#Ep 6 has given us a lot of context about these two

[notfreetoday]

MPW Ep 6 Subtitle Corrections

Masterlist: EP 1 || EP 2 || EP 3 || EP 4 || EP 5 ||

Y: 正直言って　怖い 近づく度に　心臓が跳ねるから 何なら近寄らないで欲しい 住む世界が違うから 好かれたいとかは思わない ただ。。。 嫌われてしまったら死んでしまうかもしれない 想像するだけで　胃液がせり上がった Y: To be honest, I was scared. Because whenever he came close to me, my heart leapt and skipped a beat. I wished that, if possible, he wouldn't come near me because we lived in different worlds. 'I want him to like me' - I never had a thought like that. It was just... If he ended up hating me then I felt like I might die. Just thinking about it made my stomach turn.

We've seen for awhile that Yoh's fear that Segasaki will one day come to disdain him is what keeps him from voicing his thoughts out loud - but it is in Ep 6 that we truly learn the intensity with which Yoh feels, and come to understand why that fear overwhelms him to the point that he is incapable of hearing Segasaki's love for him.

Or, Yoh sees Segasaki for the first time and literally starts spouting poetry in the way only a visual artist can. Get ready for a lot of interaction breakdowns - this episode tells us quite a lot about these two! Same translation disclaimer applies, Ep 6, let's go!

S: 相変わらず　歩くの遅ぇな S: As usual, he walks so slowly

Y: あのさ　実は Y: 出てくるときにケンカしちゃって M: え？どうしたの Y: お前の仕事なんてどうでもいいって言われた M: 瀬ケ崎さんが？そんなこと言ったの？ Y: どうでもいいって　なんだよ Y: 人が一所懸命やってることに対して* Y: 最低だよ　あいつ* Y: You know... actually Y: When I was leaving we got into an argument M: Huh? What happened? Y: I was told "I don't care at all about something like your work" M: By Segasaki-san? He said something like that? Y: "I don't care at all"... what's with that! Y: To say that about something that someone is giving their all for...* Y: He's the worst, that guy** **Yoh uses あいつ (aitsu) to refer to Segasaki as "that guy". This is again considered rude, though is often used amongst male friends as well (like calling someone an asshole/bastard). He tends to use this word to refer to Segasaki in his head, especially when he's annoyed with him.

*Just like at the end of Ep 5, where Yoh emphasizes that he will become someone who can earn more as opposed to just earning more, here Yoh specifies that he is upset with Segasaki's response to his work, rather than being upset with the response being directed at himself, as the original subs imply. It's a small difference but I think it's important because it fits with his entire character. He has consistently only been triggered by comments about his work, not about him as a person. Yoh is self-conscious and sensitive about his work, because he sees competence as a measure of worth. It's precisely because he ties his self-worth to his work that he falls into such a deep depression in Ep 5, and it is the same reason why Yoh does not understand what good Segasaki could possibly see in him - after all, there is no merit in just being who he is, only in the work that he can do.

Y: いや　それは都合よく受け取り過ぎだよ Atsuya: ダヨ君　言葉って受け取り方が９割だからさ A: 同じ言葉でも　その時の気持ちやコンディションによって A: 違った意味に捻じ曲げちゃうものなんだよ A: ダヨ君が元気な時だったら     もっと甘～く聞こえたんじゃない？ Y: No, that's just over-interpreting it in my favor Atsuya (Man-san's husband): Dayo-kun, they say that about 90% of the meaning words convey comes down to the way we interpret them, so A: Depending on the way we feel, or our condition in that moment, that meaning can end up distorted and warped, even if the same words are used, you know? A: If Dayo-kun you, had been in a happier mood, might it not have sounded a lot sweeter to you?

Y: ん。。。いや、違うんです Y: 俺とあの人って　そういう感じじゃないんで Y: Mm... No, it's not like that Y: That person and I, well... that's not what it's like (between us), you see

Y: あの人を初めて見たとき この星の生き物じゃないかもしれないって思った   少なくとも地球上で見たものの造形の中で 一番きれいだとおもった 耳の形　鼻筋　 下顎角のライン　唇の膨らみ きっと見えない眼球の形状まで きれいなんだろうなって

Y: When I first saw that person I thought that he might not be a living thing from this planet At the very least, out of all the forms that I had ever seen on this Earth I thought he had the most beautiful one. The shape of his ears, the ridge of his nose, The line of the angle of his jaw, the full contour of his lips Even the structure of what could not be seen - the globe of his eyes - I thought for sure that too must be beautiful.

Y: 趣味で漫画は描いてたけど 現実の人間を描くのは初めてだった それに　 男を描きたいと思ったのも初めてだった 今　目に焼き付けて　描きつけておきたい衝動に駆られた たぶん　あの美貌と同じ空間にいた そのせいで　俺は　おかしくなっていた Y: I had drawn manga as a hobby but It was my first time drawing a real live person. And, It was also the first time that I thought "I want to draw a man" In that moment, driven by impulse, I wanted to burn his image into my eyes, to capture his likeness down on paper. Probably, it was because I was in the same space as that beauty. It was because of that, that I began to go crazy.

At 06:44, when Segasaki's green shirt classmate comes in calling his name, you can see that Yoh mouth’s "Mizuki" after he hears it.

(Btw Green Shirt later wears a Red Jacket, and is played by Nishimoto Maiki, the leader of the group Acchan is in - GENIC. Cute shot of the 3 of them here)

S: 直接何かしてくるわけではないし　別にいいと思うけど S: Well it's not like he's doing anything to us directly... I think it's fine actually

Y: 女の子が相手なら　 一目惚れだとはっきり思ったかもしれない でも　ただただきれいな男だったんで 自分の脳が　そこまで処理しきれなかった Y: If it was a girl Then maybe I would have clearly understood that this was love at first sight But it was just very simply, a beautiful man so My brain couldn't handle processing more than that

Most of this is not subtitled, and it’s a little muffled, but as the group walks over you can hear that Segasaki is the center of their conversation here, though he's not actually participating in it much. It speaks to the group dynamics, so I'm including it here (Segasaki is bolded):

Girl: ええ？ S: ちがうよ Red Jacket: 瑞貴じゃん、ね、今ね？ Girl どうせモテるじゃん S: いやモテない Red:モテるよ瑞貴が Girl: 告白されてるよ　どうせ Red: されてる　されてる Girl: あれ！ぼっちくん*じゃん Red: うわっ　マジだ　ぼっちくんじゃん Boy: いつも俺たちのことチラチラ見てる Girl: ちょっと来なよ　おしゃべりしたげるからさ** Girl: Whaat? S: It wasn't Red Jacket: It was (said to) Mizuki wasn't it, right? Just now? Girl: I mean you're popular anyway! S: No, I'm not Red: Mizuki's popular Girl: Whatever it is, that was a confession (you received) Red: It was, it was Girl: Oh hey! Why, isn't it Little Loner*? Red: Oh snap, you're right! It is Little Loner! Boy: The one who always sneaks looks at us Girl: Come here a bit, we'll talk to you, ok?** *ぼっちくん (Bocchi-kun) - Bocchi is slang for loner, and by adding the suffix "-kun" to it, they've turned this into a diminutive, like a nickname. It sounds cute and friendly, but is clearly meant as a casual sort of insult, so I've translated it as "Little" here. **This is an interesting line to discuss. She tells Yoh to come over, using the phrase 来なよ (kina yo) - this is the same "na" that Segasaki uses in Ep 4 actually, when he tells a drunk Yoh to go sleep in the room. It's the exact same word form, but where it was tender when Segasaki said it, it's highly insulting here - and the reason is because of the context and their (non-existant) relationship. She may be Yoh's senior, but this is the first time they're meeting, and they are nowhere near close enough that this phrasing would ever be seen as appropriate. She then tells him "we'll talk to you", using the colloquial form of "~したあげる (shita ageru)" aka "to do for you" - in other words, she's framing the action of them talking to him as if it were a gift from them to him (this word form also implies they are above him in the hierarchy). She also adds the polite prefix "O" to the word for "talk", which in this context is meant to make her appear sweet and ladylike. In other words, with just one line, she has insulted Yoh not only by talking down to him as if he were a small child or a pet, but also by insinuating that she's a sweet, lovely person who has been so kind as to deign to speak to him.

Y: あの。。。俺*　買ってきます Y: 絡まれてるより１００億倍マシだわ Y: Um... I*... will go and buy it. Y: That's definitely 100 million times better than getting harassed by them *Yoh still uses the masculine pronoun 俺 (ore) for "I" here (the same one he's used in every episode) which is remarkable for the fact that he doesn't switch to the more polite form 僕 (boku). Nowadays, it isn't really expected per se that a junior make this switch - especially since "ore" is usually the go-to pronoun for most male university students - but the switch wouldn't be surprising either, given that they are his seniors. Yoh does acknowledge their seniority when he uses the formal -masu form of the word "to buy" - but in the context of them bullying him, the choice to stick with the more masculine pronoun "ore" suggests that he isn't intimidated by them.

Red: セルフパシリって　すごくね？ Girl: やばいよ Red: He automatically offered to be an errand boy! Isn’t that crazy? Girl: It’s nuts!

パシリ(pashiri) - to be made to run errands - is slang, and it is used specifically to refer to cases where someone with more social power orders another around. It’s almost always linked to bullying or misuse of social power – so by using this word, these guys - they know exactly what they are doing.

Y: クソだよ　あいつら* Y: Those bastards*… they’re trash *Yoh uses the same word あいつ (aitsu) to refer to the gang that he did at the beginning of this episode to refer to Segasaki - once again it is the context that changes the meaning of this word. With Segasaki, it is proof that they share a close relationship. With these upper classmen that he's just met - it's definitely rude.

This is a very common form of bullying in school, and evidently, Yoh recognizes it immediately. The fact that he jumps so quickly to cooperating with it tells us sadly that this is something he's familiar with - he's likely been bullied before. This is unfortunately, unsurprising, because Yoh doesn't adhere to social norms very much. He eats alone, he stares at people, he doesn't greet his seniors properly (that slight bow is not enough, there should at least be a verbal greeting of some sort).

In my post on amae, I talked about how the interdependent self-construal means that one's ability to assimilate is seen as a value. In the same vein, people who do not fit in with the group, or who do not conform, are not looked upon favorably in Japan, because it is often assumed that they simply do not want to. It is not that they are unable to assimilate, it is that they are refusing to make an effort to be part of the group, and thus the fault and blame lies with them. Ostracization of those different therefore, is the expected consequence and punishment that the group metes out. All of us have to do our part to adhere to the rules of the group - what makes you so special that you can do your own thing? If you just did your job of fitting in like the rest of us have, well, then you wouldn't be in this position in the first place, now would you? - This sort of justification is the reason why bullying in Japan can become very, very extreme, and why despite efforts, has been so difficult to eradicate.

S: そんなに　一人で持てないだろうと思って S: 貸して Y: ありがとうございます* S: 行こう S: I thought all of that was probably going to be too much for one person to carry S: Pass it over Y: Thank you very much* S: Let's go

*Yoh uses the full, polite version of "thank you" here, and he will, for the most part, continue to use desu/masu forms with Segasaki, and answer him politely, in recognition of their senior/junior relationship. Similarly, Segasaki uses informal forms with Yoh, though he maintains a friendly demeanor and does not drop to rude forms at all, because they aren't that close yet. Note how he says 行こう (ikou) for "let's go" here - different from his present day "we're going", which leaves no room for argument.

(Also, he took the heavier bag of drinks (´ ▽｀).。ｏ♡)

S: 結構歩くのゆっくりなんだね Y: よく　言われます S: 君　名前は？ Y: あ　葉って言います　あの。。。葉っぱの S: ふーん　葉くんか Y: はい S: 俺は　 Y: 瑞貴...さん S: なんで知ってんの？ Y: あ　そう呼ばれていたので S: よく　聞いてんな Y: はあ　まあ。。。

Let's break this down to look at some social cues and nuances:

S: You walk quite leisurely, don't you? Y: I've... been told that a lot

This is more than just a callback to the beginning of the episode (or a chance to contrast how much more polite and sweet Segasaki sounds here 😂) - This is another way in which we see Yoh does not fit in. Segasaki is his senior, who has gone out of his way to come help him (never mind that Yoh's being bullied), and he should at the very least, be trying to match Segasaki's pace, not making him wait like Yoh does here. Segasaki's comment should be taken as much as an expression of surprise, as it should a cue to catch up - Yoh glances briefly at Segasaki after this line (which seems to amuse the latter) but he doesn't actually apologize outright or walk any faster. He does admit that he's been told this often - which sometimes can work as a concession, because you sort of validate what the other person is saying, but at the same time you aren't quite agreeing either. That said, it can backfire, because it means you've been made aware of your habit and yet have done nothing to change it. Segasaki doesn't seem to mind though, and actually matches Yoh's pace here.

Speaking of "pace" - "マイペース" or "my pace" is a loan word from English, and is a term used to describe someone who tends to do things, well, at their own pace, or in their own way, and who isn't bother by the people or goings-on around them. Usually meant as a benign, sometimes affectionate comment on someone's personality, it often brings to mind the image of someone who appears to drift during conversations, who might be a little "slow" in social interactions, or who physically lags behind the group. It can have negative connotations, because it means the group needs to make concessions for this person (like looking for them when they've wondered off). Yoh is the epitome of someone who is "my pace", and I'm very sure that the emphasis on his slow walking is not just a peculiar quirk of his character, it's an intentional part of the character design to show how Yoh is different.

S: *You... what's your name? Y: Ah, I'm called Yoh. Um... written with the character for "leaf" S: Hmm~ Yoh-kun huh.. Y: Yes

*Segasaki uses the polite pronoun 君 (kimi) to refer to Yoh here, as opposed to the rougher お前 (omae) that he now uses in the present day.

That little action Yoh does whilst saying "leaf" is him drawing out the kanji character for his name. It's quite common to tell someone which character is used to write your name, because the characters usually mean something, and it helps others to remember. Strictly speaking, Yoh really should be introducing his full name here, but judging by how he's been fiddling with the plastic bag, he's probably just too nervous to realize.

S: I'm Y: Mizuki...san S: Why do you know that? Y: Ah... that's what.. you were called (by them) so... S: You listen closely don't you Y: Ahh.. yea...

Nice save 😂First of all, it's extremely unusual to jump straight to using someone's first name instead of their family name (unless you're still a kid), let alone doing it to an upper classman, though Yoh does manage to tack on the polite suffix "-san" at the back. It's the verbal equivalent of stepping right into someone's personal space and touching their bag or something and then being all "er there was something there...". It's just weird and borderline inappropriate 😂 The fact that Segasaki doesn't scold him for taking such a liberty, or show any sign that he appears weirded out by it (in fact, he actually goes along with it!) tells us that Segasaki is a very kind (yasashii would be the right term here, the same term that appears at the end of this episode) or at least a very tolerant individual though I'd also like to think he just finds Yoh's strange ways a little cute too.

S: いま　楽しい？ Y: え？あ　いえ S: 絡まれて　パシらされてさ Y: ああ。。 S: どう？ Y: いや　たのしくないです Y: 瑞貴さんは？ S: 俺？ Y: はい S: 全然楽しくない S: 内緒ね Y: はい

Continuing with the breakdown:

S: Is it fun? Y: Huh? Ah no-

Segasaki's tone changes here to a more serious one - all he does is stress the final syllables of the word "fun" to indicate he's asking a question, instead of adding any end particles that might give more context, or that might soften the tone. The topic switch is a little sudden, which is why Yoh seems a bit confused. It doesn't help that the words are a little ambiguous - it literally translates to "now, fun?" - except the Japanese word for "now" is often used to mean "just now" as well, because the Japanese concept of time is not quite as linear as it is in West. "Now" doesn't just refer to "this current exact second we are in", it extends from whenever the "current activity" began right up to "this current exact second" - the key is figuring out what the current activity is 😅. Because Segasaki jumps into this topic so suddenly, and without much contextual cues, Yoh can't quite tell whether he means now, as in them walking together, or now, as in, the whole being sent on an errand thing, which is why Segasaki clarifies in the next sentence:

S: Being hassled, and sent on errands? Y: Oh... S: So? Y: No, it... isn't fun.

Segasaki watches Yoh closely whilst he waits for the answer to his question. This is Segasaki checking that Yoh knows he's being bullied, and it's also permission to talk about the topic. Once he confirms that Yoh does know what's happening, he looks away again.

The exchange tells us a lot about Segasaki's character, because often, the reason why bullying goes on for so long is that no one is willing to talk about it. Everyone knows what's going on, but no one acknowledges it. The fact that Segasaki jumps straight into it hints to Yoh that he doesn't agree with what his "friends" are doing (whether Yoh catches that hint or not is a different story). It also tells us, the audience, that he isn't afraid to speak up about things he disagrees with (similar to how he spoke up for Yoh when Yoh was sketching in the cafeteria) - but not to the extent that he'll do something which threatens the harmony of the group outright. This is tatemae/honne, which I talked about briefly in the amae post as well, and linked to this street interview video for real life examples. In short, tatemae is your ability to avoid conflict and smooth over group interactions, and is seen as an essential and positive trait. Segasaki is very good at this, even at this stage in his life, which is part of why he is so well-liked.

Y: What about Mizuki-san? S: Me? Y: Yes S: I'm not having fun at all S: It's a secret, yea? Y: Yes

This is cute, and tells us about Yoh's character too. Firstly, he's still persisting in his use of "Mizuki-san", though he's being really tentative about it, like he's testing whether or not it's okay. Secondly, he's actually asking Segasaki directly to confirm his stand on what his "friends" are doing. Is this Yoh being daring, or just his slightly awkward, somewhat tactless self? I couldn't tell you 🤣 It's likely a bit of both.

In response, you can hear the surprise in Segasaki's voice, but he doesn't hesitate to detach himself from the actions of the group. The way he invites Yoh into his group here, by acting as if he's let Yoh in on a secret, is very charming obviously, and reminds me somewhat of how in Ep 4, he suddenly drops to "Kanami-san" when talking to Man-san too. This again fits with how his "public mode" has been consistently portrayed thus far - nice, charming, polite, good-looking, and obviously popular (Ep 3, the girls in the cafe at the back, Ep 4, the way he talks to Man-san, this Ep, where he's even been proposed to).

Guy: 俺の水がきたかな？　 Red: あいつ覚えてるかな Guy: 確かに　待たせたな S: ごめん　葉くんお腹痛いんだって　だから連れて帰るわ　はい Girl: 瑞貴まで帰らなくてもいいんじゃん S: しんどいのに　一人すんのかわいそうでしょ* S: じゃあ　またね　また　 S: 行こう Red: 優しいな**　瑞貴 Girl: でも　帰っちゃったよ Guy: Is my water coming? Red: Will that guy remember? Guy: Good point, he's really made us wait S: Sorry! Yoh says he's got a stomachache, so I'm gonna take him home. Here! Girl: Huh? But it's not like Mizuki you have to go too right? S: Leaving him all by himself right when he's having a hard time - wouldn't you feel bad for him?* S: So, see you guys later, 'kay! Bye! S: Let's go Red: Mizuki's really kind** isn't he? Girl: But, he's leaving you know!

*Segasaki does a very small switch up to the polite form here, as he takes the moral high ground by reminding the girl that as Yoh's senior, they have an obligation to take care of him when he's unwell. He's still friendly about it though. **優しい (yasashii) - kind. This word pops up a lot to describe Segasaki, we'll talk about it at the end of this episode.

Y: あの　いいんですか？ S: あそこ戻りたかった？ Y: いえ Y: Um... is this okay? S: You wanted to go back there? Y: No

Y: いつも　友達に囲まれてるこの人が なんでこうして　俺と一緒に歩いてるのかわからなくて 不思議だった Y: This person, whose friends were always surrounding him... I just couldn't understand why he'd walk together with me like this It was a mystery to me.

Y: あの顔が　信じられないほど近くにあった 耳元に届いた声の響きまで　良いものであることに 気づいてしまった Y: That face was... so close to me I could scarcely believe it And it dawned on me then How wonderfully pleasing Even the notes of his voice drifting pass my ears sounded

The scene in the library I've included right at the top, but I'm going to add the conversation that happens during Yoh's monologue, since the subs have them sort of mixed in.

