#when s1 aired vs now i mean

[marblenarwhal]

there is a sadness that permeates ofmd s2. it feels post apocalyptic in an uncomfortably real way. there are a lot of beautiful, painful moments. it reminds me of my early 20s and the friends i had, who eventually moved or drifted away.

like, there was a golden time when things are simple and you were there but you missed it. you didnt stop and appreciate it. or maybe it was never that simple, and it's just the nostalgia making you feel that way. but youre different now or maybe youre the same but everyone else is different, and youve all been through so much, youve lost people and youve hurt each other in ways that were casual and careless but caused ripples that shifted things in a frustratingly, achingly imperceptible way you dont even know how to fix. and now you have new people, and maybe some of the same people, and you keep trying but you cant recapture those golden moments of the past because it was lightening in a bottle. so you just have to keep going and in five years you'll look back at this moment right now and think, man. those were the good times. and everything is different now.

[cerastes]

You're better at mechanics than I am so can you please explain how/when to use Iana S2 vs S1?

Iana plays more like an Ambusher than a Dollkeeper, and is unique in that her "doll" form is actually her real self, while the "Operator" is the doll, or hologram in her case. This, in gameplay, translates to her unique form of Dollkeeping: She'll always instantly go into "doll" form the moment she's attacked, inflicting Reveal and Fragile onto the offending enemy. This happens no matter the range at which she was attacked. I bring this up because her skills, which all involve going "doll", practically have this baked into them in addition to whatever else they individually do.

Now, Iana is an easy M6.

S1 is a Geese Howard ass counterframes skill. No matter where, no matter how, if you attack her hologram, you get punched in the face REALLY hard by the ensuing S1 explosion, which is a mine Iana throws at you. You'll often see this in proximity, as most likely, she'll be hit by melee enemies or by nearby ranged enemies. This is where I must bring up the wording on the skill: When the skill says it centers the explosion of Physical damage on the attacker, it's being very literal. If Faust or a mortar enemy launches an attack on Iana from 50 kilometers away on the other side of the map, then Iana will run all the way over there and punch them in the god damn face with an explosion.

Pictured above: Iana S1

And invisibility won't save them, either, because remember, she Reveals and Fragiles the enemy that attacks her hologram, which also means the attack is actually stronger than its already huge multiplier.

The blast is centered on the enemy that triggers the counterframes, so it has some AoE use. In maps with a lot of enemies grouped together, like every RA2 horde ever, this is a hugely strong skill, likewise, it's a great counter against annoying long range enemies, or enemies with high Defense, since it hits Anywhere Ever, and the multipliers on this are huge. It's case use is pretty ample.

S2 is pretty versatile, since it has low SP charge (5 at M3), and, the game doesn't tell you this, but even though it's manually activated, it ALSO can be activated through counterframes if SP is full, meaning, someone hits Iana, they are now Revealed and Fragiled, and Iana reaps all the benefits of S2.

Pictured above: The benefits of S2 (sans Invisibility, which she also gets)

It's a pretty good general use skill, since you can shred mid-Defense enemies pretty nicely, destroy air enemies with ease, and it also Reveals all enemies in range, so whenever you're playing a map with really annoying Invisible units, well, this also helps with that.

Compared to other Dollkeepers, she has more range, so set her appropriately to maximize her coverage with this in mind.

The simple cheat sheet is S1 is good for high DEF enemies, long range enemies, and tons of clustered units (both naturally clustered, or those clustered by means of a Decel Binder, for example, wink wink), while S2 is good for every other occasion, especially against mid-and-below DEF enemies and air enemies, but just is a good skill in general, with particular additional utility against multiple Invisible enemies. And she's a great, constant, consistent source of Fragile, to boot.

[the-owl-house-takes]

So I think the worst take of the fandom is that all of the problems of the show would have been fixed had it gotten a full S3. That literally any problem the show had merely came from the shortening. This is... Well, just blatantly shows that the fandom not only doesn't understand how the animation industry works AND doesn't want to actually look at the narrative they did choose to focus on post the shortening call that were just... baffling.

So first let's establish how much of the show was affected by the Shortening. As a fandom, we found out about it during the hiatus between S1 and 2. This was at earliest, August 2020 since the S1 finale came out late August 2020. Dana has claimed two things that are important to this timeline. 1: The shortening was decided on shortly before the finale came out and 2: That the first episode affected by Covid, which would have been back in March/April, was Looking Glass Ruins. So we EXPLICTLY know that the shortening didn't affect the show until after S2 Ep 5.

BUT then we get into production schedules. Before S2 even BEGAN airing, we were told to stop campaigning for a full S3 because they had to get started on storyboards for the season and that was effectively the firm deadline. This means ALL of S2 was effectively done in script and storyboards by the time S2 aired. This makes sense to keep a weekly schedule and the like and most animation professionals will tell you they work MONTHS in advance of release, bare minimum.

This means, AT BEST, S2B was when the shortening really kicked in. And yes, S2B has pacing issues. It has issues in general and is when most people think the quality of the show dropped. The problem is that... The signs were always there. There's a reason why there's been a backlash because as people become disillusioned with the show, you have to ask what was driving so much before.

And a lot of that was potential. S1 is so good when you first watch it because it keeps teasing the idea that it's going to tackle things in a complex way. That it will explore concepts like Amity's abusive family, magic, fantasy vs reality, etc. like that. It's why the fandom was at its strongest during S1.

Unfortunately, the problem with presenting good ideas and then not executing on them, or completely gutting them is that those old parts are a lot harder to enjoy. As Willow was effectively not a character for half a season and then just suddenly was a jock, people began to realize the fact that she in the show is much more a plot device than anything else. They claimed "We're not doing the one kind act into friendship and forgiveness thing with Amity and Willow" and then literally did NOTHING with it until S2B and eventually DID just do the same trope anyways but now with less resonance than it would have had in Understanding Willow.

Not only that but even S1 didn't give a single shit about its worldbuilding. The First Day has Dana Terrace as a lead writer on it. If anyone knows the worldbuilding best, it should be her... So why is it that no one talks about multi-coven things being illegal? It's literally just used as meta commentary and so they entirely ignore the worldbuilding they have. Reaching Out is exactly the same, with Dana as the SOLE writer of that where Amity and everyone else treats joining a coven like going to college and not literally the word of the law.

But S1 couldn't even keep Wild Witches consistent. Half the time Eda can chill and not worry. She can go to a place funded by the EC like Hexide and not flinch for a second that Bump might call the guards on her despite that being kind of the ONE real rule to their society that makes it not just our world but with teeth. Then again, the show gives NO FUCKS about its own stuff, willing excising portions of itself that it finds cumbersome. Escaping Expulsion is BEFORE Looking Glass Ruins and yet it murders Luz's magical potential in its sleep and also discards Amity's family as easily disposable, despite how much the show claims her mother's influence is the reason why Amity behaved the way she did for all of... Three appearances? Because Amity's arc isn't actually good.

It shouldn't be surprising S2 would do this though when the writers already struggled to do anything with Luz's magic. If she's supposed to be learning and growing... Even S1 is shit at this and is repetitive. Not just with the at least three times we do "King has a minion!" B plot that isn't funny and doesn't do anything but also with its lessons. Luz theoretically learns to listen to Eda in the third episode and arguably the second as well. Then she gets her first glyph with the lesson, in theory. of not trying to take shortcuts to do magic and to not steal. And then in Adventure in the Elements, not even to impress Amity but because of her impatience, she steals something to take a shortcut to stronger magic. That is THREE episodes of the first TWELVE of the series. It usually takes most kids shows at least a LITTLE longer to be that bad at retreading its own lessons.

