shift in priorities until it arrives at the point when he completely prioritizes Ryn over his girlfriend Maddie and where nothing else matters except protecting Ryn.

6. The love variant of the song can cause dangerous (and sometimes helpful) visions

Ben’s condition deteriorates in Episode 110 “Aftermath” to the point where he has a vision of Ryn being in danger. He dives into the water and would have drowned himself if Ryn had not arrived in time to save him.

(probably the closest to the original siren song mythology we got to in the show - thankfully Ryn did no longer see him as a foud source in her water form though)

BEN: “What were you doing down there?” RYN: “I came to help you” BEN: “No, before that. I-I heard your voice. That's why I went down there. You were there, right?” RYN: “No.“ BEN: “No, I - I heard you. I know I heard you. You were there.” RYN: “Ben, I wasn't there.” BEN: “What does this mean?” RYN: “I didn't know my song could do this.”

In episode 201, which takes place three days after 110, Ben loses his footing after hearing Ryn's voice in his head when rock climbing.

In episode 203 the Song appears in his head again when Ryn is in mortal danger as she fights Katrina for leadership of the merpack.

This causes Ben to launch another futile attempt to protect Ryn.

In Episode 214 “The Last Mermaid” Ben listens to a recording of the song again as the sudden relevation of him being a Pownall causes Ryn to almost break up with him. While Ben is very protective of Ryn throughout the episode it is unclear if it is being caused by his normal feelings for her or by the song (I am leaning towards the former).

However, the intense vision he experienced during the night was definitely not caused by his normal feelings for Ryn.

The horror vision he experiences shows a dark version of him injuring Ryn with a harpoon, causing Ben to try to attack the dark version of him and then being extremely distraught at the sight of an injured vision-Ryn.

However the vision in itself has more positive than negative effects on Ben - and especially on his relationship with Ryn. He realizes he loves even her nonhuman traits and even in nonhuman water form. As soon as he and Ryn reconcile, he suffers from no more visions and experiences no changes in his behaviour.

However there are multiple, long stretches of time where Ben suffers no visions at all and no impact from the song manifests in his behaviour. In episode 202 he is not affected by the song at all, nor is he affected in any other episodes of Season 2 besides episodes 203 and episodes 214.

Curiously this even includes episodes where he and Maddie are exposed to the song multiple times. In Episode 204 Ben hears a recording of the song with no effects.

In episode 209 Ben and Maddie both listen to Ryn's song yet it does not modify their behaviour. If anything it restores them to their normal behaviour as listening to the song lessens the effect of them missing Ryn.

In Episode 211 Ben listens to the whole song and then is bombarded sveral times with the aggressive layers of the song. The attack on his brain is so bad that he would have likely taken permanent damage had Ryn not stepped in.

(Note that this is the only time a human is shown in pain when listening to any variant of the song. This signifies just how intense the bombardement of his brain is.)

The question immediately arises - why does the song cause such different effects at different times? Wy does Ben experience effects from a recording of the song in Episode 214 but suffers no effect in episodes 204, 209 and 211 - and suffers no effect after being bombarded with the aggressive layers? Why does the song cause Ben to try to protect Ryn in 203 but he has no issue with Ryn risking her life in 208?

Ben can get blasted by the song multiple times in a row - even the harmful layers of the song - in Episode 211 and nothing happens to him. No vision, no change in behaviour, nothing. If the scenes did not show his exposure to the song you would believe nothing had happened at all by his behaviour in this episode.

Was Ben maybe building up a tolerance to the song and getting the cure in 212 removed that tolerance buildup? That is one possible explanation for the experience in 214 but not a very convincing one for the different reactions before - especially not why Maddie did not suffer visions in 209 even though she had no such tolerance at all.

7. The love variant of the song might have a feedback loop

The other possible explanation is that the effects of the song vary according to the stress levels the human is under at that point. Yet subscribing to that theory would effectively mean that Ben would be under less stress when Maddie is in danger of permanent brain damage (as in 211) than when Ryn is in danger. This argument leads down a very dark path for what it implies in terms of the relationship between Ben, Ryn and Maddie, one that I am not prepared to follow as I see no basis for assuming that Ben cares much less about Maddie than about Ryn.

The theory I would favour instead would be a feedback loop, aka the need to protect or to help the siren causing the human brain to go haywire whenever the human notices the Siren is disstressed or in danger.

Which might explain why Ben suffers a vision in 110 (with Ryn being deeply affected by Donna's death) and in 203 when Ryn herself is in mortal danger as she fights with Katrina (note how the vision happens only after Katrina seems to gain the upper hand).

In contrast Ben might suffer no vision in 209 and 211 (not even from the aggressive layers) because he can see that Ryn is safe and well.

Note how in 211 he spends the entire episode by her side and keeps constant visual contact with her. However in 214 Ryn is clearly in disstress over the mating situation and the Pownall situation, maybe the most stress we ever see her under in the entire show. Ben fears losing her while Ryn tells him that she fears him going bad like his ancestor - the exact situation the vision depicts.

This would also explain why in Episode 109 Ben initially still follows Maddie's advice and only gets more and more irrational as Ryn starts getting more and more stressed out by waiting, something Ryn voices her displeasure at and something that Ben clearly notices as he tries to calm her.

And a feedback loop of that sort would also neatly explain why - despite still exposing himself to the recording of the song - Ben’s visions disappear after Ryn is safe and/or in a relationship with him and Maddie (Episodes 208-214 and then again 215-216). It also explains wihy he has no visions in Episode 202 when Ryn is around him all the time and why the visions only reappear in 203 (when Ryn is in actual danger) or in 201 (when Ryn and he have split up).

[Speculation: If we assume that the love variant evolved due to Siren-human relationships then - if we assume a feedback loop - we would also have an evolutionary reason for the song to exist in the first place. ]

I fully admit that this is a theory that is only supported by observation and not direct evidence. However it is the only satisfying theory I can think of right now that explains the different reactions to exposure of the song.

8. Singing the love variant is not something a Siren does lightly

Unlike the defensive variant which is regularly used in fights against humans, it is quite clear that the love version is not sung lightly by the Siren. Part of that might be some residual cultural barrier, maybe a holdover from the times the sirens and humans lived on land.

We hear the motivation for a Siren singing the love variant expressed clearly by Ryn in Episode 110, when Aldon Decker tries to convince Donna to sing to him again.

DECKER: "You sang a song to me before. Could you do it again? Your voice is so beautiful." RYN: *looks shocked* DONNA: *twists away from decker* HELEN: "You need to leave!" DECKER: "I just need to hear it once." RYN: “She sang to you to escape from you, not because she loves you." DECKER: "But -" RYN: "She will not do it again."

I really wish I had managed to find a video capture of this scene so I could show you just how shocked Ryn is at hearing this.

Donna meanwhile twists her whole body as far away from Decker as possible despite being in considerate pain.

Donna's reaction to Decker annnouncing the fact and Ryns immediate protectiveness suggests that what Donna did was out of the ordinary. I for one could not help but notice the reaction was similar to movie portrayals of victims of rape or forced prostitution. Take note that Donna initially kept that she sang to Decker from Ryn (she never mentions it in 106 when discussing what Decker did to her) and Ryn is absolutely crestfallen when she hears Decker mentioning this.

It might very well be that singing this love version of the song is one of the most intimate things a Siren can do with a human, one that is ordinarily reserved for people they love. Which again would make sense for the time Siren and human tribes lived together on land as limiting the usage there would serve to protect both humans and sirens.

9. The love variant creates an addiction in the Siren singing it

One simple reason for this song having this special status is the effect it has on the Siren singing it. Much as in the human hearing the song, singing the song also creates an addiction on part of the Siren singing it.

Ryn describes this in episode 203 “Natural Oder”:

MADDIE: "What does it feel like when you sing?" RYN: "Makes me feel good. After I sing to Ben..." MADDIE: "What is it?" RYN: “I need it. I want to sing.”

This is a direct parallel to Ben's explanation how he felt when Ryn sang to him. From Episode 106: "Showdown":

MADDIE: "What did it feel like?" BEN: "Honestly, like a drug. I can't explain it. It's like something I need".

Ryn echoes this in Episode 204 “Oil and Water” when she tells Ben about this while they dance with each other and discuss their relationship.

BEN: You said that, uh, that you have dreams about me. I've had dreams about you too. RYN: Maybe something Ben must know. BEN: What? RYN: You say when I sing my song, you like how it feels. BEN: Yeah. RYN: When I sing to you, I like it, too.