S: 葉 S: 何してんの？ Y: え？えと、あの、本を探せて... S: この本面白いよ Y: え？ Y: ありがとうございます S: また感想教えて Y: はい S: Yoh S: What're you doing? Y: Eh! Um, ah.. I'm looking for a book... (inaudible) S: This book is interesting Y: Eh? Y: Thank you very much S: Tell me your thoughts on it next time Y: Yes

Segasaki's already dropped the polite suffix "-kun" behind Yoh's name here, and doesn't actually bother to let Yoh finish saying thank you before he tells him to report back about the book. Yoh on the other hand, is still using the full, formal and polite version of thank you, and answers him properly. Segasaki's taken the initiative to get closer to Yoh - he's already speaking to him like how he does in the present day (just, not roughly), but Yoh hasn't gotten comfortable enough yet to drop the formalities - or, he simply may not be sure if he can.

Navigating formalities and when to drop them is tricky, and requires some degree of social intuition. Generally speaking, Segasaki dropping a speech level should be a sign that it might be okay for Yoh to drop as well (not to the same level of course, just a little less formal) - but given how Yoh sees them as living in different worlds, and how fearful he is of being hated, it's unlikely that he'd want to touch the status quo.

Y: あの人の気持ち？ Y: That person's feelings?

Yoh's pretty much stuck to the phrase "that person" when referring to Segasaki this whole episode, even during his flashback. He tends to do this when he's feeling some distance between them (like in Ep 2).

On screen messages: Y: What is Kintsuba? S: You don't even know what Kintsuba is? Y: I'm sorry [Yesterday] S: I'll be back late today Y: Understood [Today] (unread) S: Just give the editor some kind of excuse, and come back right now

A: 随分　追い込まれてたねぇ Y: 気持ちを言葉にするとか　あんまりしたことなくて Y: 他人の気持ちなんて　なおさら A: You've pretty much been cornered, huh?* Y: Putting feelings into words and all... I've never really done that myself... Y: Let alone (doing that for) another person's feelings. *This is in reference to Man-san asking Yoh to write out Segasaki's feelings

A: めちゃくちゃにしてやる, めちゃくちゃにして..x10 A: Gonna mess you up, mess you up... x 10

Yes, this does sound like a line straight out of a bad Jp AV 🤣🤣. I mean, we're talking about scenes from Man-san's manga right? That they had to mosaic out? 🤣🤣

Now you know why Segasaki is pissed.

S: 可奈美さんも一緒に仕事してるんですか？ M: すみません！瀬ケ崎さんにご報告もせずに進めてしまって S: いや、可奈美さんのせいじゃないですよ S: Kanami-san, are you also doing your work together with him? M: I apologize! We ended up moving forward without even alerting you about it! S: No, it's not your fault, Kanami-san

You can tell Segasaki has misunderstood here - he thinks Man-san has also been called to work at this Editor's place, and is completely not listening to what she has said, hence her ?? reaction 🤣

S: あ、すみません 急用ができてしまったので葉を迎えに来ました S: Ah, I apologize An urgent matter arose, and so I've come to pick Yoh up.

Segasaki's being quite formal here, but this is not the way to be polite. The "proper" way to request leave to go home early on behalf of someone else would be to first, apologize specifically for the disruption, introduce yourself and your relation to that person, apologize that an urgent matter has come up, regrettably but firmly insist that said person must return home immediately on pain of death, apologize again for all the trouble caused, promise to make up for it, humbly ask for understanding, and then apologize your way out the door.

So yes, despite the polite word forms this is quite rude, and is so far removed from Segasaki's usual "public mode" that it cracks me up. Segasaki's composure is unravelling by the second in these next few scenes - he is pissed and absolutely does.not.give.a.shit. 🤣

From right to left: S: So, this bastard is the famed Editor huh... S: Don't you dare try to deceive and pull tricks on Yoh! S: The hell you doing touching him like that so freely!! A: Who (is this)?

The language gets progressively ruder the more the speech bubbles get pointy and the larger the font gets🤣🤣

M: 瀬ケ崎さん　やっぱ強いわ～ M: Segasaki-san really has a strong presence after all~

Y: 黙っててごめんなさい* S: あのさ Y: はい S: ああいうのがいいわけ？ Y: え？ S: 俺より　あの男のどこがいいわけ？ Y: I'm sorry for keeping this from you!* S: Tell me Y: Yes S: Is that what you like? Y: Huh? S: Compared to me, just how is that guy better? *Yoh uses the full but informal version of "sorry" here - gomen nasai. Making a note of this here so I can come back to it in one of the analysis posts.

Y: え、いや Y: 比べるものじゃないと思うけど。。 S: あるんだろうが　俺より　いいところが S: まあ、納得する理由がない限り俺は認めねえけどな Y: 強いて言えば　優しいかな* Y: 人の話を　ちゃんとじっくり聞いてくれるし Y: Um, no... Y: I don't think it's something that can be compared... S: There is something, isn't there? Some way in which he's better than me S: Though, unless you give me something I think is reasonable I won't accept it Y: Well if I had to say something then... maybe, he's kind?* Y: I mean, he listens carefully and attentively to what someone has to say...

*優しい (yasashii) - often translated as "kind", it encompasses the ideas of "caring", "tenderness", "thoughtful/considerate", "warm/gentle". It's often a trait people say they look for in their significant other.

This word has come up often to describe Segasaki - in Ep 2, Segasaki uses it to describe himself, in Ep 3, Yoh uses it to describe Segasaki's voice, and of course here in Ep 6, red shirt uses it to describe Segasaki again. Even when the word isn't said out loud, a lot of Segasaki's actions would fit this word - In Ep 2, when he picks up after Yoh and comforts him during their not-argument. In Ep 3, when he passes Yoh his gift, and implies there's nothing to be sorry for. In Ep 4, the way he coaxes Yoh. In Ep 5, when he takes care of Yoh. In Ep 6, he speaks up for Yoh in the cafeteria when he doesn't have to, when he goes to help Yoh. The irony of this moment is that Segasaki puts in a lot of effort and probably does pride himself in being yasashii, and he listens to Yoh better than Yoh listens to himself, and yet he hears from Yoh that he isn't yasashii or attentive, which explains the pained expression on his face.

S: あ、そう S: 俺先行くわ* S: Oh, is that so? S: I'm going ahead then* *わ (wa) - this ending particle puts emphasizes one's statement, but is not one that Segasaki usually uses. It's less forceful that his usual speech, because he's quite hurt by Yoh's statements.

Y: かばんに入ってたやつ　戻しといてから Y: The thing that was inside my bag, I put it back so... The way Yoh ends this sentence leaves room for a follow up - it's an invitation to continue the conversation, which we actually have not seen him do with Segasaki, and that's why he looks so dejected when Segasaki rejects that invitation by walking away.

Though it's been hinted at throughout the show, Ep 6 is where we get confirmation that Yoh's just never quite fit in with the crowd, and that Segasaki has always been in the center of it. The stark difference explains why Yoh is so afraid that one day he will do something to make Segasaki hate him, and why he reflexively rejects the idea that Segasaki could possibly love him.

This episode is painful, for both of them. For Yoh, because from the intensity of his monologues, we finally get a sense of how big a presence Segasaki is to him, and therefore, how devastating it would be to lose him. For Segasaki, because for all that he can read Yoh, for all that he has done to try and reassure Yoh of his love, he still cannot make Yoh see, cannot make Yoh hear.

"If he ended up hating me then I felt like I might die."

It is precisely Yoh's love for Segasaki that makes Yoh fear the possibility of losing him, and it is that fear that blinds, deafens and mutes Yoh to the very thing he hopes for. And it is in trying to protect himself, that he inadvertently hurts the very person he loves so much.

#my personal weatherman #taikan yohou #体感予報 #MPW subtitle corrections #mytranslations #segasaki x yoh #Ep 6 has given us a lot of context about these two #and reinforces again that it doesn't matter what Segasaki might say or do #Until Yoh sees the good in himself #he's not going to overcome that fear #Segasaki literally gives up his best ability here #he let's his composure slowly unravel throughout this whole ep #he loses the very thing that triggers Yoh's feelings of inadequacy #and yet Yoh doesn't even notice #ahh this is what happens when you love a “my pace” person

[slavghoul]

Interview from Sweden Rock Magazine 6/2023

In which Tobias talks about Phantomime, his inner little evil dictator, and why he'll never be like Bruce Springsteen, among other things.

You've just released another cover EP. I always thought that Ghost would be like Metallica and become known for picking up lesser-known songs, making them their own, and playing one or two covers at every show. You were on your way to that with first The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" and then with Roky Erickson's "If You Have Ghosts." After that, you released a bunch of covers, but in recent years, you've almost only played "Enter Sandman" live.

In the beginning, and especially up until 2015, the choice to play covers was not in exchange for original songs, but it was because we simply needed songs to play live. We played 'Here Comes the Sun' to fill out our set. We only had one album, and it was only 30 minutes long or something.

But "Here Comes the Sun" must have given you a taste for it since it worked so fantastically well live.

Yes, absolutely. We actually plan to play it again at some point because I think we can do a really great version of it now that our lineup better matches the sound of the song. The last time we played it was so long ago that we still used a lot of backing tracks and stuff. I think we can play it better now. But did you imagine that we would do covers of Saint Vitus, Trouble, and Coven?

No. Unlike Metallica, you didn't start with hard rock covers...

No, no.

...but with "Here Comes the Sun" and then "If You Have Ghosts," which became a big song in its own way, but "Enter Sandman" is a completely different type of cover.

Exactly, it has a completely different purpose. I think it's a good song, and it became a fun thing. There was clarity in why we played it and what was important about it. We don't do it anymore, not because we don't believe in the purpose, but it had its time. Now, "Jesus He Knows Me" is the most fun to incorporate because now we've embraced it as our own song. I feel like I have so much else, and I don't want to be... I mean, some people think it's a lot of fun, and Bruce Springsteen does a lot of covers at the end of a concert. A lot of cool rock 'n' roll classics. People enjoy it, and it's great. Disturbed also does that and plays "Highway to Hell" and "Run to the Hills" or whatever they do. It's a fun way to end a concert, but I don't know, I have a fondness for dramaturgy. That's why I could never do a Bruce Springsteen. I can't go on stage and just say, "Hey, what do you want to hear?" and then improvise. It's a show, and everything fits together tightly. I've been sitting here with our lighting technician for five days. We sit all day and just program lights based on the smallest damn beat so that it fits and so that we know that the guitarist will come out and switch to that guitar for the next song. It's this song, and he will come out there, and then we have to change these lights in the dark so that it's red on him there. Then it's not possible to have a "cover hour" at the end where we just turn on the lights and play Judas Priest. But if we do a Judas Priest cover at some point that feels really relevant and we can do it really well, then I have no problem arranging the lights and incorporating it into the context. Metallica is much more rock 'n' roll, they are much more "loose" than what we are... than I am. They have the ability to just go out and more or less turn on the lights in the room and play "Am I evil?", "Whiskey in a jar," "Blitzkrieg," and "Breadfan," and the happiest of all is me. I love when that happens, but I don't want to do it with Ghost. But sure, if in 30 years we have recorded a bunch of fun covers, maybe it could be a fun thing to do a tour with just a bunch of that.

How funny that you say "if we have recorded a bunch of fun covers." Ghost has already recorded a bunch of covers, so aren't they fun?

Haha! Yeah, yeah, but we're still building, of course. We're talking a lot about this, me and my agents and management. When is the time to do things? When should we take advantage? What is a "downplay" for us today? A "downplay" is very clear if you're Metallica. Everyone knows that when they come and perform, it's at least at the Globe Arena, sold out for at least two nights without any problem, and at their biggest, it's now two nights at Ullevi. For them, a clear "downplay" would be if they come and play at Göta Lejon again. There's a clarity there, and it's something they can indulge in.

Explain it so that people understand. What is a "downplay"?

A "downplay" is when a big band plays at a small venue. Like the Rolling Stones when they played at Circus. It's a clear "downplay," and there's a clarity there where you know that "now when I go and see the Rolling Stones at Circus, they won't have their big stage, they won't do this, and they'll just come up and play a bunch of really obscure stuff." Then there's a clarity. It's not something for everyone who just wants to hear the big hits.

And are there plans to do this?

If everything goes as planned and if there's still an interest in it in the future, I would think it would be really fun to intentionally and clearly reshape the show. To do something different on the side that isn't meant for these bigger things that we're currently trying to find our "pacing" in.

The first time I interviewed you was in 2011 at a sushi place in Stockholm.

Was it that long ago?

Yes, we met at the central station in Stockholm, and you had just had your first meeting with Nicholas Johansson at Universal, so this was before he signed you.

Okay, so it was the same day then? Oh, damn.

It became a full page in Expressen, and you said that you want to take Ghost to where Rammstein is. Now you've said the same thing again, but Rammstein no longer plays at the Globe Arena and instead does three nights at Ullevi. It feels like you're constantly shaping Ghost based on Rammstein. What will you do when you've reached three nights at Ullevi?

I hope one never becomes completely satisfied. The perfectionist in me is frustrated every day on tour when things don't turn out as good as I had envisioned. But I also have a cutoff point... There's a point every day when I try to see the glass as half full when it comes to perfection before the concert, and I know something is wrong. If I know that a spotlight operator doesn't seem to understand the show, it's an irritation that might continue during the concert because someone keeps missing their cues, that is, what they're supposed to do. You can tell they don't know the show. It's super annoying. It's the kind of thing that both I and everyone on stage feel, and we're all aware of it. Everyone has been made aware of what we're trying to achieve. We've arranged the whole show based on the idea that "when you come up those stairs, you will be visible, and then you will see what you're doing because a light will shine on you." If that doesn't happen, there's a risk that the person simply won't see what they're doing and will fall off. It happens. There's a lot of that kind of thing that's highly orchestrated with very narrow margins, and it has to be right. But I usually reach a point where it's like, "Now the concert is over. Everyone did their best, even that idiot up there who missed all their cues. Everyone did their best, and the audience doesn't seem to have left and demanded their money back, so you have to see it as a damn good result." That's how I try to approach it every day because, in the end, "no matter what, this is so much cooler than working a regular job," haha! I'm where I want to be, doing what I want to do. Then I have this little circus director Nazi inside me as well, screaming and wanting things to be a certain way. But I also laugh easily, so it's about constantly trying to balance everything and see it as always moving forward. But it also means that I know that even the day when or if we stand there at Ullevi and do a concert ourselves, it won't be exactly as I imagined. Something new will happen, and if we have the show I want, it will rain like hell or something. That's always how it is. Metallica's Lars also told me that when we were on tour together: "It's incredible. Even at our level, there are still things that happen that make us go, 'Damn, we're not quite there yet!'" But that's the thing. I don't think pirates become pirates just to come home and sit with the treasure. It was the piracy itself that was quite fun.

Now I'm going to say something provocative. This is Ghost's worst cover so far. I don't even like the original.

Which one?

"Phantom of the Opera."

Okay, haha!

Yeah, I got the laugh I wanted to be able to print, haha!

Well, haha! Don't you like the album or the song?

I'm not a big Iron Maiden fan, and I don't consider the Paul Di'Anno era sacred.

I love Iron Maiden and think the first two albums are really cool, but they got their act together when Bruce Dickinson joined. It was with "The Number of the Beast" that they became an arena band and started sounding really damn good. I know it's like swearing in church. It made me feel a bit inspired and made me think that if I were to do something with Iron Maiden, it damn well had to be something from those first albums. They have two albums with really proggy stuff and quirky arrangements, and you can really tell they had a bit of time and that they were low-budget recordings. That gets me going. Paul Di'Anno sings, and I love Paul Di'Anno. He's really cool, has a great voice, and sings with a lot of sloppiness. He soars and flies melodically - just the fact that "I know I'll do that in a different way." I've always liked "Phantom of the Opera," but for a long time in my life, before I really figured out how to count, I didn't quite understand how to play the intro. Not tonally, but I didn't get how to count in the intro. That was such a thing that one day when I suddenly figured it out, I thought, "Damn, I want to play this song someday." You miss it because on the album, you don't hear how great the intro is.

Is it you playing?

Yes, although Fredrik "Kulle" Åkesson (Opeth) is also playing. But I recorded all the demos, I play bass on the record, and I recorded all the guitars first.

Did Kulle do all the guitar solos on the EP?

Well, mostly, with one exception.

It's a very shreddy EP with a lot of flashy guitar solos.

Yes, exactly, there are quite a lot of guitar solos. Generally, this is how it works when we work: I compose the solos. When I write solos, it's not just a bunch of bends, but it's a melody. I'm very influenced by Kirk Hammett, especially how he played on "Ride the Lightning," "Master of Puppets," "...And Justice for All," and even on the black album. Every time he plays solos, they are melodies. He comes into the song and more or less plays another song within the song, and it's very hummable. It's not incredibly difficult stuff, and that's roughly my school of soloism. I like to compose the solos so that they turn out the way I want, but I myself am not a great shredder. There are a lot of tricks in the studio where I sit and play something over and over again, and then you can cut it in. And then you can slow down the speed, and then I can record it and make it perfect. But the result is that when I say, "It should go like this," Kulle listens to it and says, "Yeah, I can do that part a bit differently. Then I can do it this way to make it even faster." He plays solos from start to finish with his highly trained fingers. He has that whole thing in his DNA, while I'm more of a songwriter and composer.

But you play a solo on the EP, right?

I don't know if we kept it. I don't fucking know because we changed a lot of things.

Because you said that Kulle plays all the solos except one.

It could be a thing, but I don't remember if we changed it or not. But if we take "Phantom of the Opera," there are quite a few different guitar parts in it, purely guitar-wise. It's that fairly standardized Iron Maiden thing where there are two lead guitars playing melodies together. That's one thing, and then there was a slightly bluesy solo at a place where I added some storming Rachmaninoff piano that's absolutely not in the original. I thought it should be a bit of a stormy sea, and then there's a part with two guitars playing the same thing simultaneously, and then a solo duel starts. On the original album, it's Dave Murray and Dennis Stratton playing, and their solo duel is just okay. I don't think it's that great. Sorry, Iron Maiden fans, but in terms of solos, Iron Maiden really got good the day Adrian Smith joined. Adrian Smith is the one playing all the cool solos. I'm really sorry, Dave Murray, but that's just how it is! I know what Kulle has to go through because as a soloist, it's quite tough to constantly be told what to play, and then he has to do tricks and improve things. So, I said, "In this solo duel, you can pretty much play whatever you want from here to there, but I don't want you to challenge me because it will be a bad match. It'll be Carl Hamilton against Woody Allen, and that's not fun. We'll bring in Lasse Johansson from Candlemass." I love Candlemass, I love Lasse's guitar playing, and I know that Kulle loves Lasse. I just sat there, and they got to do their things, and you can hear that it's a bit more improvised. It's more Kulle when he gets to play his stuff, and it's nice.

I want to highlight a cover that turned out great on the EP: Tina Turner's "We Don't Need Another Hero." It feels quite suitable to cover because At The Movies also did a fantastic version of it with Ronnie Atkins on vocals.

Actually, I haven't heard it at all. I must have missed it.

Ghosts' version turned out really well, but isn't it too obvious to cover a big song, so to speak?

I would be a bit opportunistic and say this: it probably depends on how it lands. We stuck our necks out the day we were going to play "Enter Sandman" at our concert. It was one thing on TV because that's what it was (at the TV4-broadcasted "Polar Music Prize" in 2018), but you know that this is like playing "Smoke on the Water," "I Wanna Rock," or "Ace of Spades." It's one of those songs that is too well-known in a way. It can feel pancake-like, but it went well, and I feel that "We Don't Need Another Hero" could also become such a song, provided that the audience likes it. But it's not a song that you want to take up five minutes of the concert if it's not super fun.

And how do you know if the audience likes it?

The easiest way is to test it live. But you'll notice when the album comes out. If everyone mentions all the other songs and not that one, then maybe not many people are interested. Also, we usually do this sometimes during rehearsals: "We rehearse it and see how it sounds. How does it feel? How does it feel to play? Does it stick? Do we play it nicely? Does it work live?" I believe that if we fast forward to a huge presumed Ullevi [stadium] in the future, it's a fantastically cool song to play.

