#any episode that merges the a and b plots is always interesting and this one did a GREAT job of it

[zosonils]

bully bromance breakup is such a good episode what the fuck!!!!!

#like i'm pretty sure it's my favourite of the entire series thus far #any episode that merges the a and b plots is always interesting and this one did a GREAT job of it #also i think the art is different? maybe a different boarder? whatever it is it looks amazing ESPECIALLY the stills with more shading #there was some great character insight not just for buford and baljeet but for pretty much every character except maybe isabella #who was written really well she just didn't get anything new from this episode which is perfectly fine #i'm going to try not to go apeshit in the tags but fuck i need a discord server to infodump into #[makes grabby hands at anyone who knows good pnf servers] bplmease

[floater0352]

TL;DR warning: TFATWS Ep. 6 / Finale There’s a lot to unpack in this series finale, and I sure as hell am not the expert to do this, but I thought I’d highlight some particular issues I have. Much of this, admittedly, will be coming from the high character tenors of the previous episodes, whereas this episode is really where the “MCU kind of movie denouement” kicks in. If you can call/criticize something as “Disney formula” writing, this might be it. Did it hamper/dampen my enjoyment of this series? Not THAT much, but it really stands out and suggests it could have been better. So let me do a few numbers. 1. PRO: A very acceptable execution of selling not only Sam’s first outing as ‘Captain America’, not only the affirmation of Bucky Barnes’ commitment to heroism, but the apotheosis long-denied to Isaiah Bradley. I’m getting the impression much of the gushing here in Tumblr will be focusing on that--and to an extent, I am in agreement.  their characters were very well fleshed out and to be honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way. There may be still other things I would recommend as a better laid-out recognition for Isaiah (something more faithful to the Truth comic miniseries), but that’s a minor quibble compared to the others below.  

2. CON: Falling into the trap of a “GOT-layout” series ending Ok, that description might be too harsh. After all, point # 1 is near perfect. 

However, and this is a very big HOWEVER... A really good show does not rely solely on giving your main characters the best ending possible. Their supporting cast deserves at least a fair amount of character development (understandable motivations, a good appreciation of their character arcs, more moments which make you empathize with them especially if you are trying to experiment with moral ambiguity on their characters). The fact that the action sequence ate up more than half of the final episode’s near-50 minute runtime really prevented any further character development moments. How, to some extent, this became insufficient with Karli Morgenthau and John Walker become really apparent in the end.  3. CON: Under-served Character Denouements Karli and the Flag-Smashers, in practice, were basically given the “Killmonger” treatment: they’ll have to die, but the validity of their moral argument will be recognized. As someone with a very limited set of fandoms I follow, the only other place I’ve seen this done is Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans. The protagonist cast was left to die, but the tragedy of their situation led their world to improve things for the better. (For those familiar with this fandom, many will understand that this did not go down well.) Compare this, in turn, to how Breaking Bad gives even the supporting cast and side-characters understandable character endings.

The reason of complaint here, being, that this kind of story flow robs these characters of agency not only in their tragedy--but also how they choose to go out. Sympathetic tragic characters, to an extent, are at least given some dignity in how they go out. The fact that Karli and the Flag-Smashers are practically disposed of by a) Sharon, now fully revealed as the criminal Power-Broker and b) Zemo, whose butler is no less capable in extreme action even while he was in prison further highlights how they are basically reduced into ‘plot elements’, not a fully-realized group/faction of people.

John Walker, for his part, is also given very little to do (and indeed, what little he was able to do in the entire fight sequence is laughable). Even his one spark of “good choice” (seeking to save the falling vehicle’s occupants), even if he failed, was ultimately overshadowed by Sam’s more flamboyant rescue. One might be able to make argument, perhaps, that that is the point: Walker’s arc in this episode, perhaps, is to finally learn why exactly he can’t become Captain America: because he remains primarily a soldier, and only good at that. Witnessing Sam arguing and pontificating in front of the cameras, perhaps, is what hammers it home to him--and why perhaps his last scene in the series is him accepting his new role as U.S. Agent. If his world is going to be small and he is going to be pigeonholed into what he is good at, so be it. If he can’t be Captain America (now that he knows why exactly that symbol is powerful, and what is required of it), he’ll find his way with people who will let him be what he can be. Notice, however, how even between these two underserved characters, John Walker has a more understandable progression. I don’t think I’ll really be able to fault ‘left-wing’ viewers of the show who will be left dissatisfied by this ending (especially those who are sympathetic to the Flag-Smashers’ demands--especially as to some extent (due to my own line of work and leanings, I’m kind of one of those). And then there’s the reveal of Sharon as the Power-Broker--its own can of worms, but I’ll fold it in the next item. 4. MIXED BAG: How the show’s social layout closes

The fact that the MCU’s undercurrent politics remains to be “institutions are bad, mob/grassroots action will always be misguided, let media-chosen/private individuals and orgs show you the ‘right way’ of doing things”--it isn’t really as helpful as it could be. The show basically ends with Sam and Bucky’s individual arcs and moral world-views affirmed. It is definitely a happy ending for them. It is, however, pretty difficult to swallow that it ends well for them when the bigger picture is left unaddressed.  (For those who may be interested in this line of critique, this video essay, “Imagining the Tyrant” by Kyle Kallgren / Brows Held High / oancitizen should be helpful.)

Nowhere is this better illustrated than in 2 instances: the setting of Walker’s rechristening as U.S. Agent, and Sharon’s “pardon” scene--now that we know she is in fact the Power Broker. Both events happen in the U.S. Senate Committee hearing hall--basically making the statement that even with a new Captain America that is more ‘home-grown’ and closer to the ground and common people (even as he literally flies high), the institutions of the U.S. government is still as impervious and clueless to its corruption and enabling of crime and injustice. Criminal elements like Valentina de Fontaine and the Power Broker foster the underground economy with impunity, and the U.S. government allows them to for a number of unbuilt/unestablished reasons. 

It’s a valid/backed-up argument to make, and with historical/real life basis at that, but this is the kind of plot development difficult to credibly sell within a 6-episode miniseries already crammed with character arcs--and it shows. Compare this, for example, with how the Netflix series The Punisher built throughout its Season 1 run how exactly can black market profiteering grow under the CIA in a believable way. There, you see exactly what needs to happen for a previously-established upstanding character living in a grey environment to turn grey--even full on black (be it Frank Castle/the Punisher himself, Dinah Madani, or even Billy Russo). I’d want to chalk this up to the possibility of merging/reintroducing that world--and by god, imagine Jon Bernthal’s Punisher returning in this kind of gray area--interacting with Captain America AND the Winter Soldier, as this series is now likely to be titled--should be very interesting.

---- These are the top points in my head after my first watch of this finale. I may be rewatching this again--who knows if I get to come back. Still, it’s been a pretty meaningful ride. P.S. I should probably admit to my Filipino background here again, but it’s hilarious how the closing shot of this series (Sam and Bucky having a party with their family/community near the Louisiana seaside) is basically how mosts 80′s/90′s era Filipino action and comedy films end (either a beach party or a wedding/outing near a beach/swimming pool). The presence of Pinoy shout-outs in this series (”Amatz” and “Isang Tao, Isang Mundo”) really emphasize how this might not be an accident.

#tfatws #the falcon and the winter soldier #sam wilson #bucky barnes #james buchanan barnes #sharon carter #helmut zemo #marvel cinematic universe #mcu #john walker #us agent #isaiah bradley #truth red white and black #philippines #the punisher #gundam iron-blooded orphans #breaking bad #game of thrones #karli morgenthau #flag smashers #power broker #contessa valentina allegra de fontaine #erik killmonger #black panther #captain america #marvel

[pagingdork]

Legacies 4x01

It's safe to say I went into this episode with low expectation. I didn't even want to spend the time liveblogging, sure that I would be disappointed with whatever shit the writers room was going to throw at us.

I was pleasantly proven wrong.

Overall: The lighting, tone, and pacing were excellent and possessed the exact gloominess I'd been hoping for in a show that's a part of the TVDU. The plot of the episode was strong, and the A, B, and C plot were all somewhat engaging. Some of the effects makeup and CGI were a little cheesy, but they have a budget to stick with so it's forgivable.

The premiere begins with the Super Squad, knowing Hope well enough to know she'll try to defeat Malivore on her own (which was a great way to solidify group dynamics). MG and Hope were an enjoyable duo this episode, and it was nice for someone to cheer Hope up. Lizzie antagonizes Finch, and we get more scenes with Omono and Aria which have become my personal favorite).

Landon Kirby is finally back, and willing to sacrifice himself: So far it seems this is the real Landon, not another clone. I've already talked about the nuance in Aria's performance, and he's just so brilliant as Malivore this episode.

Kaleb was a football player: he gets a healthy amount of development, that I enjoyed thoroughly, and the choice to have Mali-Landon present the film of what happened at Kaleb's homecoming game was a really strong moment. Matt Davis is on my shit list, but I enjoy scenes with Alaric and Kaleb.

Josie shares the truth about the merge, and Finch is ready to help: Kaylee Bryant and Courtney Bandeko have amazing chemistry, I am utterly thrilled to finally see Josie get a long-term love interest and to watch how their relationship evolves. Finch is really an amazing partner, and it's so nice for Josie to date someone who isn't going to run away.

Lizzie realizes she's never been in love: I'm sure this realization will lead to an actual relationship for her this season although I'm not sure who it'll be with. Interestingly enough she reveals her feelings to Hope (there always seems to be substantial Hizzie scenes in premiere episodes). Hizzie is my personal soft-spot, so it was nice to hear Lizzie talk to Hope about a love that develops on mutual respect and understanding (cough cough). Additionally Lizzie's last line "Do you mind staying for a little bit, just until I fall sleep?" is straight out of fanfiction.

I enjoyed this episode immensely, and I'm hoping the rest of the season will be just as good. The tag line "Hope Must Die," has me certain of one thing. A fully activated tribrid is on the horizon and if that Star Wars episode was prophetic in any way, Hope's death will bring about the destruction of Malivore.

#lauren watches legacies #legacies #legacies 4x01 #legacies spoilers #hope mikealson #lizzie saltzman #josie saltzman #finch tarrayo #kaleb hawkins #alaric saltzman #landon kirby #cleo sowande #malivore #hizzie

[coreancitizen]

Of saviors, traitors and, yes, that happily ever after in ‘The King Eternal Monarch’

I came across a post about “The King Eternal Monarch” the other day and found the questions it raised — and the answers it provided —  interesting. I’d seen some of the same questions either here or on Twitter. While I agreed with some of the original poster’s answers, I have a slightly different perspective on others. I didn’t want to hijack the post so I’m writing a separate. But you can read the original here. Obviously, I’m not saying these are the definitive answers. But if you have any questions about anything on the show, feel free to drop me an ask. I think you can tell my thoughts are still consumed by “The King Eternal Monarch,” LOL!

2 saviors?

I’ve seen the theory going around early during the show’s run. And I’ve seen the photos. I initially thought it was just a trick of light that made the shoes look different.

But the original poster’s theory about Gon having different shoes from different timelines and it all just merging together to emphasize the time loop makes sense as well. To borrow Gon’s words, it’s a beautiful solution to what could just be a production inconsistency.

Lee Gon being a good shooter

The theory about the time loops and how at this point it’s like muscle memory makes sense to me. God knows how many times he’s gone through this.

But why do people think Gon is a bad shooter? Because of the shooting game? I thought it was pretty clear that the game was rigged, as most of these types of games are. Other than that I don’t think viewers were ever shown or told that Gon is a bad shooter. He was supposed to be last in his class in combat, but even then I’m not sure that his mentor wasn’t just pulling his leg.

What was Lee Lim’s plan?

“I plan to become the very being who gives punishment from the skies.” That’s what Lee Lim told his brother, the king, right before he killed him. He basically wants to become a god, with dominion over “eternity and infinity” through the Manpasikjeok. With the power to open doors to different worlds and have the breadth of time to do so, the possibilities for Lee Lim were endless and quite mind-boggling, to be honest. I do think he still wanted to rule Corea, part of the reason he was replacing all those people with his minions. 

The ending ...

I think this is the part where I’ve seen the most debate. I fall on the side of Gon and Tae Eul ending up living in Corea, married and with kids — which, of course, means Tae Eul became queen. Without being explicitly shown a wedding, plus that line about going back to their daily lives after their weekend dates, I see how it could be viewed as our couple making the best of an impossible situation.

But interpreting the ending to mean Gon and Tae Eul lived separate lives and just got together on weekends would mean ignoring everything that the show set up about Gon’s and Tae Eul’s characters as well as what the king’s duties entail. This is a point hammered throughout the series, he needs to make sure his royal line continues. 

Then you have Gon’s repeated proposals — a storytelling trope. The payoff was her finally accepting it: in the penultimate episode when she put on the necklace, and in the final episode when she accepted Gon’s flowers. Don’t forget that she was willing to abandon her life in the republic and go into the in-between place with Lee Lim, risking death or being trapped on the other side. That’s why she told Luna to take care of her dad.

There’s actually no obstacle to them being together that they can’t overcome. As Gon repeatedly says, he’s quite an influential person in Corea (Netflix keeps using the word “decent,” which doesn’t make sense in the context of his conversations. I’d say influential would be closer, maybe even powerful). Luna exists, yes, but they can always say, “Hey, everybody has a doppelganger” and laugh it off. Tae Eul’s identity? I’m sure Lady Noh and her creative Royal Public Affairs Office can come up with some beautiful fiction to explain the new queen’s origin/background.

It also helps that Fate or the spirit of the flute seem to be on our couple’s side, first by allowing them to keep their memories, and then later nudging them to basically get on with it by bringing them back to Corea to be discovered by Jo Yeong and the Royal Guards — a repeat of the last time.

One of these days I’ll write a longer meta on the many ways the series showed that marriage and queenship for Tae Eul were not just possible but inevitable.

What’s the purpose of the chief’s solitude?

To show the effects of compassion — or lack of it — on people’s lives, it’s one of the themes explored throughout the series and emphasized in the finale. The chief uses the excuse of “solitude” while basically looking after the grandmother and sister of someone he knew who went to prison. Because of his “solitude,” the lives of two people are a little better than they would have been. 

We see this again with Prime Minister Koo’s mom and the young “Luna,” who ended up being an officer of the law instead of running from the law with just a little compassion from the fish shop lady. And when Gon and Tae Eul discover a world where Gon is a tyrant, the king immediately surmises that bad Gon must have grown up without a Lady Noh, an Uncle Buyeong and someone’s ID to guide him.

On the flip side, you can see the impact of Lee Lim’s utter lack of compassion for the poor souls he manipulated to serve him.

Why did Lee Gon’s grandfather bring Head Court Lady Noh into the Kingdom of Corea?

