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creatingnikki · 3 years

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Start Up

This was the first k-drama where I legit thought that the 2nd male lead was actually the first male lead until half-way through the show. While I do really like Nam Do-San’s character, I think Han Ji-Pyeong made me feel WAY more. Especially in terms of the romantic chemistry.

In the beginning, I was so satisfied with the show. But then I think somewhere around the 12th or 13th episode I started to get bored and disappointed. I think that’s mainly because halmeoni suddenly became a side side character and even Ji-Pyeong didn’t have as much screen time. I also feel like there were some sub-plots that were highly unnecessary because they weren’t fleshed out well and felt disconnected like the friend’s brother who died and he wanted revenge, the whole Alex California 3 year time-jump thing. Like that really slowed down the show and made me go ??? The finale however redeemed the show for me!

There were solid side characters in this k-drama, something I generally appreciate about k-dramas as a whole. The character development was also solid and sweet. I think the one that most touched me was Seo/Won In-Jae’s character development.

I found more depth in her character than even Seo Dal Mi’s. I loved how she changed her name and then visited her grandmother because she just couldn’t do that before it. I get it. I really do. I think we all take our time to do the things we should/want to and that’s completely okay.

Which brings me to the point that Seo Dal Mi, especially towards the second half, felt like a very basic character. I think she was perhaps the only one who didn’t have much development. I honestly didn’t even find her and Nam Do San’s romance to be great or swoon-worthy.

The most touching connection for me in this kdrama was Han Ji-Pyeong and halmeoni’s. Like OH MY GOD. Whether it was when he was a child or even as an adult, their scenes made me cry.

It was the most wholesome, sincere relationship in the entire show! Whether it was her taking him in and thinking he would rob her money in the shop or him thinking that she gave away his investment profits to her son - and both of them being wrong. The scene at the bus station where she gives him a new pair of shoes and tells him only to contact him when he is upset/alone/ill.

The fact that she calls him good boy. Ahhhhhh. EVERY bit of it. Like even in the finale when she goes to his house and breaks down when she recognises he is sad + lonely I couldn’t stop my tears!!!!! It’s like he can be his true self with halmeoni.

And can I just ramble on about Ji-Pyeong? Firstly his dimples. I can’t deal.

Secondly his acting. Thirdly his dialogue and his character arc. The way he was so smart in investing and work. The way he could give real feedback and the way he could be honest with Nam Do-San at the end. Aso the fact that he asked him to stop feeling inferior - ahhhhh. Someone really needed to tell Do-San to feel confident and enough and the fact that Ji-Pyeong did that meanth EVERYTHING. Everything about Ji-Pyeong had my heart! His conversations with Yeong-Shila and his drunk moments. And everything in between. I am really heartbroken that he ended up alone. To be honest, by the end of it I really wanted him to end up with In-Jae. I think they as a couple would surprise all of us.

I know this may be a controversial opinion but both In-Jae and Ji-Pyeong were such strong characters and I feel like they would have easily overpowered the actual first leads (individually and together) if some more attention was paid to them. Which is probably why it wasn’t? But I feel like had the writers of the show leaned more into these two characters. They were smart, mature, emotionally more complex and that’s probably one of my major disappointments with Start-Up.

But anyhooo, I really appreciated that the last scene was Nam Do-San and Seo Dal-Mi walking to their investor meeting and not their wedding scene. Because yaaaas power couple! I also love how her being the CEO didn’t make Do-San feel inferior or have some sexist ego complex.

Talking about other side characters I really appreciated Seo Dal Mi’s mom’s redemption. It warmed my heart. I loved how Nam DO San’s father at the end put up the Samsan Tech sign board in the living room and said that the next time he thinks his son is doing something he doesn’t approve of he will look at it 3 times and wait it out/support him? Jung Sa-Ha and Lee Chul-San’s romance appealed to me a lot more than the leads’ romance - no kidding.

Some of my FAVOURITE scenes were between Nam Do-San and Ji-Pyeong. Like in one of the first few episodes when they are at that conference/party where Nam Do-San shows up as a hot-shot entrepreneur for Dal-Mi and then the two guys move aside to show that they are talking and know each other and Do-San is like what do we talk about? ANd Ji-Pyeong is like let’s just recite the national anthem! I DIED. And then at the end when he invests in Cheonymyeong and they shake hands, how initially Ji-Pyeong only shakes with his two fingers. They both individually and together were beautiful.

Also can I just say how cool I found the founder and CEO of sandbox just struck me as the COOLEST woman? She’s the kind of person I’d want as my mentor and friend if I was starting a business. And Dal Mi-s father’s backstory is just so very s ad with him finally getting an investment but also like dying the very same day. Sandbox really feels in some way his legacy?

And I also low-key found the relation between Ji-Pyeong and park Dong-Chun endearing. Like ho Dong-Chun aways recommends all these lovely start ups that aren’t really profitable but he just cannot resist it! And how Ji-Pyeong finally personally invests in the start up for kids who leave orphanages at 18 in the end :’) I was waiting for him to finally personally invest in something like this because he’s rich and he can and I loved it. More than the investing, his meeting with the CEO of that start up was funny and how he wasn’t harsh towards him and how also said he wants a few kids that he can mentor! My heart!

Nam Do-San. I love how he had SO many insecurities because I have always associated that with the female leads whether in kdramas or just generally in the world of fiction. And the fact that he didn’t have any toxic or abusive outlets for his issues is what made me adore him. The friendship between him and his two developer friends was also very heartwarming.

I did really like the business and entrepreneurship aspect of the show like how thye tried to include concepts like the J curve and why you should be a majority shareholder in your own business and what investors look for and stuff. Ofc I would have LOVED it to be more heavy on that aspect but I get that for the general viewership that probably wouldn’t have worked.

One of the most striking things about Start Up was the relationship between the two sisters. I can’t tell you how much I was digging the fact that neither of them, especially Won In-Jae (at the time) tried to backstab or fuck things up for the other. Even though they had been away for a decade and clearly had made opposite choices in picking their parents and hence a lot of their life, they didn’t once sabotage the other. In fact, they were always concerned about the other when it really came down to it. And them reuniting and working together was a highlight for me.

This is one of the few kdramas that got the finale done so beautifully. But since Ji-Pyeong’s 2020 life wasn’t really shown to us this is how I’m narrating it in my head. He and In-Jae get together and are this smart power-couple who can open up with each other and be soft and adorable. He also has formed meaningful connections with two kids who left the orphanage and their connection is as wholesome as his and halmeoni's. He and In-Jae live together in his apartment facing Han River and keep cutely arguing over start up ideas and companies to invest in. Now any time he looks at Seo Dal Mi and Do San he feels friendly affection and this sort of protective vibe. He found some super eye specialist and got halmeoni's eye sight fixed. Her corn dog shop became a huge franchise cos plot twist In Jae and Dal Mi's mother is actually v strategic in business growth.

#start up #nam do san #seo dal mi #ji pyeong #suzy bae #nam joo hyuk #kim sunho #start up kdrama #start up korean show #start up korean drama review #kdrama review #kdrama recommendations #netflix kdrama #studio dragon #2020 kdrama #samsan tech #won in jae #seo in jae #kang han na

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Top 12 Three Caballeros Moments: Ride of the Three Caballeros Epilogue!

Salduos Amigos...and Adios, as this is the FINAL part of my 20 part look at those happy amigos, those snappy chappies in matching serapes, those birds of the feather, THE THREE CABALLEROS, THE RIDE OF THE THREE CABALLEROS! Yes after 19 other articles, all paid for by megafan and patron of the blog @weirdkev27, it’s time to bid our boys a fond farewell. And what a ride i’ts been... we’ve had trips to Bahia, animaton sequences requiring a LOT of 1940′s cocaine ,Jose reinacting the plot of “Come a LIttle Bit Closer” by jay and the americans but ironcially not in the Badman Jose roll,, a less happy reunion where Donald went full vanilla ice for a few moments, Panchito giving us his long and storied family history in song form, Donald needing a vacation after his girlfriend punched him in the face and instead getting eaten by a giant snake, FLAMENCO MASTER HORACE HORSECOLLAR, Soccer with super cars, and our heroes having a warm and fun reunion and having to admit their lives didn’t turn out so good while Dewey jacaksses around in the subplot.

And all of this lead into their very own series where our heroes met a goddess and wayne knight all in the same day, defeated THE MIGHTY MINOTAUR, got into a giant robot fight on the fucking moon, meeting the roman gods who live on and tend to the norse world tree for some reason, preventing a stupidly started lava apocalypse, going to goblin jail via song, meeting some literal dead presidents, chasing a bear around a fancy rich people town, getting into the ch-ch-chalk zone, fighting a wrestling match against the respresntive of the god of death, dying and coming back to life as a result of said wrestling match, going to camelot to train with king arthrus’ self helf book, going to a yeti spa and finally returning for one last battle with an evil wizard, his pet monkeybatdonkeyrat, and wayne knight, and have to put up with Donald’s shrill abusive ex girlfriend through about half of it. All in all good stuff and i’ll always be greatful for kevn funding this and giving me the chance to both finally watch legend and in general cover these wonderful characters. While i’m sure Panchito and Jose wil lbe back for the big finale of Ducktales, I’m gonna miss these guys and hope they get another shot at the big time one day.

But Kevin had a great idea, one I decided to do for free since this thing cost 100 dollars together as it was a movie, and 20 episodes of television, so it was a LOT to do. Fun but a lot of work. A top 12 list of the best moments from across the works covered for this retrospective. From the movie to the series, these are the best of the best moments of the best boys around. So without further adeu join me under the cut as I throw one hell of an after party for one hell of a ride.

12. The Cold Blooded Penguin (The Three Caballeros (Movie) )

This one is low because it doesn’t exactly involve the boys at all as this was a short in their movie. But what can I say, I love penguins, especially Opus.

And the charming tale of a pengy named Pablo who has trouble with the cold and wants to head off for warmer climates just never ceases to entertain me. It’s adorable, pretty funny and just a nice little start to the film every time I watch it. Especially his friends with the sleepy, depressed eyebrows. Really relate to them, especially the tall one with a ponch, aka me as a penguin. Not much else to say hence why it’s so low, but I really enjoyed this short and can’t help but put Pablo on the list.. and wish he’d gotten a nod in Legend, but then again given we weren’t given a second season they were probably just saving him.

11. Charon’s Fabulous Cruise (Legend of the Three Caballeros) Another Cabs free entry but I Just love this concept: Charon, ferryman of the river sticks.. deciding since he’s not getting as many customers to turn it into a cruise ship complete with add. IT’s low both because it dosen’t involve the boys and it dosen’t take up much of it’s episode.. but damn if it ain’t funny. And Jim Cummings just brings his all to it.. granted HE always does, the man’s a legend for a reason, but dosne’t make his performance any less lovely. WIsh we got a second season just so we could see this guy again among other reasons.

10. You Don’t Get a Vacation You Take it (Legend of the Three Caballeros) Wayne Knight as Sheldgoose.. was easily one of the best parts of Legend of the Three Caballeros. While the show itself was fairly high quality it’s other main villain Feldrake eventually fell into just calling Sheldgoose a moron and hitting him as his only character. IN contrast while at first apperance Sheldgoose was just a rich asshole with hair that looks like a bad toupe but apparently is his actual hair and what he choose to go with and a hell of a moustache.. and while that’s all true, he’s also cunning and manipultive, often making Feldrake’s plans work simply by using clever manipulations. He’s funny, enaging and the sadest part of no second season is not getting more of this guy. Hopefully he’ll show up in another.. even the comics using him without Wayne Knight’s Dulect Tones would be nice. He’s a good villian and would fit just as well in the classic comics being either a snooty nuisance to donald in some way, or being a rival fro scrooge, also being rich but his family having earned it by stealing from others. But for now what we got ain’t bad and hte best example of just what sheldgoose is capable of is also his first bit of contirbuting more than as a set of hands for feldrake, phrasing. His vilian song. Yes Wayne Knight FINALLY gets a villian song. Your very welcome.

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The song is just fun, a Luau type song with a sinster undercurrent and wayne knight just having a hell of a time, alternating between speaking and singing> It’s low on this list because i’ts an OKAY song, i’ve seen better villian songs, I just really liked this one, and because it dosen’t exactly involved the boys, but I still hold to my convictions in putting this one on here.

9. Panchito Romero Miguel Junipero Francisco Quintero González (House of Mouse) Only House of Mouse entry, and suprisingly it’s not Donald squeaking “And i’m donald duck!” , which has been burned into my brain for a few decades. No it’s the groups OTHER song in there second apperance on the show Not So Goofy, sung by the incomprable Rob Pauslen. While I sitll think he was easily the worst Jose of the bunch, and that the roll never should’ve been given to a white man to begin with, credit where it’s do: he wasn’t a have bad panchito. He only voiced everyone’s faviorite rooster, suck it Foghorn Leghorn, once, for a song, likely to capatalize on the fact Paulsen was famed for Yakko’s World and other songs where he sang a lot at once, but boy did he make a meal of it. Observe.

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The song is lightly hampered by the fact it also uses his version of Jose which is probably the worst work i’ve heard from Rob. And given it’s the only roll i’ve heard of his that wasn’t very good and he’s still VERY CLEARLY trying his best, that says a lot to the guy’s quality. And im not saying all this to avoid backlash, I stand by what I say and how I say it.. i’m saying it because I truly love and respect the guy this just was not his best work. This song however is Rob on full blast, using his ablitlity to talk fast no matter the voice to give us one heck of a lively performance and name for Panchito, one that was reused for Ride of the Three Cabs though sadly minus the song, as I would’ve LOVED to hear Jamie Camill belt this one out. But the lively animation and liveleir performance earn this one a spot.

8. Baia, Donald (The Three Caballeros) For this one i’m squishing three different but related parts of the movie together: The “Have you been to Baia, Donald” song, the train trip there and the awesome musical number at the end. But all three flow together as one great sequence with the frist two serviing as a fun prelude for a fun sequence as Donald and Jose try to woo a lady named Yaya, played by Aurora Miranda, and get into a big and fun dance number that for the time is AMAZINGLY blended with the live action work. The song is an utter ear worm, the seqeunce is fun and it lacks some of the creepiness Donald’s later session of flirting had and the colors are vibrant as hell. Wonderful, beautiful stuff. It’s really hard to talk about as not a lot happens in it other than a fun bit of song and dance.. but sometimes tha’ts just waht you need: a bunch of actors, two of which were animated, moving and groving to a heckuva beat.

7. I Love You Guys (Legend of the Three Caballeros) This was just a very sweet moment but one I treasure. The Cabs beat a giant horrifying rage beast.. by genuinely apoologizing to donald, telling him they love him then having a group hug. After a full episode before this of them just kinda ignoring what he cared about, Xandra and the boys genuine apologies and Donald genuinely telling them “I love you guys” and realizing for the first time in his life he’s genuinely loved and appricated. It just feels so fucking nice. Shame they didn’t you know.. end the Daisy plot with him realizing he dind’t need or or that he wasn’t angsiting over a selfish goldigger in the first place but hey, you take what you can get sometimes and the getting is good here.

6. The Cabs Song .. in Comic Form! (The Three Caballeros Ride Again!)

Another fairly quick one to talk about but one’s that damn impressive. The Three Cabs ride again is a wonderful story that reunites our birds of a feather for an adventure in mexico.. and one of it’s two best moments, the other one way further up from Don Rosa’s classic, seriously check it out it’s good, is when the boys, to distract their enemy for the story, play their classic song. Musical numbers.. are hard to pull off in comics. As Linkara, comic critic and one of my inspirations check him out on youtube he’s really fantastic, has mentioned quite a bit not having the sound to go with it is an uphill battle. But i’m not as against this as he is.. as long as you can convey the ENERGY of said song and perofrmance in the page. As long as you got that, you can pull it off and boy oh boy oh boy did Rosa ever. While it’s only about a page and a half long it’s just a fun, wonderful litlte sequence, from the crowd that has no reaction til lthe end when our big bad clubs them with the guitar, to our heroes swipining tablecoths to seve as serape to Donald falling outside, it’s one of the highlights of an alreayd impressive story.

5. Jam Session (Ducktales, The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!)

Only one Ducktales moment but it’s a keeper to be sure and now I HAVE seen Legend... I can say as I did there Jamie Camil REALLY shoudlv’e been kept as Panchito but “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice”.. really was still ag reat version of the characters and still kept them true. It wasn’t AS good as the Legend versions.. but honestly that’s fine. Not every version HAS to be good as the others and they were still wella cted, wonderfully animated and the story was great. And the moment that shows it off best is the boys quite moment after lunch, where they remincse, have fun, think about old times.. then hear a radio and slowly but surely have a fun dance number together, playing like old times. It’s this moment that makes me REALLY question why people hated this so much, as this one tiny moment captures the cabs chemistry and comrander in just two short minutes, Donald getting angry, Jose defusing int with a dance then him joining in, the three just jamming iwth whatever’s on hand and jose magically playing the fluit with his umbrella. I’ts all just so charming I love it. The end version of the three cabs IS really awesome, it just didn’t make the cut. Still liked it though.. but this.. this is better. Sometimes less is more you know?

4. The Three Cablleros Song (The Three Caballeros (Movie) ) Look you knew this was coming, I knew this was coming, we all knew this was coming. But the song is no less awesome, with fluid animation, wonderful vocals and lyrics, and an unberably catchy tune. It’s iconic to the characters, having popped up in four different renditions during this retrsopective, all of them pretty damn good, but no one tops the original. Even the two more dated bits, some latin baby and Panchito having a gun solo, somehow don’t hamper what’s otherwise an iconic moment. It’s fun, it’s fancy free, and it establishes the boys dynamic perfectly, one that as we’ve seen would last a few lifetimes and probably will last forever.

3. We Say So! (The Three Caballeros Ride Again) While Ride again is a VERY good story, it’s best moment is ironiclaly it’s end despite leaving you wanting more and more. After a fun adventure and a laugh over it being for nothing really, our friends return to Jose’s job at a night club, which his manager, who understandably has issues with Jose choosing wooing ladies over actually doing his job sometimes, only gives him back because it’s a big night but needs a big act. The first touching moment here is the fact the boys pitch in without being asked because hteir friend needs them. But the real moment is what happens after: The Triplets return from the hotel, still bemoaning as they did ealrier in the story that Donald has no friends and assume when they see him on stage and see him crash off it that he incited a riot.. only for his friends to assure him he’s a very fine fellow and they say so.. and in an instnat the boys realize donald DOES have friends.. and the best friends a duck can ask for. And after a lifetime of being spat on and barely winning.. Donald gets an unquestioned victory, stnading proudly with his friends for a packed house who still want more while his nephews look on proudly. I say so.. and what I say is that this moment is one of Rosa’s finest and one of the most touching thigns the man’s ever written.

2. This is Just Where I Came In (The Legend of the Three Caballeros) The Legend of the Three Cabs was excellent and it ended on one hell of a high. After a heck of a fight via callbacks that barely didnt’ make the list, our heroes rush in to stop Feldrake. their sorcerer nemisis, from reviving.. only for it to be too late. He’s back in full and soon warps reality around him leaving the boys hometown of the New Quackmore insitute as a series of rubble, buildings and people clinging desperatly to both floating in a hell of a starry backdrop, the only chance to stop this from happenign to the world resting in our heroes. And it’s so we catch up with where the seires began: our three heros decked out in truly awesome armor, though why Panchtio’s is roman I have no idea, fighting a giant and mosnterious felldrake and while his deisgn in that form is eh, his threat is palpable and the fight is goregous and pitch perfect.. and only gets better when we catch up, as Xandra swoops in to save htem from the cliffhanger the series started with. It only isn’t up top because of tow reasons; I like the first moment better.. and the boys do fall in a magic pool of amulet juice and emerge with powers due to a character we just meet when they do so. It’s a bit of a cop out.. but even with it being a cop out and a dues ex machina of the HIGHEST order.. it dosen’t stop it form being awesome when our heroes emerge merged with thier amulets energies, in their signutre colors and whoop felldrakes ass with a revivied Xandra’s help and then nearly reseal feldrake before his being resealed, but in Sheldgoose, resotres everything and our heroes get a WELL earned bout of praise from the town and a fancy mansion and in donald’s case a new job. A specatuclar, tense and gorgeous finale to a wonderful series.