[Sidenote: Geez Ryn cannot keep a secret when it comes to Ben and Maddie. Here she goes telling Ben despite promising just two or three days before that she would keep it a secret. I present to you Ryn Fisher, Queen of the Sirens, Slayer of Big Oil, Keeper of Secrets. I get why she told him as they needed to address it before moving onto the next stage of their relationship but still, nice going there Ryn.]

Therefore, not only does the Human become addicted to the Song, the Siren also becomes addicted singing to that Human. .

[Wild speculation: It might also be that the song originally worked as a link to guarantee the stability of a relationship between humans and sirens in order to protect the Siren. Given the difficulties a relationship between humans and sirens brings with it there needs to be absolute commitment to the relationship for both parties. Which might be the evolutionary reason for the song. Biologically evolution has attached pleasure to things that are necessary for a relationship (like for example sex) and this might be the case here too.]

In closing, I would summarize the capabilities and features of the Love Variant thusly:

- Unlike the defense variant the love variant needs direct visual contact and close proximity to the target. - The love variant creates pleasant sensations for the human target and causes an addiction - It affects how humans feel about the Sirens but cannot create genuine feelings - The song causes lowered impulse control and lowes the inhibitions of the target - It alters the judgement of the human target, creating an intense need to protect the siren - The love variant of the song can cause dangerous (and sometimes helpful) visions - It might have a feedback loop, causing the human to get more visions and act more erratic according to the level of stress and danger the Siren herself experiences. However as long as the human sees the Siren is safe and in no danger the effects are minimal to non-existent. - Singing the love variant of the song is not something a siren does lightly. It is usually done only for people the siren cares deeply about. - The song creates an addiction to sing for the Siren - The Siren experiences pleasant sensations when singing the song - It might originally have been used to guarantee the success of the relationship between Siren and human.

Thank you for reading. As always, feel free to disagree or offer additional info in the comments.

#siren freeform #freeform siren #ryn #polymarine #siren song #analysis #long post

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murasaki-murasame · 5 years ago

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Thoughts on Fruits Basket 2019 Episode 22: “Because I Was Happy”

In spite of how last week’s episode was kinda meh, this episode ended up being one of the single best episodes of the show thus far. It at least goes to show that this adaptation is incredibly good at drama, even if it’s not so great at comedy.

Anyway the TL;DR of my feelings right now is just a whole pile of those pictures of crying cats. You know the ones.

Thoughts under the cut [and spoilers for the manga as a whole]

To get right to the chase, this episode adapted chapter 51, which is interesting because this makes it the first episode adapting material that straight up hadn’t even been written when the 2001 anime was made, since I think that came out when the manga was at around chapter 43 or so. Even Uo’s backstory arc had already been done in the manga by that point, and they just chose to cut it in the first adaptation. So I can’t exactly fault the 2001 anime for not having adapted this chapter, but man it really goes to show how much of the story the 2001 anime was missing, and how much good stuff we’re in for here.

I think it was a good choice to put the two Hana chapters back to back like this, even though in the manga they were like 20+ chapters apart from each other. It’s by far the most standalone chapter of the manga, and it’s specific placement has always kinda baffled me, since it happens right after we meet the student council characters and Kureno, and shortly before the summer vacation arc, and none of that had to do with Hana. I think it’s just one of those things where Takaya’s nerve disorder probably impacted how she approached the story, and lead to some odd detours into side stories and backstories until the ‘main story’ kicked back into high gear. It flows a lot more naturally here, and the fact that the whole episode is a flashback with no real present-day context or framing isn’t even noticeable when it comes right after the events of the last episode. It felt like a bit more of a harsh narrative shift in the manga.

But it’s still always been one of my favourite individual chapters in the series, in spite of it’s awkward timing. The material itself does everything it needs to make it stand out. And the shifted placement in this adaptation just helps elevate it’s strengths even more.

I’ve been wondering how anime-only people might react to this episode, for lots of reasons, and I’m glad that everyone seems to love it. It really does come as a huge curveball in terms of tone and focus after how self-contained and comedic the last episode was, but it works nicely.

And even more than that, it’s fun watching people react for the first time to the reveal that Hana’s powers are actually 100% real, and the story ends up being dead serious in depicting how they impacted her life. Basically Fruits Basket suddenly turns into Carrie But With A Support Network for an episode, and I doubt any new fans saw that one coming, lmao.

Though tbh I still think it’s [intentionally] ambiguous whether or not she actually had supernatural powers. It never really comes up again, and the handful of cases of her using her powers on people can technically be written off as a mix of coincidences and a sort of placebo effect from people who think she’s seriously gonna curse them. In terms of what Takaya thought when she wrote this, I think Hana probably does have straight up psychic powers, but there’s room for interpretation, and I think this episode is really interesting when viewed through the lens of Hana having some sort of severe mental illness.

I’ve been pretty occupied recently with thinking about the topic of disability in Fruits Basket when it comes to Kyo’s arc [and oh boy do I have stuff to say about that very soon], but I’d kinda forgotten that Hana’s backstory here is another good example of that.

I don’t exactly want to jump to conclusions and start armchair diagnosing her, but the ‘voices’ Hana heard could definitely be symptoms of something like social anxiety or even schizophrenia. Depending on how literally you want to take the idea of her ‘hearing voices’.

In general there’s a sort of blurry line in this series between supernatural stuff, and things that are realistic to the experiences of disabled [or otherwise oppressed/neglected in general] people. But I’ll talk more about that later.

On a somewhat related note, one surprising thing about this episode is that in spite of the overall tone and events of this episode, Hana’s family is completely supportive of her, and never doubt the existence of her powers, or hate her for it. Instead all they care about is her safety and well-being, and they’re willing to move towns if it means removing Hana from a toxic school environment. I think I’ve said it before, but I think it’s good that this series has a whole range of types of parents/families who have their own unique feelings about their childrens’ struggles. You can’t really accuse it of being one-dimensional.

The thing that really struck me about this episode most of all was just how good the artistic direction and overall execution were. In terms of the story it was a pretty 1:1 adaptation of the manga, with nothing changed/added/removed from what I can remember, but it was just executed incredibly well. Pretty much like how things went with the Uo arc.

Specifically I really loved the way that the entire episode had a consistent cool grey tone to it all, and was filled with deep shadows and harsh, artificial-looking lighting, right up until the point where Hana admits that she wants to stay with Tohru and Uo, and suddenly everything is bright and warm and filled with light. It’s not exactly the most complicated thing ever, but it really made the climax of this episode stand out.

But the way it handled the lighting and shading up until that point was genuinely really neat in and of itself, and lead to a really atmospheric and oppressive vibe to everything. Especially scenes like the one where Hana got her arm burned by those bullies, and the whole scene was incredibly dark and shadowy and eerie. I also really liked the cut of her running down the school hallway, and how the harsh bluish lighting from the windows contrasted with her silhouette and the darkness of the hallway itself.

The way they handled the scenes of her hearing voices by having the screen be slowly blotted out by cloudy blackness and overlapping voices was also really neat.

I think it’s really neat that some of the best material we’ve gotten thus far has come from some of the most unlikely characters. Normally with a series like this you’d think that Tohru’s best friends would be disposable comic relief characters [which they kinda were in the 2001 anime, tbh], but they both ended up getting incredibly good backstory arcs that flesh them out immensely and deliver some of the strongest emotions and messages in the series. It really goes to show that this is an ensemble cast type of story that cares about all of it’s characters instead of just the core few. In the manga it wasn’t really apparent until later because of how things were paced out, but this adaptation’s really making it clear already that this series is totally willing to basically ignore it’s main trio for episodes on end in order to focus on the supporting cast, lol.

And on THAT note, to balance out the fact that Kyo in particular has been kinda absent since, like, the lake house episode I think, the next episode is gonna dive straight into what will ultimately be a three-episode story arc focused on him, his backstory, and his relationship with Tohru. I hope it lives up to the expectations of all the new fans who’ve been anxious to see more of him, and I hope they know to keep their hands inside the rollercoaster at all times because we’re about to Go Places [tm] :)

I’d been expecting for a while that the next episode would adapt chapters 30 and 31 and end with Kazuma’s introduction, so that the last two episodes of the season can focus on the meat of the true form arc, and thankfully they just outright used Kazuma’s line from the end of chapter 31 as the title of the next episode so that spells itself out, lol.