This was frustrating because I definitely wanted to know more about Lady Noh’s past, especially after this revelation. From the little we heard about the situation, it seemed like the king had seen the devastation of the war and took pity on a young orphaned Noh Ok Nam. It didn’t feel like there was a romantic connection there from the way Lady Noh told her story.  But while it may feel like it was a storyline that was dropped, I see a couple of purposes for the revelation. 

A) To show that somebody from the republic could have a life in the kingdom (psst, Tae Eul). 

B) To show why Lady Noh was more accepting of unexplainable things such as encountering —  and letting go — a young man who claims to be her king on the Night of the Treason.

How did Lee Lim come back before the king in episode 15 and how come he wasn’t dead since in 1994 he was beheaded by himself?

Could be as simple as Lee Lim’s gate was much closer to the palace than the king’s. As for why he wasn’t dead, it was 2020 traitor who got beheaded. 1994 traitor went on to live his life like his previous self, without learning any lessons, and that’s the version Tae Eul ends up shooting inside the in-between.

Who succeeds the throne after Lee Gon?

His and Tae Eul’s kid, of course. The one Lady Noh has been praying for and kinda hinted at in the last episode with the reference to the Royal Ancestral Shrine. “Will it be completed next year?” she asks. Why next year? Because if they started now, it would take Gon and Tae Eul about a year to have a baby, LOL! 

What about Se Jin, you might ask. Well, we don’t know that she exists in the new timeline since her traitorous father’s neck was snapped by Jo Yeong back in 1994. Here’s the thing with that character, she was never really more than just a plot point. That’s why aside from blurry photos and a few details about her doing well, we never got much information about her. Because when all was said and done, when the timeline was finally restored she wasn’t going to be relevant.

#the king eternal monarch #kdrama #lee min ho #kim go eun #lee gon #jeong tae eul #TKEM meta

[ssaalexblake]

for the meme: criminal minds, doctor who, star trek (choose any!), the west wing, buffy or angel series

I literally have no idea how to rank these in preference order, wow. I’ve been staring at this for a week.  

A lot of these show i love them when i love them and hate ‘em when i hate ‘em??? 

6- Angel. This is a show i keep revisiting because i really love the cast of characters (mostly), Angel, Cordy, Gunn, Fred, Lilah and Darla first and foremost, but i have nothing against Wes, Lorne and Doyle? Lindsay was a boring villain, imo, and they missed such a chance when they decided to play him off angel more than Lilah because i think they could have made Far more interesting points by comparing them, tbh. That’s a pet peeve but i have a Huge shitlist for this show. But i really Do love the characters, and on occasion the plots Do show moments of brief, utter brilliance but then they swerve away from it Every Time and it’s So Annoying. I did not mention connor here because literally Everything to do with him is one of those ‘brief moments of brilliance that were swerved away from like they were contagious’ things. 

5- btvs... I Love this show but a lot of that is tied into childhood nostalgia??? If i watched it for the first time now it’d be hard to get through because i’d not know which parts to skip through for ease of watching, because i have very firm ideas on what episode and scenes need to be muted or skipped full stop by now and i feel like my ability to edit the show to my liking May have clouded some of my judgment on its quality on the whole lol. But my version of the show? Where i only watch the parts i like? Way higher than 5 here. 

4- TWW, would rank higher but seasons 5 and 6 are very slow. And I have to suffer through the Sorkin Self Insert Character(tm) because it’s a sorkin show. Loses more marks for creating female characters to shove Terrible feminism opinions on so it’s Socially Acceptable b/c it’s a woman saying it not him. In the shadow of two gunmen parts one and two are two of the best episodes of tv full stop, though, and honestly, season 2 on the whole is one of the stronger seasons of tv i’ve ever watched. I also really like s7, unpopular but it’s well paced and by like ep4?? it hits its stride and stays that way the whole time. Though, idk if i’m the only non american with this feeling, but on occasion some of the every day american value politics on the show is so Batshit i lose all sense of immersion? Not the Big Plots, i know those americanisms because of an awareness of rl politics and it no longer surprises me, but the small taken for granted stances that they mention offhandedly that make me go... what??????

3- Criminal Minds. Just over half this show was... at best average and at worst just straight up Bad, but damn when it was good it was good. I’m actually still mad at Patinkin for ruining the end of the Gideon arc because i may not Like the character as a man, but Damn he was such a well written and fascinating character and the story they were telling with him was fascinating and it was ruined. Also, this show will always have a place in my heart for killing him off years later out of sheer passive aggression. Honestly? i could write a 5000 word essay on my feelings on this show on the whole and i could never hope to say so briefly, but when it got it right this show Really got it right, and that actually makes up for a Great many hours of bullshit i watched in the name of it. And since it ended Tons of people have started loving Blake and i am Vindicated. 

 2- Star Trek Discovery - This show only has two seasons so it’s probably benefitting from not having ‘been on air too long-itis’ but i really do love it. And, truthfully, i could pick at it because it’s made some Choices and done some Real bullshit, but others could and have deconstructed that better than me... But also it has some great stuff in it too? i’d just end up writing an essay, again, but imo the good outweighs the bad, and this is way more my Thing in style than the older ones because?? idk, it just is. (tho.... !Picard Spoiler! what Does the trek universe have against gay latin men named Hugh??? That is weirdly specific.)

1- Doctor who - Okay, full disclosure, i won’t watch a lot of the new stuff, sometimes because i find the writing bad and sometimes because it’s written well enough to be infuriating, But like, when i love it, i really love it? I can honestly say watching s12 was the most fun i’ve had watching a season of tv in at least a decade and It was so satisfying to see all the threads everybody had picked up on in s11 come to fruition (and, also, vindicating lbr) and to see 13′s veneer fracture so completely. But then again, i’ve always enjoyed things for their character writing first and foremost and imo, chibnall’s always been good at that. The fact that the plots make sense 95% of the time too is an added bonus i would not actually expect from any era of dw. I just watched ten work a phone by putting a stethoscope to it. The fact that i don’t actually feel it needs to make sense probably helps it placing this high in this very over thought random meme i’ve spent a week on. Classic who is Also great because usually even when it’s bad it’s funny due to monsters made of carpet and papier-mâché. I even like the cybermen as villains in classic who and i am Not a fan of them in nu!who (the whole frankenstein mary shelley angle won me over b/c it was an interesting take on it with how they merged it in with classic horror, but i’m not big on them as a villain. Probably helped that they were kind of a vehicle for the main plot more than there for their own trouble making abilities? i find the whole type of narrative based around them is said better with the borg in star trek tbh). 

thank you! i did just win the over thinking prize, though. 

#isagrimorie #meme thingy #me??? long winded????

[venus-says]

Kamen Rider Amazons Season 1

They're Here...And They're Hungry.

When I decided it was time to get back with the blog I knew that eventually at some point I would have to get back to the previous Kamen Rider series that I haven't watched, but I didn't want to come back to a full season of 50 episodes or so right away, I wanted something that would be a bit easier to do more or less just so that I could have time to prepare more posts ahead since to catch up with the time wasted I would have to start to release posts for Precure and Rider back-to-back and doing that without preparing would be a nightmare. And that's how I decided to watch Amazons now instead of doing it in a distant future after I had watched Amazon, as I had originally planned.

And talking about Amazons is a funny thing because back in last year before I decided I would jump head first in the Rider franchise I watched a lot of those "Where to start watching *insert huge franchise here*" videos and all of them always mentioned how Amazons was a different season because it was aimed at a much older audience and that it was dark, and serious, and very violent, and there was this aura that was created around this show and the Amazon from the 70s, and it was something I was really curious about, I'd say Amazon and Amazons were probably the things I was looking forward to watching the most.

And well... what I got from this show wasn't exactly that? Like, I was expecting something way more gruesome, but what I got was just another regular Kamen Rider season that has some CGI blood on it, it wasn't anything special, you know? The impression it gave me was that they gathered a bunch of boys and asked them what they considered to be "adult-like" and they took all the suggestions mixed them in this show and then they added a blue/gray filter on it to give it a ~serious~ vibe. They didn't even were that violent to be honest, outside of very few specific scenes we don't see anything that is too far from what Kamen Rider already does, and whenever it goes beyond it end up looking more gross rather than violent because they use a black/green-ish slimy blood for the monsters, who are the ones who suffer from this extra violence the most, and even then their blood usually is covering the screen making it hard for us to see whatever it is that is going on the screen. In other words, it was doing the cool for the cool.

Does that make it a bad show? Eh... not really? I mean, I understand it if someone doesn't like it because there's indeed not a lot to the show, but I enjoyed it. It wasn't anything that I loved, but it also didn't get me bored or utterly annoyed at the show. It was underwhelming, yes, which I believe is the reason of why this review will end up making this post be shorter than it should be considering I'm covering an entire season at once, but it more or less kept me entertained for a few hours so it wasn't an awful experience.

I think the biggest disappointment of this show is that it's always trying to raise interesting concepts, but they never commit with any of them and this kinda makes the show feels like it's hollow, like there's no proper theme at its core. And being honest, the biggest problem here isn't even that it feels like this show is about nothing, but the fact that they try to do an ethical discussion about life, and what lives are worth saving or not, but it was never an actual discussion, at least it never gave me that impression, what I was seeing was character A making X argument, and character B making Y argument, but they never have an actual conversation so characters A and B don't change at all and they just keep hanging to those arguments until the end. The whole rivalry between Omega and Alpha feels like this to me, it's supposed to show two different sides and they more or less end up at the same point where they started. Now that I think about it, it sounds a lot like Gaim... which is making me question my feelings for that season now... well that's not important now.

Like I always do I intended to dedicate a separate section to go through the characters, but as I was going through each one of them I realized they're not very interesting and I wouldn't have much to say about them so I'll just go briefly on what I think saved this show for me that was the side characters.

Okay, not all of them are good, but we had a few gems in this cast. I especially like Nanaha and how her relationship with Jin plays out in the show, of course, there's still a bit of that old Rider writing for women where she's more or less just an accessory for Jin, but they managed to make her personality still shine despite that which makes me fully believe she truly loves Jin and she does all that she does of her own choice (or at least I like to believe that). I also really like the pest control team, yeah they kinda end up merging into a single entity at some point, but I like having them there, especially for Mamoru who's a very interesting character, and one of the few ones of this show that actually goes through an arc (that go me quite emotional because I like the little dude and seeing him losing himself to the amazon cells was REALLY HARD), but that was sadly not used to its full potential (yes, I'm salty they called episode 13 "M" but instead of focusing on Mamoru they decided to focus in the pointless fight between Haruka and Jin).

Now the last thing I have comments to make about is the suits and the designs. Not gonna lie, it feels weird to have this section here because as I mentioned the show has this awful color filter on to make it look like something more dark and serious so I don't know if what we're seeing in terms of colors looks exactly with what they wanted during the conception and production phase, but overall I like the designs for both Riders and Amazons. I have a frustration with Omega's suit because they tried to make it something more modern and sleek but when they did that they lost all the charm of the original Kamen Rider Amazon that was left to be implemented more in Alpha and Sigma's suits, and I would be more okay with his design if they hadn't shown us his more primal form, that actually looks like Amazon, and that look more interesting than it's final design. Of our 3 riders, my favorite in terms of looks is Alpha, both because it has the iconic piranha imagery and also because it's color is such a vibrant red that even with the awful filter over it makes it stand out a lot and I love this. I feel like, in the end, poor Sigma got the short end of the stick here since his design is pretty much just a recolor from Alpha, but considering his plotline was pretty much useless it makes sense they wouldn't put that much effort on it. I feel like I don't talk much about the accessories in these but I really like Omega's weapons that come out from the handles on its belt, I think it's a pretty clever idea and it's cool as heck seeing him pull a spear and a whip out of that belt, it's sad it's not used all that much... I think it's used only once in the fight on the roof of that apartment and it never shows up again, which is just a tragedy.

You know, now that I mentioned it, I really like the different ideas they came up with for Amazons that were hunting their prey. I love that bus plot, the apartment building that is an ant colony was very fun, and the restaurant that cooks humans in a "civilized" way was also pretty good, it reminded me of the iZombie TV show where in one of the seasons the villain starts to run like a catering service in a similar fashion.

And I believe that's all I have to say about the first season of Amazons, it feels like I've left a lot of things out but most of those things didn't feel worthy of commenting on, it would more or less just me listing up all the events and I believe that's not what you all are here for. In any case, these were my thoughts on Amazons season 1, I'll watch season 2 and it should be my next review on the Kamen Rider seasons, but for now, let me know what do you think of this season. Do you love it? Do you hate it? Write it down in the comments. Stay healthy, stay safe, never stop resisting, thank you so much for reading, and until the next time. See-ya~

#Kamen Rider Amazons #kamen rider

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Volume 6 “So That’s How It Is”

This is a re-posting from Nov. 17th, 2018 in an effort to get all my recaps fully on tumblr. Thanks! 

Real talk: that episode was 100% not what I wanted to see and honestly not what I thought we’d be getting after the tone of “The Lost Fable.” Yet here we are.

We start off with the gang having just finished Jinn’s vision, which surprised me a little bit. RT tends to delay gratification—Want to know how people will react to this plot point? If that person survived? Gotta wait a while longer!—so I was expecting to begin with the villains, if not push this confrontation an entire episode. Yet we kick things off with a voice over from Yang, highlighting the exact part of the story we knew she’d hyper-focus on:

Yang: “Salem can’t be killed. You all heard her too right?”

And we’re immediately back to where we were emotionally in episode two—which frankly drives me a little nuts. The entire purpose of getting glimpses of the team throughout the vision was to see their reactions to the events: Qrow lifting a hand towards Ozma, Ruby looking ill at Salem trying to kill herself, Blake and Weiss heartbroken over Salem’s grief, Yang horrified at what the gods were doing to them. On the one hand I agree that it’s incredibly realistic to have them lashing out like this. Put a bunch of teenagers through that much trauma, chuck a now fallible mentor at their feet, and they’ve got themselves a scapegoat they can’t resist. On the other hand, Team RWBY + co. has been portrayed as staggeringly better than this in the past, so it rings as at least a little false to me that they’d go this far. Not that they wouldn’t be angry, but that out of the six of them—including Oscar now—there’s not a glimmer of empathy alongside the anger. I understand entirely that we ended on the worst note possible (more manipulation by Jinn), but that doesn’t erase the fact that this is a) a large group of b) incredibly compassionate people who c) just spent 99% of that vision witnessing traumatizing events that weren’t Ozpin’s fault and feeling for him then. Bypassing one moment of sympathy for him or even hesitation at cutting him further feels less like realistic teenage fury and more like the writers deciding to ignore a large chunk of their characterization for the sake of drama.

