#yeah very much seemed like a setup for s3

[permanentreverie]

finally finished s2 … good lord.

[waffleweirdo]

Thoughts on Thunderbolt Fantasy s3:

I really enjoyed it moment to moment, but overall it felt a bit messy like it just had too much going on all at once.

I think especially in contrast to earlier seasons and the movies there was a big jump in tangled plot threads. For instance I think Lóu Zhèn Jiè maybe overcomplicated things acting as a fourth or even fifth party sometimes (though perhaps that’s based on the fact that while I thought he was a great character in the context of s2 I think beyond that he feels somewhat redundant). There’s also a question of how much of it was setup for the future, and so it’s very possible that later seasons will tie it all together.

Though I did just start this off complaining I did overall enjoy the season. It had a lot of really great moments. I think the concept of the setting was really cool and it allowed for some neat stuff. Plus I think this season was far and away Lin Xue Yā at his best. I’ve always liked his character in concept, but honestly I felt like in practice he didn’t quite live up to himself of s1, until now. He was awesome this season! And by now his dynamic with Shāng Bù Huàn is established and it’s super fun (the marketable plushies I-).

Wàn Jūn Pò was a really great addition, and learning more about Huò Shi Ming Huáng was very interesting. They were probably the standouts for me from the new characters. Azibelpher was also interesting, but honestly I got distracted because he is uncannily like a recurring character from a few dnd campaigns I’ve done in the past…

And of course the season ended on a big cliffhanger! I think largely the series has been building to the return of the demons and that does seem to be what’s coming next which is interesting. Of course Làng going to hell is going to be something (and a side note I’m stunned that Xíng Hài is still alive). But honestly I’m mostly floored by the reveal that Shāng has time traveled before that we just never got explained… huh??? I think the identity of the emperor is also really interesting. There’s a lot to look forward to in whatever comes next.

So yeah now that I’ve watched two movies and three seasons I can say Thunderbolt fantasy is pretty cool

[loving-villanelle]

It was hard for me to pinpoint why I felt so disappointed this season because the show is still good but yeah that's it: s3 promised us something else and then it was wiped away like we were hallucinating it. And as a fan I feel betrayed. I tried to stay positive and hopeful but now I'm starting to think that this season really is just about their individual journeys instead of them figuring things out together. Eve with her darkness and V with her humanity. Then they meet somewhere in the middle in the last episode and that's the "place of possibility" Sandra mentioned. It almost feels like they are too afraid to actually make them be together. It's up to the fic writers to do the rest. In the interviews they were talking so much about the intimacy, deeper relationship, less resistance between them ect that I was really exited to see that but now it seems that that is all gonna happen in the very end and oh boy that is not gonna be enough after everything......

I completely agree. They repeated over and over again in pressers how this is the most time Villaneve have ever spent together on screen and how things become so much deeper and more intimate between them. Where?? We've had what, 5-10 minutes of screentime over 160 minutes so far. We had more Villaneve in s2 than I think we'll end up with in s4, because Villaneve were together quite a bit from 2x05 to 2x08. At this point, I think we'll only get significant Villaneve screentime in 4x07 and 4x08. And where's this intimacy and deeper connection?? Every interaction with them has been charged with hostility and disdain. I don't see the intimacy and deeper connection of a slap, or a rejection, or an arrest. And maybe, MAYBE I could get on board with the direction things have gone in if we had been provided with some sort of explanation, but we haven't! I'm honestly starting to think that they couldn't come up with a good reason to have things revert this drastically, so they just chose not to address it. I'll be more than happy for them to prove me wrong, but it just completely baffles me how they had the perfect setup to take Villaneve to the finish line as a team and just chucked it out the window!! Eve and Villanelle came to an understanding on the bridge that the Twelve had taken everything from them, so it would've made perfect sense for s4 to pick up with them preparing to take the Twelve down. Villanelle could be training with Eve, instead of hulk smasher Yusuf being introduced, they could be investigating and plotting together, but instead we're handed this and it doesn't even feel like I'm watching the same show anymore. I'd love to use the excuse of "well there's a new show runner this season" BUT LAURA WROTE THE FINALE. She retconned her own material! And I don't know why, because it was a hell of a lot better than what we've seen so far

I think you're 100% correct that the show was just too afraid to go there. There's part of the fanbase (that I strongly believe is in the minority) who don't see Villaneve as a couple, so KE is refusing to take that actual step and will instead leave us with "possibility". There's no reason they couldn't have had Villaneve still navigate these personal journeys while continuing to grow their dynamic. But I guess that was too much to ask for

[heyyitza]

The Wilds S3 Inside Man Speculation

Hi, yes, hello. I was actually never planning on posting anything The Wilds related. I was perfectly content just being part of the fandom from the outside. But, I finished the show last night and as I was sitting earlier today taking my exam, this wild thought came to mind. BTW, I don’t know if anyone has come up with this yet because I haven’t really scrolled through the tag so apologies if someone already came up with this.

I think the inside man might be Josh. Hear me out.

There’s no way in hell Shelby is the inside man, especially given the fact that we were shown she already started questioning the whole situation with Fatin right before they were extracted. She also made sure Leah knew she knew the whole situation was a setup. There’s no way in hell she would then backtrack and become Gretchen’s operative when she was trying to discreetly help Leah try and break them all out.

Also, the show has already shown us that they’re willing to use camerawork in order to mislead the audience. Back in season one, they showed Dot speaking with Gretchen, making it seem like she was the other operative apart from Jeannette, when the finale revealed it was actually Nora.

Also, the women have already had two operatives aware of the entire situation, albeit one of them died hours after landing on the beach. This makes me believe the operative is going to be a guy: Josh.

Now, I know y’all are probably like, “huh? Josh” yeah, I know. But I’ve been thinking.

Regardless of whether or not you like the guys, they were pretty fucking incredible with keeping Josh’s sa quiet because they promised him that they wouldn’t talk about it. They were so good at keeping it quiet that Gretchen and co. we’re freaking out most of the season trying to get the missing Day 15 information because they believed it could destroy their whole experiment.

And, if it weren’t for Josh, the boys could have most likely been the reason it would have gotten discredited.

And now you’re probably also asking, “if it weren’t for Josh what?”

Now, I say this because of that one montage (I think it was the second to last one, don’t @ me though) where Gretchen was talking about motherly instincts and all of that shit. The scene where we see her holding a bowl of gummies and walking into Josh’s room. When she walks out, almost all of the gummies are eaten and she has a million dollar smile.

I don’t know if anyone else thinks this, but I believe that Josh most likely told her about his sa, especially when she was asked what happened and she said something along the lines of “male problems” or some shit when talking about why the boys failed (FYI that’s such a fucked up way of calling sa, especially since not all assaulters are male).

Josh is… Naive? Gullible? We saw on the island he was willing to do what someone asked of him (cue the scene of Kirin telling him he failed his test of being independent). Gretchen knows this. And she can very much use it against all of them.

She can very easily manipulate him into thinking that what he’s doing, cooperating with Gretchen and telling her everything the group is doing, is to help out the group or whatever sick, demented way she can twist her logic.

Now, we know Seth’s bitchass is the other operative (can’t wait to see Kirin beat his ass again in season three when they all find out), but it’s just way too obvious to make him the only operative. Especially not when the boys and girls are finally together. There has to be another one. That’s why I think it’s Josh.

Obviously, this is all just theory and speculation. It would also be fucked for her to make both Josh and Seth the operatives, especially since she knows what happened, even though technically the operatives shouldn’t know who the other one is in fear of blowing the whole operation up.

Also, Josh could very easily fold when pressed for questions, but I don’t know, maybe the island changed him. I did notice a shift in demeanor in him when he was having his interview.

But it’s a thought. Let me know what you guys think.

[kokoinupi]

final thoughts on osomatsu-san s3, like a year late:

overall season 3 felt a lot less like osomatsu-san than the previous seasons, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing! it felt more real and human, which came at the expense of some wilder gags, but in my personal opinion as a legit fan was a nice direction for it to go. still funny as hell, but with more care and attention put on the boys as characters and as family.

there were so many good episodes along those lines too, like the mt. takai one was a big fave of mine... it just felt cute and homey and realistic and human. just hanging with the boys. i know this is a gag anime but i cannot express how much i adore the episodes where they're just some guys...

i saw the musubi online when the season first started coming out and i was like what the living hell are these things and why are they in my osomatsu-san. yeah so i love them so much now.

osomatsu shone so well in this season (as he always does), and so did choromatsu. i wasnt the biggest choro fan before but the solo skits he had were all major hits for me, it's like they finally struck exactly the right vein for making choro funny and loveable this season.

ichimatsu was the STAR of the show tho oh my god?? he was so enriched as a character this season and seemed to get a lot more screentime which bumped him up in favoritism for me... overall very good season of my favorite anime, ichimatsu-san.

the last episode... was just sad tho tbh. the other two seasons ended with a two parter in the format of: boys split up to become more proper adults, something stupid happens and theyre reunited both with each other and with their lifestyles as worthless neets after a needlessly dramatic scene with the first opening played over for extra finale vibe. and that was a good setup! but this time it seemed... so depressing, and empty... which im sure was part of the intention. as a worthless neet myself, it just hit a little too close to home, y'know?

honestly though, this season was probably my favorite one? nice to neet you SLAPS, the musubi are adorable, the new characterizations of our sextuplets did not miss, the shift in humor was also one that i personally found more enjoyable, honestly i was really satisfied by it.

that being said

THREE SEASONS. ONE MOVIE. SIX BROTHERS BORN ON THE SAME DAY. ZERO BIRTHDAY EPISODES.

since i started watching this show ive been WAITING for a birthday episode when the fuck are they gonna deliver???

ill be holding out for season four ig. starring ichimatsu, totoko, and the musubi only, apparently. looking forward to it!

also totoko and nyaa-chan were mega lesbians in this season so that's sick. good for them!

[deltaengineering]

Spring Anime 2021: Embarrassment of Riches

So this current anime season absolutely stinks, which just makes the last one look even more impressive. Well, maybe not all of it...