I’ve seen some people worry that this means they might be skipping the soup chapter, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think it’d actually be really easy to cover both of those chapters in one episode. You could actually splice the events of them together pretty nicely, so that Tohru getting sick is still the main thread of the whole episode even if it ends with Kazuma showing up.

I think they could at least do some things like making the part in Chapter 31 where Kyo and Kagura go shopping together be related to Kyo cooking for Tohru while she’s sick. But we’ll see.

I know some people think that ep24 will cover the whole true form arc, and that ep25 will be chapters 35 and 36, but I don’t really feel like that’d work well. The true form arc is way too much of an emotional climax all around to not be the season finale. And chapter 35 in general would serve as a nice sort of semi-recap of the true form arc to start season 2 off with.

And in general I don’t think the series has ever adapted three whole chapters into one episode, and I don’t think they’ll start with this arc. I think it’ll be like how they adapted the Uo arc into two episodes when it was also three chapters long. Either way, I think they’d be able to pretty easily flesh it out a bit to cover two episodes, whereas it’d be difficult to condense it into just one episode without it feeling rushed. But who knows. I have faith in them one way or another.

For the time being I’m just gonna emotionally prepare myself, lmao.

#murasaki rambles #fruits basket #me @ the fact that the kyo arc starts next week: this is fine :)))))

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jdiep95 · 5 years ago

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Mariah Carey: Top 10 Remixes

In continuation of celebrating Mariah season, and “All I Want For Christmas Is You” finally becoming a #1 single, I am sharing with you my “Top” lists of MC songs every Monday and Tuesday up until the 25th. After talking about the Top 10 Most Iconic Mariah Carey songs, it’s time to move on to the Top 10 MC Remixes. Come back next Monday for the Top 10 Underrated MC Bops. All songs mentioned these lists can be found on streaming services (e.g. Spotify, Apple Music). That means deeper cuts, but fan favourites, like the “Someday (New 7” Straight)” remix, the “Never Too Far/Hero” medley, and “H.A.T.E.U.” remix ft. OJ da Juiceman, which aren’t available, aren’t included; the aforementioned remixes are, however, available on YouTube, and they definitely deserve a listen.

You’ve listened to remixes where they’ve brought in a guest rapper, something that Mariah popularized in 1995 as you’ll see below. You’ve also listened to remixes where they’ve brought in a featured singer, something that Mariah had also done in 2000, when she re-released the “Against All Odds (Take A Look at Me Now)” single with Westlife. But you’ve never heard a remix until you’ve heard a MC remix. Somehow we’ve gotten the perception that Mariah is lazy because she doesn’t perform the choreo or doesn’t sing the song — point them in this direction. Up until the 2010s, Mariah insisted doing remixes her way. She’s not just pulling in DJs, or rappers, or featured singers to do all the heavy lifting in remixes, Mariah incorporates new elements, sometimes practically changing up the genre of the song. And she re-records, sometimes new vocals, sometimes the entire track.

Is the list TL;DR? No worries. I compiled each list into a respective playlist, starting from No. 10 and ending at No. 1, so you get to listen to the Top 10 MC Remixes while on the go.

https://open.spotify.com/user/jdiep95/playlist/6UfiZPeq4yA1fq4i87CUwq?si=iHpF9-BAThW8m26GKSKyiA

10. A No No ft. Shawni

Year: 2019

“A No No” is an underrated bop off of Mariah’s most recent studio album, Caution. Caution, like many of Mariah’s comeback, is a testament that she’s still got it; however, unlike the couple of albums before it, Mariah ditches most of the post-production, and delivers one of her strongest albums. “A No No” uses a sped-up sample of Lil’ Kim’s "Crush on You”, with the original mix using excerpts of Biggie’s rap. The remix featuring Shawni drops Biggie’s rap. This isn’t the first time Mariah opted for a female rapper for the remix: In 1999 for the “Heartbreaker” remix, MC dropped Jay-Z for Da Brat and Missy Elliot. “A No No” is a feminist song about cutting off liars and cheaters, and enjoying the single life; Shawni’s contributions add to the latter, admitting: “To all my exes need to tell you that I’m sorry/That I didn’t leave you sooner/I settle for less, and that is exactly what I been getting.” This remix isn’t perfect — the melody and the structure remains the same, and Mariah only records a couple of additional inflections. The best part about this remix, that’s absent from the original mix, is the addition of a series of ascending melismatic whistles near the end. You can’t help but feel like something’s missing from the original mix, and MC lets you know it in the remix.

9. Fantasy (Bad Boy Fantasy Remix) ft. O.D.B., Sean “Puffy” Combs

Year: 1995

Why the “Bad Boy Fantasy Remix” is so iconic was already discussed in the Top 10 Most Iconic list: It introduced the featured rapper formula to pop music, and paved the road for its successors like Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” or Rihanna’s “Umbrella”, both of which features Jay-Z. The remix features rapper O.D.B., who, by the time the remix was released, had started a solo career separate from the Wu-Tang Clan. The release of the "Fantasy" remix is entrenched in racial politics. Columbia Records and Sony Music feared the inclusion of O.D.B. would jeopardize the squeaky clean, family-friendly, racially-ambiguous image they had built for Mariah. In the remix, a lot of the pop production is stripped away, leaving the bass beat as the foundation of the song; Mariah sings on top of this. "Fantasy" sampled “Genius of Love” by the Tom Tom Club, and in the remix, the sample is echoed in the bass beat. The bridge of the original mix, which also samples “Genius of Love”, became the remix’s chorus. The structure changed, and “Fantasy” itself became slinkier, less saccharine. The producer, Sean Combs, better known as P. Diddy, recalled working with O.D.B. all through the night to record the rap; O.D.B recorded sentences at a time, whenever the inspiration hit, or whenever he was awake. Regardless, Mariah’s insistence to collaborate with O.D.B, and to release the remix was an industry-changing move.

8. Honey (So So Def Remix) ft. Da Brat, Jermaine Dupri

Year: 1997

The “Fantasy” remix, despite it being iconic and timeless, was mostly work in post, especially trying to piece together O.D.B.’s individual recordings to form an actual rap. The So So Def remix of “Honey” was a completely different affair with the song reworked and re-recorded. The bass line of the original mix of “Honey” samples “The Body Rock” by the Treacherous Three, while the tinkling piano line uses a sample of “Hey DJ” by the World’s Famous Supreme Team. The So So Def Remix foregoes “The Body Rock” sample, and also samples a different excerpt from “Hey DJ”. The accompaniment itself sounds like a midi file off of a video game, but it’s actually the hook from the Jackson’s 5 “It’s Great to Be Here”, Mariah’s first time sampling a another pop song. This “Honey” remix is a novelty. As a critic, you would expect another dance remix or something that really leans into the hip-hop, and instead you receive a feat that reduces the original dance track to 8-bit music with MC’s vocals as the main attraction.

7. My All (Classic Club Remix)

Year: 1998

Have you seen Dreamgirls? In the stage performance, Effie sings “One Night Only” and it shifts immediately into the disco version sung by Deena. I imagine the remix of “My All” draws inspiration from that, especially when they chorus starts chanting, “Just one more night.” In the Classic Club Remix, MC sings on top of a dance beat but it’s a slow burn before it becomes that full on club anthem. The remix isn’t completely re-recorded; it’s her original recording that’s fixed on top of the dance track produced by David Morales, but it’s the last five minutes that she adds on new elements, and finishes out with new vocals, a solo for the latin guitars, and a chorus. Sam Smith might be able to sing any dance song as a ballad, but Mariah is the master of rewriting any torch song into an upbeat track. Try not dancing when Mariah starts going off with the “Feel your body”’s.

6. Through the Rain ft. Kelly Price, Joe

Year: 2002

“Through the Rain” is Mariah’s first comeback single. It hails from Charmbracelet, Mariah’s comeback album after the entire Glitter fiasco. It’s Mariah’s first leading single that failed to crack the Top 5, even “Loverboy” off of Glitter peaked at #2. The inspirational track, which encourages the audience that they will “Make it through the rain”, stalled at #81. The original mix is a slow R&B ballad, one that even I rarely listen to since I almost always opt for the live version she performed at MTV Presents. The remix is more upbeat as a result of changes lyrically and melodically, and by infusing gospel elements, there’s more of a sense of hope than in the original mix. “Through the Rain” didn’t chart well, so why does this remix rank so high among the other remixes? A decade and a half before Kanye decided to bring everyone to church, Mariah brought her listeners to church instead of the club with this remix. For a remix, the sound was new and gutsy, especially for a song that didn’t fair too well, granted she did also release a dance remix. With the remix, MC proved that a song didn’t have to be wildly popular for her to breath new life into it.