#the band ghost #tobias forge #interview

[potahun]

im watching blood of youth and have made it to ep 6 so far, and it is starting to grow on me after episode 5. however, since i've seen a few comparisons between the two which have led to my watching it, i would not say it has a similar vibe to mysterious lotus casebook, so i would not recommend watching one because you like the other and hope to find something similar.

to clarify, the vibe i get so far from BoY is very similar to a shounen . it has the young teenage protagonists on a grand mission, the companions coming to each other's aid, it has the fighting spirit, the leveling up (even the training sequences with hype music!) Possibly, it is also more of a traditional wuxia (but experts pls weigh in on this) because there is a much greater focus on fighting and overcoming adversities in a martial arts context. i understand there is a great political intrigue coming up at the end, so maybe things will change. for now, i see a lot about martial arts with impressive visuals, youths choosing their paths regardless of the previous generations' choices (a theme i like!) and about growth and breaking out of the shell in general

mysterious lotus casebook leans strongly towards murder-mystery and intrigues. it also deals a lot less with the passion of youth as a theme. the protagonists are older (li lianhua and di feisheng should be in their early thirties, fang duobing is likely around 20, but it's not specified). the mood varies wildly, but it's sometimes a soft ghibli and sometimes an eerie ghost story... it deals with accepting the fragility of human life, haunting/escaping the narrative, closure, death and rebirth, being queer (yeah, i'm saying this), mirror sides of human bonds and their sometimes coincidental, brittle but precious nature... despite impressive fight sequences, leveling up in martial arts really falls to the far background. much of the heart of the story is li xiangyi being given a chance to make his goodbyes to the jiang hu, but also living again as li lianhua.

also, a point that seems minor, but can lead to very different feels: the visuals of both shows are different. mysterious lotus casebook is soft colors and low contrast. it's crisp fights, but barely any magical attacks and few effects. it makes up for the lack of special effects with agile and artistic camera work, and smart use of speed, as well as elegance in the choreography. blood of youth uses more highly saturated colors. the visuals are aimed at impressing. the cgi is very decent, and can lead to a pleasant image on their own, but sharp moves are also used. i think if you come out of BoY and head into MLC expecting the same level of visual shock, you might come out thinking MLC has less impressive fights. or on the contrary, if you are not into cgi at all, you might head into BoY and think it's overkill.

not saying that you can't enjoy both! i adore MLC to death, but i enjoy a good shounen and i am starting to enjoy BoY. so far, i feel like they've told very well what they set out to tell, but i would not pit the two against each other in an objective manner. they feel like apples and pears to me, despite some jokes feeling similar (xiao se being a miser, li lianhua being an iron rooster, wu xin's bad cooking, li lianhua's bad cooking etc) the atmosphere of the two shows have extremely different vibes to me. MLC feels like blossoms falling softly on grass and waterfalls, BoY (so far) feels like setting off firecrackers and a storm on the rise. they are love letters to different aspects of the jiang hu. if you want to tackle both, please don't expect the same thing out of the two

#not going into my pet peeves area such as style of humor because i ve had to tame that down multiple times already #but thats more subjective #blood of youth #mysterious lotus casebook #lhl #mlcb #the main protags are also incredibly different #xiao se still acts with a certain noble haughtiness to his cold attitude #li lianhua is a sly lying bitch (affectionate) with no loftiness left in his daily behaviour (as li lianhua) #some could call xiao se cool. #li lianhua (again in his daily behavior as li lianhua #is Not Cool (i say this with so much love for him. i love this bitch and his sense of humor to death)

[mareenique]

After reading many brilliant thoughts by others about it, I’ve managed to put my own thoughts about AMC’s IWTV and race in order and write it down. I’m only talking about the tv series because I’ve only recently started reading the books and it’s been a while since I watched the movie, so I won’t compare them. I’m also a white European woman so I’m sure there are things that I’m missing, but maybe I can still contribute something.

-------

One thing that was a big take-away for me while watching this series in regard to how it talks about race, is how you don’t have to be a racist in order to profit from a racist society and your place within white supremacy.

Or in other words: Lestat expresses how strange and stupid he finds the racial hierarchy that he encounters in America (and surely doesn’t believe in the race theory of the time, contrary to the other white rich men Louis has to deal with on a daily basis) but he still profits from his place in a racist society.

The show explicitly shows us that neither Louis wealth nor his existence as a vampire allow him to get away from how he is perceived and treated. And Lestat doesn’t get it. Because he sees himself as an individual. Someone who is neither connected to humanity, nor to whiteness. But Louis doesn’t get that luxury.

I think what upsets some people is that because in this adaptation Louis (and Claudia) are Black suddenly Lestat can also no longer be seen as an individual but also as someone in the context of how he is racialized = white. And that‘s something that makes us white people so uncomfortable when we are forced to do it for the first time (or the xxxth time, if we don’t learn to work through it...), because we are so used to seeing ourselves purely as individuals. And it really enhances the story in my opinion. Because the story was always set in “our” reality, not in a race-, gender-, or class-less fantasy world. But now race can’t be ignored. Just like it can’t and shouldn’t be ignored in the real world. Just like homophobia (external and internal) isn’t ignored in this series either. And it’s not done in a way that tells the majority audience “oh no look, sad Black/gay people.” but in a way that resonates with the minority audience (as far as I can tell) and forces the majority audience to think about why they are feeling uncomfortable and sit with it.

Over on my Twitter I talked about how wonderfully not sensational (not “oh look! two MEN kissing!”) the intimate scenes between Louis and Lestat are in this series are, how their homosexuality isn’t shown as shocking or scandalous to the viewer but treated as just two people in a (very complicated) love story. But I’m sure that someone with a lot of unresolved homophobia might feel very uncomfortable with that, and that’s good. I hope they sit with that feeling and THINK. But I’m getting off-track.

Lestat doesn’t think of Louis and Claudia as “lesser than” because of their race, however he also doesn’t see them as his equals. Which is probably because he just knows how much they don’t know and how vulnerable they will be in the “world out there”. But he also doesn’t tell them, yes because he wants to protect them, but also BECAUSE he doesn’t see them as equals.

After ep 6, I’ve seen some posts where people were upset about Claudia talking about Lestat as “massa” when she speaks to Louis, but I think it’s really just her interpreting not being treated as an equal in the way that comes most natural to her given the world she grew up in: She would read his behavior as racism and misogyny. Yes it’s uncomfortable, but it makes sense in the story and the timeline.

She emphasizes the racial context in her conversations with Louis because she knows that their connecting elements are that they’re both Black and they’ve both been turned by Lestat and thus belong to him in a way. So she does what she thinks she has to do to get Louis on her side. Because she knows she can’t break free of Lestat on her own.

And Lestat in that train scene is such a perfect performance of how you can be horribly racist and misogynistic without actively thinking that the other person is “less than” because of their race or gender, but simply by employing the tools that you have been handed IN a racist and misogynistic society. He wants to make her stay because he doesn’t want Louis to retreat back into his shell again like the last time Claudia was gone. But how does he do that? By employing the tools handed to him by a racist and misogynistic society: He uses the image of the cage and his knowledge about the abuse that happened to her against her. As a white man both of these tools (racism and misogyny) are easy for him to use in order to get what he wants, because there are systems of oppression behind his words that make them more powerful. Does he know that that’s what he’s doing, or does he just pick the low hanging fruits handed to him by the society he lives in? I don’t know.

But I mean, it’s basically summed up in Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) quote, right?

"If a white man wants to lynch me, that's his problem. If he's got the power to lynch me, that's my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it's a question of power."

So anyone being angry about how “the series made Lestat racist and he wouldn’t do that” is missing a point in my opinion. I don’t think the series ever portrays him as a racist in the way that it does with the other white characters around him. The series just shows us what every white person living in a society rooted in white supremacy is capable of doing (not because we are inherently bad or whatever bs) because we live in a society that allows us to do these things, and gives our actions power if we follow the easy route and choose to act in a way that is in line with the power structure we exist in.

The racism of the time that the story Louis is telling us is set in is very overt and so we can see it more easily and it’s more easy to see why it’s wrong. So we don’t want ourselves or the white characters we love to be associated with THAT.

But rather than stopping there, we should take the lesson taught to us and allow it to reflect on how we view the story as a whole. How do we view our own emotional relationship to the characters in this context, and how do we or don’t we relate to them and why?

-------

Louis in the present is very rich and thus somewhat outside of the restraints still put on racialized people in our modern world. But I hope the series will keep the way they are incorporating race, gender and sexuality in the past story line in the present story line as well. So far we’ve only seen our modern day vampire(s) interact with one person: Daniel. So it hasn't really come up. Aside maybe from the way Daniel sees no issue with interrupting Rashid during prayer (which could be read as a comment about the way western anti-religious people often have low respect for religiosity, especially non-Christian religiosity. But tbh I don't think it's THAT deep and just another random incident of Daniel being a bit blunt and a bit rude). But I wonder how things might change once we step outside of that tower in Dubai and meet other vampires and see how they interact with the world.

And maybe there is also a comment about race in how present day Louis chooses to surround himself with a majority of non-white humans in Dubai. Now that he is in a situation where he gets to make the rules about who he keeps around, how and where he lives, and how he sustains himself, this is the environment he had built for himself. He is rich enough to exist outside of a human-made white majority power structure, and rich enough to have human blood without going against his personal moral codex.

That seems like a pretty perfect situation from the perspective of past!Louis. But even if we can say that he has achieved to break free from a lot of the restraints of a racist and homophobic world in the present day, he still doesn’t seem like he enjoys the kind of life he has now, living nearly alone in that beautiful but also cold and sterile tower...

#interview with the vampire #amc iwtv #iwtv amc #lestat de lioncourt #louis de pointe du lac #claudia interview with the vampire #I bottled up all of my thoughts about this series for too long and now that I actually sat down to write them out it got much too long #I should try to write more frequently and keep it shorter #if you read this thank you #I enjoy this series and the way it makes me think so much #especially the present timeline is so so interesting and I really hope we get a bit more of it during the second season #but they'll probably keep throwing us breadcrumbs for a while #mareenique-iwtv-thoughts

[jaskierx]

This is probably gonna be quite incoherent so bear with me lol. I see that your askbox has become a place to rant (and this one isn’t even gonna be about izzy!! But I need to get my thoughts out somewhere!! Sorry in advance!!)

Anyway it’s been a relief to see other people in the fandom whose least favourite episode this season was ep 6. I always felt almost?? Mean for not liking it as much as everyone else seems to?? (and it’s not even that I dislike it!! It’s just my least favourite!) cause I feel like there was just too much going on for a single episode, everything went by too fast.

Anyway this isn’t about that it’s about ep 7 which most people seem to dislike. And I understand where people are coming from when they say that, I didn’t like it very much the first time I saw it! but after rewatching it yesterday for the first time since it aired I actually gained a lot of appreciation for it! I love the start and getting to see Stede and Ed be all domestic together!! (I’m a sucker for that shit) And I actually really love their fight too, just cause it shows us how much Stede understands Ed! He immediately notices that Ed is panicking and he responds so patiently even after being told that Ed thinks their night together was a mistake. Yes they said some hurtful things to each other but somehow I think that’s the least important part of that scene, at least to me. And it annoyed me when people kept painting Stede as the one in the wrong in their fight!! (Imo neither of them were in the wrong but that’s just personal opinion)

Where was I going with this? Basically I feel kinda alone in not liking ep 6 as much as everyone else and I think ep 7 is kinda under appreciated. Ahdgags I hope that made sense I’m terrible at expressing my thoughts towards media.

Screaming in your askbox cause I don’t wanna get too involved in the fandom myself cause it scares me lol. Thanks for posting good takes tho as always :) it helps me feel a little more sane

no i agree, ep6 is definitely one of my least favourite episodes (covered this a bit in my last ask). i didn't HATE it but it seems to do really well in polls about 'which ep is your favourite' and i just. do not vibe with it in the way that a lot of people do

and i agree that ep7 is underrated and i think that's bc it's objectively not a very feelgood episode and even though djenks had confirmed they'd end up together at the end, when it aired i saw loads of people worrying that they wouldn't get a happy ending at the end of s2, which i think has coloured people's perceptions of it

it's not a bad episode. it's a great episode tbh! we get their breakfast in bed (with twine for flourish) and 'hehe we didn't pay' and stede's newfound fame and his earring and zheng being really cool and frenchie and the gang getting their grift on and everybody's new favourite dearly departed side character steak knife (fly high with the angels king)

the argument itself is also really well written and feels so real (which definitely contributes to why so many people felt some kind of way about it) and manages to cover a bunch of irl relationship issues while still feeling right in the context of them being ye olde pirates - it's a beautiful realistic depiction of poor communication between people who love each other but not themselves and it gave me brainworms so i wrote a meta about it

but yeah overall the Main Event in ep7 is stede and ed arguing and ed leaving, so i get why a lot of people dislike it (or at least like it less than the other episodes) given that from ep3 onwards every episode has a big positive edstede moment (mermaid scene in ep3, 'i love everything about you' in ep4, 'you wear fine things well' and their kiss in ep5, being protective of each other and having sex for the first time in ep6, and obvs two beach kisses and 'i love you. i love you' and moving into their inn in ep8) (i nearly cried writing that out if you were wondering whether or not i'm normal about them)

#asks #anon #fuck it i'm gonna start putting these in the main tag bc i am pouring my lil heart out over here #ofmd #lyse.jpg

[aly-san]

Finally, years after seeing the first ep and being very impressed and then forgetting all about it, I've finished the School-Live anime and manga.

My overall opinion is that, the anime improved a ton of the first arc! The various psychological reveals are done much better imo, with significantly more lead-up and foreshadowing that makes the reveals more impactful. Ep1 is much better than Ch1--we get more time to experience the world Yuki lives in, and the bits of foreshadowing are subtle hints that something is wrong, but you can't quite tell what. Ch1 is fairly short, so you don't really get THAT much time before the reveal drops. I also, personally, prefer Miki being there in the anime, so we get that outside perspective of Yuki's behavior. It also adds more to the reveal itself, because suddenly you understand a lot more about how Miki acted, and how she responded to certain things Yuki said. ("Mii-kun, they're in class right now!" "Oh...right...") It gives you both the shock, and the "ohhh, I see". The manga just delivers the shock, which IS still good ofc; the two-page spread has great atmosphere, but it just doesn't hit as hard as 25 minutes of build-up lmao.

Megu-nee was also done much better in the anime imo. Like ep1 vs ch1, there is much more time to settle into the world and the characters, considering the moment is in ch5 of the manga and ep6 of the anime. While that sounds like a similar amount of build-up, I read those 5 chapters probably within one hour, while 6 episodes is inherently approximately 3 hours. Also, it felt like Megu-nee was given a smaller role in the manga, although that does prevent the audience from necessarily picking up on the reveal before it occurs. I definitely knew something was up with her when I watched the show initially (never made it to ep6 back then) and had guessed the reveal before I got it spoiled for me. BUT that just gave me new perspective while watching it all the way through this time. It's easy to miss if you're not paying attention, but when you know what to look for, it's very very obvious. I think that's super cool.

That, and the way it's revealed, imo, is fantastic in the anime and kind of uncompelling in the manga. The pacing, tone, and music in the anime are incredible, and adding Miki into the scene once again to be give the audience's this new perspective hits much harder than Yuki just remembering on her own.

That said! The anime cuts out a lot of interaction between Yuki and Miki before Miki properly joins the club, and that's a shame. Those moments are very good. Some of them are adapted into the anime slightly differently, but the scene in the manga where Miki confronts Yuki in the middle of the night, and it culminates in us getting some insight into how Yuki's mind is working, is a great character moment and it's a bummer that isn't in the anime.

Yuki as a character in the anime isn't quite as deep as she is in the manga. I think it's overall okay, because Yuki's depth is explored more in the arcs after the School arc which the anime didn't get to, but it is certainly a shame. The whole cast, overall, is a bit softened in the anime. Miki gets into some fights with the others that are definitely toned down in the anime, if not removed entirely.

Ri-san gets her moments of tension near the end, but they're also significantly different (due to the context also being different). This is also a bummer, because I loved her breakdowns in the manga. I love seeing the cool, calm, collected characters in media lose their shit lmao, and Ri-san DELIVERS in the manga.

Considering the ending changing a decent amount of how the end of this arc goes down, it's not entirely surprising that this breakdown isn't included, so I get it, but I'm still sad about it lol. That said, I do have mixed feelings on both ways the end of this arc plays out. The broadcast being used in the anime to get the zombies to leave is very heartfelt and feels like a proper finale to all the mentions of loving school, and zombies following their routine in life, etc. That is used in ch5 in the manga as like...a one-time solution? Which I felt underwhelming in comparison. That said, the intensity of the events in the manga is much higher, and it did do a better job of making it feel like these girls were at their absolute limits. I also prefer the moment of Kurumi waking up in the manga, as it felt a bit awkward in the anime somehow.

Speaking of, Kurumi as a character is still pretty similar across the board. We get a bit more about her being the sporty one and being just as bad at studying as Yuki, but her characters is largely unchanged from what I recall. The anime did a weird thing, where it put a ominous filter over any moment Kurumi was going to kill a zombie. I'm not sure what that was about. I didn't dislike it, but it felt strange. If that were a thing that happened in the later arcs of the manga, I'd get it, but in the anime, it just confused me.

Moving on. Miki! I love the anime swapping around the timeline and having Miki there from the ep1, and then doing a flashback to show her joining the club. It gives us a better sense of how long she's been with the club, as in the manga, it didn't feel like they were together that long. In a similar vein, her time with Kei in the mall felt much longer in the anime than the manga. I also prefer them being alone from day 1 in the anime, finding a spot to hide and staying there for days? Weeks? All alone with no sign of help. In the manga, they have a whole group of survivors they stay with, and while that ends in disaster, I didn't get a feel for how long they were together, and it felt kind of muddled by some of the interactions (the older man getting drunk and hitting on Miki). These characters weren't around long enough for me to get attached, and I didn't quite feel like Miki or Kei got attached either. I could tell Kei probably got a crush on the leader, but it didn't have a ton of emotional weight to it. (This might have been the fan translation, in fairness.) This made Kei's choice to leave feel sudden and out of left field...it didn't feel like she grieved after the disaster, and it didn't seem like she wanted to leave before it...it felt much more natural in the anime, and the pacing felt better.

The change in role for Taromaru in the anime, I also prefer. It gives a bit more room for angst for Miki (which, tbh, she didn't really need, but yknow), and offered some motivation for the girls during pivotal plot moments that I found felt a little rushed in the manga. I also honestly didn't really see a point to the scene about him in the manga? It felt very unimportant, and I can't think of any point where it came back up or was relevant in any way. I guess maybe it was just meant to illustrate the zombie's coming back to places that were important to them in life, but that felt pretty well established by that point...maybe I missed it, idk. I like his role in the anime much better, although the moment at the end of the last episode was a bit of an unnecessary cruelty imo lmfao.

We also can't talk about the anime without discussing the opening theme!! It's by far my favorite part of the adaptation. The way it changes every episode is so so good, keeping the cheery tone while showing the awful reality. Openings that evolve as the show goes on is one of my favorite things, and I think this is my favorite example. Even just the way that the opening shot of the school changes from mid-day to late dusk... so good!!

In both versions, I got frustrated with the ways the girls acted lol, speaking loudly when trying to hide from zombies, not taking proper precautions when scouting, not thinking to try and leave the school in the car earlier, etc etc.

I don't have too much to say about the arcs following the School arc. Kurumi's symptoms were interesting, and the reveals about the virus were as well. There was a decent level of tension during the last stretch, although I think the time-skip last chapter does kill that a bit. The whole arc involving Risa and Ruu was a bit strange, the way Risa just seems to get better after a certain point. Like the situation with Megu-nee, I could guess what was going on, but the way she just kinda...idk...snaps out of it? At a certain point, was very odd to me.

I've talked a lot. One last point!! The art is very good! I had a bit of an issue telling the difference between Miki and Yuki at certain points, when Yuki wouldn't be wearing her hat and we'd have a panel that was close up on one of their faces. Their light hair-color and similar bangs made it hard to tell which was which sometimes. But other than that, the intense expressions and the artist's ability to show grief and especially absolute exhaustion is so good.