Zombieland Saga Revenge

First off, you don't need to tell me that the following is a severe outlier opinion. We good? Ok. ZLSR is, in a word, subpar. I liked S1 back in the day, but it was already in the process of getting lazy towards the end. S2 continues this trend and is basically just another idol show. And as someone who actually does watch other idol shows I have to say that it's not a particularly good one of those either. The zombie gimmick has mostly stopped mattering and we're just doing what every idol show does, only with the odd occasional sight gag. The alleged subversive qualities mostly amount to a flashback for Yuugiri, which is admittedly the best part of the show but feels like it barely has anything to do with anything. Apart from that, it's a bunch of generic idol plots, rehashed character beats, shoddy attempts at twists (while not connecting to any setups from S1), and the obligatory "idols give us hope" ending, which is terribly hackneyed and flat out bad. Tae gets further memed into the ground, because of course she does. And there's stuff that was simply never good to begin with, like Kotarou and his comedy schtick, which gets truly insufferable now that there's no qualities to distract from it. It really makes me think that S1 wasn't even all that good to begin with and seems like an attempt to turn this surprise success into an easy money longrunner with no edge and no ambitions. "The idol show for people who don't watch idol shows" indeed, but not the way you mean it. 4/10

Bakuten

But not to dwell on the failures, with the second show we're already above the cut — barely. This one got my attention with its really impressive performance scenes early on and it totally sticks to that, which is even more impressive. But besides that? Well, this is by far the most predictable show in a season where I watched an unambitious Kiraralike and put ZLS on blast for having no ideas. The characters are a mixed bag, some are cool (Shida, Asawo), some are very annoying (Mashiro), but those are the supports. The main cast is extremely one-dimensional, which is fine until they try to heap a ton of pathos on their lead, which doesn't go well. But I guess execution matters, and Bakuten is slick enough to get by. Writing this down in stark daylight I feel like I overrated this show somewhat (I actually put it over the next one originally, which definitely doesn't hold up when thinking about it), but I was indeed mostly entertained. 6/10

Yakunara Mug Cup mo

Yeah. Of course Mug Cup definitely doesn't invent or subvert anything either, but it's a pretty good Kiraralike that's always entertaining to watch. Explaining the qualities of such a nothing genre is as difficult as ever, but it mostly comes down to me liking the characters and it having nothing to annoy me. It's shorter than normal, which is a plus for slim shows like this. And yeah, you can make an excessive amount of dick jokes with the clay fondling. That helps too. Looks are just fine, pleasant but nothing out of the ordinary. Comfy low-effort anime. 6/10

Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song

This one is decent, but sadly still a major letdown. Because the first few episodes of Vivy were excellent and kicked ass, but then it became increasingly clear that the writing can't cash the checks the ideas wrote while the action starts running into severely diminishing returns. Vivy just keeps slowly getting worse and worse as it goes on, not by a huge amount each episode but by the end there's a pretty sizeable gulf between potential and result. Going into detail would probably be a little much for this venue because there's a lot, but from the top level view the issue is that while Vivy has good fundamental ideas and steals at the right places, it just isn't a smart show — it's schlock, and by the end, poorly thought out schlock that tries to smooth out every problem with liberal application of the big feels hammer and le epic twist at that. Yeah, couldn't tell that the Re:Zero dude was aboard here, for sure. That said, it still works pretty well as entertaining schlock that is not to be taken too seriously, and the characters are generally just very fun to watch even when they're doing stupid things. Still, I can't in good conscience rate this higher than Beatless, a show that looks like butt but properly executes on its ideas. 6/10

Super Cub

So this is 100% a Honda commercial, and I got really mad a Yuru Camp last season for being a blatant shill. Yet I'm feeling this, what gives? I think the main difference is that Super Cub is specifically a commercial for one product (and a very iconic product at that), while Yuru Camp is so all over the place that it ends up mostly a commercial for consumerism in general. And when Super Cub goes too hard on the product (which it does), it's at least pretty entertaining. That's something about Super Cub in general: It goes hard. Your regular Kiraralike this is not, because it's uncommonly slow, focused and moody - yes, it almost measures up to Yuru Camp at its best and demolishes it at its worst. Also, it's just extremely amusing to see sadblob Koguma grow a huge grizzly biker beard and become a badass outlaw dad to her goofy wife and cute daughter, all thanks to the power of afforable personal transportation. Needless to say, that can get unintentionally silly, but Super Cub has so much charm that it doesn't matter — it's great when it's good and still funny when it's not. 7/10

Shadows House

Shadows House turned up with a lot of potential, and I have to say it at least delivered on most of it. It has some problems; notably I'm not a fan of how the entire middle turned out to be a tournament arc of sorts that seems curiously inspired by Resident Evil memes, crest-shaped intentations and boulder punching included. I also think that this is a show that would be perfectly fine without explaining much, but I guess it is a shounen manga after all so we got dumped on eventually anyway. At least that came late - close relative Promised Neverland didn't show that much restraint. Shadows House is generally well written though, with great characters, interesting interactions and a great hook. But what really makes it memorable is that it's exceptionally good at the cute/creepy contrast, something that is often tried but rarely works as well as here, with great character designs and very appropriate production. I hope this gets a sequel, because it seems like it's just getting started. 7/10

SSSS.Dynazenon

Coming in with a fondness for Gridman, Dynazenon didn't have to do much to convince me. The surprise though is that it's not a rehash even if it's basically the same show, a character drama where occasionally huge and goofy fights break out. Dynazenon is Gridman done better, and the interesting part is how it accomplishes this - mainly by being far more conventional. I do appreciate that Gridman went for something weird and almost experimental, but that only really paid off towards the end while most of the show was a distraction/holding pattern. It just didn't feel like there was enough material for a full series there, more like a movie maybe, if even that. Dynazenon fixes this by just being a TV show, with an actual cast of characters that each have their own arc. And by spreading the material this way, Dynazenon ends up having a lot more nuance than its intensely focused predecessor, while having the same themes and not actually being any deeper. In a way, Gridman ends up looking like the spinoff in retrospect, while Dynazenon is the full package. 8/10

Thunderbolt Fantasy S3

So how good was this season? So good that Thunderbolt Fantasy doesn't end up at the top, that's how. And all the elements that made Tbolt such a sure thing are still there, big hammy puppets doing stunts and scheming never gets old. However, I do have to note that at this point, the writing appears to have gotten too comfortable. I don't expect it to ever top the amazing S1 ending, but at this point it's like Tbolt has stopped trying to deliver on endings at all and seems in the process of retooling itself into a longrunner instead. Barely anything gets resolved in S3 (the climax is that the climax of S2 is resolved again, for good this time... maybe), and everything else is just setting up plotpoints for the next season. Tbolt is truly lucky that it doesn't actually need to resolve anything to be a great time, but at this point I have to say that I'd appreciate it if they wrapped it up with S4. 8/10

Nomad: Megalobox 2

Speaking of sequels to shows I liked, Nomad doesn't so much improve upon its predecessor but steamrolls right over it. This is a tall order, since Megalobox was surprisingly good for a sports shounen and had a real nice, heartwarming ending that Nomad instantly negates for purposes of drama and everyone being extremely miserable. That sounds like a pretty terrible idea - and it would be, if Nomad wasn't as excellent as it is. To call it not the same show would be an understatement, because it's a true sequel, not just the same characters doing their thing some more, or new characters doing the same thing as the old ones did. Indeed my biggest problem with Megalobox was that it still closely adhered to its genre template and was very predictable; Nomad fixes this issue thoroughly. Nomad is about questioning what being a hotblooded shounen protagonist eventually leads you to, and how to fix everything you screwed up by being one. You could call it a deconstruction, but that term has been so abused for cynical, edgy "thing you like actually sucks" takes that I feel like it doesn't really fit here. Nomad isn't cynical at all, it's just a character drama about some boxers past their prime, and it being a sequel to a show that is indeed rather formulaic just enhances the experience. My biggest issue with it was that I really like what they did with Joe in this story, so the big focus on Mac's backstory felt like a distraction for a long time. But in the end that turned out to be absolutely necessary to make the ending work. The ending's just great, by the way, and I shall say not more about it. 9/10

Odd Taxi

Yeah boy, here's the show that has apparently become somewhat of a "greatest show you didn't watch" meme, which I can feel smug about because I don't need YouTubers to tell me what's good and followed this from day one. Anyway, Odd Taxi is indeed great, the greatest show in a few years even. What starts out as seemingly a relaxed hangout show in the vein of Midnight Diners quickly turns into a psychological murder mystery while never losing its quirky humor. The character writing is outstanding, with even small bit players being on a level that the average anime wishes it could have for leads. And the rollout of the mystery is exemplary, with answers given and new questions raised every episode with a satisfying and logical payoff in the end. This is also the rare anime that has rock solid production from the first to the last second; it's never really flashy but excellently done and highly consistent nonetheless. And the music just owns. I have a few complaints, mainly that there's a few logical weaknesses in the story (which wouldn't even register in a lesser show, but sticks out here since the rest is so immaculately constructed) and that the ending overextends on the emotions when the rest of the show is so reserved and dry in comparison. But those are only the reasons why I didn't give it perfect marks, and I almost did that anyway. 9/10

[shrinkthisviolet]

I’ve been thinking about this a lot and… 4 is just a cursed number for a TV show lol. Because it’s like every time a show does a 4th Season — it’s either cringe, horrible, or everyone acts out of character. When I think about other 4th Seasons I’ve watched:

The Flash S4 is (to me) one of the worst Seasons of the series, second only to S7.

Arrow S4 (I know, you probably haven’t watched this series yet) is a hot mess with Felicity acting annoyingly out of character throughout the whole thing.

Legends Of Tomorrow S4 isn’t horrible, but very cringe at times.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer S4 (no idea if you’ve watched this one or not) has some good episodes that I love, but also has some of the cringiest episodes (and villains) of the series.

Supergirl S4: Same as Buffy.

Glee S4: Ironically the same to me as Supergirl and Buffy’s S4.

So, it makes sense somewhat that Cobra Kai S4 was a disappointment. Fourth Seasons are usually a transition point to get to the next overall storyline after the series premise has changed. The only S4’s I’ve seen be consecutively good are:

Legacies S4 (which is almost done airing and is impressing me with each ep).

Smallville S4 (one of my favorite Seasons of the series).

Teen Wolf S4 (not as epic as the Season before it, but a lot of fun).

The Vampire Diaries S4 (which is the best fourth Season of any series I’ve watched).

So, hopefully CK S5 will be the redemptive Season to get things back on track writing-wise. For example: Arrow S5 was its second best Season (according to the fandom).

I should mention, first off, that I never intend to watch Arrow 😂 the only other shows I’ll watch in the Arrowverse are LoT and maybe Supergirl. The others…it’s just too much investment in a dying franchise imo.

And yeah, 4 does seem to be the cursed number. Though I’ll say the Flash’s flaws showed themselves in s3. That season wasn’t quite cohesive and had a lot of major plot holes (s1 and s2 weren’t perfect either, but the story didn’t have as many plot holes…most notably its main villains).