Because what they witnessed aside, this is still Ozpin. He’s still the headmaster/friend they adored, still the man who taught them in Haven, still the huntsmen they fought beside in one of their worst battles to date. And here he is now after having his entire past ripped from him, back on his knees and crying. That’s an image that the protectors in them shouldn’t be able to brush aside so easily, especially when each of them has been through a piece of Ozpin's existence. Weiss knows what it’s like to have people more powerful than you pulling the strings. Yang understands anger that drives you to choices you’ll later regret. Blake has already fought against unimaginable odds (see: Oobleck’s lecture about how she wants to change the world but has no idea how to do it yet. That’s Ozpin). Ruby is familiar with being the eternal outsider—“I don’t want to be the bee’s knees! I just want to be a normal girl, with normal knees”—and Qrow, as he’ll mention in a moment, knows what it’s like to have nothing and no one. Ozpin was there for him then, but he won’t do the same for Ozpin now.

Let them have their anger, but let them act like themselves too.

Yang: “There was so much you hadn’t told us! How could you think that was okay?”

Yang in particular has a lot of displaced rage. She has since she was a kid and now Ozpin has become a very easy target to direct all that towards. Still, it doesn’t change how mind-numbingly frustrating it is to see these kids twisting every piece of information that comes their way. How could he think that was okay? Ozpin already gave you his answer. He said straight out that he doesn’t want to reveal all his secrets because the last two times he did that (Raven and Lionheart) he was betrayed and, presumably, that’s happened numerous times before. Yang insists that he can tell them his secrets. They’ll stand by him! But oh look, they wrenched the secrets from Ozpin forcibly and now they're not standing by him.

The girls are liars and hypocrites in this moment. Like I get it, they're also traumatized teenagers, but that doesn't change the fact that they're pulling the same shit Ozpin is currently getting all the flack for.  

I’ve mentioned before that there are a hundred reasons why Jinn’s answer to that question is complete BS. Even ignoring our audience-knowledge of how jinns tend to operate, we have the in-canon fact that she can’t answer anything about the future. Her answer regarding Salem's defeat is null and void in light of not knowing how the situation might change—how can she possibly say that Ozpin or another will never win? But even ignoring that too we have the additional fact that defeating Salem never was and never will be the true goal. Uniting humanity is. Keeping people safe from the grimm is. These are things everyone agreed to long before they even knew who Salem was. What? Did Team RWBY think they were going to wipe out the grimm in their lifetime? That they’d drive creatures to extinction that, as far as they know, have existed since the dawn of time? No. They were just planning to make the world a better place for as long as they could. They’d already agreed to a fight against an “impossible” to beat enemy. Fundamentally nothing has changed.

Yet Ozpin understands that suddenly learning that a Big Bad is immortal knocks a huge dent in everyone’s hope. He knows—largely from experience—that laying out the situation with no context or nuance (as Jinn did) will make people give up. And we already see it happening, not just in their reaction towards Ozpin, but in casual lines like Blake’s, “I just want to get this stupid relic to Atlas.” No doubt one of Ozpin’s greatest fears is that learning the truth will alienate people from fighting at all. It did for Raven. It did for Lionheart. And now it’s doing the same for the girls, with them acting like they just want to get the powerful relic out of their hands and then leave Ozpin to fight this war by himself. Though I don’t actually think the girls will give up (that would be a very different kind of story), that line is not reassuring right now and just re-emphasizes that Ozpin was right to be wary.

We also see it in Qrow’s exchange with Ozpin:

Qrow: “No one wanted me. I was cursed. I gave my life to you because you gave me a place in this world. I thought I was finally doing some good.”

Ozpin: “But you are—”

Qrow: “Meeting you was the worst luck of my life.”

No one is letting Ozpin finish. Yang demands to know why he kept his secrets and then cuts him off before he gets out more than an “I—”. They let him admit that he doesn’t have a plan, but no space to explain any context surrounding that statement. Here Ozpin tries to tell Qrow that he is doing good, he does have a place in this world, the existence of Salem does not suddenly negate everything else they’ve accomplished… but Qrow doesn’t let him get that far. At this point they’re not interested in listening to anything Ozpin has to say. This isn’t a conversation anymore, it’s an emotional witch hunt.

So is it any surprise that Ozpin eventually nopes out of there? Qrow has just punched him and, far more damaging, delivered that gut-wrenching line about how he’s the worst thing that ever happened to him. Again, context always matters. Two friends fighting and saying cruel things to one another? Not great, but survivable. Ozpin and Qrow aren’t just two friends though. Qrow is currently Ozpin’s only friend.

Let’s recap: His children are dead, his first host is dead, the original version of humanity that he knew? All dead. Who Ozma once was is gone, the gods he knew abandoned him, and the one remaining tie he has to his past is his genocidal ex-wife who’s hell-bent on killing him. Every host Ozpin has had since then has passed away or merged with him in some horrific amalgamation. His friends at Beacon are either out of reach or don’t know about his reincarnation trick and think he’s dead too. Raven sided with Salem over him. Lionheart, a friend for decades, sided with Salem over him. The children he’s traveling with are out for his blood, including the child he’s forced to share a body with. The one person he had left was Qrow… and Qrow just gave the biggest “fuck you” possible. Keep in mind the abuse coding from last episode and fill in the blanks of a couple thousand years. Then Ozpin told Salem the truth and was murdered along with his children. Now the truth comes out and he’s chucked into a tree and screamed at. Ozpin has been conditioned to expect nothing but violence when he bares himself emotionally… and people keep proving him right. He’s currently the lowest he's been in decades and there’s no one here to help pick him back up.

“Maybe you’re right," he says. Maybe I am the worst thing that’s ever happened to you all… so I’ll leave. As much as I’m able to, anyway.

The real kicker though? That’s just met with more anger. “That bastard!” Yang yells. “Tell him we’re not done yet!” Ozpin quite literally can’t do anything right in their eyes. Keep secrets to protect people? You’re evil. Spill secrets? You’re evil. Stick around to defend yourself? How dare you. Leave because you’re obviously not wanted? How dare you.

And you know what I just realized? At least one of the reasons why this arc feels so extreme to me? Because our characters are currently acting exactly like a large portion of the fanbase. For years RWBY viewers have demonized Ozpin and complained every time he came on screen, waiting for the day when the show would finally prove that he’s irredeemable trash. Except when that day came we actually learned that he’s a flawed, mortal man who was manipulated by a bunch of dick gods. Instead of acknowledging that hey, maybe we were wrong about his character, a huge portion of the fanbase has spent the last week grasping at straws in order to continue hating him. Ozpin has been sacrificing child soldiers to his war for millennia. (False). Ozpin has done nothing but lie to the cast since day one. (False). Ozpin raped Salem during his first reincarnation and was super abusive towards her. (False??)

Now we have this kind of mangled “justification” made canonical. Fans and characters alike are currently determined to make Ozpin their antagonist—no matter what.  

So Ozpin basically has a panic attack while still trying to give them what they supposedly want: a world where he’s not around to mess things up. Yet the girls’ hypocrisy is revealed once more. They despise every decision Ozpin makes… but still want him calling all the shots.

Weiss: “He just left us?”

Blake: “What are we going to do now?”

Newsflash, you can’t have it both ways. Lucky for them (since no one is willing to take on the responsibility that Ozpin has been shouldering) Maria steps up and announces that they need to put off this conversation until they’ve found someplace safe. Because grimm. Which is what they should have done in the first place and would have if Yang hadn’t thrown a temper tantrum. She starts yelling at Maria too—“Lady, I don’t know who you think you are”—which just further demonstrates how Yang is willing to take her anger out on anyone and anything that crosses her path. It’s not healthy. It’s certainly not fair to those around her and I really hope someone addresses this soon.

Maria: “I’m still coming to terms with the fact that this is Humanity’s second time around!”

You tell ‘em! Poor Maria was thrown into the deep end of the pool with no life preserver and she’s the only one managing to keep a level head. God bless this woman.

(Please don’t be evil, oh please don’t be evil.)

Maria: “If we don’t move we die and I’ll be damned if I’ve lived this long just to die out in the cold!”

And how long is that exactly? Long enough to have lived through the Great War? Inquiring minds want to know…

Ruby agrees though—beginning to segue back into her role as compassionate leader—and at her word everyone packs up the rest of their stuff and heads on out of that awful spot. Salt and burn the earth, girls. Leave it behind.

Except just when I think the emotional punches are through we get this horrible moment between Oscar and Qrow. Oscar tells Ruby, in an intimate moment of confidence, that he’s afraid he’s just going to be another life of Ozpin’s. Ruby immediately showed compassion again once Oscar switched back (reaching for him when he winced from the punch) and here she’s her old self again, reassuring him that no, he’ll always be his own person. That's the Ruby we love.

Then Qrow breezes by and denies it. “Don’t lie to him,” he says. “We’re better than that.”

Wow.

That was not okay. By any stretch of the imagination. Goddammit, Qrow, you’re the adult here and honestly I don’t give a damn how much you’re hurting right now, that doesn’t give you the right to take your anger out on an innocent kid. Oscar didn’t ask for this and the idea that he exists only to be Ozpin’s host is just blatantly untrue. You’re being cruel to him for cruelty’s sake which, I’d like to point out, we’ve yet to see Ozpin do. Despite all the trauma he’s suffered, he’s never taken his grief out on the children around him like that. He’s also never claimed to be above lying as Qrow just did. With the point being only that this group is making a LOT of mistakes right now while refusing to allow Ozpin his own.

With that lovely piece of advice we turn to the villains… which frankly felt like some much needed breathing room after “The Lost Fable” and these last five minutes. The fact that the villains’ plot-line is taking place in the past means that nothing revealed to them is news to the audience. Cinder’s alive? We knew that. Ozpin reincarnated? Obviously knew that too. The focus is instead on how they react to this information… and it turns out the answer is “Pretty damn violently.”

Before that though we see Hazel, Emerald, and Mercury arriving back at Salem’s palace (the same one that she and Oz once lived in together). I’ve already come across jokes about how Hazel is now the dad of the group, and while obviously this is just meant as a silly acknowledgement of some really flimsy compassion we see from him, Emerald does look to Hazel when she gets off the ship, clearly seeking reassurance after Cinder’s (presumed) death.

Tyrian is waiting to greet them and he’s his usual, creepy self—minus half a tail. Really though, he seems to have recovered quickly from Salem’s wrath last volume. He taunts Emerald about Cinder and when she threatens him he just cuts himself on her blade. Not gonna lie, I love Tyrian more and more as the series goes on. He’s the wild card of the group and as such remains endlessly entertaining.

Mercury is supportive of Emerald, helping her calm down a bit in the face of Tyrian’s taunts, and really all of this is a nice contrast to what we’re getting with Team RWBY: the villains are supporting one another while our heroes tear each other down. Remember all those references to how Salem’s victory will be in dividing humanity? Yeeeaah.

She’s obviously displeased with the report. Hazel tries to take responsibility for the defeat and, uh, this happens:

Look familiar? I’m getting very worried about what that intro shot of Qrow and the grimm arms is going to mean.

So Hazel is tortured for a while until Emerald admits that it was Cinder’s fault they lost. It’s all some really horrible mind games on Salem’s part: ask for an answer and torture the guy who provides you with one, get Emerald to call out the one person she cares for, casually drop that this person still lives, intimidate Watts for questioning her. Tyrian is the wild card, yes, but we know now that his ramblings about his “Queen” aren’t so random after all. Salem is still playing the part of the God we saw in Jinn’s flashback and her followers treat her accordingly. They do as she says out of fear. It’s what Salem lays out in the trailer: they can have their own desires, but only if they don’t interfere with her own.

Hazel drops the bomb that, oh yeah, your ex also reincarnated already, which puts an interesting twist on Salem’s anger. Meaning, I wonder if she’ll be more forgiving of their failure now that she knows they were unexpectedly facing Ozpin in Haven. Regardless, she’s not happy about the news.

At all.

We leave her letting one hell of a draft in and return to the gang. Yang bitches about how the path hasn’t led anywhere and Maria asks if she really doesn’t have anything “better to do than harass a defenseless old lady?”

More real talk: does Yang have experiences that explain her current attitude? Hell yes. Does all this make for compelling characterization? Absolutely. But right now I don’t like her. Having a reason to be angry doesn’t excuse the harm you do when you direct that anger towards those who don’t deserve it. From her pointing her weapon at Qrow to harassing Maria, I don’t think Yang is acting like a very good person right now and I haven't enjoyed her time on screen. An understandable development? Again, yes, but that doesn’t change the fact that she’s acting like a brat and encouraging everyone else to do the same.

Of course, as soon as she challenges Maria the path leads them to a farmhouse. Not that Yang is ready to apologize for her attitude (another big difference between Ozpin’s mistakes and others’: he’s constantly apologizing for his). Weiss notes that the place looks deserted, but at least it’s better than staying out in the cold.

…Is it though? That farmhouse looks creepy as hell and I don’t trust it. To say nothing of the fact that we’ve got that sewer place from the intro right next door.

And that’s where we end up, the gang walking into this abandoned, potentially grimm-infested farm while they’re all pissed at each other and the gate squeaks ominously closed behind them. Oh yeah. I’m feeling real good about the next episode.

(Not.)

Other Details of Note

I’m intrigued by the fact that Jinn seems to have dissipated immediately after finishing her story, both because personality-wise she seems like the kind to stick around and gloat, and also because they’ve still got one question left. We saw Awful Facial Hair Oz ask his questions back-to-back, so unless Jinn streamlined things for convenience’s sake there doesn’t seem to be a wait period between each question… I don’t know. Narratively it makes sense (wanna clear Jinn out so there’s no distraction from the Ozpin bashing), but in-world the rules governing these relics seem a little murky.

So Salem knows Cinder is alive. I wonder if that’s connected to the grimm arm she gave her. If Salem has ties to Cinder that she hasn’t bothered to explain yet. Hmm. Wonder if she can control Cinder’s arm like she does the other grimm…

Salem also mentions the Sword of Destruction and intended to go after it before she heard that Ozpin had already reincarnated. Will that be the next relic on the list then?

With the exception of Ruby fighting the sewer grimm and everyone facing off against someone off screen, we’ve hit on most of the imagery from the trailer and intro already. I’ll be interested to see what the rest of the volume holds since it looks like that vast majority of that material is being kept carefully under-wraps.

Still looking forward to reconciliation. Still putting a lot of stock in that one image from the intro lol

#rwby #rwby spoilers #mymetas #RWBY recaps

[x5red]

Supergirl: Where to start reading her older comic series?

With the Melissa Beniost’s Supergirl show about to relaunch for its fourth season, it seems an apt time to revisit the oft asked question: Which of the old Supergirl comicbook series is the best starting point if you’re a fan of the show..?

It’s an interesting question. Many tv fans have some familiarity with Kara’s most recent comicbook adventures -- Sterling Gates, etc. -- but they harbour a desire to explore beyond the most immediate decade, into the murky misty depths of the classic Kara Zor-El and Matrix eras. But where to begin..?

Detailed below, for your rumination and delectation, are the four classic titular Supergirl series -- Supergirl Volumes 1 to 4 -- ranked by merit from best to worst, with particular regard to accessibility by the modern tv/comic audience.

So, without further ado, let’s begin...