I also greatly prefer the zombies in the manga compared to the anime. They aren't always detailed looking in the manga, but I like their look more than the weird miasma they're made of for most of the anime. The anime almost felt...censored? While I was watching it. Which, I guess, is possible. I was watching it on HiDive and it's entirely likely they would have a censored version if that was the case. But the zombies were MUCH scarier in the manga, even compared to the more intense moments of the anime (Megu-nee) where we actually get to see more of how the zombies look.

Anyway I like them both a lot, I think when put together they make a fantastic product and make up for each others flaws. Which is honestly, very fitting for the content and themes of the series! A happy coincidence lol!

#aly's opinions

[vivispec]

so. absolution. i watched it last night and boy howdy am i a fan. i’ll give my non-spoiler thoughts above the read more, and then some more spoilery thoughts under the cut, keeping in mind i’m pretty easy to please. like golden retriever levels of easy-going.

first of all, can i just say what a wonderful surprise? when I first heard netflix was in charge of this, I was not exactly hopeful. the team did great, though. the whole thing was very respectful to the world bioware built, while still being unique and interesting. they used the lore to build a great story, and didn’t seem smothered by it. 

honestly my high point? the action scenes. they were incredibly well-animated, and had an amazing flow. easy to follow, but still packed with movement and stunning. i usually don’t give two fucks about fighting scenes but these were mesmerizing. the dialogue was quirky, but i didn’t find it annoying. honestly, felt pretty da to me, like banter. characters were well-written (though it felt a bit rushed. like everybody else I wish there had been more time to set them up, but they did a lot with the 6 eps they were given) and there were lots of twists and turns, but they weren’t surprises for the sake of surprises. i feel like everything was foreshadowed pretty well, kinda in the vein of solas’ whole deal: hard to see it until you know, but once you do its so fucking obvious. still, might bother some with how much whiplash you get.

as said by many before, the pace is a little wonky in the first episode, but the rest of the series really smooths it out. they had to estabilish already built relationships and characters in a way that made you care for them from the start, and they did it pretty well, if awkwardly. but i can’t see it working any other way. 

my stepdad, who only ever played origins all the way back when it came out, seemed to enjoy it with very little context. most of the episodes seem to be enjoyable for people who don’t know a thing about dragon age, but the final reveal of the series will not be very impactful if you haven’t played/watched da2. it’s such a small portion of the series, however, and i would still recommend it for anybody who wants to watch it before playing da:d, but who doesn’t want to play da2.

okay here’s my real actual spoilery thoughts yippeee

i am so sorry fairbanks you and your wife deserved so much more

can i just say how chilling the conversation between rez and hira is after we know the truth? like got damn. that was....something holy shit.

i actually really like rezaren as antagonist. i was kinda rolling my eyes at his whole deal when they set him up like he was going to be sympathetic but...then he just. turned, when miriam didn’t do what he wanted. and it was chilling. he is an evil, evil antagonist in a series that loves moral middle ground and i love it. 

and that one line he says, oh my god. something like ‘how many lives taken to control one beast’. and you can’t tell if he’s talking about miriam or the dragon. chilling. maybe one of my favorite moments for that reason alone.

and i loved that neb turned away from rez like that! and towards miriam! he knew!

which btw....spirit neb was so pretty. god i wish he wasn’t a corpse.

speaking of middle ground antagonists, i won’t claim i saw her betrayal coming from the getgo but i was getting strange vibes from hira from the start. i think they handled her really well, all things considered? you can tell she legitimately cares for miriam, but that her desire for revenge is just. too strong. not unlike a couple other mages i know and love.

like, does being a mage just make you the most passionate motherfucker on thedas by default or? 

i was going to ask if it was the oppression but she’s still a tevinter noble so. not quite the same as somebody like, say, anders. who really went through it huh.

on that note, because everybody has opinions about miriam wanting to stay with hira....i really do think its in character. they seem to legitimately love each other, and miriam hasn’t known love like that before. she’s desperate, and so very hurt. she just lost her brother a second time. i think it’s very in character

that doesn’t mean i want to see them together again. hira trying to sell her back into slavery is something you don’t get over. even if sapphira gets some kind of ‘redemption’ (next season? in da:d?) and they’re friends again...i think that trust should be gone. but that’s just my two cents.

i maybe possibly am on the qwydion/miriam train though so i am possibly maybe biased. legitimately don’t know yet if i ship them romantically or platonically though, either way i just. want them to be together and supporting each other. i love them i love their hugs. 

i love love love seeing their interpretation of the demons and shades. memory was super cool, too. and the fact that you could tell what spells the mages were using? they could’ve opted for just ‘ah yes fireballs and lightning’ but they chose to use abilities that are pretty specific, like crushing prison. 

going back to what i said before, where you can’t tell if rez is talking about miriam or the dragon, i really like them releasing the dragon like that at the end. you can tell just how painfully euphoric it is for her, to see something that had been shackled and chained and used as a weapon be recognized as simply a living thing that wants to be free. to be treated with kindness, and understanding, and love when all to often it is instead feared and hated. i wanted to cry, such a beautiful scene.

and the fact that its qwydion doing the healing, and releasing. the fact that she was the one who freed it in the first place? foreshadowing maybe? not my lil wlw heart jumping on this ship and setting sail. romantically platonically i just.....want them to be together holy shit

and finally, that fucking ending. holy SHIT. i was watching it with my stepdad (who only ever played origins, back when it came out) and i could not stop yelling. i think i scared him. when i heard her voice i lost my shit. like it makes sense: lyrium has a connection to the fade, red lyrium has some restorative abilities, and if i remember correctly there have been reports of regular lyrium holding onto memories, so...i could see it being that the red lyrium trapped her spirit before it could make it into the fade and restored her over the years, or a number of alternatives. but damn i did not think that i’d see her ass. poor hawke and varric. can the tyrants they kill just. stay dead, pls.

bioware seems to be acknowledging da2 a lot more and can i just say i am living for it. 

i do think it was very evil of the writing team to make me think that we were going to see varric when hira said she had a contact in the hanged man and i do not forgive them.

and lackland? holy shit. i didn’t say anything about them here because what more can i say. their dynamic is so good, i love how roland teases and flirts but is seemingly just as invested as lacklon is. despite how little time they get the team did such a great job of building up their chemistry with the training and fighting scenes, which isn’t easy when there’s so. much. action going on. really, truly, they used what little time they were given so efficiently. they heard that we wanted a dwarf romance and boy did they deliver.

#dragon age #dragon age absolution #dragon age absolution spoilers #all spoilers are under a readmore #the mayor is speaking

[booasaur]

So I’m guessing Lauren’s secret was being in love with Leyla..? Must say I couldn’t really see why the patient’s story affected Lauren as much as it did (she cried, twice!!) because even though both were hiding a secret, the nature of it was so different. Also, as Leyren progresses, I feel their moments are becoming overly dramatic, like the writers try to make it beautiful (kudos to their efforts) but I feel it backfired as they loses authenticity with the lack of flow in their conversations.

And another anon:

I’m fine with the speed Leyren is moving at but I do think the I love you felt out of context. Like Lauren seemed to be referring to a scene that we never saw which makes me wonder did they delete a scene somewhere that would’ve given it more context.

And another anon:

I’m not sure about New Amsterdam’s timeline, but from what I’ve seen, leyren’s relationship seems to be moving REALLY quickly

And another anon:

I don’t understand why the NA writers took 6 or 7 episodes to slow burn Leyden only to make them go from kissing to I love you to I’ll commit a crime for you (?) in 4. It feels like this could have been significantly better paced in relationship development?

I...don't disagree! Heh.

First, I do think we can maybe assume the last few eps covered a bit more time than just a week or so in between each? Going by the timeline they went from winter (when they met) to a heatwave when Lauren returned to work after the sexacation. So it might not be AS bad as it seems.

But they must have known that to the viewers, especially without clearer indications of time passing, we'd see it all as happening close together, especially with the lopsidedness of the pacing, the slow build and then, like...10-60, lol. And tbh i'd have loved to continue at that slower pacing, see some milestones and relationship stories before ILY and getting to the desperate potential bribe stage. And the very speed did take away, as you said, first anon, some of the authenticity, it didn't feel earned. The secret storyline definitely looked like they were working backwards from certain requirements (Lauren has to say ILY), it did seem like there was a part missing.

ON the other hand. Clearly this was dictated by two external factors: they needed Lauren to be in a place in the big dramatic season finale where she would do something like this, and covid cut the season shorter than it might normally have been.

Of course there are reasonable counterarguments to both (why not go with another storyline if Leyren weren't in the place for this yet and surely they knew about covid before the last few eps and had whole eps without Leyla at all, maybe should have used that better) but I've always been fairly forgiving of poor execution when I can see and understand the intentions and they're not malicious, just ambitious or clumsy. They had a lot of moving parts and given covid, I'm giving even more of a free pass to people for 2021's initial seasons.

Next season will be the bigger test. If they wanted to see the response to Leyren, they have it. And they've had more time to work out what they want to do with them. Let's see what happens now.

ETA: Ah, I’m also more forgiving when nothing seems suuuper OOC. Like, it seemed quick, but did it seem false for their story? No, not really, just as if it were earlier on a timeline than it should have been. And well, if that’s because of the missing eps lost to covid and they made the choice to not hurry up the earlier slow build, I’m fine with that.

#replies #femslash related stuff #sent on 20210602 #sent on 20210607 #sent on 20210610 #sent on 20210616 #new amsterdam #leyren #been trying to get these asks done before the 21st for a while now #now we're just down to a couple of days #it's gonna get spammy :x

[ablogthatishenceforthmine]

My Thoughts On Titans Season 3 Trailer

Overall

So, the trailer was pretty much what I expected (and I don’t mean that disparagingly); mostly focusing on Red Hood and new Gotham setting, but with a fair amount of other stuff, with most character getting at least one moment that emphasized them.

The characters who I felt got the most focus were Red Hood/Jason, Dick, Babs, and Kory (in that order). No, this isn’t based on a quantitative analysis of screen time in the trailer, just a general feeling of who was emphasized that I came away with. But overall, it didn’t feel that unbalanced to me, and felt like is tried to give at least something to most of the characters.

Kory

Kory looks so good! Like so so good! I can’t get over it. I know people were hoping to see more of her (and I for one could always take more Kory), but I didn’t feel like she was sidelined. As previously stated, I felt like she got the fourth most focus/emphasis (and Titans has a lot of characters). And she got the final line of the trailer, which I don’t think is insignificant.

Blackfire

I know people are also disappointed by the amount of Blackfire in the trailer. But, I don’t think that necessarily reflects her role in the season. And I don’t necessarily mind. There are many possible reasons that she was only in a few shots. They could want to keep her role and what she is doing under wraps (if this is the case then I support it, because I kind of want to be surprised with her story). Or the trailer could only be from the first few eps, and her role in those may be smaller. Or a lot of other reasons. Based on how much she’s been filming, I’m not super worried about Blackfire’s presence in the season.

Dickkory

I, like a lot of fans, were disappointed with the lack of Dickkory in the trailer, but, I didn’t really go in with any expectations of what we would see of them in the trailer. So, I’m not upset or angry; it’s just something I would have liked to see. I also think you can’t tell anything about Dickkory this season from the lack of them in the trailer. They might get together this season, they might not. This trailer doesn’t say anything in regards to that; it’s totally neutral.  I don’t think the lack of them in the trailer says that they won’t happen or that they won’t have that many scenes together. I’ve seen some people convinced that they will never happen or that they won’t have scenes this season because of this trailer, and I think that is WAYY too much to extrapolate from a trailer. A trailer only tells you a very limited of stuff, and doesn’t always mean that much. While I have no idea if we will get romantic Dickkory this season, I do really think we’ll at least get some scenes, based off things one of the writers and the Titans account said on twitter. Now many scenes they’ll be or if it will be building to a romance, I have no idea, and I don’t think anyone else can reasonably say so either based off the small amount of info about them and this season that’s been released. 

Also, on this subject, while the writer’s and Titans twitter’s account responses about Dickkory have been encouraging, I also don’t think that means we will necessarily see them in a romance this season. For one, for some people using a shipname might not necessarily using or seeing it in a romantic way. They might see Dickkory as referring to Dick and Kory and their general relationship, and not as referring to a romantic relationship. I’ve definitely seen that happen with other fandoms, where people behind TV shows would respond to or use shipnames just to refer to a dynamic between two characters. Now, I’m not saying that’s the case here (I actually lean more towards that it’s not), but it is still a possibility that I think a lot of people overlook. I’m not trying to discourage anybody or rain on anybody’s parade, I just don’t want people to feel they have been definitively promised something. I’ve seen this a lot in fandoms (people feeling they were promised something and getting angry when they don’t get it) and often it comes from a miscommunication between the creative teams and fans. That being said, I am still pretty confident we’ll get more scenes between them in season 3 than we did and season 2, and am also hopeful about their romantic future in the series; nothing in this trailer changed that.

Dick

I so a lot of people fearing that Dick will take up the Batman mantle, and again I don’t think that’s NECESSARILY the case. It might be! But it might not. For one, we didn’t see Dick’s response to Bruce’s request. And second, it’s unclear what Bruce even means by telling Dick he needs to be a better Batman. He could be referring to literally being Batman, or he could referring to “Batman” just as a superhero who protects Gotham. In the latter case, Bruce could just want Dick to protect Gotham as Nightwing. Like most things in this trailer, and most trailers, it’s unclear. Overall, despite his prominence in the trailer, I didn’t get a good feel of what Dick’s story would be this season, so I don’t really have any judgements on his character this season yet.

Babs

I’m excited to see Babs this season. I’m intrigued (although I little worried) to see her dynamic with Dick. I’m diehard Dickkory, so I hope it doesn’t turn romantic. But if it happens, it happens. While I definitely see tension between them in the trailer, I didn’t get the impression that they hate each other, like some people did. For one, there’s only like two or three scenes between them, and one is delivering exposition. And the other seems tense, but not hateful. The writer said on twitter that their relationship would be one of respect, so I don’t think they will be hating each other. I hope that their dynamic is one where they disagree and argue with each other, but there’s still that respect there and that it doesn’t turn romantic again. But we’ll have to see!

I’m also curious to see how much of the season she is in. I’ve heard it thrown around online that she is only going to be in 5 or 6 episodes. But I have no idea where this idea originated. Does anyone know? I think it might be from IMDB, in which case it might not be accurate. IMDB is very inconsistent when it comes to the accuracy of information posted there. And given that she is on the poster, it might be more than that. But again, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Trailers in General

In fandom in general, I think people really overestimate how much they can gleam about the actual show or movie from trailers and other marketing materials. First and foremost, trailers are intended to advertise a show or movie, not give an accurate representation of what the movie or season will be. Trailers can often be misleading, but even when they are not, they are only giving viewers limited information, and without context. Often, trailers aren’t even made by the writing or directing team, but by an in-house marketing team at the company that produced the show/movie or an outside.

Really, trailers are just giving viewers breadcrumbs; sometimes accurate breadcrumbs, sometimes misleading breadcrumbs. But that thing is, it’s impossible to know how accurate a trailer is until you see that actual show/movie it’s advertising. So, you can never really know ahead of time how representative what you’re seeing in a trailer is of the actual movie/show. 

Not to mention, there is very little context for the scenes, images, and lines of dialogue you are seeing. And in understanding scenes, and characters, context is EVERYTHING. And for TV shows, you also don’t know how much of the season the trailer is using. This titans trailer could only be using a few episodes, or it could be more. There is no way of knowing unless we’re told. There is just so much uncertainty with trailers.

When it comes down to it, trailers are just scenes, lines, and images completely removed from their context.

But unfortunately, I think fandom can sometimes treat trailers as a lot more than this, believing they have a better understanding of what they season/movie is going to be than they possibly could given the nature of trailers. Sometimes these impressions are right! But i just find it so hard to ever know.

#titans #kory anders #blackfire #dick grayson #dickkory #red hood #jason todd #barbara gordon #titans season 3 #my posts #ablogthatishenceforthmine #otp: maybe we can figure it out together

[chalkrevelations]

WELL. Episode 3 of Word of Honor.

First of all: If you are NEW or JUST VISITING, this is a re-watch, so there are SPOILERS not just for this ep, but for the ENTIRE SHOW. A lot of them, actually. Scroll away and come back later if you haven’t seen all 36.5 eps and want to watch it unspoiled.

So, this ep feels a little disjointed. I don’t think it actually is, not in the way the back nine are a speedrun where the writing starts to feel like it’s thisclose to coming off the rails, but it feels like it, in that we’re now getting a double handful of threads thrust at us that are only just starting to be woven together into a plot, and it’s the kind of hot mess that any fiberwork looks like before the pattern starts to show itself, particularly when you’re using 15 different color threads from jump. There’s generally a major theme or issue or overriding concept that stands out to me in each ep that, you may have noticed, gets primacy of place in these reactions, but honestly, y’all, I really struggled to figure out what that might be for this episode, because a lot of this, on re-watch, strikes me as groundwork for later developments. Wen Kexing gives us an “as you know, Bob” speech about the Amory and the Glazed Armor, we meet approx. 3.2K new characters, and I feel sort of like I should start keeping a chart of who’s supposed to have a piece of the Glazed Armor and who actually does have a piece of the Glazed Armor, but it’s already so confusing that it might be too late.*

ANYWAY, on re-watch, I can absolutely see the value of spending Eps 1 & 2 on introducing us to Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing and getting us pulled into their orbit, because then we have scenes we’re already invested in to maintain our interest as the background politics begin to frustratingly play out with a bunch of people we don’t know or have any investment in yet. I mean, y’all. I forgot just what an ill-tempered gremlin ZZS was in these early eps. He is so fk’n put out that these people will not let him drink himself to death in the gutter in peace! Or, you know, in occasional Nightly Nails Torment. And the exasperation from both ZZS and Chengling over WKX’s antics – both of their faces are priceless in the scene when they discover he’s the one who’s bought out all the rooms at the inn. I literally lol’d. Again. Even knowing it was coming. All of this interaction is so delightful. This is actually the ep that provoked my very first WoH keysmash flailing Tumblr post and inaugurated the “wen kexing’s thirst is practically a third character” tag. I guess the biggest throughline for this ep is that we can continue to see how everything changes when we know about their previous relationship – things like WKX’s insistence that they have a “deep bond through fate” take on additional layers of meaning rather than just sounding like some dude who’s trying to pick you up at last call. Interesting that ZZS describes WKX at one point during their push-pull conversational dance as “like a wretched soul that keeps haunting around.” You mean, like a GHOST? Like a Ghost Valley ghost? Like the almost forgotten memory of a past life ghost? ZZS wants to know why WKX keeps following him around, and it would be nice if WKX would just come clean, but that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?

ZZS, re: Chengling: I do my best to ensure what was entrusted to me.

WKX: :makes (already! in ep 3!) yet another in a series of bad decisions not to say anything about the fact that he, himself, was in fact entrusted to ZZS:

Show: Here’s the first of many helpings of heartache to come. EAT IT. EAT IT ALL.

(Me: Well, here’s another AU idea: What would the course of this relationship be like if WKX flat-out asked ZZS what ZZS’s relationship to Four Seasons Manor was, and bare-faced claimed sanctuary as long-lost shidi Zhen Yan at this point? Because I bet there are plenty of ways that could actually go wrong. Not to mention the deliciousness of just watching them navigate a relationship shift that sudden. I feel like, at this point, WKX would have to be actively confrontational about it, would have to throw it in ZZS’s face – it would need to be something he did in the heat of anger, in order to have this pushed out past all of his fears. Like, you say that, but where were you when I needed you? Also, you think so, well what if your responsibility actually turned out to be the TERRIFYING GHOST VALLEY MASTER, what then, huh? And ZZS, still pretty actively suicidal over all of his failures, having to deal with what’s now being presented as YET ANOTHER FAILURE.)