5. Unforgettable (Acoustic) ft. Mariah Carey, Swae Lee

Year: 2017

You might be quick to catch that "Unforgettable” is actually a French Montana song, but you might be less familiar with this Mariah Carey remix. The inclusion of MC on this track, and the decision to replace the track with a guitar makes it sound more like a R&B-inspired country song with a rap section than it does dancehall; nonetheless, the remix is incredibly cross-genre. Chances are French Montana didn’t re-record his lines, which is standard, but then some very stylistic choices were made that makes the remix sound like a Mariah duet rather than a MC-guest appearance. These decisions, however, may not exactly be MC-mandated, so let’s talk about two things that were within her control: (1) MC sings throughout the entire track. She doesn’t appear for just one verse then disappears; she injects herself throughout the song by harmonizing with French Montana. (2) MC brings her whistle notes. MC fans stan Mariah’s whistle notes for one very good reason: Mariah uses them with much musicality. It’s less of a garnish where MC goes, “Hey, look, I did that!” because we know she can do those whistle notes. In the “Unforgettable” remix, MC uses her whistles as a base, a broth if you may; in this way, her high notes are instrumental, and she strings them together in a series of legato to create the backing track for which French and her sings on. Mariah’s contribution to this song really makes it ever more unforgettable.

4. We Belong Together ft. Jadakiss, Styles P

Year: 2005

Kelefa Sanneh, a former music music critic for The New York Times, called the “We Belong Together” remix “springier”; I had to quote him because there’s no better way of putting it. The original mix is tear-jerking, but the remix has a bounce to it that captures the hip-hop vibe that MC was looking for. The remix gets pretty close to demonstrating what a perfect balance looks like, and inevitably Mariah sometimes misses the mark — remixes sometimes reduce Mariah to the featured artist, despite it being a Mariah song. She sings along while Jadakiss and Styles P trade lines, emphasizing certain phrases. The remix continues to sample Bobby Womack’s “If You Think You’re Lonely Now”, and uses a longer lyric sample from “Two Occasions” by The Deele. On this list, we’ve seen MC skillfully use instrumental samples, but she is masterful in picking lyrical samples as well. The “Two Occasions" sample, “I only think of you on two occasions/That’s day and night”, contributes to the message of yearning in “We Belong Together”, making it fit perfectly with the mood and the scheme of the song. MC finishes the remix in a way only she could, by showcasing a series of vocal acrobats for the last minute-and-a-half of the song.

3. Always Be My Baby (Mr. Dupri Mix) ft. Da Brat, Xscape

Year: 1996

I know diehard fans prefer Mariah’s Butterfly era, where you had songs like “Honey” and “My All”, but my favourite would still have to be the Daydream era, when MC decided to gift the world with “Fantasy” and “Always Be My Baby”. The Daydream era featured prime Mariah vocals, amazing album cuts, and two of Mariah’s coolest remixes to date. Both the “Fantasy” and “Always Be My Baby” remixes are timeless; the former is so stripped down, but it is the latter that we really need to talk about. It’s timeless in such a sophisticated way that’s so rarely seen in pop music. Don’t agree? But Mariah seems to agree. In the Caution World Tour, Mariah’s most recent tour, she performed this remix instead, when “Always Be My Baby” had almost always been performed unaltered in the original mix. The foundation of the Mr. Dupri Mix samples “Tell Me If You Still Care” by the SOS Band, a slow jam itself which gives the remix its sleek, quiet storm sound that was so popular in the 1980s. MC is an understated music genius: She takes a page from TLC, who had just released their critically-acclaimed hip-hop album CrazySexyCool the year before, by recruiting a female rapper, Da Brat for the remix; this marks the first time MC collaborated with a female rapper. And the rap practically merges with the track; it’s neither out of place nor distracting as Mariah riffs while Da Brat raps. She also melds two supposedly conflicting genres, since younger Black audiences had shifted their attention from quiet storm to hip hop since the beginning of the ‘90s. Whereas the “Fantasy” remix had almost no re-recorded vocals, the “Always Be My Baby” remix received an almost complete makeover, save the melody. Mariah really thins out her voice for the remix and introduces her airy whisper, something she’ll really master in her subsequent albums, which gives a new feeling to the happy-go-lucky vibe on the original mix. The remix is more mature, reflecting Mariah’s real-life desire to bridge pop, R&B and hip-hop.

2. All I Want For Christmas Is You (So So Def Remix)

Year: 2000

As we’ve seen in the Top 10 Most Iconic list, Mariah has released several versions of “All I Want For Christmas Is You”. Certainly, the original mix reigns supreme, but the So So Def Remix comes awfully close, and I will argue that none of MC’s other versions or any other cover of this song, ballad, acoustic or otherwise, comes close to this remix. You might have heard the disconnected intro and skipped the rest of the song, which meant you missed Mariah and producer Jermaine Dupri reworking the song in ways no one else can. The So So Def Remix is an extremely smooth R&B and hip-hop remix, and although this is nothing out of the ordinary for MC, it’s such a smart remix because it’s a Christmas song for anyone who’s tired of listening to Christmas songs; essentially it’s an escape from the original mix. This remix has as much spring as the “We Belong Together” remix, but this bounce is a result of sampling “Planet Rock” by Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force. The whistle notes that are seen in the main melody of later versions derives from this remix, and arguably, the whistle notes in the remix’s successors are nowhere as melismatic. You can’t beat a Mariah original, but you also can’t beat a Mariah remix.

1. Anytime You Need A Friend (C&C Club Version)

Year: 1994

“Anytime You Need A Friend” is a deeper cut itself off of Mariah's best selling album Music Box. It’s Mariah’s first US single not to enter the Top 10, peaking at #12. It’s equal parts a love song and a song of encouragement, especially the remix. The original mix of “Anytime You Need A Friend” is a slow ballad, at least “My All” had something sexy about it, so you wouldn’t except Mariah, and producers David Cole and Robert Clivillés to be able to work it into a dance track so well. But without a doubt, it is definitively Mariah’s best remix. The 10 minute song is essentially an abridged version of Mariah’s résumé; you get a glimpse at everything from Mariah’s vocal talents to her songwriting abilities to her musicality. “Anytime You Need A Friend” is a torch song that’s been repackaged with a pounding dance beat. Even if it's from 1994, there’s a certain timelessness to it. Another great thing about most of MC’s remixes is that it doesn’t cut the song short; in the C&C Club Version, the entire song is there. Mariah reworks the part of the original melody, but it’s the last six minutes of the remix, when Mariah goes off, where you can really observe how well she knows music. Can you write this down on sheet music? Or was it improv? To me, the last six minutes was literally a playground for MC to do her thing, whatever she wants. There’s no guest singer or featured rapper, just Mariah. But then this allows her to do something she’s almost never done before or since. At the eight minute mark, the remix enters a jazz breakdown, and Mariah scats, dipping into her lows, belting, and hitting those whistle notes. Simply, this remix is remarkable and breathtaking.

Timelessness is the key word here with MC’s remixes. You may think that the incorporation of samples would date these remixes significantly, but personally it does it complete opposite. Mariah’s remixes transcends eras because of the use of samples. Not only are her remixes cross-genre, they’re also cross-generational. Mariah doesn’t just push out remixes and waits to capitalize on them. If you’re looking for a place to find Mariah’s artistry, look no further than her remixes. She adds new elements and new life to the songs, rewrites them, reworks them, re-records them. Who’s done this recently? In the last twenty years, which artist has consistently given their remixes this kind of treatment?