The problem with CK is that they’ve written the ship so far in one direction that fixing it is gonna require skills that I’m not sure these writers have. My favorite season of CK is s1, and my next favorite is s3…but only because s2’s love drama ruined the whole season for me. s3 wasn’t super great either, it was like…a fan service-done-well type thing, but it was a lot of setup. I can’t fault people for liking s2 more, it seemed like by s3, the writing flaws were starting to show.

Maybe that’s what makes 3 the magic number 😂

[shygirlwriter]

here, have some mando s2 finale meta

yeah so idrk how everyone tags their spoilers here (I think I hit the big tags), but this contains FULL SPOILERS for the mandalorian, up to and including s2ep8, “Chapter 16: The Rescue.” and just to be upfront, I enjoyed the episode overall and think that there is potential in the new story they seem to be setting up for s3 and beyond. I do not think it completely shit the bed-- the first 40ish (out of a total 45) minutes of the episode were really great, old-school Star Wars stuff. but I 100% understand, and in broad strokes agree with, the criticisms I’ve seen from others. this got way longer than I thought it would so i’m putting it under a cut.

but I think the biggest thing about the mando s2 finale is that it indicates that the production team thinks that they’ve been making an entirely different show than the viewers have been seeing. and I think it comes down to lack of setup of themes, then constructing the finale as if there was that setup, leading to unearned (supposed) catharsis. 

I understand how Favreau, Filoni and Co. came to the decision to end it the way they did, and I think that there is a universe where this ending can be satisfying. on its face, if you don’t take emotions into account, it is indeed a satisfying conclusion to the particular story arc of the season. Din has accomplished the task (return the kid to the Jedi) he was given at the end of s1. Grogu was reunited with a Jedi who can and will train him. Din recognizes that he is unable to care for Grogu the way he needs to be cared for (i.e. he knows pretty much nothing about the Force, the Jedi or what “Jedi training” entails) and lets him go with Luke.

unfortunately, this show (and s2 in particular) has been all about the emotions. Even from the very first episode of season 1, when Din shoots IG-11 to prevent him from killing the baby. The closing image of the premiere-- Din reaching into that little cradle with his finger --became an iconic image immediately. the end of s1 literally came out and had the Armorer straight-up tell Din that since the kid is a foundling, until he can be returned to the Jedi, he is his father. and season 2 has only reinforced that-- aside from all the cute single-dad moments of him taking care of Grogu, there’s Ahsoka specifically noting their strong bond in “The Jedi,” and the fact that he willingly (albeit as an absolute last resort) removes his helmet in “The Believer” for the express purpose of obtaining coordinates to Gideon’s ship so that he can rescue the kid. Not to mention other characters (Cara, Mayfeld, etc.) referring to Grogu as Din’s child. do not act like Din was not secretly relieved when Ahsoka went back on her part of the deal and said that she couldn’t train Grogu (BECAUSE HE’S TOO ATTACHED TO HIS PAPA!) 

and then the finale comes and expects us to believe that he would willingly a) remove his helmet in a roomful of people, and b) hand over the kid, even to a Jedi. neither of these things make sense with the character of Din Djarin as he’s been presented in the show thus far. 

point the first: at no point has the show spent more than 30 seconds at a time forcing Din to reckon with the idea of having to give up the kid. this one’s pretty self-explanatory, and imo is just lazy writing. 

point the second: the show never demonstrated a crisis of faith on Din’s part. which is especially weird, since it seems like it set one up and then never followed through on it. Bo-Katan and her crew immediately write Din off as a cultist in “The Heiress,” which seemed at the time to be setting up a thematic arc of Din questioning his faith. (even though Bo-Katan is immeidately hella derisive of Din’s faith to the creed, and “The Rescue further demonstrates her (and Koska too, tbf) to be a Bad Person when she’s shown being space-racist toward Boba.) The show re-canonizes Jango Fett (and Boba, by extension) as Mandalorians, and Boba shows Din the chain code in his armor in “The Tragedy.” But while he doesn’t criticize Din’s dedication to the creed, Boba does seem to be more of the helmet-optional type in his older age. This is the perfect setup to have Din question, at the very least, the helmet-on-always aspect of the creed-- even if he doesn’t take Bo-Katan’s words on their face, Boba’s chain-code bona fides do prove his heritage and he’s seen without the helmet --but nothing really ever comes of it.

Din removing his helmet in a roomful of his friends/allies to say goodbye to Grogu seems like it wants to be a cathartic moment, combining both saying goodbye to his son and decisively violating the creed he has lived by his entire life (and I argue this is different from taking off the helmet in “The Believer” since he does not immediately put it back on at the first opportunity, like he does after the shootout in the officers’ mess), but the show did not do the necessary setup work for that to track as a catharsis. 

I don’t necessarily have a problem if Favreau, Filoni, and Co. wanted to wrap up this arc in s2 so they can move in different direction with season 3. Din bested Gideon in combat and earned the darksaber, which now I guess makes him manda’lor (a title he doesn’t even get a chance to fully accept/process before the darktroopers and Luke’s x-wing show up), and now has to contend with Bo-Katan (and possibly other members of the Mandalorian diaspora, but we’ll see.) Pivoting into a show about Mandalorian politics is not necessarily a bad idea. The problem is that, once again, there has been little-to-no buildup in this direction! The show never gave us any indication that Din had any desire to get involved in Mandalorian politics, even at the beginning of the very same episode when he tells Bo-Katan that if she can help him get Grogu back, she can have whatever she wants including the darksaber.

could this have worked? could we see a world in which Din, after meeting other Mandalorians with different relationships to the creed, questioned his own loyalty to it? could we see a world in which Din slowly comes to terms with the prospect of leaving Grogu, and being sad about, it but also realizing that the child will be better off with a Jedi who understands the Force and can train him?

on both those counts, I say absolutely yes! but we would have needed several more episodes’ worth of set-up for this to have landed with the kind of impact “The Rescue” thinks it has. Din Djarin and Grogu’s story seemingly ends with a whimper.

(And on a tangentially related note, I’m more than a little concerned about the post-credits stinger with Boba and Fennec. Do I really like what Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen have done with these characters in just a handful of episodes? Hell yeah, I do! Am I excited to see an OG Star Wars character, who got shafted real hard when Disney acquired Lucasfilm and de-canonized most of the EU, get to be badass again (and be badass while being played by an older (Morrison is like 60) man of color, who’s also returning to a role he kinda-sorta played twenty years ago)? Hell yeah, I am, because I Am A Boba Fett Stan Now, I Guess!)

(I know not to put much stock in the rumors about on-set conflicts during production of s2 and Pedro Pascal allegedly leaving the show, since they’ve been publicly rebuked by the man himself and multiple entertainment-news articles I’ve seen indicate he’s confirmed by sources to return for s3. But the increased prominence of another Mandalorian character in the latter part of this season, coupled with the announcement that The Book of Boba Fett will debut in December 2021, aka the same time frame as Mando s3, does have me a smidge on edge about the possibility of making this show into an anthology with s1-2 focused on Din and s3 (at least) focused on Boba. Sure, Din Djarin is “The Mandalorian” of the title, but he’s by no means the only Mandalorian on the show.) 

tl;dr: s2 of the mandalorian sets up a lot of interesting thematic material, then doesn’t follow up on it, but constructs its ending as if it did. and that’s why I think it feels uniquely unsatisfying to a lot of fans. 

[possiblyimbiassed]

The Lost Special?

Musings over possible implications of BBC Dracula

After obsessively watching all three episodes of BBC Dracula, I can’t help feeling I’ve got one of my suspicions, if not exactly confirmed, at least enhanced: that this Victorian old story, finally adapted into present time, might in fact be relevant to Mofftiss’ version of ACD’s short story The Lost Special. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but since I can’t deny I do like ‘tin-hatting’, for now I choose to believe it is. ;)

(Continued under the cut)

As some of you guys already have expressed, I think BBC Dracula has BBC Sherlock written all over it. I believe this was obvious already from the setup; same authors, same producers, same broadcasters, same set designer, same format, three of the same actors including one of the writers, and even the same airing slot as BBC Sherlock. The Sherlock hints are sprinkled all over the two first episodes, which occur in the same Victorian time frame as ACD’s original Sherlock Holmes stories. This for example:

But the bringing of Bram Stoker’s old narrative into present time in the third episode (The Dark Compass) kind of sealed the deal for me. 

Suddenly we have Count Dracula sending text messages by smart phone to his victims:

 We have Dracula vomiting on the rug of a crime scene:

We have him storing body parts in the fridge! (X)

And this fridge scene is taking place while Dracula is watching a TV program with elephants on the Savannah, exclaiming “Look at her - so beautiful!”: 

Who is beautiful - the ‘Elephant in the Room’? It certainly feels like Mofftiss are stringing us along here, doesn’t it? ;)) But no; it’s the sun that Dracula admires as beautiful, we learn that in the show. The shining from the sun is a thing he thought he could never endure, but ultimately he learns that he actually can.

Same thing as Sherlock says about John Watson the distant suns in the sky in TGG:

Or about Sister Sentiment’s music in TFP:

Taking Dracula to modern time is something that the authors had expressly denied they would do. But they were lying of course, as is their usual MO. Exactly the same deception as they did with TAB, isn’t it? And as if this wouldn’t be enough, there’s a whole list of other modern Sherlock references, summarized by @gosherlocked​ (X). I’m sure there’s more, we just need some more time to find them. 

As I mentioned in this comment recently (X): The Lost Special (X) is a short story about a derailed, disappeared train that ACD wrote during the Great Hiatus (1898). It bears some typical Holmes-case mystery characteristics. And the anonymous person who in this story sends a letter to the train company, suggesting a way of solving the case, seems very much to be Holmes himself:

“It is one of the elementary principles of practical reasoning, that when the impossible has been eliminated the residuum, HOWEVER IMPROBABLE, must contain the truth. It is certain that the train left Kenyon Junction. It is certain that it did not reach Barton Moss. It is in the highest degree unlikely, but still possible, that it may have taken one of the seven available side lines. It is obviously impossible for a train to run where there are no rails, and, therefore, we may reduce our improbables to the three open lines, namely the Carnstock Iron Works, the Big Ben, and the Perseverance.”

(X). So this short story indeed looks like a Holmes story in disguise. But Sherlock Holmes’ name is never mentioned in The Lost Special and the storyteller is not John Watson. In this story the police did not act on this anonymous person’s advice. The truth wasn’t revealed until one of the perpetrators - a hired murderer who was threatened with execution years later - admitted that he had participated in derailing the train in question (X): “A conspiracy of men had temporarily re-attached the side track leading to the abandoned mine Heartsease just long enough for the train to go down to the mine, then pulled the tracks back up before they could be discovered.” To the broader audience, however - the Holmes readers - the character of Sherlock Holmes remained ‘dead’.

