#zombies run season 4 spoilers

[wubbelwubbwubb]

Merry Christmas @grim-the-dog! I was your secret santa. I hope you like a bit Sam (5am?) angst. Thank you @notforconsumption and @delucadarling for organizing everything! I feel like ZR secret santa is a real Christmas tradition at this point.

[i-will-go-with-you-five]

I am fuming.

I told my friend, who doesn't play ZR, but he knows a lot about it because he read a lot of the ZR wiki when I got into it, that I was adding Good Day by Twenty One Pilots to my Runner Five playlist because my Five is the kinda gal to put on a brave face and act like she's fine even when the world is breaking, and the juxtaposition of the dismal lyrics and the upbeat instrumentals described her mental state after character's deaths really well.

And he said to me, 'Oh, I thought it was cause the Moonchild mind control stuff.'

'WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT????'

'Uh... I thought you were on Season Three...'

'No!!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN MIND CONTROL???'

'Spoilers.'

'YOU JUST GAVE ME ONE.'

WHO IS MOONCHILD

WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO ME

WHY DID MY FRIEND DO THIS TO ME

[artist-issues]

Sometimes I interact with the tiny little Zombies, Run! Fandom and I wonder how some people can view the story the way they do.

Specifically, I keep seeing that Sam and Five are "drifting apart," and I keep seeing lots of attention for Peter. Like, going into Season 6, 7, and 8 (which is the one I'm on now) I kept waiting for something big to happen to suggest that Peter was as impactful to Five as Sam seems to be.

But there just isn't anything. I mean, if you tilt your head and squint, and take everything Simon did or said to Five before dying and coming back as "Peter," and combine that with Peter...you still only have a handful of moments where they even seem close.

Like. Sure. Peter was willing to die for Five several times since coming back, but...he was lowkey willing to die for literally everybody? Because he wanted to heroically sacrifice himself? He had a whole character arc about it?

And it's not like he knows Five better than anyone, either. He has one or two moments where he notices that Five is being asked to do dangerous things even though Five is not indestructible, but that's really it. He doesn't even seem to get more concerned for Five than he does for others; just that one time, in the catacombs or whatever, when he's like "IS FIVE ALL RIGHT?"

And sure, that was sweet, but also, the writers clearly put that line in there so that Colonel Sage could point out that Peter shouldn't sacrifice himself if he really cares about his friends' safety, in general, because he can do more for them alive than dead. It wasn't a line to communicate to us that Peter cares a special way about Five. It was a line to communicate to us that Peter cares about friends, conveniently placed so that Sage could use that to convince him not to sacrifice himself.

Guys, one time should not a strong connection make.

I guess I remember he also said, when Janine was hinting that he was Simon under a different name, that Peter said "I don't want to talk about it in front of Five!" But...again, that's just. Or enough for me to believe that Peter is replacing Sam in estimation.

And speaking of Janine, there is WAY more evidence that Five is getting closer to Janine, if any character. Janine is given much more story focus than Peter, throughout the most recent Seasons. She runs more missions with Five. She's present for moments when Five is given rare character beats, like being visibly distressed at the Glassdoor Monster chasing her or ANNIE playing Five's friends' screams.

Which, is another thing, by the way. When the player is meant to notice that Five is being emotionally traumatized by a demonic A.I., the writers choose to play clips of Simon screaming and dying--sure--but the A.I. also plays those same screams for Janine. And the A.I. spends MORE time replaying Sam's screams and taunting Five with the idea of Sam Yao's mortality.

AND SPEAKING of Sam, the other side of this conversation-coin is the idea that while Five and Peter "get closer" (which I see very little evidence for,) Sam and Five are "drifting apart."

I keep looking for a big falling out, or a difference in the character of Sam Yao's reactions when Five is in danger or has to do something hard or is in an emotional situation, etc. But like...I'm halfway through Season 8 and zip. Zilch. Nada.

There's just as many instances of Sam insisting on helping Five, or appealing to Five, or hinting that he knows Five better than everybody else, or exhibiting special concern for Five, as there have been in any other season. The only thing I could maybe say is that the writers no longer put Sam on every single mission...but that's still not saying much. And all the post-mission email material? It's all still Sam writing to Five. I get maybe one or two letters from other characters, but literally only like, two letters from Peter, at most.

DISPROPORTIONATELY, Sam is still the closest character to Five. No matter how you spin it. And Peter is no closer to Five than Janine, or Jody, or even Veronica.

Now.

I'm not trying to start a shipping war or anything. If you want to say Sam and Five are drifting apart in your specific, in-between-canon-missions headcanon, go right ahead. If you LIKE Peter more than Sam for some reason, go right ahead.

But unless something happens further on in Season 8 or 9 or some extra-mission stuff I haven't unlocked yet, why are you saying they're drifting apart in-canon? Are you just...projecting that on it, because you find Peter more interesting, or because Sam's character has more going on than just "radio guy directing Five and missing his dead girlfriend" in later seasons?

This has been a niche rant that basically nobody but the teeny tiny ZR fandom will bother reading all of, but it felt good to get off my chest. Cuz sometimes, with the self-indulgence/self-insert trends of modern fandom, I think we're losing the ability to understand story. And we just blur the lines between what's actually in the story, and what we like to imagine ABOUT the story.

[rogue-bard]

Zombies Run, season 4, episode 1: Get yourself a man who'll write a strongly worded letter for you.

(Transcription under the cut)

FIVE!

I don't care what that Builder bloke says about “protocol” or “orders” or “bioweapons”, if he pulls a gun on you or any of my other runners again, I'll… I'll… gah, I don’t know! Write a strongly worded letter or something, I suppose. I know, I know, hardly a threat to the man lugging around what looked like a duffel bag full of grenades, but boy did he make a poor first impression. Makes sense that he'd be working with Amelia Spens, doesn't it?

Good work keeping your cool out there today too, especially with that thing grabbing Veronica. We still don't have enough intel to know exactly what it was, but she's going to be okay. She's her father's daughter- she has to be okay. We're going to get her back, I just know it.

Love,

Sam

[korrolrezni]

Runner Five coming in with ol' reliable; bolt cutters.

Fancy swiss lock with seventeen seperate tumblers. Did that keep 'em out though, Janine?

[pixeldinostorytelling]

omg i totally forgot about the cohen mayers baby

and for a moment there I worried they killed the girl guides but it’s not them phew

[hattersarts]

gomens s2 thoughts, all spoilers!

I spent 10 hours talking to my housemate about the season after we binged the whole thing in the morning but here are the highlights and the biggest takeaways from the season.

okay i did love the ending, i love that we get the conformation of love AND going into the divorce arc next season (if they're not properly together by the end of season 3 however, i am rioting) they're slow burn and a whole season of them getting to the final 10mins was tasty.

HOWEVER. it was an extremely clunky season when it comes to writing, lots of either set ups missed OR set ups repeated 4 times that they're drilled into out heads. there was also lots of dialogue that really needed to be tightened up. the lesbians were so poorly written i thought they might have needed to be cut BUT they just needed to have more bearing on the rest of the plot AND say things like real people would say things and LITERALLY SHOW ONE SINGLE REASON WHY THEY WOULD LIKE EACH OTHER WITHIN THE FIRST EPISODE.

gabe/bulz romance was the one that should have been cut, have them do more of a oh-my-god-my-boss-sucks kind of thing, lean into them complaining about having to avert a civil war after armageddon stopped and touch on the "structural problems" the angels mention later. Have gabe/bulz be super punished for working together which puts huge fear into az and crowley about what happens if you try to team up as an angel/demon pair (but an extra reason why az takes the job at the end so he and crowley can be the same)

imo it works more if the only mirror of their romance is the HUMANS which should lean into themes to season 3 of how they need to team up with humans (re:"us vs them" line at the end of season 1) to actually achieve their happy ending.