#mariah carey #all i want for christmas is you #merry christmas #spotify #song list #playlist #remixes

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crehador · 9 months ago

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brother crab's winter 2024 parting thoughts: ishura s1

tl;dr was originally meh on this for reasons that really aren't fair, ultimately wound up enjoying it well enough to pick up s2, but wouldn't necessarily recommend (especially if you'll be bothered by the fact that it's Very slow)

full review:

you know what i think for the first half of the season i really didn't give this show a fair shake. based on a skim of its summary and the fact that it had the battle royale tag, i went in thinking it would be structurally similar to shuumatsu no valkyrie (which i'd recently binged and enjoyed immensely)

and that sort of battle royale, a tournament between a roster of op heroes, does seem to be coming up. but unlike snv, ishura doesn't dump us straight into the tournament. there's a whole lot of buildup to it, in fact...

the whole first season is buildup for the tournament to choose a hero, which isn't necessarily a bad thing! just isn't what i expected, so i was a bit on the fence for a while

ultimately though i think i did enjoy this series. it's heavy on the action (and gore) but most of the fight scenes are pretty banging, and the cast is full of fairly interesting characters (many of whom are not long-lived lmao)

some of the characters are so cool, in fact, that it feels like a shame to not get more time with them. the pacing didn't feel bad or anything, but it's a very, for lack of a better word, scattered series. not in a negative way, though, because the relatively huge cast provides a wider look at the world. it's just a lot of build-up and so far not much payoff (but clearly it's the start of a longer thing, so i guess to me that's fine)

the worldbuilding to me is by far the strongest point of the series, even stronger than the action sequences. there are some elements of it that i really love, like the naming conventions ("taren the guarded" "dakai the magpie" "alus the star runner" and so on, instead of family surnames) and the word arts magic

the (fairly early) reveal that not only humans and wyverns but even these... constructs? that seemed like mechanical golems? could use this word arts magic was fantastic to me, and i hope we get to see more interesting things of that nature as we continue

ishura has had a second season announced and even though i was a bit lukewarm on it for half this season, i do think i'll continue. if only because the cast is absurdly stacked and i go where my favorite voice actors go lol

i would still say it isn't exactly exceptional as a fantasy action series, but does do some interesting things with worldbuilding that i don't think i've seen much of before (but i also haven't watched fantasy extensively yet, so don't have too much to compare)

dakai my beloved freak i miss u already umu it was such a trip hearing hoshi souichirou voice a character like dakai though lol i mean i'm sure he's done many before but i more associate him with darling momo revale (and more recently saiyuki swk) so this was. new. and a treat

#crab watches #winter 2024 #parting thoughts #ishura #GOD i'm going to miss taren and dakai #i fucking loved them like. i know. lame to fixate on two humans when there are SO many more interesting character deisngs #but they are SO my thing #woman in uniform who's declared herself the new demon king #and her funky little barefoot boytoy sidearm #could watch a whole series with them tbh #another worldbuilding aspect i'm really fascinated by is like... not just the fact that there are ''visitors'' from other worlds #but i guess how they're regarded?#because like soujirou might end up the mc #as much as this series can have an mc (it's very ensemble cast for now)#but dakai is already out #and they're the two we've met who have been isekai'd into this world #and so far they're not... REALLY the focal point?#i'm rambling now but i guess what i'm trying to say is it's interesting and refreshing that there are like #isekai elements in this series but isekai ISN'T the main factor #and the people who were isekai'd aren't necessarily the main players #(well soujirou certainly is but anyway)#it's just kind of neat how isekai is used more as like flavoring instead of the main ingredient here #really enjoy that

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who-i-swim-for · 6 years ago

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Free! Ships: My Take

So, seeing as how Free! has so many characters, it makes sense that there’d be a good handful of ships that come out of it. I’m here to talk about them. I’ve done this before on my Bleach blog, but unlike in that post, I’m actually going to be talking about all of them in this one. I’ll also let you know if I ship that particular pair or not, because that’s what this post is about. I kind of just want to gush about all the different dynamics in the show, so I’m gonna do that here. I won’t talk about every possible ship that’s out there because that would take forever, but I’ll talk about quite a few. There’s probably gonna be spoilers for everything up until the most recent episode of Free!: Dive to the Future.

I’ll put the TL;DR version in bold. P.S. sorry for using the same pictures as my previous post, but I don’t have the motivation to look for more.

Makoto and Haru (MakoHaru)

I think this is the most popular ship within the fanbase statistically, right? It makes sense-- Makoto and Haru have the deepest and longest relationship in the show. I think it’s also the strongest relationship, especially now that they’ve moved on to college. There’s something very tender and touching about their interactions with each other. We know that Makoto looks after Haru and has been for years and that Haru would defend and protect Makoto to the ends of the Earth. It’s not a stretch to imagine them as more than friends.

Personally, I don’t ship them as I enjoy watching such a whole and caring friendship, though I don’t fault anyone for seeing more there. I sort of believe that maybe Makoto had more serious feelings at one point in time, but probably not anymore. Though, mostly, I just believe that he’s really amazing friend. They may actually be my favorite relationship on this list, regardless of who I ship.

Rin and Haru (RinHaru)

This would be the second most popular ship in the fanbase. I’ve heard it said that this anime starts and ends with Rin and Haru, and I pretty much agree with that statement. After all, Haru’s character essentially centered around Rin from the time he met him in grade school to the time they reconciled at the end of season one. It’s the same for Rin. Even now, one of Rin’s primary reasons for swimming competitively is because he wants to keep swimming with Haru.

RinHaru is the only ship I seriously ship in the series. By that, I mean that it’s the only pair that I really do want to see get together in the anime. Whether that happens or not... well, it probably isn’t likely, but nonetheless, I do want it to happen. They’re so passionate about each other, and nothing drives them more than the image of swimming next to each other for as long as they possibly can. I don’t know, I always think of hopeful things when I think of these two.

Nagisa and Rei (Reigisa)

I have a weird opinion on this ship, I think, but I’ll get to that later. This ship also makes a lot of sense since it was Nagisa who brought Rei into the world of swimming. Other than that, though, they have developed a pretty strong relationship. It’s similar to Makoto and Haru’s, in my opinion, though Rei doesn’t act as as much of mother hen to Nagisa as Makoto does to Haru. They both really care about each other, as can be seen in each of their little storylines during Eternal Summer. Nagisa seemed to be the most hurt that Rei was lying about his whereabouts, and Rei seemed to be the most worried about Nagisa running away from home. I think that their emotions are typically pretty in tune, which is why they make such a good pair.

Here’s the thing, I don’t ship them in the same way that I ship RinHaru, but I totally believe that they’re close enough to be a thing. I mean, if they did get together in the anime, I’d be totally fine with it because I’d be like, “Well, yeah, obviously.” You know? It’s a really weird view on it, I understand, but that’s what I think.

Sousuke and Rin (SouRin)

This is another fairly popular pairing, I’d assume. Sousuke is Rin’s oldest friend, so I see the appeal of shipping them together since they have so much history. The concern they have for the each other’s well-being and success is pretty incredible. Sousuke clearly wants, more than anything, for Rin to stand on the international stage and fulfill his dream, and Rin really wants Sousuke to recover from his injury so that he can stand on that stage with him as soon as possible. I think the amount of support these two give each other is equal to the support that Makoto and Haru give to each other, but Sousuke and Rin are so intense and passionate about it.

Speaking of Makoto and Haru, I feel the same way about Sousuke and Rin as I do about them. There’s a really resilient friendship between these two that I love. Watching Rin say he wants to swim with Sousuke again one day or seeing Sousuke really happy just because Rin is happy is beautiful to me. All that being said, I can agree with the opinion that Sousuke does have more serious feelings for Rin. I think that could go either way. Bottom line is that Rin and Sousuke’s relationship is one of the best in the series for sure.

Makoto and Sousuke (SouMako)

I did not understand this ship at all until I watched the Eternal Summer special (which is where basically all their interactions take place). I can’t make a big speech about their deep relationship because they don’t have one, but they are really entertaining together. I think it’s because Sousuke and Haru are so similar that Makoto hanging out with Sousuke seems really natural. We don’t see Sousuke consistently being friendly and getting along with many people besides Rin, but since Makoto is so sweet and disarming, it makes a lot of sense that Sousuke likes him. Plus, Makoto was really worried about Sousuke when he found out about his shoulder and looked like he might cry out of joy when Rin told him that Sousuke’s surgery was a success.

I don’t ship them seriously, but I do ship them. I like the image of them together, though I can’t really say if that’s a romantic thing or not. Maybe they’re a BROtp to me, I don’t know. Either way, I’d sign on for more interactions between these two. At the very least, I can see them chatting once in a while when they get tired of fretting over Rin and Haru.

Hiyori and Ikuya (HiyoIku)

Ooo, a recent ship! These two met early on in their lives, separated, and met again years later in high school, though Hiyori seemed to be the only one to remember their initial encounter until recently. Something about that is magical to think about, in my opinion. Hiyori is very much the protector in this relationship as he’s been watching out for Ikuya for a long time. It’s clear that Hiyori wants the best for Ikuya, similar to the way that Sousuke feels about Rin. In Dive to the Future, we can see that Ikuya being in pain puts Hiyori in pain as well. Ikuya values his relationship with Hiyori quite a bit, especially lately. We don’t have much information on these two, but I assume we’re going to start seeing something close to Makoto and Haru in the future because that’s sort of what we’ve been getting so far.