The wrapping up

One could say that The Lost Special both had and had not a satisfactory ending. Satisfactory because the truth was finally told and the mystery thus solved, but unsatisfactory because in spite of all the hints, the readers didn’t get to know anything more from Holmes. Not until years later (1903) when ACD actually did ‘resurrect’ him and continued the narrative of Sherlock Holmes with 33 more short stories. 

When Dracula finally ‘dies’ at the end of the BBC Dracula series, it’s not by being ‘staked’ or burnt to ashes with the sunlight as one would expect for a ‘monster’ like him. It’s by embracing the criticism of his most resilient but dying opponent: Zoe/Agatha Van Helsing (Mofftiss call her ‘Zagatha’ in an interview). She is dying from cancer, not from vampire bites. Dracula drinks her (to him) mortal blood and then ‘dies’ in her arms, basking in the sunlight (without burning) in a tender lovers’ embrace. 

Zagatha in BBC Dracula is criticizing the vampire for skulking in the shadows, being afraid of facing death. She says it will be his punishment to live on for eternity, while she is mortal and dying:

Seriously, this is so much ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer that I can’t just... But Count Dracula re-writes Bram Stoker’s original story and opts for another solution: to ‘die’ willingly in the sunlight, together with Zagatha. And if dying is a metaphor for falling in love - as I believe it is in BBC Sherlock - this might have some important implications. I think Dracula and Zagatha here represent two sides of Sherlock that are finally allowed to merge; his Sentiment and his (Homo)sexuality.

Like The Lost Special, BBC Dracula is nicely wrapped up and ‘solved’. But we still don’t really know what happened with Count Dracula, because we don’t actually see him crumble into ashes like he did in Stoker’s canon, and like the other vampire who was ‘staked’ in the show - Lucy Westenra. But the episode is packed with Sherlock references, so...

But I can’t say for the life of me that S4 of BBC Sherlock brought a satisfactory ending for the Holmes narrative either; it’s not ‘wrapped up’ at all! John and Sherlock seem to live on for eternity as ‘best friends’, solving crimes in the heteronormative ‘legends’ preferred by Ghost!Mary’s voiceover. They are simply immortal, Un-Dead for ever - like a punishment? Wouldn’t it be far more satisfying if Sherlock Holmes and John Watson’s characters would come out and appear ‘human’ and ‘mortal’ and not have to remain just ‘best friends’ forever?

The (lack of) train references

One might argue, of course, that there are no specific train references in BBC Dracula, so how could we think it has anything to do with The Lost Special? Because, like The Lost Special, BBC Dracula is a Sherlock story in disguise! And because in the BBC Sherlock narrative itself there are already several episodes with train references; the most prominent of them is TEH and the last one - TFP. So there’s really no need for more references. But the train theme isn’t explained; it’s not ‘wrapped up’ at all, and neither is Sherlock’s story. I’ve tried to argue before that the detective is actually dying in S4, and so have others (X). And making him immortal will not save his credibility as a human.

I do hope he’ll wake up again, though - preferably with help of modern medicine rather than superstition - to a more credible and realistic story than both TFP and Dracula. ;) 

In TEH, apart from scenes with John Watson traveling alone through the Underground network of London, we have a derailed Underground train carriage near Sumatra road, where no-one would care to look. Like a Lost Special. It’s not carrying a bomb; the whole carriage is the bomb, which is threatening to overthrow the Parliament. Which very much makes me think that Mofftiss still have a metaphoric ‘bomb’ stored for us, a ‘rug-pull’ of sorts. But John and Sherlock (and the world) were not ready in TEH, so they switched it off. The ‘bomb’ never went off in S3 (2014). In TEH John was urging Sherlock to ”use your Mind Palace” to defuse the bomb, and I think he did - for the rest of the show up until TFP. Because in TEH, Instead of the big explosion, we got a truly weird, staged scene with Anderson (who didn’t quite believe Sherlock’s explanation anyway). 

And then the plot carried on in its heteronormative tracks with John’s wedding and Mary taking over the narrative. But in TST we learned that Sherlock, as a child, had re-written an old tale about someone encountering Death in ‘Samarra’ into a story where the hero ends up in Sumatra instead, and lives. In TFP the plot derailed completely into an absurd horror story, and we got Moriarty as train driver, going “Choo-choo!” like a train whistle: 

But the only 'explanation’ related to trains that we learn about Moriarty in TFP is rather lame: that Jim’s brother supposedly was a station master (not from canon, though). And then he goes “tick-tock, tick-tock” like a ticking bomb:

(Also similar to Mycroft’s ‘tick-tock’ countdown until he’ll die from obesity in TAB). But no bomb went off at that point in TFP either (I’m not counting the Patience Grenade here, because that happened before the ‘tick-tock’). So what was all that tick-tocking about? And how long will it keep ticking asdf?

The Sussex Vampire etc.

After reading some interesting metas from @yeah-oh-shit​ (X, X) and @ebaeschnbliah​ (X) I feel more and more convinced that legal issues with the ACD Estate might be very relevant for what Mofftiss are doing with BBC Sherlock and BBC Dracula. Three important ACD stories have now entered the public domain on January 1st this year: The Sussex Vampire (SUSS), The Illustrious Client (ILLU, where Holmes and Watson visit a turkish bath ;) ) and The Three Garridebs (3GAR; known for a scene where Holmes shows a glimpse of his true feelings for Watson). in SUSS there’s a quote about Sumatra which I find really interesting in the context described above:

“Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson,” said Holmes in a reminiscent voice. “It was a ship which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared. 

As I said in this comment (X), there’s a lot of subtext to draw from this. And I do hope the world is prepared now. ;)

@raggedyblue​ @ebaeschnbliah​ @gosherlocked​

[tjkiahgb]

Listen, I got so caught up in Tyrus Week, spending hours and hours going through tags and liking posts and queuing reblogs, that I pretty much pushed everything else to the side. (Plus I’ve also been working on the next thing I’ll tell you guys about in the next few days.)

All that is to say, I got a lot of stuff in my inbox this last week, so I’m just going to tackle a bunch of them in... A LIGHTNING ROUND.

Let’s go.

And before you ask, yes, I made a graphic for it.

Looks like this Andi Mack finale party has turned into... a death party.

Would’ve been a strange choice for Terri Minsky to turn the finale of Andi Mack into a murder mystery, but if that’s what she wanted, I’d trust her.

I don’t watch that show but I know some people who do and they’ve told me it’s just light and airy and pleasant, so, yeah, sounds right up Cyrus’s alley.

You guys are shouting Lightning Round! every time the graphic comes up, right?

I, like TJ, am just some guy. I tell everyone who asks to call me Jay. Jay is long for “J”, which is short for another name that I, also like TJ, only let people related to me by blood or my soulmate know about. I will say it’s not Jagger, though. I wish.

That wasn’t my intention while writing TJ and the Gals, but as with all art, or whatever TJ and the Gals was, once it’s out of the creator’s hands, it belongs to the people.

No.

Thelonious Jagger Kippen Is A Hashtag Good Boi.

Shoutout to my FAQ page, where you can find information like this and more. Not blaming you, anon, I’ve gotten this a lot and the FAQ page is hard to find. I mostly just delete the question and let the anon live in mystery because I’m chaotic something. I’m only answering this now because it’s the

You know the shook_bitch? Thank them from me for getting Disney Channel to respond to them, and congratulate them on being the subject of the best comment the Disney Channel Instagram account ever made.

Yeah, I went back and checked and Jonah only says in 3x12 that his dad made a bad investment, not lost a job or anything.

It really seems like he’s been managing the Judy Bartholomew fortune all these years. We don’t know anything else of him other than he was once a background workout video guy and he has at least enough knowledge about baseball to coach little league.

Hopefully the new job is providing him with a solid salary, but if not, I think the world is ready for a Judy Bartholomew comeback.

Judy Bartholomew: Still Trottin’ After All These Years

I’m not entirely sure exactly which girl we’re talking about here. I think this one:

I will say, she does seem into it. She’s like, oh, things are about to get gay in here.

Honestly, there were so many background actors killing it in this scene.

You’ve got this guy...

...who hears the beginning of “Born This Way” and reacts like it’s ruined his evening. I mean, I was a little tired of it, too, when it was being played on the radio over and over and over, but it’s been some years. It’s not overplayed as much anymore and it definitely wouldn’t make me this upset. (He pops up later in the song and is happily dancing, so maybe he thought it was the beginning of a different song?)

Then there’s this girl...

...who is feeling it. She’s like, hell yeah, this is my jam!

And there’s this girl in the goggles...

...who, after TJ and Cyrus sing the “be myself, respect my youth” part, is like, okayyyy. I see you.

Here’s a fun(?) behind-the-scenes thing for this blog. A few months back, I was thinking about ways to replace “Moments” if we had, by some miracle, gotten a season four, since I would’ve run out of moments weeks after the finale. What I came up with was “The Random Andi Mack Extra of the Day.” It would’ve just been screenshots of random extras throughout the show’s run. Upon some reflection, this was a bad idea.

The first problem here is that I get the feeling those posts would’ve gotten, at most, 20-30 notes each, because no one really cares about random, out of context extras and it doesn’t seem like a thing people would want to reblog.

The second problem is, knowing myself, I probably would’ve spent hundreds of hours during the hiatus between s3 and s4 making 1000 of them in the first place, just so I could have them ready to go. I would’ve absolutely done this without testing the waters first to see if there was any interest. (Just like with the “Moments.” I made like 300 of them before I made the first post about them.)

So, the most likely scenario was going to be me, two weeks into “The RAMEotD,” looking at flopping posts, then looking at my folder of 800 screenshots of Andi Mack extras and going, “Well, what am I going to do, not post them? I already did all the work!” And I would keeping queuing them up, and they would keep appearing on this blog every day, and they would taunt me with their 22 notes. You remember the work you did? IT WAS FOR BUT A PITTANCE!

So I guess what I’m saying is maybe it’s for the best. The cancellation saves me from myself.

Hey, though, heads up. If and when you go back and watch the series again, pay attention to the extras -- the unsung heroes of the entertainment industry. There are some extras reallllly putting in work on this show. It absolutely adds to the delightful quality of Andi Mack. Every time I would spot someone in the background being goofy or really overselling whatever they were supposed to be experiencing, it filled me with joy.

It’s a fun show. Everything about it is fun, including the little details.

Ooh, a serious one. This is going to be my first ever hybrid Discussion/Analysis post.