1. Ride Em, Vaquero! (The Magificent 7 (Minus 4) Caballeros) Look I know it sounds like a bit of a downgrade to go from a battle for the fate of the world to our heroes fighting a spoiled prince and a giant anaconda just to make it out alive.. but frankly this battle is more tense, has all boys showing off even better, and has a climax so awesome even saving the unvierse with suddenly gained magic powers can’t top it. For the setting our heroes end up trapped in a lost city with the bad guy of the comic, Don Rosa’s second to last and his second of only two cabs stories, prepared to get away. But then Donald snaps, spurred on bya ll the shit he had to put up with back home,and TACKLES the fucking guy in his boat getting into one hell of a scrap. And if that wasn’t enough, what brings this to true glory is a giant Anaconda who shoed up earlier, popping up.. leading to Donald fighting our big bad.. WHILE BEING TANGLED UP IN A FUCKING PYTHON.

What truly clinches this as the best of the best for me though is Jose and Panchito’s actions, with Jose fighting the guy off off donlad, and actually having his umbrella WORK this time, and while the bad guy gets the raft from our heroes.. he falls off a cliff. So how do our heroes escape.. simple .. PANCHITO LASSOS THE FLEEING SNAKE AND THEY RIDE IT OUT AS SEEN ABOVE THROUGH A POND FULL OF DANGEROUS CREATURES WHO ALL STARE IN AWE AT THE SIGHT OR FLEE. You.. you just can’t top that. The awesomness, the teamwork, the sheer balls on panchito..i t’s all just so beauitful and sums up what the boys are about: Deft teamwork, camradire.. and doing utterly insane shit as only best friends can.

So with that.. this ride has come to an end. As I said before and will say again, it’s been fun, easily the biggest project i’ve done so far, and easily one of my faviorites. I love these guys and geninely hope we see them again real soon. So before I go, i’d like to say some thank yous. I”d like to thank ALL of the talented people involved in the making of the original film, as there are way too many to mention as it was a package movie but without you lovely and mostly deceased people we’d never have these wonderful guys. I’d like to thank Don Rosa for bringing the boys back and better than ever and beautifully so AND returning to them again. I’d like to thank Henry Gilroy and Phil Walsh, who wrote the first and second house of mouse cabs episodes for bringing the boys back to the screen, as well as series creators Robert Gainway and Tony Craig and the MASSIVE pile of storyboarders for both episode. I’d like to thank the people behind mickey and the roadster racers, while your episodes were not very good I am glad the boys got more screentime, i’d like thank Frank Angrones and Matt Youngberg for their wonderful versions of the boys and total respect to their legacy, and i’d REALLY like to thank Matt Danner for giving us a wonderful series and finally giving the boys a starring roll again.

I’d also like to thank the MANY voice actors who voiced these wonderful characters, your beautiful all of you. To Donald’s voice actors for this retrospective i’d like to thank Clarence Nash, you absolute legend may you rest in peace, Tony Anselmo, may you keep on living please god we’ve lost a lot of good people lately don’t be one of them, and even Daniel Ross, who might not be the best Donald but he’s one of only five and you can’t take that way from him.

For Jose i’d like to thank Jose Olivara, without you I don’t think we would’ve even gotten to the Cablleros as a group, Rob Paulsen, you tried your best and your still a winner in my heart, Eric Bauza, you genuinely were the best, and Bernardo Del Paula, who gave Bauza a run for his money and I hope returns in the role in the future.

And finally for Panchito we have Joaquin Grey, again wouldn’t of had the rest without you man nice job, Carlos Alarzqaui, did the job and did it well, Rob Paulsen, gave us one hell of a song, Jamie Camill, the best around no one’s ever going to keep him down, Arturo Del Purto who while I prefer jamie.. still was excellent and I wouldn’t be mad if he returned again.

And last but not least I’d like to sincerly thank @weirdkev27. These reviews have GENUINELY helped me finacially since i’ts hard for me to find a job since I cannot drive and have a disablity, and thanks to htem i’ve been able to live comfortably and thanks to you in general i’ve been able to do what I love and get paid for it. You got me to do this wonderful restrospective, have been a genine support to the blog and a treasure to work with. Thanks man, your the best. So with that, it’s time to ride off into the sunset. If the cabs get another apperance outside of ducktales, I will pick this up again... and wether it’s in a year or ten you bet your bottom peso they’ll be back. Who says so? I says so.

#the three caballeros #the three cablleros ride again #don rosa #jose carioca #donald duck #panchito romero miguel junipero francisco quintero gonzalez #panchito pistoles #ducktales #the legend of the three caballeros #house of mouse #xandra goddess of adventure #charon #wayne knight #baron von sheldgoose #lord feldrake #duck comics #disney ducks #disney #disney plus

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lokisarmyfirstwarrior · 3 years

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Rant on SPN finale

Obviously SPOILERS ahead

Whoa, this got a lot longer than I anticipated. And I have a suspicion I forgot to add something, but hey, I had to vent.

I just binged the last few episodes of Supernatural, on a very legal site. It took me quite a few tries to get back into it, because by the time the end came, I thought the show was stupid. And i still kind of think it is, Somewhere around leviathans and cain’s mark it went downhill. It was getting more tangled into itself and the stories weren’t enjoyable anymore.

So when they announced this is gonna be the last season, I was rather relieved. Yeah, there’s enough episodes to rewatch and have good time reminiscing about the old times. And it lets the show finish on a note that is not the worst out there.

I still stand by that. Most of the season was boring, predictable in a way. But towards the end, episodes 18 and 19 weren’t bad.

Let’s not comment on Destiel’s weird and awkward confession, during which i had to look away and nervously laugh to survive the second hand embarrassment. It was quite out of place and I think the perfect happiness thing would work out a lot better if it was Dean suddenly realizing Cas is about to sacrifice himself and confess. But hey, we go by bury your gays in this show, so that can’t happen and instead we get a half-assed reaction from Dean, who doesn’t pick up the phone to inform his beloved brother that it was all Chuck’s doing and instead kind of sort of cries. I mean, they could have at least texted Sam it’s the Death, it’s the God, it’s worse. But that’s just my logic and common sense speaking, sorry. I do realize I started this paragraph with let’s not comment, but I had to.

And maybe this makes me a bad person, but I am glad, that Sam didn’t get to Eileen on time. Their whole relationship seemed forced, maybe because it was mainly Chuck’s doing, but nonetheless, I wasn’t really on board of that ship. Besides, if Cas and Dean, don’t get their - hinted at - happy ending, why should Sam and Eileen get one. Because that one’s straight? No, thanks. Not to mention Cas’ death seemed kind of glossed over... I don’t want to get into that, but that was a part I didn’t like in the slightest.

Jack apparently had to die several times in an episode to be a proper Winchester and catch up on the total deaths count. I love Jack, he is very adorable and Dean’s way of treating him got on my nerves a lot. I’m not saying he should have forgiven him faster or at all. But the kid wanted to sacrifice himself for them - and the world- he could have appreciated it a bit more than saying he is no one or nothing. That was a moment where I lost all hope for Dean.

The first time I thought of Jack becoming God was when they mentioned that somebody has to fill up the place after Chuck and Amara are gone. For some reason, they never really considered Jack to be the one to do it, even before they knew he was supposed to die. Which baffles me, because he proved time and time again, he is on their side and he is good. But whatever, him actually becoming God was probably the best thing to come out of this ending. The worst scene was when Chuck was laying powerless on the ground and they fucking explained step by step what happened. Talk about spoon feeding the audience. I hated that part with flashbacks and all. I’d understand if it were something that happened long time ago and only now became useful, but it all started in the previous episode at most. They super obviously left Chuck to rot, because he deserves it. But it was obvious since the first moment he started talking about it being a poetic ending and Dean being a killer, when Cas just told him he is not... Then a super religious Jack monologue when they brought back the humanity. Although I am not sure who he did bring back. I kept thinking about Eileen and if Sam wouldn’t want to get back to her or something, but apparently he forgot already.

The 19th episode ended somewhat fanfictiony when you think about it. Just the two of them, free and in peace riding into the sunset while clips from previous episodes flash on the screen. (A lot of them were from Gabe’s episodes, kudos for that) I have seen quite a lot posts about similar ending and with maybe it prolonged for a minute, we could the end with carry on playing in the background. That would have been nice.

Now, when I watched it, I was about halfway through the season when I googled how many episodes does it have. Because I thought 20 is not enough, I remembered there being around 22 or 23. It showed 20, so I continued watching. When I was watching the 19th episode, I kept thinking, this is a good end, that it was not bad. But I also kept thinking, what is going on, there is another episode. And I read somewhere, that the finale is supposed to be longer, but that part of it was just behind the scenes and stuff. So I thought, the 20th episode I see on the website is that, behind the scenes. I stopped the episode at some point after th drive into sunset started, still thinking there is another one after it when I googled again season 15 episodes. For some reason it showed 19 and I thought I was robbed of that feeling of THE END at the finish of something that was such a huge part of my life. I was so confused. Then I started the 20th episode, thinking already it is indeed behind the scenes, only to find out there is another episode.

I did cry at the final ending, but I also kept thinking it was stupid. The whole episode was stupid and completely unnecessary (I mean they spent ten minutes on Dean conversing with Sam, impaled on a pole...). I guess it was the final happy ending. But when Bobby mentioned Cas helped Jack rebuild the heaven, I expected a little more than just a smirk from Dean. I mean, I would have been completely okay if they just hugged reuniting, meaning they had sort of happy ending, with Cas occasionally checking in on Dean. Anything really, after the queerbaiting... But what should I expect after the same person who killed Queliot essentially killed Destiel too.

Then the whole montage of Sam living his life to the fullest and Dean driving Baby in the heaven. I lost it when they showed Sam’s kid wearing overalls wth his name on it. That was ridiculous. Dean stopped at the most random bridge, just to have a nice shot with the crew I’d guess. And super obviously Sam appers behind him, I could tell and hour in advance (complete exaggeration) that he’s gonna say Hey, Sammy. Because this last season was riddled with bad throwbacks. This particular scene reminded me of The Untamed last scene, which played out very similarly, except way better(Honestly, everything is better, if you like chinese drama, you’ll love this one. It’s gay, although censored and originates from a book)

It was as if Dean didn’t deserve to live his life to the fullest on Earth. Maybe they wouldn’t get families if they stayed together and continued hunting, okay I can get over that. But when Sam’s kid told him it’s okay, he can go now, that was some high level cringe. I get it was because Dean wanted Sam to say it to him, but their whole conversation was very cringe at the time.

Well, I decided that episode 20 does not exist and I do not accept any criticism on that. They could have used Carry on my wayward son in episode 19 and that would have been a better ending.

Thank you for reading through if you’ve read through it all. Thank you.

#supernatural #supernaturalseason15 #supernatural end #supernaturalfinale

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appleb18 · 5 years

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Why Cartoon Finales Feel So Unsatisfying

With most cartoon shows coming to an end such as Adventure Time, Legend of Korra, and Regular Show but as time moves on, most finales are rushed. Shows making the same mistakes makes the ending not a very good conclusion. So I’ll be talking about the many problems that I have with finales recently. Steven Universe Change Your Mind will be mention because Crewniverse mentioned Rebecca Sugar planned that it was finale but of course, Cartoon Network wants it to continue so it counts.

LONG POST

1) Plot Points

The first of many problems that I keep on seeing in cartoon finales are the unexplained plot points. When a show points that this will have a major impact later to the episode, they show it and see what will happen with the plot point but most don’t and they either leave it unanswered, out of nowhere or used but it wasn’t written properly

Examples of unexplained plots are

Star vs The Forces of Evil

When Marco was fighting a Corrupted Tom and Corrupted Milhorse he got stabbed by the unicorn, leaving a dark purple wound on his chest with dramatic music playing

But then it didn’t really matter and it “magically” healed somehow

Then there’s Star destroying The Realm of Magic which caused magic to be gone. While Omnitraxus, Heckapoo and Rhombulus are destroyed but they never showed what happens to the other realms and creatures that use magic such as the Lucitors and Reynaldo the Bald Pate.

Legend of Korra

When Korra defeat Kuvia and she was about to use the Spirit Beam but it misdirected to her, Korra can somehow bend spirit beam

How is there another spirit portal? I know the comics explained it but I would like to see it more in detail in the show than the comics

Gravity Falls

The Bill Cipher zodiac keeps showing up in the opening of the show

Been shown in the show numerous times and know a bit of its purpose as the show goes on

In the finale, it was about to be shown what it is and does but Stanley and Stanford had to fight each other which cause the zodiac to not work. I do wish what will happen to Bill when he’s in it and see its effects before they fight

Voltron

Why Allura have to die in the finale, was there another way for her to survive than just dying?

How the hell did Lance become Altean? You can’t just transform a human into one, that’s impossible

2) Not Enough Time

Another main problem I’ve been seeing in cartoon shows finale is there isn’t enough time to explore the new things that have been added to the show, character development, and character relationships. Finale just shows it for a minute and then that’s it.

Examples of this are

Steven Universe

In Change Your Mind, when Steven was getting his friends back to reform, aside Smoky Quartz, we get to see Pearl and Steven fusion, Rainbow Quartz 2.0

Garnet and Steven, Sunstone

however the main problem with this they appear only once and then that’s it. Although they’ll hopefully make an appearance in season 6 but the lack of Opal and Sugilite, I doubt they’ll be shown again.

Gravity Falls

When Stanford and Mcgucket reunited in Weirdmeggedon: “Take Back the Falls”, it was really a quick reunion and they become friends again. I do wish the team give their reunion more screen than just a minute since they’re best friends for a very long time like Spider-Man and Iron Man in Endgame

Then there’s when Stanley sacrifice his mind to defeat Bill Cipher, it was truly emotional to have him take responsibility for almost releasing him to the world.

Of course, he’ll recover from his memories but he got it back too quickly, it should’ve taken longer regained his memories. It just downgrades his sacrifice.

Samurai Jack

Samurai Jack friends came in a minute

Jack tells Ashi that he loves him. It should’ve taken her a bit longer to break free from Aku control than just that

Also, there was never a moment of him interacting with his friends beside the Scottsman. He didn’t get to say goodbye nor tell his thanks to them for rescuing him before he goes back to the past!

Then there’s Ashi fading away because, without him, she disappears which should’ve done when he destroys Aku, not during their wedding

Voltron

As Allura dies and saying goodbye to her friends however she never gets to say goodbye Coran, her main man, and her father-figure like why?

3) The Lack of Main Characters

It is always important to have the main cast of characters have their last adventure and end the huge conflict of the story but with today’s finale, the main cast doesn’t get to shine, in fact, they don't do anything at all.

An example of this

The Amazing World of Gumball

The Gumball family doesn’t get to appear for the finale, it’s mostly Gumball, Darwin and the school.

Adventure Time

Finn and Jake, the main characters and they are in the title of the show Adventure Time with Finn and Jake however they were more in the sidelines in the finale. The first half is Finn reconcile with Fern

Jake having weird dreams

Then in the second half things get stressful when Finn and Jake haven’t much of a roll to the last episode. Finn goes inside of Golb to save Betty and Ice King/Simon but they get stuck

And Jake gets defeated easily by the monsters. The characters that did the most are Marceline for able to stun the monster for a bit

Princess Bubblegum finding that their weakness is harmony and she was able to find out because of BMO

And Betty defeating Glob by using the crown and wishing to protect Simon that caused her to become Golb herself

It’s disappointing that neither Finn nor Jake, the stars of the show for 9 years, couldn’t do anything in the finale, a similar complaint I have with Adventure Time Mini-Series Stakes but worst

Steven Universe

Now it’s time to talk about other characters that came to help the Crystal Gems but they really didn’t help at all and it’s Bismuth, Lapis Lazuli and Peridot. They finally arrive to help Crystal Gems to get to White Diamond with Lapis and Peridot new outfits and Bismuth giving Connie a new sword.

Yet they were nothing more than accessory, just there to show that they are in finale, only serving as fan-service

Then just when they finally showed up to help Steven, it was already over so they don’t have any value in the finale.

4) Final Villain

Recently, the last antagonist/final villain has many issues that I’ll be breaking into two parts.

A. No Build Up

It’s always important to have the final villain to appear in multiple and show how threatening they are but as I’ve seen, they appear only a few times with little interactions and not a lot of depth of their depth.

Golb from Adventure Time first appeared in “Puhoy” at the end of the episode and was mentioned a few times in the last two seasons and he randomly appears as the final villain with no proper introduction and he doesn’t have any history with the main characters

White Diamond from Steven Universe appears in the background from season 1 - 4

Her only appearances are in two episodes, “Legs From Here to Homeworld” and “Change Your Mind”. At first, she was overjoyed that Pink Diamond is alive inside of Steven

Then she becomes a dictator? How we get from this to there? Do we miss something?

B. The Final Battle

The endgame, the final conversation between two opposing sides and they’ll settle their score once and for all. Unfortunately, their final moments aren’t satisfying and it very anti-climatic of how they were defeated.

Aku and Samurai Jack never fought each other in the finale. It’s mostly Jack slashing him

Steven talking to White Diamond like how always does it

Mina Loveberry gets defeated by a Corrupted Milhorse and we don’t see until the end

The final villain should’ve gotten a great final showdown with the main protagonist but it was sadly rushed

5) Leaving it in a Cliffhanger/Open-Ended

The most problematic I have with finales is they leave it in a cliffhanger/open-ended. It doesn’t feel like a satisfying end to the show, more than an episode and or another season

The Amazing World of Gumball ended with Rob going into the void and that’s it.

and Star vs The Forces of Evil ending with the Earth and Mewni cleaved together and Star and Marco look at each other than the credit rolls.

The series finale should NEVER end with a cliffhanger nor open-ended, it just leaves an poor conclusion to the series, leaving too many questions unanswered!

Conclusion

Modern cartoon finales aren’t easy. It requires a lot of planning, work and thought to conclude a series and not many got it right. The only finales that did a good job and made me feel satisfied are

Regular Show

Over the Garden Wall

And the only show left that’s coming to end and I hope it doesn’t make the same mistakes is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Overall I don’t hate nor I say good finales expect for Samurai Jack, The Amazing World of Gumball, and Voltron, their pretty average endings that could've done better.

#Steven Universe #Change Your Mind #SU Critical #SU Criticism #Gravity Falls #Weirdmegeddon #Voltron #The Amazing World of Gumball #Samurai Jack #Star vs The Forces of Evil #Cleaved #Adventure Time #Come Along with Me #Legend of Korra #Regular Show #Over the Garden Wall #MLP:FiM #My post

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somuchbetterthanthat · 5 years

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OKAY. ramblings thoughts. I’m probably not coherent enough yet for this. I should relisten to the episode, I was too busy being a mess of emotions. But! I’m going in. Yes, by the way, it seemed i have entirely misinterpreted the ending of the episode, so, you can call me as dumb as you want.

“I know you said we should wait for basira” = Look, it implies even more time passed, and Melanie and Jon talked about the plan a bit. It also means that Melanie “refers” to Basira, that is, she definitely thinks Basira has more brain than Jon, who’s got so much heart, and - fair enough. But I’m really, really curious about Basira and Jon’s future dynamics, okay? I really fucking am. Especially now that Jon’s plan *gasps* worked. In a way. Either all of you guys are right and Basira was the one who saved him, in which case Jon might just defer to her as well like he’s been doing since the beginning of the season, OR, Jon getting out was independent of her, and he might start to, well; argue a bit more Basira’s general decisions. (let’s not forget, after all, she hadn’t told him about Helen....) (....yes, i just really fucking want some basira&jon drama I GUESS)

“If I don’t come back all you lose is...” JON MY DARLING WE LOVE YOU OKAY STOP HATING YOURSELF. God. That self-loathing and utter disregard of himself breaks my heart. He genuinely believes he’s unimportant in their lives - or, worst, he’s the source of their problems, and they might as well just have been better off without him. I just. Jon. Jon. JOn; i love you. Please get a hug from someone. anyone. I’m not picky at this point.

Those coffin noise? Haha. terrifying. Horrible; When Jon started to hear the rain??? HAHAH N O P E. When he said he was stuck? it was awful! I hate the buried! said the one who just wrote a fic where the buried was nice! WELL I CHANGED MY MIND.

I feel - Dear god, I feel like i’ve been so UNFAIR to Daisy Tonner though I realize that we had no way of knowing that, y’know, who she was without the Hunt guiding her. But? I was expecting her feral, i think we all did? and then NOPE. She sounded scared and soft and god, god. It was FASCINATING. The change! the Hunt had had her for so long, basically since she was a child! And underneath it all -- though, hey, Elias was right, or rather, he pulled that information of her right, i remembered her non-statement “I like that people call me daisy because it’s sweet” (i think it was something like that). I know this won’t talk to many people, but suddenly she made me think SO MUCH of Eponine. Maybe Alice Daisy Tonner was meant to be a dove, she just turned different because of bad luck and the chase and the blood taking hold of her.