Also, the theme of “knowing” (zhiji, the one I know) is starting to slide in sideways – we’re seeing a lot of back and forth between them asking about seeing the other’s “true face.” WKX says that he’ll tell ZZS what he (WKX) wants from him once he gets to see ZZS’s true face (LIES, it’s going to take a lot longer than that). ZZS asks to see WKX’s figurative true face, and WKX looks kind of sad and contemplative as he warns that it may be unappealing or terrifying. So, you know, we’re starting to poke at all the softest, most tender places and the issues that are going to stab me repeatedly in the heart for the rest of the show. We’re also already seeing the way Xiao Chu just layered in references throughout the script when she wrote it that call back to each other – it’s like almost any line of dialogue references three other lines of dialogue (and that’s without even getting into all of the literary references that I’m missing because I don’t have cultural context). You get things like WKX’s little speech right at the end that it’s hard to tell a ghost from a human, which on its face might be referring to the two “ghosts” that were coming for Chengling that he took care of and act as an admonishment to ZZS not to be so quick to assume they’re actually from Ghost Valley, but it also refers to WKX, himself, and specifically lays the groundwork (“someone wearing a ghost mask is not necessarily a ghost”) for his conversation in a later ep with ZZS when he asks if ZZS thinks he’s a good person, and also calls back (“someone who looks human may not be human”) to the line from earlier in this ep, itself, when WKX tells ZZS that perhaps WKX’s true face is terrifying. And so we get a nicely little wrapped package of the dichotomy of WKX and his issues. (As a somewhat related aside, A-Xiang’s little face when Zhou Zishu says all of the ghosts of Ghost Valley are full of evil (at 6:55). D: This reaction is obviously for herself, but also may be the first time she acts as proxy for Wen Kexing, as well.)

What else, what else?

So, nobody has a good opinion of the jianghu. WKX is going to be constantly all, “You killed my father, jianghu, prepare to die,” but ZZS also goes off about how it’s just about greed, hatred and ignorance, and yeah, I guess he’d have a pretty bad impression of it, when Prince Jin and Tian Chuang seemed like a better option than the pressure he was facing, trying to keep Siji Manor Sect alive back in the day. We talk a lot about WKX’s childhood trauma, because it’s so awful and right in our faces, but I don’t know how much we actually talk about the fact that ZZS was a teenager not much older than Chengling when he inherited a sect and tried desperately to keep it from being torn apart by the rest of the jianghu. I think we see some bitterness come out in the first few episodes – frankly, in this ep, he doesn’t seem to make much of a distinction between Ghost Valley and the rest of the jianghu. Also interesting that the metaphor he uses about the jianghu’s and Ghost Valley’s greed for the treasures of the Armory is “reaping without sowing,” given what we find out is actually in there in Ep 36.

We see our metaphor of light get pulled out again – this throughline strikes me as more like beads on a string than a thread, at this point, but maybe I���ll notice it more on this second time through … Anyway, WKX’s comment at 9:11 that it’s almost dawn is notable. Indeed, but is it because your plan is beginning to work and you can see the destruction of Ghost Valley and the jianghu coming down the pike, or is it because you’ve found your shixiong?

I notice WKX has color-coordinated ZZS and Chengling in the robes he bought for them, has already grouped them together, marked them as belonging to each other – he’s already subtly treating them as each other’s family. The show, with a particular lack of subtlety, also will have ZZS there to wake up Chengling from nightmares later in the end of the ep, as Chengling calls out for his dad in his sleep.

OK, Deng Kuan is the guy in charge of the Yueyang sect contingent that arrived in time to see the Mirror Lake chaos in Ep 2 and has taken charge of cleaning up the bodies in this ep. I actually overlooked him, pretty much, the first time around, but here, he’s already got Shen Shen yelling at him (in a completely ridiculous fashion) for not getting there in time to save the Mirror Lake Sect, so he’s just going to be a punching bag through the whole show, apparently. Shen Shen is wu-di, fifth (little) brother, and he refers to Chengling’s dad as si-ge, fourth (older) brother, so Shen Shen appears to be the youngest of the Five Lakes sworn brothers, leading me to believe that some of what makes him so insufferable through a lot of the show is baby brother syndrome. Also, Shen Shen and his group find the Soul Winding Threads of the Hanged Ghost … supposedly. I mean, the Hanged Ghost was the guy who we saw get got in Ep 1, soooooo …. (remember these Soul Winding Threads, btw).

*This got super long so I’m’a put this last bit under a cut, but I did try to start a running tally of who’s holding a piece of the Glazed Armor:

Each of the Five Lakes Alliance sects is supposed to have a piece of the Glazed Armor, yes? So, as of the end of Ep 3 (hierarchical bro-titles are from didi Shen Shen’s POV):

- Yueyang Sect, led by Gao Chong (da-ge) - presumably still has his

- Tai Hu Sect, led by Zhao Jing (er-ge) – presumably still has his

- Danyang Sect, led by Lu Taichong (san-ge, presumably) – apparently the sect has already been attacked off-screen (by “Ghost Valley?” and WHEN?), as we learn in Ep 3 that Lu-zongzhu has been killed and his remaining two tiny disciples have fled to the protection of Ao Laizi and Tai Shan Sect, one of the lesser sects, and are believed to have taken Danyang’s Glazed Armor with them. We learn this from Tao Hong, Lv Liu and Begger Gang Chief, but I notice that Gao Chong only mentions the Mirror Lake massacre as the precipitating event for the Hero’s Conference and total war on Ghost Valley – he doesn’t even mention Danyang Sect, so does Five Lakes not know about this yet?

- Mirror Lake Sect, led by Zhang Yusen (si-ge) – Zhang-zongzhu killed by “Ghost Valley” in Ep 2, Glazed Armor “missing” and speculated POST EP 2 to have been taken by Ghost Valley (but will turn up in a few eps, thanks to our little Goldbean)

- Dagu Shan Sect, led by Shen Shen (wu-di) – presumably still has his

And then we move to:

- Tai Shan Sect, led by Ao Laizi – in-world speculation is that he now has the Danyang Glazed Armor. We do see him near the end of the ep with the two tiny Danyang shidi, where he makes the intriguing comment that he’s going to follow their shifu’s last wishes and keep their Glazed Armor from falling into the hands of the Five Lakes Alliance, so what exactly was going on between San-ge and his sworn brothers at the time of his death? This group also is apparently being pursued by Shen Shen to get their Glazed Armor, and they make him sound awful. You need better PR, Shen Shen.

- Ghost Valley – POST EP 2, speculated to have taken the Mirror Lake Glazed Armor (FALSE)

NOTABLY, “Ghost Valley Master” set a lot of this chaos in motion in Ep 1 when he claimed that Hanged Ghost (who got got a scene earlier) had stolen HIS piece of the Glazed Armor, although he shouldn’t have a piece (supposedly) until after Ep 2, when he’s believed to have taken Mirror Lake’s. So, what piece would that be, exactly, Terrifying Ghost Valley Master? You wouldn’t be lying in pursuit of chaos would you? (Somewhere, WKX gasps theatrically behind his fan, and he doesn’t even know what motivated it, this time.)

#zhou zishu #wen kexing #gu xiang #zhang chengling #shen shen #deng kuan #word of honor #word of honor episode reax

[jess-rewatches-prodigalson]

Bad Manners (S2, E5)

My time-stamped thoughts for this episode. As always I reference Malcolm’s mental health. A lot. So if that’s going to be a trigger for you, don’t keep reading.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

0:35 - Martin totally thought John Watkins abducted and killed Ainsley. Mark my words. 

0:44 - Holy. Shit. Ainsley is FIVE years old (or younger) here right? A five year old with that much determination?!?! She literally stayed silent in that clock for probably hours......and no one was concerned about this kid when Martin was arrested because...?

1:09 - Anyone else impressed with Malcolm’s aim here? Just me?

1:20 - Gil and Malcolm talking about sleep and murder is so freaking sweet. <3 Honestly, they’re acting like friends instead of co-workers and it warms my cold dead heart. 

1:29 - Does Gil become a grumpy old man when he doesn’t get 8 hours sleep? I really want to know now. 

1:39 - OMG. Gil pointing at Ainsley here is hilarious. He’s totally acting like some weird mix of a stern pissed off high-school teacher, and a step-dad trying to discipline an unruly teen. hahaha AND MALCOLM’S FACE. Look how done Malcolm is. He looks so so tired, sad, and exasperated. 

1:44 - Wow. Girl power. Ainsley has those camera guys bending to her will. I honestly would’ve thought they would just read the situation and turn the camera off themselves. 

1:47 - “It’s not a game.” Yikes. I have thoughts about this:

Malcolm is right - it’s not a game. 

Malcolm is a bit of a hypocrite for saying that to Ainsley. Although, to his credit even when Malcolm is excited/inappropriately happy about murder it’s always pretty clear that he thinks murder is wrong, and that he has sympathy for the victims and their families. 

Ainsley does not have that same sympathy for the victims. That much is clear later in this episode. 

Pretty sure the writers are trying to turn Ainsley into a serial killer this season. 

2:13 - “You know I like to share these things with my friends.” .....does this mean Malcolm thinks Dani and JT are his friends now? Last I checked (Ep 1x05) Malcolm didn’t have friends. This absolutely melts my heart. <3 I’m honestly so happy that Malcolm considers someone other than Gil to be his friend.

2:18 - “We lost Dani to vice.” .....What is vice? AND WHAT IS THE REAL LIFE REASON THAT DANI WASN’T IN THIS EPISODE?!? 

2:19 - Edrisa has a medical degree right? She has to know how dangerous consuming that much caffeine is right? Plus aren’t energy drinks super dangerous if you drink a lot of them (or maybe that’s just what adults in my neighbourhood told kids)?

2:30 - Edrisa SHINES in this episode. She’s so funny and awkward and I just love her. 

2:36 - hahaha Gil has adopted the whole team. Look at him throwing the “Dad warning stare” at Edrisa. 

3:31 - Why does Edrisa start bouncing around looking upset when Malcolm says, “rejection is a powerful motivator”?!?! Has she recently been broken up with or something? Is this a reference to how she has a crush on Malcolm (who doesn’t reciprocate)? I WANT MORE INFORMATION.

3:47 - TWIZZLERS!!! <3 Damn I love how this tiny detail about Malcolm’s character keeps coming up. 

3:55 - Ainsley is on a rampage this episode. She’s so determined ...actually she’s acting a lot like Jessica (think girl in the box bracelet). However, unlike Jessica, Ainsley’s motives aren’t about justice or the safety of her loved ones.  Ainsley is chasing personal gain (career) with a side of (a subconscious?) need to be exposed to murder and her father’s twisted world. 

4:05 - This whole interaction between Ainsley and Malcolm is really interesting. Ainsley is knowingly manipulating Malcolm to get the answers she wants. We’ve seen her do it in 2x4 and 1x19. She knows her big brother would do anything for her. It makes sense, they’re five years apart and after the trauma they experienced as children Malcolm felt responsible to protect Ainsley. He never wants to disappoint Ainsley. Not a burden he should’ve had to deal with but I digress. PLUS Malcolm looks weary of Ainsley here. He knows what she’s doing. He’s scared that she’s turning to the dark side. But he still gives her the answers because if he doesn’t - that means something has changed. He thinks that would make Ainsley suspicious and then she might remember what happened to Endicott. He’s scared of and for Ainsley. 

4:32 - OKAY. I’ll say it. The thing that annoys me the most about this episode is that it suggests that Ainsley was a debutant when in 1x6 AINSLEY TELLS MARTIN SHE WAS NEVER A DEBUTANT. She went to etiquette school - I guess that doesn’t strictly mean she also did debutant balls but it sort of suggests it in the context of this episode? Did she actually graduate from the etiquette school (there was bullying, maybe she was expelled/dropped out similar to Malcolm and Remington?)?

4:59 - “No stabbies” OMG. How is this show not classified as a comedy?!? Istg I laugh harder watching this ‘drama’ then I do watching most of the shows that call themselves ‘comedies’.

5:35 - It’s honestly kind of amazing that Ainsley and Malcolm are as ‘sane’ as they are. They were raised by a stubborn predatory psychopath and a stubborn rich meddling socialite. They had no chance of normalcy. Look at the amount of pleasure Martin is currently getting by throwing his son under the bus with regards to Jessica. 

 5:45 - “No actually, I cleaned it up.”.....does this have a dual meaning? Did Martin do something to make Malcolm dispose of the body? We already know that Martin has tried some sort of conditioning on Malcolm (remember ‘C’mon boy!’ from 1x14? The stabbing?). What if Martin said some sort of trigger word to control Malcolm and coerced Malcolm into getting rid of the body? What if this isn’t the first time?

6:05 - Ainsley is a sociopath. I’m calling it again. I called it when I first watched Q&A (1x7) because the way she treated Malcolm was more than just selfish/careless. It was cruel and she didn’t feel any remorse for literally broadcasting her brother’s private health details on television. That is messed up. I honestly won’t be shocked if the writers make Ainsley a full blown serial killers (although I’m not sure I want that because I don’t know how Malcolm would remain the main character if the story goes in that direction?). 

6:12 - Poor Jessica. I honestly feel really bad for her. Sure, she’s a headstrong alcohol dependant crazy rich woman. She also has a good heart. She’s been dealt a pretty shitty hand when it comes to relationships (minus Gil but she ruined that because she’s a MORON) and now she’s terrified that her own children have become monsters and she blames herself. She definitely hasn’t been a perfect mother but I don’t think she’s to blame for Ainsley and Malcolm’s obsession with murder. If these kids had a different bio dad, they would probably just have a low-key drug problem or some other common rich kid baggage. 

6:15 - “You know that’s not how cancer works right?” LOL. hahahaha

6:33 - Martin kind of has a point. There’s no rehab for murder. That’s why he’s been in jail for 20 years and he still wants to kill people. In my opinion, given what we’ve seen of Ainsley’s personality: as soon as she fully remembers that night - she’s gone. She’ll go full serial killer and Jessica and Malcolm will lose her forever. 

6:40 - Jessica’s little jazz hand finger twinkle as she spins on her heel and leaves Martin kills me. It’s so extra. It’s so funny. And it’s sooo Jessica. 

6:47 - Damn. Martin is pissed. I’m worried. That’s murder-level rage. If he escapes ISTG Martin is going to try and kill Gil. For so many reasons 1) because he hates Gil, 2) it’ll hurt Jessica, and 3) killing Gil will eliminate his ‘Dad’ competition. 

6:54 - Edrisa on caffeine is AMAZING.

7:43 - I love Edrisa but her blatant, unreciprocated crush on Malcolm is honestly getting a little creepy. 

7:52 - Gil spent all last season drinking out of a Yankee’s mug. Doesn’t that mean he’s a baseball fan? Why doesn’t he know this pitcher guy?

7:56 - hahahaa “Where is JT?” Because obviously JT is the team sports fan. 

8:22 - Does Gil get nightmares about cases? He always seems really uncomfortable around the dead bodies. 

8:45 - “And suddenly I’m wide awake” SERIOUSLY - is anyone else laughing every 60 seconds when they watch this show? Is my sense of humour just super dark and messed up?

8:54 - YES. The liquorice is BACK.

9:00 - I love Malcolm talking to JT about his obsession with candy. I love how Malcolm doesn’t even hesitate before giving JT an honest answer. Malcolm is acting like JT’s annoying little brother and I am here for it. One thing I did notice though - Malcolm specifically mentions candy+dopamine but doesn’t mention his depression/anxiety. Processed sugar can be a short-term (unhealthy) way to boost your mood. It’s why some people eat their feelings. I really want more backstory about Malcolm with the lollipops and licorice though. 

9:19 - “But you didn’t do anything wrong.” Awwww Malcolm is so soft here. I love how much he genuinely cares about JT. <3 I love how JT is comfortable enough with Malcolm to give him an honest answer. <3 THEIR RELATIONSHIP HAS GONE THROUGH SUCH A GLOW UP. <3 

9:32 - “Like toy dolls?” hahaha the way Malcolm perked up here. All I could think was “SQUIRREL!” hahaha. 

9:41 - Malcolm is doing better than he has been the past few episodes? I mean he’s still suffering and he’s still in a terrible mental state. BUT he also seems happier? IDK maybe he’s just entered the more manic nervous energy stage of his emotions as opposed to the depressed and scared stage. 

9:49 - “Deep childhood trauma”. So we’re looking for a debutant killer with childhood trauma who is chasing perfection? Debutant = rich lady culture. Like Ainsley. AND Ainsley went to the same etiquette school as the first two victims. The writer’s wanted us to assume the killer was Ainsley for the first 15 mins of this episode right? I’m not the only one seeing it?

10:04 - “My sister went there too.” ....why is there something super attractive about the way that line was delivered?

10:08 - I’m so done with this absolute tom foolery. Why does the team keep splitting up into two teams - where one team is JUST MALCOLM. The one who is unarmed and technically a civilian?!? This makes no logical sense to me (except for plot).

10:25 - Was Martin just about to say, “Just like the old days”?!? Is Martin referring to Endicott? OR is Martin referring to something that Malcolm’s repressed from his childhood?

10:30 - “I always root for the bad guys.” .....finally some truth from Martin.

10:40 - Soooooo I guess Mr. David doesn’t know? I promise you Mr. David has suspicions though. How could he not?!?!

11:24 - “It was brutal for Ains.” Look at how sad Malcolm is! Ugh. This hurts so much. He clearly loves his sister so so much and what she’s done is slowly killing him. I honestly think that part of the reason Malcolm helped Ainsley dispose of the body is that Malcolm doesn’t want to loose his sister. His sister is one of the only good things he’s always been able to count on. If word gets around that she’s a killer - Malcolm’s fragile world gets shattered a little more and I don’t know if Malcolm can recover mentally from that. 

11:36 - “Teasing made her capable of...stuff.” C’MON. There’s no way Mr. David doesn’t know. 

11:45 - Sooo is Martin saying that he recognized that Ainsley was a sociopath when she was a small child? Or did she just respond to his (or John Watkins’) grooming much ‘better’ than Malcolm?

11:56 - “Because she’s her mother’s” Okay. So I see the point. I can see that Ainsley is driven and stubborn like Jessica. BUT it feels like Martin is suggesting that Jessica is capable of murder? Which - I honestly don’t think she is. If anything - Malcolm is more like Jessica than Ainsley is.

11:59 - There was a look in Martin’s eyes when he was comparing Ainsley to Jessica that really freaked me out. I can’t figure out why. It makes me wonder if Martin still somehow views Jessica as ‘his possession’ (he refers to her as his wife all the time but I always assumed that was just to get a rise out of people?). Martin’s dream from 2x4 certainly suggests that he still wants Jessica romantically. I honestly think he’s going to try to escape and rekindle the romance with Jess; and it’s going to go very poorly when Jessica rejects him. 

12:06 - Preach JT. Preach. This is creepy af. 

13:00 - Ugh. Of course this creep has a history of indecent exposure. Now I understand why Gil and JT were hostile with the dude right from the start. 

13:12 - Man. People will use the Bible to justify anything. No wonder people hate Christians ( I say this as a practicing Christian).

13:18 - JT is such a good dude. I’m so glad he’s a dad now. <3 He’s going to be such a good one. <3

13:26 - “One phone call and this place will be shut down.” OH SHIT. GIL THAT IS VICIOUS AND I RESPECT THE SHIT OUT OF IT.

13:35 - I soooo thought that dude was going to sprint out of that room. 

14:30 - THIS. YES. This is why I have a problem with Ainsley’s enthusiasm for murder vs. Malcolm’s. Ainsley’s enthusiasm is centred on her nee to ‘get the story’. She’s obsessed with forwarding her career and as a result she’s treating crime like a competitive sport. Malcolm’s obsession (while it can border on creepy and reckless) is always centred on his need to find the killer and stop the murders. Malcolm is seeking justice and his heart is in the right place. I can’t say the same for Ainsley.

14:31 - “We’re brother and sister, everything is a competitive sport”.....whoever wrote this doesn’t have a sibling they experienced trauma with as a kid (and as a result was raised by a single parent). Seriously, my dad was abusive he lived with us until I was 10 and my brother was 7. Then my parents got divorced and my mom was a single parent (he didn’t pay child support or see his kids after the divorce). Are my brother and I competitive? Sure sometimes. But the way we grew up forced us to become partners. Annoyed with Mom? Let’s rant about it together. Is he struggling in math? I’ll tutor him in exchange for a Reese cup. Am I struggling at daycare because I have massive social anxiety? He’ll include me in whatever he’s doing so I’m not sitting alone in a corner. My point: siblings who experience trauma together don’t have the typical sibling relationships that are widely televised in North America. There’s a lot less fighting and competition and a lot more teaming up and commiserating. 