Okay, so I think we’re talking about two different things here.

I won’t argue that I think Tyrus could have absolutely happened sooner and been explored more.

I obviously can’t say with certainty, but I assume that was at least somewhat the plan leading out of season two. The setup for their relationship was all already there by the end of it. They’d met, they had bumps, they grew really close, and they capped the whole season off with TJ looking back at Cyrus. All the elements were in place that you could jump right into this storyline in TJ’s next appearance. (Not necessarily them canoning, but at least the exploration of TJ’s feelings or some movement towards canoning.)

When Cyrus’s lookback happened, it was addressed in the very next episode (granted following a break in seasons). I don’t know that TJ’s would’ve been as immediate, but I don’t think you have him look back in the season two finale if you don’t intend on truly paying it off for 21 episodes. (Or, at least 13, if you want to say 3x13 was the real start of a storyline involving TJ’s homosexuality.)

So, yeah, look, I’m speculating wildly, but I would imagine the original creative idea was to address TJ’s lookback early in season three and start getting into it, and that, yes, that idea was likely kiboshed from above.

What I will argue is that the bench scene is subtle but not ambiguous. We’ve made the semi-joke constantly around here that there’s “No heterosexual explanation for this!” but, truly, there is no heterosexual explanation for the bench scene: two boys, one of whom has already explicitly stated he’s gay, slowly reaching for and holding each other’s hands, intertwining their fingers while they sit by the fire and stare into each other’s eyes, nervously smiling. This is something that has been built towards for multiple seasons. If you’ve been watching the show, if you’ve been paying attention to it, if you care about the characters, especially TJ and Cyrus, it’s very clear what’s happening here.

This feels like talking about people who weren’t sure Cyrus was gay after the first two times he came out because he didn’t use the word. Or people who thought Cyrus wasn’t gay anymore after he said his crush on Jonah was gone. I sympathize with some of the younger set who maybe don’t have the world sense to follow along with this, but, come on, at some point, we’re three seasons in and you have to keep up with the level of the storytelling. I don’t mean this in an insulting way, but if someone can’t get what’s happening here, then maybe this whole thing isn’t for them. Maybe if all they know right now is that Cyrus is gay and accepted and happy, then that’s good enough, and they can hold onto that idea and grow with that and catch the next train, whenever it comes along. Maybe this moment is for all the people who get it.

That’s about the kids in the casual audience. Now, if we’re talking about an adult homophobe -- one who would express the kind of outrage that we believe Disney fears -- it’s a different story. If an adult homophobe is really watching that scene and thinking, “Seems pretty straight to me” then it feels like it doesn’t matter what they would’ve done in the finale. They could’ve said “gay,” they could’ve said “boyfriend,” Cyrus and TJ could’ve lead a pride parade down the street outside Celia’s house while blasting -- well, I was going to pick a gay song here for the joke, but probably “Born This Way” would be the most appropriate one, so -- “Born This Way” from loud speakers, and that homophobe would’ve been like, “Nice parade.” As ignorant as homophobes are, even they are not that dense. An adult pretending Tyrus isn’t a couple after the bench scene requires a level of impenetrably willful ignorance.

Anyway, the truth is that angry homophobes aren’t watching the show. They never do. They like to read headlines and get mad, but they��re cowardly and, most of all, lazy, and they don’t like to put in the actual footwork. They like to leave comments on articles they haven’t read, about shows they haven’t watched. They like to post reactions to stuff they see in their Facebook feed or send one sentence responses like, “There goes Disney Channel!!!” or “What is happening to our country?!?!” And then they like to scroll on to the next thing that will feed their sad rage about how the world is changing around them.

If you want to think about Disney censorship as a way of preventing those homophobes from being outraged, it’s not the textuality of the scene itself, it’s the placement at the end. Delaying them canoning until the finale just makes for less work. Show’s over. There’s nothing to defend. No one’s signing a petition to get a show off the air that’s just aired its last episode. Most of the articles written will be about everything happening in the finale, and Tyrus would just be a part of it.

And that is more or less what’s happened. Just about every major article I’ve seen about the finale has discussed Tyrus, and discussed them as textually getting together -- again, there’s no ambiguity there -- but has also brought them up in conjunction with what happened with Andi and Jonah, with Muffy getting together, and with Andi getting into SAVA. And the articles themselves tend to largely be about the show ending as a whole and its impact. (No one needs to send me articles trying to prove or disprove this. I’ve been over a lot of them. Some are more Tyrus focused -- the ones in the gay media for sure -- and some just mention it -- more traditional media sources. This is the general gist of most of them.)

So the article headlines mostly read “Andi Mack Finale” or “Andi Mack Ends Run” or something like that. The homophobes -- who, again, aren’t watching the show and are getting all their information about it via article headlines -- see those headlines and don’t even remember Andi Mack was the show they hated from two years ago because their rage is mostly performative and short-lived. They get mad in the minute but forget about the specifics of the stuff within a day.

Like I said in the recap, I won’t argue that there’s a scene with more that wouldn’t work, but I personally don’t see the bench scene as not having accomplished everything it needed to.

Oh, that went longer than I thought it was going to be. Not very lightning round of me.

This actually got sent a while back but it was still in my inbox and I figured I’d throw it in here in case the anon saw it. Lightning round!

Sorry, anon, I wasn’t ignoring you and I appreciate you reading my old recaps, but you were the second anon to piece together that I am actually blessed with psychic powers.

I don’t really have any plans to, sorry.

I had only planned to do one set before and after the finale for Tyrus Week, but I will point you and anyone else interested in making their own TJ and Cyrus texts to this post I made that should give you the basic tools needed for the job. (Use them! You wouldn’t believe what a pain in the butt it was to get that background clean like that!)

Thank you, honestly. That’s so, so sweet. But I have no plans to do that.

Like I mentioned at the start of this post, I’m working on something now that I’ll tell you guys about shortly that’s look-backy and will hit on some stuff from those seasons. (Though not in the same vein as the recaps.)

The recaps take a long time to produce, and as much as I’ve loved this show and this fandom, I will be honest and tell you guys I am sort of planning my exit.

This blog has become something of a part-time job for me. Not in the work sense because I have truly enjoyed all this, but just in the time sense. I’ve put a lot of time in and I would like to rededicate that time back toward other things I’ve put on hold for the last year and a half.

It’s starting to feel like making you shout Lightning Round! each time was a mistake now that I’m answering stuff seriously or sadly.

I was getting emotional multiple times while writing it, because of the show, because of the fandom, because of this whole journey we’ve all been on together.

I appreciate you saying this so much because that’s what I’ve always hoped has come through in the things I’ve written about this show. That I’ll make jokes or point out holes or goofy details or whatever, but that I couldn’t do this -- I couldn’t commit myself to this as much as I have -- if I truly didn’t love the show. That everything I’m doing here comes from a place of love and celebrating the show and embracing it for its good stuff and its silly stuff.

It wasn’t a perfect show, but that was always what made it kind of perfect.

Thanks for the asks. Thus ends the lightning round.

[svynakee]

castlevania s3 thoughts

Well more like complaints. Although I do find it worth watching; maybe after S4 comes out, though. Because S3 is really just a fancy teaser for S4.

I really don’t like how Castlevania S3 felt like a waste of time (except for 30% which was very good). I mean yeah I watch shows to waste time in general but hear me out.

By the end of S3, it feels like nothing happened. The status quo is kept. There’s a lot of setup with a tenuous promise of S4 payoff. There might be growth, but really, everything feels more like the catalyst for growth to happen later. It’s like following your GPS and it says “You’ve arrived at your destination :)” but you find yourself at some dusty crossroads and there isn’t even a petrol station in sight.

That’s basically all I can say without spoilers. I have a lot more to say with spoilers. So-

If Castlevania S3 was divided into 4 basically unrelated stories (Styria, Lindenfeld, Isaac’s travels, Alucard’s castle), at least half of them ended up saying/contributing nothing to the overarching plot, setting and characterisation. It felt like an extended trailer. Action, twists, your favs making an appearance…then goodbye, screen fades to black, see you next season.

TLDR version: get rid of Isaac’s entire arc, develop Sumi and Taka or get rid of them, Lindenfeld sorely needed more focus, no need to change Styria but more Styria would be nice.

Compare to S1, which was also mostly setup for the plot resolution in S2. It didn’t feel like a waste of time. Why? Because of the threat of Dracula? I don’t think so. It’s because when we first meet Trevor, we’re presented with a very solid image of who he is. He’s alone, he’s purposeless, he doesn’t want to take up his family legacy. 3 episodes later and he’s got two “friends” and a clear goal to pursue. And he’s no longer a nameless drifter – he’s the last living Belmont, vampire hunter, returning to his ancestral home so he may arm himself to face Dracula.

Alucard

Alucard’s story was the worst offender in my opinion. We start with Alucard being alone and sad in his empty castle. We end with Alucard being alone and sad in his empty castle. While this could be an interesting start of darkness for the dhampir, the fact that we don’t really see the results make it an overall unsatisfying season. Suki and Taka contributed nothing. We learned almost nothing about them. Their motivations were frankly generic – they want to fight vampires? Well we already know people who do that. Their obsession with the castle’s engine? Goes nowhere. Their friendship with Alucard? Shallow, not really built on mutual points of interest. Then they die.

The truth is, Sumi and Taka were dealt a bad card to begin with – Alucard, to be exact. Because a ranged and close quarters fighter duo of vampire hunters has direct competition with the previous season’s S&T, Sypha and Trevor. Instead of giving them the time and development needed to grow apart, they seemed more like plot devices to get Alucard to where he needs to be in S4. Or just to prove he’s lonely and gullible. And a bottom.

I feel like there’s a lot of potential in this storyline. Perhaps Taka and Suki’s interest in the castle is more nefarious; maybe they were part of a bigger group. Their betrayal of Alucard could cause him to reconsider his father’s stance on humanity. As a stepping stone, I have no complaints about this storyline. But that’s because there’s nothing to say. Its impact all depends on S4 and S4 isn’t out yet. So, the entire thing just feels frustrating, a pointless distraction from the other storylines.

Isaac

Isaac should not have gotten as much screen time as he did, unless they actually did something useful with him. As much as I love his character (Casually putting Godbrand down? Instant fav.) his presence in S3 feels like pointless pandering. Because he spent all that time doing nothing.

We know who Isaac is, because of S2. We know what his motivations are: return to/avenge Dracula. We know his general worldview, the thing that makes him what he is – he has a low opinion of humanity, is highly disciplined and loyal to Dracula. And the thing is, NONE of these things change in S3. Instead we’re treated to Isaac repeatedly almost thinking humans are okay, then getting proven wrong when he tries to give them a chance, then killing everyone.