Nina and maggies best scene was their last one telling crowley he needed to talk to az but i think that was one that needed to be cut, it would have been far more satisfying to have crowely work out it out himself that he loves az and wants to tell him (still via maggie and nina but more subtle rather than them telling him to his face AND via spending more time with az in the season)

flashbacks were all pretty good, loved the jobe one and that final "lonely" scene. the nazi one needed some trimming the most (why did all three come back to earth, it made scenes too crowed, have them fight to be a zombie)

shax was disappointing, she was kind of just incompetent the whole way through which didnt make the stakes very exciting, (that whole scene of her talking to the legion was unfunny and pointless) i wanted crowley to mentor her more like when he gave her advice in the first few meetings we saw (kind of in a very non-demonic way, not expecting anything in return) and her to then meet him on equal footing in the finale. would have been a little accidental taste for Crowley to have his good deeds come back to haunt him while showing he's different to demons.

speaking of the finale fight, that halo had NO set up, it was sick as hell but ??? the fuck did that come from. the fight should have been won by az and crowley performing another HUGE miracle together, discorporating the demons (which then would alert heaven and hell something was up in the bookshop and the final scene can happen)

az taking the job from metatron was very good, its consistent with his character where he still hasn't let go of his faith in good/god, he's only been upset by the angels running heaven and still has faith in the system while crowley has realised none of it works and it's only them together that matters. it was nice to show he still hasn't truly accepted crowley for who he is now (tho imo he knows he loves him, he just hasn't quite unrepressed himself) and him not turning down the job after crowley confesses to him shows he still thinks he can fix it. Crowley on the other hand thinks he's now lost him, az has broken he the trust he had in him, he's going to be in big depression mode

few thoughts of good directions for S3:

finally delivering on what crowley said at the end of S1 I think is the most satisfying. the final showdown should be humans Vs heaven/hell with Crowley and az on the human side, helping them win the conflict. there would be suggestions that this is actually god's ineffable plan, this is a conflict she wants to happen and the things that Crowley and az went through are what make them perfect ambassadors to help the humans.

the set up for az in S3 to finally work out he and Crowley can't work out within the unfair rules of the system and for him to abandon heaven (tho not I think, becoming a demon) is good. a sucky ending imo for season 3 is if az somehow "fixes" heaven and via bureaucracy and not via blowing it all up.

growth moments for Crowley in S3 might be having more contact with humans since he's already abandoned hell and it would put az & crowley on similar footing (as az very much loves humans already) when they decided to side with humans for a humans Vs heaven/hell conflict.

anyway, gay people

[lola-andheruniverse]

Hey. Just wanted to say I absolutely love your recs. I was wondering, if by any chance, you had any recs of fics where Daryl comforts Carol. Specifically, if possible, I’m looking for a fic where he comforts her because of her claustrophobia but honestly, I’ll take any fic where Daryl comforts Carol that I can. TIA 😊

Hi, @roryelijah02! Thank you for your kind words and for sending me on a really fun fanfiction hunt. I hope you enjoy this "small" handful of recs (I totally overdid it, let's be honest 😄). Any inputs of mine are in bold. Caryl on, dear! Daryl comforting Carol because of her claustrophobia: 1. Claustrophobia by Sophiacharlotte [ FF.net ] Summary: caryl season 6 PWP (porn without plot). Daryl and Carol get stuck in a trunk while running from the herd. Rated: M Word count: 2.154 Published: October 28, 2015 (one-shot)

2. Hers to Love; His to Protect by CharlotteAshmore [ 9Lives | AO3 | FF.net ] Summary: It had become a festering ache beneath the surface of his skin, this need he had to protect her, to save her … because he was certain he was the only one who could in a world gone to hell. Rated: E Word count: 337.828 (70 chapters, little claustrophobia crisis in chapter 07) Published: June 25, 2018 (complete)

3. The Woodsong Fog by Lighteneverything [ 9Lives | AO3 ] Summary: On his third day of searching, Daryl finds Sophia. But when one element of the timeline changes, others must too. S2 and on ZA AU. Rated: E Word count: 212.192 (46 chapters of ?, major claustrophobia crisis in chapter 25) Published: January 26, 2024 (WIP) Daryl comforting Carol when Sophia was missing:

4. Sleepless by @rubinegoslay [ 9Lives ] Summary: Carol can't sleep and finds an unlikely source of comfort. Set in the early days of season two. Rated: G Word count: 883 Published: February 12, 2015 (one-shot) Daryl comforting Carol because of nightmares:

5. Insomnia by eyeslikewildflowers [ 9Lives | FF.net ] Summary: After finding Sophia in the barn, Carol is plagued by terrible nightmares. Daryl comforts her.  Rated: E Word count: 8171 (02 chapters) Published: December 19, 2016 (complete)

6. Tidal Nightmares by Perennials [ 9Lives ] Summary: Spoilers for season 9/10. Carol's nightmares eb and flow, like the tides of the ocean. In the wake of her son's death, the currents pull her further out into a dark abyss where she feels unable to escape. She seeks comfort in none other than her best friend. Rated: G Word count: 1.250 Published: March 29, 2020 (one-shot)

7. If it matters at all by @charlibubble [ 9Lives ] Summary: When he hears her crying, it triggers something inside of him that he can't fight. Comfort isn't romantic though. It is safe to hold her in his arms, in her bed, in the dead of night. That's what friends do. Friends. Partners. Lovers. Does it even matter anymore? Rated: E Word count: 7.655 Published: February 09, 2022 Daryl comforting Carol because of self-harm:

8. What Lies Beneath by @my-mt-heart [ 9Lives ] Summary: Imagine if Carol's downtime right before the Hilltop battle played out a little differently. She doesn't speak to Lydia. She doesn't sleep with Ezekiel. After her ex-husband escorts her through those gates and she makes eye contact with Daryl, she marches straight into the Barrington House, staying there until day turns to night. Alpha's horde, as she learned on her way up to one of the vacant bedrooms, is fast approaching, but unlike everybody else, she's not looking for comfort before facing possible death again. She just wants to hurt.  Rated: M Word count: 1.272 Published: December 21, 2020 (one-shot) Daryl comforting Carol after the end of the Whisperers War:

9. Two Lives by @tigereyes45 [ AO3 ] Summary: After the Whisperers War Carol finds herself alone on a hill. She watches the zombies struggling to make it up and feels nothing, until someone finds her. He always finds her in these moments. Rated: T Word count: 1.065 Published: December 27, 2019 (one-shot)

[watchingspnagain]

Rewatching Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

Welcome to “You’re Being Dumb, Sam. Sam, Don’t Be Dumb: A Supernatural Rewatch Blog” with Lor and Mace!

Up today, s5e15: Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid

The dead are getting up out of their graves in Bobby’s hometown, but nobody wants the boys’ help because they’re getting their loved ones back. Until, of course, it all goes pear-shaped. Still, Bobby - and the town sheriff, JODY!! - remain stubborn about shooting their wife and child, respectively, until it’s very almost too late.

Below is a log of our real-time reactions as we watched. Remember that there may be spoilers for any part of SPN’s 15-season run here. Note also that the nature of our conversation is adult and thus it may contain adult language and themes.

 [and we begin:]

Lor:

haaaaaahahahaha the voiceover on the tv

  Mace:

YES

“First the animal reacts with confusion” HAHAHA

  Lor:

YES it's great

"who died and made you queen?" and Dean's face!

  Mace:

“Who died and made you queen?:

HAHAHAHA

  Mace:

YES

  Lor:

LOLOLOL

oh sure Dean, you can climb out of your grave, but when someone else does it, you're all "that doesn't happen"

  Mace:

SNORK

JODY

  Lor:

YAAAAAAS

we arrive at the era where there's some great female characters who are around for more than one ep

  Mace:

YES

but gods forbid they actually let them have their own spinoff

  Lor:

OMG THEIR FACES

  Mace:

OMG BUSTED

“bullcrap” HAHAHA YAS JODY GET EM

  Lor:

"that is a... FUN coincidence"

  Mace:

YES

she is HOT

  Lor:

yes

"what is that smell? is that SOAP?" HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA

  Mace:

SNORK!!

