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lovefrombegonia · 2 months

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MORE RAMBLING ON THE 3 BODY PROBLEM NETFLIX SERIES

⚠️ Spoiler Warning for the series & books ⚠️

Unfortunately, this is mostly gonna be negative ranting because I am discovering that I am, indeed...a book purist... *CONFESSION 😔* yes, my fellow mortals...I am one of those "but that's not what happened in the novel" kind of person.

This series is low-key pissing me off with what they are doing with ye wengjie. You know....the most crucial character of the whole saga! Why is she all of a sudden in love with Mike? Ok. And why is she trying to save people all of a sudden? She wanted to destroy humanity for what was done to her. And then it was implied she changed her mind along the way...still having enough badassery in her to leave a crucial theory behind with Luo Ji, which, ultimately, did secure humanity's survival. Atleast, for some centuries. They also didn't do so much of her backstory properly. But they be throwing those easter eggs around like "HA-HAA YOU GET IT?!" Why is she in love with Mike Evans?! Why did the show make her look like she got influenced by him rather than the other way around in the books and cdrama. Why did the show make her feel so shallow... They did make it feel like so much of her strength and character did not exist. They took away so much depth and complexity from her, making her look like she did what she did 'in the heat of the moment'. There is SO MUCH that she endured in the source material. And she made all her decisions knowing FULLY what she is doing, under no one's influence. It's like...they villainized her more when there was no need to do that. She is already a great villain. She is literally the phrase "sympathy for lady vengeance" personified. Netflix 's 3 body problem just made her a simple bitter woman.

Also, genderswapping wang miao as auggie salazar. Cool, cool. I like it. What I would have liked more is if they didn't write auggie to be so annoying. Idk if it's the actor or the character writing but this is the worst performance of the cast in terms of acting. You know what, no...this is the writing's fault. I have decided. TBH the only interesting characters right now is Jin and Wade. I am not sure it's because of the actors performing great or the writing is really good for them tho. Also...the Will buying a star for Jin didn't hit me as much as it did in the book. Kinda disappointed in myself with that. Am I getting cold-hearted? Jin's boyfriend is that character I think...hmm. Will, Saul and the rich dude, they all acted like I was watching a YA Netflix series. Oh wait...

Idk how else to say it but they have netflix-ified all the characters 😂😂

I think those who didn't read the books or watched the cdrama would like it better. I am either too biased to like this watered down version of the original story or the show really is underwhelming.

They have "simplified" or dumbed down the whole story.

And I find that low-key offensive because the sciency parts and philosophical parts were not that complicated. General audience could have understood it. If I can get it then all can get it, and I could understand almost all of it. But the creators don't got enough fate in us. SHAME. They also completely slipped the part about how China's political and social environment had influenced the characters. So much meat from the story is just hollowed out. They basically took out all the seasoning that made the story's flavour stand out so much. And gave us...this...jam and butter sandwich. It's not bad food. It's just not the feast it should have been.

I feel like I am only saying bad things about the show, so, here are the positives: the series is, in the end, an entertaining sci-fi so far, with great visuals. Especially, in episode 2 and 5. The gore is GOOD. Most of the actors do good job. The VFX is pretty fantastic. They have crunched the story but I don't think it's gonna be confusing for new viewers. The screenplay adaptation is done well enough imo. As well as a usual good Netflix show can be. You will enjoy it more if the original books would stop whispering in your ear the whole time 🤭

Either way, I will still say, it's a solid sci-fi thriller on its own as a Netflix series.

As a fan of the source material, I will give them 4/10.

As its own thing, I will give it juuuuuuust below 7/10.

#3 body problem #3 body problem netflix #spoilers #three body problem #saya rambles.