This is would serve a purpose if: Isaac was seen as ambivalent towards humanity or conflicted about condemning them in S1 (more like Hector, perhaps). Isaac was more like original Isaac, an unhinged sadist and being saved by Dracula starts him on a path to redemption which is repeatedly denied.

But no. Isaac is always shown to be calm, disciplined and set in his views. Having him go through this completely unchanged makes his character ‘arc’ a waste of time.

The problem is Isaac’s storyline also feels unnecessary plot-wise. Isaac finds humans disgusting and his power is to be a monster spawn point. The fact is, if Isaac shows up one day with a monster army and wants to kill humans, we don’t need an explanation for it. Isaac himself is the explanation. The only thing that needs resolving is ‘how did he get from the desert to bother the heroes’ and that can be solved by “I took a boat” or “I found a transportation mirror” or even “I used a night creature to carry me”. He can just tell us. It can be a shot of him travelling. Or a cheesy montage set to rock music I don’t care.

So the fact that character-wise Isaac is just going through a series of resets is made even more tedious when you realise that plot-wise he’s also been completely useless.

His big fight was fun, but it lacked emotional impact. The wizard wasn’t opposed to Isaac, either in terms of good/evil or ideologically. There was no catharsis to the wizard dying because we never knew those townspeople. Who got turned into night creatures anyway. By Isaac.

Belnades and Belmont (the dancing bear)

The Lindenfeld plot I would say has all the elements of an excellent story but needed more time. More focus. I hated S3’s style of constantly jumping between the four storylines, especially when one of them involved Isaac going through a banal cycle on another continent and the other had the Discount Belmont and Belnades.

In my opinion, Lindenfeld only suffered because there wasn’t enough focus to really build up the almost Lovecraft-esque mystery for Trevor and Sypha to investigate. Germain barely interacted with them, we only got his story via infodumping and a bad dream. Their relationship with the Judge didn’t feel deep enough that his ‘betrayal’ had impact (besides, it was bundled up with Alucard and Hector’s betrayals so there’s a bit of overexposure apathy). And it’s hard to be sympathetic towards townspeople when, for most of the series, townspeople are shit. Townspeople blamed Belmont for Dracula’s horde. Townspeople tattled on Lisa. Townspeople antagonise Isaac. Showing us 1 family eating dinner isn’t going to change that.

There was something of a start to an emotional arc where Trevor questions Sypha’s naiveté, his future with her, etc. which would have been stronger if it wasn’t just the start of an arc. Leaving them horrified at the truth of the Judge, the destruction of the town and their inability to prevent disaster is absolutely fine. But when it’s also paired with Isaac’s Are Humans Bad Merry-go-Round and Forever Alone Alucard, yet another “to be continued” ending instead of closure was frustrating.

Hector but not really

Hector, similar to Isaac and Alucard, starts and ends in the same place. I have no complaints about the Styria storyline though because Hector isn’t the character carrying this subplot. Lenore is.

Lenore starts out with a clear goal and obstacle to that goal. The other vampire sisters seem unconvinced that she can solve it, or that any of them can. Lenore succeeds despite these odds, proving her own strength, cunning and patience. She also shows how her way, the diplomat’s way, has the same value as Carmilla’s schemes, Striga’s military knowledge and Morana’s talent for governance. She has an arc. Sure, it’s a villain arc, but villains need them. S2 had Carmilla working against Dracula, putting her forces into place, manipulating the war council, stealing Hector to her side. S3 has Lenore.

Meanwhile, the Styria subplot also sets up the new villains for the heroes to face – cunning Carmilla, strong Striga, strategic Morana and manipulative Lenore. Along with Hector the army spawn point. We have the new location, Styria. We see the dynamic and power hierarchies of the new villains. We learn about their overarching goal and how they mean to achieve it. Lots of setup, even more than the other storylines, but it has a satisfying arc within it that means it gives closure.

If S3 was freed from Static Isaac and Sumi/Taka (who have expiry dates and arrived half stale), the Styria storyline could benefit from the extra time. Better establish the dynamic between the four sisters (as opposed to Striga-Morana, Lenore-Hector and then a little bit of Carmilla). Give Hector more time to show his emotions; his despair, his loneliness, his genuine desire to have a friend despite his better judgement.

Final thoughts and Season Finales

Overall, the strongest parts of S3 are bogged down by subplots that really didn’t deserve so much screen time. I question the editing style of constantly jumping between the storylines; it comes at the cost of emotional investment into each one. The finale is especially strange to me. Two fights and two sex scenes that clashed, broke tension and made it tough to respond emotionally. Isaac’s fight should’ve happened earlier, a mid-season spectacle that really doesn’t have emotional impact. Lenore’s manipulation and betrayal could have been a second-to-last episode thing. The heroes naturally deserve the prime spot of season finale; the disastrous end of that fight also sets up the gloomy tone of the ending.

Sumi and Taka can die whenever, however. I literally could not care less whether they tried to kill Alucard after sex or over dinner. I barely care about their reason for attempted murder. I don’t know what part they play in the grand scheme of things and I am not invested in them as individuals.

If the entire point of the arc was to prove that Alucard was a bottom, just have him absent the entire season and add a post-credits scene of him using a dildo. Then he accidentally smashes it with his vampire strength and cries on the floor.

[eurodrone]

I wanted to rewatch the entire show until the movie comes out. I finished the first two seasons pretty quick and loved them. I loved all of S1 and S2 with a few exceptions. Then I paused for a long time, until yesterday, when i watched the first six eps of S3. One reason why I took so long was that what I think my main problems with this show are really started here. They were there before but didn’t bother me that much. And yeah, it’s a very mixed bag, like I remembered. Because the negative things are what are on my mind most when reflecting about it, here is just a little list of things that together really bother me:

Peridot (asked about how they all should’ve fit in the drill): “We didn’t have a lot of time to plan.” 

watermelons

the watermelons seem to be a peaceful society, but if the plot needs them to be ready for war, weapons, catapults and hang gliders for everyone, well they just appear

The last appearance of the gem mutants. They just disappear after this, never to be seen again. Ok.First we had corrupted gems, they stop appearing and now they just also stop existing.

“I never leave home without a blast canon.” Second appearance of crafted, gem-made guns that could instantly poof any gem. Never mentioned again.

There is a scene dedicated to Peridot not knowing anything about earth terminology ... She calls Steven an anarchist. That doesn’t work

At the end of “Same old world” it is dusk, Barn Mates is right after that and it’s the middle of the day again. Also P+L look radically different in both episodes

I’d like to go in depth about how bad Lapis is written, but I’ve done that before and there are a lot of better perspectives out there. I don’t want to dislike her, the fact that she and Peridot live together could’ve worked but they just forget to lay any reasonable foundation to that and effectively write P+L out of the show. We literally just see them again in episode 21, both appear solo in an episode before, but those could’ve been written exactly like that if P+L never met. I’d like so bad too know what happened in that process. We get an entire arc with Peridot and this for Lapis. I just don’t get it.

Super watermelon island confirms that there is a warp pad near the barn reachable in seconds. Somehow they want us to believe that 1) Steven didn’t go home during the entire arc 2) that he didn’t see the barn again until ep 21. Nothing about that makes any sense. The barn is effectively next door to the temple. that fact is immediately forgotten. There’s a scene where Greg packs up his van and fills it up completely. With what? We’ve never seen anything but Stevens bedroll. Why does he sleep there. What did he eat?  

That’s also why I can’t get into  Steven floats, it’s a cute episode but the setup just doesn’t make any sense. Why didn’t Amethyst fly. Why do they phone, they could’ve all just jumped up to him and talked that way. They put a boat on him, but they can’t just hang on?

[sonatanotwo]

SO! Imma talk more about Flame Out... More coherently this time. XDb

Yeah, I like... re-read my original post and realized a bunch of my typing wasn’t even really readable... in my defense, it was 4am and I was on a rather old and slow tablet. XDDD

Oops.

ANYHOO. Let’s try this again. :D With caps and stuff this time. 8Db

I am still all GOSH THIS EPISODE. And still all super OMG SEE? I KNEW IT. I said Virgil was a giant, lovable, cute, dork. So adorkable, my gosh. (I also have never really gone into detail, but I kinda headcanoned Virgil could get shy and stuff around like girls he likes and such. I never spoke much of it since I didn’t really have much in the way of evidence WHY I thought he might act that way... WELL. THANK YOU, EPISODE. I feel like this really could be a thing now. XDDD)

Boy, his brothers must not have paid any attention ever to his bookshelves if he has books and even an action figure of Kip. XDa

So, of course, I’m wondering when/how Virgil found out about Kip. Did Kip know Jeff? Seemed like it, given him noting Virgil looked like their Dad (Which I’m like OMG YES, to. People say Scott looks like Jeff, but my gosh, look at Virgil and Jeff in TOS. There is even more resemblance there, eyebrows, set of the eyes, nose, cheeks (chin and dimples are then more what Scott got.) Gosh, I can’t wait to see what TAG! Jeff will look like.) in a way that seemed more than just knowing a little about Jeff to feel Virgil was ‘a chip off the old block.’ (Man, this ep was so chock full of oldish and very American sayings. XD)

Did Jeff introduce Virgil to the guy’s existence? =Oa

BUT yeah, as I tried to type, but mangled... It’s exciting and interesting that it seems like Virgil had influence on him doing what he does well beyond simply his father. Obviously Kip was a huge one! And someone who does more what Virgil does than what, from what we can tell, Jeff probably did. Jeff’s about technology and space, but Virgil is definitely more mechanical, engineering and stuff like fires and explosives etc. *chinhands*

Man, it could potentially even fit together nicely... If it was even older teen Virgil who found out about him... if he still went to college in Denver... I mean, Colorado is still VERY the westerny. (I lived an hour south of Denver for 7 years. XD So, yeah. XD) LMao Maybe that’s where he got the action figure. XDa Man, I wonder where Kip was meant to be from... it was definitely a southern accent---don’t think quite Texas... at least, not some parts of it. (...Oh, his actor was a UK one. GOSH. I wouldn’t have guessed THAT. XD Same person who’s played the balloon Dad and Dr. Peck XD)

ANYHOO.

Side note... did anyone notice Grandma when she descends into the seating area?

LOOK AT HER, smoothing her hair. XDDD Man, I missed Grandma. <3

I flailed a lot about Virg being ambidextrous, so I won’t flail much again. Just a little. <3

...TANGENT TIME.