1st - Supergirl Vol. 2, aka The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl: (Nov 1982 -- Sep 1984, 23 issues)

The bright micro-chip fuelled optimism of the early 1980s was the backdrop for Supergirl’s second eponymous title. Linda Danvers makes a new home as a mature student studying Psychology in Chicago, where she hopes she can find a balance between her superhero duties and her personal life. She immerses herself into student life, immediately acquiring a collection of enthusiastic friends and a hectic social calendar. It isn’t long, however, before criminal elements in the city require the attention of her alter ego, Supergirl.

Writer Paul Kupperberg gives us a Supergirl for the 1980s, clearly aimed at the more mature audience that was starting to dominate comicbook sales thanks to the direct market of specialist stores. Kupperberg’s Linda Danvers is sassy, intelligent, confident, and witty, while her costumed alter ego is strong but compassionate. For the first time Kara Zor-El is allowed to have a proper boyfriend, and (shock!) actually go to bed with him. The story lines devote equal time to Kara’s heroic and everyday identities, surrounding her with a diverse cast of supporting characters.

The book’s adventures largely constrain themselves to Chicago, with a parade of monsters and supervillians showing up each issue to challenge the Girl of Steel, but there’s still plenty of variation between stories, and some particularly bold ideas towards the latter part of the series’ run.

Pros: Equal prominence is given to Linda Danvers and Supergirl, and the series is all the better for it. Giving Kara a life outside of her Supergirl antics rounds her character, a device used 30 years later by the tv show. Paul Kupperberg’s scripts are intelligent, imaginative, and not afraid to sometimes tackle tough subjects. Industry legend, Carmine Infantino, pencils almost every issue, and captures the 80s fashions well.

Cons: The comic’s witty and headstrong Linda Danvers is a radical departure from Benoist’s often goofy and adorkable portrayal, which may be off-putting to some tv fans.

Conclusion: This is a nice set of uncomplicated stories with a basic structure that has many parallels to the tv show (sans DEO.) Highly recommended.

2nd - Supergirl Vol. 4: (Sep 1996 -- May 2003, 81 issues + 2 annuals)

Peter (Allen) David, usually known in fan circles as PAD, took control of Supergirl after her misguided Matrix run, and immediately morphed the character into something more interesting. In an act of supreme selflessness, the Matrix Supergirl merges with satanic cult member, Linda Danvers, saving Linda’s life by becoming a hybrid made up of Linda’s memories and feelings coupled with Matrix’s protomatter shape-shifting superpowers. Such is the starting point for Supergirl’s fourth volume of adventures.

Early stories deal with Linda haphazard attempts to cope with her new status as superhero, but pretty quickly it becomes apparent that her transformation is part of a bigger tale involving battling satanic and angelic forces. The series mixes superhero action with occult and religious symbolism, playfully referencing Old Testament lore and even writing God in as a supporting character. PAD’s storytelling doesn’t shy away from examining matters of belief head on, with subplots examining how faith can be lost and restored, but also misguided and abused. Other themes include the ethics of free speech, and the power of unintended consequences.

After fifty issues the series was soft-rebooted, with Matrix being un-merged from Linda Danvers and captured by dark satanic forces, and 'God’ teaming Linda up with a reforming demon to help find and rescue her. A second reboot (#75, Dec 2002) saw a youthful Pre-Crisis Supergirl take an unplanned detour into the Post-Crisis universe during her trip from Argo City to Earth.

Overall the series holds to classic old-fashioned good-versus-evil storytelling, told with humour and quirkiness.

Pros: The series has a good balance of humour, drama, and superheroics. The main characters are well defined, often quirky, and immediately likeable, with a healthy mix of darkness and light in the main cast, which leads to some engaging interactions. The spiritual elements are mostly well handled, and never pander or proselytise.

Cons: The heavy use of lore and mythology, plus occasional course-altering soft reboots, make the main plot arcs more than a little convoluted. There’s not much variety in the types of story told: it’s angels versus demons pretty much every issue. The series was initially conceived in a world before 9/11, before The God Delusion, before Catholic priest scandals, before the overt linking of evangelical Christianity with neo-conservatism -- as such its benign treatment of organised religion may seem a little naive and dated to some.

Conclusion: Enthusiastically told and funny, although occasionally a bit of a slog, PAD’s fusing of superheroes and the celestial provides for novel storytelling.

3rd - Supergirl Vol. 1: (Nov 1972 -- Sep 1974, 10 issues)

The early 1970s were an era of student politics and campus sit-ins, so it’s no surprise that Supergirl’s first self-titled series is set in the heart of academia. Linda Danvers heads off to San Francisco to study Drama at Vandyne University, and gets involved in all manner of adventures typically involving college life and romance. Stories vary in style from issue to issue, sometimes spooky supernatural, sometimes B-movie sci-fi, sometimes inner city gang violence -- but there’s invariably a square-jawed hunk involved for Kara to swoon over and rescue.

The initial issue was edited by Dorothy Woolfolk, but issue two saw Robert Kanigher take up editing duties. In the 1950s Kanigher had transformed William Marston’s feminist Wonder Woman into a lovelorn heroine who spent much of her time fretting over Steve Trevor. But thankfully by the early 70s Supergirl’s inevitable romantic adventures are complimented by her exasperation at the male chauvinism all around her. Although affairs of the heart are prominent, the Maid of Might is always shown as being as tough as any male superhero -- this is girl power... just a version of girl power that happens to include lipstick and hot pants.

Pros: The stories are certainly fun, even if they lack depth or complexity. The artwork has a certain quaint charm, and the groovy mod fashions of the time add to the curiosity value.

Cons: There’s a lot of repetition: almost every issue has Linda Danvers falling for a different campus heartthrob, who ultimately requires the help of her super powered alter ego.

Conclusion: Very much of-its-time, innocent and fun, but the heady 1970s mix of pulp romance and cartoon feminism may be way too dated for some modern readers.

4th - Supergirl Vol. 3: (Feb 1994 -- May 1994, 4 issues)

When Supergirl was re-introduced after Crisis on Infinite Earths, she took the form of a shape-shifting protomatter blob named Matrix, originally from a pocket universe. The Lex Luthor of her home universe had been a hero, so when the innocent Matrix encounters the regular Lex Luthor (nemesis of Superman), her confused and child-like mind instinctively trusts him, and she becomes his female companion. Lex, of course, is only interested in learning the secret of his girlfriend’s protomatter powers.

This four part series finally, slowly, sees Matrix wake up to the fact that Lex Luthor has been using her. It’s a slow build towards the final chapter, that meanders through a lot of self-denial before it gets to its inevitable finale. The ending is clearly signposted from the start, but the plot does a decent job of stretching out the journey across four episodes.

Pros: The idea of the hero playing the role of so-called useful idiot is a novelty, as least within the annals of American comicbooks.

Cons: This is a lacklustre story which brings to an end one of the more regrettable periods in Supergirl’s history -- despite often displaying immense courage, the Matrix Supergirl became nothing more than a plaything for Lex Luthor, and a pawn in his game against Superman.

Conclusion: There’s apparently a giant pit out in a desert somewhere filled with unsold Atari E.T. game cartridges -- if we can find it, maybe we can add every issue of the Matrix Supergirl run(?) Avoid!!

#supergirl #supergirlcw #melissabenoist #comics #dc #kara zor-el #dc comics #matrix #silver age #bronze age

[emperorren]

What do you think made lucasfilm scrap the “rey knowing ben before the fall” and finn being her live interest/hanleias son” ?

“Finn” being her love interest/Han and Leia’s son wasn’t scrapped! The “Finn” who is in these early drafts is none other than Ben Solo, just with a different name. Finn in his current iteration, i.e. a reformed stormtrooper who befriends Rey/Kira, isn’t in the early drafts at all. As a character, he was introduced at a much later stage. The key characters that were always present were 

a) a female protagonist (Kira); 

b) a “Son” or male protagonist (Finn/Skyler/Ben Solo);

c) a villain (the Jedi Killer). 

The way I understood it, the two concepts of the Son and the Jedi Killer soon began to merge into one, which essentially coincides with Lucas’ original treatment for Episode VII, and it’s also the story we eventually got. In other (scrapped) versions, they’re two separate characters, but still, the “Son” is more similar to what we know as Ben Solo than it is to present day Finn.

re: why they scrapped Rey knowing Ben before the fall. Maybe it simply wasn’t working with the backstory they were developing for Ben. Maybe they chose to make Rey a real nobody, i.e. someone who really has no ties with the Skyfamily, neither biological nor circumstantial, until what happens in Ep. VII. Maybe it’s a consequence of the *starting point* shifting forwards in the timeline ( = Ben’s fall happens off screen before the actual st plot starts, as opposed to being itself the plot of the st as in Lucas’ original idea).

+

Rey character was NEVER a Skywalker/Solo in any draft. Ever. She was always an outsider. Always. This story has always been about the “fallen son” of SkySolo family since day 1. Jedi Killer was always gonna be a SkySolo. Wait and see how it all ends.

I personally can’t say for sure that the female protagonist was NEVER EVER a Skywalker in any early concept. What’s safe to say is that it was always 1 Skywalker and 1 outsider and a very interesting dynamic between the two; and from what I gleaned, there /is/ some version of the story where the “Fallen Son”/Jedi Killer isn’t a Skywalker, and it’s Kira/Rey who is. 

This doesn’t mean that the final draft—the one that was picked to be developed into the actual script—had Rey as a Skywalker at ANY point. In the current iteration of the story, Rey was never going to be a Skywalker and the Jedi Killer was always going to be Han and Leia’s son.

#anon #asks #early drafts #story treatments #the sequel trilogy #kira #the jedi killer #ben solo #the skywalker saga

[shazzeaslightnovels]

August 2021

(Series: Danmachi | Artist: Suzuhito Yasuda)

No. of Reviews: 4

Confession: I’ve been on a Fate binge since June and it’s culminated in me turning into a fan. A bit of history: I watched the original Fate/Stay Night anime way back when I was a teenager and wasn’t much of a fan, though I couldn’t tell you exactly why; I think it was largely because I hated Shirou’s whole ‘girls shouldn’t fight spiel’. Also, I shipped Gilgamesh/Saber and I’m a little embarrassed about that now because yikes. I can only defend this by saying a) they had a compelling dynamic, b) they had a pretty aesthetic and c) I really hated Shirou at the time, and that’s all a teenager needs to ship a couple. Can’t say I feel the same way now. I remember liking the Fate/Zero anime more but still wasn’t a big fan of the franchise. I did play an English translation of the Fate/Stay Night game but didn’t enjoy it. I’m pretty sure I didn’t pay too much attention to it when I was reading it and I don’t think the stiff translation helped matters. I kind of remember watching the Unlimited Blade Works anime when it came out but I don’t remember my reaction to it and I doubt my teenage self paid much attention to it while watching. Years later, when I was learning Japanese, I would return to the franchise with Fate/Extra and CCC which I enjoyed a lot. I loved Nero and CCC had such a compelling story that I fell in love with. There was also a lot of funny jokes and the writing style was so good and I had only recently fallen in love with Utena at the time so I was a big fan of anything that took inspiration from it. I played Grand Order for a while, before the battery draining and time constraints became too much for me but I enjoyed bits of the story and plenty of the characters. Oh and I also read Mahoyo around this time, which shares some of the same staff as the Fate series but isn’t directly connected to it.

Now, back to the present: in June, I had Brave Shine by Aimer stuck in my head because I had read Lore by Alexandra Bracken which reminded me a lot of the Fate series and it was at the same time that AnimeLab was going to merge into Funimation so I was trying to watch the series that AnimeLab had that weren’t yet listed on Funimation and so I watched the 2006 Fate/Stay Night anime. I went with low expectations, but by the end, I was almost enjoying myself. The story and characters were interesting and I understood that my previous hatred for Shirou was a bit unfair and baseless, though I still couldn’t bring myself to like him. I was especially surprised by how compelling the dynamic between Shirou and Saber was with how similar they are. I found myself thinking, ‘I could enjoy this, if it wasn’t for the romance.’ It’s so bad and needless and the story would be so much better without it. I ended it not quite liking it but knowing that I could like it, if just a few things were different. After that I gave into my impulse that I’d had for a while and replayed Extra + CCC, this time with Tamomo and I had a blast. I love Nero but I think Tamomo’s fighting style makes the best use of the limited battle system. I also went on to the Grand Order wikia to see if any interesting new characters had been added to the game while I haven’t been keeping with it because I do find the history and myths parts of the series fascinating. Then, I watched Fate/Apocrypha at the end of June/start of July and I liked it well enough. Sieg is super boring and his romance with Jeanne is somehow even less convincing then the romance between Shirou and Saber but the animation, voice acting and music were all amazing and I liked most of the servants, especially Atalanta. It didn’t manage to fulfill it’s potential but I enjoyed it enough for what it was. Then I watched the Fate/Extra anime adaptation and was not a fan. I enjoyed a lot of the deviations from the original game but I think it could have had more deviations. The worst part of the game for me is near the end where the villain does a long monologue about their motivations and backstory and it’s so boring and needless and the anime kept it and I think it even made it longer. Also, I think Sakura should have been given a much bigger role, given CCC, instead of just showing up in the first episode. Plus, I think at the moment I am just not into Shaft’s often needlessly distracting visuals. At least Nero was amazing, as always. I did try to read the Prism Illya manga spin-offs but found them far too fetishistic to enjoy.

And that brings us to August, in which I played Fate/Stay Night Realta Nua for PS2. I had low expectations going into it but I was having a lot of fun by the end of Fate route. I finally was able to understand Shirou as a character and he ended being a fascinating one. Realta Nua adds in voices and simple animation that really make that action scenes even more exciting and the music was amazing. Hell, I even didn’t even hate the Shirou/Saber romance as much as I was expecting to. I didn’t completely buy it but having access to Shirou’s thoughts went a long way to making it feel natural. It was in the climax of Unlimited Blade Works route when I thought to myself, ‘Shit. I might actually like this. I might actually really like this.’ Developments kept on happening that I loved and Shirou’s became an even more fascinating character to me. He’s so well developed in a way that I really didn’t expect. Admittedly, I was a tad bit disappointed by Heaven’s Feel route after UBW but there was still some great character work, especially with Illya. I just felt like that route had way too many info-dumps, especially towards the end of the route where you’d think they’d stop introducing so many new plot points and the final action scene felt a bit unnecessary to me. It was still a good time but not as good as I was expecting. btw, my favourite route was UBW but Fate had my favourite ending as it felt like it wrapped up all the plot points nicest and there’s one character who survives in that ending but dies in the others so it made me the happiest. I had such a blast with the game overall and I’m so glad that I took the time to experience it.

