#unfortunately forgot about episode 8

[anliafail]

naomi thomas + outfits (S13)

[rockpaperscissuhs]

HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH + BAND OF BROTHERS:

JOSEPH "JOE" RAMIREZ

Born October 5th, 1921, in Nebraska

Died April 8th, 1988 (age 66), in Martinez, California

Joe Ramirez enlisted in September 1942 (age 20) in San Francisco, CA, and he trained with Easy Company at Toccoa. Holding the rank of Private, he served in Normandy, Holland, and Bastogne. He was hospitalized in January 1945, and discharged in July 1945. After the war, he was married for many years, and had children and grandchildren. When he passed away he was buried with his wife, who had passed away 11 years earlier. Further information about him is scarce, but the brief character profile in the Band of Brothers series bible describes him as Mexican-American, and his personality as "sensitive and nervous."

Appears in Episodes 1, 3-8, and 10; portrayed by actor Rene L. Moreno

Sources below

A million thanks to @bleedingcoffee42 for tracking down this info for me!

[lemotmo]

I think we should all be reminded of this more often:

What are the Upfronts?

***

Source: wikipedia

Source: 6ABC.com

We have never, in the history of 911, seen advertising for Buddie on such a grand scale. We were bombarded with it. Just when we thought it was over, something new dropped. It was insane and absolutely glorious.

Unfortunately these Upfronts were held in the same week of the season finale. A season finale that came after a couple of episodes that were not well received, because of Bobby's death and the way all of the characters' personal storylines were sidelined in the wake of his death.

If these Upfronts had been held only one week later? Things would have looked decidedly different. Fandom would have been excited for Buddie in season 9.

The timing was just bad and we were all so swept away by Ryan and Oliver's chemistry that we forgot what these Upfronts were really about: Season 9.

So taking all of that into consideration? Coupled with the fact that Ryan and Oliver would NEVER consciously shipbait in any way? They were just there to promote the next season.

I am looking forward to season 9. I have been on this ship since 2019. I'm not leaving until I see those two idiots und up together. I am still 100% confident we'll get there.

But as I've stated before, I have no idea of the timeline. The only thing I know is that, after the major clues in season 8 and the Upfronts? Season 9 seems very promising right now.

Let's not forget that all of that Buddie build up from season 8 is still right there. It didn't just vanish. Non fandom people picked up on it and have clued in that something is brewing between Buck and Eddie. Even more so, a lot of them are anticipating for something to happen between them in season 9.

Buddie firmly stepped out of the strictly fandom spaces, into the limelight of the general audience. That is huge and so much more than what we ever got from FOX.

Further more, the members of the GA who dislike the idea of Buddie can now switch over to '911: Nashville'. It seems like that show will be right up their alley. Good riddance.

In conclusion:

Was the last part of season 8 one giant mess? Yes.

Did Bobby's sudden death throw a wrench into everyone's personal storylines? Yes.

Was there a lot of weird bts stuff going on with Peter/Bobby's goodbye? Yes. Something happened behind the scenes, that much is clear. I don't think we'll ever find out the full truth about that though.

Were we disappointed by how all of this was handled? Yes. As we should be.

But we're past that now.

The Upfronts clearly showed us that Buddie is, now even more than ever, very popular. With audience, fans and the press alike.

Narratively speaking there is only one way this can go. This show has written itself into a corner when it comes to Buddie. The foreshadowing is very clear.

No other love interest will ever compare or be good enough anymore. There is no beating the natural chemistry between Ryan and Oliver. We saw it on full display last week.

So yeah...

You don't have to agree with me or anything like that. I'm not here to proclaim that my opinion is the only opinion that is right.

Everyone is free to draw their own conclusions and make their own decisions. Whatever you decide to do is completely valid and true.

I just wanted to offer some perspective. That's all.

That being said, you can probably tell that I'm still all aboard the Buddie train. There's no getting rid of me. 😄😋

[secriden]

Genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, I'm so grateful for the journey Fadel is forced to take in episode 9. In previous meta posts, I shared my thoughts on how the show chose to tackle previous discussions about 'love': for eg Episode 4 was really a promise of safety (which tragically becomes unfounded) and Episode 5 was really an exploration of trust and trust betrayed -- but I think Episode 9 is finally when we are dealing with love in a head-on collision between Style's unflinching commitment to stay by Fadel's side and Fadel's anger and fear of loving; a conflict which utterly demolished the last of Fadel's crumbling walls.

Because, while Episode 8 did give us this beautifully tender moment of shared camaraderie -- one where they were both filled with wonder at witnessing the way love can overcome hurt and anger, the way forgiveness can make a pathway to happiness; and a moment they were both aware of and wordlessly acknowledged to each other -- it was, unfortunately, also almost immediately tainted by this:

You can see the resignation and cynicism in the way Fadel is holding himself. This wasn't a betrayal from Style, but it was a harsh reminder for Fadel that love can be deceptive and harmful no matter the guise. Even when it (love) isn't aimed at him, he winds up betrayed (deceived) and in danger, and literally hurting (it's the first time Fadel overtly shows how much pain his broken arm is causing him), and it makes sense why we see Fadel harden once again after this point.

And as frustrating as it was for us to watch, I'm also glad that the show made room for Fadel's retreat behind the last of his walls. Because at the core of Fadel's fear is the experience he’s had that love, and more importantly loving, has always brought him pain: the traumatic and sudden loss of his parents and the cruelty of a lover who (maybe? I have my suspicions...) chose not to stay with him were both lessons Fadel has deeply rooted in his heart; a fear which his desire and now love for Style is constantly at war with.

Which is why we see Fadel so firmly choosing resistance at this point. Everything about his demeanour and the harshness of his words depicts a cornered animal with his hackles raised in self-defence. You can almost see the bared teeth behind his words. He doubles down on the assurance that he will see this decision through, that Style is destined for death by his hands. It's interesting because in Episode 9, Fadel seems to have mostly given up on denying that he has any feelings for Style whenever it's brought up (partly because Style has already made it clear he doesn't believe Fadel when he does), but has instead decided to claim that those feelings aren't strong enough to save Style from Fadel's decision to kill him.

So I kind of love that the narrative immediately forces Fadel face the reality of his claims. For what better retribution could there be than Style dying by becoming tangled up in the very thing he was supposed to put Fadel in jail for? What could be more fitting then to see Style destroyed by the very aspect of Fadel's life that caused Style's betrayal?

And even more, I love that the writers chose to have Style become injured like this. Because of course the boyfriend of a hitman who is on the run from the law was going to be shot -- the trope practically demands it -- but it is just deliciously dramatic that Style gets injured precisely dressed in the clothes he'd picked out so he could "at least die in something that's actually my style" and in the place Fadel said Style would haunt only minutes prior. It forces Fadel to face not only the thought of losing Style, but puts front and centre what it means for Fadel to be the cause of that loss.

Because the thing is, Style only needs to be bait at all because Fadel forgot to bring the extra bullets for his gun; because he does not have a plan when Style asks what they should do. I love that all of Fadel's training, and even his fastidious and careful nature, is being fundamentally compromised because his mind has been too preoccupied with his complicated feelings for Style. Fadel is being forced to face the consequences of choosing to fight against his heart about Style, and that directly puts both their lives in peril. And all Fadel can do is look at Style with a wordless plea to stay safe, even as he watches Style run directly towards danger.

And I love that Style's immediate instinct is to throw himself into the situation to help. There's no hesitation, no momentary pause where Style considers running away and leaving Fadel to handle the gunman alone. Style fully embodies the promise he made to stay by Fadel's side and moreover it shows that, on an instinctive level, Style trusts his life in Fadel's hands (even though we get verbal confirmation later in the episode that Style actually was only about 50% sure that Fadel wasn't actually going to kill him in the end!! That's! Fucking incredible!?!).

Which is also why I think Fadel's anger redirects itself once they get to the island. He's at the end of his rope, a mess of emotions, arm probably still aching and then he sees Kant: the source of not only the very real threat of Fadel and Bison being caught by the police, but also the reason why Style became entangled with Fadel in the first place. Fadel cannot help but lash out at him despite it making no sense to deny Style an additional pair of helping hands and, moreover, the comfort of a true friend that he trusts and who cares about him. Fadel is not thinking clearly, but it's also a sign that the choices he is making are still fuelled more by his anger and hurt then his love.

And again, this makes a certain amount of sense. For Fadel, anger is a familiar friend; something almost comforting, that gives him a sense of control, because he understands what to do with his anger. He understands how to direct his rage in ways that are productive and help to keep the things he cares about safe.