And the final part of this is that... S2 actually had to be effectively the exact same as it was for s3 to happen. You need the foreshadowing of the Collector for the Day of Unity. You need to FINALLY do something with Belos for the revelations of the Human Realm to happen and to do Luz's angst arc. You need Hunter to be at least 90% redeemed so he's there on their side during The Day of Unity, etc. like that. Then you get half a season in the human realm before coming back to the Isles for half a season, just like Amphibia did because returning home is the best mid-season finale you can have there. So any argument that a full S3 would have actually fixed issues with S2B is just... Wrong. The problems with S2B come with the fact that S2A wastes a FUCKTON of time on elements that don't matter.

Oh, and lest we forget that The Collector could have been cut. He had one appearance in a dream, that also doesn't make sense with his characterization, before S2B. In the fact, the crew has admitted as much. He was added AFTER the news of the Shortening because they always wanted to include a character like him so now that they didn't have the time for him... Cram him in anyways.

Could a show have EVER been saved when that's how they treat one of their two final antagonists? It's the sort of statement that just solidifies the idea that TOH didn't want three seasons. It wanted five... If not just to go on forever. To be the next monolithic show, even as it repeats character arcs, lessons and shrinks characters rather than expands them.

So no, the show isn't bad because of the shortening. The show is bad because the writing is bad.

-

[gretchensinister]

Babylon 5 rewatch, S1 E10: Believers

There was a big gap between episodes in the original airing schedule!

It's Jehovah's Witnesses who are the real-world group that don't permit blood transfusions, right? I know I didn't know that when I first watched this episode.

I wonder what kind of cultural training doctors like Franklin get; I feel like it would be very necessary/complicated when treating many different alien species, even to a lesser degree than a people not permitting any surgery.

I love the idea of spaceships in the future being named after science fiction writers.

It's not important to the plot, but I wonder what the planet of the family with the medical plotline is like that made travel to Babylon 5 the best option for medical treatment, especially because they're not interested in going outside their cultural boundaries.

That is something to think about, how this individual medical case could result in a diplomatic incident.

I realize I don't know that much about how much parental wishes vs. medical intervention works anywhere on Earth.

Ambassador in general referred to with "she"!

All of the ambassadors' refusals are really a summary of their current characters.

Asking the kid what he wants! Finally, a hurdle cleared.

Actually, that's a really GOOD question--what happens after the surgery if that means the kid loses his spirit in that culture?

I keep forgetting to comment on the raider plotline IDK I'm just not that interested in the raiders; they're faceless. I hope Ivanova is having a nice day out--oh.

NOW what's going to happen to the kid???

I don't think...I don't think this is actually going to resolve how you want Franklin. And...no, no it did not.

(I do wonder how this culture deals with accidental, non-life-threatening cuts.)

[cdyssey]

Abbott Elementary S1-S2 Bracket

Hi all!

Welcome to the Abbott Elementary S1 and S2 Tumblr Bracket, where we’ll vote on episodes to see what the Tumblr's current favorite episode is. The thirty-five episodes are seeded based on iMDb ratings, and voting rounds will last an entire week. Since Round 1 has the most episodes of all, we’ll split that one into two weeks, so there aren’t 17 polls going on at once, lmao.

On this doc, you’ll find all the information you need to know about the rounds, as well as all the imDB scores, summaries, and original air dates of episodes! Meanwhile, this post will be continually updated with links to all the polls once they go live!

Hope you guys have fun!! Voting will officially start on 4/21/23!

- Maggie

Final Update (6/13/23): All poll data is now available! A winner has been declared.

Round 1, Pt. I:

Duration: 4/21/23 - 4/28/23

Since there is an uneven number of episodes, the highest rated episode and our #1 seed “Teacher Conference” is going to have a bye-week, which just means it’ll sit out on Round 1 until we can get the remaining choices to an even number!

"Art Teacher" (#35) vs. "Festival" (#2) → "Festival" (82%) [167 votes]

"Juice" (#34) vs. "Candy Zombies" (#3) → "Candy Zombies" (75.7%) [144 votes]

"Pilot" (#33) vs. "Work Family" (#4) → "Work Family" (74%) [123 votes]

"New Tech" (#32) vs. "Zoo Balloon" (#5) → "Zoo Balloon" (71.6%) [141 votes]

“Story Samurai” (#31) vs. “Mom” (#6) → "Mom" (81.3%) [134 votes]

“Light Bulb” (#30) vs. “Educator of the Year” (#7) → "Educator of the Year" (50.9%) [108 votes]

“Student Transfer” (#29) vs. “Valentine’s Day” (#8) → "Valentine's Day" (62.7%) [118 votes]

Round 1, Pt. 2:

Duration: 4/28/23 - 5/5/23

“Gifted Program” (#28) vs. “Holiday Hookah” (#9) → "Holiday Hookah" (83.2%) [137 votes]

“Mural Arts” (#27) vs. “Sick Day” (#10) → "Sick Day" (58.7%) [109 votes]

“Fight” (#26) vs. “Development Day” (#11) → "Development Day" (62.9%) [116 votes]

“Wishlist” (#25) vs. “Teacher Appreciation” (#12) → "Teacher Appreciation" (70.3%) [91 votes]

“Step Class” (#24) vs. “Fundraiser” (#13) → "Step Class" (62.4%) [117 votes]

“Ava vs. Superintendent” (#23) vs. “Read-a-Thon” (#14) → "Read-a-Thon" (70.9%) [103 votes]

“Principal’s Office” (#22) vs. “Desking” (#15) → "Desking" (62.8%) [121 votes]

“Attack Ad” (#21) vs. “Franklin Institute” (#16) → "Franklin Institute" (85.8%) [106 votes]

“Egg Drop” (#20) vs. “Wrong Delivery” (#17) → "Egg Drop" (68.4%) [98 votes]

“Fire” (#19) vs. “Open House” (#18) → "Fire" (71.3%) [101 votes]

Round 2:

Duration: 5/7/23 - 5/14/23

"Festival" (#2) vs. "Candy Zombies" (#3) → “Candy Zombies” (62.2%) [74 votes]

"Work Family" (#4) vs. "Zoo Balloon" (#5) → “Zoo Balloon” (58.3%) [60 votes]

"Mom" (#6) vs. "Educator of the Year" (#7) → “Mom” (69.5%) [59 votes]

"Valentine's Day" (#8) vs. "Holiday Hookah" (#9) → “Holiday Hookah” (77.8%) [63 votes]

"Sick Day" (#10) vs. "Development Day" (#11) → “Development Day” (54.3%) [70 votes]

"Teacher Appreciation" (#12) vs. "Step Class" (#24) → “Step Class” (55.6%) [63 votes]

"Read-a-Thon" (#14) vs. "Desking" (#15) → Read-a-Thon” (50.8%) [118 votes]

"Franklin Institute" (#16) vs. "Egg Drop" (#20) → “Franklin Institute” (74.3%) [74 votes]

"Teacher Conference" (#1) vs. "Fire" (#19) → “Teacher Conference” (82.9%) [35 votes]

Round 3:

A disclaimer about one of the Round 3 options: So Maggie effed up, lmao. When you have an odd number of choices for a bracket, you're supposed to give the highest ranking seeds a bye-round, which I did for the highest ranking seed! 😭 However, you're also supposed to take out as many as you need to get the first round to the closest power of two, which I didn't realize. Since Abbott has 35 episodes, for instance, the closest power of 2 would be 32, which means that three episodes needed to have a bye-week for the tournament to shake out perfectly. This means for this round, one of the polls unfortunately has a three episode option. However, after that, we'll be back on track for a smooth finish! Sorry for the mess-up!!