I didn’t actively ship them until their fight. During that fight, I actually really did think that their relationship was about to take a romantic direction, or at least that Hiyori was going to confess those types of feelings to Ikuya. I do want them to end up together, though I can’t really say that I ship them seriously like RinHaru. That’s probably because I still think that it might actually happen at one point or another, so I don’t need to ship it seriously. My brain is weird. Whatever the reason, I do ship them, and I can very easily see a romantic future between them.

Makoto and Gou (MakoGou)

I think the idea with this ship is being able to pair off all the Iwatobi boys with someone, but if you ship RinHaru and Reigisa, where does Makoto go? Gou. Or, I guess there’s always the MakoHaruRin ship, but... we’re getting off track. Makoto and Gou do have a bit of a relationship since she’s the manager and he was the captain of the swim club, so they talked frequently. They’re also both very nice people, so all of their interactions were positive ones. Gou seems to worry about Makoto like she worries about all of the boys, and Makoto seems to respect Gou quite a bit. Whether that’s because he’s a big brother, and he sees Gou as Rin’s little sister or if it’s something more is up for debate.

I don’t really think that I ship them, but they would be super cute together. Maybe I ship them a little. I can’t come up with a conclusive decision on this. Like, I could see that once the anime ends, they flash forward and Gou and Makoto are together. You know? Makoto is definitely the only dude that Rin would willingly let Gou date, at least.

Momo and Gou (MomoGou)

While we’re on Gou ships, let’s talk about this one. Momo tries really hard, doesn’t he? Every time he sees her, he’s right there, trying to get her attention and affection. It’s kind of cute, too. He seems to be making some kind of progress, right? I mean, she remembers his name now.

I do ship them in a I-really-want-Momo’s-efforts-to-pay-off kind of way. I don’t know that Gou will ever recognize those efforts as she seems kind of oblivious to that stuff, but it’d be nice.

Mikoshiba and Gou (SeiGou)

These two are pretty much the exact same as Momo and Gou. Mikoshiba has tried to ask Gou out multiple times, but Rin is very protective of her so it never happened. Gou seems to like Mikoshiba well enough, even though she’s oblivious of his advances as well as Momo’s.

I don’t really ship them, though they certainly would look like a power couple. Their interactions are pretty funny, at least, so it’s never boring when they’re together. I don’t really think Mikoshiba is the most appropriate person to be with Gou, though. They’re probably better as they are.

Sousuke and Gou (SouGou)

Okay, last Gou ship. Well, their ship name rhymes with itself, so that’s cute. These two have known each other as long as Rin and Sousuke have, so they have a similar amount of history, and I think it’s inferred that they also went to middle school together. I think the general consensus is that Sousuke sees Gou as his sister, and I think it’s clear that Gou really likes Sousuke as she worries over him almost as much as she does with Rin.

I do ship these two quite a bit. I think, should they get together, it would be a really sweet relationship. Sousuke does really care about Gou and vise versa, and I can interpret that to be romantic very easily. I don’t think either of them would actively make a move, at least not right now, but I think that they both have very sweet gestures toward the other. More so on Sousuke’s side than Gou’s, but you know.

Asahi and Kisumi (AsaKisu)

Kisumi seems to know just about everyone, so it makes sense that he’s got a ship with a lot of characters. However, I think that Asahi might be the one that he’s the most overall interactions with, especially now that Kisumi seems to spend a lot of time with Asahi at Asahi’s family restaurant. Asahi was initially annoyed by Kisumi in the beginning, but I think now they have a pretty good relationship. They both probably care about one another, though we don’t have many lengthy scenes with just the two of them to go off of.

Do I ship them? No, I don’t think so, I think I just enjoy them being together because their personalities are cute. Kisumi teasing Asahi and Asahi getting annoyed is adorable. Adorable pretty much describes their entire relationship, actually.

Ikuya and Asahi (AsaIku)

These two have a bit more of a basis than AsaKisu. They tease each other a lot... or rather, Ikuya teases Asahi a lot. Asahi seems to care about Ikuya a lot, despite how annoyed he gets because of him. In middle school, Asahi was the person that got the most worked up about Ikuya’s glum attitude, and in college, Asahi worried over Ikuya quite a bit. Similarly, Ikuya looks like he values his friendship with Asahi, which can be seen both in Starting Days and Dive to the Future.

I like their friendship a lot, though I don’t really ship them. The quiet concern they seem to show toward each other is lovely, and I enjoy seeing it as well as their other interactions. I do hope to see more of them together in the future.

Haru and Ikuya (IkuHaru)

The reasoning behind this ship is probably similar to RinHaru. Ikuya and Rin each have similar histories with Haru, so if it’s easy to ship one, it’s probably easy to ship the other. I don’t think Haru and Ikuya have quite the same amount depth in their relationship when compared to Rin and Haru, but they do care about each other very much. Haru inspired Ikuya’s swimming, and you could even say that Haru’s influence is the reason that Ikuya is such a strong swimmer currently. On Haru’s end, he ended up swimming the other three strokes in a tournament just so that he could swim with Ikuya and keep his promise to him. So, clearly there is a lot of emotion between them as well as history.

I think the relationship between Ikuya and Haru is something special. Although I don’t romantically ship them, I do think that they have strong feelings for one another. They both took measures to swim with each other again, and that’s pretty awesome. That seems to be the theme of this anime, actually, but I just love the raw emotion with Ikuya and Haru.

Kisumi and Makoto (KisuMako)

These two are just a couple handfuls of sunshine. They hang out a lot, especially now that they’re in college, which might be because neither Makoto nor Kisumi swim, so it might be nice for Makoto to have a friend like that. I think one of the bigger things to note about their relationship is that Kisumi seems to trust Makoto quite a bit since he entrusted Makoto to take care of his brother Hayato.

I can see them being super adorable together, but I probably wouldn’t say that I ship them. I definitely see the appeal, though. They’re both very positive people, and I would assume that they can confide in each other about many things. I don’t know, I really like seeing them together, at least.

Natsuya and Nao (Natsunao)

I feel like we know a lot about the nature of the relationship between these two without having much actual content on it. Nao looks to be the only person that can tame Natsuya’s wild side, and he’s also the only person that Natsuya can really talk to and go to for advice. Natsuya has also been shown to have a large amount of trust in Nao as he let Nao manage Makoto, Haru, Asahi, and Ikuya in middle school. Nao seemed to have a lot of faith in Natsuya’s abilities as a captain as well. Natsuya was also very sad that Nao got sick, presumably because that meant that he wouldn’t get to swim with Nao again. There’s a lot of love and trust that runs between Nao and Natsuya.

I feel the same about these two as I do about Makoto and Haru or Rin and Sousuke. I see their relationship as a really strong, unwavering friendship, and I enjoy it a lot. There’s probably a lot of history there that will hopefully be uncovered in the future. Nao and Natsuya have enormous potential as a pair in the anime, and I hope they’re used more in the future.

Natsuya and Rin (NatsuRin)

This ship interests me, thus I’m putting it in this post. So, this is a very fresh ship since Rin and Natsuya didn’t even know each other until Dive to the Future, though they did see each other in Take Your Marks. Rin seemed to like Natsuya, though he probably found him a little strange at first. They end up having dinner together quite a bit while Natsuya is in Australia. Natsuya confided in Rin a little bit about Ikuya, and Rin told Natsuya vaguely about Haru and Sousuke (that he wanted to swim with them again). Rin also seems to have seen some of himself in Natsuya. Natsuya’s personality made most of their interactions seem like banter to me which was cool to watch. Rin and Natsuya meeting was a nice way to tie Rin into the Iwatobi Junior High School set of characters, even if only a little.

I don’t ship them, but I do enjoy the fact that they met separate from Haru, Makoto, and everyone else that they have in common. It would be cool to see them reunite in Japan. Maybe that’ll happen soon.

Rin and Makoto (MakoRin)

They sort of play Mom and Dad to Haru a lot, don’t they? Rin and Makoto do most likely bond over Haru more than anything, but they do care about each other as well. Makoto was concerned about Rin quite a bit in season one, and Rin really wanted Makoto to find a path he wanted to take after high school. Makoto has also confided in Rin, and vise versa. It seems like they reminisce about their past together as well. I think they probably talk more now that Rin lives in Australia, so that’s nice.