  Lor:

A tank of gas? I love you, Baby, but you guzzle the dinosaur sludge

  Mace:

HA right?!

  Lor:

Dean Winchester, are you whistling in a graveyard?

  Mace:

he IS

  Lor:

I am SURE he was taught better'n that

  Mace:

okay what’s with the smell metaphors?

  Lor:

YAAAAAAAAS

SNORK

LOL

"are you confessing?"

  Mace:

poor boys are confused

  Lor:

"and? and you're welcome?" 

YES

  Mace:

YAS

  Lor:

"you're a zombie." "I'm a taxpayer" too soon, too soon

  Mace:

HAAAAHAHAHA

Bobby is NOT helping unconfuse the boys

  Lor:

poor Bobby and his dumb nephews

NOPE

  Mace:

oh no, i forgot about Bobby’s wife

  Lor:

yeeeeeah

she can make pie though, so it's fine

  Mace:

Sammy, don't give him that look, if PIE

  Lor:

RIGHT?

maybe if you brought Dean his pie when he asked for it, he'd be less likely to take pie from zombies, SAM

  Mace:

HAHAHAHA

that pie DOES look good

  Lor:

it DOES

"well there were the lightning storms" HAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA

  Mace:

SNORK

  Lor:

"MUST BE THURSDAY"

it's okay, Dean, I will soothe your temples. come lie down with me. I gotcha

  Mace:

Ah yes, that old chestnut. Every show in the history of TV is, I think, contractually obligated to make that joke

  Lor:

LOLOLOLOL

i do think it's written down that if you make it past season 4 you gotta

  Mace:

YEP

  Lor:

oh Bobby

  Mace:

“what would you do if you were us?"

  Lor:

that's not in keeping with the rest of the book, Bobby

ooof

oh his FACE. don't mess with his uncle

  Mace:

YES

Dean is TORN. She’s a zombie but she’s offering lunch and more PIE

  Lor:

I do REALLY like her. like, "you think I let Bobby tell me what to do?"

RIGHT?

  Mace:

YES

  Lor:

"or being dead"

  Mace:

“or being dead”

  Mace:

subtle, Dean

  Lor:

yep, that's him, smooth and subtle

he is so dang PRETTY

Mace:

he really is

Lor:

Don't worry he WILL BE

  Mace:

“my job is to bring him peace” oh, girl, no

  Lor:

yeeeeeeah

not a great foundation for a partnership there

  Mace:

EW

  Lor:

now Sam. don't be dumb

you're being dumb, Sam

  Mace:

DAMMIT SAMMY

EWEWEWEW

  Lor:

GROSS

  Mace:

SO SO GROSS

  Lor:

I hope they use their fake credit cards to get them their vaccines

  Mace:

YES

dammit, Bobby, you’re being an idjit

  Lor:

RIGHT?

AND hurting the boys

"we're his family, Sam" oh, Dean, hon

  Mace:

YUP

  Lor:

"okay. I'll head to town and... rescue everyone"

oh Sammy

  Mace:

how do you get a little kid actor to do that without giving the poor thing nightmares?!

  Lor:

RIGHT?

I love that Sammy knows to call her sheriff to get her to focus

  Mace:

YES

poor Jody

  Lor:

RIGHT?

I think sometimes I forget that her story starts with so much trauma

I mean, par for the course for hunters, but

  Mace:

I had totally forgotten!

man up and respect her wishes, Bobby

  Lor:

ooooof

making a lot of noise for someone trying to sneak in there, DeanDean

  Mace:

SNORK

  Lor:

omg those two

  Mace:

YES

  Lor:

"I thought HE was the town drunk"

HAHAHA

  Lor:

i enjoy the implication that every town only gets one

  Mace:

HAHAHAHA excellent point

Dean you did NOT just drop your gun

  Lor:

he's having some trouble this ep

  Mace:

he really is

  Lor:

he's probably distracted by whatever this music is

  Mace:

RIGHT?! I mean, what the shit ?

  Lor:

the tag teaming while one of them is in a wheelchair is pretty cool

  Mace:

YES

Oh, pie!

  Lor:

LOL

  Mace:

“Don’t you ever get tired of being wrong?"

HAHAHAHAHA

  Lor:

"don't you ever get tired of being wrong?"

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

ooooo I love that there’s no answer to "you okay?"

  Mace:

YES

Look, I get that she’s your wife, Bobby, but a full separate pyre? Really?

#dramaqueen

  Lor:

HA!

"she was the love of my life. how many times do I gotta kill her?"

jeeeeeeez

  Mace:

Sammy, quit asking if these people are okay.

  Lor:

RIGHT?

SAM

  Mace:

SAMMY. WHAT DID I JUST SAY.

  Lor:

WELL THAT WAS CHEERFUL

  Mace:

It sure was.

But hey, JODY!

  Lor:

YAAAAAAAAS

[deliciouspirateangel]

thoughts on descendants 4 after just watching it <3 spoilers below

i didnt hate it but it also wasnt great?? i unironically love all the other descendants movies, ive got all the books, the dolls, dove cameron is always in my spotify wrapped top 5 bc of how much i listen to the soundtrack. those are my qualifications for not being a hater. i just didnt think this movie lived up to the original trilogy

and obviously they want to make more movies, which im okay with, but this one still felt unfinished. not in a "there's more to explore in the sequels" way but in a "we forgot to write an ending" sort of way

the pacing was just really weird and when we checked to see how much time was left and saw there were only ten minutes, we couldnt believe it

with all the talk of castlecoming and how big a deal that was, it felt so weird that we didnt see it?? that bridget went thru this horrible life changing prank that literally turned her evil and we just never even got close to it. taking the book was enough

(also, why did red even have to open the book in the first place if they only needed to play keep away with it? they werent even looking for anything inside)

WHAT was chloe talking about when she said her mom changed so much?? like did ella tell her nothing about her past? she's surprised that her mom grew up poor and abused and disliking royals but went on to marry a prince and be kind and give her gifts?? i dont understand what she was confused about alskjfsl

i did like brandy and paolo tho. idc if it was fan service, im a fan and felt serviced <3 their parts were cute. there was no reason for ella to be running around with blue hair tho. and the top, back, and braid all felt like they were from a different wig and none of it was working for me

i am SO glad chad got a mention tho. i screamed when it happened. i just figured they'd ignore him completely lmao

uliana was written like racist people write uma in fanfics. disappointing. disney still owes her for season 1 of hsmtmts so they better improve her part for the sequel movies

the songs were also v disappointing for meee :/ my sister said half of them sounded like they belonged on the zombies soundtrack (derogatory). the soundtracks of the original trilogies have almost zero skips on them, so it sucks that like over half the songs on this one could be a skip for me

this is also true of the stupid royal wedding short but i hate that they essentially killed carlos off for real. its sooo dumb but idk i just like thinking that cam could live on in his character but nooo. and even tho im convinced that china was crying real tears in that scene and it still hurts, the whole "we should do it for carlos" thing was like. still weird

anyway like everyone did a good job with what they were given but i think the script and song writing were nowhere near as strong as the original 3 (even tho i also think the original 3 movies vary in quality in those regards)

but i still had a good time and hope they make more. and i need those dolls to show up in stores bc i want them <3 and above all else...

GIVE DARA RENEÉ BETTER MATERIAL DISNEY YOU OWE HER

[pretentious-art-love]

Film Reviews #7 - Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: The Story of the Rebellion

Spoilers for both movie and show will follow ahead!

This film, and the TV show itself, have a lot of flaws, like holy crap there are so many flaws that I just feel lazy when I think about listing them all.