Duration: 5/21/23 - 5/28/23

"Candy Zombies" (#3) vs. "Zoo Balloon" (#5) → “Candy Zombies” (59.5%) [185 votes]

“Mom” (#6) vs. “Holiday Hookah” (#9) → “Holiday Hookah” (63%) [138 votes]

“Development Day” (#11) vs. “Step Class” (#24) → “Step Class” (59.4%) [69 votes]

“Read-a-Thon” (#14) vs. “Franklin Institute” (#16) vs. “Teacher Conference” (#1) → “Teacher Conference” (55.1%) [107 votes]

Round 4 [Penultimate Round]:

Duration: 5/29/23 - 6/5/23

“Candy Zombies” (#3) vs. “Holiday Hookah” (#9) → "Holiday Hookah" (#9) (65.3%) [49 votes] “Step Class” (#24) vs. “Teacher Conference” (#1) → “Teacher Conference” (67.6%) [71 votes]

Round 5 [Final Round]:

Duration: 6/5/23 - 6/12/23

“Holiday Hookah” (#9) vs. “Teacher Conference” (#1) → "Teacher Conference" (71.3%) [178 votes]

Cumulative Poll Votes:

3,447

Ultimate Winner:

"Teacher Conference"

[chainofclovers]

Ted Lasso 3x1 Thoughts

I’m going to continue my largely disorderly disorganized deranged within-12-to-24-hours-of-watching-the-ep-the-first-time Ted thoughts, as always reserving the right to add on once I’ve seen more and processed more! But let’s face it, I save my coherency for fiction and this is gonna be scattered as ever. The episodes dropping at 9 p.m. my time may end up making me more insane; I’ll have time to think before I’m ready to go to sleep, and then my sleep patterns will be interrupted by thinking more, I’ll wake up too early because I need to think more, and this fandom experience will continue to be unparalleled and ridiculous.

(Side note: I’ve been avoiding screener spoilers but I have read some reviews that are vaguely spoiler-y for the first four episodes of the show and I’ve also consumed a decent amount of press tour stuff that includes actors and writers talking a bit about the overall arc. I’m going to try to focus each of these posts on the episode that’s just aired and anything that came before it. If some speculation slips in, it’ll be just that—speculation, mildly spoiler-informed but not majorly spoiler-informed.)

First shot - last shot will be TED! The star of Ted Lasso! Seeing his stubbly spaced-out face, eyes like wells of endless sadness, I was just like……..yes. Here we go. Ted is back.

Henry looks so much older! Even though I think he’s basically eight years old in canon assuming he was about Phoebe’s age back when Phoebe was six. I think the conversational timings between him and Ted feel more natural than they did in past seasons and that makes me happy because Henry is clearly gonna be a major part of this whole season.

LEGOS. The contrast between the touristy London Lego set they do in s1 to the custom Nelson Road creation they come up with together, showing that Henry has gotten to know the people in Ted’s community in London?!?! I love that vehicle for showing the familiarity Henry now has with his father’s life, with people he’s presumably gotten to spend real time with too. And I absolutely loved that in that initial clip with Rebecca, Higgins, and Ted, Ted kind of expresses surprise at how he said what he said about winning “the whole fucking thing” and downplays his memories, but then at the end of the episode we have Henry telling his father he’s there to “win the whole thing.” I continue to absolutely love everything this show does with audience knowledge vs. character knowledge. Dramatic irony at its finest!

Speaking of dramatic irony and the tragedy of audience knowledge surpassing character knowledge…Nate Shelley, I love you forever. Everything with the car was so heartbreaking (Rupert’s control over him! Sounds familiar!?!), as is everything about the coldness he exhibits to his colleagues, his meanness with the players, his nervous desperation with Rupert, his panic symptoms at the presser, and his continued obsession with social media as a reflection for how successful or unsuccessful he is at any given moment. I absolutely love that everyone at AFC Richmond has their own Nate feelings, but Rupert is the true villain here.

Ted has learned some things about football, thank the lord. (And he learned more in part by playing FIFA with his son, who believes in his ability to win the whole thing.) I love all the ways the nature of competition has gotten more progressively complicated each season. I love the way it’s personal for Rebecca in both valid ways that she needs Ted to understand and respond to (that scene where she keeps referring to singular “he” Rupert instead of the “they” that is West Ham combined with the scene where it gets more emotional and she has that same conversational slippage but it’s to convey to Ted that she needs him fighting for her and the team? GOD), and in ways that speak to her own non-linear progress but mostly forward progress. I love that Roy is nervous about needing to step up tactically, and I love that we can’t quite tell if the “tried and true and solid” approach will net the same kind of success they could expect with Nate in that role. I love the constant presence yet slight emotional distance of Beard and that we still don’t know how his personal life is going to intersect with his professional life this season (beyond the Ted of it all). I love that the players are learning to put Ted’s emotional lessons into practice on their own.

Taking your entire team down the London sewers because you want to feel closer to your son as he flies away from you and constructing an entire poop metaphor to make it worth everyone’s while and then getting in trouble with your boss over it but that actually revealing a new layer of emotional vulnerability and mutual understanding that’s been missing between the two of you for a while even though you’re still fundamentally questioning your presence in the life you’ve presumably chosen for yourself is actually something that can be so personal.

I’m obsessed with how not over Michelle he is, and how Henry not having his own phone means the messages are still transmitting through his parents and that just makes everything kind of messy and poignant.

For a while in the 40 years leading up to s3, I was really convinced Ted would stay in London after the conclusion of s3/their first season back in the PL because part of his journey would need to be about finding his own home on his own terms and figuring out how his self-worth slots into a community he’s helped build but that has also helped build him. Then I spent a long time convinced he’d need to return to Kansas for basically the exact same reasons…everyone’s changed including him, and it’s time for him to reprioritize and return to his son’s home. After seeing 3x1, I no longer have super strong feelings one way or another because the existential questions Ted is asking are so much more at the forefront of the text than I thought they would be. He’s so uncertain of his worth in 3x1 but also clearly focused on making progress (the phone call with Sharon was soooo good and funny!?!), and I didn’t expect to feel like part of Ted was almost ready to go on and leave London now, one plane behind Henry. But that’s the feeling I got. But his conversations with Rebecca, Henry, and to a lesser extent Beard have me feeling that there’s a good chance he’s going to recommit to his job for this season and that the decision of whether or not to leave after that will be a bit more woven into the episodes rather than something he contemplates privately. I no longer have strong opinions on what I want most to happen because I’m so excited to just see it unfold.

KEELEY. She schedules time to cry! She double-booked Rebecca! Rebecca calls crying an orgasm for the soul! I love everything about them, including how full and wordy and familiar and intimate their conversational patterns are. Like Rebecca throwing in that she’s started eating meat again; the pacing of their conversations is so well-done because it actually realistically covers multiple topics the way they’d be doing whenever they pick things up.

It’s such a good contrast to the similarly realistic conversations Beard and Ted have, which tend to be a bit less wordy despite their closeness. Also, Ted showing up for work after another goodbye with Henry and having another “pet names” moment?! But this time he just goes on ahead and calls Beard “sweetie pie”? I’m here for it.

The stiltedness of Roy and Keeley with Phoebe! My heart! I love that Keeley has to hold herself back from expressing awareness about how scared Roy is about work stuff. The decision for them to have broken up over the summer and be on different pages about what that means is perfect and delicious and I love it and I love them.

My favorite scene this episode—by far—was Ted’s press conference. Rebecca needs him to step it up and communicates that with an intensity that differs from their previous conversation about West Ham’s pronouns. It feels more angry, more personal. I love the choices he makes in the press conference for what they reveal about where he’s healed and where he’s unhealed. I love that his first press conference in 1x1 was a complete disaster that Rebecca rescued him from even if she put him in that terrible situation in the first place. I love that Ted’s self-roast has echoes of Nate’s very successful roast of the team in 1x7. In both situations, Ted and Nate are bringing a blend of preparedness and the spontaneity that comes from feeding off a crowd’s energy. In Nate’s presser for West Ham, it’s his turn to panic, and he might manage to pull off the pretty pathetic joke about Ted being “shitty” but it’s clear that it’s far from his finest work. I love that Rebecca is starting to soften during the presser with Ted, but it’s Keeley’s (professional) opinion that she’s doing the right thing by letting Ted be Ted that allows her to fully relax into the way he’s working the crowd. I love that we know how much he’s struggling with his value as a coach, father, and human being. I love that this adds a layer of tragedy to his jokes about mental health. I love the kinda iffy decision to say he’s had a bunch of psychotic episodes when that is completely incorrect because it leaves space for the Twin Peaks reference and shows that he’s willing to cross the boundaries of accuracy and the earnestness with which he approached the mental health conversation before to just…organically respond to the energy of the crowd and do whatever it takes to shift the focus. I love that Ted and Rebecca are both correct in their feelings.