The day after I finished Stay Night, I wanted more time with the characters so I watched Today’s Menu for Emiya Family. It was cute and relaxing which was what I was in the mood for but I do think that it could have been funnier. There were so many missed opportunities for jokes! For example, in the volleyball scene in episode 7, I kept on waiting for Archer to say something like ‘I am the bone of my volley ball’ or for Saber to belt out an ‘Ex-calibuuuuur’ but it didn’t happen which is such a missed opportunity. Also, the lack of Gil is disappointing. I still enjoyed it though for how fluffy and cute it was. After that, I ended up playing the Gil and Archer routes for Extra CCC and had fun with that. There were some surprising deviations in the story that made them worth the read.

I still have some Fate stuff that I want to get to, like Extella, Hollow Ataraxia and the UBW and HF anime adaptations, along with some of the light novels and manga so my journey into Fate is still ongoing but I guess I’d count myself as a fan of the franchise at this point.

List of Reviews:

Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road 6

[Manga] Hamefura: Zettai Zetsumei! Hametsu Sunzen-hen 3

Danmachi 15

Hataraku Maou-sama! 14

Next month, I don’t believe there are any new releases I’m into next month so I’m going to try to get enough motivation to resubscribe to BookWalker but we shall see.

#Reading log #August 2021

[manjasiberwriter]

2018.05.11. A beginner’s guide to this blog

This is the least fun part of any new blog, so, let’s just dive in.

Hi everyone, your one and only siberianchan here and welcome to my new side blog.

This little venture here is entirely dedicated to my novel-length fanfiction “Sing for me” and the editing process it’s currently undergoing in order for it to become a real, proper, decent, grown-up novel and get published eventually.

Stop staring. If E.L. James can do it with badly written abuse stories she tries to pass off as BDSM, why shouldn’t I do it with something that’s - IMHO - competently written, better written and lacking the abusive under- and overtones?

So.

A few questions you might be asking.

What is “Sing for me”?

“Sing for me”, as I mentioned is a fanfiction, based on the absolutely lovely 12-episode anime “Yuri!!! On ICE”. This anime centers around 23-year-old figure skater Yuuri Katsuki (heads up, several names can have several possible writings) who after bombing at a competition goes into a slump. Until figure skating legend, his personal idol and extremely adorkable Exxcentric Viktor Nikiforov pretty much ambushes him and declares himself to be his new coach. What follows is a story of self-confidence, finding inner strength, love in all it’s forms and the most hilarious plot twist ever. Also it has the most adorably angry teenager ever. I love Yuri Plisetsky. Yuri Plisetsky is my adopted son from now on.

“Sing for me" is a historical opera AU for this. AU means “alternate universe", so - characters and probably the basic story put into another setting and context.

I chose Dresden 1848/49. Because I wanted to do history, I wanted to do opera and I am soooooooo good at high-tense revolutions.

You can find it over here so, have fun, let me know your thoughts and… come back maybe?

… how did you get that idea?

December 2016 a friend posted a picture of merch and quoted excessively (by which I mean one line) from “Phantom of the Opera". The image stuck. Similarities were found. The rest is the history these characters were born to make history.

So… it’s a re-telling of PotO then?

Minus the psychological terror, gaslighting, unhealthy obsessions and murder?

Eh. Maybe. It started out as this crackly little idea and has now grown into very much its it's own thing.

Why would you edit it for publication?

I hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE this person (his name is Richard Wagner. You may have heard of him). I had to include him. I had to research him. I suffered a great deal. I will see my suffering published and if it’s the last thing I ever do.

Isn’t “editing" in your case just replacing names with new ones?

If only. Changing names is a nice chunk of the work, yes, but that aside I also need the usual stuff. Cutting the unnecessary fat. Moving things and events around for better story flow. Merging characters. Cutting scenes that are nice shout outside but ultimately serve no purpose. Raising the stakes.

In the case of one character I have to change his ethnicity from East Asian to Romani. While this for several reasons does not affect his backstory and upbringing, it DOES affect the degree and the flavour of racism he has to deal with. Yuuri Katsuki, Japanese and raised in Italy, is considered exotic and strange. Garvanos Scimia, Romani and raised in Italy is seen as subhuman, sometimes exotic and most definitely not trustworthy. In other words, I will have quite a bit to report here.

What will this blog be about?

Editing process, tracking how well it comes along and where I have hang ups. I suppose, this is my way of self/motivation. Get people to breathe down my neck and ask questions.

Research trips to Dresden and my birthplace Zabeltitz. (because trust me to be crazy enough to figure out whether our park was still walled up in 1848 or whether it was already somewhat public and with my village having the weirdest track record ever…)

Research finds.

Mood boards if I find the time and energy.

If I ever figure it out, links to livestreams of me editing.

If people are interested, excerpts and links to the according chapters for comparision.

Sounds like… something only a weirdo would do.

Since I am a weirdo, yupp.

Alright, but sounds interesting. You need support?

Always. Best way to support your local sibi is to a) follow this blog. b) pester me with questions or send me other messages. c) pester other people to pester me. Keep track of my progress and be the first to know when this baby hits the stage.

d) I have a ko-fi page and… if people would buy me a coffee on occasion, it would be much apprechiated. Millenial, being a writer and stuff, you know the drill.

So… thank you for dropping in, thank you for reading and now have some fun on my blog.

#writing #editing #sing for me #a song of ghosts and love #from fanfiction to novel #editing blog #first post #who am I? #YOI #fanfiction #YOI fanfic #Yuri on ice

[calliecat93]

Star Trek Episodes 55-59.

Spock’s Brain: This is known as one of the worst episodes in the entire franchise. And... it was meh. It was not good by any means, it’s stupid and kinda sexist. But honestly other episodes like Gothos and Wolf in the Pack turned me off even more than this and consideirng the latter involved freakin’ Jack the Ripper, I don’t even see the plot of Spock’s brain being stolen as that ludicrous. You can tell that the cast weren’t that into it as pretty much all of them gave up. I think that DeForest Kelley was the only one trying at all by the end. I do like the lengths that the crew goes to try and restore Spock and even little things like Kirk turning to speak to Spock until realizing that it’s Scotty. McCoy also being willing to sacrifice himself at the end to get the knowledge to restore Spock despite what it could do to him and succeeding even when he loses the knowledge just further emphasizes why he’s my favorite. So yeah...I need to get through the rest of the franchise before I agree that this is the worst, but as far as TOS goes there were others I disliked more. It’s stupid, but it has some small things that helped it stay as just meh for me. 2/5.

The Enterprise Incident: I’m starting to understand why S3 isn’t looked upon highly. I mean this wasn’t a bad episode, but it has issues. I liked having a better look at the Romulans and that they had a female Commander. She got duped easily, but hey at least they appear equal opprotunity. I fully admit that I was disliking ithe episode at first because of how Kirk reacted to Spock, it felt utterly OOC even with the episode outright saying in the beginning that he’s acting OOC. I was especially pissed at him threatning to kill Spock twice for confirming that he was unstable and broke treaty... though IDK how I felt about Spcok doing that at all. But then it turned out it was a gambit, and while I quesiton how they had time to plan it, it DID make the OOC actions much easier to tolerate. Also McCoy catching on and playing his part with probably no forewarning was awesome. Kirk also going undercover as a Romulan was cool since we haven’t seen him do much espionage work. It’s a decent episode overall. And I do think it does show how ultimateley loyal to the Enterprise that Spock is, denying any appeal at a higher position given to him. I felt it could have been better if they held back on the Romulan Commander trying to seduce Spock scenes and done Kirk a bit better, but it was a fine watch. 3.5/5.

The Paradise Syndrome: Oh Dear Lord, this was painful to watch. It’s the 60’s, but the Native American/white savior stereotypes and clear use of brownface is just... painful. Extremely painful. It had some good things, like the concept of the Preservers. The plot of Kirk getting amnesia and being stuck alone on an alien planet and being brought up into a new culture isn’t a bad idea at all and would have plenty of chances for drama on both his and the Enterprise’s end. But needless tosay the way they went about it was both not great and outright offensive. Not out of place in this era admittedly, but that doesn’t make ot better. The B Plot pf the crew dealing with an asteroid after having to leave Kirk was alright, thOse were the scenes I liked the most at least woth Spock pushing himself to stop an asteroid/not grt killed and McCoy going back and forth between getting on him for the risks and he trying to make sure that he’s grtting proper rest and care. At least I got good Spock and McCoy content out of this. Otherwise, not an episode I intend to revisit anytime soon. 2/5.

And the Children Shall Lead: It was meh. It’s always a gamble when you use children actors, but they already did the creepychildren thing in Miri, and imo much better there. The plot is a decent one with the Enterpirse finding children who are glad that their parents are dead But the execution leaves a lot to be desired and it just feels dumb. Seeing the main cast with the kids is kinda cute, but that doesn’t male up for it. Also the main villain... they hried a lawyer to play him for some reaosn and... yeah IDT I need to say anything more. I pretty much zoned out of it completeley which isn’t a good sign. Medicore at best, not good for sure. 1/5.

Is There in Truth No Beauty?: Out of the five I watched today, this episode was by far the best one. I really enjoyed Miranda, she’s smart, indepemdant, and perfectly capable despite being blind. Also McCoy figuring that out on his own and keeping it to himself until it became necessary to reveal it was freakin’ great and I love how he respected her privacy. Seriosuly, McCoy is the bright spot that has carried these episodes for me. The concept of Kollos is interesting and how glimpsing it can drive a human mad, which lead us to the situaiton of the week. There’s a theme of beauty in this episode with Miranda being look at for her looks despite not being interested in romance and she also asks if Kollos is ugly, or if it posesses a madness-inducing beauty. It’s also interesting that Miranda is envious of Spock’s own telepathic/mental abilities. She’s probably the best written female character in this incarnation with how complex and capable she is despite her blindness. I really enjoyed this one and after one okay episose and three not that good ones, this was a good ending point. Also Spock emoting after the merge with Kollos terrified me cause oh God I’m not used to it, though hey glad that Nimoy can do more! Only real complaint is that some of the first perosn camera angles just looked... weird. Overall though, good episode. 4/5.

Yeah... I can see why S3 isn’t viewed very highly if this is how things started. I’m hoping it grts at least a little better since I’ve still got 19 episodes to get through. I’m glad that we ended on a pretty good spot, but yeah... not having as much fun with this as the past two seasons thus far. But plenty more to go, so we’ll see if we can rise up from this.

#st watchthrough #star trek tos

[theinsanecrayonbox]

the great FOP review mega dump

ok so apparently the rest of s10 was aired at the end of June through July of this year. now granted, i do not get NickToons and used a friend’s DVR to record it, so there’s a margin for error, but i don’t recall any of these episodes ever getting recorded. i could be wrong, my memory sucks, BUT TVGuide is stupid and has a habit of putting the wrong names/numbers on things and if the guide doesn’t list the episode as new because half of it already aired, then it wouldn’t get recorded. so again, huge margin for error.

basically, i hadn’t posted these yet because i didn’t realize they’d aired; i was trying to avoid spoiling anything for people. Nick sucks at their programming schedule. these first viewing reviews are nearly a year old in some cases, since it was about a year ago that i was given links to watch some of these online after they’d aired in other countries. so yeah, probably a little dated, might not hold up, but here they are so we can be done with this.

Which is Wish:

 Chloe is a vegetarian??? Has this been said before??

 I feel like everything in the garage there was in the attic when Dad made Timmy clean that out before…not that that isn’t plausible, since that’d be one way to “clean” the attic lol. Just thought it was a neat commentary.

 But yes Chloe, unleash your organizational skills. Color coded labels are awesome! Cleaning sucks, but labels lol

 And yes, switching bodies always works so well doesn’t it Timmy…but heehee he called Chloe pretty XD though in fairness…doesn’t this mean Chloe is still eating the meat, because Tim’s in her body…or do they just *look* like one another? See, that’s the gray area…

 Ok I do not like all these moments of Dad seeing Cosmo and Wanda; they’re glossed over yes, but still. That should break Da Rules though, because they’ve been revealed (not to mention Crocker knows about them a million times over I know). it just seems like a cheap gag that they don’t need, and it’s annoying.

 “Chlimmy Turnermicheal” lol, I need to draw a fusion of my Opals now XD;;;

 Ok yes, they’ve body swapped, not glamoured, so Chloe *did* eat the meat after all, thank you for explaining that

 Seriously, it’s Cosmo loosing the wands (for the umpteenth time) that is going to cause the problems here -.-

 Yay more Chloe parents! They aren’t 1 or 2 offs! Though…why were they absent up until this point? Did they decide to take a sabbatical from work after the booby incident? That’d be nice

 OMR Danny, Vlad (wait nasty Dan? Hu oh well), and Dudley puppets. That is too cute for words!!

 And a Little Shop joke. Eeeeeeee!!! I know they’ve done man-eating plants before, but still!

 Chloe’s dad faints at failure? Hm, that could be useful.

 Tim admitting he’d miss Chloe is sweet, especially since it wasn’t with any mention of loosing his fairies

 Hahahaha dressing up as each other/themselves, that’s great. Cosmo’s head blowing up is getting old though.

 All in all I give this episode a huge A+. It is a cliché trope of a plot, but I feel it was executed really really well!! Nice balance of magical aspects with non-magical ones I thought, and gave development to both kids and their families.

Fairy Con:

 Ok first of all, I thought Fairy conventions were held every thousand years or so, and was actually just for the fairies. Granted, this “Fairy con” could be a different event OR they changed the event after Timmy’s bathroom one, since that could’ve been the first time a godchild was involved? Also, Timmy is you go “every year” that shows that this is at least 2 years after you got your fairies (because you had Cosmo Con, then assume one after that, then at minimum this one), so why are you still 10?????? (and don’t go saying “the time stopping wish in secret wish” because uhg)

 Crocker in the fridge….ok…but adding in Crocker to crash the Con…yeah this is a complete plot reusing of Cosmo Con, just updating it a bit

 Look Girlfriend the cat isn’t dead!!

 If you’ve had their hair samples for that long why haven’t you cloned them before?? But “off brand cloning machine” is sorta funny. Also, Kenny G? that a Spongebob shout out or not?

 Ok if it merged the cat DNA with the fairy why didn’t it merge the fairy DNA together too? Also, missed your mark to have a real “fairy cat” show up (though no Sparky so we don’t need it anymore I guess)

 Oh but Chloe’s enthusiasm over her first con, I am so happy at that ^^ I just had my first comic con, and I was spazzing like that too when I wasn’t freaking out over being ditched and lost.

 Ok that is yet ANOTHER unique birthday for Timmy. He’s up to what, 5 now since the series started? (Boys in the Band, Birthday Bashed, Birthday Battle, the one mentioned in Birthday Battle about the dinosaurs) the kid is at least 14 now, he has to be!

 I like all the backgrounders. Some look super squashed, but still neat.

 Tooth fairy returns! Yay! We had mentions of Cupid and Mother Nature before, so it’s nice to see the magical celebrities are still around and not forgotten.