Until, that is, Style puts his life on the line next to Kant's and suddenly the gun in his hand becomes a danger to someone he has already been forced to acknowledge (in the conversation with Bison) that he cannot kill. I adore Style so much for immediately bringing this point up, because it means that Fadel has to actually consider why he didn't just let Style die. If Style had bled out and died from the wound, it wouldn't have technically been Fadel's fault; Style was simply caught in the crossfire. It was, in some ways, a relatively guilt-free way of getting rid of Style. But everything in Fadel rebelled at the thought of letting Style die and Fadel is once again forced to confront why he held Style's hand so tightly in both of his own, why he told Bison to be gentle and careful with Style, why hearing Style yell in pain was agony to Fadel too.

And this beautiful moment of friendship also gives both us, the audience, and Fadel this incredible understanding of Style's loyalty. To Style, the thought of dying next to Kant is not something he resents, but something that merely makes him wistful. And for Fadel, this puts into perspective what it meant for Style to promise to stay by his side; the full weight of Style's devotion is laid out for him to witness, and it's enough to shake Fadel lose from the hold his anger has on him.

But even then, even now, there's still something holding Fadel back and I think it boils down to the fact that Fadel has gone down this path with someone else before, and found only betrayal at the end of the road. He has loved and thought he was loved in return; he was ready to give up his job (his security, his sense of control, his “family”) for someone who he thought he could hide his darkness from and live in happiness whilst keeping the lie between them. It's so interesting to me that Fadel was about to do the exact same thing to Style (try to get out of the hitman life without ever telling Style about it), without knowing that the possibility of it was never on the table for him.

Because Style is the very antithesis of Fadel's ex: not only does Style find out his secret well before love truly blossomed between them, Style has no fear in him (anymore) of it. This gesture is legitimately insane, but it also illustrates how thoroughly Style embraces this aspect of Fadel's past and character. Fadel has just learned a very tangible lesson about Style's loyalty to the people he cares about, so this gesture carries the weight of knowing this matters to Style, despite the carefree manner of his expression. Style gives Fadel the security of knowing that he is making his commitment to Fadel whilst also giving Fadel permission to stay the way he is. Style's love isn't for what Fadel could someday become, but for who he already is, and that encompasses a level of acceptance that is as crazy as one would expect from a person who is in love with a hitman.

And it's just so great that they actually addressed the whole "dated me for a car" thing, because Style is right. Fadel is grasping at the last embers of his anger but all of it is directed at a Style who doesn't even exist anymore. I don't even think Style was avoiding telling Fadel about this; it just genuinely was a non-issue to Style because getting to know Fadel changed so much about Style's motivations (he said as much as early as episode three), that this wasn't even a factor that Style was aware needed to be addressed. But I also appreciate why Fadel insisted on coming back to this -- because I've said before that I think the biggest part of Fadel's hurt and betrayal comes from the thought that Style's interest in him was a lie, so this was important for Fadel to vocalise, especially because it took a certain amount of vulnerability to even admit that this bothered him that much. So as silly as I personally found this plot point to be, I'm glad the show actually decided to have our boys talk explicitly about it.

But my absolutely favourite part is that the final hurdle, the thing that ultimately makes Fadel completely let go of his anger and resentment is Style threatening to drown himself (or at least make his wound become infected). Partly because it was the exact kind of hilariously overdramatic gesture that feels fitting for Style, but mostly because this gesture opens the door for Fadel to finally (literally) take steps towards Style. Fadel's previous actions in this episode -- making sure Style was stitched up after he was shot and letting Kant live after he threatened to kill him --- were both incredibly significant, but largely leaves the relationship between them at a stalemate because for the most part Fadel is reacting to the circumstances whilst still maintaining the emotional distance between them. But what Style wants, ultimately, is not just to survive this very lethal roadtrip but to actually bring about a mending of their relationship and for Fadel show that it's what he wants too.

And I've seen some call this manipulative, but I think Style actually does understand Fadel well enough to be accurate in this claim. I've mentioned before that Style seems to have an almost instinctive understanding of when to push Fadel and when to back off (in this meta post on ep 5), and I think we're finally seeing a moment when Style could tell Fadel needed a little nudge. And the reality is that Style wasn't in any real danger, but it shows us just how much of Fadel's walls have been dismantled that Fadel's concern for Style overwrote his logic and reason.

And I just find it so lovely how it cumulates in Fadel kissing Style because it's an expression of his own desire. If Fadel had kissed Style at any point between the confrontation by the empty pool and before this moment, I think it would have, at least somewhat, felt like Fadel was giving into Style's demands (for his attention, for his affection, for his forgiveness). But this moment is different because it's Fadel giving into himself -- because Fadel doesn't truly want to hold on to his anger anymore.

And this journey was so important, so necessary because it's the reason why Fadel is able to be so completely transformed by the end of episode 9. We see him become almost carefree in his affection, everything about it is open and honest and loud in a way Fadel has never been able to be before this point, and it was only possible -- only realistic from a narrative standpoint -- because the show took the time and made space in the story for Fadel to have to face the truth of his love for Style over and over again.

Because this vulnerability, this clear comfort he feels around Style, this ability to rest in Style's arms, was only possible because Fadel was forced to grapple with the full depth of his love for Style and found forgiveness and happiness and peace in letting go of the last of his fear of being in love — and in doing so, proved the truth of Styles words in episode 4: “It’s okay to (be in) love”.

[windmill-for-the-land]

Finished the Netflix Devil May Cry show a couple hours ago and i think i've finally collected my thoughts about it (Spoiler Warning and a kinda long post)

TL;DR Pretty good but the second season is going to either make or break this show, it depends on it to flesh out its characters, and fix the concerns raised up by its cliffhanger ending.

To start, i think the show is a fair 7/10, I really enjoyed it, the action scenes and animations were great(even if the cgi got pretty bad on a few of them, specially on Agni and Rudra at certain moments),the songs always fit in very well with the scene, and the licensed music choices were really good, the story and voice acting were pretty nice too, they got Dante's character pretty well in the show which is great and the 6th episode was simply beautiful!(even if what it depicted didn't feel very devil may cry but we'll get to it)

But the show has a fair bit problems(most of which i think can and will be solved in season 2 but we'll see) that hold it back from being REALLY good instead of pretty good or okay.

One of the biggest problems being Lady's adaptation in the anime.

When i saw that she was going to take a very important role in the anime i was HYPED, she is easily one of my favourites, constantly fighting with Nero over who is my number three favourite. Unfortunately, her character in the netflix show ended up being pretty shallow for the most part while also barely feeling like the character she is supposed to be. They did a good job on her backstory in the shows universe(plus arkham is totally alive since he didn't die on screen in her flashback, which is great because it means there could be a possible take on the dmc 3 plotline in one of the seasons that would develop her as character), my problem with her is the way she acts throught the main story, her swearing like a sailor is already pretty disappointing, something i like about dmc is that the characters rarely ever use profanitys, making it so that a line like nero's fuck you in dmc 5 actually feels impactful and cool, meanwhile in the show, she says either fuck or shit in every sentence and it felt ridiculous, not like her at all, i was already so sick of it by episode 4 or 5, it felt like a forced attempt to try make her sound cooler and justify this show being for adults(much like castlevania).

But more importantly, her arc in the show feels unsatisfying, i understand that her arc is clearly not complete, it is certantly going to continue in season 2 with her leaving darkcom, throwing that ugly-ass armor away and rescuing dante, and that's fine, i dont think every character should have their entire arc in only 8 episodes, but the main focus of the first season was on Lady (I'd say 60% Lady 40% Dante, which sucks because this is a pretty good version of Dante that NEEDED more screentime), and she barely changes by the end of it. She starts out blindly following darkcoms orders and being a dick to dante, and ends still following their orders and hurting Dante, but being slightly remorceful and unsure about it now, the only major change is that she doesnt hate every single demon anymore after her encounter with the hellIrefugees, and that she actually likes Dante and feels bad for doing that to him, although with season 2 hopefully finishing her arc, i think season 1 will become a little better retroactively.

Speaking of the hell refugees(i forgot their name sorry)

they were fine? I guess??

I get what they wanted to do, they wanted to add some moral greyness to Sparda's actions and flash out the demon world so that not everyone except Sparda is evil, therefore building on the theme of there being humans as wicked as any devil, and devils as kind as a human.

But since literally every demon in the show was working on the goal of freeing the weak devils from the demon world so they can have a better life, YOU END UP WITHOUT ANY ACTUALLY EVIL DEVILS IN DEVIL MAY CRY, which of course, isn't very good for an adaptation of a series based on slaying hundreds of demons every game. I think this is another complaint that can be remedied by season 2, if they show that the refugees are the exception, not the rule, and that the underworld is still packed full of stronger demons working for Mundus that willfully perpetuate the misery of the weaker ones, it would solve one of the most consistent complaints i hear about the show, that it humanizes the demons way too much, by answering these complaints with "Actually, these are just a portion of the demons, there a LOT classic 100% evil devil may cry demons, you just didnt get to see them in season 1!!"(also i think the demon world looks too much like an alien planet instead of the underworld, which i get that's what they're going for, but it really doesnt feel right in an adaptation of one of the best visual depictions of the underworld in videogames, specially in Dmc3, some of those sections look gorgeous, and the show is severely lacking in that gothic architecture.)