I am disappointed in myself because I think I could say far more articulate things about the press conferences, but it’s just too many feelings at once!

Press for s3 has been a rollercoaster, and I’ve been feeling soooo many things about the many unknowns related to stuff I care about. I have my predictions and feelings about it all, but the overarching feeling I have right now is about how last night’s episode was a great reminder that watching TV show Ted Lasso is the best way to get information about TV show Ted Lasso. 3x1 was an incredibly strong opener that confidently reacquaints the threads that were braided together in s1, then unraveled in s2. If s1 was about joy and connection with the lurking of dark shadows from without and within, and s2 was mostly shadow with the light moments feeling very separate from the dark core (to the point of feeling intentionally tonally uncomfortable), then I think s3 is going to be about the way dark and light are always together, all the time, forever, and what we can do with that reality.

[miraculous-pyxie]

spoilers for the newest episode but i think i finally figured out my issue with the Adrien being a senti thing and maybe why other people dislike it as well. (this is not slander i promise i love adrien and i want the best for him.) (ps this is also unedited so read at your own risk)

Adrien presents himself in public as someone who is incapable of flaw and that’s the point of his civilization appearance and duality of his hero identity. I take no issue with Chat Noir being a senti yet i take issue with Adrien. But why? they are the same person! i’m going to explain why this is and i think many others feel this way too.

1. Adrien’s civilian identity of perfection makes it harder to see him as a person and not just a character. He feels flat this late into the series. (THIS IS NOT SLANDER LET ME EXPLAIN)

This may be intentional for the future for the other characters perception of Adrien in later seasons but for the audience it should not be this hard. He is technically a main character and i think we don’t hear enough from him internally. We never hear his thoughts. We hear Chat noir having his own dialogue about himself but never Adrien (i’ll get to that next). We had that heartbreaking scene in wishmaker where Adrien only wanted what his parents wanted for him but i feel that we didn’t get elaborate enough point of view from him. i wanted him to explain more of what that meant for him!! was he sad about that? happy? angry? we never hear his opinions of himself and just because he’s a senti doesn’t mean he can’t think critically of himself. (if the writers say otherwise that just feels like bad writing)

2. the gap between Adrien and Chat Noir feels too wide.

As the show progressed i hoped that we would begin to see how Adrien and Chat Noir and Marinette and Ladybug’s personas would blend together. My favorite scene was in risk was Adrien FINALLY speaking his mind (in front of someone he cares about!!) that’s huge!! i loved that!! i wish they kept this up in season 5 more and we had more scenes where adrien tries to wrestle for control. i feel that would have greatly benefitted his character. I wish we had more personality overlap. and example of this is as him and marinette started getting closer in season 5 he’d start letting his guard down around her and letting more of the chat noir side of his personality through. i’ve talked about Adrien being the embodiment of perfection and that is intentional from a writing perspective. his counterbalance is being chat noir and chat noir feels very human, real and tangible. He feels like a teenage boy who is in love, and that’s why the chat noir persona is a fan favorite. he feels very real and that’s why I’m ok with Chat being a senti.  if I had learned, Adrien was senti in season one i would have been a lot more on board.

moving away from the story and on to some technical gripes starting with my biggest and most polarizing opinion… 

3. I think that Adrien being a senti was added retroactively and it was intended to be a plot twist.

now this is just a theory but listen to where I’m coming from. this isn’t a bad thing necessarily I just feel like when they executed this idea, season one was already being aired on tv. if you take a look at Adrien’s character in s1 vs s4, you can see that Adrien‘s general demeanor is looser and more fluid between both of his identities compared to when we get in the later seasons. Adrien with other people, Chat Noir, and Adrien alone, fit pretty cohesively in my opinion in s1. in s5, Adrien very much feels like a husk of the person we knew before. The fear of fighting back has now fully taken over him, but where did it come from? You can push all you want that it was Gabriel taking more control over Adrien in later seasons and sure, but why didn’t we see that as an audience sooner?

Now let’s play devils advocate and suggest that Adrien being a senti was not a retroactive decision: if it was, I wish we saw Adrien pushing Gabriel more. somewhere in the season 3-4 timeframe, Adrien begin to get scared of fighting back. and in season five you can see this fully as he is now completely scared to fight back when, in the very first episode, the idea of fighting back against his father seemed more of an annoyance than a full-blown fear. I wish we saw what made Adrien so scared because it feels like it appeared out of nowhere.  we don’t get much room to work with him as a character and see his perspective.

And now the plot twist point. we’ve definitely been getting clues because this theory is not a new one by far however, in the fandom a couple years ago, it was definitely a far-fetched theory at the time. for a characterization point for the main character, such a crucial piece of information about his very existence, should not have been held for that long.  That should’ve been something maybe revealed to the audience in season three. and revealed to the characters at the end of season five or something like that. 

Adrien losing that fluid dynamic essence from season one really made it feel like we lost him as a character  somewhere along the way and that is what I don’t like about it. I don’t like that Adrien‘s whole personality has been reduced to him being senti. all of his character arcs and progression is only expressed through chat noir, and none of it through Adrien himself.  

One last thing I wanted to add was Mayra didn’t sense that Chat Noir was a senti when she was active. That’s been a little thing that’s been bugging me because Felix clearly picked up on the fact that Kagami’s a senti. and you could counter that by saying oh, it’s because the miraculous was broken! and sure we could say that but from a writing standpoint, I don’t like it. it doesn’t fit cleanly with everything else we have.

I say all this out of love for the show I’ve been a fan for 7 years. I also say this out of love for Adrien because I want the best for all these kids, even Lila and Chloe.  these are mostly things I just wanted to get out there and please do correct me if I’m wrong, I love hearing other peoples opinions! i’m due for a rewatch of the show anyway so I wrote this all from memory .

[mischas]

i'm 35 and the oc has been my entire life as a teenager/young adult and i love this show so much. i was wondering when you became a fan and what does your life look like now? do you still rewatch it a lot? what are your least favorite plotlines in s1-s4? i love hearing your thoughts. take care :)

Hi! You're very sweet, thank you! So just as a heads up my answers here are going to veer into the negative because I'm in a super negative space with the show as of late and I don't see that changing anytime soon. I apologize in advance for the soapbox. (and I mean really really negative)

For starters, I never watch the final season. I barely even watch s3, and haven't seen a complete s3 episode in a while. Certain scenes, though, yes and on a loop. Though not lately. But the final season doesn't exist to me because I find it repulsive and a stain on the entire show before it, even the horrendous third season. I often wish I could be like Adam Brody and separate the show into 's1 vs the other bullshit'. Believe me, I'm trying. Though I'd say splitting the show in half is best since you get to end on the shooting. S1 is on another level entirely and it wasn't until CHD that I understood why (for the most part). And that's a really terrible realization the more I think about it.

I'm almost 30 and I started watching when I was about 16 in high school. My life now is... not very exciting, lol. I work too much. Sometimes I don't work enough. I struggle with mental health (as evidenced by how seriously I take this stuff). I got into this show maybe a year or two after it had been off the air and Tumblr (and FanForum) was a super fun place to be at that time (2009/2010ish). The remaining Marissa fandom in particular was just cozy and sweet. We saw ourselves in her, had head canons, made fan art, discussed what she'd be up to, etc. I obviously wasn't part of the OG Marissa/Mischa fandom so I was pretty unaware of the shit they dealt with. On Tumblr we just celebrated her and it meant a lot to me.