They work really well together, in my opinion, but I don’t ship them. I do think they have a very mature and comfortable relationship, though. Rin and Makoto seem to always be at ease around each other, and that must be nice to have. I’m glad that they’re getting more interactions now than they were before, especially ones that don’t revolve around Haru. Though, I’m sure they’ll always fret over their little problem child.

Asahi and Rei (AsaRei)

I’m not sure if people ship these two so much, but I know that people really enjoyed their interactions in middle school and the little Easter Egg in the first and third Free! movies where Asahi walked by Rei. You can’t really say that they have a relationship, but the simple fact these two interacted is pretty cool. It’s sort of like the NatsuRin ship in a way because it was assumed that Rei had no connection to any of the characters until high school, but then boom, he’s met Asahi. Rei seemed taken aback by Asahi initially, but he obviously remembered him because when Asahi walked behind him in the movie, Rei recognized the story he was telling-- that some kid with glasses recommended some books to him in middle school. Asahi also seemed grateful to Rei for doing that for him. Rei also seemed to somewhat recognize Asahi’s voice when he passed him in Take Your Marks. Asahi mentioned that you shouldn’t give up as long as the possibility isn’t zero, and that inspired Rei, which more or less returned Rei’s favor to Asahi from middle school.

I don’t seriously ship them, but I think I do ship them. Maybe I BROtp ship them. I just really want them to meet again and be friends. It’s a cool little bit of history they share, kind of like Hiyori and Ikuya’s first meeting. I think it’d be nice to see them together again.

Rin and Rei (RinRei)

This is a classic enemies-to-friends ship. In the beginning, Rei was very interested in Rin because of his history with the rest of the Iwatobi SC, and he eventually became very grateful to Rin for teaching him how to swim. Rin respects and admires Rei a lot for his commitment to swimming. They seem to get along pretty well, probably because of their desires to become the best in their swimming specialties. Beyond that, their personalities seem to mesh well, similar to Makoto and Rin’s.

Ship them, I do not, but their interactions are always welcome. I think it’s cool that Rin got to be a part of Nagisa, Makoto, and Haru’s lives early on and Rei got to be a part of them in high school. That may also be another reason why they get along, but whatever it is, I really enjoy when they talk.

Haru and Sousuke (SouHaru)

To be honest, I’m surprised more people don’t ship these two. Not only because they’re an enemies-to-frenemies ship, but because they’re ship is the exact same as Rin and Makoto’s. Haru is the middle man between Rin and Makoto, and the MakoRin ship basically says forget Haru, just give us these two. It’s the same with Sousuke and Haru, except Rin is the middle man. I think the biggest thing that exists between these two is respect, especially currently. Sousuke acknowledges Haru’s abilities and respects them while Haru respects Sousuke’s. Haru also respected Sousuke’s wish to swim in the relay at regionals and vowed to give it everything he had so Sousuke’s wish wouldn’t go to waste. I assume Sosuke also respected Haru’s decision to swim competitively.

I don’t ship them seriously, but the ship itself does interest me. At least, I’m interested in seeing more interactions between these two. I think their dynamic is something totally different and isn’t really seen with any other characters in the anime, so it’d be nice to see more of it. The Eternal Summer Special wasn’t enough.

Albert and Haru (AlHaru)

Sorry for the awful ship name, I didn’t know what else to call it. So, I saw some interest in this ship and decided to add it in. I said that I wasn’t sure how to talk about it besides “it was kawaii and then not so kawaii,” but I’m gonna try. Albert and Haru met recently in Dive to the Future. Albert looked like a cinnamon roll foreigner, so Haru helped him order lunch; there’s also a super cute moment when Haru notices that Albert doesn’t know how to use chopsticks and goes to get him some silverware, although, by the time he gets back Albert has figured it out and is totally fine. Albert then proceeds to race Haru and basically crushes him since Albert is the world record holder in the 100m and 200m free.

I don’t ship them, but they are exceedingly adorable together... or at least they were. You don’t see Haru being kind to random people that often, so it was sweet. I also enjoyed the fact that Haru had a full on conversation with Albert while Albert spoke English and Haru spoke Japanese. It was pretty funny considering Haru had such a difficult time in Australia. Anime logic. I don’t know how to sum this up, but I will say that I want to see them together again outside of competition. That being said, I do also love the fact that Albert makes Haru super competitive and motivated. This ship, like many of the others on this list, interests me a lot. If Albert the cinnamon roll can make Haru act like a cinnamon roll, then give me all the Albert and Haru you’ve got. I’m ready.

Rin and Ikuya (IkuRin)

This ship, for all intents and purposes, doesn’t exist. I’m basically making it up right now because I anticipate that there will be some interest in it as soon as Rin and Ikuya meet. There’s a lot of similarities between these two, and that will most likely be the reason that people will ship them. Both of them admired Haru’s swimming, and both of them had a falling out with Haru that was only solved once they swam with each other again. Both Ikuya and Rin want to stand on the international stage, as well. As of now, Rin has been warned by Sousuke about Ikuya’s swimming-- essentially telling Rin that Ikuya swims like Haru and will be formidable opponent. Also as of now, Ikuya has heard quite a bit about Rin, and even seemed a little jealous of his strong relationship and rivalry with Haru.

I’m not going to ship them seriously, but I am still so down for this ship because I want to see them interact so badly. My prediction is that Rin is going to accept Ikuya readily, though he’ll be wary of him as a competitor, and Ikuya will have a difficult time being friends with Rin because of his slight jealousy of him, similar to how Rei felt about Rin. I’m so ready for them to meet. Give it to me.

Well, did you make it? I know this was a lot, or at least, it feels like it. Let me know what you think of the ships I mentioned and if you ship anyone else in this series. What do you think of Ikuya and Rin? Will they be fast friends or wary rivals? Who do you ship seriously? Do you have any NOTPs? Tell me it all! Thank you for reading and see you soon!

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theoldgods · 6 years ago

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A Discovery of Witches is a silly, frothy show based on a silly, frothy book, for both good and bad, and it’s fascinating to watch as a case study in adaptation.

It’s visually quite gorgeous--the production design and cinematography, as well as the use of the scenery of Oxford, Venice, and France, are overall great, quite possibly the strongest aspect of the show. The sparkling, slightly swoony (in love, in fear) atmospheres they set go a long way toward paving over the myriad sins inherent to the story. The acting is reliably good to great, doing the best possible with the material given, though I am not such a fan of Teresa Palmer, whose sometimes wooden/awkward deliveries are often usptaged by far more experienced and naturalistic actors (Alex Kingston, Valarie Pettiford, Owen Teale, and Lindsay Duncan, most notably) in their scenes together. (I think half of Palmer’s problem is trying to maintain an American accent; I suspect if she didn’t have to do that, her vocal delivery would be that much better, and I do like some of her physicality and her general look as Diana.) Palmer also does have good chemistry with Goode, which is key to any romance and which helps to sell the show and their super rushed relationship as much as possible.

[more post-rewatch TL;DR and spoilers under the cut]

In many ways the show is an improvement over the books. Matthew is far, far less abusive in the show than in the books--there’s no presumptively ordering Miriam to guard over Diana (a creature he barely even knows!) in the Bodleian, just for starters, and most of his outrageously possessive and controlling moments are washed away or severely toned down. (Even their big fight at the end of episode 4 when he temporarily leaves her involves far less horrifically controlling and taunting physical behavior from Matthew; really the only time we see him being knowingly, physically menacing to Diana is during the dinner scene in episode 3, which is much pared down from any of the myriad instances of him doing this in the book.) Diana emerges as someone with much more chutzpah from the get-go, as opposed to a clueless-about-her-own-world special chosen one with barely more impetus than a dishrag who goes wherever Matthew tells her to go and has to grow (mostly in books 2 and 3) into any semblance of agency at all. She’s still an adult Chosen One (™), but she’s somewhat less...naive about the world, somehow? It makes their fraught relationship easier to handle, for me, with a little less fetishized power imbalance than in the book. (Their relationship has never been my favorite part of the books, honestly--the reason I’ve read them multiple times now is all because of the side characters, Harkness’s conception of witchcraft and weavers, and a bit of Diana’s character development.) I also almost forgot while watching about the entire LET’S TALK ABOUT GENETICS AND HOW YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE MAGIC JESUS BABIES TO RESTORE MAGIC TO THE WORLD! subplot that takes up the last quarter of the book, and although it’s crucial and will end up being seeded into the show somehow, I’m sure, I’m glad that so far the “let’s have baaaaaabiessss”-ness is absent.