Also the U.S.A invading the demon world and DROPPING NUKES on the weak demon refugees in a analogy to real world US actions while American Idiot by Green Day plays in the background felt so on the nose and unfitting for dmc I couldn't take it very seriously, they went too hard on the "humans are the real monsters" side with little to no nuance, since they are depicted as more evil and malicious than any of the actual demons, plus it makes the regular humans have too much control, the demons in dmc should absolutely destroy the army, like in 5's opening scenes, with their only hopes being our protagonists, i REALLY hope that when season 2 drops they start with Vergil and Mundus' forces absolutely destroying the humans forces, to show that, sure they can arrest and bomb a bunch of weak demons who can barely survive on their own land, but when the powerful ones show up, they're out of their depth and are forced to rely on Dante and Lady.

Now,moving on to the storm shaped elephant in the room, Vergil.

He's got a total of like, a minute of screen time, but it was enough for a huge size of the fanbase to go up in flames about it, and honestly? i understand why, i don't agree with the assumptions that Vergils is absolutely be like that in this adaptation, but i get it, having Vergil on screen basically saying that he is voluntarely serving Mundus sounds sound insane and like a huge character assasination.

Buuuuuut, i think that's the point, its to make us question what is going on with Vergil, since at no point in time would he ever willingly work for Mundus. My theory is that instead of unlocking his devil trigger and escaping the attack on their home, in the show's universe, Vergil is captured and brought to hell as a child, likely being tortured or brainwashed by Mundus to align with him and make him blame Sparda and the human world, so it would basically make it so that Dmc1's corrupted Vergil shows up before anything else.

I really hope im right and this is the direction they're taking Vergil, because if he really is willingly serving Mundus and his Devil trigger is Nelo Angelo, it would be soooooo fucking bad that i could not defend the show anymore, it would be such a huuge character assasination and would turn Vergil from a hurt and tragic character, that copes with his feeling of powerlessness and guilt from not being able to protect his mother, brother and himself by becoming as powerful as possible to make sure he is NEVER in a situation like that again, no matter what and who it takes, into the stereotypical EVIL TWIN that simply does bad things, alongside the person who killed his mother and probably his father, and it would absolutely not fit with Dante and Vergil's dynamic AT ALL.

also before i get to my closing thoughs i just wanna say dante felt a little weak in it and that i feel like he didn't get enough spotlight in HIS OWN SHOW, like i know that he's waaay less experienced than any version of Dante from the games but omg he spent the entire show post episode 2 getting his ass kicked by lady and almost every single demon, even with devil trigger(speaking of which, having devil trigger from dmc5 playing during his devil trigger transformation while cool on concept, really doesnt fit since that song is VERY personal to Nero and doesnt fit Dante as well, plus i honestly didnt like the cover of the song used tbh but its not that big of a complaint.

In the end i really did enjoy the first season of Devil May Cry, and i am very hopeful and excited for the second season, the highs were really high, the animation was pretty amazing, loved the opening and every single one of the endings, and dante felt great, but I cant help but be worried for the future of this show, if the second season doesnt address some of these issues, SPECIALLY LADY AND VERGIL, it will really be like the castlevania netflix show, fun in isolation and with no knowledge of the source material, with a decent plot and some nice visuals and songs, but lacking severely in the core elements of the series they are adapting, making it that i cant help but dislike it a little, i really hope it turns out well since i want to really, REALLY LOVE this show, not to JUST like it or even dislike it.

[echotunes]

hey! What is Tatort Saarbrücken and is there English subtitles for it? (Also where can I watch it?)

hi anon! so. bear with me here,

First you must understand that Tatort ("Crime Scene") (Wikipedia) is the German cop show. A lot of German television is cop shows, but this is the one - it's been running every Sunday since 1970 (making it the longest-running German TV drama), in the prime time slot at 8:15pm on public-service broadcast organisation ARD's TV channel Das Erste, right after the evening news program Tagesschau. Murder-of-the-week style, every episode deals with a homicide case that the characters then investigate and eventually solve (and it's all very dramatic, as crime shows tend to be). So you understand Tatort is very mainstream. The mainstream. Your parents watch Tatort. Your grandparents watch Tatort. It's a Thing. (it's also obviously all copaganda we're aware of this)

(This makes the fact that it trends on Tumblr every year very funny to everyone involved. Because it's, y'know. Tatort. Half the reason people (including me) get into it is because they go "why is Tatort of all things trending on Tumblr what is all this about")

There's different versions of Tatort, set in different cities and all produced by the public-service broadcast services of that region - each focusing on different characters (but all of whom are cops because that's what the show is about). Each location only gets one to three episodes a year, so it switches through every week. There's Cologne, Münster, Berlin, whatever; and then there's Saarbrücken. Saarbrücken is the capital of Saarland, the smallest German state after Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin (all of which are city-states). It's... unremarkable. You never usually hear anything about Saarbrücken. Or Saarland in general really (sorry Saarland). So you wouldn't expect its Tatort to be remarkable either.

Except! This particular set-in-Saarbrücken Tatort has been running since 2020, and people on Tumblr got interested in it because the two main guys have a Dynamic(tm) going on. After episode 3 they also officially added the two women to the main team because they forgot about them the first time around or something (thank you mainstream tv). but anyway our four characters are Leo Hölzer (the buff guy in the holster, kind of the glue of the team), Adam Schürk (dishevelled blond man who is really bad at his job and Angsty(tm)), Pia Heinrich (workaholic in the sports jacket), and Esther Baumann (big football fan, seemingly the only person on this team who actually takes her job seriously).

Tatort Saarbrücken is also affectionately known as "Spatort" (Spaten (spade) + Tatort), because a lot of Leo and Adam's Dynamic is about the fact that they knew each other as kids when Adam was being physically abused by his dad, and Leo eventually hit the dad over the head with a shovel, putting him in a coma (which, spoilers, he wakes up from at the end of the first episode). And then Adam went missing (left the city) for like 15 years but now he's returned to Saarbrücken for mysterious reasons (it was Leo. Leo was the reason). and now he and Leo are work colleagues and they have queer-flavoured tension going on and this backstory is still very much relevant in between the usual crime-solving. they are honestly not very good at their jobs but well that's part of the appeal. and people enjoy gay shipping them because of course they do. (is this queerbaiting? maybe! but again the fact that this is all in Tatort is very ???-inducing to many)

Pia and Esther were only officially added to the "main team" in episode 3 because I guess the writers forgot about women for the first two. which is unfortunately not surprising but well they're here too now! until last episode they felt like they might have had some sort of queer thing going on too but then in the 2025 episode Pia had a suspiciously-het-romance-teasing scene with Adam (they do not have romantic chemistry this was a weird choice we all agree on this) and Esther was flirting with a previously-unseen French colleague (who was a woman though so win for queer Esther enjoyers) so who knows. but we like them too! even though there's less dramatic backstory for them both, there's still things hinted at (like Pia's sister having gone missing years ago. knowing this show this will be relevant at some point)

Also as you may have already gathered there is only one episode of Tatort Saarbrücken released every year. So basically every January we all come together and tune in to watch our annual 90 minutes of cop show episode, liveblog together, make gifsets about it, trend on Tumblr, and then go back into hibernation until the next year. It's a beautiful event for the German tumblr community

As for watching it: It's public television, so it's available for free online in the ARD Mediathek. The six episodes there have been so far are, in order:

Das fleißige Lieschen (named after the codename for the V-3 cannon (Wikipedia) - 2020)

Der Herr des Waldes (The lord of the forest - 2021)

Das Herz der Schlange (The heart of the snake - 2022)

Die Kälte der Erde (The cold of the earth - 2023)

Der Fluch des Geldes (The money curse - 2024)

Das Ende der Nacht (The end of the night - 2025)

As for English subtitles - there's no official ones, but you can check out this post for info on fanmade ones!

[whitehairandtraumatized-bracket]

White Hair and Trauma Brawl Round 1; Poll 8

remember, voting is based on swag, trauma, and favoritism!!

trauma and propaganda under the cut!

Trauma! 

Toby: Toby was a kid with dreams of being a famous beyblade athlete/whatever its called. Then he got super cancer. The Secretly Evil Beyblade Villians offered to give him their secret cancer treatment they developed and he said yeah okay. Unfortunately this cancer treatment also entailed completely erasing his memories and personality and replacing them with a new personality named Faust who's purpose in life is to create infinite renewable energy for the entire planet. Through means of beyblade. At the expense of causing the end of the world for some reason. Also he has white hair now. Toby regains control eventually but he's stuck with the white hair (and trauma).