 Ahhh! The return of the Crocker Pot which captures fairies!! Ok I am giving this writing team an A- on doing their lore homework because they are getting so many things right (though the Fairy Con being thrown off is still deducting points sorry)

 There was a blonde fairy that looked like Samantha in the background O.o

 “Chloe Carmichael, any normal person would give up right now. But you are NOT normal!” - omr Chloe I love you and your “never quit” song was good and humorous, I still love you

 Timmy how can you not know what Crocker is up to? He’s always up to the same exact thing. If he’s in Fairy World, I’m fairly sure there is a 1000% chance he’s there to capture fairies. Geeze.

 OMR Princess Morebucks was in the seats at Cosmo’s panel, I’m not joking.

 All in all, it wasn’t a giant impacting story, but it was a good one, even though it was a total reusing of a plot. I feel like the writing team did their homework pretty decently (for the most part). Plus, the magic of cons ^^

The Hungry Games:

 This is the B-Story to Fairy Con…interesting choice…more fangirl!Chloe…

 I love her “Katniss hair”, heck I just love seeing alternate hair on her

 Heh “Ketchup Everdream”, wow, ok, sure

 That might be the wrong movie, but it sounds interesting. What movie was that Cosmo?

 Aw Chloe lost…but yay call back to screaming in her closet

 Lol Crocker is once again, king of dystopian world. That is perfect. This is all perfect.  Maybe it’s because I liked the Hunger Games movie that I can thoroughly enjoy this parody, idk. But this is great. I am loving this episode.

 And cue the pointless Dad part…wait Mr Bickles?? Where have you been?? Why are you here???

 I like the blonde/pink haired backgrounder

 I really loved this episode! It was so nice how Timmy did this for Chloe and stuck with it even when it was bad for him, then she turns around and does something nice for him at the end. It let Chloe fly her freaky fangirl flag on so many levels. Like I said, I liked Hunger Games, so this was a great parody that was loads of fun. I really really enjoyed all of it.

 As a whole episode, these two really show us what a geeky girl Chloe is I think. She’s not just the over achieving little Ms Perfect she was at first, she’s got her weird hobbies and obsessions too. And the fact that she was so into Fair Bears AND dystopian doomy future really says a lot about her, and really speaks to me on many levels. It’s just solidified my love of Chloe even more.

Dimmsdale Daze:

 And we start off with jokes about barfing…well it is a roller coaster so I can let it slide…just don’t spiral out of control with them…

 Heehee “vines” joke, that’s great. Because it highlights their age AND that they are more naturalist

 Oooo Connie said “shyster”, that’s pretty borderline…

 Chaining yourself to the tree in town…wouldn’t that be the same tree that Tootie did the same thing to in the first live action movie? I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing…

 Did Chloe’s middle name change? O.o but lol to the “when you’re a parent you can make the decisions” because I head canon them meddling after Chloe’s divorce, but I know that line is the plot fodder, so I’ll just push the head canons away for now

 Lookit that adult!Chloe though!! I’m not that far off the mark with my design (plus you know, there are several older!Timmy designs and none are more true than the other, so my older!Chloe being short and bustier is still plausible). And hey lookit! Cameo of the adult!Timmy from Big Problem AND confirmation that if one of the godkids breaks Da Rules they both loose the fairies TOGETHER

 Neither Clark nor Connie really look too much like Chloe as children (ok Connie *does* but when you consider they made child Dad look exactly like Timmy before, it’s not quite enough)…just another tick in my adopted column, just saying…

 Why did that child in the bounce house have lipstick O.o

 Chloe’s earring is like, in the wrong place and it’s bothering me…

 “But I have the mind if a child” “It’s true, he’s been tested” – I…wow, just…yes?

 And of course Connie and Clark get assigned Cosmo and Wanda, I don’t know why I didn’t see that coming honestly ^^;;

 You know, even though this is sort of a rehash of Big Problem and The Switch Glitch I thoroughly enjoyed this one! Single mom!Chloe was great, it feeds my future headcanons. It proved that Tim and Chloe do share the negative effects of the fairies. And it was just a really good Chloe episode that Timmy was just a supporting character in. I really did like it. A+

 As a whole, I think both parts (this is meant to be paired with Spring Breakup) work nicely together. It’s a lot of Chloe and her family, so if you want some serious Carmichael development, do for this set most definitely.

Chip off the Old Crock:

 Ok before getting into this one, I just gotta state that since I read the description for it, I’ve been ITCHING to see this. How does Crocker have a nephew if he has no siblings? (*current thoughts: i’ve since this review come up with a plausible scenario*) What would this child be like? How could I use him for Superverse conveniently?? And then I saw screencaps and saw that he was a mini Crocker and got disappointed…

 But now we are to watch so let us see how that unfolds…

 What’s with that redheaded backgrounder?? He looks like a Lebowitz!! *files that away for layer usage*

 Still laughing that he’s named Kevin since that is a “name of evil” in our games and what not ever since my brother used it as a placeholder name for a badguy in a storyline; ever since then “Kevin” had been the badguys who are sorta pointless lol

 But still…”study abroad” um…you still could’ve used that since Crocker obviously has family in Canada; studying in California would then be considered “abroad” if he was Canadian. And that way, he wouldn’t have to be his literal nephew, but his 2nd cousin, but they just call each other uncle/nephew because it’s easier. That might sound confusing, but at least it makes more sense then just randomly implying he has siblings when he never has. I’m gonna headcanon this from now on, and no one can convince me otherwise. (*current thoughts: again, i’ve figured it out since writing this; i’ve left the original thoughts though to prove my though process from point A to point B*) Plus you miss out on Canada jokes this way…

 Awww Kevin, I’m starting to love you…that’s weird…

 Everyone pick a partner-no one pick Kevin, classic. However…redhead boy had 2 partners, why didn’t Crocker notice and stop that? There’s no reason why Chloe and Tim needed to pair up with him aside from plot relevance…

 Ah sweet Chloe, standing up for the misunderstood and outcast, trying to find the good in them and make others see it too. I love you sweetheart ^^ go make friends with Francis now please

 Why isn’t Dolores fawning over Kevin? You’d think she wouldn’t let her *grandson* out of her sight, considering the coddling we’ve seen her give Denzel at times. Unless she’s busy with her *other child* I guess…but in that case why isn’t she belittling Denzel for not being like *his sibling* and having kids and not living in her basement? I’d love to see Denzel look like a looser compared to this *sibling* he suddenly has, and it suits the family dynamic as we know it. Or perhaps the *sibling* is more of a looser, but Dolores still sings their praises because they did move out and have a kid, unlike Denzel who has a steady job and whatnot because *sibling* is a total bum. I mean, I get that it would only slow down the storyline, but it just feels out of character, plus the sudden introduction of a *sibling* just is wrong too…I should stop analyzing the Crocker family and just go back to the actual plot

 Kevin wants to be a dentist??? O.o are you related to Dr Bender??? That…would explain nothing honestly, idk why I went there

 “Sorry I’m too busy being a loner” haha that’s a good one

 Hey callback to Crocker wearing ladies clothes. Nice.

 “It’s a blueprint so shouldn’t it be blue?” hahaha that was funny

 Chloe how did you get to the top of the rock wall without a rope?? Did you boulder your way yup there?? And Tim! You should never rock climb without a belier(sp?) geeze, rock climbing 101 there dude

 And toilet joke…but I will let it slide because I am actually enjoying Kevin

 “Unleash your inner looser” omr yes best line

 Ah the build up to the betrayal “aw you guys actually like me” “well yeah you’re not evil” *does the evil thing* “we hate you now because you are evil after all”

 Unsuspecting Van is back whoot!

 Ninja!Chloe and Tim with a light saber; nice, but what a missed opportunity…also Chloe has a ninja suit…she really is replacing Tootie isn’t she…

 And Kevin saves the day by wishing none of this ever happened…just like Chester did in Fairy Idol hm…

 But at the end of it, I’m actually very surprised how much I liked this despite all its flaws. It’s riddled with clichés and huge plot holes/continuity errors, but I genuinely liked Kevin (and whole heartedly look forward to writing him into Superverse…also would it be too weird if he was Kyler’s father? I think it’d be weird…). I think it’s a nice B-story to Cat and Mouse and together they make a pretty good episode.

Space Ca-Dad:

 Off topic a moment here; rewatching the theme and it just dawned on me…maybe there’s a “fairy shortage” because no one’s enforcing the rules over fairies being revealed/discovered. I mean, if everyone Timmy knows knows about his fairies and yet he keeps them, then other kids must be doing that too you know. Just saying Jorgen, you caused this problem yourself man…and honestly, why not outsource the fairy jobs then to other magical creatures, since Fairy Idol proved any magical creature can be converted to a fairy godparent. It’d be a great way to bring Norm back if you stop and think about it, or a way to get the Pixies back in there too. I’m just saying, the “fairy shortage” story is pretty weak…still think Jorgen just did this to them because they’re good for each other…

 Ok back to the episode itself

 Yay Chloe is still a Squirrely Scout, good for continuity! And you love food puns? i love you more Chloe, you so are a Catman related heroine aren’t you ^^;

 Did he say “Mrs Lipshitz” or “Mrs Libwitz”? it was really hard to tell, so idk if that’s a Rugrats shout out or someone I have to add to my  Lebowitz family tree (cause slurred sound…and the witch/mental thing does suit the family…)

 Dad you had the rank of “flying squirrel” why is this confusing??

 Ok there are “Pickles” living on the street, I’m going with Lipshitz. So many Rurgrats shout outs.

 Whinny kid, Kid with issues (aren’t you Kevin?), and Stuart…so we are going with the latest (and suckier) Squirrel Scout troop line up. Kay.

 Chloe as a jr. astronaut though and knowing how to fly space ships ^^

 Heehee “Space Jam” how many more thinly veiled references can we have XD;;

 (maybe Squirrely Kevin is Kyler’s father…that’s doable…)

 Ah yes, Dad throwing the fairies out just when the kid/s need them. Yup, never seen that plot device used before nope. And how can rocket fuel destroy magical wands? They’re fairy magic, why are they so easy to ruin??

 How did you find a planetoid when you were heading towards the sun??? I don’t…right, why put logic into things, my bad

 The Glorg. Florgatron-5. Hm…*files that way for layer usage* Bakersfield???

 I loved all the aliens at the restaurant though.

 Over all, this episode was…meh. I didn’t dislike it, but it was a very pointless Dad episode. Seriously, you could’ve had them go to the Planet of the Dads and do pretty much the same thing, but at least keep that storyline going (since I think it’s the longest running one now). I’m unimpressed, but I’m not disappointed. So lets see if the B-story can save the episode as a whole.

Summer Bummer:

 “The looks of psychotic anticipation” lol, well we’re starting off with some good

 Also it’s summer vacation yet again. Mk…this makes it at least the 4th summer vacation Tim’s had, what with School’s Out, Shelf Life, and Microphony being the others I can easily site off the top of my head. So again, these children should be like 14-16 now

 It’s the return of Dad in short-shorts. Oh man, run and hide now.

 Chloe getting a summer internship/scientific program is very her. Must always be learn…wait did she say the corner of a basement?? O.o that’s concerning child…

 Oh hey that pink clad teacher is from s1 I think. Wasn’t she in Timvisible at the water cooler?? That is a very nice and wow throwback guys. Major points to you.

 Chloe is 10 and a half???? So she actually IS a year younger than Timmy, since he was already 10 when he had his birthday (and we ignore the previous like 5 birthdays he’s had >>) and they share a birthday…but wait, your birthday is in March…summer vacation starts in June/July, that isn’t 6 months later…ok so on the one hand, your math is all wrong, but on the other my headcanon that Chloe is a year younger seems to be proven fact. I don’t know what to do with this information!!

 Oh this is the sleep wishing episode I heard about! Wow took a while for the plot to show up…but you know, even though this has been used before, I feel like this is being used in a different context and for a different character, so I’m allowing the reuse of the plot idea. Let’s see how twisted up Chloe’s subconscious is…

 “Gender neutral Jesse” is sorta weird…I like the fact that Chloe did play with baby dolls though…

 Timmy you can’t unwish Chloe’s wish! We’ve been over this-we had a whole episode dedicated to it!! URG!! Did they just throw that out because it’s easier for them to just fix each other’s mistakes that way? I mean, if this was the only time, I could buy that since she didn’t *consciously* make this wish, it could be undone by Tim, but the other times they’ve pulled this she’s been in her full faculties. So uhg! You can’t even keep your own continuity you establish in the same season >> (but…you guys have been doing better than expected, so…it’s not *as* negative points as I’d usually give…or maybe it is but you’ve just racked up enough positive ones to be at the standard by now I guess)

 Hey Dr Rip Studwell, long time no see XD and…you made a manscaping joke…wow, I…wow

 And a poop joke…but you have a pirate ship…but still…

 “Took one to the crow’s nest” is that a crotch shot joke? Wow this episode is just…wow

 Omr the mini shoulder Chloes are adorable! I love valley girl!Chloe and german science!Chloe. Didn’t like the second poop joke in a minute, especially since Dad really *shouldn’t* have heard science!Chloe say that…

 She wished the doll big again…I think Chloe’s repressed feelings are about not wanting to grow up

 And look Da Rules FINALLY decide to kick…oh no, Chloe wished it to be unwishable...yeah, because that’s the only way to stop Tim from fixing it >> and yet at the same time, he did wish the monster to stay until he stopped lying about who set Chompy free, so…formula…

 “There’s free ice cream all over the street! It’s like delicious roadkill!” ok that is the best line ever

 Wait, you’re wishing yourself into Chloe’s mind?? Because that worked so well when you went into your own…and why does it remind me of Mabel’s dreamworld/mind? I expected less pink, more purple honestly. Preschool!Chloe is so adorable!! Totally called the plot though, not that it’s hard.

 Cosmo confirmed as queer, because even when he thought Wanda was “Weird Dude” he still had a crush on him. Wow, I am floored they did that, good for you

 And we end it by promoting cannibalism? Oh wait no; we scratch the 4th wall instead. Ahha. Yeah. You totally missed the opportunity to have “Kids just being Kids” playing somewhere-possibly remixed-because I feel the message suited Chloe’s mentality too right now.

 Over all, I’m glad it was Chloe centric but…I feel like this could’be been done in half the time maybe? They ignore their own continuity, but they do tackle real stuff in a minimal magical way. I guess like the A-story, I’m unimpressed but not disappointed. I feel like both of these should not have been paired together because as a whole the entire episode is lacking; they both needed a stronger story to counter balance them. It’s a good watch once through, but I doubt it’s an episode you’ll want to rewatch.

Dimmsdale’s Got Tallent:

 Ok…I feel like this plot has been used before…and not necessarily thinking Fairy Idol either, but I just can’t place which episode I’m thin king of…

 TOOTIE!!!! THEY DIDN’T SHIP YOU OFF TO BOARDING SCHOOL OR WHATEVER!! OMR!!! Sadly you were just a backgrounder cameo, but still…now I just need to find Francis then my main favs will have all appeared to be not dead (*spoiler: Francis does not appear anywhere*)

 More Bickles…huh…

 Mom’s stage name is “Madame Sasha”…is that a hint that her first name is Sasha?? Most times when you make up “magic names” they’re either your real name in between “the” and “magnificent” or they’re some super exotic/fake/fantastical sounding thing like how Dad was “Dadracadabra”

 And more about Chloe’s one-woman show. That’s so neat that this is something that they’re developing for her, instead of using as a toss away one shot gag.