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ignitingwriting · 2 years

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Igniting Writing ‘Return’ Contest 2022, Submission by Colette

Paradise I stumble out of the coach, my hand clutching the rail to steady myself. As I hop onto the ground, I can't hide my excitement and I’m sure Myriam, who is following behind me lugging my heavy bag, can feel it radiating off of me. I've been waiting a long while to return to this place and I haven't stopped nattering on about it to my friends for weeks. They're positively bored of my talk, but that's just because they haven't actually experienced it for themselves. Once everyone's off the coach (well not quite everyone - Jeremy's still at the back trying, and failing, to detach himself from the seatbelt), I gather my thoughts. Beaming, I look around at my friends who I've come to know and love. Most of them look bored, although I’m sure they're all secretly glad to be out of the house. One person stands out - Emmeline, with her beaming smile and rather fetching neon sun visor. I knew I could count on my best friend to lighten the mood and match my excitement. She's rallying the group, ushering them along and punching the air, ready for adventure. Myriam tugs at my sleeve, a silent reminder that we must get going. I nod to show her I've got the message, mutter a quick, "Wait here," and clamber back onto the coach to retrieve Jeremy, but it turns out he's already freed himself and is walking down the coach to greet me. "Finally mate, how long did it take you?" I ask him, but I smile and in return he chuckles, knowing that I'm only playing with him. All of us assembled, I wave my dazzling rainbow umbrella in the air like I've seen the tour guides do in London. Jack cries out, "Careful!" and I pretend to whack him with the umbrella, but he knows it's all in good heart and swats it away. The group assemble behind me, Emmeline by my side and Myriam bringing up the rear to make sure no one decides to make a quick run for it. There's a certain air about today, a frisson if you will. We walk slowly, savouring the moment. Emmeline and I link arms and someone in the group starts to whistle a little tune. By the time we've reached the little rickety old bridge that crosses a babbling brook, we're all humming along, quite content with life. Someone starts singing 'It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas' and in unison, we all shout "JE-RE-MY!", elongating each syllable. He's obsessed with the season and while I do like Christmas myself, we draw the line at singing crooners in June. The walk seems longer than I remember, although I know it's not far to go after the bridge. I look up in anticipation at finally seeing it again and I know Emmeline can feel it too. She squeezes my arm gently and I return the gesture, grateful for her company. "Alright everybody, we're nearly there!" I announce and the bubbling chatter dies down. Emmeline releases me and the group huddle around behind me. I take a step forward to push away the brambles that hide the clearing. No one follows and I'm grateful that they’ve allowed me to have my special moment. As I duck under the undergrowth, I'm nearly twitching with excitement. I look up, expecting to see the scene of my dreams and instead... I'm disappointed. Let down. Underwhelmed. Confused. Where once was luscious green grass, grand old sweeping willows swaying gently in the summer's breeze and little chirping crickets… there's emptiness. The only word that can describe this place now is brown. Dark, murky, muddy brown. The grass has died back, draining the woodland floor of colour, and in its place is a squelchy, unappealing bog. No longer do bluetits sit on the trees, singing their cheerful song. Instead, a large, pompous seagull screeches before dive bombing into the bog. It emerges, its beak trapped in the plastic rings that once held together beer cans, the only evidence of a long-forgotten late-night party. Where once bees would have sucked nectar from vibrant flowers to pollinate other nature reserves, faded crisp packets and charred cigarettes lie. It's a dystopian scene that I see before me. Where has the scene of those summer days spent frolicking in nature gone? The place where I first found my love of nature and nurtured that love every single day. Where I met my first best friend and we made daisy chains, sitting cross-legged in the lawn, promising that these chains were a sign of our ever-lasting friendship. Sitting on the dry-stone wall, face warm in the sunlight, where I shared my first kiss. This place is a place of firsts, but I never thought it would be a place of lasts. No longer will children play here, carefree and joyful, running through the meadow with their arms stretched wide. All of it, gone. And for what? I’m jolted out of my contemplation by the jarring sound of a sudden crack! I turn around, fighting my way through the clearing, to see Jeremy lying on the floor at an uncomfortable angle. "He’s just had a fall, it looks like he's broken his ankle," Myriam explains. I'm crestfallen. As if this day couldn’t get any worse! "Don’t worry about me, love, carry on," Jeremy struggles to sit upright but manages to tell me. "Was it all as you had remembered?" I try to keep my composure but emotion takes over me. I slump down on a nearby fallen tree and burst into tears, my sobbing rhythmical. Emmeline approaches, "Deep breaths, come on now. That will do you a world of good." I gulp in large vats of air and I