Cecil: The sheer amount of trauma Cecil has experienced is unclear due to him having persistent memory issues [to the point where he doesn't remember facts such as his own age and the year he graduated high school], but some examples include:

-His mother forsaw him dying because of mirrors and as a result treated him as if he was dead as a child to the point where she covered all of the mirrors in their house [a Jewish mourning tradition]. This contributed to Cecil's fear of mirrors as an adult.

-His town is under the control of a totalitarian City Council who routinely kidnapped and reeducated citizens, including Cecil himself on occasion.

-His bosses were an eldritch abomination that he was very clearly terrified of.

-The man he was in love with [and who would eventually be his husband] nearly died due to being attacked by the residents of a miniature city.

-Had to deal with his town being taken over by the world's evilest corporation and was forced to spout propaganda for them under threat of harm.

-Found a cassette tape from his childhood of a younger version of himself dying a horrible death, and he reacted so poorly to it that he destroyed the tape live on air.

-Met and had to confront another radio host employed by the evil corporation who seemed to look exactly like him and was totally brainwashed by the evil corporation

-His boyfriend was trapped in an alternate dimension for over a year.

-While his boyfriend was trapped in an alternate dimension, his body was taken over against his will several times in order to defend the mayor from various assassinations.

-The town was attacked by people who had been reduced to horrifying entities only known as Strangers. Many of these Strangers were formerly people he knew personally.

-Confronting the beagle puppy that created and controlled the strangers

-Forgot and reremembered his husband multiple times due to time travel and/or alternate timeline shenanigans

-Watched a family member from an alternate timeline die of what was presumed to be radiation poisoning

-Something involving his dad, I actually missed that arc, but it was something

-The regular death, horrors and monsters that are just a hazard of living in Night Vale

-Whatever the fuck the Street Sweepers are

-This list is not exhaustive, there's a lot of stuff later on in the podcast I forgot about

-These descriptions don't really encapsulate how absolutely horrifyingly these events are described in the podcast

Propaganda!

Toby: The concept of a kids show spending like 40 episodes on a regular ass tournament arc and then at the last minute saying "by the way we turned a make a wish kid into an atomic bomb" is objectively sick as fuck. Maybe he even traumatized the viewer along with him.

Cecil: He was the winner of the 2023 Tumblr sexyman polls, and that's gotta count for something. This man is an absolute Tumblr icon. He also has a beautiful voice and is just a silly little guy who's never done anything wrong in his life I prommy. While he doesn't have a canon appearance, the majority of artists depict him with either pure white hair or two-toned black and white hair.

[the-solar-eclipsed]

astral projector watcher gem fanart :D

just gonna put some lore that ive seen + my own twist to watcher gem

gem was a failed experiment in the watcher realm, she was created by the watchers and has no true parents, her purpose was to be the watchers killing machine and they would have succeeded if grian hadn’t broken out of the watcher realm, since the watchers were so focused on hunting grian down the security weakened and gem escaped

the 1.18 lets play was gem trying to learn how to be “mortal” and blend into the world so the watchers wouldnt find her

at the time pearl was still with the watchers and knew gem existed just now who she was specifically eventually pearl escaped the watcher realm when grian came back to save her

gem met xisuma and was invited to season 8 of hermitcraft, which pearl was also invited to because grian introduced her

pearl, grian, and xisuma knows something’s off about gem, but they can’t figure out what it is

obviously then the moon crashed and stuff and season nine came around, gem is much more comfortable as a mortal and almost forgot her past

until she subbed in for cleo in limited life, where she learned the watchers make these death games for entertainment and to harness the negative energy

unfortunately for the watchers they gave her the ability to dimension hop (she is a cannon dimension hopper to those who dont know) and she joined secret life, to the other players she was just added and the watchers just assumed some other watcher added her so they never bothered to ask about it, and then the boogey curse happened and the watchers had no idea that they assigned 1) one of the best killers on the server, and 2) a hell of a good actor this task. unlike other watchers who were turned, gem being a “pure born” watcher makes her essentially immune to any of the curses and magic that watchers use to run the game. it was really difficult, since she didnt actually have the curse she would have to run to the person killed and tell them about the task/how to act, and it worked somehow, she played the act that a curse was spread all around the server and the watchers were none the wiser… except grian, he knows first hand what the boogey curse is like secondhand and firsthand, he knows how people act - violent, careless, and overall just a sense of bloodlust - and gem showed none of the signs. her kills were tactical, there was pain in her eyes every time she killed or influenced a kill. but grian is still really confused with wondering what gem could be he never really though she was a watcher because how could she be? grian and pearl are watchers and they still get really affected by the games (so no grian doesnt know gems a watcher)

its now wild life and gem realized shes going to need to adapt and change otherwise the watchers are going to be suspicious, she does hold a slight grudge on pearl but not as strong as she makes it out to be, the watchers think they’re farming even more negative emotions but they actually are gaining less and less as gem is in the games just because that’s how she is.

of course she is still a watcher and killing still calls to her, which is why even as dark green she helped people when they wanted to kill - so she can collect the energy to eventually stop the watchers and because something in her loves seeing the death happen -

we can also see this with the snail episode, she loves the snail and admires how they’re violent little creatures, saying its a shame they cant be allies - peaking a slight suspicion in the watchers but nothing huge

and back to some shiny duo stuff: pearl is so confused as to why gem is like this, she wasnt like it in secret life and real life and it scares her, theres something so brutal and cold in gems eyes that most people dont see as gem is just the peaceful one who even kept her barn burn down, but pearl can see it - gem is hiding something, which is why she always is trying to bug gem, to understand what, but gem is trying to protect pearl and so she stays cold and “hateful” to pearl whenever she comes by, heck she even is hateful to impulse because she is so scared of the soup group members being hurt

but now the main stuff: her astral projection powers, grian knows what everyone’s powers are, and again, gem is confusing him, he doesnt get why gem has that power, and honestly neither do the watchers, gem managed to give her one of the powers that she normally had when she wasnt in the games, but something in the games restricts her and she just wanted some freedom back, and using the power re-energizes her

to anyone who read all this: thanks! ive been meaning to dump some ideas about watcher!gem since she was already cannon to me but this made it even better!!

[being-of-rain]

Now that the whole series has been released, I binge relistened to all of Once and Future. And wrote down all my thoughts, of course.

Definitely the series' main problem is something that affects a lot of Big Finish; it wants to have a story arc, but clearly the writers barely planned with each other or put any effort into that aspect. There's no flow or natural build-up to the finale, unlike what the premise and first episode might lead you to expect. Without much of a compelling arc, the only thing the series has to mark it as a special occasion is its many cameos and crossovers ...but in order to have more of those than the average Big Finish series, they had to pack so many in that most episodes struggle to handle it (in one way or another).

As a series, it unfortunately adds up to less than the sum of its parts.

With all that said, it's a series that I enjoyed a lot more during my relisten, since I could adjust my expectations. I forgot my desire for a grand or satisfying larger story, and just took each standalone episode on its own merits. There's a varying level of quality, but overall its not as disappointing as I remembered.

I decided to rank the episodes from my least to most favourite, and write a paragraph on each one.

8. Time Lord Immemorial I was told this was added to the series at the last minute, and I believe it; it features the imminent destruction of every universe thanks to the use of the degeneration gun, and this little fact is not mentioned at any point before or afterwards. The plot is about a dull and generic all-powerful Time Lord fairytale with an incredibly convenient rhyme to tell everyone what to do. Not that anyone actually does much of anything in this episode. It's mostly descriptions of some impressive visuals and the trading of some half-hearted banter. The only thing of any substance at all in the story is the slightly interesting (though not as interesting as it could've been) relationship between the Lumiat and the Doctor, which is okay if you like that, and unfortunate if you wanted Liv and the Unbound Doctor to have any focus at all.

7. Two's Company This episode is the poster child of being assigned a long and truly random laundry list of characters by the producers. All elements of the episode feel like they're thrown together haphazardly, from the total disregard of the previous episodes' plot hook onwards. But the friendship of Jackie and Lady Christina, two of the least likely characters to be teamed up with the sixth Doctor, is perhaps the highlight of the episode (even though Jackie is written rather stereotypically). On the other hand, Harry Sullivan doesn't really add anything, and the bizarre introduction of The Two borders on the insulting. Back when The Eleven was first introduced, the audio took pains to note that his mental illness was not the cause of his villainy. Later authors seemed to have missed this memo, and none fly in the face of it as much as Two's Company. On top of it all, I think Lisa McMullin is just an author I do not vibe with. She's the only one who wrote two episodes of this series, and they're my two least favourite.

