#was going to end in the mornign so i missed it there were a decent amount of free books and which it was to promote the final volume who kno

[rodem]

had an absoutelhy insane dream last night (obviously dreams do not make sense when you actually try to contextualize all the details and what not, so i will try to reformulate a few things to make smore sense in my mind)

the story is abt a lab of scientists, who also do forensic investigation or something? idkexactly what they dd id and it doesnt matter ebcause dreams are not logicall. the main character has like very low self esteem and a history of being bullied/made fun of (both in the past and in the present by like two coworkers.) this all makes him very insecure an d self conscious he feels like he isnt contributing anything to the lab and is just going to continue being in a menial position/possibly be fired for being so useless (i think he and the two other charas i will mention were actually lab assistants, but like idk what the specifcs of that position are i know nothing abt science). the two other major characters are his two childhood friends who work with him in the same position. they are siblings and the dude is a couple years older than the main character and is sister is ether his twin or a few years younger/closer in age to the main character. the main character looks like a twinkie blonde guy with glasses (basically looks like my still in progress oc who is like the exact same chara but a teacher instead of a scientist. star system bullshit i guess). the dude childhood friend is like very huge and bald and intimidating looking. the girl is basic small blonde cute girl looking type. the mc and chfguy were best buddies back in grade school and the dude always had the mc’s back. but since they got older/separated for a bit due to them being in dif places in life, the dude has become very quiet and so they arent as close but still consider eacther friends. though the dude is like a science genius and he keeps coming up with amazing discoveries and research. which eventually earn him a position as a valued core member of the team. bcuz they arent as close as previously along with dude looking big and scary and being very quiet except for like standard greetings, mc is convinced dude now hates him and is doing all this to get mc fired, or at least dimmish his importance even further. mc is also secretly scared of dude now and since he’s really paranoid about dude secretly hating him, he obviously never brings this up to dude and his sister. the sister is the one who actively tries to reach out to him and talk to him more, but also really admires and loves her brother so of course dude can’t tell her what he really thinks abt him know. 

anyway so the mc does some research/tests abt cancer and boldly exclaims that he has found the cure for cancer (mis-representing the results of the tests he actualy did). no one questions him on the validity of his claim as the rest of the lab staff are too excited thinking abt all the fame and publicity it will bring their lab. and they believe mc is now the shoe in for the noble prize (and yes i was watching bobby broccoli’s utube documentaries recently).

at the same time (i think a bit before he starts the lie) something inside mc just snaps and he kills someone. idr who exactly it was but it might of been one of his past bullies or one of the coworkers who belittled him so much. with his scientific knowledge the guy is able to commit a crime without leaving any traces that would lead back to him. he dumps the guy in the nearby river/creek body of water thing. for some reason he decides to himself that theres point of no return now and that he should continue killing ppl. so now our main character is on e a quest to make a name for himself in two ways: in public he will be known as the genius who cured cancer, and in the darkness he will be an anonymous vigilante serial killer, bringing scum who escaped the law to justice!!! (im p sure now tht he kills the person and starts this quest before he started lying abt curing cancer, cause he wouldnt of snapped like that if all his coworkers were praising his Genius.) 

So the mc continues killing ppl and dumping them in the same body of water. eventually the bodies are discovered and this mysterious vigilante assassin is dubbed... “The Killer.” The Killer’s action inspire fear and debate around the city. Meanwhile the lab staff is preparing the mc’s speech for the noble prize. Mc actually has not published his research yet (cause it like doesn’t exist/leads to a widely different conclusion), and is planning to rely the scientific method not until the event where he receives the award himself, for maximum impact!! Other, “less important” lab members are tasked with writing his acceptance speech, with mc giving the go-ahead and saying that hell check it over and edit it himself once he receives it. Since no one else actually knows the process behind curing cancer that mc supposedly discovered, they mostly just write bullshit fluff. 

Soon the light and darkness of mc’s life intersect, when one of his lab higherups is tasked with doing forensic investigation into the remains of The Killer’s victims. So of course, MC begins expanding his victim criteria and kills the higherup too. When a few fellow lab members begin to question mc’s validity, he kills them too and all their bodies are disposed of the same way. 