Jon: “Hey, dear Beholding, can I know where my spare rib is now that i’ve got daisy? we’re ready to go home.”

The Eye: “Nope, here’s the knowledge that you are stuck there forever. Enjoy, my darling son.”

Jon: get a new statement, sort of. Experience the doom of being entombed alive.

The Eye: “Never mind darling, now that you’ve learnt your lesson, let’s get you back up. Look at all the tape recorders waiting for you!”

Like @cuttoothed said in their previous post, I agree that I was a bit surprised, even a bit bummed out, for a moment - by the fact there was no Big Emotional Anchor Revelation Moment. I fully expected, when Daisy talked about Basira that this was going to come into play??? But - not at all. In this particular case, we can assume Daisy yearnt for Basira for six months, and it still didn’t free her. THOUGH, in a way, wasn’t her fear of what she would be if she got in the coffin keeping her inside as well? That would have been an interesting angle to explore, y’know? I mean, i’m intrigued at what they’ve hinted at instead, the tape recorders and all, but --- Jon trying to get Daisy to think of Basira, musing/joking self-depreciating about the fact that /he/ doesn’t have anchors to hold on to when Daisy says that she /tried/ but couldn’t get to it; and then of course big Oh My God I Care About People moment, but somehow both of them are still stuck because they fear who they are outside...

(tho, does Jon fear it? I mean, he said he did, but mostly he sounds so..resigned about it all. “I’m even less human now” he says, and it’s careful and just - resigned, but also matter of fact. “that’s what my life is i guess whatevs”)

OKAY SO LET’S TALK ABOUT THE ENDING.

First, Jon experiences the Fear of being buried and trapped. Then, suddenly, the anchor “is closer” --- frankly that part baffled me, at first; i still thought the rib was the anchor and that somehow it was WORKING which seemed super weird but i was so happy we were going to get them out that I just went with it. AND THEN

... Okay so. Listen. Listen. I heard all those tape recorders going off, and I thought “... Jon and Daisy actually spent weeks in there, and the tape recorders are just a proof that time went on and Things Happened and are waiting to be Listened To.”

BUt apparently, what truly went on, according to all of you guys, is that tape recorders were jon’s anchor; and that maybe basira put them here????

... honestly.

God, honestly? I don’t want to. I mean, i’ll accept it if it’s what happened, especially if it was like, on Elias’ advice, but - But i sort of really want this to have worked on this on. Like, yeah, it wasn’t the rib, that pulled Jon through, it was the tape recorders, sure, but I want this to be between Jon and the Eye, if it must. I... I don’t want this to turn into “everything jon does is stupid, everything basira does is always brilliant” i’m sorry.

HOWEVER, while I know that Basira being here is probably because melanie sent a text going “So, Jon’s in a coffin now, wanna come back?” the idea that maybe Elias and Basira were midchat and then suddenly Elias grinned a very satisfied, smug grin, and looked at her and went: “you may want to go back home, Detective. I believe my Archivist has finally entered the coffin.” is like. Peak Comedy to me and I want it to have happened this way; Please.

“Hi,”

“Oh my god.”

WE WERE ROBBED OF THEM BEING REUNITED I AM MAD TWO MINUTES MORE OF JUST THEM STARING AT EACH OTHER AND NOT EVEN KNOWING IF THEY SHOULD HUG BECAUSE THEY WERE NEVER HUGGING PEOPLE LIKE???? WHY CAN’T WE HAVE THAT??? WHY ARE WE ROBBED LIKE THAT?????? SCANDALOUS.

oh, oh - and -

“oh my god what i have done?” “yes but not alone -” “..right.. not alone” oh. my. god? this gave me so many feelings?????? Let Daisy and Jon be friends as well????????

“Like all your other plans?” I burst out of genuine laughter oh my god DAISY. Yes. that was good.

People are aware Jon is here, and also his clothes change in dreams. Nice. Now that he has that knowledge, can he wear nice things going to bed with encouraging gentle messages for the people who suffers the nightmares. LIke, YEAH, he can only watch and be terrifying in them, but i feel like all the victims would feel much better if he had a t-shirt that said: “You are valid and you survived and i support you. Good luck and also i’m sorry” (okay that’s a long t-shirt but y’know)

#the magnus archives #tma spoilers #omg i rambled for so long i'm sorry i just - i had to tell all my thoughts!! i'm probably forgetting lots

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steve0discusses · 5 years

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Yugioh S3 Ep 10: Tristan is Now a Robot Monkey

Been a hot minute since I did a Wednesday update...in fact, I may have never done a Wednesday update so like...may as well, right? What better time to discuss a Yugioh?

Last we left off, times have truly fallen for the Yugi team in the wake of Tristan’s death, who died because he backseated too much during a card game and thus was tossed into a pool of lava as a result. Which is a moral standpoint I stand behind 100%.

In this episode, Serenity has progressed from “ ✿*✫ I am a hot mess!!! ✫*✿ “ and now has turned into “ ✿*✫ I am no longer participating!!! ✫*✿ ”

And now Serenity will skip like I feel what was 8 turns. She just kind of sobs in the corner and Duke does all the dueling. Kinda like Yugi and Pharaoh in Season 1.

So Duke finally gets to play a normal game, I guess. Like this is just 1-on-1 and it should have been fine? Honestly, this show just really wanted to dump on Duke. He works alongside Pegasus youknow? The boss from Season 1? But while the show definitely wanted him to appear to lose, although it doesn’t make sense to me, at the same time they wanted to show how extra cool the Yugioh spinoff game is.

What makes this even weirder is that one of you guys mentioned that apparently this card didn’t come out until way after it aired on the show, but like I have no idea where to check that to see the exact date. But ya, it is basically what it looks like--they took the board game and just pasted it on a twisty filter. You can tell where they wanted to put their effort and it wasn't on this glorified box.

(read more under the cut)

Noah’s still around casting shade every so often from his shade-casting chair.

And, remarkably, Noah just straight up doesn’t know what robots are?? He goes off about how sad and pathetic it is that Nezbitt thinks he’s a robot and it’s like...Noah...You’re in a VR world, my dude.

Then I’ll have you know Steve-o just went on a rant about how, since our entire non-blimp cast has all been turned into AI floating in a computer, maybe, they’re all hypothetically robots right now. And, the only difference between the core cast and these ghosts is that our core cast with bodies on the other side have the ability to leave. And then Bro and I got into a way deep discussion where I was like “no you cannot BE a robot if your body still exists connected to yourself somewhere else” and he went down that well of “what is a body but a machine” and y’all we never came to a consensus of whether or not being an AI makes you suddenly not even human anymore.

It got way too deep for Yugioh because in actuality, this is what was happening on screen.

At this point our A team has caught up with our C team, and as typical, they’re all smiles and cheers when it’s like...y’all just walked in on a funeral. Again. (In Yugi’s case, for the second time in 6 hours.)

Ah, it took Joey and only Joey to convince Serenity to stop freaking the hell out. Feels like Serenity likes to freak out and roll into a little protective ball the moment something scary happens and Joey isn’t around. Not sure how this girl has survived the last 7 years their parents have been separated, she is so dependent on Joey.

Suddenly makes a lot more sense why he’s friends with Yugi, who freaks out a lot less than he used to, but still freaks out...kind of a lot. Joey just thinks this behavior is normal, I guess.

RIP the deadline to remember to cry about Bakura before it’s just way too late to even address it.

The AUDACITY of this show right now.

Thing is...as I type this I’ve been thinking, the way that Bakura died was in the same Shadow Realm that made the memories of Mai’s friends disappear from her mind...so maybe Bakura has vanished from theirs?

I mean, that would be very convenient for the show and it would also explain how it is episode 10 and the power of friendship troupe still hasn’t discussed it.

But, then again, Yugi clearly remembered that Bakura died in a flashback in the first episode so like...I don’t know anymore. At least I get to mourn the loss of Bakura.

It’s gonna be really awkward when they all get magically reunited/reincarnated and Bakura realizes no one bothered to tell his parents he was even freakin dead.

And then, while Yugi’s off being completely rude, he does this.

The robot did not let Joey participate and that was the only reason he didn’t jump down there to “save” Duke Devlin, who has been playing for years longer than Joey has even known about these cards. Duke Devlin, who has engineered the very card he is using right now.

Anyway, Serenity is spurred on by her brother’s encouragement, as well as her card mascot basically telling her what to do, and they all win. Which they could have done a few turns earlier, if Serenity wasn’t like...12.

It would have been a good moment for Duke to realize that this girls he likes is a little girl and that little girls are unprepared for an actual mature relationship, and that maybe she only likes the attention of having two guys like her at once. But, in reality, she shuts down when this fun love triangle turns into people actually getting hurt. I say that with very high hopes because I’m gonna assume that after all of this nonsense, he’s going to go right back to robbing that cradle.

JK, no one wins.

So I have a list of everyone who’s died in it’s own post so I can keep track of all the numbers, and Bro and I had to really do some debating about how many times Tristan has died, since after Bakura killed him by turning him to a card, then Tristan was sent to the Graveyard and sort of double-died. In my mind that should only count as one death since the Graveyard keeper didn’t snatch his soul, but Bro thinks Tristan’s now been dead and revived 3 times.

Because yes, he does get revived and it’s like........this?

Really thought it would take more than 5 minutes for Tristan’s digital ghost to start possessing other people’s body. Did not expect it would be a monkey. But, it’s better than boarding the ghostbus Tea.

Not sure what the wires are about, considering that nothing here is tangible, but it’s not like I really know how VR works.

And yes, Bro went right back to “so is Tristan even human anymore now that he’s been a robot monkey” and like that’s a whole thing I...don’t think Yugioh was designed to think about so Don’t Think About It.

If you want to read these recaps from S1 Ep1 in chrono order like a book, you can click this link right here.

#yugioh #recap #photo recap #yu gi oh #S3 Ep10 #Tristan Taylor is a Robot Monkey #Joey Wheeler #Serenity Wheeler #Yugi Muto #Duke Devlin #Noah #my apologies to the people trying to find info on Trevor Noah

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ruwithmeguys · 6 years

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Arrow Season 7 wishlist

I had a season 6 wish-list: about half of them came true.. Sadly, the rest didn’t and there were some really juicy ones.

In no particular order... (I’ll add to this as I go and please be assured; anything I say about characters relates in no way to the actors who portray them)

1) One of he NTA needs to go...

Okay, so this is a dark thought; especially to start off with. But they did this. The writers/creators/producers/executives; they screwed with characters many of us were warming to or flat out loved and forgot how loyal we are to OTA regardless. They FORGOT. I mean, I was very sure they were more attune to their audience than that and we were clearly wrong.

But not in every way. They got a lot right. I’m not holding a grudge; there’s no point. I... have no interest in Rene beyond Zoe, I do NOT like Curtis and Dinah... she shows potential.

But they can’t come back from the clusterfuck of the civil war arc. They can only push forwards. I’m doing the same.

The problem is that, until the majority of us see serious growth, something to keep us/me interested, we’re going to stay in the ‘I don’t give a crap’ squad, which tells me that maybe - just maybe - something huge is going to occur in the first or second episode to make us all spit out our food/drink during the airing of 7.01.

Unfortunately I couldn’t care less that Curtis has a boyfriend or that he’s working with Felicity. People who act likes dicks tend to get the good things in life. Granted he’s suffered: I understood Paul’s reason for divorcing him but his genuine desire to NOT fight for his marriage confused me. This and the fact that he seemed to just exist for a full season (5) made me feel reluctantly sympathetic. Especially when part of his literal reason for existence was to reunite Olicity who didn’t need his help but... that was his thing.

Now? Sympathetic? Not so much. He’s become a massive juvenile, callous and selfish hypocrite that makes us all question his existence on the show. Even his fans.

However, as the sole homosexual character on the show with a love interest, they won’t kill him off. He has zero SL. He very literally has to be joined to Felicity’s, each time. The boyfriend is the only difference. I can’t ‘like’ this person. The man needs to learn humility. He’s become unnecessary enough that he wasn’t even present in the trailer: the ONLY character who wasn’t in it. That’s a bold neon light on the truth right there. Being a judgemental ass is a bad look.

I don’t have blind faith in Beth but I very much love everything she’s said about S7 so far. I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt THROUGHOUT the season. She’s already proven a better spokeswoman. It’s all good.

Dinah... there’s potential here. Now that she’s finally stepped off her high horse, I’m hoping Oliver’s incarceration will make her question her own horrible choices and what it REALLY means to be a masked vigilante, because she clearly didn’t know in S6. Thankfully, shes actually mentioned this. I don’t need a LI for her this season; that fell flat. Right now, I need her to find purpose that doesn’t make her a hypocritical ‘insert expletive’.

(I’m a huge fan of love interests occurring when we least expect it: two people that shouldn't fit but do, which is part of the essence of Olicity)

Leaving the civil war arc behind, I still kind of like her. I WANT to like her again.

Oliver went to prison for them all; surely that should change them all?

She, Rene, Curtis; they have no idea what true heroism means. They’re only in their second/third seasons and they still haven’t been through anything to close to one year of Oliver Queen’s life.

I’d like to see her find this. And I’d like to see her change and accept responsibility for who she’s chosen to be. It would provide a nice mirror to BS’s viewpoint and actions in season 6.

But Rene... this one is dicey. While he made more headway than the other two, I felt it was partly undeserved. If he wasn’t obnoxious, he was confusing. When eh apologised, he managed to add in a few insults. That kind of, you know... nullifies the apology. But he got away with it. His ‘Hoss’ and ‘Blondie’ have gone dry. Over-dry. His zero care about going against Oliver on trial made his defence fall flat, even when Oliver showed distrust. The only time I liked him, was when he was with Zoe.

If any of them get killed, it will be Rene. I’m not saying it will happen; but IF it does, it’ll be Rene.

So either... kill Rene or change all of them, because honestly at this point, most of us aren’t here for them.

2) If Felicity isn’t allowed friends, can we get a couple of scenes between her and Dinah or Lyla or both that aren’t all based on their night lives. Give me a few heartfelt moments. Give me something real to believe. Friendship is built; it doesn’t just exist because the writers tell us it does. Show not tell. A mistake made with LL in season 4.

3) Reunion sex for Oliver and Felicity because, damn if they’ve been deprived. And, why not? I mean, chuck in some hot argument sex, some poignant love affirming sex, some flirty flirt sex, some nude shower scene sex, some epic love reaffirmations; go for it!

They've been put through shit; some of it because of friends. If even ONE friend cock-blocks them, this includes Diggle, they’re on my shit-list.

4) Give Oliver the agency he needs during this prison arc; let us see the process of him falling back into that dark place he started in, S1. Let us see him crawl back upwards without Felicity’s help.

We know, thanks to Stephen, that Oliver has - in the 5 months since has incarceration - realised his choice was a ‘fucking bad choice’ in terms of what it’s done to Felicity and William. In fact I’d go out on the limb and say he knew that immediately when he got in the cell judging by the dead look in his eyes.

So let’s see him escape prison because this is BEGGING for a break out, and let us see him go to his family, because you know part of the reason he breaks out will be because of THEM. Because he HAS to. Because he’s needed.

Let’s see him and Felicity heal this forced separation, which was, at part, due to him. It was selfless, because he didn’t WANT to. He did it because he thought it was the right thing to do. He’s going to regret it and it’ll hurt to watch in all the best ways.

5) I’d enjoy a scene between Diggle and Felicity which focuses on him being there for her and mentioning that he wasn’t last season.

I’m sorry. I love Dig. But if he’d been there, Oliver might not have gone off on his own.

6) Given that this is a season about redemption, then can all characters be included?

Why? Well...

The theme redemption doesn’t just mean characters finding it, it means characters failing to reach it. People who may realise that it isn’t for them, like BS possibly. Or people who try really hard but can’t and are left devoid.

It involves characters who don’t need redeeming: people like Felicity who, this time, is done with reacting and is going to be proactive. Who deserves nothing but the happiness that has been robbed from her as a woman and as a wife.

It means understanding that redemption isn’t always clear cut and can mean unusual realities occurring.

It means the city, who need to open their eyes to what one man, his wife and his best friend did for their city all these years.

7) Focusing.

I won’t lie: I’m biased, BUT. I’m not wrong when I say Olicity need to be focused on this season. I’m not talking A full season: and there will be plenty of focus apart before they’re together.

I’m talking time to focus on them as a couple. Separate from them as parents and them as parents, them as friends to others.

This is a normal thing: for a show to focus on a couple that has been put through the mill. I’m guaranteeing it won’t be a lot.

I do think it will be more than you expect.

I’m highlighting this for a reason. A lot the fandom are under the impression that they get sidelined: Olicity are given quite a bit more screen-time than we think. But some of us notice the lack of other things happening so, those people, rely on more Olicity in order to forget that. Episodes 6.13 - 6.15 come to mind.

Like it or not, they were focused on in season 6. I know Felicity had little story and Oliver was sidelined several times but, sometimes that happens (it happens quite a bit in Felicity’s case). Doesn’t mean we won’r get what Oliver and Felicity NEED in season 7 and onward.

8) Felicity

I never needed Smoak Tech.

I just want her to be INVOLVED.

The fact that she’s a) in protective custody living under a different name and looking after William and b) in contact and in actual scenes with Watson, getting more and more INVOLVED (I like this word) with the law whilst committing crime like the ultimate paragon for getting shit done and for being the backbone of (Oliver) heroism in the city and a paradox (a very good person doing the right things by being a cyber badass and vigilante hacker) makes me feel like I’m going to enjoy season 7 already.

Then we’ll get a prison breakout. Olicity reuniting. Olicity re-acquainting Themistocles with each other through touch, words, sex etc. Re-finding what it means to be a vigilante in eyes of the public will be just as much her mission as Oliver’s.

9) Paying homage

Let’s have tribute to everything Oliver, Felicity and Diggle have done for the past 6 seasons. We’ve had focus on Tommy, on Robert, Moira and LL. They died: none of them needed to.

Robert died to save his son.

Tommy died to save the woman he loved.

Moira died to save her children.

Laurel died because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and it was reaffirmed in season 6, that it was partly due to her lack of skill and experience, her incredible stubbornness to listen to anyone else’s logic, and her need to reach that high.

They all died, except LL, for love. And all of them had tribute paid to them, some more than others.

But now that’s over so can due attention be given to what these three have sacrificed over the years? Can we have people see how much Oliver has given to the city, what Felicity has both lost and gone through, the time and effort and heart John has spent on their mission of three?

You don’t have to die to have people recognise the amazing good you’ve done. This isn’t the time of the Renaissance artist: let’s have a little respect paid to the OTA as separate people and as a team of three amazing heroes and as people who have loved each other in many different ways: team mates, partners, friends, family... lovers. Married soul mates. Brothers/comrades in arms.

Let’s have that moment that makes us all glad we’ve been watching for years, where the city, Rene/Dinah/Curtis and the law recognise them.

I’ll probably add to this list.

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Walking Dead Season 10 Ending Explained: What Happened in “Here’s Negan”

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This Walking Dead feature contains spoilers.

With Maggie back, there’s no doubt that Negan’s time in Alexandria is going to get harder. After all, she is there with little Hershel, and every day she has to walk by the man who killed her husband. When you add in the fact that Negan was there as Alpha’s second in commend when she burned Hilltop to the ground, it’s clear that there’s no road to forgiveness in Maggie’s eyes.

Carol wisely steps in and attempts to defuse the situation by moving Negan and all of his stuff to a cabin nearby. Out of sight, out of mind. The only downside is being on his own gives Negan plenty of time to think. Negan looks back at the road that led him here. What turned him from a high school gym teacher into the leader of the Saviors? What terrible things did he do in an attempt to make sense of a senseless world?

The back half of season 10 went out of its way to avoid pushing the plot forward very far. “A Certain Doom” remains the season finale in truth, if not on paper, but the extra episodes have served as admirable attempts to push forward individual character arcs. Some have worked better than others, but none have worked quite as well as “Here’s Negan” did.