Anyway, let's list them all, first and foremost, the pacing is incredibly convoluted, like bloody hell the first time you watch this you will have eyebrow pain from frowning so much and you will be mentally exhausted of all the things you have to keep to track of to puzzle the story together in a overarching arc that feels as long as listing all the digits of Pi, and most digits of Pi serve no purpose whatsoever! The thing is that, this movie would have worked a lot more as a full TV season for the show, things are so heavily compressed and the pacing might start slowly but then goes super fast and then builds up an important scene and then moves to another part of the plot! The TV show does have this same issue as well, since while it builds up nicely around the beginning, some things are cut short and that makes some scenes feel underdeveloped, like the whole arc with Sayaka and the pain of feeling like a lich, or a zombie, we got to see her pain and her reluctantcy to talk to the boy she likes, but we didn't get to see or feel what bad things she felt would happen in a relationship in the state she was in, I have dealt with dysphoria myself, so I understand her predicament to an extent, but I know a lot of people will think she is just dumb, the friendship of Homura and Madoka could have been expanded more to make us feel the importance of Madoka in Homura's life, and at the end she just comes as a very obsessed lesbian, I can go on and on, but again, I am getting a little lazy, the first season could have even been 24 episodes long, this movie, 12 episodes long, but with its movie running time it has at the very most 8 episodes worth of runtime, and that hurts the storytelling a lot.

Because of that, there are scenes with a lot, and I mean a lot of exposition, with Kyubey being the equivalent of the exposition pug from the Men in Black series here, while in the show he still had a bigger role in the story despite also delivering a lot of exposition. That makes the whole story feel clunky, convoluted, and nonsensical, we don't get shown what it is happening, we get told about it more than what it is healthy for a story. There are some characters, like Bebe, that are introduced in a very quick way and then work as a normal part of the rooster without us getting to know her backstory, I only know it myself because a friend told me about it from something she read about a gacha game that expanded her arc. All this, all these issues, and more, that it's hard to call it a good movie, let alone a good show because of that, and the thing with animation and art like this is that knowing how to use your screen-time properly is really really difficult, and no matter the path you pick (either some scenes of quick exposition or basically not explaining it at all just to leave it to additional material) will end up leaving at least some people unhappy.

So, what about the goods? Is there anything good in this movie at all? Yes, there is, starting with the eye candy that is Shaft's visual direction, with that heavy French New Wave influence and featured not just here but also in the Madoka show and the Monogatari series, for the whole 100 episodes of it, its an absolute joy, the surreal atmosphere with complex backgrounds, overbearing lighting, characters that talk in such a idiosyncratic way that feels unique to them, and the cutout animation that mixes with the more traditional characters to create this scary but beautiful aura with the unnatural creatures and happening of this world, for eye candy like this alone I would rate this movie 4 stars, and out of all the discourse people seem to bring from this movie, it is at least the general consensus that the visuals of it are great!

But! That's not the thing, haha, you see, because the reason I like this movie so much… the reason I like this movie so much it's because of its writing! Yes, that is right! Yes, I know, you might be saying the obvious, how I, with all the issues I see about this movie and the TV show, saying that the best thing about Rebellion being the writing is bogus, so now, just stay still, and listen. You see, the Madoka TV show was fine… it was fine, it was a fun show, you know, a normal deconstruction of the super hero genre, even if you aren't into magical girls, as long as you know what a super hero is, and are familiar with the trope of the normal person protagonist thingy being chosen to save the world, you will enjoy the show, the TV show has some twists and turns that make you wonder who the real villain is or what it is going to happen next, but there are things that you can easily predict from the first episode alone, and as the story goes along, these predictions get confirmed to you, and the end of the show does not really come as a surprise when you reach it, you say, ahh, yeah, that makes sense, that was nice.

Madoka the TV show takes the whole idea of the Magical Girl/Super Hero and shows us a story where the only way to save the world is sacrificing yourself, even at the cost of your humanity, and plays with the idea that maybe the best option for you is to not become a super hero, a magical girl, because the cost for that power and that responsibility can be too great to bare. The show ends in a bittersweet note, and plays with the idea of Godhood and the ideal time loop after a sacrifice has been made, that idea is very fun on its own, there are interesting rules within the show that allow Madoka to propose a cohesive idea of God without becoming a power trip story, like the idea that God is in every place and every time in the universe, but can't directly interact with us because its fighting to keep the balance of the world as we know it, making it no more than a mere observer that cannot alter our life on its own will despite being omnipresent.

The idea is good, and I like it a lot, even when there are shows that have used this idea to make things a lot more interesting things with them, like it is the case of Serial Experiments Lain where its ending is not only an exploration of godhood but it also plants questions about our identity on itself, and about who we are now in the digital era, which makes more the message a lot more personal to the audience. So, the show itself is fine, yeah, the ending had been done already before and after, the plot is a bit convoluted and characters arcs cut short, but overall its a fun ride with its own self contained ending, not life changing or anything but really good for the fans of this kind of media.

Anyway, the show become super popular and a movie sequel was approved, so what are we gonna do now? The show had already used the concept of alternative timelines for its main plot, so if you are going to make a sequel or alternative version, using them to spicy things up or continue along with the characters its a no go, its a really big task to continue things from the point the TV show ended, and the struggle does show, some people call the movie unnecessary, and I can see why would they think that. The movie does have also some well known tropes like the ideal/dystopian timeline that starts the new arc of the franchise that has been shown in anime like… well, I don't think I can say it without making it a spoiler, but if you want to know, ask me, it's a fun trope to write, and a confusing one to watch. In that part, it is nothing new, and the pacing is a lot more convoluted than the TV show, not just reducing character arcs and growth to mere one liners but also making the whole succession of events a mind boggling mess to watch the first time.

But around the end, around the end, it happens, it just happens. Homura's arc in the show was good enough, she acts as the quiet, traumatized hero, the martyr that is under the scenes and tries to save people despite looking as a cold hearted foe in the outside, she was someone with extreme methods that could involve even killing Sayaka or letting Mami die as long it meant to save Madoka, there are great moments she has like in the episode 10 where she and Madoka are about to become witches, and Homura says that as long they are together, she doesn't care if she destroys the entire world with her, and that she would destroy and unleash her despair on the whole earth as long she gets to be with Madoka, which I found quite passionate, the way she remembers her after everything has passed, and how get to see her more and more as the protagonist in the show as it goes on.

The thing that… her character as it is its fine, it is just fine, like… she is a good character, but maybe not the most memorable character ever? I mean considering that the trope of the martyr hero that is silently suffering but is helping the hero from the shadows its a very well known trope, it doesn't come as a twist, it is something that you can even see from episode 1, and a lot of people did, myself included, when the flashback scenes come, you say, yeah yeah, I see it now, but there is not really a twist, not the twist the show wanted you to experience, it was heavily implied and when you see it come, you watch it mostly because you want to know the how, not the why, of her character. So yes, the character its fine, it is a good character, but it doesn't change things too much, it just serves as a another spring in the perfectly tied together clockwork that is the show, it has a nice conclusion, all answers are given to you, when you look at it, it does feel as what you would expect, it is a fine good clock, aside the pacing, you could say the TV show its a good clock, maybe too good in fact, too tidy and perfect for its own good, it is a story that ends as how it should have, with protagonists that end with the character growth that they should have… Madoka does the sacrifice of losing her humanity to save all magical girls, and Homura is finally able to express her pain directly to the person that she loves, and is finally able to break the time loop she is in, living now in an universe where magical girls don't become witches, and continues as a silent hero that fights from the shadows, with her sad backstory, and her resolve to go on, it's all really nice, a really tidy and clean ending for a show…

But, if you allow me to be a bit pedantic… I think that's boring, super and incredibly ultra mega boring, it is boring, boring boring, super boring, expected, already shown, already made, predictable! It is boring! BO-RI-NG! It is too by the numbers! And yes, sure, Madoka started as a deconstruction of the Magical Girl genre, and it might have been seen as something that subverted the source material it was inspired from, but that is only if you came to it blind, all blind, expecting something cute and fun, so in other terms, it relied in nothing more than a marketing gimmick, and when your movie relies in a marketing gimmick, once that gimmick is gone, half of its appeal its over, just like with The Blair Witch Project, sure it was supposed to be a real found tape, but of course you can't keep your actors locked in a basement, so the immersion is absolutely broken out of the gate with that. I did my best, and I watched Madoka as blind as possible, not knowing anything about the plot, anything, I didn't google it, checked it or did anything or research about it, but even then, when people mention Madoka on the internet, they say, oh Madoka… haha, Madoka is not what it pretends to be! Mwhahaha! If Madoka comes up as a random conversation topic in your discord server, that is the bare minimum you are going to hear. I can say that in this day and age, it is incredibly obvious from the get go that you come to Madoka looking forward to it pull a fast one on you, and with me having watched stuff like Magical Girl Site around 2017 or so and being used to a whole fanfare of violent magical girl shows, I arrived to Madoka and I kept asking myself, where is all the blood? Where is the angst? The edgyness? Sure, a character just died in episode 3, the cutouts are artsy and fancy, but to be honest with you, I'm not feeling subverted right now! I am waiting to see the most shocking and grotesque thing to exist! Where is it?! And then, I have to adjust my expectations, the plot it is very interesting with the material it works on, people say Kyubey did nothing wrong, and that is a discussion you can argue with very solid points, but if you are familiar with the the time loop genre or time travel stories, you will see that Homura is a good girl from episode 1, from episode 1.