6. The Union I'm not a big fan of finales written by Matt Fitton, which is bad news for me because he's been Big Finish's Go-To Finale Guy for over a decade now. He always makes the plot a bit too busy and never quite lands the emotional moments for me. Once and Future's climactic episode gets a lot of fanservicey moments (some that I can enjoy and some that feel like an obligation), but the story arc that the series had been stumbling and crawling towards concludes with the Doctor winning a nonsensical moral argument about how he's fine with being and meeting himself, something that isn't demonstrated in this anniversary special and is contradicted in most others. The villain/s are a bizarre choice and rather unthreatening- but at least River and Susan are fun to listen to.

5. A Genius For War It's slightly baffling that in the middle of a series that flaunts its random character line-ups is a fairly standard Time War episode, with characters you'd expect to see in it (except for the Seventh Doctor I guess, but he doesn't feel that out of place in a Davros story like this.) I refrained from calling it a "bog-standard" Time War episode, because it does actually put some effort into being relevant to this series specifically, and is a fun little action movie to while away an hour (and celebrate the Doctor's longest-running alien foes in all their mediocre glory). Still, the fact that this ep is just before halfway through my ranking means that I enjoy this series more often than not.

4. Past Lives This is a charming episode, largely due to its fun cast of characters. It takes its time with its story, being literally halfway done by the time all the characters have been brought into the plot together, but I'm not saying it's badly paced. I'm certainly fine with it just giving us the Doctor and the Monk for the first 15 minutes. But the moment of this episode that always sticks in my head the most is the Doctor and Sarah reacting to all the pictures of the Doctors in Osgood's house, having a little bit of an existential crisis about it. It's amazing how taking even just a small break from the action for some genuine emotion can add to a story. See number 1 on this list for more. Oh I do wish it did more with the King Arthur/Once and Future theme though, especially seeing as it was what gave the series its name.

3. The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50 Michelle Gomez and David Tennant are so good together. I don't have an awful lot more to say about this one, it's just solid entertainment. It's got great characterisation and a lot of funny lines. The episode really understood the Master when it said "Only one Time Lord would ever do something so mind-bogglingly, time-consumingly ridiculous."

2. Coda—The Final Act The final episode is second only to Two's Company in how random and long its list of returning characters is, but it handles them with much more grace and a satisfying story. I mean I do wish that Vienna Salvatori had a bigger role, but that's just because I'm a fan of her series, she works fine narratively (and there was a Jexie reference to appease me). Really my biggest complaint about this one is that it doesn't quite commit to the Doctor vs Doctor premise as much as I wish it would, with it all being a contrived trick, but it doesn't do that badly, it's fine. Wait, maybe my biggest complaint is the title: why give it two? Why not just call it Coda? Anyway, Bernice was a great choice for this episode, she's always been great at speaking her mind to the Doctor. And it was easy for me to forget this this is Jo Martin's first audio because she sounded so at home. Great stuff.

1. The Artist at the End of Time This might not be the episode I go back to listen to the most, but I think it is the best made, with the most time to breathe and the most coherent themes. (And it also happens to be the episode with the least amount of returning characters heaped upon it. What a coincidence.) The degeneration giving the Doctor something of an existential crisis, compounded by the end of the universe and the presence of the Curator, gives the series some much needed time to reflect on a key aspect of the franchise for its anniversary; the Doctor themself. It certainly works a lot better than whatever The Union tried to do in its last 15 minutes. Aside from all that, Five and Jenny and the Curator are just a rather sweet team to listen to, with an interesting problem to investigate and a lot of witty dialogue.

[mikuni14]

Secret Relationships - Ep 7-8

If I had to look for a word that would best describe my feelings about this series and its finale, it would be "underwhelming". In my opinion, the series could have gone in the direction of: various forms of obsession and the desire to possess the object of one's affections, in the "psycho" / criminal version, one that starts "normally", but due to various circumstances develops in a bad direction, and one that is socially and romantically accepted, but which also takes away the autonomy of the object of affection EDIT I forgot to add: and what effect each of these forms has on the object of obsession.

Unfortunately, the series ended with melodramatic scenes, everything ends well, the bad guy is stopped and punished, the semi-bad guy has an epiphany and lets go of his long-standing obsession just like that (????), and the "good" guy is rewarded with a girl a boy, and the series shows him as the absolute ideal of a boyfriend. On the plus side, I can write that the bad guy is arrested, which is not so obvious in BL series *cough* TharnType *cough*. And I'm glad that Da On is happy, which is the most important thing after all, I guess 🤷‍♀️

But other than that, it's just meh. It's so rare for us to get BL series with dark tones and problematic, crazy characters that when we do, I'd like to see some interesting approaches to it, to see an unconventional ending that's still happy (I don't accept any other in my BLs 😛), but not necessarily a standard, conventionally happy one. The sugar-coated ending of Secret Relationships, with the heroic sacrifice, the tearful confessions in the ambulance, the disheveled, blood-covered Da On doing a last-minute presentation, the parade of scenes showing Ju Seong Hyeon as the perfect romantic lover, just made me cringe tbh. I know I'm in the minority, because I can see that the series was very well-received, so I apologize if my words upset any fans. But… no. Just no.

I binged episodes 1-6 and had one dominant feeling: sympathy for Da On and a need to help him, to separate him from all those awful guys. Watching episodes 7-8, there was only one feeling - embarrassment. There was no room for anything more, the series completely threw itself into the arms of soap opera, in which everything bad and problematic always finds a magical happy ending, without any fallout. I have nothing against a soap opera style finale, when it is done well, when the finale is the culmination of growing tensions and conflicts, when there is a great reveal, when all the threads led throughout the series connect and are resolved, when evil is actually punished and beloved characters survive (even if they are not together). This was the case with The Untamed, or To Sir With Love. But here… I was just like: ok. There's no actual ending, no emotional closure. The ending is just a perfect love between perfect guys, the bad guys and all the bad things that happedned to Da On automatically dissolved in the fog of the plot and left no trace on him and his psyche and mental health, no one from the MLs families appeared. Everything is beautiful and perfect.

The last scene just proved how unserious this series is lol. Jfc.

[billyvell]

My late thoughts on 2x7 because I said I would but then forgot:

Like everyone else I was expecting Lestat to be portrayed worse than he was. They actually let him have so many moments of honesty and/or vulnerability. That's kinda the case on the book trial too but in a very different way, and since Lestat wasn't as fucked up from the murder attempt on the show I thought they would go heavy on villanizing him.

I don't think we're getting a "real trial" version on episode 8 like people had assumed either.

We got as many Lestat & Claudia crumbs as possible which I really appreciated. "I see the best of my vampiric nature in her", "Claudia is my blood", him looking proud, his reaction at her death.

I actually wasn't expecting the trial to be where they would revisit the "fight" or even Claudia's turning. I thought it was interesting that we got a "Lestat version" of things even though it's technically not his POV yet.

I didn't really like the new version of Claudia's turning, it was even worse than the previous one which I didn't think was possible.

The fight... I actually appreciated what we got of it. I was hoping they would make it more "equal", because my biggest problem with it was how extreme it was (which is still the case unfortunately) and how one-sided it seemed with Louis being seriously injured while Lestat was barely even hurt if at all. Making it more equal and showing that for a moment Louis had the upper hand, was the one going at Lestat the most and got to hurt him too is a weird relief to me... It's like a contradicting mix of feelings where I both feel better for Louis and also kinda side-eye him for it, you know? Lestat's bloody ass face and disoriented expression compared to how he looked on episode 5 is a huge difference, and it means the "follow-up" to it wasn't quite as we saw either.

Still wish they did something about the drop, like saying that Louis asked/taunted him to do it or something or that it wasn't as high as it seemed. I always thought the idea of saying either it or the "fight" didn't really happen was too big of a cop out. Even though I wish they hadn't even written that a tall, they did so they have to commit to it (to an extent at least).

"My immortal companion is Claudia. My coven is Claudia." was just beautiful. I kinda wouldn't mind them not giving Madeleine any chance despite her not having commited a crime, especially cause in the show she was sort of a "forbidden" fledgling which is against the rules, but I'm glad that they adressed it because of this response. Her choosing to die with Claudia is probably the biggest act of love in this damn show.

I guess we're not getting the TVA version of Claudia's death. It's still possible I guess since we only see her death through Armand's POV, but I always thought it didn't make as much sense in the show to begin with considering Claudia being older among other things, and I think it would change the logistics of what we saw too much since that still has to be at least slightly true.

The preview... Seems like Louis will directly threaten Lestat and *really* think he died in the fire? In the book it was always kinda weird cause he just assumed so and didn't think about it (on page at least) until Armand told him he was alive. I'm curious how they'll deal with all that considering some stuff we got.

[dhajetii]

Netflix DMC Reactions/Commentary

Been a while since I've done this. I think the last time was for the HBO Last of Us? Either way. Here's some of my random thoughts as I worked my way through Devil May Cry.