So now its like the day before the noble prize ceremony (idk how that shit works at all btw), and mc has crafted a good enough fake logic for how to cure cancer that will fool most ppl who dont know abt science/the more lowly lab members. He has killed everyone in the team who he believes would find the holes in his logic and ruin his grand plan... except.... the dude childhood friend, who is very very intelligent. So mc must kill and dispose of the dude before the ceremony the next day. but whats more important than the actual killing to him, i s figuring out where to dispose the body, since it has to be in a way where no evidence/traces to him remain. it cant be a body of water because he knows it will be discovered quickly and he doesn t want this killing to be connected to The Killer. So he decides to burn it. but since the guy is huge he needs to find a place in the middle of nowhere where he cn set off a huge fire without anyone noticing. Guy spends like all day and night wandering the city and nearby places to find a big field in the middle of nowhere. eventually just walking in circles and making no progress. The remaining lab members are all confused and worried abt where mc disappeared to as he should be practicing his speech, so dude is sent to investigate (and also he goes bcuz he is personally very very worried for his friend). i guess they live in a n industrial city but mc is not even trying he s just wandering around the most populous streets. (but supposedly he just never finds the place he is looking for.) mc also may or may not have realized that dude is following and looking for him, and if he did he was trying to avoid him as well. anyway its the dead of the night, or early morning, mc has went the entire day without eating or sleeping. he lets his guard down and is spotted by dude. so he cant keep up the act of trying to pretend he didnt notice him any longer. i think the excuse mc gives dude for why he was gone all day and spen t the entire night pacing around (even going to the next city or state over and walking all the way back) is that he was just really anxious abt the whole thing and needed time to think by himself and walking helps that. anyway dude is like “you need sleep” so the two rent  a room in the nearby high class hotel (the only place fit for a high class scientist who discovered the cure for cancer.) the ornate hotel room comes with a fire place. 

It is only a few hours until the ceremony and mc is so tired he feels like he’s abt to pass out. So at this point he can either 1. get a t least  a few hours of sleep so he’s not completely out of it during the ceremony. and with that means taking the risk that he will be found out by dude and be made into a global disgrace. option 2 is killing him in the hotel room and burning the body in the fireplace.

Also dude and tire d mc have a chat while sitting on the bed together (mc is like resting his head on dude’s thigh he’s that tired.) here dude confesses that he has been in love with mc this entire time, or at least ever since they reunited at th e same job. and also that him being quiet was just due to his personality changing/experiencing hardships that made him believe it was better to not talk much. and also that he assumed that there bond as childhood friend’s was so close that he really only needed to make small talk for mc to understand him. (a case of awful communication all around). this new revelation adds anything layer to the moral dilemma of mc’s choice. 

Thi s dream had like a bad ending and good ending, like video game. (It was more like “cowardly/giving up” ending and “going through wit h everything” one.) The “bad” ending involved mc confessing everything to dude. not just that the whole curing cancer thing being a huge lie, but also that he’s the one behind te killings. The sleepiness makes MC give up everything and allows dude to decide how to deal with him. (whether he brings him to justice/exposes everything or not.) 

in like these kinds of dreams im usually conscious its a dream so if it ends in a bad/scary way i backtrack and think of a better ending. and also it was one of those dreams where i was both an outside observer watching/reading a story and the mc at the same time, so like ending with being exposed and prob going to prison for life was scary for me. The alt/good/true ending has mc stay awake to continue his killing/burning body plan. I think he succeeds in killing him, either by shoving him in the fireplace alive or by killing him b4 through some method and then burning him alive. but its a big dude and the fireplace is very small in comparison and there’s no tools around to chop up the body so idk what happens after. and idk how it ends in gneeral cause i like always wake up right b4 the actual end. 

ANyway, it was another very fucked up dream but ive had way scarier ones tbh (like this one was mostly fine for me cause like the “outside observer” side was more than the “I’m in the place of the mc” side when its usually the opposite I feel like.) . And with alot of editing/adding and changing things i think this could make an interesting suspense story. 