Here’s what the final episode of The Walking Dead season 10 revealed about Negan and where it leaves him going into season 11:

Finding Lucille the Bat

Exiled from Alexandria and stuck in Leah’s old cabin, Negan sits by the fire and confronts the worst possible version of himself. Negan, broken and attempting to rebuild himself, meets Negan at the top of his game. The leather clad, bat-swinging, shit-talking boss of the Saviors plops down in the chair and immediately starts dressing himself down. Negan as he is comes face to face with the Negan that the people of Alexandria cannot forget, no matter how many good deeds he’s done since the end of his war with Rick. Negan confronts this “cult of personality,” rejects the idea that he’s nothing without his past self, but he also comes to understand that he can’t just bury his past. Negan digs deep in this episode to figure out where he went wrong and why he’s ended up alone.

In fact, he does some literal digging. Negan goes back to the scene of his greatest failure and reunites with an old friend. Throughout his imprisonment, Negan wanted nothing more than to get Lucille back, to know she was safe and sound and somewhere in Alexandria. But she wasn’t. We learn in this episode that his bat was abandoned under the tree where he had his final battle with Rick Grimes.

After digging countless holes, Negan finally discovers Lucille’s resting place. Fingers around a maple handle. A big crinkly-eyed smile. Heroic lighting. And then the first flashback of the episode.

Saving the Real Lucille

A bag removed from a head. Negan tied to a chair, bloody, with two bikers giving him a once-over. He’s got medical supplies, and they want to know where he got them. Negan begs to be let go; his cooler is full of chemotherapy drugs for his wife, who is sick with cancer. He’s already led them on one wild goose chase, and if he does it again, all those rare drugs go down the toilet while Negan watches. With pain in his eyes, he relents.

Negan knows of a medical caravan with access to a warehouse full of life-saving drugs and supplies. He tells the bikers where they can find the doctors before they pack up and move to the next stop on their route. He knows these guys don’t have good intentions, and probably won’t keep their word, but he’s desperate. He’s desperate to get back to his wife before she succumbs to her cancer. He’s a man with everything to lose.

While the flashback is really meant to explore Negan’s relationship with his wife before he turned bad, it also reveals how he met Lucille the Bat. We learn that both Lucille’s are tied together by one specific event. Two or three days before being captured by the bikers, Negan, hungry, desperate, and exhausted, tries and fails to rob a doctor named Franklin and his daughter (who we learn is Laura, Negan’s future Savior lieutenant) with an unloaded gun. For his troubles, he gets a kiss from Lucille the Bat, and wakes up hours later being attended to by the very same doctor he tried to rob. They give him the chemo drugs he needs, and Negan is surprised that they expect nothing in return. They just want to help people, and what goes around comes around. It’s a philosophy that will eventually get you killed in the post-apocalypse.

Negan, of course, doesn’t make it home with his chemo drugs intact. After giving up the medical caravan’s location, the bikers head out to capture the doctor while Negan is locked in a storage room, agonizing over the drugs he needs to get to Lucille.

This time the information is good. The bikers get the doctor and Negan is let go with his chemotherapy drugs intact. No mention is made of what the bikers plan on doing to the Franklin and Laura, but the screaming of a girl suggests nothing good. Negan ignores that and rushes back to try to save his wife’s life.

Negan’s Change of Heart

It’s clear Negan loves his wife and will do anything for her, but their marriage wasn’t an easy one, especially before outbreak.

Negan, seven months prior to the end of the world, was nothing but a selfish jerk. He bought a $600 leather jacket. He was fired from his job as a high school gym teacher because he beat up a guy in a bar fight. He yelled at kids while playing video games.

Worst of all, he had an affair with one of his wife’s friends, even going so far as to leave her waiting in the doctor’s office parking lot the day she was diagnosed with cancer while he was off with Janine. She’s smart enough to figure it out, eventually, but she doesn’t tell him she knows about the affair. When she gets home, she just tells him that she has cancer. That’s a turning point for Negan, the moment he becomes the husband willing to do whatever it takes to save his wife’s life.

The Walking Dead: What the Commonwealth Means for Season 11 and the Ending

By Alec Bojalad

Comics

The Walking Dead Comic: Negan Ending Revealed in Final Issue

By John Saavedra

Months later, they are locked away in their boarded-up house, a generator running whenever it won’t draw walkers, and all the while Negan is catering to Lucille. He reads to her, they watch James Bond movies on DVD, he makes romantic dinners with dog food as the main course, and he makes sure she sticks to her scheduled chemotherapy regimen, no matter what he has to do to make sure it happens.

It’s a side of Negan the show has never really showed before. We knew his bat was named for his wife. We knew she died of cancer. But what hadn’t been established before now is just how hard he worked to keep her alive while she suffered through nausea and chills, losing her vitality and her hair in the process.

Just before Negan leaves to go find Lucille’s drugs, she tells him that she knew about Negan’s affair, but that he’s made up for all of his mistakes. It’s a beautiful scene between Hilarie Burton and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Lucille Dies, Negan Lives

By the time, Negan returns with the drugs, it’s too late. Lucille is dead and come back as a walker. It’s a moment that would break anyone, and it certainly changes Negan. With his wife gone and his home burning down in the background, Negan grabs the two things which are now most important to him. The leather jacket that was his wife’s final gift to him and the bat that will carry her name forward. Using barbed wire from the fence around their house, Lucille the Bat is born, and she’s thirsty for revenge. Negan backtracks to where the bikers have Franklin and Laura imprisoned, and while he has never killed any people (and was even hesitant about killing the dead), he has a natural talent for it.

Negan gets his revenge on the bikers who captured him and, for what might be the last time, does the right thing and frees Franklin. However, with the bat and with his leather on, it is clear that the Negan who cared for his doting wife is fading away, and he’s transforming into the loquacious murderer Negan. As he says to the lead biker tied to the chair, “This time you best hope I never stop talking because when I do, something very terrible is going to happen to you.”

Negan has cast off the old world, and with the Viking funeral he holds for his wife, he is getting rid of that last little bit of the old world that he carried around with him. It’s a new day, and he is a new guy. Seeing red is not a bad thing anymore, and neither is killing in the right situation and for the right reason.

The Death of Lucille the Bat

The real Lucille was sent off in a fire after overdosing. She was trying to free Negan of his responsibility to her and to give him the freedom to move on. Sadly, it took a while for him to get around to doing that. His last link to the old world died when she died.

His last link to Negan of the Saviors dies when Lucille the Bat breaks against the skull of a zombie. Negan might still be seen as the villain who killed Glenn and so many others all those years ago, but he’s not that guy anymore. As the remains of one Lucille hit the flames to join the remains of another Lucille, Negan shakes off the ghost of a different person, and a different life, to rejoin the community he has put himself at risk for. Maybe Maggie will kill him for it. Maybe that’s what he is counting on.

Either way, the Negan walking up to Carol and company is not the same man Carol left at the cabin. No more bat. No more swagger. No more shame. No more asking for forgiveness. No more expecting forgiveness for his past actions. New outlook, new Negan.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

For the first time in forever, and perhaps the first time ever, Negan is at peace. He cannot change the past, no matter what good deeds he might do to try to re-balance the scales in his favor. Maybe he will never get a clean slate, but he can do good for the sake of doing good and hope that what goes around actually does come around in the end.

The post The Walking Dead Season 10 Ending Explained: What Happened in “Here’s Negan” appeared first on Den of Geek.

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shirtlesssammy · 6 years

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13x06: Tombstone

Then:

Uncontrollable Sobbing

Now:

Where the fuck is our TFW reunion? Dean and a local lawman from Dodge City, Kansas are hunting something at night in a graveyard, when the sarge gets sucked underground by some particularly strong grabby hands.

48 Hours Earlier

Dean and Cas are reunited and all is right in the world. (Sam. Sam is here too.) Dean asks Cas if it’s really him. Cas admits to annoying an ancient cosmic being into sending him back to Earth. Sam mumbles something about not knowing what to say, but Dean’s got this one.

“Welcome home, pal.” And Dean gives Cas a big hug ---and oh my, his face journey when he hugs Cas. What the fuck, Dean!? I know you’re in shock, but don’t pal-zone the dude. Your face is a menace.

(Sam. Sam is here too --and he gets a hug in as well.)

Cas asks how long he was gone (all calculations seem to indicate ~a month), and Dean responds, “Too damn long.” Like, when Cas finds out how long it really was, he better call Dean out on how dramatic that is. He tells the brothers that he was in the Empty. Sam surmises that Jack did something to wake him.

At the bunker, there’s a heartfelt meeting/reunion of Jack and Cas. This third Cas hug was really emotional for me, guys.

Jack is eager to prove to his new family that he’s studying hard, moving pencils with his mind, and finding cases to work. If he wasn’t so fucking cute, I’d have my supernatural sensors pinging right now. He wants so desperately to be good, but the more he learns about his powers, the more he’ll use them. We’re only at episode 6 --there’s a whole lot of time for him to go dark side. Jack lets the team know that “the dead are rising in Dodge City, Kansas.” Nerd Dean makes an appearance. And much to Sam and Cas’s reluctance, they decide to check it out. Off to the Stampede Motel and RV Park!

Dean books the best room in the joint (but only two beds for four grown men, smh).

And Dean Bean really nerds out about all the western gunmen on the wall. (Sam. Sam is here too --wondering why he can’t enjoy serial killer trivia.) Also, I just about died watching Tactile!Dean touch the bison’s nose.

While Dean and Sam prepare to crash for the night, Cas and Jack bond over not sleeping.

Dean opens the closet door to discuss how getting Cas back is a “pretty, damn big win.” Sam’s happy he’s happy, but his Dimples of Knowledge™ indicate he knows it’s more than that. And he closes the closet, conversation over.

Meanwhile, Deputy Kyle pulls over a stolen truck, only to be dragged under the vehicle for his efforts.

Later that night, Dean gets his first real good night of sleep in a month, while Cas and Jack talk about all that’s happened to Jack. Jack is just such a nougat-face wondering about heaven (angels are dicks, Jack.) They talk about Kelly, and Cas apologizes for not being there for Jack from the beginning. “Kelly would be so proud of you,” Cas assures his mini-me. It’s then that Jack sees the latest law enforcement development and runs to tell Sam and Dean. Cas, who’s watched Dean wake up angry so many times he’s lost count, runs to stop Jack from making the most egregious error, but is too late. Dean pulls his gun on him (thankfully Jack doesn’t blast him with nephilim power, right?), and then asks for someone *cough*Cas*cough* to make him coffee.

After finding out that the deputy was found with bite marks all over, Sam and Jack decide to hit up the local graveyard while Cas and Dean check out the crime scene. After Dean’s coffee break, of course.

Classic Scene Alert

Dean and Cas pull up to the crime scene. Holy Hell, guys. I could watch this on repeat forever.

Dean bought Cas a cowboy hat --only it’s a straw hat!

Dean fixes said hat to look better, but Cas is dubious of that correction.

Cas touched Baby’s rearview mirror and lives to to see another day.

Dean is hella excited to act like he’s in the movie Tombstone.

Cas is Dean’s ‘Huckleberry”, i.e. man he’s been looking for.

Dean makes Cas watch movies with him.

Dean closes his eyes and swallows very dramatically when Cas lowers his voice and quotes Tombstone. (I don’t make the rules, that’s just canon.)

Dean is glad to have his angel back and his voice breaks when he says “Cas”.

I have to admit, I’m not the biggest Steve Miller Band fan, so I was a bit meh when I first heard this, but after watching this scene a couple hundred dozen times, I’m cool with it. It’s certainly not their most played song and it’s jangly fun for the scene. I loved the record scratch at the end. And Cas’s “Howdy partner” and “Much obliged”? JFC.

Dean Agent Russell, and his associate, Cas Val Kilmer, meet with Sergeant Phillips about the victim. Turns out to be his nephew, and he’s wondering why the Texas Rangers are this far north. Dean rolls with his new role.

At the undertakers, rockabilly Athena is preparing a body for embalming while wearing noise cancelling headphones. She doesn’t hear Sam and Jack Agent’s Elliott and Paxton approach. Athena doubts Jack’s age (aww, remember when Sam was so young people doubted that he was an FBI agent? They grow up so fast.) Sam and Athena make a brief connection over Amanda Palmer and Jack fucks up and asks about cold spots. (He’s trying so hard. PROTECT.)

At the grave, Sam finds a gnawed on hip bone. They’re dealing with a ghoul!

TFW 2.0 wonders if Athena is the ghoul, but quickly dismiss that idea. Athena, meanwhile, is busy at work, and busy being followed by a shadowy figure. Dean figures it out that they’re looking for Dave Mather, cowboy and outlaw and someone who’s been dead since 1886, “which makes this a little weird.”

Athena’s mysterious stalker is Dave! It seems that Athena was accepted to a prestigious make-up school in LA. Dave is less than impressed. Athena spills the beans on the FBI visit, alerting Dave.

After Jack pieces it together that Dave is Athena’s boyfriend, they head out to the mortuary, looking for Dave.

Dave is busy robbing a bank.

Team Free Will 2.0 heads to the bank to stop him. They confirm that Dave is, in fact, a ghoul who's been chomping on ole Dave for a long time now. A regular Western-style shootout begins. Cas tells Jack to stay hidden but Jack's full of confidence now. He rushes out and gets shot full of lead for his trouble. But Jack's unperturbed by this. He holds up his hand and does a power blast, throwing both Dave and the bank guard violently backwards.

Dave falls to the ground but the bank guard gets knocked against a concrete pillar. When he falls to ground, he falls down dead, presumably killed instantly as soon as his head hit the pillar. Dave escapes on foot with Dean in pursuit while everyone else checks on the guard. Dean loses Dave (curse you, stray automobile!) and heads back to the crime scene where Jack is looking with horror on the dead guard who Castiel tries and fails to resurrect. This seems like a low power moment for Cas, but here's my headcanon. Cas could revive the body but the guard's soul already moved on. Since he isn't welcome in Heaven these days, Cas couldn't head up and retrieve his soul. You may say to me. Natasha. How do you explain Gadreel then HUH? To that I simply say that Cas and Charlie's souls hadn't moved on yet. (I also accept the more popular headcanon that Cas will never be max power again now that some of his grace was destroyed by Metatron’s spell.)

Anyway, the guard is irrevocably dead. They all head back to the hotel to figure out their next step.

We cut to the hotel where the camera closes in on Jack with an actual thunderclap sound effect. Yesss yes give me your heavy handed audio cues. Cas asks if it's happened before (and I'm getting some serious parent/teacher conference vibes here.) But it doesn’t really matter, does it? Because there’s a dead man in town and the police are gonna be sniffing around. Dean sends Cas and Sam home with Jack while he stays to take care of the ghoul.

Back at the mortuary, Dave stumbles in on Athena. He's bleeding, aggressive, and he's got a bag full of stolen money. He confesses to robbing graves for quick cash and a bank for mega cash. Athena hears all this, puts two and two together, and realizes that he killed the officer. Dave protests that the murder was okay because he “had it coming.” He grips her tightly and tells her that she should stick with him because he'll protect her. It's all very...UGH. Athena tells him that she'll never stay with him and I'm honestly fearing for her life right now. Because telling him she's leaving him will only lead to him rage-killing her, right? A car pulls up outside, interrupting Dave in what just might have been the knick of time.

We jump to outside the mortuary. It's the Sergeant, quickly followed by Dean! They greet each other laconically. “You here to shoot down a gosh durn monster?” “Yep.” They stalk through the cemetery and separate to flush out Dave when a hole opens up in the ground (yes, we're looping back to the opening scene) and swallows up the Sergeant. Dean rushes to the hole. It's deep and dark and Dean, bless him, hesitates at the lip of the sinkhole.

“Mmm mmm. Nope, I don't wanna,” he says and I one hundred percent back him up on this opinion. Going face first into a tiny crawl hole is the stuff of nightmares. To his credit, however, in he goes. He crawls through on his belly, shotgun in hand.

Back in the Impala, Sam and Cas try to make Jack feel better. “I've killed people who didn't deserve it,” Cas tells him. “My friends. I killed people I loved. I wish I could tell you that it gets easier...with time it hurts less but that would be a lie.” Jack ain't buying it and honestly...neither am I. I'm not convinced that telling newborn Jack that his role model isn't such a role model is the best strategy in this case. But ANYway. Cas tries to convince him that what happened was a mistake and he can still improve. “I have to believe it,” Cas says. And...AAAW CAS <3 Always swimming towards faith in something better. (High fives the Empty for drop-kicking him back to us.)

Jack is JUST DONE.

Dean finally crawls to the end of the tunnel and ends up in the undertaker's basement. He finds Athena tied up down there and the Sergeant injured but alive. A gun snicks behind Dean and he turns around to find the last player in the drama: Ghoul Dave.

Dave's wearing his cowboy hat (because why not) and orders Dean to hold his hands up high. Dave hits peak about-to-get-his-comeuppance smug, describing how he's going to kill Dean, when Dean steps aside revealing the Sergeant holding a shotgun. The Sergeant fires a carefully aimed round and takes off Dave's entire head. The blood cannon splatters across Athena's crisp, white shirt in what Boris described as cleverly staged costuming. “Happy trails, cowboy,” Dean says to the headless body.

Dean heads back to the bunker, gives the victory report, and tells Sam that he took care of covering up Jack's accident. This makes Jack angry. He's not ready to accept forgiveness and he's frustrated that everyone tells him to move on. He shouts and Sam backs away with his hands in the air. Jack recognizes their fear. “Maybe I'm just another monster,” Jack theorizes. To everyone's surprise, Dean disagrees. He's no more monster than Sam, Dean, or Cas. Jack, to his credit, doesn't think this is exactly a winning argument. Jack decides to leave so he doesn't hurt anyone else. He power blasts them all to the floor and then flaps out of the bunker.

QuoteBack Mountain:

I do.

Two salty hunters, one half-angel kid, and a dude that just came back from the dead again. Team Free Will 2.0.

He really likes cowboys

I told you, he’s an angry sleeper, like a bear.

My name is Val Kilmer.

I’m gonna get my boots on.

Tell her that the guy she's banging eats dad people and we gotta kill him.

Sure, come to Dodge City. We'll have some laughs.

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

#spn recap #spn picspam #spn 13x06 #tombstone #dean winchester #sam winchester #castiel #cas #jack kline #supernatural season #brokebacknatural

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Ducktales Reviews: The Town Where Everyone Was Nice! or Scrooge Is the Lindburgh Baby

Saludos Amigos! The Ride of the Three Cablleros has at long last come to the last stop before it’s final phase. It’s been a hell of a ride so far: Our boys have tried to woo some ladies, performed some black magic, had some sort of drug trip, dealt with Donald’s ego, helped goofy ungoofy himself...

“SEASONS CHANGE, TIMES CHANGE BUT UNGOOFY IS FOREVER AND ALWAYS HE IS ALWAYS THERE” ... I created this magificent stalion.. kinda I think he came out of a styigan hole in the universe from the darkest dark in the dark of the dark... I can’t be sure. Our heroes fought an arrogant prince, found a lost city and helped donald get his smile back. All culminating in our heroes going to Spain for some reason, soundtracking Goofy’s win against Horace in Flamico Dancing, somehow that wasn’t a Covid induced fever dream I had but the actual premise of the episode, and then played some soccer with Daisy’s cousin and Pancho Pete. All in all we’ve had some good times getting here and I feel acomplished having made it this far. While I’ve still got quite a ways to go, getting this far means I really made something.. and not just the 80 something dollars it took to comission all of this. And I genuinely just want to thank all of you for reading these as these have easily been some of my most popular reviews and @weirdkev27 for comissioning all of this. It’s been easily one of my faviorite projects so far and I look forward to the final leg of it soon. For now though we have one last adventure before the biggest one starts. But before we can dive into it you probably have a few questions, and since I don’t really need to give Ducktales 2017 a lavish introduction as unlike most stuff so far this show is well and familiar: it’s what got me started reviewing animation on this blog, it’s what got me into the duck community as a full member, and it’s what caught Kev’s attention leading to this entire series. So I have time to answer the questions your probably asking and if your not.. well here’s the answers anyway Wait aren’t you going to cover Louie’s Eleven?: Nope. While I love that episode, I already did a full review of it earlier this year. I saw no reason to completely and utterly redo the entire thing when my opinions toward the episode haven’t really changed. That being said since I didn’t touch on the boys characterizations in that one too much and since I do want this retrospective to be comprehensive, I will talk about Panchito And Jose’s characterization there briefly during this review at the right time as a compromise.