14:39 - “It. It’s terrible.” - Notice how Ainsley didn’t actually say how it made her feel? She gave the standard “TV response” to a murder “a terrible/horrific/tragedy has occurred”. She doesn’t feel bad that these women are dead. She’s too consumed with getting a story to even stop and let herself feel anything. I’ve been saying it since last season - the way Ainsley shows no regard for other people and their feelings when she’s obsessed with her job is concerning. 

14:50 - “Remind me of the people who cut us off after Dad’s arrest.” ...Are you kidding me?!? The whole fandom has been speculating about this since early season one and they’re not going to elaborate on that line?!? I’m going to need some more information about this and it better be in the upcoming episode where Jessica’s younger sister appears. 

15:40 - She thinks of her students as family? Sooo what does she think of Ainsley? Wasn’t Ainsley bullied at this school? Did she do anything about it? 

16:00 - this is like a ‘weekend/evening school’ right? Kids aren’t living in this house like a boarding school/summer camp?

16:01 - “Mr. Whitly” UGH. This bitch preaches etiquette and she doesn’t even have the common courtesy to call Malcolm by the name with which he introduced himself? Nah. I don’t like her. 

16:13 - Ugh. Ainsley, seriously? Why don’t you help your brother solve the case. AND PREVENT MORE MURDERS. Why are you indirectly but purposely obstructing justice?

16:37 - “Of course.” Huh. Do you think Martin might try and manipulate Ainsley into killing Malcolm? Ainsley definitely capable of it. She doesn’t actually seem to care about Malcolm nearly as much as he cares about her. 

17:17 - WTF?!? That’s creepy af. How did no one in this show think this assistant was a suspect? She has a super creepy doll that she ‘forgot’ on the floor the middle of a hallway. AND THE DOLL WAS STANDING UP. Not sitting, not dropped carelessly, STANDING UP.

17:30 - Look at Malcolm’s face. He’s definitely going to be having nightmares about that doll. 

18:25 - OMG. This was amazing. JT just totally bulldozed his way into catching that dude. Very badass. Also kind of funny (maybe that’s just my messed up sense of humour again?).

18:44 - Ugh. This dude has a thing for dolls. I don’t want to kink shame but - no. no. There’s something really gross about that.  

18:48 - I’ve seen some people say that this doll looks like Ainsley and how that’s supposed to be some sort of foreshadowing/symbolism. I kind of see it? I mean the hair colour is similar and if you pause the screen at 18:48 the angle kind of looks like Ainsley? It would be an interesting metaphor though - Ainsley played with dolls as a little girl. John Watkins gave her angel statues. She is Watkins’ and Martin’s doll’ in the sense that she was the object that murders manipulated/groomed. 

18:53 - Then again, pause the screen here and there’s something about the facial structure that looks like Dani to me. 

19:00 - Jessica lets Ainsley work in the murder office?!? No. No she doesn’t. This is garbage. Jessica would’ve forbade it. Jessica would’ve bordered up this room immediately after Watkins.

19:57 - Poor Jessica. She’s clearly terrified that she’s losing Ainsley and terrified of Ainsley. BUT Jess, sweetie, running to Europe won’t fix this. 

20:16 - “She wanted the dolls to look like her students.” AND PEOPLE SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO HER?!? WTF?!? NO. NO. NO. NOT OKAY. 

20:31 - HAHA look at Gil’s face when Trevor tells him he can make the ‘perfect woman’. Gil’s like WTF - can I arrest you for thinking you can fabricate a ‘perfect woman’?!!?

21:06 - Malcolm is having so much fun playing with Trevor’s doll head. Look at how excited he is. It’s kind of adorable but his manic energy is showing which is concerning. 

21:10 - Why is Trevor giving his doll fancy 1940s(ish) names? 

21:31 - Props to LDP. I honestly believed Gil was annoyed with Malcolm for barging in on the interrogation the first time I watched this. 

21:42 - “They got a word for everything.” hahaha OMG. This is so reminiscent of a teenager explaining some new tech to their tech-illiterate parents. 

22:00 - I can’t tell if Gil feels sorry for this creep or if he just thinks the dude is really gross. Probably a mixture. 

23:00 - Oh we’re bringing up the chloroform again. At least Malcolm knows not listen to Martin about this nonsense. 

23:25 - “It doesn’t feel fun.” - THIS. This is why I honestly don’t think Malcolm will ever become a serial killer. His guilt complex is just too big.

23:56 - Are. You. Kidding. Me? This is next level. Ainsley is so out of line here. AND SHE SHOWS NO REMORSE. SHE DOESN’T THINK SHE’S DONE ANYTHING WRONG. THIS GIRL HAS GONE DARK SIDE (she was already halfway there).

24:17 - I’m getting papa!Gil vibes when Gil is talking to Ainsley and I want more scenes of them interacting. Seriously, did Gil have a relationship with Ainsley when she was a kid? I MUST KNOW.

24:45 - Ainsley has no conscience. I honestly don’t think Ainsley has a conscience. 

25:00 - “Who is that!?” Malcolm is totally acting like he’s Ainsley’s father-figure right now. I’m here for it. 

25:22 - SORE LOSERS?!? I’m sorry. What? If you weren’t concerned about Ainsley you damn well should be now. That is seriously messed up. People are dead. This is not a game. Do you know who else thought murder was a game? Martin Whitly.

25:31 - Okay. Ainsley has a point. Malcolm lecturing anyone about being reckless is pretty hypocritical. But at least Malcolm cares about her. 

25:54 - Heart. Shattered. Look at how terrified Jessica is. Look at how gentle and reassuring Gil is. UGh. WHY DID SHE BREAK UP WITH HIM??! I mean, I know why I just think she’s a moron for doing it. 

26:00 - Poor Gil. He’s so confused and so concerned. The whole Whitly family is acting crazier then usual and he doesn’t know why. 

26:11 - “Both you and Malcolm are at an 11 and I’ve never seen Ainsley like that.” FIND YOURSELF A MAN WHO CARES LIKE GIL AND NEVER LET HIM GO. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 Seriously. The love and concern he shows for this family warms my cold dead heart. 

26:16 - “Her father?!” Oh shit. Now Gil knows there’s something BIG happening. Jessica would never run to Martin unless she absolutely had to. 

26:19 - annnnd Gil’s also being a prideful man who’s feeling are hurt. “You went to him?” He’s right to be though - the woman he loves went to a serial killer for advice before going to the guy who practically co-parented with her. 

26:33 - “I’m here. Whatever you need. I’m here.” <3 <3 Gil is the definition of a good man. <3 I’m in love with it. 

26:48 - “You were right on time for me.” ....*snort* subtle Gil (and in front of JT!!)

27:08 - Edrisa is hysterical on caffeine. hahaha. This whole scene is perfect. 

27:20 - You know someone is acting manic when Malcolm Bright is concerned about their eccentric behaviour. 

27:34 - Annnnnd Tom Payne was a split second from breaking character here. I don’t blame him. hahaha

28:05 - EDRISA flipping and dropping that pencil. HAHAHAHAHAHA

29:10 - “Absolutely not.” hahaha this is funny but also really sweet. Malcolm knows that Edrisa hopped up on caffeine isn’t safe to have near an active killer. Who knows what’ll happen. I wish he’d care that much about his own well being. Looks like calling for backup last episode was a one time thing. 

30:37 - I’ll give the writers one thing - Miss Windsor makes a convincing murder suspect.

31:22 - GIL. STANDING. UP. FOR. JT. IS. EVERYTHING. Where is O’Malley’s back up? Oh yeah, they’re not brave enough to defend him.

32:00 - Huh. Bright texted for backup. This is growth. I’m proud of him. 

32:15 - YES. This JT arc was handled right. Sure JT could’ve complained. It would’ve been episodes upon episodes of bureaucratic nightmares and injustice. This show isn’t about racism. They showed enough to portray that the system is broken and they had JT act like a responsible adult. It’s not fair that JT had to go through this or that he’ll likely experience something similar to it again. But the fact that JT is acting like a bigger person is perfect. JT will protect his family. Always. That includes Malcolm. So JT avoids putting through a formal complaint because he knows that will take time away from doing his job, from protecting others, from hanging out with his wife and kid. JT’s taking the higher road, it might not be gratifying or fair but I respect the hell out of him for taking it. 

32:28 - Gil is so so proud of JT. Look at him. <3 <3 

33:40 - Look, Miss Windsor is a bit of a stuck up bitch but she has a good heart. Look at the way she immediately tells Malcolm where Ainsley is when she realizes what’s happening. 

34:14 - This confused me during the first watch - Ainsley obviously didn’t drink any tea - so why is she drugged? (obviously I know now). 

34:17 - Big brother Malcolm frantically looking for Ainsley is so so sweet. <3 

35:42 - The music, the dolls, and Miss Windsor’s speech here. There’s something about this part of the episode that is strangely reminiscent of 5x16 of Criminal Minds.

36:20 - ......does Miss Windsor have some sort of mental illness? She’s talking to herself and ranting erratically. Is this just emotional stress or something deeper?

37:00 - This is why Malcolm’s not a serial killer. Even now- looking at a killer - he’s trying to sympathize with her. He’s trying to understand why. He’s trying to calm her down, diffuse the threat, and get her mental help. 

39:00 - Oh yeah. Ainsley was definitely going to kill without remorse. Again. I’ve seen some theories that Ainsley only ever tries to kill to protect Malcolm. I disagree. I think Ainsley’s trying to protect herself. Ainsley is pissed off that this girl tried to drug her and kill her because she thinks Ainsley is wicked. Ainsley was pissed at Endicott for whatever he did to Ainsley before Malcolm got there. I think Ainsley felt threatened and scared so she reacted. I don’t think this has anything to do with protecting Malcolm.

39:41 - Malcolm isn’t a killer. Look. He smells gas but he takes the time to carry an unconscious murderer (who literally just tried to kill his sister) out of the building. 

40:00 - The drama. Holy hell. What a weird ending to this case.

40:48 - Who gave Ainsley a police jacket and let her keep it?

41:14 - She almost died and she’s still obsessing over ‘winning’. This is seriously unstable behaviour. Way more concerning than anything Malcolm’s done since 2x1. 

41:45 - “My father was a serial killer also.” Anyone else super irritated by that phrasing?!?  Just me?!? Something about the ‘also’ feels super wrong to me.

41:53 - Oh sweetie. I’d argue that you are more messed up than Malcolm. 

42:06 - Jessica went to see Martin twice in one episode. THIS IS BAD.

42:15 - “Maybe even more so than Malcolm if that’s possible.” Jessica knows her kids. I’m on her side here. 

42:20 - Martin is way too happy about Ainsley showing signs of serial killing. 

42:30 - Jessica? You married an act. That man never existed. He’s always been a serial killer. You just didn’t know it. He’s manipulative and you were a victim to it. 

42:50 - “A partner.” OH THIS IS NOT GOING TO END WELL. ESPECIALLY FOR THE GIL/JESSICA ARC.

Okay....so definitely the weakest episode of the season so far. AND the fact that we got no mention of Tally and/or the baby this episode is a crime. 

BUT I’M SO SO SO EXCITED FOR THE NEXT EPISODE. It’s going to be a televised fanfic and I can’t wait. 

#jess-rewatches-prodigal #malcolm bright #prodigal son #gil arroyo #dani powell #JT Tarmel #ainsley whitly #martin whitly #edrisa tanaka #jessica whitly #I LOVE this show #whump #rewatch #spoliers #malcolm needs a hug #ps #so good #2x05 #2x5 #Bad Manners #s2

[themonkeycabal]

I completely agree with you about F&WS. I love all the Bucky and Sam beats but the rest feels like a slog. I'm actually glad this series is only 6 eps because I don't know how much longer I'd want to watch it, whereas I wanted more eps of Wandavision. Also I read that there was a whole pandemic subplot with the flag smashers that had to be removed after covid for being to similar to real life and they reshot a bunch of their stuff, so i wonder if that explains why their motivations feel so vague

I was thinking this either needed to be longer or shorter. Shorter to make things tighter, or longer so they had the time to explain all the things they clearly wanted to explain but ended up just having to tell us through repeated exposition. 

They seemed to start out so well and have a clear direction in ep 1: Bucky trying to readjust, going to therapy, has his book of amends. Sam, trying to go home, pick up the pieces of the family business while contracting for the Air Force. And then *poof* that was all dropped quick. 

The roommate and I also decided last night that what would actually have helped a lot, would have been an episode of Karli and the gang when they were younger in Madripoor and then what happened to them at the great un-blippening. It would have helped to give us context for her issues, and even served to give us a sense of the broader world situation. And it should have been early, ep two or three. Three would have made sense, given the gents were going to Madripoor. 

But, yes, you bring up a good point about stupid covid. I remember they got shut down when they were filming. Pandemic storyline or not, I’m sure that screwed up plenty. Things they couldn’t shoot, or get pickups for, or reshoot if necessary, stuff they couldn’t finish for any number of reasons from location availability to actor availability. And every schedule got blown to completely to hell, and probably their budget, too. 

Stupid covid. 

#tfatws #tfatws spoilers #there's good stuff in every episode #i'm not hating #just finding things a bit of a slog yes #danimydear

[incarnateirony]

UPDATE: 8/26/2020 -- day 8/8 is technically complete. Maintaining original notes, including my tapeball update now in the OP, updating notes.

I don’t remember if it was on twitter or tumblr that I talked about them probably bundling parts of episodes 19 and 20 together, but it seems to be what they’re doing. While my wish for this earlier in the year was to prevent Singer from having full creative control of the finale while knowing he would at least get it nominally out of respect, it’s also economical.

If you think about it, for example, Misha started quarantining about the same time as J2. And while there’s been hints of them becoming a pod after a 14 day quarantine for everyone (signs of 2 other people staying with Jensen between who was filming and who threw him a book), that also means Misha has availability. He’s billed by episode, not by day. So if they need Billie for example, or any other character, in 2 episodes but really only need a few quick shoots of them, you can have them on site for a day instead of strung across a week during quarantine.

Plus the added benefit of confusing filming stalkers and superfans from being able to chart as much out, when it’s already limited access for public viewing, shuffled backdoor filming and whatever else, functionally speaking it makes sense. 

“DAY 2″ was posted once in March and once in April before they really resumed, for those confused. DAY 2 initially had a public posting of WE WILL RETURN SHORTLY

PRE-COVID HIATUS

DAY 1

EPISODE 19: Shots 8, 25, 19, 21pt1, 9, 18, 24, 28pt4 (?)

SPLIT:

DAY 2

EPISODE 19: 21pt2, 10pt1, 26, 32

ALL FOLLOWING DAYS ARE POST-COVID HIATUS/ADJUSTMENTS:

DAY 3: EPISODE 19: 28pt4, 20 EPISODE 20: 46

DAY 4: EPISODE 19: 22, 23pt1, 28pt3, 28pt4 (?)

DAY 5: EPISODE 19: 23pt2, 28pt7, 28pt8 EPISODE 20: 11, 12, 43, 28pt4 (? since 19 already did it, it's after the 20 line, but may be bad editing and relating to ep 19... again.)

DAY 6: EPISODE 19: 1, 29, 31pt1, 5, 28pt6, 4pt1, 6

DAY 7:  EPISODE 19: 28pt1 *

DAY 8: EPISODE 19: 28pt1 *, 7

FILMED SO FAR:

EPISODE 19: 1, 4pt1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10pt1, 18, 19, 20, 21pt1, 21pt2, 22, 23pt1, 23pt2, 24, 25, 26, 28pt1 (*) 28pt3, 28pt4 (?), 28pt6, 28pt7, 28pt8, 29, 31pt1, 32 (Est 50%~ complete... still. On day 8/8)

EPISODE 20: 11, 12, 43, 28pt4(?) 46 (est 8-9%~ complete)

The ? is due to the fact that 28pt4 is listed on 3 different filming days and incidents, including one entirely pre-covid, and two after, one of which almost looked like it might be listed for episode 20 (the note taking on day 5 is foggy including 11, 12, 43 for episode 20 but I'm trying to read with context as best possible.

Similarly with this update, 28pt1 was shot multiple days and was the ONLY thing listed on day 8.

I’m absolutely baffled, to be honest. I expected things to be moved around but right now--

That means episode 19 is missing:

1-3, 4pt2, 10pt2, 11-17, 27, 28pts 2&5, 30, 31pt2, 33+ and any after, anywhere between 43-49 usually.

Episode 20 is clearly far shorter in filming so far but there are three official days of "episode 19" filming left and at least 4 have been shot so far, so we may see several more in the coming days. 

Reason would have it they’ll leave the same director to do all the tiny parts of ep 19 shot 28, which is really unusual on SPN to see broken into that many parts. Sometimes we get up to 4, but I don’t remember seeing 8, so I’m wondering if this is a heaven revolution kind of thing being broken down with really unusual methods. 43 will be *really* close to an ending, think “near the last 5 minutes of the episode, but not necessarily the final scene with up to several more following”, so it’s interesting that Showalter was given that to film already for 20, wondering what else they wanna pass to him. 

But even that still means “episode 20″ shooting days are going to have to cover for about 50% of shoots not complete yet (they filmed a few more but can have anywhere from 43-49 shots an ep, we don’t know how many 19 has, so still 50%~) while also doing the remaining like 90% of ep 20? This isn’t mathing out.

So either: They’re prepared to do overflow days of shooting for both episodes, or, they’re hiding from us a lot of things being shot.

Years ago Singer used to be a great director, I don’t know what happened, I’m not being sarcastic when I ask if he had a stroke or something, because like season 5 him would have slapped season 13 him for the finale. So I’m mostly interested to keep a thumb on what scenes are being given to Showalter, who’s in my top bundle of directors. 

----

Since there’s constant panic over Misha, I’m going to tab in day 3 tapeball updates:

Yes that is the same green that was for Misha on Peace of Mind, but also slightly buried, meaning Misha may have been honest about not being at day 4, but day 3? *points at what was filmed that day*

--------

Also there’s discussion of the day 6 song, so:

#supernatural #spn #finale #directors #season finale #series finale #15.19 #15.20

[sb-sratss-obsession]

SWB vs. SRaTSS: Ep 1

STAR WARRIOR BISMARK (星銃士ビスマルク, SEIJŪSHI BISMARK) VS. SABER RIDER AND THE STAR SHERIFFS

1 "The Space Adventurers" (宇宙の冒険野郎) vs. 1 "Star Sheriff Round Up"

NOTE:

There are various ways to translate or transliterate Japanese. You might find the transliterations I used not always match the ones used in the subs. That’s because back in the faaar past some official transliteration were given and I’m using them. Also, occasionally, I used transliterations offered by Japanese fans which matched more the original intentions of the authors of the series. Anyway, for your own enjoyment, I’ve also written down the Japanese version of the names so that you can decide by yourself what you would prefer to use.

SUMMARY OF “STAR WARRIOR BISMARK” EP. 1 “THE SPACE ADVENTURERS”

Year 2084 (according to official sources).

We’re shown an image of Jupiter (木星 ‘Moku-sei’).

The camera then pans below it, to show a spaceship, Freighter 102 (貨物船 102 ‘Kamotsusen 102’) of the Earth Federation (地球連邦 ‘Chikyū renpō’), about to land on spaceport A (A基地 ‘A kichi’) on Ganymede’s southern hemisphere (ガニメデ星南部 ‘Ganimede-sei nanbu’). However, as Freighter 102 is about to touch the ground, the Deathculas (デスキュラ) attack it, completely destroying it.

We move to Earth (地球星 ‘Chikyū-sei’) at the Earth Federation Government (地球 連邦政府 ‘Chikyū Renbōseifu’), where Secretary-General Charles Louvre (シャルル・ルヴェール 事務 総長 ‘Charles Louvre jimu sōchō’) informs 6 of his co-workers of how the Deathculas attacked Ganymede once again, leaving no survivors.

Louvre proceeds then to remind them how, 15 years ago (in 2069), an enormously heavily armed alien force called Deathcula attacked them and they had to fight for 48 bloody hours so, despite the heavy losses for their Solar System Federation (太陽系 連邦 ‘Taiyōkei renpō’), they managed to strike a heavy blow to the Deathcula and chase them out of the Solar System. The Deathcula though have rebuilt their army and has began an invasion of Ganymede. Louvre thinks if they don’t strike back they might end up defeated.