[popculturebuffet]

Jake Reviews Amphibia: Handy Anne and Fort in the Road

It’s finally here... the second time i’ve said that in three days but hey, Amphibia is back! After a years hiatus due to the show being shoved out in a month to get it on disney plus faster (Yet they STILL don’t have wonder over yonder so I can finally watch season 2. God damn. ), one of the best new shows of a year stuffed with them is back! I was excited about this one from the start. A great premise, a gravity falls pedegriee, and the wonderful Brenda Song, who I had a crush on when I was younger despite not really watching the first suite life that much, though I will admit what I saw was pretty decent and had a wonderful cast especially song and Phil Morris as Mr.Mosby.. it was just overshadowed by i’ts two leads being really sterotypical (the cool but dumb hustler and the stick in the mud nerd) and I was more of a nick middle schooler anyway so I barely touched it. Granted if I could go back in time and trade which shows I watched i’d trade it for Zoey 101 in a heartbeat, another show with awful leads but the rest of the main cast was really good concidentally. 

Anyways I did watch more of on deck to  kill time and absolutley hated it. Seroiulsy the show really sucks: Zack and Cody were turned into basically worse versions of Zack Morris and Ross Gellar, worse because while their just as douchey as those two, Mark  Paul Gossler and David Schiwmer can actually act and Cole Sprouse could not yet. I do say yet since Cole Sprouse has grown because he wasn’t half bad in the one season of riverdale I watched. Riverdale, what happens when you have the entire writers room snort a line of coke and then tell them to write the most insane archie fanfiction they can and stitch the results together. Just with Archie alone from what i’ve seen in read he’s started a vigilante posse ala homer simpson, nearly joined hte mafia, been framed form murder, had the local cheerleaders do a number for him while he played prison football, escaped prison to hide in canda from both his former mafia boss whose also his girlfriend’s dad and the cult based on a  DnD knockoff, got mauled by a bear and LIVED, and now is a superhero apparently. WHy I haven’t gone back to at the very least review this clusterfuck is a mystery.  But the point is the twins were really terrible at the time, and if the fact Dylan’s only major role recently is in the sequel to After, that film based on self insert one direction fanfiction, which somehow got a sequel while Birds of Prey probably won’t because god really does hate me. So it was bad and she deserved better, got better with the social network but hadn’t done much i’d seen, so a new cartoon starting her in her elment and in a great show for once had me pumped.  And.. my faith paid off. The show is beautifully animated, ahs a wonderfully morbid and fully fleshed out world, top notch voice acting (including BIll Farmer who is so unreconizable as hop pop I thought he was voiced by charlie addler), great jokes, action and storytelling. Just a slam dunk that left be jonesning for me. And now in one of the best weeks for animation in a while, more is here. I do mean that: 3/4 of disney’s major animated shows returning and close enough finally airing it’s a good time.  When we last left our heroes: Hop Pop buired the box that brought anne there and lied to her about it which even a year later I think is a terrible decision.. one made for understandable reasons as he clearly knows something more about it than she does, but one that’s bound ot backfire whens he finds out her new grandpa lied to her and betrayed her. The plantars also spent the season preparing to leave wartwood. Soon after, Anne was forced to finally stand up to her manipulative, if to my utter shock still caring about her and possibly being into her? I mean it’s not like I haven’t seen the “villian whose overcompensating for a terrible past and likes manipualting people redeemed and ending up smooching the somewhat reckless but good hearted heroine” before. 

Anyways Sasha ends up nearly falling off a giant tower, Anne tries to save her, with the rest of her new family pitching in, and Sasha, realizing just how terrible she’s been just.. let’s her self fall, only saved because Grime caught her. And just remembering that sequence god dman.. the fact they actually got the rights to lean on me for it really dosen’t help. But the day was saved and while Anne had a huge bundle of trauma, the family was ready to finally set out soon. And now a year later i’ts time. Now i’ve gotten all the personal stuff out of the way, let’s hop to it and see what the new season has to offer. Full review with spoilers under the cut!