For years, I, like many, thought Mischa chose to leave on her own. I could semi-stomach 325 as an arc, while still refusing to watch the next season in rewatches. This is the 2010s when JS was yelling "Tragedy was in her DNA" etc. But ever since MB started talking more about her experiences in 2021, and the podcast talking around her and Marissa forever, not to mention their shitty responses to her claims of bullying by men in power, I have been on a downward trajectory with it. The book is giving us maybe 10% of what really happened on that set. Mischa has been carrying the secret of her first relationship on her shoulders for 20 years, one that went on for months when she was 17 years old, and they all well fucking know that. I am in genuine disbelief at how they treated her then and how they treat her now. This isn't a fictional character. This is a real fucking person they keep screwing over!

But that does bring me to my next point which is that this show was unbelievably influenced by irl dynamics and I think that is disgusting. It's not just stealing Death Cab away from Adam (though I have my own thoughts on all that). There's a reason Ryan never pines for Marissa in the same way she pines for him in s2. Why he pretends she doesn't exist when he isn't dating her (from s2 on). There's an extremely charged energy to the way he verbally abuses her in 209. Like... this happened to MB at just 18. And look at how they modeled Volchok after Cisco and how they made MB pretend to do coke on camera when they knew full well she had a sober coach on set. Like, I know enough to put me off the show forever, but I am unfortunately endlessly fascinated by it. I'm sorry that I can't take the show at face value anymore, because it did and does still mean a great deal to me. But they thought they were in the clear 20 years later to only partially air their dirty laundry without much pushback and MB had the guts to say "well hold on" and be a thousand times more graceful doing so than I ever would. And we still don't know even a fraction of everything else that went down to this very real teenage girl they used and abused. Not to mention how JS/SS abruptly fired her and didn't even have the balls to tell her to her face. Her father told Josh's ass to stay away from the 325 set and he DID. Christ alive, this man should never work again.

I don't feel great about going all guns blazing here but I'm very tired and I get very little joy from the show right now. And I'm sorry that this is definitely not the response you were probably hoping for. To be clear, I want to enjoy the show. It means more to me than any other, probably. It's why I've been on this website since I was a teenager. But many aspects of it have been ruined for me and idk if there's a way back. How they purport themselves to be a family show still to this day when they treated the girl that they pursued for the job (at 16!) like shit is egregious. I will never be over it.

Sigh

To answer your actual questions, my least favorite plotlines (from s1-s3) are:

Johnny

Jimmy leaving in 207

Dean Hess

DJ

Julie/Luke

Lindsay/Caleb/Ryan

Charlotte

Hospital/Newport Group

Seth/pot (on paper this sounds wonderful but in execution it is as lifeless as the second half of the entire show)

Oliver (for good measure, officially when they jump the shark; he drives me crazy but TH does such a good job playing him that I'm ok with it until all of its aftermath is unfairly put on Marissa)

[matan4il]

Good morning Alice! I was gonna wait to send this till after the finale, but then said duck it I'm not predicting anything. I'm just curious about your feelings.

So I always felt like if the network was to cowardly to make Buddie Canon it would only end 2 ways, them maybe dating women or just ambiguity single as a family. Basically I never expected to see an actual fleshed out love story written for either.

And well, S1 Buck is single, S2 Shannon is dead, Ali leaves, and we get good montage hug, S3 single and great party montage. OK S4, if that was the series finale we got Buddie walking into a party, Buck not fullying entering, Eddie uncomfortable and the will reveal. As shippers, we would have never bought it. The general audience would have just shrugged. Again, they weren't left in love with women but did leave with a crazy strong bond. S5 single, and now we approach S6. I have no clue what will happen with Marisol and Natalia, but I think we can all guess it would resemble the S4 ending if anything. So again, if they were unsure about renewing and left it open-ended, the GA would shrug, and we would be like "well then here is what really happened".

So I watched that Love in the Air montage like it was approaching a series finale and felt exactly like I thought I would. I was laughing at how vapid these relationships look on Buddie vs the others. 911 love stories are built on adversity. Couples that don't get a lot of representation because maybe some don't think they are sexy enough. That's what makes me love them is how strong their foundations are. They are not built on meet cutes, you know. You can't write a love story for these 2 that approaches touching the bonds and experiences they have already experienced together. I will use the word again. it seems almost vapid!

So no clue what will happen in the finale with these girls. My gut instinct is not a lot of focus. But I'm already excited to move to ABC, where I think they will actually be invested in.

As always, I loved your meta!! Stay safe, and I hope you are feeling OK and made headway with your new treatment!!!

Hi sweetheart, thank you so much for this lovely ask! And for the kind words about my 617 meta! *HUGS*

I agree with you, if Buddie doesn't go canon, the show would never be able to develop a fully fleshed out and satisfying love story with any other Love Interest, so the show would either use really lame LIs (where it's easy to see that they'd go in the way of Ana and Taylor a short while after the cut off point of the show's finale) or Buddie would be chronically single (and each other's life partners). I admit, I prefer the latter. The former just means a break up to get to the latter, and then in both cases I'd just headcanon that Buddie finally had a feelings realization and confession, getting together at some point in the future that we don't get to see. It's inevitable with their love story.

But without a doubt, when we know that the whole (or at least majority of the) finale is the one call during which the 118 will be going down, that means there won't be much room to develop anything with either Natalia or Marisol. And I feel like that's exactly how 4a left off with Ana, and 4b did the same with Taylor. They exist, something has started there, but it's built on such shaky ground (they really did give us less than nothing for why Marisol or Natalia would work out with Eddie and Buck), we KNOW that this ground would collapse under these new LIs after a short while.

I do think the move to ABC has a lot of potential. I'm thinking ABC bought the show from Fox knowing that things are a bit rocky, so they KNOW they need to bring in more viewers, and I'm sure they understand that letting Buddie go canon has the potential to do just that, make TV history, create buzz and bring in more viewers.

On a personal note, I'm just still blown away that my HMO actually approved this treatment, but it's gonna take another week (exactly) until I get my first treatment. Which sucks, I have to cancel guiding students from Harvard in order to make this appointment, but yeah. Health before anything else, right? If I kept the Harvard tour, the next appointment is mid June.

Thank you, darling! I hope you're having a great day, too! Love you tons. As always, here's my ask tag. xoxox

[izartn]

On finishing S1 of Blue Lock:

Oh that was entertaining! Also I love the tight writing, how everything makes sense even if at the start it seems like it's been passed over. From character development to the trials of Blue Lock to the outside developments.

After the first 2 episodes I was expecting some carnage and psychological mind fuck, and while it has that, its not a horror anime as it seemed at first watch XD I'm looking at my hopes for villain protagonist Isagi from that first post and waving them goodbye XD but I like were his character is going. I can see him taking the lead on a team in the future dunno. He's balancing well the ego VS teamplay edge.

I really wonder how it'll go after the match with the under-20's Japan. Will they go to Blue Lock? Will the project end without a clear winner and we'll follow Isagi and the rest to pros? When the stated goal is to become a national selection player, I wonder if we'll keep going into the future or we'll get an epilogue haikyuu style. The manga is incomplete right? Which means its up in the air.

I watched S1 unspoiled, and I'll probably go tomorrow and watch that Nagi movie before it leaves the cinema the day after tomorrow.

I'll probably post some more about BlueLock after this but right now my reaction is finished! Not that I'd know I'll be reacting lmfao. That was impulse bc wow I wasn't expecting the start.

PD: I really liked those omakes that showed their downtime or what other players were doing. It was both fun, very lol, and informative at the same time.