 Kevin!! Dressed as a dummy for a comedy act lol. It’s an old and over used plot idea, but I’ll run with it. I like it. Cause Crocker now has 24 hour access to a child, he of course has to think of other ways to use it. “I’m telling my mom you made me do this” because that is Denzel’s sister so it is a legitimate threat…though you’d think Dolores would object to this too…why have we not had any interaction of Kevin with his grandmother yet??? I’d love to see Denzel get jealous over the attention his mother is giving Kevin that he never received

 Haha Dad stealing Chloe’s idea, and still breaking the gender norms, nice. Where did Bickles get the coconut bikini top and grass skirt though?

 Oh baaaaaad lesson to be teaching kids there guys. If the authority figure won’t give you want you want, you shouldn’t do them favors to try to bribe them into giving it to. Especially in the entertainment industry. That’s how bad situations happen….

 Um those remote control tap shoes shouldn’t work because they would be helping Tim to win a competition, which is against Da Rules…not that Da Rules seem to matter anymore…

 Ok Mom, you claimed to be a “Pet Psycho” yet you’re using only wild/non-pet animals. I think that’s probably the easiest way to point out that you’re doing this wrong

 “I love me some snake and mongoose” ok…lets go see if that’s a euphemism on google…hm, nope, just a drag racing movie. That’s nice…wasn’t Bickles a race car driver at some point??

 Doug Dimmadome returns! And “curious life partner”??? the Mayor and Chompy are a thing??? O.o???

 Good boy Kevin, stand up to Crocker ^^

 “That was a Dimma-dud” so simple and stupid, but probably the most fulfilling line thus far ^^;

 love Chloe’s gold gown

 ok I lied, “Dimma-dope” is now the most fulfilling line in this

 heehee Dudley Puppy and Crimson Chin balloons in the parade. So headcanoning that TUFF Puppy was a show on tv in FOPverse

 so this episode was….well just really pointless filler too. We got like minimal focus on any of our main characters. Have they forgotten how to write Timmy and Chloe?

 Together these two (this was paired with Knitt-witts)  were not a good match. Both were pointless filler with not a strong plot in either of them. Too many guest cameos, no character development. It was just barely enjoyable enough to not hate it, but just barely honestly. Weak episode all around.

Goldie Crocks and the three Fair Bears:

 Ok I’ve been looking forward to the return of the Fair Bears since the episode titles were released.

 Interesting to see the Squirrely Scout troop back again, still the same B-team line up including Chloe. Thought you already had that patch…but then again that could’ve been with the A-team troop lineup, so…the records were all destroyed when it was disbanded maybe?

 Thanks Tim, we all were asking that. But how does using Mom’s shampoo make your hair blonde? Luscious and even longer I could buy without complaint, but blonde??

 More over achieving Chloe lol (poor girl is gonna crash when she burns out). But wow, she fought King Neptuna…so why didn’t he remember her? Is Supergal now enemy to the merfolk??? Though that plays into the Merfolk vs Glamazons wouldn’t it…

 And now we turn into the clichéd camping storyline where Character A decides to go use non-wilderness to camp in luxury. But Tim, you used to like camping??? Also, still not seeing how the episode title plays into this plot yet…

 Cosmo has been right/made sense on more than one occasion though, why is it that surprising?

 Ok now we get the title…Crocker’s mother has a cabin in the woods? Buyable, sure. Crocker somehow brought the Fair Bears back into reality??? Uh…what now? Wait, they weren’t sent back to TVLand?? And Crocker knows all about their origin?? HOW does that not break Da Rules huh? Is it because he doesn’t know who wished them up, so it’s not against Da Rules?? Why wouldn’t they tell him that; wouldn’t that be a fair thing to do?? He’s in a blonde wig because they’re going to be Goldielocks at a theme park, yeah sure, ok I can buy that. But HOW did he get the bears in the first place???

 And Dad is blonde to be Goldielocks…wow…

 Chloe breaking the 4th wall a little there

 Gah even more middle names! Chloe how many do you even have????

 NO! YOU CAN’T UNDO THE OTHER’S WISHES! URGH!!! You established this rule right off the bat, yet you keep breaking it and they let you keep breaking it. Timmy wished for the camping stuff-Chloe should not be able to wish it away. Yes the plot is stalled, but really, what is the plot at this point??? If you’re only going to enforce the rules when it suits you, well, anarchy for all then please

 And you wished away the magic…yeah, that’s going to go super well

 “Mr Crocker’s unsightly twin sister” ok on the one hand, that works because of Kevin granted (even though she’s not a twin persay, but he has suddenly got a sister), but on the other…this is all saying that guys can’t have long hair and I don’t like that. I love guys with long hair. Between that comment on Crocker, and the comments earlier about Dad, why is long hair automatically girl now?

 Dolores dated Shaggy??? O.o i…I am very unnerved by that…wasn’t she already a full blown adult with a 10 year old child when Shaggy was a teenager roaming in the van with the Mystery Inc crew?? O.o

 Omr yes. Referencing the “original German version” as a darker one. Talking about basting and eating people. This turned dark super fast and I love that. why TrollLOL’s face is on the oven idk, but I’m rolling with it because I love this part.

 “I’ve already got 2 strikes from the school board” uh…yeah that’s the wrong side of dark I think…but it’s Crocker, it was probably the fork in Waxelplax’s fanny, and the flour incident or something fairly similar.

 Yes Tim, yell at Chloe that this is all her fault. We know it is, but pointing it out won’t help. But it totally is; you wished for no magic and you got into trouble-not surprising.

 HOW is it nearly midnight??? It was like, what, noon at the latest when this started?? You have not been out in the woods-in the daylight-for 12 hours-of daylight. Chloe hunny, you’re the smart one, why are you failing telling time??? I know its dark outside the house now, but it wasn’t in the scene before. Cosmo I think your clock is right. And how is “poof us out of here” bring you to a spot where it is, once again daylight; that seemed to suggest instant teleporting so you’re at the same time. Unless this next scene is a cut away to hours later BUT STILL! It should not be midnight.

 Oh Dad, yes, I’m sure no one cares about your troop anymore.

 “let’s send the Fair Bears back” uh you should have done that the first time and this whole mess would have been avoided. It’s like leaving the door to the comic book world open all over again.

 And yes, cause unnecessary harm to Crocker, why not. Not to mention all the innocent patrons at the theme park…

 Also why has no one mentioned Dimmsdale had a theme park before now?

 All in all, not a good episode. I was looking forward to the return of the Fair Bears, and it felt like they weren’t even in half of the episode. The rest was another boring camping storyline, which these two seem to do a lot of huh?

 Paired with Fancy Schmancy, as the production order says, I think the whole 30 min episode is completely weak and not great. This one was bad, the other was filler, so together they are just not meshing well at all.

#Fairly Odd Parents #Fairly Oddparents #fop #kp talks fop #review #mega dump

[lesmotsincompris]

Thoughts on GoT S07E03

This time I didn’t take notes during the episode because I watched it on TV, so I forgot half the stuff I wanted to say.

It’s amazing how D&D can have so much going on—Jon and Dany meeting for the first time, Bran and Sansa reunion, the fall of Highgarden and House Tyrell, Dany losing so much of her strength, lots of revenge, lots of attacks...—and still make me feel so little.

To be more specific:

Dragonstone

Jon reached Dragonstone awfully fast, but I can assume a long time has passed between the end of last episode and the beginning of this one. What I have more trouble explaining is why Jon decided to go just with Davos (Jon says he must go himself because Daenerys is a queen and anything less than a king won’t do, but a king alone is not very impressive, is it?), how they traveled so far, or how they managed to do it on their own.

Daenerys and Jon meeting for the first time was supposed to be the highlight of the episode and one of the highlights of the season (if not the story as a whole), but the moment was awfully flat. It doesn’t help that I don’t like the show version of both characters, or that Emilia and Kit are among the least talented actors in the cast.

There was a lot of title dropping, praise for deeds or skills we barely saw on screen, and inaccurate westerosi history in a scene that lasted several minutes too long. I still don’t understand what makes Jon King in the North other than the writers really, really wanted it to happen, so there’s that too.

Jon showing up with no proof that the icepocalypse is real is beyond stupid. Why would anyone believe him? Was he counting on Tyrion to buy his story? Was that the best he could say to paint an accurate picture of the situation? On the other hand, the audience knows Jon is telling the truth, so all this talk of ‘bending the knee’ and Dany’s general entitlement were silly and irritating. On the other-other hand (back to my first hand?), if Jon truly cares about the war against the White Walkers instead of being king, he could just bend the fucking knee and get on with this already. How can I enjoy this scene when everyone on it sounds so dumb and childish?

It’s great to see Dany acknowledging that she was raped or that her father was mad, but this is quite far from ‘my sun and stars’ or ‘the usurper’ narratives that we’ve been fed so far, and we should have seen this development happening in our screens. It’s especially odd to have her so comfortable with the idea that her father was mad, since: a) show!Dany has her fair share of pyromaniac moments as well; b) if she admits Aerys was a terrible king, she admits Robert’s Rebellion was necessary. If she validates Robert’s Rebellion, doesn’t that mean she no longer has a claim to the throne? How does she fit all this in her head? We just don’t know.

Tyrion and Davos made most of the relevant talking and it’s great to see Tyrion doing something smart again. Still, I hate how he’s always the Voice of Reason™ for Dany, this time changing her mind about Jon. To be fair, my issue is not this scene in particular, but the pattern of giving Tyrion all the relevant decisions. Dany is the queen, we need to see her ability to rule and we need to believe that she deserves her position. If she’s shown depending on Tyrion for every move or being easily influenced by his ideas (no matter how stupid they are), her position feels unearned. At least we got that moment when she calls him out on his bullshit for his ‘wise words’, that was actually fun to watch and reminded me of book!Dany.

Varys was also acting more like his book self, which only proves that cutting Aegon VI is hurting the story more than expected. Not only it gives Varys split personality but also hurts Dany’s plot, King’s Landing, the Stormlands and the Reach… It’s interesting, I always assumed Aegon could be more or less cut without great losses and now I see that excluding him from the story demands more care than that.

People praising Sansa’s wits is a rare sight in the show (has this actually happened before?), but this time both Tyrion and Jon did it. The sad implication behind the idea that Sansa ‘became’ smart is that she ‘had’ to suffer all that bullshit in season five in order to develop this intelligence. D&D fail to see that Sansa has always been smart.

Melisandre’s scene was almost ‘now that I did everything the plot needed from me I can fade away so the writers don’t have to come up with a something for me to do’. It could be worse, she could be trapped in a stupid greyscale plot.

Dany says that Jon lost two brothers… How does she know that Bran is alive? I’m convinced there’s something like a Westeros Daily twitter account and all characters read it constantly, and that’s how they get information that would otherwise be impossible for them to obtain.

How did Jon expected to mine and transport all that dragonglass if there’s just him and Davos? Idiot.

Davos and Jon saying that Dany could have attacked King’s Landing only highlights the fact that she should have done exactly that. I am but a young girl and know little of the ways of war, but Tyrion’s plan falls apart with little examination. Attacking King’s Landing via dragon means Dany can more or less direct the attacks to military targets, thus sparing a lot of innocent lives. Besieging King’s Landing, on the other hand, will bring starvation, higher criminality, and other problems that will affect the smallfolk long before they affect Cersei and co. There’s also Casterly Rock: I understand the value of conquering the Lannister seat, but it’s not worth splitting Dany’s forces in half, especially when they don’t do the most basic research about current Lannister strategy.

Of course, all that implies writers who actually care and are capable of writing meaningful conflict. We have D&D instead, so the only reason why Dany doesn’t attack King’s Landing is to save the confrontation with Cersei for whatever episode replaces the 9th episode this season.

Winterfell

I’m not gonna lie, I enjoyed seeing Sansa being a good ruler and using her skills. This is the first time in ages that show!Sansa does anything resembling book!Sansa.

What I don’t understand is why Littlefinger keeps following her around. I barely see a reason for him to be in Winterfell, let alone this. The platitudes he says in the show never made a lot of sense, but sound even worse after D&D destroyed his image as a skilled political player with the season five fiasco.

I actually enjoyed seeing Sansa and Bran reuniting. The show made me feel things! Positive things! With book characters that I like! Omg, what am I watching?

Oh, no, wait, I’m watching Game of Thrones. Not only Isaac Hempstead-Wright wasn’t allowed to emote, the writers had Bran reminding Sansa of her wedding to Ramsay in the cruelest, most uncomfortable way. Considering there were tons of other useful information Bran could have shared, making us revisit this scene in particular feels like a middle finger to critics of the Sansa Marriage Strike.

They also tried to hand-wave the whole Winterfell inheritance problem, with… zero success, honestly. For starters, Sansa says that Bran is ‘the Lord of Winterfell’, not the ‘King in the North’, as if the latter was not disputable. Except it totally is? Jon wouldn’t be an option if the Northern Lords knew Bran was alive. Plus Winterfell is the seat for the King in the North, so being Lord of Winterfell while there’s a King in North means you rule squat. It doesn’t matter; Bran dismissed whatever inheritance based on the fact that he’s the Three Eyed Exposition Robot now. As if that meant anything, you know?

I still don’t understand how Bran went from ‘having visions through weirwood trees’ to ‘divine omniscience’. Have they ever explained this?

Oldtown

I said last week that Jorah outlived his narrative purpose, but that’s especially noticeable with the greyscale plot. If he dies, then eh. If he survives, then eh, so what? Is he gonna go back to Dany? What can he offer her that any of her several advisors can’t? Thankfully he’s not gonna get the girl, so the best he can hope for is dying a heroic death. But, you know, that could have been accomplished without all the screentime we lost with this subplot.

King’s Landing

Where to start?

Why is the smallfolk cheering Euron? Do people actually buy that the septsplosion was an accident? Didn’t they establish in S07E02 that everybody knew it was Cersei? Why isn’t everybody rioting against her? The smallfolk can’t be that stupid, or they would be writing HBO shows.

I’m glad that in three years at least one person reacted to the fact that a zombified Gregor Clegane is serving Cersei Lannister. Thank you, Indira Varma, for being too good for this shit and remind us of the better days this show had.

Carol the tiger mom and the uber villainous Cheryl merged together in a single scene to give us Ellaria and Bad Pussy’s torture. Now there’s only Cersei, the villainous tiger mom. I wish I could care about Bad Pussy Snake dying, but this means less Dorne on screen, so hooray?