Handy Anne

So the Plantars are finally setting off. We don’t touch on the Sasha thing much, just a quick bit at the begining to show that while Anne is insiting she’s fine it really traumatized her. I do like kids shows starting to show more that sometimes heroes just DON’T bounce back after something like this, especially young ones. While it’ isn’t nearly to the extent of Steven Universe spending an entire season having his lack of thearpy and unresolved issues slowly destroy him, it’s still nice to see. But the main thrust of the episode is it’s vacation time brother!

Yup after a few episodes of build up last season with the valley clear, Hop Pop has bought a suprisingly nice and affordable wagon (As Polly excitedly explains someone died in it) so they can finally set out to hopefully find Anne a way home. Their going to Oregon! I mean To newtopia, the beating heart of Amphibia: a bustling metroplis built on knowledge where they can hopefully find a way to get Anne and friends back home, while Anne hopes to find Marcy. The rest of the kids are also excited just to get out of the valley for the first time.  Everyone’s pumped.. but Anne starts to worry when she finds out Hop Pop has asked his friend Chuck, the “I grow tulips” guy from the bug ball episode last season who I forgot about but was reminded why I love him and am glad to have him back, to watch the house as given Amphibia is hard enough to surivive on a good day, let alone if your a stationary building. And Chuck dosen’t insprie confidence so Anne decides to fortify the house. And her reasoning.. is actually really sweet and shows how much she’s grown: Instead of like most times where her impulsivness is the reason shenanigans and life thretaning situations happen here.. she’s hit with the hard relization her new family is basically risking everything, their home, their farm, their chuck, to help her get home. 

So Anne decides to armor up the house, getting a fuck ton of shovels and a ton of suplies from the blacksmith guy who suprisngly for once DOES have what she needs for her veggies, to the point his not backtracking weirds anne out, and gives her a tub of goo. This can only end well! Meanwile the rest of the family pack. Polly having maybe 3 possesions gets done quick, Hop Pop is being anal reteitive as always with his ascots (hilariously done and Bill Farmer really is the MVP of this series), while Sprig’s gone half insane just picking out which slingshot to take as he never left, which polly of course exploits.  But things natrually go wrong as the goo creates veggie monsters the family fights (with sprig even calling fight time because this is normal to them at this point) the next mornign and then one colosus that destroys the house... and Anne’s anger and heartbreak over it .. awakens something. See something I hadn’t heard about and didn’t notice at the ebgining of the series was anne’s eyes flashing blue while fighting the mantis in the first episode. Many couldn’t tell if it was leading somewhere or just an animation error. Here though her eyes go bright blue in close up with it being clear this is part of her.. the question what is it and why? Just what power does she have now? And will it save the world or destroy it? Questions for later Anne saves the day, an admits she screwed up but Hop Pop is understanding: He’s touched by her actions but also explains their not just doing this for her: their with her all the way and any sacrifice is worth it. And I like that part of hop pop: while he can be overbearing, just see next episode.. he does genuinely mean well and has genuine wisdom, something they sometimes forget with grandparent characters in animation. He’s crotchety and a stick in the mud, but he’s still throughly nice and understanding and it shows here: He’s going to get his daughter back whatever it takes.. almost.  Hop Pop calls on chuck who in a whilrwind of tools and tulips fixes the place.. and proves to be every bit the legend I thought him. He sells tulips and he’s great. We’ll miss you chuck. But as they get ready to leave Anne brings up the box and Hop Pop, remembering what he did, hastily says it’s better with their contacts. WHich again just seems short sided: while he is trying to protect her, especially since next episode confirms there was some sort of apocalypse once so odds are her being connected to it might not be the best, he can’t dance around her connection to it forever, and hiding the fact some apolcaypse was caused by it is only going to backfire when some vilian reveals it or anne finds it out for herself. Taking her to a place full of infomration where he’ll now have to work to hide the truth is just asking for this to backfire. Not bringing it is one thing, dangerous people could still get the box and use it for their own ends.. we’ve seen female newt sabertooth in the promos and we’ve met Grime. But not telling her is just setitng himself up for a big and deeserved fall soon. But with that settled our heroes set out! 