Commander-in-chief Walter (ウォルター 総司令官 ‘Walter Sō shireikan’) reminds him they lack sufficient military power, as they would barely be able to cover the outskirts of Earth. Chief of staff Hoffman (ホフマン参謀総長 ‘Sanbō-sōchō’) joins him saying they can’t deploy troops on Ganymede to risk leaving Earth undefended. Barboni (バルボニー) though counters if they don’t act the Deathculas will only expand further so they’ve to do something. Louvre says he’ll put into motion Operation Bismark (ビスマルク作戦 ‘Bismark Sakusen’). Walter agrees but asks who’ll be the one who will work as the main pilot of Bismark (ビスマルク). Louvre replies that he’ll be the son of the late ace pilot, Hikari Shinjirō (輝 進児郎), Hikari Shinji (輝 進児). Hoffman reminds Louvre Shinji should have been facing a hearing for disobeying trainers. Louvre replies the sentence hasn’t been decided but Barboni points out how Shinji left the training ground during the hearing and is currently missing. Before Louvre could reply he’s informed his daughter, Marianne Louvre (マリアン・ルヴェール), wants to see him for an urgent matter. Marianne explains him she found out Shinji is competing at the Mars 24H Race (マルス 24 時間 レース ‘Mars nijūyon-jikan race’) on Ganymede.

We move again back on Ganymede, where Shinji, with his Road Leon (ロード レオン), is leading the race when Bill Wilcox (ビル・ウィルコックス), on his Arrow Striker (アロース トライカー) cause him to lose control of his car. At Shinji’s protests, Bill warns him the other cars are going to surpass him. Shinji resumes running while Bill recommends him to win and, once he’s done racing, he’ll deliver him back to the Earth Federation and get a big bounty for it. Bill flies away and Shinji manages to win the race in 23:18:16:23, breaking the race’s record. Shinji enjoys his moment of glory.

At the spaceport two criminals are escaping. Cornered, they rip a little girl from her mother’s arms and use it as an hostage while the protesting mother is hit and falls on the ground. Although the 3 Airport security guards (空港 警備兵 ‘Kūkō keibi-hei’) aim at them, they don’t know what to do. The criminals try to escape but someone shoots the gun the one holding the little girl was pointing at her head. The gun of the other criminal flies away as well and he drops a bag which contained white dust (or better drug). The Airport security guards secure the criminals then turn to see who shot, which turns out to be Richard Lancelot (リチャード・ランスロット) with his rifle, all while still being on the saddle of his robotic horse, Donatello (ドナテルロ). People wonders who he is, while Richard leaves with Donatello and lands in front of the Royal hotel (ロイヤル ホテル). To the man who comes to take care of his horse, he informs him Donatello is of a noble line so he has to take good care of him.

Once in the hotel Richard introduces himself as a friend of the British Royal Family but he’s told there’s no free room. As he protests the room should have been booked in advance, he’s told the Champion insisted on having the presidential suite for himself. Shinji enters in the place right then, as people claps their hands at him and Richard is informed he’s the champion. He protests he made a reservation but he’s told the champion holds more weight than the royal family there. Richard doesn’t care and tries to rip the room’s key from Shinji. They start a tug war before being interrupted by Bill, who asks him if he has the prize money with him. Shinji recognizes him for the guy who interrupted his race. Bill aims his gun at Shinji and introduces himself. Shinji recognizes him for the head pilot of the Space Impulse squad (スペース インパルス 隊 の チーフ パイロット ‘Space Impulse-Tai no chief pilot’). Richard too knows Bill as the winner of pilot contexts in all sectors and as an infamous bounty hunter (賞金 稼ぎ ‘Shōkin kasegi’). In that moment Cristina (クリスティーナ) barges in, calling Bill and hiding behind him. Short after her father, Pedro (ペドロ), barges in, rifle in hands. He thinks Bill wants to take advantage of Cristina and flee to Earth. In response he starts shooting at Bill, causing him to escape, then he drags Cristina away.

Back to Shinji, he recovers his key and Richard informs him if things were to take a turn for worse he would have had Shinji’s back. They introduce to each other then Richard makes clear he wants Shinji’s room and that he’ll accept to share it, only if he’ll be the one getting the bed. The two walks toward the elevator, Richard informing Shinji he’s there on a mission by order of Her Majesty herself.

EPISODE BREAK

Bill is flying outside of the hotel, planning to capture Shinji as the honour of the Space Impulse squad is at stake. However, as he peeks at the windows, searching for Shinji, he hears a Deathcula spy (デスキュラ の スパイ) talking to the phone, saying that the crew at the Ganymede garrison is throwing a party for the newly arrived from Earth and are all drunk so that’s the best moment to attack. He orders to send there all the mobile units but Bill recognizes him for a Deathcula and attacks him. He manages to walk out of the room, to end up fatally wounded and disappear, leaving only ashes, under Shinji and Richard’s gazes. Bill informs them it was a Deathcula spy. Richard explains how, according to the English government’s data Deathculas can disguise among humans by way of cell-restructure. As, when they’re in disguise, they require a lot of water, this might be the only chance to spot them among common people. Bill explains how the military base (警備隊の基地 ‘Keibitai no kichi’) is in danger as the Deathcula spy has contacted a strike force. Richard counters they’ve to warn the base and so Bill runs away to do so. Then he tells Shinji since the base will be warned they can relax so he’ll go take a shower while Shinji claims he’ll go to the front desk to take care of something… but as soon as Richard closes the door, Shinji runs away.

Meanwhile Richard leaves from the window, calls Donatello and uses it to fly toward the base. Shinji also, with the Road Leon, runs toward the base. Meanwhile the desk clerk informs Bill he can’t reach the base as the phone seems to be cut off so Bill too runs toward the base.

Shinji is the first to arrive as the attack is ongoing. Richard also gets there and starts destroying alien ships. Shinji joins the fight a bit clumsily. Though he destroys a good amount of ships ultimately is saved by Bill who complains they left without warning him.

Meanwhile Shinji meets Marianne, who expected him to come for help and who has brought there the Bismark machine (ビスマルク マシーン), which her father built and which Louvre wants Shinji to drive. Marianne climbs on the Road Leon and Shinji tells Bill and Richard to follow him. The group reaches Bismark, a machine designed and built by Federation’s Secretary-General Dr. Louvre. Marianne shows them how to get inside it and entrust the Center Console (センター コンソール)  which control the Main Control System (メイン オペレーション システム) to Shinji and the Right Console (ライト コンソール) which control the Operation System (オペレーション システム) to Bill. Shinji asks Richard if he can handle the Intelligence System (インテリジェンス システム) to which Richard answers sitting in the left console (レフト コンソール) and replying the House of Lancelot (ランスロット卿 ‘Lancelot-kyō’) attained a pedigree as the head of the British Royal Intelligence Service (英国 王室 特別 諜報 部長 ‘Igirisu ōshitsu tokubetsu chōhō buchō’) for generations. Marianne takes for herself the Rear Console (リア コンソール) and realizes a Deathcula Giant Mecha (デスキュラ 巨大 メカ ‘Deathcula kyodai mecha’) is approaching them, so the group starts Bismark and makes it fly out of the base. Meanwhile the mecha has arrived and attacks Bismark. As they can’t manage to fight back Marianne informs Shinji in case of emergency he should press the red button in the middle. Shinji does and Bismark from a Spaceship turns into a Robot. The Deathcula mecha attacks again but now Bismark can defend itself and strike back until they destroy the enemy mecha.

Shinji, Bill and Richard are impressed with their accomplishments, then Bill asks Shinji if they can handle that beast on their own. Marianne interrupts him saying she got a message from Louvre, which says Shinji and Bill are to be designated as the handlers of Bismark. As she does she show them her Team ID Card (チーム の 身分 カード ‘Team no mibun card’). When Shinji points out there’s a hearing against him, Marianne says they’ve taken care of it and Shinji is freed of all the charges and Marianne’s first goal in coming there was to inform Shinji of this. Bill is happy Shinji is the first bounty that escaped him. Richard informs them he too is part of the group, showing them his card.

The episode ends with the group looking ahead as Shinji tells the Deathcula to come face them.

HOW ALL THIS WAS ADAPTED INTO “SABER RIDER AND THE STAR SHERIFFS” EP. 1 “STAR SHERIFF ROUND UP”

One of the main drives of “Saber Rider and The Star Sheriffs” was to make Saber Rider (Richard Lancelot) the new team leader and main character. As a result, the beginning of this episode is completely redone.

Gone are the attack at Freighter 102 and all the meeting at the Earth Federation Government in which we were introduced to how humans were attacked by Deathcula aliens 15 years ago as well and Louvre’s decision to chose Shinji as the main pilot for Bismark.

This episode starts with a Saber Rider’s monologue presenting the series as if it was him narrating his adventures as Star Sheriffs and explaining us the setting. Among other things we’re shown the Outriders (Deathcula) attacking humans but the images aren’t taken from the attack at Freighter 102 but from other episodes in which the scenes had a more western look so as to give us a more western feeling.

The monologue is pretty long, so as to explain, instead than just show the situation, with a clear implication at black and white morality (Ramrod is a ‘Special FREEDOM Fighting Unit’ and ‘a PEACEKEEPING vehicle’, the Outriders are ‘bandits’ and ‘EVIL creatures’) and references to ‘positive themes’ (it was not Ramrod but the human Star Sheriffs who made the differences).

“It was not so long ago that we, Star Sheriffs, first assembled our Special Freedom Fighting Unit. We nicknamed him Ramrod, a peacekeeping vehicle shaped like a huge cowboy. We used him to protect the settlers out here on the New Frontier. We needed the Ramrod vehicle to help stop the lightning attacks of the Outrider bandits. They were evil creatures who crossed into our dimension and raided our Cavalry Outposts. They used battalions of Dimension Jumpers and Vapor Beings who moved freely from their world to ours. We thought that Ramrod was our only chance to stop them, but in the end it was not the Ramrod vehicle but the human Star Sheriffs themselves, who really made the difference. I should know, I’m their leader.”

We can also see how the setting is no more the Solar System and, more specifically, Ganymede, but the New Frontier, military bases becoming Cavalry Outposts.

We might miss it at the beginning but introducing the Outriders as vapour beings from another dimension is a convenient way for the series to remove death from the story. In fact later it will be revealed when hit the Outriders don’t die and turn into some sort of dark brown mush but vaporize and go back to their dimension.

Saber monologues goes on.

“I remember when it all began; my orders were to find Vanquo, an Outrider with ghostly eyes and a long pale face. I knew they were bounty hunters seeking him so I alerted the head of operation Ramrod, a very special operative named April. Her father was the leader of the Western Sector of Cavalry Command.”

We see some other major changes, the spy we saw in this episode is now given a name, Vanquo, because they plan to turn it into a recurring character in the American Only episodes.

April (Marianne Louvre) is now the head of operation Ramrod (Bismark), a role previously held by her father and a very special operative (whatever that means).

Eagle (Charles Louvre) moves from being the Secretary-General of the Earth Federation Government to the leader of the western sector of Cavalry Command. It’s worth to mention his name won’t be given in this episode.

Fireball (Shinji) won’t be part of their discussion. Since part of the goal was to make Saber Rider the team leader this ended up affecting Fireball’s characterization a lot. One of the most relevant changes was to turn him into just a civilian, unknown to Eagle and April (Shinji and Marianne were childhood friends).

With the introduction of April the story finally starts to use footage from episode 1 of “Star Warrior Bismark” but the atmosphere is completely different.

Where in “Star Warrior Bismark” Louvre originally wanted to put Marianne on hold as she shouldn’t have interrupted their meeting and she only came to him to deliver information about Shinji, in “Saber Rider and The Star Sheriffs” she seems to be free to march inside her father’s office to inform him of how they think a spy, named Vanquo, informed the Outriders about the existence of Ramrod, and of how she’ll leave for Yuma at once.

Eagle can only wish her good luck as here, his role is extremely minor and he exists more in function of introducing April.

Among the interesting things though, it’s worth to mention that, although April was meant to be more authoritative than Marianne (we should probably also remember Marianne is meant to be 15 while April is implied to be much older as she’s a seasoned Star Sheriff), she still calls her father ‘daddy’, with no regard for how they’re at work, while Marianne uses the very formal ‘Otō-sama’ (お父様) which is a very polite way to say “father”.

Saber resumes his narration to inform us about how both April and he reached Yuma at the same time while the Yuma Grand Prix is ongoing with a pilot nicknamed Fireball (Shinji) leading it.

They kept the scene of Colt (Bill) attacking him but, this time, it’s because he has mistaken him for Vanquo, the Outrider spy.

Among the other differences it’s worth to mention at the spaceport the criminals won’t hit the mother, we won’t see them aiming at the little girl’s head and one of the security guards will order to hold the fire. When they’ll get hit they won’t drop a bag filled with drug.

To underline how amazing Saber Rider is, the people now lavishes praises on his shooting ability, claiming only the LEGENDARY Saber Rider could do it, therefore recognizing him (while they wondered who Richard was).

As for Saber, instead than pointing out his robotic horse’s pedigree, now he will ask for a lube work and a lump of sugar for it.

At the hotel Saber will asks for a room, without claiming relations with the British Royal Family which makes clear how, this time, he hasn’t booked one first. It’s Fireball who has booked a room and the Desk Clerk doesn’t want to give Saber his room exactly for this reason. Saber insists, claiming the room should be given to him because his mission is important, and tries to steal Fireball’s key.

Colt interrupts them here as well, but this time it’s not to arrest Fireball but because he wants the room too. Colt doesn’t introduce himself, but he informs Fireball he’s searching for Vanquo.

As for Bonnie May (Cristina), apparently Colt only had a square dance with her or so he says.

Once Colt leaves, Fireball and Saber don’t introduce each other but Saber makes veiled threats and insists they should share the room. Fireball is forced to agree but, this time, it’s him who demands Saber will sleep on the ground. As they walk to the elevator Saber informs Fireball if he doesn’t find Vanquo the planet they’re on will be blown up to bits.

Back to Colt, they added a scene in which he wears his armour and then flies around the hotel to search for Vanquo, whom he overheard giving away Ramrod position. In short the attack is specifically directed at the frontier outpost because Ramrod was there, not because the defences were low due to the soldiers being drunk (the series will erase any reference to people drinking alcohol).

Once he’s hit, Vanquo assures he’ll be back and we get an explanation on how the shoot merely sent him back to his dimension by turning him into vapour because that’s what he’s made of. No mention of how Outriders need a lot of water, though this will turn out later in the series.

Saber complains since Colt shoots Vanquo, he can’t get from him the information he needed, at which Colt reveals what he overheard. While in the original they pointed out the base should be warned about the incoming attack, here none of them act as if they care the outpost will be attacked, Colt claims he has a bounty to collect, Saber wants to go take a nap while Fireball wants to go for a walk.

Of course they all care, with them racing to the outpost and Colt trying to warn it and discovering he can’t, same as in the original.

During the attack, of course Saber gets recognized by the soldiers and gets some extra scenes. They also add a scene of Bill aiming at a spaceship before shooting it and have Fireball run more around the place to reach Ramrod.

When Fireball finds April, as she now doesn’t know him, she wonders if he was sent there by the Star Sheriffs but Fireball never heard of them. April decides since he’s on a racecar he must be a pilot good enough he could be of some help. Before everyone will get close to Ramrod they’ll add another scene of Saber destroying an Outrider ship.

Then they’ll add a scene in which Saber declares he’ll take charge and the boys argue April would want them to do so. April states she’ll need the three of them when they’ll go in challenge phase.

Once inside Ramrod April explains the saddle units are interactive and then assigns the one for the land controls to Fireball (in the original he got the main control system). Colt decides he’ll get the quick drawn one (in the original he got the operation system) and Saber tells them the Cavalry Command taught him how to use the Maverick flight dynamics one (in the original he would get the one controlling the intelligence system). Fireball points out he never heard of the Cavalry Command either. April takes the rear saddle unit telling them she’ll give them instructions.

Again, Fireball says he never saw an Outrider mecha so he’s told that one is a Renegade Desperado Unit.

Later, when April decides Ramrod will have to transform, she implies everyone will have to push the red button and, since Saber is the new leader, they’ll have him give the signal on when doing it.

They added two lines which will be regularly repeated each time Ramrod transform.

April: Ramrod will now take navigational control.

Ramrod: Acknowledge April, navigational control on, Ramrod challenge phase, one. Head ‘em up, move ‘em out. Power stride, and ready to ride.

Although through the original series we have more than one transformation sequence, for “Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs” they decided to use only one so the one in this episode gets replaced.

They also show Ramrod only using his gun against the Renegade (adding an image showing Ramrod shooting while it was night!), when originally it also used the cannons on his chest.

It’s worth to mention through all the fight they added dialogues in which the boys described what they were doing when originally you could only hear background music during the fight.

The dialogue at the end is also changed.

Fireball is worried Outriders might come back, Colt seems to think they’ve defeated them forever, Saber informs them this is not the case and April explains them Saber knows what he’s talking about as Saber is a special agent of the secret Star Sheriffs and adds that they might need Fireball and Colt too, so she asks them if they want to join them.

Colt is interested because he wants a silver star but he’s told there aren’t many left since the Outriders took over the silver mines but we use these E.B.U., Electronic Badge Units. Saber adds it normally takes years to train a Star Sheriff but it’s an emergency so they’ll issue their E.B.U. right away. Fireball asks about his racing career and he’s told he’ll have to quit but who cares? Ramrod is the fast thing he could drive and she might even get silver stars for them. This sell the deals so the episode ends with Saber Rider resuming his narration:

“And that’s how all began. The bounty hunter, a racecar driver and a beautiful girl from cavalry command. Together we've made a commitment to the spirit of the frontier freedom fighters. Wherever danger leads us, wherever the people need us, that's where you'll find . . . the Star Sheriffs!”

“STAR WARRIOR BISMARK” & “SABER RIDER AND THE STAR SHERIFFS”: MY TWO CENTS ABOUT BOTH VERSIONS

So both versions chose an interesting way to start, SWB going with an apparent calm that gets broken by the attack and SRaTSS by presenting the story as the memories of his main character. However the info dump that follow is pretty long for both.

In SWB I’ll actually argue that ‘the attack of 15 years ago’ was something they could completely cut from the plot as it’s poorly developed through the series (it only serves to make a hero out of Shinji’s father, point out why Domes doesn’t want to join forces with the EFG and to explain why Hyuza has a cybernetic body all things that could have been accomplished differently) and the explanation of it is outright boring and the unpreparedness of the EFG sits ill with the fact they should have knowledge they could have been attacked again.

In SRaTSS the choice to go for a black and white morality with childish undertones insisting on the Outriders being ‘evil bandits’ serves poorly to the further developments of the plot that actually wants part of the Outriders to want peace and, therefore, not being evil.

On another note I get SWB wanted Shinji to look like a rebel but the whole thing of him having to face a hearing for disobeying trainers that gets completely brushed away because he’s chosen as Bismark pilot with Louvre listing as only reason to choose him he’s the son of the late ace pilot Hikari Shinjirō doesn’t really sit well on me. I would have appreciated it more if Louvre had pointed out how he’s an amazing pilot. What’s more, the whole Bismark team is insanely young (Richard is 18, Shinji is 17, Bill is 16 and Marianne is 15) which isn’t that rare in robot series that usually counts on genius pilots to explain the young age… but the young pilots usually have adults supervising them. Here the boys will rarely get adults supervising them… don’t take me wrong, they do handle things well but it seems a little unbelievable everyone was okay with pushing such a heavy task on such young people without adult close supervision (only Richard is of major age and only barely for crying out loud!) so I’ve to say I appreciate how SRaTSS raised ages so that Saber and April have finished their training and are therefore adults and there’s a general implication the same works for Colt and Fireball.

On another note though in SWB they had at least chosen the 4 pilots beforehand (although not shown during the reunion Richard and Bill were already designated as Bismark pilots, Richard even already having the Bismark Team ID Card), though it’s kind of ridicule they hadn’t formed them first, not even giving them a test drive of Bismark, while one of the biggest weaknesses of SRaTSS is that there were two vacant places on Ramrod as Fireball and Colt get recruited completely by coincidence and should have no idea how to drive a mecha. So it’s hilarious April asks Fireball ‘Did the Star Sheriffs send you?’ only for the truth being that the Star Sheriffs only sent Saber Rider despite Ramrod needing 4 pilots. But I’m running ahead.