Wait why isn’t THIS the last stop since it came out AFTER Legend of the Three Cablleros: Simple.. it felt unsatsfying to both me and kev to end on this one. While their apperance here IS a good one and a big deal... it’s also ANOTHER guest apperance. It’s something I didn’t quite realize for now but outside of the movie.. every apperance after is them guest starring in another series. Their aperances in Don Rosa’s Duck Comics, while awesome and treating them with proper respect, were still them showing up to shake up Donald’s stories and formulas. They were LITERAL guest stars in House of Mouse, and Roadster Racers was entirely just “let’s shove them in there because we can”. Legend.. is their story. Their moment in the sun after too damn long with all three as main characters and while being a lead is normal for donald, Jose and Panchito really HAVEN’T had that shot outside of their home countries. To be the hero of their own fully realized epic adventure. So it just fits best to have the road lead there instead of have all that happen.. then go back to yet another guest appearance. The other major factor.. is that while Legend came out around the same time as ducktales, to the point many compared and contrast both shows treatment of Donald, this episode is what most non-latin american audiences saw first as it took Disney WAY too damn long to air the series over here.. i.e. until Disney Plus launched, finding it somewhere online was the only option despite the series being produced in america with some really big american names voice acting wise. Point is this came first to some people, so i’m using that as a flimsy excuse to put it ahead so we get a better finale.

Now all that’s settled, let’s dive into “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!” and see what one of the best duck propeties period makes of our boys.

We open in a remote town in Brazil. It’s the Festival of the Flower.. which is a bit off to me. While it DOES kind of make plot sense.. the problem is the lure was written to Panchito and Jose.. Jose whose a brazil native and could’ve possibly been supscious that a tourist invintation wasn’t in Brazilian Portugese, the countries national language and something I specifically researched just to see what it’d be called. For the record it’d be O Festival da Flor acording to google translate, which still sounds neat, Webby could’ve still said it means festival of the flower. It just feels like a missed opportunity from a creative team that’s taken such pains to make the series feel as authentic as possible and clearly put a lot of hard work and research into making each location feel like it’s real world counterpart. But it’s a minor thing and we soon get our two plots for the episode: Our B Plot.. is that Dewey can’t stay the fuck off his phone and is taking pictures rather than actually getting experiences with Louie enabling him, while Webby gets increasingly frustrated at Dewey not actually botherting to experince this unique and obscure culture. We’ll get back to this in a bit.

Our main plot naturally concerns the reason our heroes are here: Donald is reuniting with The Cabs, who in this continuity are his old College friends who Scrooge hates due to having to listen to them practice constnatly and tells the kids they’d hate it worse than his playing the bagpipes.

Bagpipes are objectively the worst insterument on earth. They are loud, unharmonic and generally just obnoxious. I do respect how important they are to Scotland, home of David Tennant, Grant Morrision and .. Alan Cumming and James Macavoy? Wait what? that’s awesome! Point is Scotland is great but I do not like the bagpipes except when Bugs Bunnny is murdering them. Honestly Donald’s college band was probably more like this. Nothing bad at all just mildly pathetic and mildly pathetic is what got Donald a girlfriend, so it’s not a bad look

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That brings me to another point: Scrooge is pretty obnoxious in this episode. It seems like his sole reason for coming was to bitch about Donald’s old college band. He could’ve just sent them a stern letter like the pros at being a cranky old geezer do.

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I do GET why he’s here as there are some REALLY damn funny bits with him in the a-plot, it just feels like they could’ve justified it better. But on to better things as Jose and Panchito enter the scene after Scrooge claims they “weren’t so cool”.. with Panchito diving from a plane and drifting down on his umbrella

And Panchito shows up dramatically playing the guitar. A truly awesome and worthy intro to our boys. So let’s talk about them in this series. Honestly the two really aren’t that diffrent from usual, though Jose’s lady chasing is given to Panchito, his footloose world traveling lifestyle remains in tact as does his genuine charm while Panchito remains the peppy one, just with his outbursts gone as his guns are replaced with cell phones..

Yeah while I do get replacing the pistols because let’s face it the mexican of the group being a gun nut was pretty damn unfortunate, though Don Rosa toned it down and justifed it well, and frankly guns are a hard no for family shows these days unless their laser guns so replacing them I get. But instead of I dunno giving him knives or turning his holsters into pouches carrying his stuff.. he just has two Cell Phones. It’s weird. It dosen’t really make sense other than for him putting on a big shot act and even big stars probably don’t have two phones on them at all times. It’s just a VERY weird update that makes not a whole lot of logical sense and I belivie is thankfully gone by the next ep. The only real issue I have is the two just sorta blend together personality wise instead of being distinct like usual, but that’s also happened in other apperances, so it’s not exactly a new or unique problem, and the two’s voice actors do a great job making both feel like they should.

Speaking of which let’s just go ahead and discuss that elephant in the room: The Cabs were recast for the first time in ages, which didn’t sit well with friends of legend as Eric Bauza, who’d replaced rob Paulsen, was himself replaced by Arturo Del Puerto and Bernado Del Paulo replaced Jamie Camil and Carlos Aquazi as Panchito. And I have mixed opinons on this one: Replacing Eric was a no brainer: while he’s a terrific voice actor.. he’s not brazilian and the crew of Ducktales 2017 perfer to cast actors who match their characters backgrounds, which again adds to the authenicty of it’s globetrotting and scope. They don’t ALWAYS, Cree Summer isn’t, as far as I know, Egyptian and Catherine Tate, while wonderful, isn’t italian. But for the most part it adds a nice flavor to things and frankly I personally prefer it when Jose is voiced by an actual brazilian man. So that change i’m fine with. Not using Camil though... I do not get. Jamie Camil is a throughly talented voice actor, having done TONS of great work lately , vocing Globgor for star vs and not getting nearly enough screen time as the loveable demon dad, and stealing the show as Don Carnage earlier in the series. While that episode is one of the series weakest, he’s still easily the best part of it and I hope Carnage shows up one last time before the finale.

So it really makes.. no sense to me to replace him. Not only is camil a bigger named actor, but he was already on the show and even the defense of “well they don’t want actors playing multiple rolls” ended up utterly destroyed by the end of the season, as Christ Dimatopolus not only reprised Storkules, but went on to play Drake and Melon, and picked up a FOURTH role in season 3 as Hades. My point is the show has no real issue with doubling up on voice rolls, so I scratch my head as to why Camil wasn’t given this part too despite being the obvious choice. Del Paulo isn’t a bad actor and is great in the role.. I just scratch my head why he was needed when a perfect actor for the part was right there and already had experince with the character.

I do think Puerto and Paulo are terrific and do the characters justice, issues with Paulo being there at all aside, and they do a great job and more than earned the roles and I don’t think the mass critcisim of this version of the characters is entirely warranted.. for this episode. This episode while they can meld into each other... that happens in most of their apperances anyway, so it’s not unusual or unique to this series. I will say however that the way their written in their next apperance is utter garbage: they aren’t really given any chances to be distinct, are basically written as one person even worse .. and that one person is a greedy asshole who takes advantage of their friend and never apologizes. I do get why people did not like them in that episode. I do think it has no baring on this one and people should stop bashing these versions as a whole for one terrible episode, especially when Louie has been written pretty badly for the bulk of season 3, yet is still not a bad character. It’s unfair to paint the series as painting them soley as selfish jackasses when it didn’t at first and hopefully wont’ again when they presumibly show up for the finale’s big avengers endgame sequence I hope is coming. For now they aren’t bad and the colors are crisp and the animation nice and bouncy on our boys.

Since we have two plots here, I’m just going to go ahead and split em since honestly, the b plot dosen’t really impact the a-plot until really the last minute and is basically happening right along side it and in concert with it. Sooooo...

The Trite B-Plot: As you can probably gather I didn’t really like this one. It’s basically 5-7 minutes of me wanting to punch a child in the face. Or rather Webby wanting to have fun experinces and actually take in the culture while in town, while Dewey just wants to take pictures of everything, make it seem like he did stuff, and generally is obnoxious to webby while Louie supports him wholeheartdly. That last part is really one of the few good parts of the plot as it’s nice for one of the brothers plots to NOT be about them being in conflict or squabbling but just hanging out and having some fun, doubly so since i’ve had to spend a season watching Louie , outside of a few good exceptions be an absolute dick to Huey and also Dewey once. It’s nice to just see him and Dewey bond over a shared intrest: posting shit online and getting good photos.

And it’s not without GOOD gags: Dewey’s obnoxious captions at one point while Webby continually looses her shit, Louie continually saying “that’s so wise” at Dewey’s bullshit philosphies, Webby’s continued annoyance is delivered great by Kate as always, and the best bit is Webby, utterly pissed at Dewey for refusing to eat Local Cuisine, wolfing down the entire fucking plate, all the dumplings in her mouth at once while Dewey, naturally, takes a picture. Otherwise this is just.. grating. It’s utterly grating to watch Webby GENUINELY try hard to absorb the local culture and really enjoy a once in a life time experince.. while Dewey jackasses about and basically acts like she’s wrong for it and treats his best friend like garbage. Just because i’ts nice it’s not Louie this time doesen’t make one of the kids being a dick without any nuance or character stuff suddenly great. It’s just tiresome.

And SOMEHOW , despite already not liking it the first time watching the episode.. it’s even WORSE now afterlast years. No not because I watched it while having to put up with Coronoavirus induced Chills, but because another show did this plot 100 times better: Close Enough. One of the best new shows of the year, Close Enough had a plot where exes Bridget and Alex, aka yet aother great set of Kimiko Glenn and Jason Mantzokus characters, went on vacation together, but their attempts to have some ex sex fell flat due to longstanding issues we found about through this plot: Bridget has a bad habit of doing what Dewey did, focusing way more on her social than actually enjoying her vacatoin while Alex has a bad habit of befreinding random weirdos who agree with his worldview. Keep in mind this is the same worldview that spent an afternoon connecting garfield to jesus while pissing in a jug for some reason. Point instead of a character just being a smug dick, it ties into actual character flaws that helped us not only learn more about them but lead to a really heartwarming scene where the two admit they jsut can’t sleep together casually with allt heir baggage, and that they still have a lot to sort out. Before given the show their on having their friends show up from the a plot and all of them getting kidnapped by a robot because Josh skipped a bunch of ads and a 5 year old has to solve some issues and prove she’s not dumb to blow up said robot. What i’m saying is it’s even more insufferable watching this after seeing it done a thousand times better, and fucking watch Close Enough. Thankfully unlike Inifnity Train it’s not reliant on you to get a second season as it’s been renewed proving that even in a cluster fuck like 2020 miracles can happen, but it’d still be nice for it to get more fans during the presumably long wait for Season 2. Let’s move past this, i’ll get to the plot relevant bit for the climax when we get to the climax, and onto the reason your all here.

The Main Event: A Life Not Wasted

Okay onto the actual plot. Rewinding quite a bit, the boys meet our boys, and we get some good bits. The boys cool new handshake leaves Huey wanting one only for Louie to simply lick his hand. See this is Louie dickery I can get behind because what did Huey expect? I do take comfort in the fact he has actual friends now who will likely do a handshake, fenton very much included. I’m sure Gyro didn’t want one either so he’s had plenty of time to workshop. We also find out one of the boys was dropped as an egg and well.. given Dewey opens and closes his eyes one at a time for this one moment, the ohter triplets just sorta.. silently agre it’s Dewey. IT does explain why he thought Champ Popular would get over..that and Santa Claus is Going to Highschool being his favorite movie.

So both Jose and Panchito claim to be sucessful: Jose being a sucessful jetsetter and trendsetter, and Panchito being a world famous pop star, never stop stopping. So Donald being donald panics and runs into a alley where Scrooge and Huey join him. Donald is fully convinced he’s wasted his life and has nothing to show for it. Huey rightfully points out he raised three wonderful children and isn’t that enough? Naturally given Donald clearly has some issues related to this subject and Scrooge has develoved into old man yells at cloud, he agrees it’s not important as money. So Huey decides to help his uncle because he’s the good son.. and because the two are easily the most alike out of Donald and his Kids. It’s something I haven’t really been able to bring up before so I was delighted to realize i could now: Besides the obvious people bring up constnatly, I.e. Huey having inhereted the most of the family rage out of his brothers, there’s the fact both are kind of obessive, both tend ot spiral into panic when a situation goes wrong, both are awkward with women, both are frequently ignored or taken for granted by those around them, and both are awkward adorable dorks who I will give my life to protect. It’s why I think Huey has the best relationship with his uncle of the bunch: He’s the only one who at least TRIES to empahtize with him and support him. While the other two do love him, and Webby of course likely has an insanne and horrifying shrine of him, and scrooge and probably della now in her closet.. and of course lena but that’s less out of hero worship and more out of her insane, over the top, very webby version of love. Point is, he’s the one who genuinely sees his uncle as a person who needs help and love. This was best demonstrated in the scene at the bank back in “Who Is Gizmoduck” as Huey tries to get his uncle a loan using the guidebook and is there soley to help the guy and taking time out of his day to visit the bank. Let’s face it though this is huey: he probably loves visiting the bank. They just got new pens! So Huey decides to put his improv badge to good use... so far the only use he’s gotten is Louie laughing at the fact he actually earned an improv badge and urges donald to simply ACT like he’s sucessful. Scrooge balks at this, because as Wonder Woman 1984 taught us nothing good comes from lies.. or from banging your ghost boyfriend while he’s possessing someone’s body without said body’s consent and plan to fully live out the rest of your lives togehter without ever considering how fucked up this is. I will..deal with that movie ... soon. But he soon changes his turn and agrees to go along with it to avoid Jose getting upset and them having to pay for everything.

So Huey suggest Donald keep the lie small, but belivable. Given the law of sitcoms when it comes to anyone saying that and the fact this is Donald, he instead panics and lies that he’s taken over McDuck industries and scrooge has gone full abe simpson in the other direction.

Which is why i’m not enitrely annoyed by Scrooge’s presence: while they don’t even handwave him being here, Scrooge putting on an old man act, and sometimes getting back at donald for it is solid gold the whole damn time and some of David Tennat’s best comedic acting on the show, so it makes up for him being a grumpus. And while i’m not usually not a fan of liar revealed plots, this one works for me.. mostly because it’s rooted in character. Here Donald is lying.. but because of deep seated neurosis he’s yet to fully tackle. While he loves his boys and is proud of htem every day... it’s very clear Donald hates his life and how it turned out. We got bits of this back in House of the Lucky Gander, with Donald’s first thought upon thinking he’s about to die is “I wasted my life” and feeling entirely like a looser. This episode brillinatly builds on that: it shows a Donald who simply feels.. he acomplished nothing. It’s easy to see why as his parents were happy and sucessful at whatever they did from the looks of it and how well taken care of the kids were, his uncle is the richest duck in the world and it’s greatest hero and explorer, his sister is the only one who could rival that record, and his cousin constnatly gets riches and fame handed to him. Donald.. by comparison.. is just a normal guy whose house is in his rich uncle’s pool, who has no job, no partner, and only really the love of his family. He spent his life on adventures he didn’t want to have living int he shadow of someone he grew to resent before the Spear of Selene incident blew things up for a decade. And then when he was free instead of becoming a big sucess... he blew the rest of it being overprotective of his boys and bouncing from dead end job to dead end job. It’s easy to see why he sees himself as a failure despite having lived a good life: compared to everyone else, even his sister who mooned herself, in his life.. he feelsd far behind. And as someone whose felt they were far behind countless times and only now is realizing they haven’t and it’s a marathoon ot a sprint I naturally relate. So his wanting to play big shot for just ONE day, to be the big hero like scrooge, teo be a sucess for five minutes with his best friends.. it’s understandable and relatable.

So Donald continues the ruse, leading to a great bit where the cabs all try to avoid picking up the check “WE can’t all keep whistling nonchalantly” before Scrooge is forced to give Donald the money to in the best joke of the episode.. and I mean FORCED. He and donald get into a fight with their hands under the table and Huey eventually gets fed up with that and has to BITE his uncle’s hand just to get him to do what he shoudl’ve done ruse or no given he’s the richest person there. The reason I take special offense to this.. is that my fairly wealthy grandpa and grandma, my mom’s dad and his wife for the record, would buy us dinner EVERY TIME they were near town, a nice steak dinner with whatever we wanted to most of the time. They knew we couldn’t afford such luxury half the time and wanted to treat us and spend time with us. Since my grandpa’s passing, my Grandma and her New Husband have continued the tradition since then, if obviously not this year for damn obvious reasons, thought hey sent us a really nice dinner to cook for christmas in the same spirit. What i’m saying is when you know your relatives arne’t as stacked as you , you pay for the fucking meal especially since i’ts a special occasion, and even for someone as stingy as scrooge, it comes off as a dick move.

We then get the best scene with the episode, just inching out the climax as the three simply talk, remince on old times, have a good rib like old friends would. It feels natural and wonderful to watch and gets even better when the three hear the radio and end up having an impromptu dance and musical number. Also Jose’s umbrella is also a flute somehow.

Point is the boys have a good time and Donald gets carried away, with the boys planning a world tour. Huey, while happy to endulge his uncle in a badly needded ego boost, isn’t happy to endulge this and scrooge is unwilling ot pay, more resonably this time. Huey eventually talks him out of being a moron and tells him he has to tell the honest truth and while that dosen’t work this does.

So as Donald goes to face the music, we have come to our climax. Phrasing.

The Finale: Ay Carumba

So we come to our finale. Backing up a scene or too to the B-Plot, webby is interviewing a local about the festival when she gets stuck in a loop. So far in the episode we’ve had hints something is up with the people as they go all yellow eyed.. and webby finds out why as she notices the “person” she was interviewing is, in a hilarious and disturbing review.. a horrignly realistic hand puppet.. and upon stealing Louie’s phone, she points out there’s no shots of anyone’s feet.. and the reason why is that the giant flower the feast is about is a mean green mother from outer space and he’s bad. And Webby finding that out’s got him fighting mad. Webby and the boys naturally run to warn the remaning boy and scrooge and they all run out only to get blocked out of town and captured. Dewey looses his phone inside the plant monster.

In a great joke, Scrooge ended up actually throwing his back out with the old man act, so our heroes are all captured and it’s up to our stars to save the day. So while his family is in peril, Donald finally comes clean with Jose and Panchito naturally being upset.. for a second before Jose admits he lied to and an irate panchito.. is forced to admit he also lied. Jose is a flight attendant, hopefully he’ll get his own mini series where he accidently murders a dude on disney plus, which is a nice update of his globe trotting ways, as it’s a resonable way for someone with no money to get around the world these days and Panchito is a birthday party muscian. They all however chuckle over this realizing they haven’t come as far as they thought.. and they still have each other. It’s a nice way of modernizing Rosa’s jobs for them and their hard luck lives he set up and I love this. IJt’s just a sweet emotoinal scene that makes donald, and his friends, realize they aren’t faliures and life isn’t just about reaching some arbitrarity goal.. just like Soul taught me aka the actually great movie I watched on Christmas Day. But since Donald’s family is in peril Jose suggests theys till play the gig.. just like they did ion acapulco thus we get the second best scene of the episode and another worthy rendition of The Three Caballeros as our heroes beat the shit out of the plant, free the kids and the plant straighens out scrooges back.

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It’s beautiful, psycadelic, and utterly awesome. Seroiusly the bright boldend colors are awesome and so’s this sequence. Easily one of the show’s best.. and it’s a show that contiains the greatest scene in television history

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So that masterclass concludes with Donald signing.. badly.. and blowing the plant hte fuck up. Our heroes win and head off in the sunchaser. No idea what Launchpad is up to, probably has another ex in the area. Point is our heroes win, Dewey deletes his photos because “If there was no pics it didn’t happen” (So wise) and Donald decides to get the band back together, prompting scrooge to do an animal house on Panchito’s guitar... you.. you know you have to pay for that right? you aren’t a loveable frat man and he wasn’t ‘singing and I gave my love a cherry. Your obligated to get him a new guitar. You know that right?

So with that the episode wraps. This is a pretty good episode. While the subplot is bad and it should feel bad the main plot is emotional, well done and really adds more depth to Donald’s character while giving us a hell of a show with the cabs. The College Band background gives the boys a unique flavor this time around, not musically but in how they know each other and helps set it apart from the countless other reunions. It’s a truly bright, colorful and fun episode with some great gags and great performances. As I said Puerto and Paulo really knock it out of the park as the boys and while I would’ve preferred Jamie Camil, Paulo was still utterly excellent, though Puerto was the clear standout of the two. While their second apparence would be disapointing characterization wise, overall this was a fun introduction to two of disney’s best into it’s best universe and one of Season 2′s Standouts.