ended up hiccupping. "Now what has brought this on, then?" my best friend asks. From behind me, I hear a voice. "Err, guys, I don't think it was supposed to look like this," Jack says and the others rush to see what he's pointing to. They probably think I'm silly, dragging them all this way to look at a rubbish heap, but I know that this used to look like paradise. I manage to strangle out a reply. "It didn't… it used to be so… beautiful. But now…" I take another large gulp of air, "it looks… horrible. Oh, what has happened?" Myriam's the one who speaks up. "I think it’s the effects of climate change. It's degraded the nature reserve and it looks like people have started using this area for, err, other activities. No wonder the animals don't want to live here anymore. Their home's been destroyed." "My heart's been destroyed," I mutter under my breath. Just then, Emmeline approaches me and looks deep into my eyes. I know that look - she's thinking of a plan. I shrug my shoulders as if to say, 'what?' Gently, she speaks to me, quietly so the others can't hear. "Well as I see it, you have two options. You can either give up and despair at what once was. Or you can put your mind to it, rally the others and we can restore the reserve to its former glory. And you've never been one to give up, have you?" A smile tugs at my lips in response to her words. Emmeline's right, of course. She always is. Taking a deep breath, I hoist myself up off the log and clear my throat. "Everyone!" I call. "Gather round, gather round." The group shuffle over, their faces a mix of disappointment and confusion. "Now, this nature reserve used to be brimming with wildlife. A safe haven for all who sought refuge. As you can see, that is no longer the case. But, after some wise words of encouragement, I have decided that we will, together, work to improve this area so it's brimming with beautiful nature. Who's with me?" At first, it's just Emmeline who responds, punching the air and shouting, "Yeah!" Then Myriam joins in and soon the whole group's whooping and clapping, eager to give back to the environment, to create a special place where nature reigns supreme. Elated, I grin. "Right then people, let's get to work! While we're walking back, I want you to be thinking of what part you can play in this project. On the coach back, we can share our ideas and come up with a plan of action." Jack heaves a dramatic sigh, mock-annoyed at the workload. Emmeline smiles, I think because she’s glad to see me back to my old self. We all start to troop off but hear, "Err, a little help here guys?" It's Jeremy - of course! How could we have forgotten about him? Jack picks him up by the shoulders, Myriam takes his feet and Emmeline does a grand old job at guiding them through the woods. I hang back and take in the sight of my beloved rag-tag group. With them on my team, I know that we can return this nature reserve back to what it once was, a paradise full of tweeting birds, chirping crickets and luscious grass. Together, we can do anything. One year later That was my gran, Lilith. I'm her granddaughter, Myriam, who, with the rest of her friends from the care home, took her to the nature reserve where she used to play as a child. She was never one to give up, my gran. That's why, since she peacefully died in her sleep eight months ago, a vase full of the first flowers we managed to grow on the nature reserve next to her bed, I've decided to carry on her legacy. Emmeline and I are co-leaders, organising the care home group to make sure we can finish what my gran started. And that's what we’re doing today. It will take many years for this nature reserve to return to its former glory, the paradise that my gran remembers, but today is the first sign of improvement. Gran had already planted many wildflowers in the first few months of the project, but today we start on the trees. All of the care home residents are here today, those who can helping with the tree-planting. While we hope to plant many trees in the reserve, there's one special tree that we will plant first. The willow tree, gran's favourite, right in the centre of the reserve where it can watch all the flowers and grasses spring up around it and the insects and birds gradually come back to inhabit it. Jack and Jeremy stumble along, carrying the sapling carefully. They place it in the ground and Emmeline uses her spade to pack soil around it, then gives it a water with the pillar-box red watering can her and my gran purchased together. Next goes the fence around the tree, to protect the vulnerable sapling from animals that might have a go at it. Finally, it's my turn. I take a deep breath and step forward, my hands gripping the plaque tightly. Everyone watches, in contemplative silence. With trembling fingers, I attach the plaque to the tree fence. I step back, checking that the plaque is level. Emmeline comes over to me, and squeezes me tight, whispering to me, "Well done. She would have been proud, love. I'm proud. In fact, we are all proud of you.” Afterwards, she turns towards the group, punching the air in her signature style and the celebrations begin, whooping and clapping, surrounded by the promise of what’s to come. I hang back before joining the celebrations, taking a moment to myself. Emmeline's right, gran would have been proud of me. My eyes find the plaque and I read the inscription: In loving memory of Lilith Rivers 1943-2021 Who inspired us to return this nature reserve back to paradise and knew the importance of valuing our natural world