I played (and enjoyed) the dmc video games back in the day and i was, unfortunately, excited about this show going in. I wanted to have fun here, as I've had fun with the franchise in the past. And I did. The show is a fun watch. I think both fans of the franchise and new arrivals who know nothing of the games and just want a kickass gory anime to watch can enjoy this.

Some of the comments i make kind of spoil plot lines from the games and the show itself. This is commentary for all 8 episodes, listed in order.

EPISODE 1: some random merc: gets decapitated me: giggling and kicking my feet. "Good start!"

KEVIN CONROY?!?! i didnt know he was gonna be here T_T i miss you man

OMG thats a remix of Vergil's theme <3 i recognize those lyrics

how come only like 1 person was dancing in that club wth XD

Kevin Conroy's character doing these interrogations is doing NOTHING to separate this character from Batman in my head so far.

hmmm I wonder why this shapeshifter just happens to know what Dante's "dead" brother would look like as an adult when he "died" as a child?? MYSTERY OF THE AGES

------------

EPISODE 2:

ohhh is that Lady? <3 Lady <3 i forgot she was gonna be in the show ngl i only watched the trailer once a long time ago

why dont they fucking ask dante? why go in guns blazing?? fucking americans (i say as an american)

KEEP ROLLIN' ROLLIN' ROLLIN' - i do love the music so far. At least they havent dropped the ball on that yet.

your life worth half a mil? dude, value yourself more than that.

unflinching Kevin Conroy. Very Batman of you KEVIN. Ah, until you bring god into it ok nvm. The separation between this motherfucker and Batman has begun.

I want pizza. GDI Dante.

jfc idk what pool balls are made out of but ok. those are SOLID

i wanna replay dmc 3 now.

THE SWORD<3 i wondered where you were Rebellion my beloved

freshmen never do their homework.

-----------

EPISODE 3:

oh we actually got Lady's backstory. Neat.

LOL all the Capcom references.

"OTHER PROTOTYPE"; give the lady her cannon-machine gun- thing! I forgot the name! But it was cool! Queen maybe? Just looked it up: Kalina Ann. IDK where i got Queen. Must be some other killer machine thing from somewhere else (OTHER THAN FF14)

i cant tell if Dante is playing stupid or this is early enough in his timeline he genuinely doesnt know about his heritage yet.

REBELLION!! plz be sword time. I need sword time.

Honestly, I kinda like the Rabbit's attitude/vibe

you know what lady could use rn? A GIANT FUCKIN GUN-CANNON

WENT AT HIM WITH A FUCKIN KEYBOARD LOL WHAT

REBELLION!! I really like swords ok. im just a simple little guy with simple tastes. swords are sexy.

LAST RESORT remix :o !

ok whatever this bike is made of is tough shit this is what all cars and tires need to be made of.

DEVIL TRIGGER BABBBBEEEEYYYYY. Awh. JK. not yet. tease. He'll get there.

-----------

EPISODE 4:

BABY VERGIL<3 baby dante<3

ugh, Conroy-not-Batman, stfu. I cant believe im asking you to stop talking. But stop talking. Sorry Kevin.

Dante's momma isnt the only human who wants to fuck a demon. Damn. this black and red one with the wings <3 badass

oh no the humans are dying. So anyway this background music is good.

i feel like im supposed to care more about this hit squad of soldiers? but i really dont with the exception of Lady. Girl has enough trauma already give her a break.

ah, i see. Prediction: Rabbit was besties with Sparda once upon a time I'll bet, and he didnt appreciate being left behind and trapped in Hell with Mundus

oof. more Trauma for Lady. Nothin' like a good ol' drug-induced mind fuck to darken your afternoon.

DEVIL TRIGGER <3 at least partially!! he's gettin there <3

historically, demons in this franchise have all been the same. They've not really portrayed them like this before. At least, not that i can remember. I'm not opposed to this direction tho.

-----------

EPISODE 5:

ok we're gonna have a very long-lasting fall sequence i see. That motorcycle a couple episodes ago lasted much longer than it should have too. This might as well happen.

NGL when i saw that keypad on the wall i immediately squinted at it to see if any numbers were faded to Sherlock Holmes the fuckin' code.

Right. Back to falling. OR, hear me out, fully devil trigger and use your wings, Dante.

you know, all that falling shrapnel would totally rip a parachute but okay. You know, i kind of hate the random details i choose to apply reality to and which details i let slide lmao. Like ah yes, the parachutes are the MOST unrealistic part of this show for sure, mhm.

Lady is so smart <3

devil trigger. devil trigger. devil trigger. YEAH BABY LETS GOOO

Lady really adapted and accepted this new situation with these Makaian REALLY fast for someone deeply traumatized by demons since childhood, (but i guess there is also whatever those horror-flashbacks involving her dad at play here). But good for her for being able to distinguish between civilians and the actual enemy. I'm not used to this whole refugee dynamic with the demons from a dmc franchise but I'll take it. Considering Sparda cant have been the only "good" one capable of emotion/love/empathy/etc.

LOL lady calling Rabbit's operation nazi-esque is fuckin' hilarious considering USA-VP is moments away from eradicating a bunch of ppl based purely on his religious-fueled hatred of something different from himself. Also "funny" considering current real world events. Gotta love the point made when humans turn out to be the "monsters" Rabbit used VP's hatred and he played his part perfectly.

I'm still unraveling Rabbit's trauma, but he definitely has a dislike of demons and humans both it seems like

-----------

EPISODE 6:

Rabbit backstory time? ah, incorrect. more Lady. No? Both :o okay.. why both? :o

Dad goes full mad-scientist. Oh. Oh no. I know where this is going. Right, yeah.

OH-HO! it is also Rabbit backstory. Well shit. Well then. No wonder.

Huh. Sudden change in art style. Its cute tho.

Sorry kid dont mind me while I bop to this sick tune while you run for your life.

OK, so this is really adorable and moving. Oh damn the other shoe is gonna drop soon aint it? ugh. FEELS!

OH SHIT this is the Evanescence track playing. And here's the (more) trauma. oof.

wait a minute. There has to be a reason they're running both of their backstories in tandem like this. oH FUCK! Im remembering something Lady said a few episodes ago about refugees. well shit.

But if Rabbit...? then why'd he ...?

oohhhhh. :x

Madness is the emergency exit. And Rabbit just took it.

Ok. ok. ok. HOOOOO. ok.

yeah so my prediction for the Rabbit's backstory earlier was WRONG

-----------

EPISODE 7:

OH! OH! "Flare for the dramatic".... blue shit..... VERGIL!!<3

<3 Lady being a badass once again x2

KALINA ANNNNNNNNN. there's *my* LADY

to hell with you, Dante!

LOL

Honestly, Rabbit has a point.

-----------

EPISODE 8:

whew. okay. final episode. now its time for America Darkcom to be just as demonic as the demons.

bunny has a backup plan.

LOL enzo ships it.

ugh, this guy.

ooh another severed head

kinda hope Anders kills the VP or at least tries

oh enzo no D: .. T_T

i honestly expected Lady to use Kalina Ann more than she did all of once.

oh hey you got dante to bleed finally. Dont let it get on the necklace my dude.

"built on misery" hey thats where im from! Missouri!

rip. but like, not R.I.P. but like ripped rip.

smh, Lady!

o shit.

HAHAHA here's the Green Day, LMAO. American Idiot playing during these last few moments is just... this feels a little too on the nose maybe?

...sigh. Well shit.

oh fuck Uroboros. There you are, you bastard. (BURN CORPO SHIT)

FHJKSDHFJDKSHFDJKSFHDSJKHFS. VERGIL. VERGIL. VERGIL.

<3 Yamato <3

fun that they did a remix of Vergil's theme from dmc 5 but i like the OG better, those vocals are *chefs kiss*

-----------

in summary: this was fun. the music is good. the plot wasnt bad. something slightly different from what they usually do while also being slightly the same. but honestly i think its kind of appropriate given current events the last few years. its sayin' something.

[knickynoo]

while I'm busy drawing Lorenzo, Ted and Lauren, here is all the 1st season episodes. 15 in total.

BTTF CARTOON 2025 REIMAGINING

1 - The Trouble with Pterodactyls: Everything's normal, except if your a McFly. Especially if a dinosaur appears from a rift and tries to attack you while your on a date with your girlfriend.

2 - Not a House Cat: Officer Parker bites off more than he can chew when he takes a case for mysteriously vanishing cattle.

3 - Hoedown in the streets: A cattle wrangler lands on Strickland's car and immediately starts causing good-natured mayhem.

4 - Can't con a con-man: A 1940s Con-man ends up in 1980 Hill Valley, and starts adapting to the sudden displacement.

5 - Scene Kid on the Scene: Dave McFly's day out is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a brightly dressed kid.