Next Time on the Ride of the Three Cablleros: we begin our massive finale look at The Legend of the Three Cablleros. Donald gets dumped by a nightmare of a person and finds an inhertance, new friends, and some sort of hot adventure god in his new cabana. Good times. Until then goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

#ducktales #donald duck #panchito romero miguel junipero francisco quintero gonzalez #panchito pistoles #Jose Carioca #webby vanderquack #scrooge mcduck #dewey duck #huey duck #louie duck #Abe Simpson #the town where everyone was nice #The Three Caballeros

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mdwatchestv · 7 years

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Game of Thrones 7x07: Look What You Made Me Do

And just like that it's over! This truncated season of seven episodes blew by as fast as a trip from Dragonstone to Eastwatch. I'm still not really sure why this season had to BE only seven episodes, I know the show is intensely expensive, but HBO has the money and why not shell out for three more episodes of their most popular property? Now faced with the prospect of a final season not hitting our little screens until 2019, I feel like a six episode finale is just not gonna cut it. I mean are we even going to make it two more years as a society? I would be super bummed if I had to leave this physical plane without having heard the final chords of the song of ice and fire. Although if the producers want to take the time to think very hard about writing and storytelling, I would not be adverse to that. Let's be real, while this season was full of spectacle, and had plenty to enjoy, the writing was just not up to the par of previous years. Drama that felt natural and earned was shelved in order to rush forward big "show stopping" moments such as Dany and Jon's meeting, ice dragon making, and this past episode's all hands on deck summit in the dragon pit.

Fan theories spiraled wildly out of control in correspondence with the increasingly erratic storytelling on screen. Instead of trying to predict the solution to a complex puzzle-plot, we are now in a time when literally anything can happen, including (but not limited to) Lannister lieutenant Ed Sheeran. Still, were we not entertained? There were absolutely moments this season that will go into the annals of GOT greatness: Arya's Walder Frey Face Swap Massacre, Olenna Tyrell's Final Fuck Off, Loot Train Battle Dragon Destructo-Fest 2k17 to name a few. But the season's writing on a whole often veered into what felt like fan service (or straight up fanfiction). Game of Thrones isn't the first show to do this, but it is the first show to do it that up until this point has been famous for granting essentially the opposite of fan service. Oh you love this strong, glorious, perhaps ridiculously attractive, character? It would be a shame if something were to....happen...to them. But that being said this episode felt a bit more solid than it's immediate predecessor, and while they may not have completely stuck the landing, it was more of a point deduction for some hops rather than a horrifying leg break (did anyone else see that last Olympics? There is not a day that goes by I don't think about it.)

So our merry band of zombie hunters, as well as Brienne and Pod, have all assembled at King's Landing in order to persuade Cersei into a ceasefire. How much time has passed since the zombie capture? Days, weeks? Who knows. What's important is all of our favorites have assembled in a veritable class reunion. Pod is happy to see his old boss Tyrion still in one piece, Bronn is reunited with Pod, and Brienne and The Hound are downright chummy despite Brienne being under the impression she had murdered him during their previous encounter. Time really does heal all. But how much time? That's the true question. For once Jon is not the most popular princess at the party, he didn't fight in the Battle of the Blackwater, and he didn't co-parent a murderous pre-teen. Our group is escorted to the not-at-all-a-trap Dragon Pits where they await Cersei. Bronn and Pod peace out immediately because Bronn don't give a shit and also can't contractually be in the same room as Lena Headey. Ain't love grand.

Cersei is rolling deep (her crew includes Euron thank god), but her entrance is promptly upstaged by Dany flying in on Drogon. Before anything can happen, Euron interrupts the proceedings to call out Theon for, essentially, being a little bitch. It is glorious. Anyway the zombie is produced and runs right at Cersei, where exactly none of the people sworn to protect her do a single goddamn thing. Euron weighs the threat of millions of the undead versus the safety of his little island and peaces HARD. I absolutely loved this reaction and wish it had been genuine. Is Euron my favorite character? Unclear, but strong maybe. Cersei says she will stand down if Jon promises to stay neutral. Jon I Can-Not-Tell-A-Lie Snow/Targaryen of course blabs that he already bent the knee to Dany. No one is impressed by this. Not only is Jon the least popular, he is now also the least liked.

Brienne cements my theory she only made the trip to tje Landing o'Kings to act as Jaime's moral compass, and pleads with him that loyalty to houses is dumb in the face of the current threat. She's not wrong. Later on Cersei will call Jaime the stupidest Lannister, but surely it is Tyrion who proceeds to fall hook, line, and sinker for her hand-on-stomach motivated-by-concern-for-my-baby-change-of-heart routine. Did anyone truly think that Cersei would just...join up with the good guys? That is a "what if" fanfiction summary too ridiculous for even this season of the show to pursue. Cersei is the woman who blew up half her own damn city, she does not have time for Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. Why risk her throne when the zombies will kill these silly children for her? Why risk anything when the Iron Bank subplot has resulted in a whole mercenary army in Essos? Actually speaking of Essos...why doesn't everybody just move over there? Why not just let the Night King HAVE Westeros if he wants it so bad. Like they said, the zombies can't swim and Essos doesn't seem to be physically connected to Westeros in any way. Look I'm just saying.

Back at Dragonstone, it's revealed that Theon actually was impressed by Jon's foolhardy declaration of loyalty. Theon's subplot this season has been understated, but honestly one of my favorites. While he hasn't had the flashiest part in recent seasons Alfie Allen has turned in a consistently subtle and poignant performance in this role. Over the course of the show Theon's journey has been about belonging and finding his worth. This was at times less than subtly symbolized by first his castration (literal/figurative/symbolic/etc) at the hands of Ramsay, and then even less subtly by his reclamation of said "manhood' this episode. But that aside his new side quest to rescue Yara is pleasingly cyclical as he stakes his loyalty to the one person who ever willingly and proudly claimed him as family. Also now that presumably Yara is tied to Euron, who is pivotal to claiming Cersei's mercenary army.... I'm just saying maybe Theon will be able to play the part of hero in the end after all.

Speaking of families coming back together, all is well in Westeros as the Stark Sestras team up to take down Lord Baelish once and for all. Look I am always happy when storylines end in positive female friendship, but I still can't help feeling frustrated with the way this was played out. It is unclear how much time is passing for any of the characters in the show, but at what point did Arya and Sansa realize they were being played? Were any of their public confrontations for show? Surely there would be no point to their private arguments, so at least some of their discord had to have been real. How much, if it at all, were they able to set up Littlefinger in return? Or did they just arrive at their conclusion moments before the mock trial? I admit as an audience member I was fooled, not by clever storytelling, but by total misdirection that robbed us of the satisfaction of seeing these two bright young women begin to think for themselves. Like so many scenes written this season this was another example of a satisfying punchline delivered at the cost of a seemingly reverse-engineered build up.

And as much as I have enjoyed Aidan Gillen's scheming, it was rewarding to see him dispatched at the hands of the women who he spent most of the series attempting to manipulate. Despite his claims otherwise, the only person Littlefinger has ever truly cared about is Littlefinger. Even though the path there was rocky, I look forward to Sansa and Arya's newfound alliance. Arya recognizing what Sansa has been through, and Sansa in turn telling Arya she was the strongest person she knew was a beautiful scene. Both girls have been wearing their hair in styles reminiscent of their parents, and seeing them take on the leadership roles of the previous Lord and Lady of Winterfell was a nice touch.

But not all the show's siblings are getting on, and after threatening Tyrion with death, Cersei is on a roll. Jaime is, for some reason, surprised that instead of keeping her word Cersei has no actual intention of zombie fighting. Jaime has had quite the arc this season, one that has driven him away (perhaps forever) from his twin, lover, and baby mama. As I wrote about previously, Jaime is the archetypal white knight. He is one of the few characters not motivated by greed or self-promotion, but rather a warped familial love.. While he has acted cruelly and cowardly in the past, he is not characteristically cruel or a coward. This season he has witnessed true horror in the form of fiery dragon death, the vengeful Olenna Tyrell, and the true depth of Cersei's darkness. He seems to finally realize that what he perceived as righteous action motivated by true love may have been in service to the wrong side. A Jaime Lannister unmoored from his familial duty is as compelling a wildcard as any, and it will be interesting to watch his journey continue to unfold hopefully in a Northerly direction.

Well, we've come to it. There's nothing left to talk about. Sam and Gilly arrive back at Winterfell just in time for Sam to have an exposition-off with the Three Eyed Arse-Face. Sam proceeds to take credit for Gilly's breaking news, and together with Bran's "vision power" the two explicitly spell out the true nature of Jon's identity. None of their revelations are a surprise to viewers of the show, beyond chiseling 'Aegon Taragaryen" into canon. No, the bigger surprise was that this narration was the voice over to Jon and Dany getting it on on her pleasure yacht. While we heard definitive proof that Dany is in fact Jon's Aunt, we watched their supple bootied bodies writhe around together. What emotion was I supposed to be feeling during this scene? I am honestly asking. Because the emotion I was feeling was void. The absence of feeling. "Jon needs to know." Yeah ya think Bran? With all that you can see you couldn't see that you should have told him this vital, life-altering information just a little bit earlier? Send a goddamn raven since they travel at the speed of light. Jesus Seven Hells Christ.

Also there were many happy romantic flashbacks of Rhaegar marrying Lyanna, but it's super fucked up that Rhaegar ditched his first wife and children to have a SECOND child name Aegon. Like what the fuck is that Rhaegar?? Granted the first Aegon (along with his sister and mother) were horribly murdered by the Mountain, so I guess it was good he decided to make a spare. Oh sorry Jimmy, I decided to have another son with my new wife, who I like more than Mommy, and his name is also going to be Jimmy. If family therapy existed in Westeros, we would probably be in a very different place politically.

Finally, finally we end for with the Night King's arrival at the wall. The new zombie ice dragon is locked and loaded and it BREATHES BLUE FIRE. The blue fire was pretty cool, and I eagerly await it's use in the dragon on dragon throw down that will inevitably occur next season. With the power of blue fire the Wall crumbles into the sea, devastating and conclusive proof that wall's are never the answer (no matter how cool and icy they look). I have to wonder though, what was the plan for traversing the Wall without a dragon? The Night King couldn't have known one of the only three dragons in the world would fall into his clutches...what was the contingency plan? Doesn't matter, the Wall is down and I'm going to need a wellness check on Ginger Beard.

Well that's it friends, season seven! If our own nuclear winter hasn't come I'll see you back here in.....two years..... Miss ya!

Things I didn't get to:

Clegane-bowl pre-game?

Probably could have thought of some more derogatory things to say about Bran.

Cersei's fake out Stark-alliance fur-lined dress.

What happened to Gendry?

MVP: You. You made it.

XO MD

P.S. if you want to talk to me on Twitter about incest and shitty Westerosi parenting I'm @marthadee.

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scrapyardboyfriends · 7 years

Text

31 July 2017

[Outside The Shop with Robert, Rebecca, Adam and Adam’s insane helmet hair]

ROBERT: *Hobble Hobble*

REBECCA: Hey Rob! It’s only the next day for us but the audience have had a weekend between episodes so…

ROBERT: What’s a weekend? Sorry sorry...been watching those Downton box sets again...carry on.

REBECCA: I just wanted to ask where your crutch is because the audience might have forgotten you had one and that you fell down the stairs. (EMILY: And besides you limp normally. People need to remember that this is different.)

ROBERT: Oh you know, people were mocking me for it and even though I don’t want anyone to know that I care what people think, I do so I ditched it.

REBECCA: I’ve noticed you’re a bit touchy? Why is that? Why does it feel like I’m just quizzing you so that the audience will know what you’re up to?

ROBERT: Probably cause you are? That’s the main reason why you’re in this scene, apart from us always needing to be seen together by someone to make my life more miserable. #ThisPlotSucks Anyway, to remind the audience, Aaron is coming home today.

REBECCA: And?

ROBERT: And...well Adam told me to move out of the flat yesterday but that means Aaron knows I’m still there and he hasn’t personally asked me to leave so that must mean everything’s gonna be totally fine.

REBECCA: Now that we got the recap of ‘Last Week on Emmerdale’ out of the way, what’s the plan?

ROBERT: Not done with the recap just yet. So last week I understood that Aaron needed space, but today I’ve decided a take away and some beers and a good old fashioned sofa snuggle while we watch a film is exactly what will make everything better. But...no pressure you know.

*Adam pulls up on the quad* - the Plot’s way of reminding us of better Bartsy days? -

REBECCA: Oh, well Adam is here and he’s seen us together so I can go now, but I’ll probably see you later. I’ve got my finger’s crossed for you though, because now that your marriage is over, I’m weirdly rooting for you!

ADAM: *Bad helmet hair flops in the wind* You still haven’t moved out yet.

ROBERT: We already established that. If you’re not gonna add to the scene, why are you here?

ADAM: Screen time? But no, really, do everyone a favor so we don’t have to go through this Plot Point again, and move out.

ROBERT: *I’ll repeat as many Plot Points as I damn well please Face*

[The Woolpack with Adam, Victoria, Robert, Aaron and...well...Rebecca]

ADAM: Time to set up Robert’s further heartbreak. This is fun. I can’t believe he still thinks he has a shot!

REBECCA: He cares about him! I know because we had several scenes about this in the past two weeks while you were away.

ADAM: Why are you here again?

REBECCA: Contractual obligations? Maybe?

ADAM: Well, fine, but get the memo. Robert Sugden is a self serving person and has been from birth. He only cares about himself. If he cared about Aaron, he’d give him space like he asked, let him have his own Plot for a while because this one has put him through enough.

VICTORIA: Well, I guess I can actually be a good sister and talk to my brother and try and make him see sense. - Look I’m trying to be a reasonable character and notice I haven’t mentioned the ‘B’ word at all...and neither has anyone else for that matter...curious. Isn’t that why this all happened in the first place?!? -

*Robert enters*

ADAM: Robert! Right on cue! (ACTOR ADAM: Ryan! This is exactly why you were nominated for that TV Choice Award!)

ROBERT: Oh look, all the people tangentially related to this Plot in one place. This must mean I’ve walked into an important scene. I still haven’t moved out of the flat, are we gonna talk about that some more?

VICTORIA: Actually your timing isn’t all that great.

ROBERT: Well I don’t want to talk about it all anyway. I just wanted to see if my Bourne box set is here because if anything is going to cheer Aaron up, it’s watching Matt Damon and Jason Fucking Bourne being awesome. It’s his favorite. I know that cause he’s everything to me.

ADAM: Seriously? You think that empty gesture is going to change anything? I just don’t get the allure of Matt Damon?! Look, you screwed everything up in this Plot, deal with it!

ROBERT: Oh what? Like you did with Vic? We’re both the bad guys in our own Plots Adam! Deal with it!

ADAM: Look, everyone else has forgotten about my Plot, why would you bring it up?

VICTORIA: Adam I referenced it last week okay!

ROBERT: Oh, is your non existent Plot not going well? Is that why you’ve inserted yourself into mine?

ADAM: *Hurts Robert* Look, Aaron is my best mate. The audience has forgotten that a bit since we’ve hardly had any scenes together until recently. I’ve only got like another six months left to make sure they really care about our bond so when it’s ripped away when I leave, they feel extra emotional about it. So, I’m going to get all threateny with you. Move out of Aaron’s flat or else–

AARON: *Enters at the opportune moment* Or else what? (DANNY: Oh what, did you think Ryan was the only one with impeccable timing? I’m up for a TV Choice Award too!)

ADAM: *Aaron I got this Face*

ROBERT: *Brain short circuits* *AARON AARON AARON Face*

[The Woolpack with Robert, Aaron, Adam, Victoria and Propbecca]

ROBERT: I was just planning a night in to cuddle on the sofa and watch Jason Fucking Bourne. Wanted to make you feel at home.

AARON: In my home...that I already kicked you out of?

ADAM: Yeah somehow he missed that Plot Point Aaron, but really, I’ve got this…

ROBERT: Look I know, but you were off screen for two weeks and the audience might have forgotten that so, we need to have this establishing episode where we basically go through everything one final time so I can probably be more heartbroken and everyone can catch up. But in those two weeks Aaron, I missed you so much. You’re all I’ve thought about. Ask anyone! I’ve been a total disaster. Anyway, the fans and I were hoping that maybe you’ve been feeling the same way?

AARON: Hmm...yeah...I’m moving away from this Plot and into my own Plot that involves boxing of all things so...I need to keep my distance. Why would I think about you and this Plot when I’ve just gotten out?

ROBERT: Because Aaron...this is us remember? Team Aaron and Robert?! The fans still want it. It’s all they ask about. #AreWeBackTogetherYet

VICTORIA: Robert maybe this isn’t the best time. Try ignoring your relationship problems like me!

ADAM: Yeah, works so much better!

ROBERT: All I’m asking for is a chance Aaron!

AARON: *Trying to remain chill Face*

PROPBECCA: *Exists*

ROBERT: Aaron we all hate this Plot but surely they wouldn’t have broken us up without hope of rebuilding us? I know we can work this out!

AARON: *Trying to remain chill Face* *Slides gaze over Robert’s shoulder*

PROPBECCA: *Exists* *Blink Blink Blink*

AARON: *Oh ffs she’s still here Face* *Yep she and that thing we’re all not talking about that supposedly this Plot is about are still a problem Face* Nope. It’s too late for that. (FANDOM: WHYYYYYY???!!!!)

ROBERT: *Heartbroken Face*

[The Mill of Misery with Robert and Victoria]

ROBERT: *Sorting laundry and wishing he could be doing this kind of boring domestic activity with Aaron*

VICTORIA: *Enters* Hey Rob, need some help dealing with the soul crushing end of your marriage that was never legal in the first place?

ROBERT: Adam sent you to make sure I actually left this time so we don’t have to redo this Plot Point again?

VICTORIA: No, we’ve established that I’m ignoring Adam and that Plot. I came to check up on yours and you know...you…

ROBERT: Well...I didn’t plan on having my heart to heart with Aaron in the pub, but if we’d had it here then it would have made way less sense for Rebecca to just randomly be there as a prop. But hey at least I and the audience knows where I stand...again.

VICTORIA: So...where you going to go?

ROBERT: Well Diane offered me a room and since I can’t stand Doug and his prized marrow, I’ve picked the B&B where I can at least minimize my Doug interaction.

VICTORIA: You could always move in with me!

ROBERT: And...Rebecca? Really? #WhatEvenIsThisPlot

VICTORIA: Relax, it was just a test to prove to the fans that you haven’t given up all hope for reuniting with Aaron one day when the Plot allows!

ROBERT: I’m sorry, did you miss the last two weeks of my wallowing? Look, I know I messed up and I don’t deserve to be happy after what I did (FANDOM: NOOOOO Robert stop! Yes you do! Someone give him a hug!) The truth is, and I know this shocks absolutely no one, I still love him.

VICTORIA: Give him time. I’m sure the Plot will put you back together again soon.

ROBERT: No...the Plot had us break up like nine times in the course of three weeks. That’s a record even for us. I’m pretty sure it’s over.

[The Mill of Misery with Aaron and Robert]

ROBERT: *Now that I’m sober I can totally handle these stairs Face* *Heartbroken Face*

AARON: *Enters* *slams door to announce presence just in case*

ROBERT: *Sad voice* Don’t worry, I’m leaving and taking my Hell Plot with me. Oh and there’s some beers in our alcohol fridge that I won’t get to enjoy anymore. And there’s some take away that I’d thought we could heat up but nothing matters anymore. #ThisPlotRuinedMyLife

AARON: *Avoids eye contact* Right...thanks *Tries to remain chill*

ROBERT: Right, I just have to try this one more time. I mean what I said when I was publicly losing my dignity in the pub and begging you to take me back. I really did miss you. I didn’t even shower for days!

AARON: That’s not endearing at all Robert. Look, let’s not rehash this Plot Point yet again. The audience get it now, you’re moving out.

ROBERT: *Voice breaking* For what it’s worth...I’m really sorry this Plot exists.

AARON: Yeah...me too *walks to kitchen*

ROBERT: *Please don’t leave me Face*

AARON: *Deep breath* *Trying to remain chill* *Gets beer*

ROBERT: *Resigned to my miserable fate...I wonder how I can make this worse the rest of the week and next because I definitely haven’t hit rock bottom yet Face* *Sadly leaves the house that should have been his home*

AARON: *Trying to remain chill* *Deep breath* *Goes to drink beer* *Nope can’t even do it Face* *Screw it, no one can see me now Face* *Drowns heartbreak with Robert’s beer* (FANDOM: Can we have some of that?)