#igniting writing #return #teen writers #writing for teens #creative writing #library #wokingham #writing group #writing club #writing challenge #writing competition #writing contest

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beccascribbles · 3 years

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can you please do an omegaverse fic with inarizaki having an omega manager that goes into heat during a game and she tries to leave but some guys from another team stop her and harass her but the bois pull up and protect her <3

a/n - right, just a warning, i’m a big atsumu simp and this became abundantly clear to me when i was writing this... it’s less inarizaki and more miya twins (with the addition of kita). whoops

warnings - harassment (unwanted touching, sexual implications)

In hindsight, leaving the house without packing heat suppressants, or at least being aware of your own condition, was reckless of you. It wasn't your fault you had woken up late and had to rush to ensure you looked presentable by the time the twins came by to collect you. Though you would have loved to make the twins late (considering it was their fault - they didn’t have to get you hooked on a new TV show and leave the call midway through the season finale), you weren’t so keen on having any of Kita’s disappointment directed towards you. Therefore, when the twins arrived, Atsumu with a wide smirk at your slightly dishevelled self, you settled on directing a swift punch to their stomachs as revenge.

“Ouch,” whined Atsumu, rubbing his stomach with a pout. “What was that for, stupid?”

“Obviously she’s pissed off that we let her stay up late,” Osamu grumbled, also rubbing his stomach, though, instead of a pout, his lips were tugged downwards in a frown. “Although I don’t see how her terrible sleep schedule is our problem.”

“Don’t get me hooked on a new show next time,” you muttered, looping an arm through Osamu’s and beginning to pull him down the road. In your other hand, you held a cool bag with some snacks for the team. The only reason you had grabbed Osamu with your free arm was to prevent him from peeking into the bag. If he had hands free to look, he had hands free to eat the food within. Atsumu was less likely to eat the food, though that didn’t stop him from unzipping the bag and peeking inside.

“Oh, tasty!” he exclaimed, zipping up the bag and making eye contact with Osamu, whose head had turned in his direction once the words left his mouth. He was clearly pleading with his twin to reveal what was in the bag. Atsumu simply stuck his tongue out. “Why don’t ya use your nose to figure it out? You always boast about having a better sense of smell than me anyway.”

“Because I do,” snapped back Osamu, quickly becoming irritated, muscles tensing as he prepared himself to leap towards his twin. Your arm tightened around his, and you shot him a look, eyes holding a warning. With care, you let your scent wind through the air around the three of you, the twin alphas calming at the subtle shift in the air.

Atsumu looped an arm over your shoulder, pulling you closer to him, the bag you were carrying bumping awkwardly against his legs in the process. This action almost caused your arm to slip from Osamu’s, but he quickly tightened his hold. Atsumu was not going to pull you away from him. Almost in sync, they both turned towards you, noses nuzzling into the crook of your neck. You let out a slightly frustrated sigh, but let them continue scenting you. After all, when they were able to do this, they were at their calmest, and you still had a long bus journey ahead of you where keeping arguments to a minimum was preferable.

When you began to approach the school gates, you pulled out of their grasp, walking ahead of them. You began to walk faster, shooting a look over your shoulder to see the pair of them watching you with confused expressions. It was when you finally broke into a sprint, hefting the bag holding the food at a weird angle, that they realised what you had in mind. Letting out a laugh, Atsumu took off after you; Osamu quickly followed. If you had managed to get a bigger head start, you might have won. However, on this occasion, both twins pulled ahead of you, darting around a bewildered Kita and launching forward to touch the bus with their fingers.

“I won!” they declared in unison, an argument breaking out between them that you tuned out in favour of focusing your attention on Kita. Aran had already walked over to the twins, grabbing them by the backs of their jackets and hauling them away. It was this sudden movement that jerked them from their argument.

“Hey,” you greeted, giving Kita a weary smile as he reached forward to take the food from you. Together, you walked towards the bus. Kita, having arrived ridiculously early, had already packed away everything that the team would need. The only thing not within the bus was most of the team, their individual athletic bags, and whatever you had brought with you. You climbed in, reaching up to place the bag on the overhang above you. Once you had finished, you turned to face Kita. “I think we’re going to win for sure. I did some research on this team and they’ve put forward a series of underwhelming performances in official games, as well as practice matches. They’re no match for Inarizaki, especially with our captain ready to step in if the second years on court get too excited or lazy.”