[ca-suffit]

on the topic of it being revealed Claudia hated them both- as a book fan I did want that. however the show isn't the book and people need to respect that. I, for one, even in the midst of rereading the books post s2, (and who has been a fan for over 15 years, and first read the books a decade ago. Not to gatekeep bc I don't believe in that- just reiterating book/movie fan) /prefer the t.v. better/ like I just idfc Louis and Claudia are done better in the show. I do wish we could have gotten that angle from Claudia, because yes original grown woman trapped in a 5 years old body is insane and I was slightly disappointed way back s1 when they aged up even more than Kirstin's Claudia. But like both actresses, the writing, dynamics etc. have been done beautifully. I'd still like to see it because I personally love manipulative resourceful female characters. But we do know in the show pages were ripped out and everyone's unreliable narrators so maybe they are gonna keep it for s3 or something But even if they do that angle... I don't think most would think her a villain? I think a lot of ""the point"" of many of the characters isn't like mutual abuse or justification, but just literally that f*ck*d up traumatized people are terrible to each other with waves of good vs bad (in terms of the armand-louis-lestat type cluster). I think the only people to demonize her would be racists and sexists. I saw another post shared saying how good it is to have Louis as a black villain so I don't know why we can't have Claudia also as a black villain, that feels sort of like an internal sexist take

I think there's still room--and it's basically been hinted at by cast and crew too by now--that the diaries or at least Claudia's "voice" somehow will return again like they do in the books. I definitely think we're gonna see more of her rage. hope she fucks everyone up.

And, ya, what u wrote about how all the characters are meant to be complex and traumatized. the only ppl rly putting them in boxes *are* typically those who see the show thru their racial / gender biases, conscious or not. that's why it helps to have awareness of what these biases look like and listen when the fandom talks about it, cuz it's beeeeen talked about. hell, the show even spelled it out in the trial. lestat is saying how similar he and claudia are....but it doesn't help her and she brings attention to that too. that flew past a lot of ppl watching, who only saw it as a cute moment of lestat being a good dad, ffs.

there was some post shortly after the trial that was saying how many ppl it took to control lestat during it, and yet claudia took him out p much by herself in the body of a teenager too. ppl don't give claudia enough credit for shit. she was praised more as a white girl but the moment she's doing even *more* as a black girl, the fandom writes it off and says it's too mean and manipulative.....when she literally learned it from lestat, who already has multiple tiktok remixes of all *his* moments otherwise 5 secs after they ever air. even the ones that are racist as fuck.

[cerastes]

how do you, uh, utilize irene?

in a NOT carnal way.

what use does "makes idiot enemies fly" have that my specialists/supporters lack? s3 hits like a truck but there are many heavy hitters among guards so she never gets a turn. which operators does she best synergize with? in a NOT carnal way

Due to her height, 156 cm, Irene allows for various strategies, such as the top of the washing machine, the billiards table, the desk, an-- Not in a carnal way, right, I completely lost interest in this ask.

RIGHT SO, Irene's thing is that she's a pretty integral Operator that fills plenty of seams in a composition because she has a rare characteristic: Even though she has her devastating S3, she's not a specialist in just boss bursting, and can hold lanes effectively due to the very rare traits that Swordmasters have among Guards: 2 block, with decent bulk, good attack, and explosive skills. Irene in particular has her Module that grants passive flat 70 DEF ignore per normal hit (and she hits twice per normal hit, so 140 DEF ignores in two hits), meaning her damage is good outside of Skills too, due to the way DEF works in the game, and 50% of the time, she ignores 50% of enemy DEF thanks to her Talent. Irene is a consistent 2-block damage dealer with no real weakness. She's not a jack of all trades because she's actually good at all trades in which you would use her for. Not the best (except at burst and boss killing, in which she's top tier with her S3), but well above average.

Now, Ch'en, the other 6* Swordmaster, is burst-based almost exclusively. Irene has her S2 which takes less hits to charge and can hold multiple charges in order to actually be able to be used outside burst situations. If you are to compare the numbers on Ch'en S3 vs Irene S3, it would seem Ch'en wins out by a little, but in practice, Irene's S3 will likely deal more damage, because her S3 Floats enemies, and she ignores half the DEF of Floating enemies 100% of the time, and her hits have a small AOE, meaning that, unlike Ch'en who needs you to clear the trash mobs first in order to ensure all of her hits lands on the desired enemy with S3, Irene can do that all by herself, since hits on the trash mobs amassed around the boss (or tough enemy you want dead) will also hit the boss, while ignoring half defense for around half of S3's hits. This is why her damage output is so immense and consistent, unlike Ch'en's S3, which needs more micromanaging (such as using AoE damage to clear all mobs around the big enemy first in order to maximize damage).

Irene's S1 is also useful, making her one of the few 6*s that actually have three useful skills instead of a garbage whatever 1st skill and one or two actually useful skills (IE the majority of 6*s). S2's Float has a Weight limit (can only Float enemies with Weight 3 or less), meaning it won't Float heavy enemies. There's no such restriction for S1 and S3. S1 is an auto-activation uppercut that Floats an enemy and then hits them again, ignoring 50% of their DEF guaranteed (since they are Floating). It's her consistent "has to defend against bigger enemies and not just small fry" skill, a bit more niche, but still very useful and when you need it, it delivers.

Now, about Float: The thing with Float is that it's kind of like Bind: Sure, Stun is technically better, but also a lot of enemies you REALLY WANT to crowd control with Stun, are immune to it. There's almost no enemy immune to Float, and this includes bosses. Not even Gopnik is Float-immune. With S1, Irene can interrupt boss attacks (especially if you have more interrupts, like a shifter, since shifting cancels enemy attacks). Floating puts the enemy in the air, which affects some Operators' targeting behavior, but for the most part, putting the enemy in the air is the most unimportant part of Float, it's the fact that it's a consistent control effect that practically no one has resistance against that matters. In the case of handling fodder, if S2 doesn't outright kill them, it may give you a few extra seconds to set up better, especially early map, but again, that's more rare, since S2 will often just outright kill fodder or leave it so low that you don't need to worry about it (pretty useful in Calamity IS2, though, when fodder is tougher!). Supporters' Slow and Irene's Float fill different roles, basically. You have that right, though, you DO want to pair Irene with Specialists to continuously interrupt enemies (Specialists... Like Gladiia S2 or Laurentina? Coincidence? I think not).

Irene's best synergies are, as stated, Shifters and Specialists, including a very special synergy and by far her best: Dorothy S2.

Irene with S1, as soon as an enemy, even a boss, enters the tile in front of her, will Float them for 1 second. During this second, put a Dorothy S2 Bind Mine on the tile the boss is no longer on because they are now Floating, thus, considered an air enemy. The boss lands, triggers the Mine, and is now hit with Bind for 6 seconds if they are the only enemy affected by the mine. In these 6 seconds, if your Irene is, say, S1M1, Irene can land 4 hits and trigger her S1 again, letting you place another mine down there, and so on. This is a true combo and can stall a boss for as long as you have DP and mines to put there. This works best if you DON'T M3 her S1, because at that point, she needs 3 attacks to charge S1 instead of 4, meaning you have to go through mines more often, resulting in a slight increase in damage short term but far less stall time overall. You can basically demolish melee bosses with this and heavily stall and damage ranged bosses (since they keep getting interrupted for the most part, which lets you heal any damage you sustain and also safely charge your burst, such as Mlynar, Eyja, Pozy, etc).

Irene can get a lot done. Her non-S3 factors might not be as flashy, but they are no less effective.

[shipcestuous]

Any "excuse" to hate Alicent?

Naaah I think there are many valid reasons tbh 🤓

I don't agree with ur&other anon's reading of the scene with Aegon&Ali

If she felt real guilt during That particular scene (I don't mean scenes prior to that but that specific 1)

that she didn't deserve to offer comfort then why would she see Aegon crying over his dead son & choose that moment as the moment to screw Criston cole?

Her dad's gone

(a dad she was Ready to confess to but once he told her not to tell him about what she'd done I feel like she took that as..not permission but an I know that he knows&he hasn't disowned me so it's okay)

&she chooses now to give in to her baser instincts, that's all I see.