While the first meeting between Shinji and Bill is visually cool the fact he almost caused him to crash and then let him go only to catch him later on feels like an excuse to show their abilities. In SRaTSS though, they made the scene even worse if possible. Why would Colt exchange Fireball for Vanquo? For a series that wants to badly to show the Star Sheriffs as examples of virtue they failed entirely to carry around this idea in this episode as the first thing Colt does is to put Fireball’s life in danger by flying too close to him and causing him to lose control of his car… and it’ll only get worse later on.

The race with Shinji/Fireball establishing a new record time though was a good idea instead to make sure we got what an amazing driver he is.

The introduction of Richard/Saber is good as well, though I’ve always found puzzling why they had him use his rifle which he normally hardly uses being much more a sword guy. The taming of the actions of the bandits is not a big deal in SRaTSS, if anything I found a bit annoying the remarking of Saber being a legend but okay, not a big deal.

The discussion between Richard and Shinji over the room at the hotel is clearly meant to be played for laughs in SWB, remarking how they’re young and based on a legitimate reason for them both to argue over the room. Bill coming to arrest Shinji made sense and it’s a good way to introduce the viewers to Bill’s abilities… though what doesn’t make sense is how Bill could aim a gun at Shinji and no one panicked and called the police (Bill hadn’t introduced himself as a bounty hunter). Pedro shooting at Bill without anyone calling the police is even worse as he could have hit someone else.

I’m not really sure if Richard is threatening Shinji to shoot him or if he’s threatening him to arrest him to collect the bounty as Bill wanted to do. I’ll go with the second option because it seems to make more sense in the narrative. I also like how Richard didn’t tattle out why he was there but remained vague. What feels a bit dumb is for Shinji to want to remain there like a sitting duck now that he knows Bill, a bounty hunter, is trying to arrest him.

SRaTSS didn’t really manage to adapt all this well. For start Saber is demanding a room he hadn’t booked, basically attempting to steal it from Fireball with the excuse he has an important mission. This doesn’t really help to paint him as a paragon of virtue. The fact that Colt comes in and does the same, pointing his gun at Fireball to force him to comply makes matter even worse… and it doesn’t help that, once Colt is chased away, Saber also threaten Fireball… and then casually reveals if he doesn’t find Vanquo the planet will probably be blown to bits, as if this wouldn’t cause mass panic in a normal situation.

SWB creates a huge coincidence when, by trying to arrest Shinji, Bill ends up overhearing a Deathcula spy and shooting at him just in front of Shinji and Richard’s room, who conveniently leave it just then. It’s not a big deal, but I’ve to say it works better in SRaTSS with Colt specifically searching for Vanquo and not finding him out of a lucky chance.

Both series uses the shooting of the Deathcula/Outrider to give us an info dump on their nature. I would say the one in SRaTSS felt better than the one in SWB but it might be just me (I mean, Richard randomly tossing in how the Deathcula can disguise himself as humans doesn’t feel natural and Shinji, who was being trained and is even chosen as Bismark pilot, not knowing Deathcula need water doesn’t really feel logical). On another side, despite the info dump feeling a bit odd in SWB, Richard sharing those info doesn’t feel bad, as he’s not revealing things that has to stay secret and anyway he knows Shinji and Bill are part of the army. In SRaTSS Saber informs everyone of how Vanquo knew about a secret defense system called Ramrod… with the result he informs Fireball and Colt, two civilians, of its existence as well.

However SWB recovers when it shows Richard worrying about warning the base and Bill running to do just so. This makes it acceptable they might claim there’s nothing else for them to do, with Richard pretending on not being interested because he doesn’t want to reveal to be a Bismark pilot. I’m not sure why Shinji would be doing the same but whatever.

SRaTSS instead doesn’t have them worrying about warning the base, with Saber merely acting as if he wanted to discourage Colt from going there and overall seeming disinterested in doing something and Colt pretending to be interested only in the bounty… why? To act as a cold person when in truth he attempts to warn the Outpost? But really, the worst deal goes to Saber who should have suggested warning the Outpost and had no reasons to hide the fact he rushed there. I mean he’s the ‘legendary Saber Rider’ why would he wash his hands clean of people in need of help?

The fight is not bad and I can understand SRaTSS attempt at putting more focus on Saber by giving him more fighting scenes than the ones he originally had.

However SRaTSS slips when they have to handle Fireball’s dialogues after he meets April. I’ve already mentioned how bad it was the series implies the Cavalry Command never worried picking up two other pilots for Ramrod but something that they really messed up were Fireball’s lines. Fireball doesn’t know who are the Star Sheriffs nor what’s the Cavalry Command or a Renegade Desperado Unit. Now, I get they tried hard to downplay Fireball so as to make Saber shine and he plays a stand in for the audience so as to pose the questions we would pose but they’re making him look like he lived under a rock up till that point. I mean, the existence of the Star Sheriffs and of the Cavalry Command isn’t secret and newspapers probably talked about how the Outriders used Renegade Desperado Units (and everyone else in the series know about them) so Fireball’s lack of knowledge feels really weird. I guess I should also mention nor Fireball or Colt ever heard of the legendary Saber Rider so really, this too isn’t played well.

SRaTSS added a lot of dialogues during the fight and one can have mixed feelings for them as they made the fight less dramatic and kind of more fun… so I guess it depends. On another way they give the feeling the team is… well, working as a team during the fight so this is nice.

The ending is pretty different in both series but overall I enjoyed both. I already spoke about my complains regarding Shinji’s charges being conveniently waved away as well as of how it was dumb not for the Cavalry Command not to have designated two more pilots for Ramrod so that Saber and April recruit in a rush Fireball and Colt without even a background check.

If I’ve to add something, a side of me appreciates the info about the Outriders getting the silver mines… though it feels a bit unbelievable as SURELY they didn’t have a single silver mine, did they? …but I wasn’t thrilled with the idea April, to hire Colt, suggested she could get a silver star for him… especially when it’ll turn out Colt is often blamed for his greed because a Star Sheriff may not indulge in his personal greed.

To sum it up… SWB starts on an interesting premise, depicting a colonized Solar System with far west elements and moving the war on Ganymede but it would have benefitted of some more work to smooth some corners and give it a more complex plot… though it’s also worth to keep in mind that the target audience was meant to be young, hence the boys young age.

SRaTSS had to mostly work with pre existing footage so they had to work around it… which was not easy at all since the footage wasn’t aimed to support story they had in mind.

The young age of the Bismark pilots required them to act in an often immature way that clearly wasn’t a paragon of virtue unfit of the more adult characters SRaTSS wanted to use and of the supposed high moral standards Star Sheriffs were meant to have.

Their efforts at downplaying Fireball to raise Saber up and at explaining everything to an audience that was intended to be even younger than the one of SWB often end up backfiring spectacularly… though the intended younger audience might not realize.

Still they managed to work out an interesting idea with intriguing elements.

As a result both SWB and SRaTSS give us two nice first episodes, with strong points and weaknesses. Neither is perfect but they’re both enjoyable and could be improved.

#Seijushi Bismark #Saber Rider and The Star Sheriffs #Saber Rider #April Eagle #Colt #Fireball #Richard Lancelot #Marianne Louvre #Hikari Shinji #Bill Wilcox #Eagle #Charles Louvre #Walter #Barboni #Hoffman #SWB vs SRaTSS

[depreshroom]

Analyzing Krel: Episode 2

Part two of Krel analysis is moving on to the second episode. Although this episode doesn’t have a lot that contributes to Krel other than what moved the plot along, I did notice a few things so I’ll focus on that.

To uh, set the scene I guess, they just crash-landed, got their tranductions for the first time and Eli is just standing there waiting at their doorstep and immediately walking right in the door without permission. Rude but alright Eli. So starting out, eventually Varvatos Vex kicks Eli out and they start to explore their new home when Mother mentions that the energy expenditure is too high to alter Vex’s human form and energy is so low because they don’t have a daxial array anymore.

First off, after a few seconds of discussing stuff, Aja mentions they should go explore the planet---mind you, this is before they so much as looked outside---Krel immediately says, “We can’t go out there. This dump heap planet is primitive beyond description.” 

-That’s kind of weird because Krel hasn’t even really seen anything. All he really got to explore was vintage music which he really liked. Of course later it’d be alright to see why he says that, after he discovers that Earth actually is primitive in comparison but this is right out of the gate. He finds that because what he has seen so far is different, it’s automatically primitive. And while that likely does put emphasis on the fact that he’s a royal, this behavior still doesn’t occur in Aja. This is simply to add to traits of the sibling’s characters. For one, Krel is not only less exposed but as explored in the last episode, has likely been the one made to fit into more of a mold of how things should be as he is the only one who complies with his parent’s wants. Being royals and always following royalty, I guess it would be pretty likely he’d suspect something else. Aja, on the other hand, runs away and it’s later stated that she literally gambles. So I guess she wouldn’t judge too quickly. I’m definitely going to reference this later.

Nevertheless, they go explore the town, Krel steals a record and they must go to school. When discussing things with Uhl about their placement there is the point where we also have this little gem. Although it’s probably simple, I did want to talk about Krel raising up his chair to be just as tall as his sister. In the scene he’s already sitting down and as soon as he sees that his sister is taller than him, he raises the chair to be not taller, but exactly the same height. Almost like he simply just wanted to be on equal level and given that this is only episode two and they only crashed earlier that day, him raising his chair brings light to the way that on Akiridion-5, he isn’t on equal level in the face of his parents, or authority. He wants to be just as good as her yet still doesn’t want to take over completely as if to put all the pressure on himself. When Uhl is there, it’s a chance for authority to see how good he is, and that he is great, just like his sister. I would say it’s also pretty significant that Aja was, in fact, the one who took over in the creation of Cantaloupia being extroverted and more of a people person. Krel simply but also helpfully filled in some of the smaller details. -So in a sense, he was in Aja’s shadow which is something I find happens a lot within 3below, so I guess what I should say is keep that in mind.

So skipping to about the last 5 or 6 minutes of episode 2 of 3below, Aja is upset and Krel goes to comfort her. And he takes out the very object hat was used to make him King-In-Waiting, and when she asks about it, he replies:

“You saved their cores, I saved this.”

I find this interesting because we’ve already discussed that Krel is told that he isn’t good enough which had made him seem under-confident. But, Krel saving this coronation tool, is like he’s only saving a representation of a part of his parents. That part is not the part that makes them his parents, he didn’t save Mama and Papa. Krel saved King Fialkov and Queen Coranda. He saved the professional part, he didn’t save the parent that told him he wasn’t good enough, he saved the King who was going to spar with him as an honor to the tradition. By saving the King and Queen, it was like he was trying to forget that to his Mama and Papa he was a liability. He was attempting to bring light to the King-In-Waiting, not Krel Tarron.

Another thing is right before Aja has her mini coronation, he says, “Hey, before the ceremony, Papa told me that we are all each other has. That’s why I’m not afraid. Because I have you.”

While on one hand this is a very wholesome interaction which shows Aja and Krel’s glorious relationship, on the other hand, one can assume that given the context, this is Krel’s way of saying that he needs her, so that he can be good enough especially with the inclusion of what his father said. As if he cannot be good on his own, as if like I said above he is a liability. This is once again, a show of the way his parents affected him and his view with his sister. I would also like to point out that when he says this, Aja isn’t Queen-In-Waiting yet and he is also coming from a comforting brotherly approach which once again means when he talks about not being good enough he is talking about Krel Tarron. Just as he had referenced his Papa without necessarily talking about the royal part of his father.

Altogether I found that ⅔ of these things were Krel comparing himself to Aja, it’s the first time we really get to see some small things that are Aja and Krel, not Krel and his parents. If you pay attention, you can put together the pieces to see how he views himself towards her, and we know that is probably once again a result of their parents. And I think it’s just as significant that Aja was the one to get their parents’ cores because just as I said Krel kept a part of them--the royal part---Aja kept them as a whole because she has no reason not to. Then of course we have him saying Earth is primitive which does happen a lot and will soon become a major part of his character.

Uh, thank you if you read this! I know it wasn’t as good as part 1, and I meant to get this done sooner but I hope you found some interesting stuff! Ep. 2 has less significant stuff than ep.1, and for a few episodes there will probably be less action than more but I promise it’ll have some interesting stuff if I do the episode. (I hope.)

#analyzing krel #im just putting the title as what it is lmao #uh hope someone finds this interesting #if anyone would like to give input or a different point of view id be really happy! #oh and shoutout to the krel stan server #krel tarron #aja tarron #coranda tarron #fialkov tarron #3below #tales of arcadia

[jerepars]

Ape Dos Mil Extended Chapter Notes

6 / 9 Pure Love

Hyperlinks appear in blue (underlined on mobile and the dashboard). The story is posted here. Direct link to this chapter is here.

As it turned out, when James had to go dark for 48 hours, it pushed Teresa deeper into the cave. James sat in a hotel room on the other side of town while Teresa bought a hotel. James looked into Isidro Navarro while Teresa got ready to make her pitch to the guy and expand her business to Europe. While she dined, James was on the wrong side of the day.

When I first introduced lyrics from Glassjaw’s “Ape Dos Mil” into the story in the second chapter, I mentioned it was the lyrics and mood of the song overall that inspired the story. This paragraph is borrows from the main verse of the song:

Yeah, it's over You can bet in mid October I will still be ranting 'bout most early May Yeah, he's a winner He's a goddamn sinner While he dines I'm on the wrong side of the day And I said, "I don't understand why I'm fumbling after" You're the reason i cannot forget this season Or the letter when you first referred to it

She was going to go her own way, make all the deals, gain more more more. James had to be down for that not just because he was in love with her, but because he had a higher purpose—thanks to the universe—when it came to Teresa. But James wished she didn’t go around ignoring all the signs of danger. He wished she didn’t walk around like nobody was going to break her heart or like she could elude death. Hadn’t she learned, losing Tony, that the #1 special on the menu in the underworld was breaking hearts, one way or another?

There’s a Mac Miller song, “My Favorite Part” with these words: You walk around so clueless to it all. Like nobody gonna break your heart. It'll be alright babe, see, me, I got you covered. I'm gon' be your lover, you might be the one.

So the line in the paragraph about queenpin Teresa walking around like nobody was going to break her heart is a reference to that. There’s also a line in the song that goes, The universe couldn’t keep us apart--why would it even try? Very soulmate-y but different in that for Jeresa it is because of the universe they are soulmates.

But nothing moved Teresa. She didn’t let up. She wasn’t going to confess to using, since she was going out of her way to hide it. She didn’t own up to the responsibility of being targeted and putting them all in danger unnecessarily because she had to have Europe.

The first line of this paragraph is sort of a reference to the album Still Nothing Moves You by Ceremony.

Teresa was screaming, to feel the pressure in her throat, to drown out the noise in her head, when she took to the neatly pressed blazers along the back of the closet. She ripped as many off the hangers as would go, letting the different shades of white pool at her feet on the carpet. The jewelry station was next—earrings, necklaces, and rings ripping into her hands before she decided there were too many for a few handfuls, picking up the entire velvet drawer insert tray and dumping it to the side, fully enraged.

When she swung her arm around, Teresa caught a glimpse of herself in the full-length three-way mirror. Her breath caught in her throat. She saw herself, and there, over her shoulder, was herself—the girl from Culiacán.

“You forgot the most important thing is survival. You have to get out of here,” the girl pleaded. “You have to go. Run.”

So, uh, I changed a lot from canon. In 5x07, the scene cuts soon after Teresa yells “Fuuuuuuuuuck!” and throws her phone. In the next scene of Teresa, she’s in the sitting area of her room doing coke, and when she looks up at the mirror across from her, that’s when she seems old Teresa in flannel. 

I had this scene planned out in my head before 5x07 aired and I always thought, when Teresa found out Boaz killed George, she would react violently and destroy her closet. So here in the story, Teresa is still inside her closet when old Teresa shows up.

“I’m not leaving without them,” Teresa told off the girl standing behind her in the too big flannel.

A reply never came but when Teresa looked back in the mirror, the girl was still standing there with terror in her eyes.

“I’m not leaving,” Teresa vowed.

The girl watched her. Teresa closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. It was the cocaine talking, the two big hits she’d taken while already upset. She knew that. But the girl remained, watching Teresa in silence.

In 5x07, Teresa has this conversation with Avi. But if she’s shut herself in her closet, then this conversation becomes a face-off with her former self. I think I like that better, actually. 

It also eliminates the whole exchange with Avi saying James ordered for the plane to be ready and that Teresa should get out of the country immediately. After everything they’ve been through I don’t buy that James would take it upon himself to make that decision for her, regardless of how worried and protective he is. Sorry not sorry, canon, but that just doesn’t make sense for these characters.

Teresa wasn’t sure if she sat there for minutes or hours. She paid no attention to how much light was streaming in through the window. In silence, the tears flowed and brought her back down to earth. She only knew a significant amount of time had passed when the white noise stopped ringing in her ears and a familiar burning feeling took hold in her chest.

That was the universe’s doing. It meant James was back.

She heard indistinct chatter from outside the closet in the main room. She listened closer. There was James’ gravelly voice, then a pause, followed by Pote, low and gruff. They exchanged words and then came a third voice, higher in pitch with a familiar Texas Southern drawl—Kelly Anne.

Teresa sighed. They were back. She’d never been so thankful for the hurt in her chest.

More changes to canon. James gets to Kelly Anne and Pote before Boaz and makes sure they get back to the safe house.

Here’s the thing. I hate the whole kidnapping plot of 5x08 and think it’s unnecessary. Much of the episode is spent on Pote grunting and yelling nonsensically, making lame threats. And what happens? Pote doesn’t save the day. Kelly Anne saves herself. I haven’t even mentioned the fact that Teresa calls Boaz and tells him she’ll give him the business (and she was not bluffing, by the way) as long as he lets Kelly Anne go. 

Omg. The action of 5x08 is fine. We get to see James in green. But the actual story...the plot of it...what the fuck is the point? The majority of the episode is wasted on Kote (the season is pretty much #Kote of the South at this point) when really it should focus on Teresa, and on the Castel/Devon/Kostya stuff. 

So yeah. I said hell no, unlike canon I refuse to let Kote take over in my story. The queenpin storyline gets abandoned completely in canon with no proper resolution for how Teresa gets back to herself. It’s like she goes from the queenpin, caring about nothing but the business, then suddenly remembers her true personality and is the old Teresa again.

And for what? All because of the kidnapping plot? No. Just no. I couldn’t do it.

Eliminating the KA’s kidnapping doesn’t eliminate the Boaz problem or the Kostya problem or the Devon problem. So I axed it.

She’d said the same less than a week ago in Berlin, looking over the city skyline. But this time it had no bite and sting.

There’s a song by Defeater called “The Bite and Sting” and the phrase in the second sentence above comes from that title. If for whatever reason you decide to listen to it, there’s a line in the song that goes We ain’t seen no Germans for days, because Defeater’s music is conceptual and tells interrelated stories over the span of their albums. The EP that “The Bite and Sting” is on, Lost Ground, is about a black WWII veteran. The song is about being in the war and that’s why the line I mentioned is there. Kind of ironic, because I was not thinking about the fact that Teresa said to James “say it” while they were in Germany.

Anyway, that was a longwinded explanation just to say: the context of the reference and the way the phrase is used in the sentence are not related.

Self-preservation had always been key for James’ survival, and over and over he threw it away for her. So his words hurt because they were honest, because they pointed out the mistakes she’d made when it came to him. But Teresa admired James for standing up for himself and showing his backbone. He was there for her—they were in this together—but he wouldn’t allow himself to be used. She had to prove herself, to somehow make amends. And she loved him for it, to be given the opportunity.

Because beyond striking the balance with herself, Teresa knew that if she wanted the pure love only soulmates who were lucky enough to find each other and chose to be together could have—not just tough love—then the days of shutting James out had to come to an end as well.

In the notes for Good Luck/Bad Days (a completely separate and unrelated story) I mentioned that one of the songs I ended up referencing, “Pure Love” by Hayley Williams was actually meant to be used in this story. I think pieces of the song fit better lyrically in Good Luck/Bad Days, but conceptually (are those different? I feel like they are different) it fits better here. So. That’s where the chapter title comes from.

#je repars notes