#robron #emmerdale #plotdale #up early today #enjoy!#hopefully this helps with the sadness

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julesplanb-blog · 7 years

Text

“To understand the miracle of living”

(Day 2)

The following note contains heavy spoilers on the Black Mirror episode “San Junipero” (season 3 episode 4) and some minor ones on other episodes from the show. Please also check tags for content warning.

I used to be one of those persons relatively at peace with the very concept of death, yet always struggling with the unfairness of it, the way it strikes indifferently young or old people, comes as the natural ending of a fully-lived life for some, and robs some others of it. I don't believe in afterlife, at least not in an afterlife our beings, minds, souls, if you want to call it that way, could apprehend (thus, survive) anyway. And though the thought of _not existing anymore _would be utterly scary to me, the idea of life having an end wasn't. If anything, it appeared to me as something giving life meaning: if here and now was all that we have, then here and now was incredibly precious. Which is why I'd always fear I wouldn't get enough of it. Fear that I would die before I got to see everything I wanted to see, read everything I wanted to read, met everyone I've wanted to talk to, and wrote every story I had in mind.

Then something happened. The city I was living in went through several attacks. Friends got injured. Friends lost friends. The all city got traumatized. And, I guess, I got traumatized. In the following weeks, the fear of dying or losing people would eat a lot of mind space whenever I would be in the subway, on a café terrace, at the theather... Whenever I would actually be, you know, living on, and in the end, it was smothering me. Till the next attack, on a different city, but where relatives happened to live. For the 3rd time in 15 months I found myself calling people I loved on the phone, to make sure they did not die a horrible, unfair and pointless death. And I believe that's the day something snapped.

From that day I stopped being afraid. I stopped thinking about it. I stopped watching my back on every subway station. Which seemed like a good thing until I realized: I wasn't afraid anymore because I did not care anymore. For nothing. I used to fear death a lot because they were so many things that would make me happy, because I used to enjoyed living, so much, in so many aspects, and so the only way my stupid brain found to stop that fear was to make everything tasteless and pointless and not important anymore. Nothing mattered. Nothing would make me laugh, or cry. I couldn't feel anything anymore. Couldn't be inspired by any words, couldn't find beauty in any landscape, taste in any food, enlightment in any book. At some point, I wouldn't even experience physical pain from injuries, or physical pleasure from the touch of the water. This turned out to be the worst experience of my life. Worse than fighting that physical illness I've been struggling with for 12 years, worse than grieving the death of my favorite human being, and worse than being in fear all the time. I was actually missing it. The constant fear. The pain. The sorrow. Those proofs that not only I was alive, but that I wanted to be, that I wanted to stay longer. I figured out pleasure and pain, joy and fear, were just one big switch. I couldn't turn some off and still have the rest of it. And to my horror, I had no idea of to switch the whole system back on. So I held on as tight as I could to the smallest thing left: that fear of never getting it back. That tiny evidence that some part of me still wanted more life. For a while I would stay away from art, writing, fiction, books, because they were my very favorite things in life and it was devastating to try those on and realize they wouldn't work anymore. I was also scared to waste it on a shut down mind. "Oh, I'll keep that movie for when I'll be better and actually able to enjoy it"

I was all wrong of course. The best way to get better, was to feed that tiny piece of me left with art, writing and books. Which I started to do at some point, asking around for new things to read, watch, experience. I've read brand new authors. Wrote a short novel myself. Got back on drawing and music And I could tell I was slowly getting my senses back, when a friend of mine told me I should try Black Mirror Season 3. Now, if you did watch the 2 first seasons of this british anthology on technology, you know how strange a choice it would be to advise such a dark show on someone trying to find reasons to being alive. But to this day, I suspect that friend actually wanted me to experience "San Junipero", and couldn't spoil the surprise by advising me to skip directly to that very episode....

The contrast effect with the previous episodes probably carries some weight in what makes "San Junipero" such a grand, beautiful piece of writing. If you recall the first episode of Black Mirror, "National Anthem", you know the show is not only about technology itself, but about the way we use it. About, with or without smart electronic devices, we behave. All it would have taken for "National Anthem" to end right was people behaving with basic decency. Same goes for the Waldo Moment. Or "15 millions merits": it's not the technology that guts you in the end, it's the choice the human protagonist makes. All and all, Black Mirror is quite a pessimistic take, not on progress, but on human nature.

But not in "San Junipero". In this one, we finally get to see a future where technology but more importantly, people, are displaying kindness. And it's all the more powerfull when you realize how easy it would have been to write something dark on such a topic.

Indeed, San Junipero, which appears at the beginning to be a "party town", in 1987, is actually a virtual reality where elder people can spend a limited amount of time every week as their younger selves, in order to fight alzheimer's effect or simply enjoy life pleasures in their final days, and where they can be uploaded permanently after they pass. As I said, death occurs in thousands of unfair ways and to me, the only thing that did seemed fair about it was that it's coming for everyone, no matter what you did, no matter who you are. It's quite easy to imagine a future, or at least a Black Mirror episode, where a technology used to cheat death would just be one more, final, unfathomable injustice. Say, only rich people can access it. But it's not the case here. If the time allowed in the system is limited, it's only to prevent people for losing their minds. And staying or not staying is entirely up to you.

Well, almost. The episode follows Yorki on her first night in San Junipero, where she meets Kelly (now there's a lot to discuss about the way Yorki being gay and Kelly being bi is addressed or not addressed, and I think it's done quite beautifully, but that's a topic for another note entirely). Ensue a bound between the two women, who ultimately fall for each other, only, they don't welcome those feelings the same way. While loving Kelly makes Yorki happy, Kelly doesn't want to "do feelings". Doesn't want to like anyone here in San Junipero. "So you've been just totally fucking inconvenient", she says to Yorki when the two are reunited.

We then find out about San Junipero's true nature, and about Yorki and Kelly's respective situations: they're both old, on the final weeks of their lives but those lives coulnd't have been more different. Yorki suffered a car accident about 40 years ago - the very night she came out as gay to her folks, who rejected her -, and has been quadriplegic since there, missing out on life, while Kelly was married for 50 years, and had a daughter who died in her late 30's, before the technology was even available. Her husband passed away too, a couple years ago, and wouldn't even try on San Junipero, because it could not foresee living on without their daughter.

And Kelly is set on the same choice: she's in San Junipero in her last months because she wants to "have a good time" but does not intend to stay after she dies. Not because she believes she'll actually be reunited with her husband and daughter in heaven - she in fact believes life is all, and that there's nothing past it - but because she gets a sense that living forever is meaningless. That it would take away meaning and taste out ouf everything in life, that she'll end up like most of San Junipero's permanent residents: alone, trying every fucked up thing they could in a desperate attempt to feel something. Because in a way, she gets that she already lived her life, experienced it all and is done.

On the other hand, Yorki can't wait to be a permanent resident, but her family - again - won't let her, so in order to do so, she has to marry Greg, a nurse at her care facility, who will allow her to be euthanized then uploaded into the system. When Kelly finds out about Yorki's situation, she offers to be the one marrying her. "Greg seems great but... why not someone you connected with?". (At this point I was already smiling ear to ear - and, ok, crying just a tad). Yorki thus becomes a permanent resident and finally gets to enjoy walking, moving, feeling. And being loved, something we know she was deprived of basically her whole life. So it makes sense for her to want to share it with Kelly, to have Kelly staying with her. "This is so real", she says to her. "This is not a trap". But Kelly then tells her about her own life story ("did it occur to you to ask?"), about her late husband and daughter, and states again that she made her choice not to stay in San Junipero.

So while I was actually understanding both their point of view, and especially Kelly's, I was fearing the episode ending on Yorki's finally getting her chance to live... in a solitary, meaningless place. Trapped. Because that's what that show is about: how technology and our way to use it is a trap. And that's what the episode was about, wasn't it? Stating that living forever is pointless without a reason, a person to share it with and that accepting death itself should not be that depressing. Yorki and Kelly's fight about it ends with Kelly running away in her car, and crashing, just as Yorki did 40 years ago following her fight with her folks, about being gay. And at the very moment Yorki reaches for Kelly's hand to help her back on her feet, Kelly's time in San Junipero is up, and she's sucked out of the system, back to her dying body, while Yorki remains alone. But then comes the final twist. The one that you usually fear for Black Mirror has the ability to leave you listless on the floor. The one, that, here, in an consistent, organic way with the rest of the narrative, actually brings tears of joy to your eyes. Yorki's line earlier turns out to be true: it's not a trap.”

So Kelly passes over, and actually chose to stay in San Junipero. For a second there, through the overwhelming wave of mere happiness I was experiencing, the tiniest part of me got upset. Because the former me, the "before PTSD and emotional shutdown me" was actually agreing with Kelly, on forever being pointless, on having lived your life and accepting there's an end to it and it felt like a let down to have a character not believing in afterlife but still finding meaning in death, going the other way in the end. This feeling lasted a second or so, before I realized something in Kelly's very last words and on the last shot of the episode itself.

Kelly did not change her mind about the meaning or aftermath of death, let alone about the lack of meaning in "forever". She doesn't say "ok let's go on living forever" but that, “all things considered” she’s ready for the rest of it. I guess that by mimicking Yorki's car accident, which left her trapped in a organic, natural and, yes, 'real' body but deprived her of any physical experience, Kelly put herself in her lover's shoes, became aware that the full life she lived, the joy, the pain, the all experience of it, was denied to Yorki, and that San Junipero is her chance to finally get that. To live. But as her last line states, Kelly's final choice to stay in San Junipero isn't made out of pity, but out of that second and more personal / self-centered realization that there's a "rest of it" for her too. Some things left to experience, some happiness left to live. She makes that choice out of realization she does have, in her love for Yorki, a reason to stay on a big longer.

I don"t think that "For the rest of it" happens to be San Junipero's last spoken line by chance. For me, it's one final description of what the system has to offer. Just like the very last image happens to be the computing servers hosting the population's spirits, consciousness, souls, if you'll have it.

Kelly and Yorki's souls still exist on a physical, thus perishable, mortal medium. At some point, that server will crash, or run out of power. Something will end it. Just as an organic body, it is ephemeral and won't last forever. Because San Junipero, the system, and, I think the story, isn't about forever. It's about love, connecting with people, and other reasons making worthwile to hang around a bit longer.

It's about "the rest of it". It's about more life. And as of today, yes. I do know what that's worth.

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#tvshow #charlie brooker #black mirror #san junipero #ptsd #death #writing

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bones-jeffersonian · 7 years

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💀💀 Thank You Bones 💀💀

Day 2 - 11 Temperance Brennan’s character growth moments

The second day of the Thank You Bones challenge focus on Temperance Brennan's character growth moments and I have to say this is a very good topic and there are numerous scenes/moments where we witnessed Brennan's growth. I’ve learn a million things and even after 9 years of seeing this show, Brennan continues to be my daily inspiration (and will continue forever). Brennan’s character helped me when I needed most and I cannot imagine where I would be right now if I didn’t find Bones. Choosing 11 moments was difficult but these are the ones that had the biggest impact in me, and decided to leave here a piece of my mind for each one.

Episode 1x08 - Court scene

This was not the first episode I ever saw of Bones, but it was one that made fall in love with this show, especially this scene. Brennan after solving a crime have the role of being an expert witness when the case goes to court, and as in all her work she is meticulous and straightforward delivering the evidence, as the way she ought to be in my opinion. Nevertheless, the jury never fully understand her and consider her cold (as most people think) and quickly sympathise with the defendant expert witness, which in this particular episode was Brennan's old teacher. And since he knows her and her methods and how she delivers the evidence, he uses it in his favour, trying to discredit Brennan's work. Of course Brennan get frustrated because she is showing all the necessary prove to condemn the murder suspects and everyone seems to discard her evidence. And then she reaches a breaking point and have that emotional and truthful testimony, which until now has shown to me the true nature of Temperance Brennan. Yes she testify without leaving behind every scientific detail of the case, pronouncing all the scientific jargon but in no way or moment she is being less truthful to the victim, she understands more than anyone what she reads from the bones, what the victim suffered, where the victim lived, which fractures the victim may have suffered. Quoting Brennan from another episode : "People lie. But bones always tell the truth". She never understood why people didn’t like her and knew people didn’t follow her thought but she showed them how much she care, how she sees the truth in the bones, and doesn’t matter if she is nicer or even likeable when standing in court. The only important thing is to make justice and show the truth.

Episode 3x12 - Last scene between Brennan and Booth

First I love this episode in so many ways, that I will comment on two issues related to today's subject. By this time, everyone already knew that Brennan was a foster kid for some years and it was an experience which profoundly left marks. And, despite how in the beginning she was reluctant to temporarily taking care of baby Andy, she was so incredibly adorable, and took care of him and give him so much love when the poor baby had lost his mother (I could never believe there are people saying that Brennan has no emotions). My point here is that even if Brennan had always thought about not having children, because in her perspective and experience the world is a cruel place to bring a child, I noted a small change of opinion or at least a consideration in the future in terms of having children (which thankfully we all witnessed). She has some bad memories from her childhood, and in that way she did everything to find a good family for Andy, to prevent him to go through the same experiences as she did in foster care. The second point is when Brennan decides to give some of her money to the town which was facing with serious financial problems. At the beginning Brennan seems unmoved related to this matter and even comments that on a financial perspective this happens a lot of times. Although I never believed she was indifferent to the problem, and I had my prove at the end when she decides to help them build the town again, and consequently help the new Andy's family survive and get him the chance to grow up in his and his mother birth town.

Episode 3x13 - Living room scene between Brennan and Booth

I added this episode in the first day tribute and I chose again for the second day because Brennan learned so much in this episode. She is divided between what is rational and what her heart wants. Though the heart is just a muscle and can't obviously think. She reunited with her father after so long and now he is facing murder charges. She wants her father not to be condemned but she also see by all evidences that he might be guilty. The scene with Booth in Brennan's house is amazing, "You're not Dr. Brennan today. You're Temperance. [...] The scientist part of you got sidelined, temporarily". I believe she understood both parts but she was nervous of choosing what her heart wanted. And then, for my delight and inspiration, she chose both. She wants her father not be convicted and she found a logic way to prove his innocence. Though in the end those proofs were not physical, but indeed a theory that she might have committed the murder herself, she used logic and reasonable data to induce that theory. And she had her most wanted result, her father was declared not guilty and he could finally share a life with his daughter. So many things Brennan has taught me, but one that remains transversal to all the others, is that no matter how cold it may seems to choose the rational option, we can always use both heart and brain for any decision in life. There is no prejudice in throwing a rational variable in the overall equation, and make it work with the heart component.

Episode 5x10 - Car scene between Brennan and Booth

This episode is set on Christmas time, and despite this is my favourite holiday, it is not the entire reason why this episode is one of my favourite. When in the beginning sounded like Santa Claus ruined Christmas by robbing a bank, soon the truth was revealed, bringing sadness with it. A simple yet honest man was chosen randomly and forced to rob a bank and ended up dying, whom funeral was schedule to Christmas morning. I cannot imagine the pain that mother endured. And thus, Brennan's reaction was my one and once more we saw that she has indeed a bigger heart than most give her credit for. She tries not to attach to the victims she investigates because it can be painful like this one, but sometimes the emotion is too big to overcome. And Brennan ultimately decides to go to the funeral of the victim, giving support to his mother, something that probably Brennan never imagined doing it. Sometimes is the little things that counts.

Episode 6x09 - Whole episode honestly but specially the car scene

There is so much to say about this episode that I am afraid on rambling indefinitely. This episode means a lot to me in so many ways, not only because I saw a beloved character going through a critic emotional state but also because I relate to the story in a way. Brennan in this episode “sees” so many similarities between the victim and herself. An important job, a big career, very focused on work, very little personal life. And she comes to the realization that maybe she will have the same fate as the victim, that no one will notice her absence. She realizes then that she may have lost the opportunity to be happy, she could've lived differently and that scene in the car shock me to death. I am not saying that Booth should've run to her and leave Hannah. This is life and sometimes the timing can ruin everything (and we all knew they are meant for each other so eventually they would get together). It was heart crushing seeing Brennan crying in the car but in my opinion this was a turning point in her life. She understood that are somethings in life she can't put on hold or even ignore. She didn't had her outcome (yet) but in the end she is in peace with herself, she is sad, but it is so much better than dead. And most important, she is not alone.

Episode 6x22 - Room scene

Despite so much happened in this episode and scene, I will be focusing on Brennan's reaction to the death of Vincent Nigel Murray. The sudden death in the platform was incredible emotional and Brennan couldn't contain the tears right there when Vincent just died right in front of her. And then she quickly focus on giving support to the people around her. She quickly tries to explain to Booth that it wasn't his fault and tries at all cost proceed with the investigation and find Broadsky. Just after the reality settles down she truly feels everything that happened that day. And what really breaks my heart was that she thought Vincent's last words were related to her work with him, that she wanted him to leave. She was so devastated by his departure and even question how can there be a god if he lets good people go away. I ask the same question multiple times honestly. My point is, that no matter how people see she is hard with her interns it's only to help them improve to be better and efficient scientists. As in episode 11x18, as Arastoo pointed out, Brennan cares so deeply for her interns and most people don't see it just because she is direct and very professional on the lab. After Vincent's death I don't think she started to love more her interns (she always did), but rather show them more her affection in the little things, because she wants them to know that she is grateful for having them.

Episode 7x07 - All episode, but specially the birth scene

Well this episode is just amazing and again there is so much to discuss. But I want to particularly focus on the birth scene, because I do believe much changed in Brennan's character. We could see during this season that Brennan feels a little afraid of having a family (and all that entailed), which is already such a difference compared to when she rationally decided to have a child on 4x25. The circumstances changed and most important Brennan grew. I often remember about the scene where Angela said to Brennan when she was pregnant, that she shouldn't just hold on the bad moments of her childhood, but to find those happy moments with her family before her parents went away. And I think when Brennan first held Christine she truly understood the concept of family and what happiness can be. Family is such an important matter in Brennan's life (and all the other characters really) and, as I already referred, she has a perspective which didn't allowed her to be excited and happy when thinking about a family. And despite her bad memories and experiences, I am really glad she had the chance to write her own history and have a family she deserves. This is in my perspective a turning point, where we have episodes like 3x12 or the interview in 1x11 when she said she would never have children, to I am pregnant again and I can continue eating cookies! This is for me one of the biggest growth of Brennan's character (and of course we were very lucky to see it).

Episode 10x02 - Sweets' funeral

This episode is full of emotions for every character. Once again, Brennan had to face the loss of a friend in such a sudden way. Despite all the differences between Brennan and Sweets they were truly friends and even lived together for a while. I chose this moment, not only because of the pain Brennan endured of the loss of a friend, but also because of the support Brennan gave Daisy. Daisy lost her love and the father of her child. And even though Daisy still was Brennan's intern, she put it on the side those titles and help her in this time of need. Brennan could see how much someone can lose, and how some things matter more than others "Loving each other, that’s what makes life worthwhile". And it wasn't only the support she gave Daisy on this time, we could see on the following episodes Brennan was always there when Daisy needed, in her personal and work life. As I said before, I never doubted Brennan cared about people, I just think she had trouble in show it, in part maybe because no one ever cared for in the same way. And we see she is much more open to it, she has no doubt in showing her care and love to her family and friends.

Episode 11x18 - Last scene focused on Brennan’s perspective

With Christine growing up, Brennan expects nothing than brilliance from her daughter. And on those terms, Brennan believes Christine will follow her mother's footsteps and become an extraordinary forensic anthropologist. She just doesn’t believe that Christine’s brilliant mind should be used for something with less purpose. I understand Brennan's point of view but seeing her adapt her ideals were so rewarding. This whole episode is perfect because it dignifies what a person want to be when grows up, and despite this is a common question for children I truly loved that they applied on adults. Isn't never too late to have new dreams and expectations for the future. And in this case, seeing Brennan changing her expectations related to Christine were simple the purest. Christine can be whatever she choses, Brennan will be there to support and love her. Hence, she wants to be the mother of the world’s greatest car sales person.

Episode 11x20 - Last scene between Clark and Brennan

Maybe I have already stated this a million times before but honestly is never enough. In this episode we could see that Brennan doesn't only care for Clark but have a high respect for his work. During this episode she was always truthful to the evidence presented to her and never consider Clark to be the murdered. Not only she remained objective throughout the investigation as she cleared Clark’s name and prove his innocence. And after that Brennan even helped restore his accuracy in the scientific community, and explain to Clark that a true scientist confronts his mistakes and move forward. Besides this, Brennan even agreed on staying at a first name basis with Clark! This moment/episode once again showed the true friend and brilliant teacher Brennan is. She saw this man grew into an excellent forensic anthropologist and I believe she couldn’t be prouder.