6 - Don't go to 2020: Marty and Doc try to figure out why there's rifts, when a woman from 2020 accidentally shows up and freaks out.

7 - The Rules: Doc tries to make sense of it all, while Marty's in charge of setting some ground rules. Unfortunately, Lorenzo doesn't like the rules.

8 - Roll the Dice: Dave McFly and Ted bond over Spires & Sphinxes (aka Dungeons and Dragons)

9 - Sugarcane Craze: Jules and Verne Brown have fun with Grace Anderson, when it all goes downhill after she eats some candy.

10 - Can't Walt me now: A con-man named Walter tries to worm his way into Hill Valley's economy. Too bad that Lorenzo's already decided his territory.

11 - Verne's pills: After Verne has a seizure, he has to take pills... and Doc is in full parent mode.

12 - That camping feeling: Marty and Jennifer attempt to have some time together. Unfortunately, the Temporal Six keep causing issues.

13 - Parent Teacher Creature Feature: After watching a scary movie, Verne and Grace are convinced Strickland is actually an alien. (Spoilers, He isn't.)

14 - Linda's Way: Linda McFly attempts to bond over something with her music and strategy-game loving brothers.

15 - Lauren in Wonderland: Lauren nearly dies when she tries to prove to herself that she's just dreaming and not really in 1986.

which episode is the most intriguing?

Hello there! It's me, finally getting to the pile of asks I've been ignoring for weeks to months. I forgot you had sent me this episode list for your animated series rework!

These are all so interesting. I'd say the ones that jump out to me the most are

"Can't Con and Con-Man": because that whole concept is an intriguing one, and I'd love to see what kind of chaos a guy from the 1940s could cause in Hill Valley.

"Parent Teacher Creature Feature": this one just sounds like such a cartoony episode! It'd even fit into the actual animated series perfectly.

"Linda's Way": I'm obsessed with thinking about the McFly siblings dynamic and love anything that focuses on them. This would be such a cute episode.

Thanks for sharing these with me!

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80’s/90’s syndicated cartoon? Episode 66: Summary (part two)

This is part two of my summary and conclusion to my blog series investigating how the ArchieSonic comics were remarkably similar to the format of a syndicated cartoon from the 80’s and 90’s. If you haven’t already, you can read part one here.

Okay, back to it!

Episode 40: The one episode that’s unique to the show’s premise and characters

I chose four arcs for this one - Mecha Madness, Return to Angel Island, Iron Dominion, and Spark of Life.

Episode 41: Recap origin story in yet another clip show

They didn’t do it as more clip shows, but the origins of the series were further explored in new stories multiple times in both pre-boot and post-boot. Perhaps the most memorable instance is from Sonic #43, in which King Acorn was trapped in his memories and reliving Robotnik’s coup.

Episode 42: Haunted house

We got this in the Sonic X comics, with issues 13 and 14 bringing in King Boom Boo from Sonic Adventure 2 and that one episode of the anime. Oh, and he was possessing everyone he could get his non-corporeal mitts on.

Episode 43: Hero suddenly becomes elderly

This one happened in Sonic Super Special #8. It wasn’t pretty.

Episode 44: Hero suddenly becomes six-to-eleven years old

This is another one we didn’t get in the comics, unfortunately. I used that episode as a good time to talk about the Sonic Kids comics, which gave us stories from when the Freedom Fighters were younger.

Episode 45: Boys vs. girls

I feel like this episode is supposed to be about boys and girls on the same teams turning against each other, so for this one I’m going to say no, that didn’t happen in ArchieSonic. The closest we got was that one time in Sonic #14 when Robotnik and Snively kidnapped Sally and Bunnie because they thought, “lulz girls are weaksauce.” They got more than they bargained for.

Episode 46: Unusually serious “drugs are bad,” episode.

Sigh, yes. The Chaotix Caper in Knuckles #13 - 15 is infamous.

Episode 47: Evil alien invasion

In pre-boot there was the Xorda in Sonic #124 - 125. In post-boot there was the return of the Black Arms in Sonic Universe #59 - 62. 

Episode 48: Benign Alien Visitors

The most memorable example is Ceneca-9009 of the Bem, who came to Mobius to change all roboticised Mobians back to normal. After first testing champions on both sides, of course.

Episode 49: Hero becomes blind. Magoo jokes aplenty. Ableism ages episode horribly.

Another one that didn’t happen in the comics. The closest instance was in the godawful Sonic Super Special 15, which featured ten freaking pages of Sonic wandering around in the dark or in a blizzard and unable to see crap.

Episode 50: Major event that dramatically shakes up status quo. Turns out to be a dream. 

I’m going with Sonic #37 for this one. Some might argue that Bunnie’s nightmare wasn’t really that big an event, but I would argue that one of the main characters slowly becoming a robot and turning on her friends definitely counts.

Episode 51: Villains team up

Oh, so many times. So many times in fact that I had to make a second post for all the examples I forgot. Let’s go with that time in Sonic #62, when a whole bunch of locked up villains thought Snively had been responsible for their jailbreak and signed up to work with him.

Episode 52: Rashomon homage

Yes, in Sonic Super Special #5. Sonic, Sally and Antoine all argued about how they each single-handedly defeated a combot that had attacked them.

Episode 53: Henchman joins heroes for one time only.

Snively did team up with the Freedom Fighters in a couple of issues when Robo-Robotnik invaded Mobius before agreeing to work for the new Eggman. He would later join the Freedom Fighters for awhile, starting in Sonic #152. He eventually went back to the Eggman Empire again, of course, because he’s awful. Post-reboot he had left Eggman's forces and was supposedly working for GUN, but was secretly plotting his own conquest from within their ranks.

Episode 54: Random child rescues hero. The episode’s all about them now.

There weren’t really any good examples that fit this one. Hope Robotnik and Ken Penders’ son and niece from the Sonic Live! special certainly had prominent page time in the stories they were involved in, but they never actually rescued Sonic, despite what this cover might have you believe.

Episode 55: Invisibility potion

Yes, but it was so effective that everyone (even Sonic himself) thought that he was dead.

Episode 56: The Writer’s Barely Disguised Fetish

Oh god, where do you even start with this one? Let’s just say yes, it happened on multiple occasions, and leave it at that.

Episode 57: Can’t eat favourite food

Weeeeell, I guess so. There was that one time in Sonic #11 where he ate too many chilli dogs before bed and had a trippy nightmare. When he woke up he decided to go on a diet for about thirty seconds. (cue canned laughter)

Episode 58: We have to save the environment, and so do you!

A lot of the early issues focused on stopping Robotnik from destroying the environment, but the best example of this one is probably the nuking of Robotropolis. Sonic managed to trick Eggman into turning on his city’s forcefield after the nuclear missiles were already inside, meaning that all the destruction and radiation was safely contained in an impenetrable bubble. In later issues Eggman and other villains would try to penetrate this shield, to release the radiation out into the surrounding environment.

Episode 59: Stranded in the ocean

I’m going with Waves of Change from Sonic #260 - #263, where Sonic, Amy and Rotor had to go to the underwater city of Meropis on their quest to restore the shattered planet.

Episode 60: Stranded in the desert

There are two instances here that fit this one best. The first one is Sonic #62/63 again, where Sonic and Tails crash their biplane in the desert and are “rescued” by the inhabitants of Sandblast City, who worship Sonic and refuse to let him leave. The other is the Knuckles mini-series, in which Knuckles and Archimedes were yeeted into the desert by Enerjak (something that seems to happen a lot with the various Enerjaks, I noticed).

Episode 61: Stranded in the snow

Continuing right off from Sonic #63 when Sonic and Tails escaped from the desert, they ended up trapped in the snow in the very next issue when their biplane failed them yet again.

Episode 62: Stuck in an elevator

I wasn’t able to find any instances of specifically being trapped in an elevator, so I broadened the category to its base trope, which is two people, usually enemies or rivals, being locked in a room together. There were lots of cases of this, such as when Dr Eggman and Dr Wily were locked up together during the Worlds Unite crossover.

Episode 63: Clip show to set up two-part finale

Well, Sonic #283 was a set-up story for the finale of the Sonic Unleashed adaptation. It had two stories - the first featured Sonic and Sally calling their allies around the world to explain their plan and ask for help, and the second featured Eggman watching the pirated footage of that video call and making a counter-plan. Is it a clip show? Not exactly, but it’s close enough.

Episode 64 - 65: Two-part Finale

I cited various finales (or planned finales, in the case of Endgame), including the end of the Knuckles series, the end of the Super Specials, the end of the Sonic X companion series, the end of the pre-reboot era, and the end of the post-reboot era. As I said in the final post, in my mind the proper finale of ArchieSonic is Sonic #287, despite the cancellation of the series not happening until three issues later and the fact that the last ArchieSonic comic ever published was actually Sonic Universe #94.