The quality of storytelling is also much more even in the show. The book, told strictly from Diana’s POV, has a terrible habit of throwing entire subplots and characters at her and Matthew out of nowhere (the most egregious of which is possibly Sophie and Nathaniel just randomly showing up unforeshadowed out of nowhere and magically dropping plot solutions at Diana’s feet at the Madison house with ~5 chapters to go), while the show seeds these side stories in much earlier and gives us a much fuller and more coherent vision of this world much earlier than the books do. (Seeing the intravampire and intradaemon politicking, and bringing up more directly how daemons are basically third-class citizens in this world, is also appreciated, even if the casual viewer will leave the series with no real sense of wtf a daemon can do, a problem that, to be fair, is hardly better addressed in the books.) Harkness has a tendency to show multiple versions of the same thing (multiple dinners, multiple horse rides at Sept-Tours, etc.), as if she’s stalling for time while waiting for Plot Inspiration to strike her again, and those have been effectively compressed and the timeline in general streamlined. And although there’s still a decent amount of telling and not showing and cringy on-the-nose dialogue in the show, the show does use visual storytelling to quite efficiently cut down on the worst of Harkness’s waffling about furniture or wine or long asides about Diana’s family, mostly for the better, and the infamous yoga subplot has been mercifully killed.

That said, the show still suffers from some of the inherent limitations of its source material: a magically fast instalove, awkward at times pacing (mostly re: the love story), and an extremely side-eye-worthy treatment of a black character (Juliette is given more backstory in the show, but I’m not sure it helps to further develop her via lots of onscreen torture only to unceremoniously kill her off in about 2 minutes at the start of an episode, all for the glory of a white protagonist), to name three I can think of off the top of my head. It also has a couple scenes that aren’t as powerful as they are in the books: the witchwater mostly looks like cheesy music video drama-rain as opposed to a real cataclysm that threatens to actually kill Diana, as it is in the book, and the entire confrontation with Juliette is rushed, their vision of the goddess as a giant-ass light like in a made-for-TV biblical movie incredibly cheesy in a bad way. Harkness, for all her mediocrity with a lot of her prose, is indeed imaginative (her main fault as a writer is that her line-by-line prose skill just does not match her ambition and her sense of character- and worldbuilding); she does have a fairly good sense for what makes epic show-stopping moments suitably rich and emotionally moving when they need to be, and the clipped pace of the show shortchanges her there with some of these moments.

All that said, I’ve obviously gotten something out of this series over the past year, and I actually find this to be a fascinating case study for exploring book-to-television adaptation, given the mediocrity of the book in question. I’ll be curious as to how they handle the much more plot-unwieldy second book, especially if the second season stays only 8 episodes--if that’s the case, a lot will have to be streamlined, especially if they also want to keep the show’s broader focus and not simply cut away from everyone in the present for 80+% of the season, and I so far think they may be able to do that pretty well.

We’ll see!

#all souls trilogy #a discovery of witches #deborah harkness

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lena--beana · 6 years ago

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Now that Simon’s in Smash, I’m personally invested in Castlevania. But should I watch the anime? Should I play the game/games that it’s based off of first? Thanks for your time!

Thanks for asking! First off it’s important you know that if you want to play the Castlevania games, they’re all pretty hard your first time playing each of them. It’s not like some impossible challenge that only the strongest could ever finish but they will all will beat you up a little. Also I fucking love the series so I’m going to just say a bunch of shit all at once and I really hope I don’t overwhelm you :’D

For real tho, I’ve played every game 100% (or 200% or 1000%, they count completion differently in each game) and I’ve almost never had a bad time. The 2017 anime on Netflix is superb and you absolutely can go in knowing nothing about the series and still have a good two hours, but that experience is enriched so so much if you’ve first played the games it’s based on. Also the anime actually follows Simon’s great-great-great-grandfather Trevor Belmont and his companions, but you will love them just as much as any other main character in the series. The anime is heavily based on Castlevania III for the NES, with little nods to Symphony of the Night for PS1 and it looks like Curse of Darkness for PS2 from what I’ve seen in the season 2 trailer.

The anime also has most story out of the whole series honestly. Like there is a really good story running through every game in the series, but don’t play the games for just the story. It’s a good story, don’t get me wrong, there’s just not much of it! Like there’s about a 30:1 gameplay-to-cutscene ratio constant across all the games. That being said each game is relatively short, taking between 3-20 hours on your first playthrough depending on whether it was released before or after Symphony of the Night.

As far as actually playing them though!! Castlevania 1 is the best starting place I’d say. It’s pretty short, but hard enough that you’ll give it lots of time. This can be purchased physically on the NES, GBA, or the NES Classic if you can find one of those in your local game store still, or digitally on the WiiU and 3DS e-shop. There is also a very faithful PS1 remake (also on the PS3 digital store) called Castlevania Chronicles, which in addition to the regular game also features a sort of Zelda Master Quest mode that changes a little things around in the level layouts like enemy and item spawns, as well as Simon’s hair color. Castlevania IV also sounds like it’s a sequel, but it’s really just a super huge remake of the first game with added levels and bosses and like? really really tight controls? fucking stellar. That’s on SNES and the SNES Classic, and digitally on the WiiU and 3DS e-shop.

From there Castlevania II is a direct sequel that immediately follows the story, but it is the opposite of user-friendly. You will need a strategy guide sitting in your lap for about 70% of the game just to know where to go. It is a good game and definitely worth playing for about ten minutes at least just for the music, but definitely not great for one of your early titles. Instead I’d say Castlevania III is the next best game to try. It improves on the formula of the first game, it’s incredibly difficult, but it is very enjoyable for sure. This can also be picked up on the NES, but for some reason was not included in the NES Classic’s library. It can be downloaded on the WiiU / 3DS e-shop as well, but for this game I would actually recommend emulating the Famicom version with an English language patch if for no other reason than the dramatic increase in the sound quality.

From there, the two best titles you can get are Dracula X: Rondo of Blood and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. These are the best the series has to offer in every way and I cannot stress my love for these two enough. Rondo of Blood is unfortunately only available in Japanese for the TurboGrafx-16, and officially sold in America digitally through the Wii Virtual Console, which is sadly no longer in service. I’m not sure how easy it is to emulate, but I would highly recommend doing so if it’s not a hassle for you. If that’s not an option, the game was also remade for the PSP in Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, which does contain both the original TG16 release and Symphony of the Night as an unlockable, though I don’t know how easy that is to do.

Symphony of the Night is a direct sequel to Rondo, and also probably the best game in the series. I and everyone else will probably tell you the same thing but holy shit this one is so good??? Just like? Just play it, you’ll see what I mean. You can pick it up physically on PS1 or in the Dracula X Chronicles previously mentioned, as well as digitally on the PS3 store and Xbox Live Arcade.

After that you’re pretty much prepped to play any other game in the series you want? My personal recommendations would be Aria of Sorrow/Dawn of Sorrow for GBA and DS (the former also on the WiiU virtual console), Portrait of Ruin for DS, Order of Ecclesia for DS, Belmont’s Revenge for the Gameboy, Bloodlines for the SEGA Genesis, Lament of Innocence for PS2 and the PS3 digital store, and although it isn’t technically a Castlevania game the newly released Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon on Switch, Xbox One, PS4, and Steam is a fucking superb homage to the NES games, and a prologue (?) to the coming soon kickstarter-backed Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which also looks hella rad.

Also steer clear of Castlevania Lords of Shadow, because holy heck those are Castlevania games in name alone. They play like a slippery God of War 1 and they take place in an alternate timeline from the rest of the series so like what’s even the point? And Harmony of Despair for the PS3 and Xbox 360 do play like a classic Castlevania but they were made with multiplayer in mind so unless you have three friends who are also big fans then maybe wait on this.

Anyway thanks for actually reading through all of this if you did? This is kind of a personal topic for me because of just how much time I’ve invested in the series but holy shit it’s such a good series to get into. I hope this was sort of helpful and not too overwhelming!!

~-~-~

tl;dr

play these first

Castlevania I (NES) / Castlevania Chronicles (PS1)

Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (NES)

Rondo of Blood (TurboGrafx-16)

Symphony of the Night (PS1)

Now you should watch the anime!

these are also worth your time

Aria of Sorrow (GBA)

Dawn of Sorrow [direct sequel to Aria] (DS)

Portrait of Ruin (DS)