Episode 12x02 - Brennan's birthday party

In this episode we see again the results of the long path of Brennan's character growth. First her own birthday party: I don't think in the past Brennan would care about throwing herself a birthday party. I loved how she wants it to make the party for her family and friends and not particularly for her. Again this woman is amazing. Second Brennan’s recommends Angela for the MacArthur grant: Angela and Brennan's friendship is such an important relationship in this show, it helped Brennan find someone who truly cared about her and helped her sometimes see the world in different ways. And even though in the past Brennan may seemed careless and uninterested on Angela's work, I never doubt Brennan respected and admired Angela's work. I think that is what Brennan saw in Angela when they first met (though is not in screen). She recognised an immense talent and she knew Angela could be so much more. This award is just the perfect recognition of the amazing Angela's work and how much Brennan care and admire. Third Brennan's recommendation of Daisy to NFL: again as I commented before, Brennan grew and shows more her respect and friendship to her interns, and Daisy was an example of it. No matter if in the past they had their divergences, Brennan sees Daisy as a respectful and brilliant scientist and colleague and thus recommended her for the job for the NFL, which Daisy got it. These ladies have gone through some rough paths but they respect each other work and have a beautiful friendship.

#thankyoubones #day 2 #1x08 #3x12 #3x13 #5x10 #6x09 #6x22 #7x07 #10x02 #11x18 #11x20 #12x02 #sorry for the long post

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briangroth27 · 6 years

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Marvel’s Inhumans Season 1 Review

I didn’t find much to love in Marvel’s latest TV series: I’ve never been a huge Inhumans fan and this did little to change my mind. The show felt prohibitively small-scale, the character arcs were messy even in an eight-episode season, and they took the bizarre position of making the supposed heroes the heads of an oppressive caste system. It seems like budgetary restraints put a cap on power usage, but I feel like we see more action on episodes of Agents of SHIELD than we did on this show. There were many opportunities to go bigger, weirder, and much more interesting in all areas of the series, from design to superpowers to character arcs, but more often than not they chose to play it safe and conventional.

From costumes to sets, the production values for the Inhumans’ hidden moon base Attilan looked far too mundane and ordinary, like you could find them in any location on Earth. Their design choices and way of life didn’t reflect a people that had been separated from humanity for such a long time. Shouldn’t they have wholly disparate customs and outlooks; shouldn’t they essentially be aliens to us at this point? The terrigenesis ceremony, which gives the Inhumans their powers, was the one cultural touchstone that felt like it separated them from any other Earth culture. Attilan should’ve been home to as many strange and wondrous Marvel Easter Eggs as possible—this was their first chance to truly dig into the weirdness of the MCU on TV—but we got none. While Hawai’i was shot well, the rest of the Earth locations didn't really pop either. The set for what was supposed to be a high-tech space agency was an empty warehouse with a big-screen monitor and some desks arranged in front of it.

The characters didn’t fare much better and for the most part, their sojourns in Hawai’i did little to endear them to me. While it was great to have a lead who couldn’t speak and instead used sign language (or a version of it, anyway; like I saw in reviews at the AV Club, there’s no reason for them to speak English but not use ASL), Black Bolt (Anson Mount) wasn’t given many opportunities to do more than glower. When he did get to briefly explore other emotions, like comedic reactions to humans or romance with Medusa (Serinda Swan), Mount was believable, but overall Blackagar Boltagon felt pretty grim the whole time. I didn’t buy the angst of his character: a scene where he accidentally vaporized his parents with his super-destructive voice was so nonchalant it appeared comedic, not tragic. Additionally, Black Bolt did not appear to be a ruler charismatic enough to uphold the oppression the royal family continued forcing on the people of Attilan. His leadership choices didn’t make much sense either: learning of the spread of Inhumans on Earth (as seen on Agents of SHIELD), he secretly sends Triton (Mike Moh) to recover them, complete with a secret rendezvous location in case things go bad. Why wouldn’t he tell Medusa and his master strategist Karnak (Ken Leung)? We’re never given a hint that he distrusts them and it’s clear neither would betray him. How did he send Triton, when the show makes no effort to give Black Bolt the means to communicate without Medusa interpreting for him (the Inhumans have wrist communicators, but the devices don’t have video screens or text readouts) and only Medusa and Maximus (Iwan Rheon) know how to understand his sign language? We’re also told he has a secret bunker that no one else knows about, fully stocked for several lifetimes. What if Black Bolt had been killed in a sneak attack from their “greatest enemy?” Medusa and the rest of his family would’ve never known where they could seek shelter. Keeping secrets like these made no sense and only served to manufacture cheap drama when the other characters found out and (rightly) called him on his bizarre choices. I did like that Black Bolt always maintained his self-control about using his powers, making him a clever foil to Maximus’ obsession with getting abilities, but that wasn’t played with as much as it could’ve been. Finally unleashing his voice to give Maximus the other thing he wanted—to be king of Attilan—was fitting, but I didn’t feel anything from their struggle since they spent so much screentime apart.

Karnak was introduced as an abusive and borderline psychotic womanizer—telling a servant (Jenna Bleu Forti, I believe) that within two days of dating he’d hate her so much he’d want to kill her because he could see her flaws—and his brief fling with a human (Jen, Jamie Grey Hyder) while his powers were on the fritz did nothing to convince me he’d changed. I’ve liked Leung in other roles, but making Karnak likable was a truly uphill battle. That he hit his head and messed up his powers of seeing the flaw in everything because he calmly stepped on a loose rock and fell off a cliff was absurd. Immediately abandoning his quest to find Black Bolt once his powers glitched—not to find out how to fix them, but because he felt useless—made me wonder why he was ever seen as reliable among the royal family. His truly random time on a pot farm was extraneous to the plot (especially once violence was involved), and his self-doubt momentarily changed into completely embracing a carefree lifestyle far too fast, but at least his fling attempted to provoke some character growth by getting him to not look for flaws so much. However, his inability to see them at that point deflates that growth a bit for me. Once he reunited with his family, their biggest reaction to the changes he’d supposedly gone through is that he acts without being absolutely sure now, not that he’s grown as a person or anything. He does defy royal decrees and tradition by putting Gorgon (Eme Ikwuakor) through terrigenesis a second time to resurrect him, but Black Bolt and Medusa scolding him felt half-hearted, so it didn’t seem like that big a breach in protocol. While his dedication to his friend was admirable, he was so abrasive in the beginning that I still didn’t find him likable at the end of his arc.

Questions of competency further arose around Gorgon, who seemed to be the worst head of a royal guard ever. This is a guy who, knowing they have to remain hidden, intentionally crushed exploratory rovers, stole the flag Neil Armstrong planted on the moon for fun, and told a bunch of Earth strangers about their secret moon city right after meeting them. I don’t know if it’s because he never had to actually police anything in Attilan, but he wasn’t written like someone who’d be in charge of security; he was written like a bumbling fool Karnak had to put up with. I get the buddy cop pairing they were going for—Gorgon was the fun impulsive contrast to Karnak’s obsessive planner—but too often Gorgon came off as dumb and Karnak as cruel for me to buy into their friendship very much. Don’t get me wrong; a fun-loving, jovial head of security would be a refreshing change from the standard gruff characterization—Ikwualkor seemed more than up to that task—and it would’ve been fine if Gorgon hadn’t seemed so irresponsible as well. His only response to Karnak telling the servant he’d want to kill her was “You’re your own worst enemy,” which either implies these kinds of comments are so common that he’s decided they can be laughed off or that Gorgon sees Karnak’s sex life as more important than the actual lives of the servants (“say nothing about wanting to kill them—even if you’re thinking it—and they’d sleep with you” was my interpretation of his reaction), or both. Resurrecting him as a somewhat confused “zombie” after a heroic sacrifice (possibly the only truly guard-like thing he did beyond training people to fight in flashbacks) in the later episodes didn’t help matters either. They had a chance to make him see that the royal family’s way of doing things was wrong when a group of Hawai’ian freedom fighters told him about Hawai’i’s history, wherein America forced Hawai’i to give up its monarchy—as if all monarchs are good regardless of who they are—but the writing didn’t let Gorgon realize that Maximus didn’t parallel the imperialistic Americans, Black Bolt and co. did. I found it odd that Gorgon would take these random humans’ advice about strategy for fighting Maximus (staying on Earth to make himself bait so Maximus would bring the fight to him) instead of coming up with one himself. He did have a good idea when he suggested Karnak bluff about still having his power, though, and he did show a little responsibility in eventually telling his freedom fighter pals to back off for their safety; I just wish he’d shown more of this kind of behavior. It seemed like they were afraid to extensively show his hooves, as he wore special boots that made his feet look normal in every action sequence. Triton (Mike Moh) was wasted—maybe the heavy makeup required to bring the character to life prevented them from using him much—and there was no reason for Black Bolt to keep his mission a secret except to create a later moment of internal drama. He did have pretty cool fight scenes at the end of the season, though.

Medusa fared the best by far on the show, and was the one character I was invested in. Even though they cut off her prehensile hair in the first episode—for budgetary/effects reasons, I suppose; for the record, I didn’t think the CGI hair looked bad—robbing her of her trademark powers, her arc was the best-written and acted. At first I thought she was a little too stoic, but Swan did great once Medusa was banished to Hawai’i; her reactions to the loss of her hair—effectively several limbs—were haunting and powerful. I wish we’d gotten more time to see just how intrinsic Medusa’s hair was to her everyday life so we could see how big an impact losing it had on everyday actions (how often does she use her hair when the rest of us would use our hands, for example?) or her fighting style (I did like what little we got to see of her using her hair offensively), but Swan absolutely sold her loss. I liked that her displacement revealed her as a tough fighter (and clever strategist, correctly guessing that Crystal (Isabelle Cornish) was being used to track the royals’ locations) rather than crushing her, though as I’ve seen pointed out elsewhere, a bigger reaction to seeing Maximus again in the end would’ve been appropriate. They could’ve even included the twist the comics did, where she could still control her hair to attack him even after having it cut off. I did like that she destroyed his last chance to get powers by smashing the terrigen crystal just like he stole hers, though. And she got to deliver perhaps the series’ coolest line to Maximus, “Black Bolt wants to have words with you.” Her drive to save her husband—her second call to Black Bolt on their communication devices after arriving on Earth was a great expression of their love—and reunite her family provided the urgency and stakes to the show. While Black Bolt got arrested or captured a lot early on (elaborating on Maximus’ connections on Earth) and everyone else was stuck in subplots that went nowhere and added very little to their character development (mostly they just gained an appreciation for humans, though Karnak and Gorgon once tried thinking like each other to solve problems), Medusa’s arc fit squarely into the narrative and drove most of the action. While she was abrasive when she got to Earth, her burgeoning friendship with Louise (Ellen Woglom) was well-constructed to spark her character development and it’s the one human relationship that felt real and natural. While I would've liked Medusa to spend a little more time dealing with how her rule affected her citizens, taking responsibility for the royal family’s misdeeds and acknowledging that Maximus had the right idea (just like her parents) was a good start, though we probably should’ve seen more of a reckoning for the royals in terms of public reaction to them. I also liked her getting fed up with just being Black Bolt’s interpreter and his lies in general, so I’d be very interested to see what she does with an equal share of the responsibility of ruling. Will she balance her parents’ teachings with the way Black Bolt has been leading, or will she do something entirely different? I would also watch a second season of Medusa and Lockjaw travelling the world to rescue scared and persecuted Inhumans. Medusa and Lockjaw recurring on a Ms. Marvel series, with Medusa teaching Kamala how to be an Inhuman and Kamala teaching her how to respect non-royals and humans, would be welcome too.

Medusa’s sister Crystal had the potential to go in an interesting direction, but they settled for a flimsy romance instead. Maximus seemed to nearly convince her that he was right about the horrible conditions of Inhuman society in Attilan—particularly since her parents had fought against the royalty—and it almost seemed like she might agree. Instead, she escaped Attilan the first chance she got and fell in love with the first human (Chad James Buchanan) she met, who also rammed Lockjaw with his four-wheeler. True it was an accident and he got her dog help, but he also convinced Crystal to go swimming instead of looking for her family in the middle of a coup. From what we saw of Crystal in Attilan, at no point did she need to relax more; even after the coup, Maximus let her hang out in her room. I’m not against romance in superhero stories at all—the soap opera aspect is a core component, dating all the way back to Superman and Lois’ triangle for two—but this wasn’t the time and it paled in comparison to the promise of Crystal more directly interacting with Maximus’ plot. I would have absolutely been on board with her siding with Maximus for the right reasons (minus the overtones of a forced marriage); that would’ve been far more complex and engaging than continuing to draw her as the sheltered princess they did. It also would’ve put her at odds with the rest of her family and built on the backstory of Black Bolt’s parents (Michael Buie, Tanya Clarke) putting hers to death for dissenting against the monarchy. Instead, she got a bland flirtation and her entire role in the final battle against Maximus was to ask a wall (Moses Goods) to teleport everyone to Earth, and she didn’t even have to convince Eldrac to help. Lockjaw was a delight, but he didn’t get to do anything but act as a transporter for everyone else. As I’ve seen pointed out elsewhere, I really wish we’d seen them build their relationship more.

Maximus had all the right motivations—he legitimately had a good argument about the Inhuman caste system throwing people with undesirable or no powers into literal mines (despite the fact that surely powers like Gorgon, Crystal, Karnak, Black Bolt and even Medusa had would make mining easier…no argument that limited resources necessitated the caste system holds up when all the powers useful for labor are wasted on an upper class that does nothing) while those with admirable or beautiful powers were prized—but he was trapped in Attilan without anyone to spar with beyond underlings (another reason Crystal agreeing with him but truly fighting for the greater good would’ve been the better arc). If he wanted an exodus to Earth to ease overpopulation on the moon so badly, why didn’t he just start moving people there as soon as he was in control? Using Eldrac would’ve allowed him to take his people anywhere and the royal family wouldn’t have known or been able to do anything about it. They should’ve been able to hold whatever territory they took or, more intelligently, couldn’t they replicate their camouflaging tech on Earth? Establishing a temporary, invisible home base on Earth where they could collect the newly emerging Inhumans would’ve been better than staying on the moon. Surely fulfilling his promises and leading his people into the future would’ve gone over much better than murdering anyone who opposed him, even with spinning the Genetic Council as the keepers of oppression. It would’ve been a great and complex twist if, in addition to wanting powers, he actually was a good king. When it came to his selfish impulses, he came off as another Loki scheming for power, and while I’ve seen the suggestion that an Inhumans show with multiple “houses” could’ve been the superhero Game of Thrones, that’s much harder to do when there’s only one house. The reveal that Maximus had been communicating with people on Earth and was in command of the soldiers who “killed” Triton was a genuine surprise to me, and I wish there had been more examples of his Machiavellian schemes. On the other hand, forging his parents’ signature on a decree to have Black Bolt lobotomized—inadvertently leading to Black Bolt killing them—had no effect on me; it just seemed so haphazard and random, like it was tacked on to give Black Bolt additional reason to hate Maximus. Having Maximus send out soldiers to attack the royal family got old (though at least they used super powers), and perhaps it wouldn’t have seemed so perfunctory if the royals hadn’t all had their powers undermined right off the bat. Maximus and his loyalists would’ve had to be that much more cunning and powerful if they were dealing with a royal family that had functioning superpowers instead of a scattered array of lost souls, which would’ve made for a more exciting series instead of watching drug dealers try to kill Karnak and random freedom fighters team up with Gorgon. I wish they could’ve given him his second terrigenesis to push him further into madness. I also wish we’d seen his friendship with Medusa—in flashbacks or in the present—since it was apparently so important to him; that would’ve added an understanding of how much he was either hurt by her cutting him off or how much he was willing to sacrifice to be someone important.

The series’ biggest problem was crafting the royal family as willing perpetrators of the caste system in Attilan. I’ll give the show credit for taking the hard path and making them knowingly complicit instead of just having Maximus convince the populace that truly benevolent and fair rulers were corrupt simply because it was a monarchy, but the writing didn’t do the best job of having any of the royals deal with what they were doing to their people. With Black Bolt and Co. willfully throwing Inhumans with powers that aren’t desirable or useful into slums and mines, how are they anything but the villains? Why should we root for them? Then you have Kitang (Marco Rodriguez) celebrating terrigenesis as a process which elevates the Inhumans above everyone else; however well the “Inhumans-as-mutants” parallel was going on Agents of SHIELD, comments like these destroy the idea that Inhumans can reliably stand in for mutants as metaphors for the disenfranchised and oppressed in society. Going even further, I didn’t need to see the royal family learn to appreciate humans at all. That was extraneous to their arc this season and not at all relevant to Maximus’ struggle. Though he vaguely wanted to conquer Earth to take back their “rightful home,” the royals didn’t need to know people to disagree with that impulse, as they already did before meeting anyone and Maximus’ immediate plans never involved attacking humans (except holding a few hostages once). They should’ve been learning to appreciate the lower classes of Attilan and the newly-powered Earth-born Inhumans instead; especially given that’s what brought Triton to Earth in the first place (perhaps the Earth-born Inhumans have created their own underground subculture that would contrast with Attilan’s). Accepting and protecting humans should’ve been saved for a potential Season 2, when they would’ve known they were stuck among us but still felt somewhat xenophobic, especially faced with a government that hates and fears Inhumans.

Despite a nice moment in the fourth episode of Black Bolt taking the time to move injured enemy Inhuman soldiers away from a fire, I didn’t buy that one dying soldier (Locus, Sumire Matsubara) was all it took to convince Black Bolt that their caste system was wrong from what we saw. Medusa maybe, because her parents fought it (and Black Bolt’s parents had hers executed), but I still think we needed to see more of her secretly suspecting her parents weren’t wrong all along to really sell that shift. The dots of her emotional arc were there, but they needed to be connected more clearly. Her comment to Black Bolt about killing Maximus, “Think about what kind of ruler you want to be,” was probably prompted by her dissident parents’ deaths, and mercy for Maximus also probably reflects both their childhood friendship and her friendship with Black Bolt, which started when she went to gloat about his parents’ deaths but took pity on him instead. They could’ve even introduced and justified her lack of success in effecting social change by showing her trying to push it once she became queen, but accidentally finding herself taken in by the comfort of royal life and the ease of cold practicalities (such as forcing Locus into her scout position instead of allowing her to be a healer like she wanted) without realizing it. A wrinkle like that would’ve sold the wakeup call Locus’ death was supposed to be while also bringing Medusa into conflict not only with Black Bolt, but the social awakening Crystal should’ve undertaken. These are the sources of internal dissention they should’ve gone for among the royals, not brief spats over Triton’s mission or Karnak being annoyed at Gorgon’s foolishness. Had something like this been included, I would’ve believed the pivot to a more democratic society more (if that’s even what’s happening; we aren’t really told how the royals are going to continue Maximus’ goal).

The pacing on the whole could’ve been faster. After a quarter of the show had aired, it felt like it had gone nowhere. If this had been a super-powered Mad Max: Fury Road, with the royal family chased out, seen what it was like to be the nobodies in society—maybe in addition to Maximus’ forces hunting them, whatever is left of SHIELD should’ve been on-site to deal with the new Inhuman menaces—and then sieged Maximus’ new Earth-bound city (as the only ones equipped to do it in the wake of Civil War), it would’ve been much better and tighter. I suppose that’s essentially what it was, but the subplots on Earth didn’t really contribute to a greater understanding of the system the royals were perpetuating for the characters. I also don’t understand the intentional vagueness of the finale. Where on Earth is their new home? Who is “the Boss” that secured them this location? Who is their “greatest enemy?” There’s no reason not to answer those questions and they’re not interesting enough to be hooks for a second season. It’s also weird that, just like when Agents of SHIELD started, the people in Inhumans are right back to doubting paranormal things despite living in a world full of them. Callisto Aerospace Control Center scientist Louise gets suspended for suggesting aliens destroyed the moon rover? Aliens demolished New York! Why wouldn’t that be a priority-one, “Call SHIELD right now!” moment?

I don’t know if Inhumans will get a second season and I’m not sure I’d watch if it does. They introduced some interesting ideas, but never expanded on them as much as they could have and the budget was not there to accommodate this world or these characters, spoiling their potential and drastically decreasing the stakes. The show did make me a fan of Medusa and it was great to see another strong female character join the MCU, but I don’t know how much longer her character can carry Inhumans. However, everything can be improved, so the question is, will ABC give it the chance?

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