It’s always interesting to see how things have been moved or outright changed. I keep wondering if they have a second Tracy Island or are they able to film where they display the house for the tour? o.Oa THINGS I WONDER when I see changes. ( But yeah. Look at the shelves here:

Then here’s in EOS:

Then this old shot from the website, where clearly it was a WIP or something, cause books are falling off and backwards. lol

Just... interesting. XD From what I can see, it was the same setup as EOS in season 2 as well, but yeah. The books have changed in S3 and that one statue on the top there has gone completely MIA. (Also can actually JUST make out the spine of one of the books! =O Bottom shelf, far left... It appears to say “Catching Fire” ...which could possibly be Hunger Games reference, since I gather that’s the name of book 2? lolol I’m sure all those books are references. lmao)

Also that one statue over near the pool table?

I was pretttty sure it was Mozart.

WELL.

NOT ANYMORE. Thiiiiink it MIGHT be Aristotle? Bye Mozart. ;A; The other statue is gone too. Sadness. And yeah, these books have been changed up too. I wonder why. =Oa Well. If it isn’t a secondary set anyways. 

In fact that whole side is a bit different (other than being shot at a different angle XD)

ANYHOOOOOOOOOO... wow that really was a heck of a tangent.

Uh.

Where was I. 

RIGHT.

Oh gosh, Virgil, you are too cute. That look he’s giving, Scott, gosh. XD That’s a pleading look if I ever saw one.

I just love how it looks like Gordon is plotting Virgil’s utter DOOM...

...Then doesn’t actually do anything, since Virgil is embarrassing himself without any help what-so-ever. XD Poor, poor Virgil. He must have been kicking himself. (The “I’m meant to be helping you!” line definitely suggests it. lol)

BUT I JUST. It’s so strange even in a way to see Virg just... absolutely freeze up.

Since Virgil like... so rarely loses his cool. Man... I wonder how he’ll react to seeing Jeff again. =Oa

Man, does Kip not board aircraft much? Most do have wheels, Kip. Even the GDF flyers do. XDa Taxi-ing is a thing they do. lololol Though I suppose TB2′s are sorta hidden...ish.

Poor Virg. YOU KNOW, this might be the first time a note about Virgil that was in the annual might’ve actually sorta been a thing. =Oa It said sometimes he forgot his own strength... We’ve really never seen it used in any way, making it seem like a bit of out-of-date marketing. (Especially since being an artist and piano player, Virg is pretty good at being gentle. ^.^) But a distracted Virgil can seemingly cause some problems lolol

Gosh, I laugh at Gordon’s line still all ‘I’m not messing with them, they’re messing with me!’ lolol

And Virgil finally pulls himself together. \o/

I just really like how Kip’s leaning on TB2′s dash there to look out the windshield.

...I also really like how Kip’s stubble looks...

Like, gosh, this season so far has had some really nice new character models.

AND THEN KIP JUST PULLS OUT SOME OLD SCHOOL TNT. lmaoooo

Remember, Virg is their demolition specialist... he uses explosives, but he doesn’t just carry around random sticks of TNT. lolol AND they just kinda ran away from a HUGE explosion and gas. And. Kip had this. On him.

...

Yeah.

I’m with Virgil here.

AND YOU CAN JUST SEE IT IN HIS FACE. I look up to you and I trust you...

But those are sticks of dynamite right there and they could have exploded earlier.

CONFLICTED FEELINGS HERE.

Ugh, can I just side note that the animators are doing so amazing in general this season so far? Just all the faces and emotions Virgil goes through in this sequence alone. GOSH.

Aww Virg. He wants to do the thing.

“I’m meant to be helping you...” ...Yeah, he’s feelin’ bad for being a wee bit useless earlier, I think. 

AND...

That face. ;A; He doesn’t want to say it and seems to be guilty for thinking it. I mean, and Virgil knows better cause I mean... GRANDMA and all. BUT STILL, he feels like he should still. ;A;a

Ugh this isn’t nearly all the faces he even makes. SO many feels.

“By not getting blown up?”

He’s still totally thinking about the dynamite.

:>

ANYTHING. My heart. 

My heart, guys. Just. Look at this sweetheart. Look how lovely and everything he is. I knew what I was talking about all this time!

GRANDMA! ...you know, I have a feeling she really might be the Grandma type who’d go and whip out baby photos. She is so unbothered at embarrassing her grandsons. XDDDD I do so love her.

OKAY. TIME FOR ANOTHER MOMENT OF ANIMATION APPRECIATION. RUNS. They’ve been animating them REALLY well so far this season too. Sometimes we’ve seen Virgil’s run be a litttle, uh, stiff. But his run down to the seating area earlier and this... Very nice. +o+b

You can really feel the weight and all the motion has such nice follow through and stuff. Just. Hrrrg. It’s good guys.

Oh my goodness, eyes. VIRGIL. ;A;

Of course, Kip’s fine and Virgil assumes the pose he borrowed from his puppet counterpart. X3b

OKAY, ANOTHER THING ABOUT THIS SEASON... animation errors have been so few and far between... they’ve got John in the loop and their IR insignia’s are properly glowing.

A+ Also some very nice texturing and stuff on the truck.

Nothing really. Just it was a nice cap. *chinhands*

Oh Grandma, your boys oh so love you. Virgil’s face. ahahaha but he’s asking. XD

And Gordon’s backing him up. Aww Gordo. <3 Like I said, I love my Big Brotp, but these two have a place in my heart too. ^.^

“Just do us a favour? Leave the dynamite at home.”

He was really thinking about that. XD

This is a dinner I wish we could see. lololol

Is this my longest episode post ever? ...it might be. It won’t surprise me if it is.

UM.

CONGRATS IF YOU MADE IT THIS FAR. :DDD

SO. Now to wait for who knows how long. o.o; I’m kinda wondering if they’ll break the season into three parts... 9/9/8 (or 9/8/9) It would make the waits between possibly smaller... I guess we’ll see. =Oa Hopefully won’t be too long, especially with their teaser. lol

I’m on the fence about who it is, except no, I REALLY don’t think it’s Kyrano. It’s all in the accents... Kayo and the Hood are decidedly from the UK so I rather doubt Kyrano would have a decidedly American one. lol That just would seem... odd. Part of me is wondering if it’s Jeff, but obviously it’s a bit... not rich enough to seem quite like Jeff, although it is pretty heavily radio distorted, but still. Erf. It also might be a bit TOO accented compared to the boys... ANYHOO, I guess we’ll see, anyways.

SO YEAH. Uh. tl;dr? I LIKED THIS EP A LOT AND VIRG IS ADORBS. 8Db

(Boy, I hope this’ll actually post and not error or something...)

[dreamworksworddump]

Voltron s3 thoughtz

So I had my party today, and it was lit. Lots of voltron themed food, and a lot of really great commentary. As for the commentary, some highlights are: -Damn, I’m gay for them generals. Wreck me! -Lotor has replaced space daddy. -(when we see Shiro again) The fuck? Now Lotor really is the new space daddy. Shiro’s been replaced. -Space daddy? More like space hobo.

All joking aside, here are my thoughts.

This season seems very jolting. Whereas season 2 started off directly after the end of season 1, season 3 starts off some point later. That leaves a lot of questions. -how did they move past Shiro’s disappearance? -did they train a lot during that missing time? Because they all seem to have better flying skills now. -when did they coordinate these battles and decide to coordinate with these freed planets?

And then there’s the point of the lion switch. Personally, I think Allura would be a better fit for Red. She’s hotheaded and impulsive, moreso than Lance is. I suppose that they made it work, but I still think that just shifting Keith to Black and Allura to Red would have been easier. I do think that the trying out for leadership thing was pretty funny and over all, was done pretty well.

Allura and Lance both doing the flirting was funny as hell and I think her flight suit and the whole opposite universe Altea thing was well played I guess? I could see the ‘evil Altean thing from a mile away, and I feel like they could have taken that a little farther. Perhaps putting the mind control thing in one of the Paladins? That would’ve been lit. The appearance of Sven was a little weird felt brushed over a bit. Honestly could’ve done without.

Onto Lotor. He’s hot. Like, I’m a lesbian and damn, even I can recognise that he is quiznacking hot. His voice is great. His respect for women and the disabled is lit and I love how nuanced he is. He’s not ‘evil’ in a straightforward way, and that makes him a much more interesting villain than Zarkon was.

As for Shiro, I gotta say, it doesn’t feel right. The Kuron thing and the waking on a Galra ship and the change in voice. All of that has me thinking that he’s a clone. Of course, seeing as he has memories of Keith and the crew, I don’t think his betrayal is something that he’ll plan consciously. (and I do expect a betrayal to come. I don’t like how he looks. The sleeve, the too short hair and awkward floof. All of it just seems so off. Which I think is what they set out to do.

The backstory episode with Zarkon and all was really well done. It gives more depth to Zarkon than we’ve received before, turning him from a two dimensional villian to someone more relatable and believable. I called the Zarkon/Haggar thing. XD Which I made sure to rub my friends faces in when it was confirmed. It was a good episode, although I do feel that it was a bit late in the season.

The shipping. Oh lord the shipping.

Personally, this didn’t feel like a Klance season. They’re friendship has grown obviously, but they’re still not too friendly. The closest thing to a Klance moment was when Lance asked about his place on the team, and even then, Keith didn’t do much to quell his fears. It all felt kind of rude to me. There were a couple of Sheith moments, which yes, do count because neo-Shiro has old Shiro’s memories. I saw a couple Hidge moments where our nerds nerded out together and stuff, and a few Pallura bits too. Overall, I think this season goes to show that romance really isn’t on the minds of the showrunners.

I think this season was pretty good, although it felt a little rushed. It was weaving all of these storylines and plots together at a breakneck speed, and while it’s a good setup for some long term plots, it was also a bit disorienting. I don’t care for the short season length; it didn’t leave enough time to explore the story.

I’m excited for season 4, and I hope that everything comes together then, and that the length of the season doesn’t hold development back.

So yeah.

[thisisevenharderthannamingablog]

Once you finish 6x19, may I ask for your opinion on fairies? Like, Fiona turning herself into one and TB and TL being seemingly regular people after losing their wings? Maybe all fairies actually start out as humans? Did you cover them in the magic index? I also wondered at Fiona turning into the BF just like that, I assume it's a callback to Nimue turning into the DO, she didn't crush the heart though? Anyway, what does the world even need fairies for, from what we've seen they are rarely cont

cont helpful or make things even worse? Idk, protecting children can't be it coz they are terrible at it? Also Blue looks shadier than ever after that episode, you'd think with her rescources and knowledge she'd be a much more important entity in OUAT? And I do wonder why both TL and TB ended up in Neverland, seems to be more than coincidence? Maybe the fairies live in Neverland and only visit the EF for the dust? Maybe that's why they don't grow old, even if they started out human? Toughts?             