I kept eating my nails waiting for Madoka to become a magical girl in every episode, just to start to realize around episode 5 and 6 that it most likely wouldn't happen in the whole anime, and if it did, it would probably be only at the very end, because the story is about avoiding letting Madoka become a magical girl. When you realize what kind of story it is, you can see the whole picture of it before it ends, it is just so tidy and clean to the point it is almost antiseptic and symmetrical, just uncannily geometrical, it just feels artificial, and fiction is that, artificial, but the magic trick is about to make it feel like its not. Sure, you are going through a very elaborate and carefully made build up, but even when I am in that slowly but surely ascending roller-coaster, I could be ripping my eyes out because I just want the roller-coaster to start to descend! I am seeing the whole landscape from up here already! Just shake me right now! Scare me away! Even when the show ends with a character turning into godhood and rewriting the entire world and history as they knew it you can't do anything else than say… yeah, that was a good ending, all arcs were written… all characters were there… and the conflict was resolved as it should have, it was all done, in a tidy neat little bow, overall, it is one of the TV shows of all time.

Listen, I know that there is only 7 basic plots for all fiction, I get it, and it is not easy to making something properly satisfying when you have to handle several characters, fantasy worlds with rules on their own, the feelings you want to convey and handle the life of all people that live temporarily in your head, but I just want to dream! Is that so wrong? Is it wrong of me to wish for a character that makes me feel absolute and complete rage even when do not actually exist? To want to feel inspired by a conclusion a character reaches that is actually taboo for the place they and I live in and that makes the audience raise an eyebrow because it defies the status quo? To have a Chekhov's gun unfired the whole play? I just want to feel that the world I am watching to feel real! To have the gun there just because it happened to be that there was a gun there! Not because it was left by the karmic threads of destiny for the heroes to pick! That is what I want, it will make people angry, it will make people confused, but that doesn't matter, because at the end of the day, that's what I really want, I want to feel things! Not to account for all the mathematical equations the screenwriter is trying to balance on a narrative!

So, in this movie, we see something further beyond than that perfect, tidy ending of the show, we see that Homura, despite Madoka's promise of being always everywhere and every time, is still afflicted by her inability to interact with her, to see her or talk to her, to see that Madoka cannot see interact with her friends, her family, and that for most purposes, she is as good as dead to the world. Because all of this, she ends up, due to Kyubey's meddling and others, creating a fake reality where she and her friends are all fighting as a group of friends, always together, and living a happy life following their own duty as magical girls, the life they always dreamed. After a lot of suspicion and her good detective skills, she realizes that the city they live in is no more than a mirage, and that the friends she has been fighting with have been trapped due to her own grief. Even Madoka, who used to be an omnipresent being, had turned into her previous, human form, and it is interacting with the world just like she used to. After all this, Homura, yet one more time, decides to follow her path of a martyr, and tries to sacrifice herself now that she has gotten her wish to talk to Madoka yet one more time, she doesn't want to keep her friends in a glass prison where everything is fake, where they fight threats that do not really exist, where Madoka is not doing her duty saving other magical girls, and she cries because she knows that even after the sacrifice Madoka made, she is still unable to move on, and it is heartbreaking.

Just before she finally jails herself in an eternal prison where not even Madoka to save her, ready to experience eternal pain, her friends come to save her, Mami and Kyoko, who after realizing they have been trapped they decide to help, and even Bebe and Sayaka, who had died in a way or another in the past, are in a way, alive, helping Madoka, and are working together to save her. It is all a nice display of the power of friendship, and a nice ending, so nice, so wholesome and cute that almost makes me puke, hehe, even Sayaka says that they are kinda like Madoka's secretaries and are moving through the cosmic plane in a carriage, isn't that nice? Since they are all working together, why not start giving presents to the kids every 24th of December as well? Why not make it a tradition? Call it, I don't know… Christmas or something! Even when had experienced those characters death's, it's fine! They will just go back to the main dusty cloud of the whole universe hivemind, where they will continue to do good deeds like the super heroes we are in our own life! Haha! Haha! How nice! Isn't it?

Don't make me laugh.

Anime has touched a lot of times the idea of instrumentality, right? The idea of being part of a whole, huge massive being, Evangelion, Kaiba, Code Geass, and Ghost in the Shell have mentioned the idea either as a main plot device or mentioning it as something they want to avoid, right? Because the unknown is scary, that's the basis of cosmic horror, the basis of losing our own individuality, our self, and become something that might not even be truly alive to our own eyes. So when Madoka takes Homura's hand and promises to take her with her, to that afterlife, so they can be together forever, I can feel the fear, I can feel the wish, the need to avoid that to happen, because even if there is a promise for her to be together forever, Homura has already experienced the pain of being unable to interact with Madoka in the human world, the pain of knowing Madoka wouldn't be able to interact with other people, her friends, what does even mean to be a god if you can't put your own will of your own in the entire universe? If you can't experience what it is to have your own senses? To be a fragile and mortal being? After Homura remembers all the pain she went through to keep Madoka alive in every loop, and the pain she experienced even when she somehow achieved with Madoka entering into a new plane of existence, she decides that that's not what she was to have, and an awesome thing happens.

She takes Madoka and breaks her apart, stealing her power, and yet once again, jailing her in a reality she has herself made, just as she said herself, a new demon is born. The story, in a way, ends the same as it just started, but with the big difference that Homura has turned from protagonist, to antagonist, from secretive hero to anti hero, and the people who trusted in her, the audience as well, felt heartbroken, felt disappointment, and condemned the movie because of it. But the thing is that, even when the pacing is convoluted and filled with a lot of exposition and shortcuts, the story on itself it is not! It is not, I can feel the character's pain and their whole psychological progression, I can deeply relate to them in a way that feels so real that I can almost touch it, the trying to help behind the shadows, the failing and succumbing to despair, the accepting the bittersweet solution and gray reality of things, and the pain that comes from realizing that you can't really accept that bittersweet reality and you just break over again! Like, to put a very personal and specific example, I am trans, right? Trust me, this is relevant. So, I start realizing I want to be a girl, and I say, yeah, this is a phase, this is not right, and then I try to push it inside, and I try to be more manly, and I try to become more outgoing and talk with girls the way it is expected from me, and I fail, and I fail, and I am awkward, or I do things I don't understand and that do not work because I just don't like acting as a man, but I keep trying, and I end up having a lot of faux passes and sour memories of all my high school life because of it, and then I just start to understand that I am no more than awkward boy and that I am fated to be an awkward weird boy all my life and that's just how things are, that girls can do certain things, and I can do certain things as well but not what girls can't, and that dream girl that always inhabits my mind its just someone nobody else can really see, just like Homura accepting that Madoka wouldn't never turn into a tangible person in her own world.