So out of the 65 episodes listed, we didn’t get the hiccups episode, the Wonderful Life parody episode, the hero has a cold episode, the origin recap clip show episode, the hero regressing to childhood episode, the boys vs. girls episode, or the hero blinded episode. That comes to only seven out of sixty-five episodes that we never saw happen in the ArchieSonic series. But does this mean that the comic wasn’t really a comic at all, but actually a syndicated cartoon? Well, let me just quote myself from the very first post I did regarding this topic.

So there you have it - of course ArchieSonic is a comic book series, there was never actually any doubt. 

Before I finish up, I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has read this series, especially those who commented with encouragement, ideas and suggestions. 

In particular I feel that I once again owe a big thank you to former ArchieSonic contributor Aleah Baker, who not only read and commented on my pieces but also gave her precious time on more than one occasion to offer behind the scenes insight and answer my questions about certain issues or characters. She was incredibly generous with me and I’m extremely grateful for all the help. 

This has been an extremely interesting topic for me to explore, and I’m going to miss writing about it. I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do with this blog after this. A few people have suggested that I go into a full commitment to review the entire series rather than just portions of it like I’ve been doing with this blog series, and I have certainly been considering doing that. But on the other hand there are so many others who have done that so well - a few of my personal favourites are @robotnikholmescomicblog (who has branched out to video essays after finishing his initial reviews on Tumblr), the ArchieSonic Digest podcast, and of course, Bobby Shroeder’s @thankskenpenders. If I was going to do a full ArchieSonic review series, I would want to find a way to put my own spin on it rather than just rehashing what they have done. So I’m going to have to keep thinking on that. Thanks again for reading, everyone, and take care!

[meguemii]

Hardy Friends.

[episode two — the morning after]

chapter synopsis :: nobara invites your for breakfast and tells you the summer plans over some breakfast

[wc : 1.2k]

navigation station. 🚉

the sheer sound of an alarm was enough to jerk you awake from a deep sleep. throwing your arm over yourself to grab the phone and turn it off. unfortunately about half an hour later another alarm started going off, finally making you get up and check the time. 8:30. ‘lovely’ you thought to yourself as you sat up, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes with a yawn.

the uncomfortable and scratchy feeling from wearing your clothes from last night started to set in as well as the raging headache.

light seeping into your room through the crack of your curtains. a big groan of dissatisfaction leaving your vocal cords as you threw your head back and squirmed out of your clothes to get comfortable and burring your head into the pillows in an attempt to go back to sleep. and that’s what you did. for 10 minutes. your phone started going off again. sitting straight up and grabbing your phone yanking it off your night stand.

nobara’s contact photo displayed on your screen with ‘swipe to answer’ written at the bottom.

“what can I do for you at THIS hour?” you asked sarcastically, annoyance and sleep prominent in your voice. “hi gorgeous! wanna get breakfast? i’m on my way over now” she said so cheerily. how she did so after drinking so much was beyond you. “do not show up at my pla-“ cut off by her interrupting you, “bye love you! see you in 30!”

“girl..” you said to yourself out loud and over enunciating, dragging yourself out of bed to try and get yourself together within 30 minutes. sweatpants and a t-shirt would have to for now. you had a few minutes to think before nobara would get there. scrolling through the snapchat stories from last night you see you and yuta in the back of a photo, as well as megumi, memories from last night also flooding back into your mind. having that moment in the car with him where you actually felt like friends again. but you weren’t. shaking the thoughts of a blossoming friendship from your mind you get up to leave. making your way to the door to grab your shoes. yuuji was sat at the kitchen table with his forehead pressed against it and a glass of water and some ibuprofen beside him. “me too yuu, me too.” you said only getting a mumble from him in return. walking past him, snatching the bottle of ibuprofen, grabbing your keys and leaving your apartment you made your way to the parking garage to find Nobara’s car. 30 minutes went by way too quickly you thought to yourself.

you felt and looked disgustingly tired. your point was proved when you got opened up the car door. “Hey girl” she said looking up from her phone to look at you and her face scrunched up. “oh.. you look.. dead. you look dead.” there was never any sugarcoating it with her. “as much as I appreciate your honesty, but this is your fault” referring to your current state.

she started her car and tossed you her phone to play music, “by the way, i forgot my wallet at home so we need to stop before we grab food” nobara said as she peeled out of the parking. “it’s fine i’ll pay” you offered just wanting to get food in you as soon as possible, “sorry girl but i need my wallet which has my license in it too” you threw your head back with a playful groan.

you stared out of the passenger window people watching. the morning was a pretty quiet morning, people on their commute to work and others just enjoying their mornings. it was peaceful, especially with the soft music of nobara’s car as she hummed along. a small smile crept up your face as you turned to look at her. “i love you” it was random and she just chuckled, “i know.” moments like these made you grateful for your friends and your life.

a small bit of driving later and she pulled up to her apartment “did you wanna come up with me? i don’t know how long i’ll be.” she asked as she opened her door, “yeah i’ll come”

you guys trudged up the stairs to the 11th floor where hers and megumi’s home was, making your way to her door she played with her key ring to find the key for her door. “ladies first!” she said with a smile ushering you in. nothings changed since you were here last, except the boy who normally hid in his room was frantically searching cupboards for something.

“kugisaki, do we have any advil?” he asked still searching the cupboards, clearly unaware you were here too. “no, but I can grab some on my way home” she said retreating to her room to find her wallet.

he looked sickly. guessing you, megumi and yuji were all in the same boat. hangovers are the worst. “I have ibuprofen if you want that” you chimed in, he kinda jumped back and whipped his head around. clearly spooked at your sudden appearance. “uhh sure.” he said as you walked into the kitchen handing him to bottle “thanks..” and awkward silence sat in the air, you grabbed a glass and filled it up with water for him “don’t mention it”

“yn, i found my wallet. let’s go” she said as she exited her room towards the door with you following in suit.

you guys made it to your usual cafè get breakfast, you ordering a taro bun and an iced coffee and nobara ordering an american breakfast as well as an iced coffee.

“so megs and i have been planning something but i need yours and yuu’s full commitment.” she said breaking the silence. you just looked up at her through your brow as you ate.

“we wanna go to osaka, as a group. you won’t have to pay anything at all since mr gloomy’s dad said it’s a reward for getting good grades all year.” she just kept spitting out new information, it’s like her best tactic when it comes to convincing people.

“i’ll go, as long as he’s civil.” you told her. “don’t even worry, he’s already agreed to no bickering between the two of you.” she said.

after all that was out of the way, the two of you started discussing what you would wear and what you would do, and the kind of place you’re gonna be staying in during the rest of breakfast and as nobara drove you home.

you were about to get out when she stopped you. “I think mai and miwa are throwing a party tomorrow night, i’ll text you the details and we’re all going shopping tomorrow” you groaned as you got out.

walking into the apartment, yuuji was sitting on the couch watching some romance movie it seemed. “how does osaka sound?” you asked plopping down beside him.

“osaka?” he tilted his head. “yeah like how does it sound? all of us going. me, you, nobara and megumi”

“yeah sure, i’m down. as long as you and megs don’t argue the entire time.”

“it’ll be fine” you rolled your eyes at his comment about yourself and megumi. “he’s fine with it, in fact he paid for it all.” you got up making your way to your room. you hated when nobara or yuuji implied you and fushiguro couldn’t be civil with each other.

guess you have to be on your best behaviour this summer.

prev. masterlist. next

emi’s notes :: not proofread LOL. love you guys :3 sorry for being inactive. HAVE A CHAPTER!!

t. list — open

@kasumitenbaz @ladytamayolover @becsmarvel @hisheadismountfuji @dazaisfavgf @hfuensiekabhsufnd @hannya-exists [the ogs 🗣️] @lees-chaotic-brain @noodlejitsu

[ovaryacted]

Hey girl! How are you?

Have you finished animal kingdom yet?

Heyy!! So no I haven’t lmao. I’m on like Season 3 episode 6 or 8, I completely forgot, but I took a little break from my binge to actually work on writing something. It’s definitely starting to pick up in terms of action, and tbh the seasons and drama only get crazier the more you watch, but I just want to say I’m happy to see Andrew Pope Cody get finer every season. Even though he’s literally getting closer and closer to losing his fucking mind, I can’t wait until I hit S4 and get to see Shawn’s directing skills on top of him getting bulky mmm.

But I do plan on finishing it hopefully soon! I’ve just been busy & super tired recently so haven’t had the energy to focus on it unfortunately. I’ve been putting my friends on to the show tho with very explicit warnings and I love hearing them all complain about Craig & Nicky cause I hate those two ESPECIALLY! All they do is have sex, do coke, and cause problems. Bring me Pope and Lena father/daughter duo, that’s what I’m fucking here for! 🙂‍↕️