She's hacking away at whatever warmth or closeness she showed viewers toward her boys last season, in every scene this season... or the writers are.

Makes me very wary of what's to come.

The only parent-child relationship thriving at the moment is rhae&jace&rhae&the rest of her children which I feel sad&happy about.

Sad because the whole point of alicent&rhae's true division imo in season 1 was their absolute,total&unrepentant love for their children (nonexistent for ali this season... so far 👀)

&happy because I can always depend on rhae to unconditionally love her children&show them that love

(it at least makes me glad that there is no doubt in jace's mind that she loves him 😭

which the writers r of course using to show the juxtaposition between ali&rhae which I again think is odd&out of character tbh,

S1 Ali literally placed her body in front of aegons&towards a Dragon- not because of him being the king but because INSTINCTUALLY&without thought she wanted to keep him safe&risk her own life for his)

Also I don't really ship daemyra tbh (first four episodes of s1 absolutely but felt nothing after that), I tend to ship alicent/her children rhae/her children daemon/his children 😂 or aegond/rhaela/jacegon

But I was kind of peeved that there seems so far to be a lack of romance with them this season.

I'm not expecting 'the notebook' or anything but it's almost as if in s1 the writers kept blowing air into a balloon&by this season they tied it&popped it 2 seconds later.

He ran off on his dragon&left her by herself, like he did with rhea or with vis???? I get it (murder, fire, rage) but still.

Also times deux: I don't like that the writers have Aemond not confide in Ali that the killing of luce was an accident.

I doubt she would have believed him but I feel her thinking her son capable of starting a war in a fit of rage

VS him telling her it wasn't his fault&her 60% doubting it but 40% believing it- are two very different paths to take for this relationship&they chose Rage.

Idk what they're doing with his character this season actually.

He's almost like a background character?

There&gone.

Also the Aegon/Helaena scene really bothered me.

It tracks (to be fair you can sort of make anything track with Aegon cuz he's so unpredictable)

but the way she nodded her head once he passed her as if she was mentally telling herself that she should have expected that reaction was so painful to see,

The throwaway "when he's drunk" line in s1 is the perfect s2 opportunity to show them connect when he's drunk

--Even the way he reacted to her saying she was afraid of the rats in ep1 of s2 was such a step forward for them because he could have (&has) said alot worse--

But I don't know if the writers even want to go there.

They're too busy having alicent/Cole sex scenes

(I'm sorry 😅 I will never be over the ridiculousness of it- when Olivia Cooke said in an interview that she forgot rhae&cole had sex&she probably would have played it differently had she remembered whilst shooting, that's when my alarm bells concerning the pairing of ali/co went off cuz usually directors give notes as to how they want an actor to play it&if they didn't remind her then I'm 99% sure They forgot&if the writers didn't tell the directors then I'm sure They forgot TOO which means the writers pulled this ship directly from their hindquarters which means future unnecessary ali/co sex plot shenanigans)

It's a strange feeling.

I am very much enjoying this season as a viewer of television but am disliking so much of it as a Shipper.

Sidenote: u shipping helaena&aemond reminds me so much of the way you shipped alison/jason in PLL,

I think ur expectations though admirable, r much too high which makes ur disappointment so acute, you know what they say- Expect the Worst&hope for the Best 💜

TGC hating on the helaemond kids theory made me laugh. "Yeah I've heard this one&it pisses me off actually" "Really?!" Such an unnecessarily visceral,instant&possessive reaction from him imo ;-) I wish they could hook him up to a lie detector&ask him if he ships helaegon  I have a feeling he just might. I hope him&phia get a lot of future scenes with just the two of them in the next episodes..... For science.... They have to chat at least one good time before the book happenings begin (😳 iykyk) & disrupts everything &they also have to chat because if they don't ****** **** *****! 😠 Canon can be changed around but not by THAT much, IT'S PIVOTAL PLOT so hopefully the writers weave it in 😭 Book readers raise ur hands if u know what I'm talking about 😂

[x]

I didn't hear about Tom Glynn-Carney being asked about that theory. It makes me cringe that someone asked him, as someone who engages in speculation I would not want to come to actors attention, but it's interesting that he already knew about it, and his reaction definitely gives us something interesting to talk about. I can see why he would resent having something taken away from his character, particularly after the father/son scenes in the first episode of the season, and I like the idea that he might ship Aegon and Helaena.

I agree that Alicent is overdue this season for some loving/motherly scenes with her kids, particularly her sons. And Aemond is feeling almost as distant as Daeron.

And Rhaenyra and Daemon may well spend most of the season apart, which sucks.

Let all of these family members interact, PLEASE. All of them.

[a-bucket-full-of-feels]

A retrospective look on Hibike! Euphonium S1&2 and what it means to me

"Because I like the Euphonium."

Amidst Hibike S3 airing in 2024, I decided to binge re-watch the first 2 seasons because it had been a long while since then. I've first watched season 1 some time after it aired (maybe in 2016?), and followed season 2 during its original run in 2016. Back then, I had just started university and fresh out of junior college. I played in a music ensemble in junior college and took part in an inter-school music competition (actually it wasn't so much of a competition but there was judging involved), so when I watched both seasons, it filled me with a fresh sense of nostalgia for those days that passed not too long ago. And now, as a 27 year old watching this series and living vicariously through the characters once again, while the experience is pretty much similar, my perspective towards this story feels somewhat different.

Throughout the series, it explores the question of "why do I play music?" through the lens of different characters. And though the motivation for each character is different - for example, Midori plays the contrabass simply because she loves music, Reina plays the trumpet to become special, and Mizore plays the oboe to be connected with her best friend Nozomi - it ultimately boils down to this: because they love their instrument. And because they love their instrument, it ultimately motivates them to continue playing in the band and reaching for the top despite the journey not being easy.

As an outsider looking into a music club, it can seem absurd how these kids can spend hours several times in a week devoted to gruelling practice sessions, all for the performance for 2 pieces lasting less than 15 minutes in total. And for most of these kids, the time spent in club activities won't have a direct impact in their future, in for example, preparing for college/university admission exams, unless they're going to music school. But having lived through that same experience myself, at that moment when you're preparing for that performance, you're just so emotionally invested in it, and what I absolutely love about Hibike is that it makes that passion feel so palpable.

At the same time, what makes Hibike especially compelling for me is how real it feels. Nobody is a true antagonist in the series, and everybody has their own motivations and backstory that you can empathise with, which makes the disappointments all the more heartwrenching. In particular, one story arc I didn't expect to hit me this hard during my re-watch was the Reina vs Kaori solo audition. Although Reina was more deserving of the solo based on merit and skill, I could feel Kaori's determination and even desperation to get the solo, being a third year student and being denied a chance to play solos in her junior years even though she was better because the band prioritised seniority over skill. And when she finally heard Reina's audition in front of everyone, the realisation hits her, and when Taki asks her if she would play the solo, she responds calmly "I won't, I can't". And at that moment, the anguish of it all just hit me. Perhaps having lived through my schooling/undergraduate days, the feeling of wanting to achieve certain goals or go through experiences but falling short of the chance to do so, knowing that you'll never get to do that again because you're only a student once... At that moment, I really felt for Kaori more than ever.

Ultimately, Hibike is an extremely poignant series for me because it so beautifully captures that fleeting moment of how it's like to be so invested an after-school activity, purely because you like it. When I went to university, like Kumiko, I was ambivalent about joining back the same music band that I once did in junior college, and wanted to try out another club that seemed more meaningful and looked better on my resume. I did both eventually, but the only club I stuck through till my final year was the music one, simply due to one reason - because I like my instrument. And now as a working adult, as I look back on my schooling days, the best moments of my life were definitely not sitting in class with my head spinning in increasingly difficult accounting lessons, but instead spending my days practicing and performing music with the band.