But, I can't accept it! It is unbearable, it is really really unbearable, and not really a fair compromise at all, even if I am not trying to date anybody, even when I am trying to be on my own, be with myself, I just can't accept being a man, because it makes me miserable, seeing myself in the mirror, it makes me sick, my voice, I hate it, the relationships I have with other people, they are noting more than a mask, nothing more than a facade in a shell I am carrying and in a body I can't even use to express myself well! So what do I do? I do what I should not do, I do something that could be considered a crime, against what our religion told my family! What everyone thinks is right, what even my own biology gave me and what should be the right path to take, instead of forgetting about all those desires that I should not have, I take the bite, and I start a physical transition, even if it means losing the friends I had, even if it means probably losing my parents! Even if it means becoming a stranger to the people that knew me and making cry to the people that took care and grew up with me all my life! Because that is my desire, because that is what makes me happy! Oh and because screw you, that's why. Wouldn't destroying the God that reigned over your life and do whatever you want completely outside of the plan he had with you the most liberating thing you could ever do? Wouldn't that be the ultimate expression of your own free will? See? This is what is so good about Homura's character this arc, not because being becoming trans is akin to becoming a villain or any nonsense like that, but because to have what you truly want, you sometimes you will have to take decisions that will make others unhappy, because sometimes you just can't play the good girl all the time!

After this, Homura turns from the tidy and fated secret martyr hero of her perfect and tidy story and turns into something a lot more real, she turns into someone you can't really agree with because turns to be heavily flawed in her morals, but that you still deeply relate with, and that emotion she felt around the end of the movie, I felt it deeply and intensely, and you feel it too, because we have seen not only her breaking point, but also the whole arc and descent into madness. Despite all sorts of bad villains we have had in super hero fiction lately, villains that end up evil because of an accident or just because the protagonist didn't pay attention to them for long enough (looking at you Iron Man 3), Rebellion, despite being a super hero film, it takes its time to make its own protagonist, a real and true villain. In anime we have had villains with enough sympathetic qualities, like with 千と千尋の神隠し [Spirited Away] where we can see the need for control and order that help us see her in a more humane light, but they still have a certain, really clear defect like greed that give enough reasons for the audience to not side with her, in films like A Clockwork Orange we have seen villains so vile and disgusting that you would never want to side with them, but have some compassion for after they lose a bit of their humanity, and in recent films like Joker, we have had villains where you feel so close to them that you can't help but say, it is me! I am a villain, if I was in that person's shoes, I would turn into a villain all along, I would be the one to hurt you, because this is what my pain has turned me into! Because I simply can't hold it together any longer! It is me! Me! Me! Its that kind of villains that makes you really tremble, that make you really scared, villains like Joaquin's Joker, like Homura, because you are scared not of anything fantastical, or a fictional concept, someone with a powerful gun or over aching politics that are outside of your own reach, you are afraid of your own self, and the horror that creeps within…

I have seen people even argue that Homura did nothing wrong, but even when you agree, like me, that she did something truly wrong, just because she was in love, you just can't help but feel for sympathetic for her, not even because we have been love, or we also have had a crush, but because we all have experienced grief in a way or another, and we are afraid of the unknown. There is something that I really like about cosmic horror and the fear of the unknown and I think turning humans themselves the mere sources of that fear of the unknown that you can use to evolve the genre in something new. With the ending, the whole movie and the franchise altogether breaks into that neat tidiness and clockwork precision of character arcs and destroys a character that people liked making it into something really different, but you want to know why this is great? Because it all felt real, because unlike all the rest of the shows answers and questions, that moment alone felt like a break into the perfectly synced chain of events that lead Homura's life. This is why, even with all the qualms I have with the movie, with the show itself, with the things I don't like and the things I can laugh at, this is why, this movie deserves my absolute and guaranteed five stars, making it the top of 10 movies I have ever seen, because what I felt with it, I felt it so vividly and so intensely that for a moment I felt I could see a real person in its plot, rather than a mere sets of puppets pulled by a writer's strings.

I remember a comment about Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens [Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror] where a person said that in their class the people who watched it kept laughing the whole way through the movie, making fun of the techniques, the plot and the tropes of the time, even after when the movie finished and they all left, but there was one moment, one single moment around the end where Nosferatu dies and turns to ashes, everyone stayed silent, surprised, and for that moment alone, they felt the surprise and shock of the character's death, without saying anything, only feeling what was really happening, and they commenter said, that is cinema, and that's right, that is cinema! Even when I did not understand Броненосец «Потёмкин» [Battleship Potemkin] the scene of the stair kept me fascinated and horrified the time I watched it, and with this movie, I got shaken to my very core at the end, do you understand what I am trying to say? Sometimes we will interact and understand movies and fictional media as much as we do real people, partially, only in bits, but if we do, that moment we connect with each other will become something truly special.

Even when there are unanswered questions at the end, even when there are characters that could have gotten more screen time, even where the pacing could have been a lot slowed down, even when things could have been shown instead of told, even when the character design is too chibi-like for me to call it actually interesting, even when its just a goofy magical girls movie with all those idiosyncrasies that this Japanese sub genre of super hero fiction for kids has that seem silly to me, even with all that, I think this movie is truly great, not just because of its artistic direction and animation eye candy, but also because its with its conclusion that the movie achieved something that felt real and unique. Stories about exploring godhood are incredibly fun because they are stories where you can get really creative with the stakes of the plot and it's conflict. In the movie, that whole concept in the movie morphs in an amazing idea, filled with lots of possibilities, from the silly little comedies like Bruce Almighty where Godhood comes as something that might not work for you because the balance in the world is too big for you to keep in control on, or action films like The Matrix Revolutions where your mere existence as a God is part of the chain of events that keeps the world fated to die, will you keep your power at the cost of everything else? Or would you sacrifice yourself? On games we also have theories like the ones of the Elder Scrolls franchise where it is implied that the universe is simply a dream of The Godhead, so keeping him asleep becomes part of the thin thread that keeps your existence, and the laws of your world can become more flexible since everything your characters know is purely oneiric on essence, and that is just an incredible help for your world-building when you are a writer!

This movie plants the idea of a demon trying to keep God asleep because they are in love with them and for real though, that is probably one of the funniest ideas to come out from fiction in 2013, there are other anime like the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya that play with the concept of Godhood and the task of having to keep a God asleep but this whole series turns that concept with an antagonistic lenses, which makes it a lot more fun, since the biggest catastrophe is not something you want to avoid, but something that you live in every day, in the story. I know, I am afraid and excited for the upcoming sequel, because just as I can feel a great connection with an artist, or a person, that something can always change after we all move to the next stage of our lives, just as a franchise moves to a (probably final) sequel, and a new arc, still though, I know that was done here will always mean something to me, it is not a simple retcon, it is not unnecessary, it felt warranted, it felt genuine, and it made me feel truly intense things.

And that is, my whole review.

10/10

[s-d23]