Final Thoughts I:  Overall this was a good start to the season: my one real complaint is the town didn’t really see them off or anything, so the large and loveable supporting cast is just.. absent unless the series returns to wartwood at some point and it would’ve been nice to see them once last time. Even star vs, as bad as season 3 was, knew we wouldn’t be seeing most of the earth cast for a whie and had marco have a meaningful sendoff before he left. But.. given how tight the phacing seems to be this season judging by episode titles alone, and they only had 11 minutes here. I do think it could’ve been in hte next episode, but it dosen’t ruin a decent, fun start to the season really rooted in character stuff. Not the series finest 11 minutes, but still really good and a good way to start us off. 

Fort in the Road: 

First off your welcome for that episode screencap. Now this one’s also simple, but ends up having a rather sizeable revelation nestled inside. The Plantars are going down the road and while the kids want to you know explore, see places, actually enjoy the trip especailly since Sprig and Polly have never been anywhere else before, Hop Pop, being hop pop, instead just wants them to sit and be quite and follow his rules. I mean it is hte grind but you can at least make it FUN for htem; Just look at this guy. 

It took an episode longer than I thought to refrence the trail to oregon given this season is about a wagon trip, but I’m glad to do it .. and do it again. I will fit pays to be an animal in here somewhere I swear it. WE’ve got time left in the road trip.  Anyways this goes down terribly, though some rules like not posing dramatically as it smacks of hubris and never ends well. But understandably the kids are annoyed about it: Anne can’t even compallin because i’ts not in the rules.  So naturally as Hop Pop should’ve seen coming at the first opprotuunity Anne fakes being cart sick and they run off to see a weird looking ruin with Hop Pop chasing them and leaving the cart to polly because that can’t end well but he’s on a short time.  And this is where the season drops a 10 ton atomic bombshell. Anne being kinda magic in the last episode and it being fully part of things now is intresting and shocking.. but this is miles ahead of it and casts Hop Pop’s actions: Turns out whatever the clamamity box did set techniology in amphibia back to a little above the dark ages. I mean they have full light thanks to lightning bugs, but their still leagues behind.. but were once up to at least mid 2000′s levels of technology. The machine seen requires a disk to stop, but it’s still far beyond what I expcted from this world. Naturally Hop Pop shows up furious, then gets stuck on the assembly line with the kids deseprate to save him, with spirg ending up doing sow ith the rule book. Also we get Anne’s wonderful repsonse to Sprig asking what a disk is:  “I don’t know! i’m from another dimension not the 90s!”  They surivive, the factory blows up and the kids apologize and agree to go back to the boring way things have been going.. but Hop Pop thankfully realizes he’s been a bit overbearing and actually gives a good reason why: He’s never taken then out of the valley before and simply got overprotective. This is his family after all, all he has left of his kid and all he really has left beside Sylvia and the farm. It’s understandble he’d go a bit overboard. But Hop Pop decides to compromise a bit in a nice moment: while the impalment fields are obviously a non starter, he does get the kids ice cream (Anne even admits at this point she dosen’t pick the bugs out anymore), and they genuinely enjoy the trip while Sprig (in a hilarious bit of lampshadng as he does it repeadtly) wonders jsut what they were making.. and as I spoiled it was robots.. one of whom is now following them. Wether this means new doom or the plantars getting a new robot family member I don’t know i’m hoping for the latter. Everyone needs a vision in their life.   Final thoughts II: While having a bit of an obvious conflict with an obvious resolution the character work combined with the MASSIVE plot bombshell really make this enjoyable and I hope to find out more about just what the hell happened and what these robots are for. Just another good solid episode and an excellent duo to start the season.  Next week: Things take a turn for the western and Anne learns to hunt and more about the glow. And with the glow you need to grow to glow... until then i’ll likely have mor ereviews on this channel, I recently reveiwed all of season 1 of close enough if your curious, and until next time.. play us out Willie!

I love what i’ve seen of this throughly stupid movie. Bye ya’ll!