Hello! I finally finished it and can think about your questions. I do address fairies in the Magic Index on the Creatures and the Magic Users pages, but there has never been very much in there. The problem I have is two-fold.

First, your question regarding Blue. The thing about Blue is that she’s not actually a character; she’s an exposition delivery tool who sometimes affects other characters that way but who has no actual character goal of her own. Second, the show’s strong tendency for just-in-time world-building. OUaT itself has no coherent theory of fairies, so it’s difficult to construct one.

Why are there fairies in S1? Because S1 is heavily influenced by Disney’s classical period, and because they needed a source of “good” magic in a season when human magic was confined to evil characters (there are no good witches and no such thing as light magic until Oz appears in the show, and I still think that was a bad move). Why Blue? Because she’s in Pinocchio, and he has an important role that season. Continue across the seasons to bolt stuff on from other stories that no one ever thought would share a single continuity, and marvel at the Frankenstein’s monster that results.

So no, this world doesn’t “need” fairies. They’re part of the furniture inherited from the source material, and sometimes a chair will be used as a ladder or a doorstop.

But we can still try. :) I do actually think that fairies, or maybe all fairies except for Blue, start out as humans. Fairies can be killed, so they must get new ones somehow; fairies like Nova and Tinkerbell appear to be new at their roles; and someone can stop being a fairy. I would guess that the spell Fiona found is the one that is normally used by Blue to induct new fairies. (Fic idea to file, what the application process looks like?)

The question of course then becomes, “why didn’t Blue just de-fairy the newly-Black Fairy like she later did to Tiger Lily,” and the answer of course is, “because otherwise the plot doesn’t work,” which is why I want to slap these writers sometimes.

They even threw out one of their vanishingly few consistent magical rules this season. Fairies need wands in order to do magic -- another item in favor of them being inducted not born -- unless you’re the Black Fairy, apparently.

Fiona turning into the Black Fairy was pretty much an exact copy of what happened with Nimue, so at least they’re repetitive consistent with some things. Power that must be given to be legitimate is taken, it is almost immediately used to do something evil, and hey presto, the entire world can see that you have Displeased the Universe, although not so much that you won’t continue to look fabulous. That she didn’t crush the heart appears secondary; I guess intent matters after all.

Tiger Lily and Tink both ending up in Neverland is putting things backward, I fear. The determining factor is that they were both associated with Peter Pan and hence with Hook. If there had been any other setting they could have used where Hook could plausibly be mobbed by people intent on killing him (without spending any time on setup), it had to be Neverland. Tiger Lily was the only character from that book they hadn’t used yet, therefore she became the fairy link between the timelines.

Even though no one ever mentioned her before, or wondered if maybe she would also like a lift off the island back in S3, or…..

Yeah.

Anyway, I don’t think there’s any in-universe reason for both of them to be there. I don’t think fairies live there normally, though; they don’t seem able to travel between realms under their own steam. Since their “normal” state is the small size, I think they live in a pocket universe adjacent to the Enchanted Forest, sort like the giants’ cloud realm. 

I appreciate the question! Hope the answers are at least a little useful. :)

[deltaengineering]

What remains of Fall Anime 2020

You might have noticed that I haven’t been keeping up with my season impressions, mostly (but not exclusively) because it’s really boring to come up with new ways to say “it’s isekai, which means it’s garbage for stupids”. So here’s what I ended up finishing, in ascending order of goodinosity.

Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle- Rhyme Anima

Ostentatious rap battles in an insanely stupid universe are very fun. The thing is that this doesn’t want to be a good anime, it wants to sell us on these characters, and the characters are pretty terrible on account of all of them being one-word gimmicks. So, let’s give them three rounds of introductions and have them solve lame, generic crimes for 8 episodes instead of setting up the rivalries that everyone suddenly has later, when the show gets good - because it does start delivering towards the end, and becomes really all I wanted. So I can’t even say I’m disappointed, but the first half of the show is almost entirely worthless. 4/10

Assault Lily Bouquet

I don’t want to be the guy that’s all “I’m mad at this show not catering to what I want”, but I do have to say that Salt Bucket is much better at being a goofy, lighthearted yuri comedy than it is at action (though there are a few choice cuts) and at having an engaging storyline. This is again just an ad for some game or other, so it’s no surprise it has about two dozen characters too many, but it also has quite a lot of superfluous plot - so much so that I suspect it was initially planned to be twice as long. Apart from that, it’s cool and all that some Gainax old hand got to make his own Gunbuster-like, but it’s just not very good at that and all I wanted was Kaede antics and bath scenes, of which 1 per episode is clearly too few. 5/10

The King's Avatar 2

King’s Avatar got a sequel and overall I have to say, I kinda like it more than the first season even though it looks much less ambitious and even the character designs were changed towards the bland. But I honestly don’t care much about the esports aspect of this and much of S2, especially in the back half, is more about schemes and social engineering - as close to an Eve Online anime as we’re ever going to get, I guess. It’s still very chinajank (why the hell does every episode come with a redundant chibi summary of itself, etc), and while I can’t call that “good” it does remind me of a time when I wasn’t filled with useless knowledge of anime tropes and was just enjoying the weirdness. Also, Ye God’s antics is as close to “looking for anime with OP MC” as I’m comfortable with getting. 6/10

Heaven Official's Blessing

Now how about some Chinimation that isn’t very janky? I only became aware of Heaven Official’s Blessing when it suddenly rocketed to the top of the MAL charts, so I gave it a looksie and oh boy. The first few episodes of this show are flat out gorgeous, quite funny and very very gay. So I was ready to agree with MAL for once, except it then launches into an arc that mostly consists of our dudes sitting in a dark pit telling each other stories that aren’t very interesting and seem barely related to the setup. Yeah, the back half of this just isn’t very good at all. And the subs are hot garbage. Still, the beginning is so impressive that I would recommend this show despite the middling rating it’s about to get. 6/10

Ochikobore Fruit Tart

You know the problem that these 5girls4koma stories have, where one of the characters is an annoying pervert, yeah? Well, in Fruit Tart every character is that character, and they’re rather cultured as well. Yes, it’s often of questionable taste and it has a terminal case of 4koma storytelling but dammit if I didn’t enjoy it. It certainly helps that this show’s greatest asset by far is Broko and it seems to be aware of this, because there’s a lot of Broko material. It would have probably have gotten a 6 but the last episode is just so... maximum Fruit Tart. I’m down for some trash if it’s as well made as this, and I do like my kiraralikes spicy, so thumbs up over here. YMM definitely V on this one. 7/10

Majo no Tabitabi

Speaking of things that are hard to recommend despite me liking them a lot, Elaina here challenges the very notion of what a TV show even is supposed to be. I assume most people tune in every week expecting to get something roughly similar. Not so with this one, you could get everything from slice of life antics to Higurashi-style gore, or reasonably deep character study to pervert comedy. I would say that the only unifying thread is the presence of Elaina, who is a very fun character, but there’s an episode she’s not in, so there you go. But I’m a connoisseur of the weird and I also have to say that I enjoyed every episode in its own way. Also, each episode stays remarkably consistent by itself, and in the end it wraps it all up with a sort of neat “life is like a box of chocolates” thematic bow, which isn’t earthshatteringly profound but hey, it’s there. Just don’t go in with expectations, especially not expectations based on the first episode. 7/10

Love Live! Nijigasaki

It’s Love Live. Good old reliable Love Live. Really not much to say about this one, any discussion of what makes this different from previous iterations is going to end up in minutiae only people who already watched this could possibly care about. I do have to say that while the musical numbers are as good as Sunshine’s were towards the end and there’s also a lot more of them, “looking budget deficient outside the CG” is the one thing I didn’t expect from something that’s ostensibly a Sunrise premium product. So boo on that one, apart from that it’s idols (an anagram of solid). 7/10

Garupa Pico Oomori

The chibi SD shorts based off Bang Dream are still better than the main show. Even if S3 was actually quite good, this is just the best thing you can do with 30+ characters that aren’t that deep. Garupa Pico specializes in absurd humor setpieces that at points is better at being Pop Team Epic than Pop Team Epic itself was. Take that, memelords. 7/10

Fire Force S2

Fire Force is just weird, man, and it’s sort of great. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a property of this magnitude show this much of the ol idgaf spirit. How about an episode where the A plot is the most evenhanded exploration of religion i’ve seen in anime, and the B plot is about blowing up a tryhard edgelord by exposing him to panties? How about a subplot where Batman and Thor infiltrate the vatican to kill the pope, only for that to lead into a gay rape backstory, only for that to be resolved by dank weed and dismemberment? It really is quite a thing, as they say. Now, Fire Force certainly delivers hard at points, but it’s also very scattershot, even if S2 is somewhat more consistent than S1. The weakest parts are unsurprisingly still the ones where it’s remembering its fighting shounen template, and that’s not only because I don’t like that, it’s also because it’s particularly and consistently bad at scheduling these huge, simultaneous multifight setpieces it often crescendoes with. But hey, at least these tend to look super cool. In short, Fire Force is a land of contrasts and still the only fighting shounen I give a damn about. 7/10

IDOLiSH7 Second Beat

Did you know that I think Idolshi7 is the best one of all of these huge-ass commercial idol franchises? Yeah, I think it’s better than Love Live, and as of Fall 2020 also the better looking one because Troyca still delivers where Sunrise apparently can’t. I guess still don’t like the music much, thankfully there isn’t a lot of that. It also still specializes in gigantic drama, and to its credit S2 is now much better at either getting to the point or at least making it silly and fun. You show that door who’s boss, Sou. Still fantastic Tsumugis all over the place as well, in fact I think I like all the characters now. Even Banri gets his big moment in this season! Yeah, this stuff is pretty cool. 8/10

Adachi and Shimamura

So here’s the AOTS, and it’s the lovechild of Bloom Into You and Tsuki ga Kirei. While it definitely isn’t as good as either of these two, because it lacks the “about more than just teenagers being hyperbolic about a crush” part from Bloom and the part where it has an actual ending from TgK, it carves out its own niche with its loopy, almost stoned tone that’s full of side weirdos and yuri hyperspace. It’s also uniquely focused, with a tiny core cast and even Shimamura doesn’t really matter all that much. This is all about Adachi, and thankfully Adachi is amazing. Amazingly awkward, that is. It’s very cute. So yeah, this is a bit too lacking in substance to aspire to classic status, but it’s a great time nonetheless. 8/10