How I fell in love

with The Walking Dead, Bethyl and Team Delusional. No one asked. Lol but I wanted to share! Back in 2014 I had heard of TWD but had never seen an episode, had no idea of the plot or who the characters were, all I assumed that it was a "scary" TV show and that was it. So in July I was flipping through the channels and ran across the dead, white and blue marathon. I was working but yea I could do my job and watch TV with no interruptions from my then 1 yo. The very first episode I laid my eyes on was Still. Can you believe that? The first random episode I found was my now favorite Still!! I had no idea of any background stories, I didn't even know their names at the time. All I seen was 2 young people running around an apocalypse with zombies who had major chemistry. It felt like a normal date night in the country. Finding an old abandoned house in the woods, drinking moonshine, someone getting too drunk and wanting to fight or argue, sitting on the porch and the crickets in the back ground. Sounds like a normal night in the south especially for a young couple. Hell, the first time my husband told me he loved me was when he was drunk on homemade moonshine and I live in NC but that's a different story. I kept watching these two characters and thinking they are going to at least make out! Really thinking they were going to go back into that cabin and (insert smut) however we all know they didn't. They did burn it down which again is a typical thing to do in the south burn something or have a big bon fire. I never once felt that there was some crazy age difference. I had no idea of their ages. After watching that episode I watched the next few and quickly realized that TWD was not all about scary zombies. I was in love and obsessed. I went and bought every season which was 4 at the time. By October I was completely caught up and so excited to find out what happened to beth and wanted the Bethyl reunion! I had not shipped a tv couple so hard since Spike and Buffy in high school!! Then Coda happened and I was so effected. I felt like I was actually mouring someone real not just a fictional character on a TV show. I cried myself to sleep. Now mind you at the time I was a 20 something year old women with a family and for days I was actually overcome with grief! Then it hit me. The whole thing did not feel right. The way she was shot and the angle of the gun. The way the music played at the end. I began to search on the internet because in my mind I really thought this has to be a fake out death and maybe someone else thought so or there was a spoiler of some sort to prove she was alive. That's when I found tumblr. I didn't know what that was before either. I found team delusional. Some of the people I followed are gone now but what everyone was saying and fact there were missing scenes that they filmed all made sense to me. I continued to watch the TWD until around season 7 or 8 then I lost interest. I never stopped following TD to see what they had to say, hoping eventually TWD would bring beth back. I never stopped reading all the bethyl ff. I did start back the main show to finish the last 2 seasons. Then of course the DD spin off. I notice the parallels on the DD show because the earlier seasons are my favorite and I have rewatched so many times. The parallels i see are of the end of season 4 and the beginning of season 5. All of the big beth episodes. I do believe that we are closer now than we have been to seeing her again! I think currently the writers want the GA to believe that Daryls happy ending will be with either Isabelle or Carol, however I think they are writing the story to seem like that, so it will be an even bigger surprise when Beth returns. ❤️

[thelesbstrosity]

MY GOOD OMENS 2 LIVE REACTIONS FOR EVERY EPISODE

So ofc spoilers

Good Omens 2

Episode 1:

- THEY KNEW EACH OTHER AS ANGELS

- Crowley is so proud of his universe and nebulas

- STILL NOT GETTING HIS PRE-FALL NAME

- the reverse wing cover in comparison to season 1

- maggie is a gay disaster

- gabriel walking naked through town to the bookshop had me cry laughing

- crowley living in his car? the plants in the back seat

- myself vs ourselves 😩

- the husbands™️ are fighting 😭

- FORCED PROXIMITY LESBIANS?!

- DISABLED ANGEL I LOVE IT

- the apology dance

- them treating Gabriel like a pet you’re hiding from your parents

Episode 2

- HIS CHILDREN?!

- MORE MURIEL

- Gabriel’s hair in the past 😂

- Heaven takes part in the bystander effect fr fr

- Crowley sleeping in his Bentley

- A JUKEBOX THAT BUDDY HOLLY’S RECORDS LIKE THE BENTLEY

- Greetings “I’m Jim”

- THE FLY

- Plan “Get the lesbians together”

- STANDING IN THE RAIN LIKE IN SEASON 1, EPISODE 1

- A CLUE

- my head can’t hold all that

- “Bildad the shuhite” “sure”

- “i know you” “You don’t know me”

- HE COULDNT KILL THE GOATS

- Ennon’s a little fruity

- “I’m a demon. I lied”

- “He has a permit”

- CROWLEY IS WHY HE LIKES HUMAN FOOD

- THE LET ME TEMPT YOU vs “ARE YOU TRYING TO TEMPT ME”

- shoemaking and obstetrics

- “our car/ our bookshop”

- GOOD OMENS THE BOOK IN GOOD OMENS

- “I’m a demon. I lied” pt 2 😭😭

Episode 3:

- Jim’s mug”

- MURIEL POLICE OUTFIT

- I love her 🫶🏻😭

- HIM BRINGING HIS PLANTS INTO THE BOOKSHOP

- “For like 200 years”

- LAZURI MIRACLE SCALE FOR LAZURUS

- AZIRAPHALE DRIVING

- HIM WRITING ABOUT CROWLEY IN HIS DIARY

- David getting to be really Scottish but like pretending to be bad at it

- Crowley can feel his Bentley

- ITS YELLOW

- them fighting over the car/ Book selling threat

- gravity

- he gets drunk on poison skshsksj

- HE TURNED SMALL

- KAIJU CROWLEY

- “stunning view”

- crowley tossing books

- “we probably don’t have what you’re looking for and we wouldn’t sell it to you if we did”

- AND GRINDR

- “you have no idea”

- ARMAGEDDON 2???

- Shax must be invited in

- SHAX HAS HIS OLD APARTMENT

Episode 4

- FLASHBACK TO THE WW2 SCENE

- OMG LADIES OF CAMELOT FROM THE OPENING CREDITS

- THEY’RE BACK 😂 AND IN HELL

- “I’m fu -*piano*”

- MAGICIAN AZIRAPHALE AGAIN

- ZOMBIES

- SPIDER PUNISHMENT 😳

- that’s what…friends…do

- “Wow me with your miracles”

- the way crowley supports his little magic act

- AZIRAPHALE OWNS A GUN

- “someone you can really trust” *immediately looks to crowley*

- Same legion 😂

- HE SLIGHT OF HANDED HIM

- “you said trust me” “and you did”

- Crowley’s pet

- THE CAR FOLLOWS AZIRA

Episode 5

- Good omens is Anti-HOA

- THE FEZ

- okay shax we see your war fit

- the french

- HE DIDNT TELL HIM ABOUT SHUT YOUR STUPID MOUTH AND DIE ALREADY

- Muriel is so pure i love her istg

- you’re weird

- JIM’S SUIT

- THE DEMON LEGION IN MASKS

- a seamstress

- the dancing

- ELEVATOR TO HEAVEN AND HELL

- THE ANGLE

- ALSO NOT THE BOOKSHOP

- THE COAT

- him lining them up with the buddy system

- nina and maggie staying

- RESCUING ME MAKES HIM SO HAPPY

- Arrest me

- ah shit here we go

Episode 6

- Badass Azira has entered the chat

- Crowley’s fit change and little run

- MAGGIE NO

- Shax really said “leave and i’ll smite you”

- A THRONE OR A DOMINION OR ABOVE

- They never change their passwords

- HE WAS IN THE HIGHEST RANKS?!

- gabriel was on trial

- THE CANDLES! THE EXTINGUISHERS! HE HAS TRAUMA FROM THE FIRE

- EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANGEL

- HE WAS REMOVED FROM OFFICE

- FOR ONE PRINCE OF HEAVEN TO BE CAST OUT…THATS DEFINITELY HIM SAYING CROWLEY WAS AN ARCHANGEL HOLY FUCK

- That’s why he showed up naked..holy shit

- OMG HIS HALO

- “I MAY HAVE JUST STARTED A WAR”

- the awkward elevator

- HIS MEMORIES

- MICHEAL AND BEELZEBUB CHATTING

- THEY LIKE EVERYDAY SO HE MADE SURE THE RECORD IS ALWAYS EVERYDAY 😩

- THEY GAVE HIM A FLY

- NEIL DELIVERED THE SHIP

- “No one’s ever given me anything before” 😭😭

- “You. Thank you”

- “I FOUND SOMETHING THAT MEANT MORE TO ME THAN CHOOSING SIDES”

- THEY SANG TOGETHER SKSJSK

- METATRON THE VOICE OF GOD

- Crowley putting the bookshop back together

- Nina saying she’d hope Maggie will be there when she’s ready

- “YOURE NOT HELPING, ANGEL” Nina pls the parallel

- “Nothing lasts forever” 😭😭😭😭

- him crying as he puts on his glasses

- “NO NIGHTINGALES “

- “WE COULD’VE BEEN US”

- THE KISS

- “I forgive you” “don’t bother”

- Muriel getting the bookshop

- THE SECOND COMING

- NOT “A NIGHTINGALE IN BERKLEY SQUARE”

- they’re both so clearly unhappy and heartbroken

[video-game-kids-tournament]

MEET YOUR CONTESTANTS!

TWDG spoilers under the cut! Along with a TW for murder and child endangerment!