And it's that same sense of nostalgia and wistfulness that I felt as I re-watched Hibike - experiencing the characters go through their high school days preparing for the band competition, knowing at the back of their mind that these are the last few years they can do something they're passionate about, before becoming an adult with a boring job and caught up with real responsibilities. As I think about Asuka's farewell with Kumiko, and the third years realising that after the competition, it is truly the end of their concert band days, it hurts not only because of my emotional attachment to these characters, but the feeling of closing a chapter of your life in school is bittersweet.

To wrap this all up, when I first watched Hibike, I didn't expect myself to be so invested in it. I watched it because it was about high school band which was sort of relatable to my experience, and also the few Kumiko/Reina scenes I saw seemed very cute. But right now, Hibike is one of my all-time favourite anime series - its story is told with so much love and attention to detail by KyoAni, and this has truly made it a special series for me.

[thesilverlady]

While I personally don't like Daemon but reading greens takes about him especially Aemond stans is so funny because they're very bitter about the fact that Daemon is better than Aemond in everyway possible and that's an objective truth, they like to play the high moral ground that Daemon is a groomer pedo (which is true) and that Aemond is morally better which is really funny because who said that the person who nuked whole region because he was angry is morally better than anyone? Do they think that Aemond's relationship with Alys is some Disney story when he literally killed everyone of her bloodline then take her as his war prize which could translate to a sex slave. I NEED Aemond's stans to accept that they're stanning a dark character and not some jon/rob type of a character because fighting other real people and insult them for your fave genocider and rapist is actually embarrassing

sorry I took quote long to answer this but I finally finished my uni exams so I'm only now finally free (🥳)

Anyways, I'm very happy that despite not liking daemon's character you can see the ridiculousness in those takes.

honestly, the show is the reason to blame for SO many bad takes. Like, people not understanding how bastards and legitimacy works in the fantasy world of Westeros, not realizing honor and broken oaths play role, the politics of north vs south, the religious power, the MANY dubious/power imbalanced relationships we see, the family drama... I mean, there are even people who genuinely refuse to acknowledge that misogyny is a huge theme in the book and plays a huge role in the dance, so...

And I get it, not everyone is a reader. And despite how much I love f&b I'll be the first to admit that it's not an easy book. And some people will simply never understand how unreliable narration works.

I think the people you're mentioning will either have a rude awakening when s2 will air or some huge celebration, depending how the show will take aemond's character.

I have no doubt they'll have him do his canon actions. Similarly how he did in s1 (attacking his nephews, the toast during dinner, killing Luke etc) But as you can see with how they portrayed his murder of lucerys (aka suddenly he couldn't control his dragon because.... ✨ plot ✨) They can easily twist his future actions (burning the riverlands, massacring house strong, the dubious thing he had with Alys) into something more sympathetic.

George being part of the team means nothing to me. If he cares for the story and the characters he wouldn't have let them getting destroyed like this in the first place.

And in my eyes there's no fixing hotd.

Now when it comes to the fandom, a huge issue that goes both with team green and team black is that they cannot seperate book canon, show version and headcanons. They put everything into the mix and you get the most unhinged arguments.

[into-september]

MAIN TAG: mlb meta

SHIP STUFF

Put your money on ladynoir, kids

On the merits of imperfection (why ladrien is my favourite side of the love square)

The innage tragedy of ladrien, and why I love it

So here’s the thing: (from the perspective of character growth, reversing the love square makes no sense)

To phrase this better than I did so late at night that it was technically morning: (lukanette is a masterclass in the crucial difference between showing and telling)

The NYC special might’ve sunk lukanette before it ever had the chance to happen

if we’re using “friendship is more important than a celebrity crush” to argue against the love square…

On shipping dynamics within the love square, mainly marichat vs. ladrien

ADRIEN AGRESTE MY BELOVED

Adrien Agreste and the limelight

Adrien Agreste and the question of unmasking

Some speculation about Gabriel’s possible ways out of being Hawkmoth and how they will affect Adrien

To cross your DNA with something reptile (on sentiadrien, because who needs narrative logic when you can have angst)

Being the topic du jour and all (the show has already shown that getting his amok can’t be a ~beautiful metaphor~ for sentiadrien’s freedom)

If sentiadrien is meant to be a commentary on child abuse then someone has no idea how stories work (spoiler: it’s not, because abuse is funny on this show)

SPOILER: I’M A CHLOÉ STAN I GUESS

Ending Chloé’s story as a villain would be a vaste of screentime and that’s why they shouldn’t

This be the verse (let’s just say I’m less than impressed with how early S4 handled the Bourgeois family drama)

Some more Zoé meta

Let’s talk narratological theory to explain why Chloé is an abused child in the text even if the creator insists she isn’t

WHY LUKA ISN’T MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER

Spoiler: Luka Isn’t A Great Character Yet (written in response to some people’s very low standards after “Truth” aired)

In fact he’s so poorly written that he’s pretty much an unintentional parody

Overthinking things (they don’t mean it like that but I saw some uncomfortable sexist themes to Luka’s akuma powers, both times)

Can we please stop blaming Marinette for Luka being a simp

MIXED BAG

Paper faces on parade (comparing and contrasting Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Gabriel Agreste)

On the feminist merits of MLB

The Scarf Came Back (on “Mr. Pigeon 72″ and the meaning of its many callbacks to early S1)

Related: S4 and “Gorizilla”

Jagged Stone is… (a spoiled manchild who’d be an awful parent if he’d stuck around and they were better off without him)

“Gang of Secrets” was underwhelming and that’s a problem

I finally realised where my entire problem with “Gang of Secrets” lies

Right now my main hope for S4 is that I’ll come out of it shipping alyanette like it’s going out of style (this show should’ve put more effort into Alya like three seasons ago)

MLB and the bad rich people

Some observations and a poor attempt at analysing the depiction of wealth in Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir

No, Marinette isn’t a Mary Sue (because I refuse to acknowledge linguistic drift and “Mary Sue” does not mean what you think it means)

Etymology ragepost, MLB edition

This show just can't up the stakes in battle

NOT REALLY META BUT STILL

Chloé should discover Cat Noir’s identity it’d be great

I also really want Felix to become a gentleman thief

What if all the heroes knew everyone’s identities except Cat Noir’s, wouldn’t that be super fun and not at all heartbreaking

My ideas for the Secret Sibling were way better than who it turned out to be tbh

Did you know that I have a tag devoted to Kagami being a fujoshi

Outline of the Hikaru no Go AU someone else should totally write

“Puppeteer 2″ was a microcosm of the Cat Noir-Ladybug-Nino-Alya mess of S4

Marinette is canonically bi in the Norwegian dub

GOING OFF ON OTHER PEOPLES’ POSTS

The Umbrella Scene Redux in the NYC special wasn’t about Adrien falling for Marinette but a foreshadowing of the importance of friendship going onward

Adrien’s pain lies not in unrequited love, but projecting his abandonement issues onto Ladybug

A small but heartfelt declaration to adrigami

When you have to make your characters repeatedly insist that someone is so totally in love, it’s not coming across as totally convincing to your audience

tl;dr I suspect that the reason marichat is so popular and ladrien is correspondingly disliked is about gender roles, actually

On marichat and ladrien and romance tropes

No really, ladrien is stupid and that’s why I love it

The Reveal is supremely unlikely to happen before the deciding battle against Gabriel and if it does, they won’t get together before it anyway

MLB’s got a bit of a genre problem and that’s why the plot cannot ever move

Chloé is the Loki of the MLB fandom and given how much attention the show proper gave her compared to the rest of the secondary cast, Thomas Astruc has no right to be surprised about it

Chloé can’t be Queen Bee again before she realises that she doesn’t need to be Queen Bee to do good things

More Chloé analysisin’: An irredeemable character wouldn’t need a three-episode storyline to explain her reluctant fall for the villain

Some people finding the sentiadrien narrative a healing parable about emotional abuse does not stop it from functionally annulling the actual emotional abuse the show depicted