(honestly, I’m barely certain Bad Pussy Snake is supposed to be Tyene. She could be Brown Ben Plumm for all I know)

Of all the plot threads in all towns in the world… they bring back Tycho Nestoris. And a Braavos that profits from slave trade! D&D are not just showing the middle finger to book readers, they’re pulling their pants down and making a dickopter on book readers’ faces.

Speaking of dicks, do you think D&D have learned what it means to have sex with a person after they say ‘no’?

Casterly Rock

Is Casterly Rock an important military target? If you say ‘yes’, I must wonder why the Lannisters were willing to lose it so they could attack Highgarden. If you say ‘no’, it means Tyrion lost Daenerys half her fleet and a good chunk of her fiercest warriors out of sheer stupidity. It’s a win-win situation for show detractors!

How did Greyworm’s fleet arrived at Casterly Rock and never crossed paths with Euron’s fleet? How did Euron’s fleet sneak attacked them and nobody saw it? Shouldn’t the Unsullied be more disciplined in a fight? Why would you imply the current generation of Lannisters built Casterly Rock when the book explanation for Tyrion and the sewers works so much better?

(was that special lady tunnel an allusion to the book tunnel connecting the Tower of the Hand and Chataya’s? I know I sound crazy, but D&D have the weirdest ways of ‘adapting’ the source material)

I like the concept of this attack that never was, but factors like Tyrion’s narration, the unimpressive look and resistance of Casterly Rock, or Euron’s teleporting fleet make the execution far less effective for me.

Euron is Ramsay 2.0, now with a rockstar look and even less personality!

Highgarden

That was a crazy fast travel, huh?

Diana Rigg is a great actor, but I confess I lost track of this dialogue a lot. Like, I wrote my main impressions yesterday one hour after the episode and I could barely remember what they were talking about.

I just remember Olenna trashing Cersei for being the worst, but Olenna killed a child (a monstrous child, but a child still) and framed two innocent people for it, one of them another child, and she shows no remorse. So you know what, fuck Olenna.

Extra notes

Honeypot: Euron’s fleet can teleport because he built it with magic trees that teleported to the Iron Islands after Yara stole their original fleet. So the wood has magical teleporting properties, allowing the whole fleet to teleport too. Ta-daaam!

No, really, the teleporting (and not just Euron’s) was wild this time. They clearly don’t give two fucks about consistency anymore.

The main problem with the show at this point is that we can’t ignore what came before. Dany’s or Jon’s speech feels flat because Dany and Jon have been remarkably incompetent at their leadership roles. Ellaria and Tyene’s demise doesn’t touch us because Ellaria and Tyene are murderous jerks and little else. And so on.

There’s so much that is just vomited onto the screen, with little to no care. Look at Euron or the non-battle at Highgarden. D&D cheat in favor of their villains, their ‘shocking twists’, their fanservice moments, or that aberration they call plot. They care less and less, and we have to stop rewarding them for shitting in the glorious profession of writing.

The nicest thing about this episode was trying to explain the concept of hate-watching to my parents and see my mom recognizing the name “Game of Thwo” (my parents don’t speak English in the slightest, so it wasn’t that bad).

#antigot #anti got #got criticism #personal: watching things

[alexanderwrites]

Thoughts Roundup - Twin Peaks: The Return, Part 7

                               “There’s a body, alright”

A note: From here on out, i’m going to be rounding up my thoughts on new episodes of Twin Peaks: The Return week by week. I wrote a review of the first two episodes, but given my love for the show and the complexity of the episodes, typical reviews might be tricky, and it’d be a lot more fun to write in a looser format. So, i’m going to bullet-point my thoughts, which I promise will get boring and erratic.

. I’m really glad to see Jerry Horne again. He’s always been a favourite of mine, and even if this is pretty much all he does this season (which I imagine it will be), that’s good enough for me. Interesting that he mentions his car being stolen - there seems to be a lot about stolen cars this season. Whether they’re linked or just a common theme is open for debate. Maybe Frost or Lynch got their car nicked around the time of writing the series. 

. I absolutely adore Hawk having such a big part this series. It makes such logical sense that he’d have larger responsibilities within the department, and seeing him with the pages from Laura’s diary was immensely satisfying. The reference that Laura makes in the diary to the ‘dream’ she had of Annie is further reference to Fire: Walk With Me, which, if you haven’t seen it yet, is pretty much essential to this season so far. 

. I found it really interesting that Truman wasn’t surprised or confused at the mention of Cooper being trapped in the Black Lodge. He didn’t even ask what it was, so i’m guessing this was a chat the folks in the department had with him when he took the job. “Oh, b-t-dubs, there’s a gateway to what might be hell in the woods. Ask your brother about it And always make another pot of coffee if you finish it off”. I also found Truman, who until now hadn’t done much for me, pretty moving in his scenes tonight. His expression during his call to his terminally ill brother (we miss you, Harry! Kind of!) was rendered painfully on Robert Forster’s face - and I was really moved to see Doc Hayward, even briefly. He’s so visibly frail and old, and seeing all these old (and I mean OLD) faces really hits home the passing of time. There’s an everyday tragedy and pain in seeing it, made particularly poignant that Warren Frost (and several other cast members) passed away not so long ago. I keep wanting the Log Lady to come in with words of beauty and comfort about time passing and the world changing, but i’m not sure we’ll see her again (the actress, Catherine Coulson, passed away in 2015). It’s both saying hello, and goodbye, and the acknowledgement this show has always had that everything must pass is deeply affecting. I wasn’t expecting this series to make me ruminate on the nature of life and death so much. Thanks, assholes. 

Hayward talks about Cooper the morning he comes back from the Lodge - It’s so strange to hear the events of the morning that Cooper rammed his damn head into the mirror get discussed. It really drives home that the moment you’ve been thinking about for the past 2,000 years is getting some context and elucidation. It’s very, very cool. 

. Sheriff Truman pulls a small log-shaped handle and a computer monitor emerges from his desk. If you have a better example of old Twin Peaks merging with the modern world, i’d like to see it. Then i’d like to install it in my house.

. Harold Smith, that sad flower dweeb from season 2, got a mention! Again, it’s odd hearing references to smaller plot points in the series, but then again Doug and Duane Milford got a lot of attention in The Secret History of Twin Peaks. Turns out Doug was a flying saucer chaser, and with the amount of words he gets in the book, i’d be surprised if he’s not even passingly mentioned this season. 

. As well as not crying anymore, Andy has a new Rolex to go along with his new Michael Cera. I’m not sure where the story will go with the no-show guy who said he couldn’t talk to Andy, but I feel like its probably related to the drug story that seems to be running in the background. 

. Laura Dern, we love you. All of us. Every last one. Even with the most difficult to please of viewers, I doubt there’ll be a single complaint about her because she is the fucking best. It’s interesting that Diane’s so seemingly broken, leading us to wonder why - there were never really any clues about her personality, but you get the feeling that she was friendly, from the mere fact that Cooper talked to her via tapes so kindly and openly. So what happened? Bad Coop happened, is what. 

. I was pleasantly surprised at how swiftly the plot developed in this episode -  right after agreeing to meet Doppelcoop, they’re jetting off to see him. If this had been a few episodes earlier, it might’ve taken a while for them to get to it, but this episode knocked it out pretty efficiently. I didn’t think the show was too slow before, but it is a nice change of pace to get an episode with so much development.

. The windows on the jet disappear and reappear, right? I mean, I rewound that several times and they surely do. It’s not the light hitting them funny - they flash. I’m sure of it.

. Tammy hasn’t been given too much screentime yet, despite doing fairly important work - even though it seems Gordon has already sussed out the tasks she undertakes. He seems to be testing her abilities, which is why he assigns her to take over the research of the dossier, which makes up The Secret History of Twin Peaks. The scene where Gordon touches her fingers and says “I’m very, very happy to see you again, old friend” is funny, weird and ingenious. Gordon feels a lot like Cooper, but then, he always has. With his love of food, nature and coffee, and being filled with an affinity for everything, Gordon is an older Cooper and I hope he gets to see his old friend again. 

. Dern’s performance when she meets Doppelcooper is phenomenal and all registered in her fearful expression. It’s a gorgeously framed scene, with her head floating in the darkness of the room, looking at the man who is Not Her Friend. Her reference to that night is certainly ominous, but it did cross my mind that she was feeding him false information to see if he’d take it. Her reaction in the car park afterwards seems to suggest that it was true, though. Everyone seems to be in pain both from the absence of Cooper and from the presence of Doppelcooper. And it leads you to wonder again: what the fuck has Doppelcooper been up to these 25 years? And once again - both kudos and screw you to Kyle MacLachlan for being so utterly brilliant and frightening as Doppelcooper, especially in this prison scenes, where his voice seems to be slowed to a possessed and deep slur. This new season keeps offering up the chance to use such weird sentences: Kyle MacLachlan is terrifying and Matthew Lillard is scene stealing. 

. Of course the body was Garland Briggs. It had to be. Or did it? Who knows! It’s decades younger than it should be, and Briggs supposedly died in a fire a long time ago. We know he was taken by one of the lodges back in season 2, and has experienced the white lodge. We might wonder that if, after that, he gained some sort of...power? How else was his head floating in space those episodes back? And again with the bodiless heads! The nightmare bastard roaming the halls in this episode is the same ghoul whose head floated away in the first episode, and Josie Packard’s headless (or faceless, at least) body was, in an original script, supposed to be seen in a black lodge scene. People losing their heads seems to be a common theme again. Would it have been too on the nose, and i might add, awful, if Where’s Your Head At? had played in the morgue scene? It’s hard to be on the nose when you haven’t got a head! Wahey!

. This episode is very light on Cooper (i’m not going to call him DougieCooper because he’s not Dougie! He just wears his bad clothes sometimes!), but he came along almost as soon as I thought “Hey, where’s Coop?”. Naomi Watts kills it again with her impatient anger, and I love that she’s written as someone at her wit’s end (or should that be Watt’s end? Nope, it shouldn’t) but that still cares for her dumbass husband. And then we get maybe our clearest answer that Coop is still Coop: he kicks a bit of ass. It’s a very satisfying and well choreographed fight, and the Arm popping up to give fight advice was kinda cool and kinda funny. It seems that the lodge dwellers, or at least some of them, are helping Coop. Mike, The giant, and the Arm have all advised him, and seemingly given him some special insights. I think they want Cooper alive so he can, to paraphrase GOB Bluth, return Doppelcoop from whence he came. He was due back in, as that call in episode 1 told him, so maybe the lodge spirits are getting utterly fed up on waiting on his ass. They’re letting Coop live so he can go and sort it out. It has been 25 years after all. Stop hogging Bob, bro. 

. Some interesting stylistic choices in the news coverage scenes after the fight which felt like they were from another show, but I kinda dug it anyway. Will someone in Twin Peaks see Cooper in the news footage and put two and two together? I’m not in a massive rush for Cooper to wake up - but it will be spectacularly rewarding once he does.

. Is Josie haunting the hotel? Last we saw her, she was trapped in a doorknob, and Pete (we miss you Pete! Really!) was seeing her face above the fireplace (the nonchalance of that moment always really freaked me out), and now there is a sourceless humming sound throughout the hotel, which kind of sounds like the mystical ringing sound that we hear whenever The Giant rocks up. It really is happening again, isn’t it? Great to see more Ben, though his P sounds are less Plosive than they used to be, and he hasn’t eaten ANYTHING yet. But he’s still a lot of fun to watch, and i’m hoping - because i’m a softie who likes goodies - that his humanitarianism lasted. And i’m also beginning to think - with all the references to Audrey’s condition after the bank blast (bank blast sounds like shitty video game) - that Audrey will have been physically effected long term by what happened. I’m beginning to really look forward to seeing her, though I dread the idea that Doppelcoop is the father of her awful bastard son.

. It’s so uncannily Lynchian to drop in on someone like Beverly’s life, someone who we know next to nothing about, and give her a fairly substantial scene. It even feels like it might not go much further than that, and that dropping into her soap opera life (Twin Peaks’ soapiness is still there!) for this scene is just Lynch giving us a little look at domestic turmoil in Twin Peaks. But who knows. Who knows which characters are a one-scene deal, and which will fit into the larger narrative. Where is goddamn MATTHEW LILLARD???

. Jacques Renault’s identical brother(?) got some lines! And surprise surprise: he’s a scumbag! The sweeping scene was weirdly engrossing, especially with Green Onions playing in the background. And my god, how warm and cosy did the Double R look tonight?? With Sleepwalk by Santo & Johnny playing, and the lighting as warm and oak-tinted as ever, it’s maybe the one place in Twin Peaks you’d want to hang out. Especially with lovely, lovely Shelly and Norma working there. They’re such likeable and instantly welcoming people to see, and it’s hard not to wish they were your friends. And, I don’t like to focus too much on how the actors look - but Madchen Amick literally has not aged a day and it’s very confusing how she’s managed that. I guess there is something special in Norma’s family pie recipe. Also, i’ve heard people say the guy who pops his head in asks if anyone has seen “Bing”, but on re-listening, it’s 100% Billy and not Bing. There is someone named Bing in the credits - whether he’s any relative of Chandler’s is present is yet to be seen. It could be something, or it could be another version of that “It’s a boy? It’s a boy! It’s a boy!” bank security guy from Season 2. Just someone yelling some dumb shit.

. Some great music in this episode too, both new score and old. With the ominous shots of the foggy woods set to the opening notes of Laura Palmer’s theme playing (the scary bit, not the sad bit) I genuinely got chills. 

. Doppelcoop is on the loose and you can feel the story pushing forward now he’s out. I get the feeling we won’t see the Prison Warden again, and that everything they talked about has a backstory but one that is not necessarily important for us to learn about. Just know that Doppelcoop is loose, and where he goes now is an open question. To kill Cooper? How could you kill a man your exact double? It’d be so surreal. And would make for a weird, bad-wig-wearing stunt double fight scene. And the idea of unawake Cooper being hurt makes me even sadder than the idea of Lucid Cooper being hurt, somehow. He’s a sympathetic thing really, and he needs someone outside the black lodge to help him. He’s called for help though, and either Gordon or Hawk are on his trail, thankfully. 

SUMMARY

This episode, more than any other yet, felt like Twin Peaks of old. We spent more time in the town, and the atmospherics of the town felt more prevalent too. It does feel like we’re being eased back into the town which is great fun, though I love everything set outside too. A narrative cohesion is coming about as the story’s 2nd act clicks into place, and there’s some real momentum going in this hour. Whether or not that keeps going next week (I think it will), i’m happy to let the show do its thing because this episode has shown that patience does pay off. We will get there, and we should probably learn to enjoy the journey as much as the destination. Remember, Lynch and Frost have pretty big hard-ons for Mysteries, and that always has been, and always will be the core of the series. But goddamn it if it isn’t fun seeing that mystery chipped away at in tonight’s episode. 

    “Keep working the sunny side of the river, doc”

#twin peaks #twin peaks spoilers #dale cooper #review #television #writing #david lynch