Name: Clementine

Age: “8-9 (season 1) - 11 (season 2) - 13 (season 3) - 16 (season 4)”

Gender + Pronouns + Sexuality: “female - she/her - bisexual”

Video Game: The Walking Dead - A Telltale Game Series

Backstory: “When Clementine was 8, she was staying home with a babysitter, while her parents traveled to another town. Then the zombie apocalypse happened. The babysitter was turned, and she hid in her treehouse to stay safe. Then Lee, a former teacher convicted for murder, found her while running away from zombies. He ended up taking care of Clem while trying to survive, and promised her they would look for her parents. He would soon become a father figure for her, having to make tough choices to protect her. ===== HUGE SPOILERS FOR SEASONS 1-2 BELOW ===== Clem had her innocence sacrificed in order to survive in the zombie apocalypse (the kind where the zombies are far from the worst thing around). She had to see Lee kill zombies and sometimes other survivors to keep both of them safe. A young boy who was part of their survivor group was bitten and had to be shot by his father (or Lee, depending on player's choices). She was captured by a guy who lost his own family and wanted revenge on Lee while trying to impose himself as a better caregiver for Clem. She eventually found both her parents - already walking corpses. And after Lee was bitten she had to leave him behind to turn into a zombie. Or shoot him herself, if he asks her to (depending on player's choices). Later, at 11, she was traveling with another group of survivors, as they looked for a safe place. She had to gain their trust, prove herself, and stitch a very bad dog bite wound on her arm *on her own* because the others wouldn't believe she wasn't going to turn into a zombie. Disinfectant, needle and everything. And she was attacked by a zombie while doing it. And she still found the energy to yell at the others when they accused her of stealing the medical supplies ("I'm still. not. bitten!"). She had to be the sole emotional support for a guy who lost his entire family, and was subject to frequent bursts of anger. While she was by far the youngest of the group, she was frequently one of the only mature one as the others would dispute authority between themselves. At one point, she can (depending on player's choices) dive into a frozen lake without a second thought to save one of the survivors, resulting in the others pulling her out of the freezing water and getting her blankets and a fire to prevent severe hypothermia. Clem eventually took care of the newborn baby of a member of the group who died shortly after giving birth. Depending on player choices, she can do so with one member of the group, or, disgusted with the lies and petty quarrels of the adults, take care of the baby all on her own. That was a summary of seasons 1 & 2. I could go on with season 3 & 4 (there is SO MUCH) but that's enough text here and her wiki biography would mostly speak for itself.”

• “A smart girl, abandoned by her parents (though not intentionally) in the zombie apocalypse. Lee Everett, the protagonist of the first series, takes the poor child under his wing. Keeping her safe and teaching her what to value and how to survive are a big part of the moral core of the first series; she becomes the protagonist of the later Telltale Walking Dead games. Honestly she rules and is the best part of the games so I really don't want to spoil much about it.”

• "She survived a few days alone in the zombie apocalypse, then was taken care of by the protagonist, Lee. During Season One, she was mostly focused on finding her parents (who were out of town when the apocalypse started) and contributing to the group of survivors she was in.”

• “Parents were out of the house when the zombie apocalypse happened. Rescued by dude, sad and terrible hijinks occur.”

Why should they win the tournament?: “Clem is one of the toughest and most tragic video game character. Ever. After being protected by Lee/the player, she loses her innocence too quickly, but struggles to protect the rest of her humanity. When all the adults lose their minds, she is the one beacon of hope and reason. She can be kind, and tough as nails. At 11 she can work through the pain and stitch her arm on her own. Eventually, she herself become a parental figure, and in turn has to teach the hard lessons she learned (which is even harder than learning them in the first place!). With infinite love to give, and infinite pain to anyone who would hurt her or the ones she protects, she is like a diamond in the rough, forged by immense pressure and never breaking.”

• “she's a survivor and I love her”

• “She's awesome, but in the first game she's especially kind-hearted and you just want to protect her from everything. Clem acts as the protagonist's moral compass throughout the first season, and everything you teach her is reflected throughout the story. In the sequel games you see her become her own person and eventually learn to survive on her own, even raising a kid in the Final Season - her character development is one of my favourites in fiction.”

• “Their ability to think and act under pressure from their zombie ridden experiences would help them survive in a tournament-like setting.”

[laststandx3]

This post contains spoilers for ep 6 of daryl dixon

so finally watched ep 6 (the last one of the series) and let me tell you: it's bad. AdNag was wonderful, his hair were perfect, his face so kissable. 100% the highlight of the episode.

Anyway quinn dies (we knew it. let's not pretend we didn't) he get bitten by a zombie during the arena fight and in his last conversation as human he asks daryl to tell isabel he helped them an all. jesus christ, you're dying can you be less of a simp?

so let's talk about this episode for a minute. first half is them escaping the zombies in the arena (which daryl dixon has barely any difficulty in doing. he even lift one with a pole. really.) then the militia guys (was enough to fire one shot at random and they run away) and then our heroes were back on the road just to have the most nonsensical 5 minutes in the history of plots: does anyone remember the militia guy that wanted to avenge his brother so bad that in looking for dixon he got at least 40 people killed? the same guy that was cheering for a zombie to eat off dixon's face 3 minutes ago? that guy that was shown as the right hand of the boss? well after 5 episodes of murder after finally having dixon at the end of his gun he decided he wasn't going to kill him. bc he didn't want to kill laurent apparently, but the 20+ dead nuns is fine? the other innocents from the club? the paris commune? they can die. it's fine if he doesn't want to kill the kid but daryl dixon was right there, why not kill him?

second half of the episode they reach the nest and it's maybe the nicest sequence in the show so far. not enough that i can forgive everyone being dressed like background characters from a 40's movie or a group of french people picking the token american aboard student as their leader or everyone still speaking english for daryl or these people needing daryl to teach them how to use a rifle. but okay at least the sequence was nice. i don't believe that nuns taught laurent about aristotele but okay. i still have some suspension of disbelief left. at this point the people from the nest found daryl a lift home (kinda) and there's a ship waiting for him on the coast of Normandy. You know what we just found out? that dd's granpa died on the coast of normandy during ww2 and daryl sniffs on his grave even tho he never met the man and had a bad relationship with his dad. it feels like the american writers of this show had a list of things americans and french had in common and ww2 was the only thing left. anyway laurent then shows up from a dune and waves at daryl and idk it's implied daryl will take him to america? this kid only has bad ideas.

at the end of this season i can say this was the first draft for the show. not one single character has an arc. characters were underdeveloped, they had no solid background for their personalities. bad guys were bad until the plot needed them not to be. and those who were bad were bad just because. Genet she was a night guard at the museum and now she's leading a militia, i'm not saying it's impossible, i'm saying that without seeing even a glimpse of her character evolution she feels hollow. the guy wanting to avenge his brother does a 180 in a minute, killing 4 of his men. what is the journey there? he could've been a great character development, if he got developed in any way. Quinn, went form british living abroad (job still unknown) to nightclub owner that simped for Isabelle for 12 years but never ever in all this time looked for her once. and now that he died nobody cared, they made the big reveal that he was laurent's father and he was the ONLY person laurent showed no sympathy to?? Isabelle, laurent and the other nun, they saw everyone they lived with die and were okay, no faltering in faith, no grief. no lets go on with the plot. the other nun cared so little that she left them when they needed help the most and joined back when the risk was over. like?? girl what? I want to talk about laurent, he never questions he's god on earth, everyone told him he's special and in all his journey he never doubted for a second that he wasn't even if so far more people died than how many he helped. he saw murder, violence, hunger, pain, living dead and he didn't care at all. and now daryl dixon, i started the series knowing nothing about him and now the only thing i know is that he's the typical grunts not speak no friends type. zero connection with his character. he went throughout another tuesday of killing zombie and people and what bothered him the most was that everyone was speaking french.

this series gets a 4/10

[korrolrezni]

Janine, I get you. He's betrayed us before but I am with Sam here, Simon wouldn't sell us out to Moonchild.

Buuut, I don't like that it's tilted as "Sacrifice." That sacrifice better not include any of the Abel folks or ex Abel folks.