The latter comment was directed towards Suna, whose head poked up from behind a seat near the back of the bus. He raised his middle finger up in response before refocusing on the phone he was holding in his other hand. You yelled over at him, “Good morning to you too.”

“Whatever, y/n,” he sighed, looking up at you once again. “Just sit down somewhere, preferably a place where the two idiots can argue over who gets to sit next to you.”

You just rolled your eyes, taking the seat you were planning on claiming originally. Kita stood in the aisle, giving you a small smile. “I’m glad you’re confident we’re going to win, especially with all the practice everybody has been putting in.”

“I know,” you grinned. While continuing with the conversation, you motioned towards the seat beside you, indicating for Kita to take it. You’d rather sit next to Kita than have to deal with the twins for the journey anyway. “Everybody has been putting in so much more effort. I swear I’ve had to physically drag Atsumu out of the gym most days.”

“He just doesn’t listen,” sighed Kita, resting his head against the headrest. “I keep telling him practicing too much is bad for his health. He even got a fever because he was practicing too hard.”

“He’s stupid like that,” you shrugged, a yawn cutting through whatever you were about to say next.

“You better be talkin’ about Samu,” interrupted Atsumu, taking the seat in front of you and turning around to face you. Osamu collapsed into the seat beside him, flicking him in the forehead.

“She was obviously talking about you, dumbass,” he quipped.

Osamu turned to you for confirmation, only to see your head resting against the captain’s shoulder. He questioned, “y/n?”

“Of course she’s asleep,” laughed Atsumu, nudging Osamu with his shoulder, previous comment forgotten in favour of teasing you. “She can’t take the late nights.”

“Keep it down,” Kita said, adjusting your head so that it was rested against him more comfortably. In response, you moved closer to him, an arm sliding around his waist to hug him as you mumbled something incoherent in your sleep. A furious blush spread along his cheeks, and he ducked his head to hide from the twins. Luckily, their attention was fixed elsewhere, on a video Suna had sent to Osamu, too lazy to get up to walk down the coach to show him. Kita let out a sigh, dropping his head to rest atop of yours. He chided, not that you could hear him in your slumber, “You should really try to sleep earlier.”

It was fortunate for you that you slept for most of the journey. You missed Osamu moaning about being hungry, and then proceeding to search up pictures of food to drool over. Consequently, you also missed Atsumu hitting his twin and being scolded by Kita, something that always made you laugh. However, Suna had got up to draw on your face, which would have been an unfortunate consequence. Luckily, it was only to shuffle back to his seat sheepishly, the sight of Kita beside you a deterrent.

“You had to fall asleep on Kita,” grumbled Suna, walking along beside you as you entered the gymnasium. You trailed behind the rest of the team, your footsteps unusually sluggish. You blamed it on your late night. “Why couldn’t you have fallen asleep on Atsumu? He would’ve let me draw on your face.”

“Yeah, well, I’m glad you didn’t,” you responded, transferring the food bag to your other hand. The weight, though it wasn’t abnormally heavy, was beginning to make your arm ache. In fact, your whole body ached. Eyebrows furrowed, you continued switching the bag from hand to hand. It made no difference. You still ached.

“You look constipated,” observed Suna, though he took the food from your grip. You gave him a thankful smile, which he waved off. “I’m not being nice. I just don’t like walking beside someone with such a stupid expression on their face.”

“I didn’t ask you to walk beside me,” you snapped, crossing your arms over your chest. They still ached, even without the bag. All you wanted to do was collapse on the bench at the sidelines.

“It’s not my fault you decided to walk so slowly today,” replied Suna, glancing over at you briefly. Something about you was off, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. It was probably a consequence of your late night, but even when you had stayed up late before, you were never this sluggish. Usually, you walked at the front beside Kita, or with the coaches. It was rare for you to be at the back unless you wanted to annoy him, which evidently was not the case this time. “I didn’t voluntarily choose to accompany you.”

“Leave me then,” you snapped, eyes narrowing in a glare, your scent suddenly spiking. He let out a grumble, releasing some of his pheromones in the air to soothe you. Suna hated being on omega duty, one of the reasons why he was glad you usually opted to walk at the front.

“You know I can’t just leave you,” he sighed, placing a hand on the small of your back to urge you forward. “The sooner we get to the gym, the sooner you can leave me and sit on the bench.”

That caused you to perk up somewhat, which also had the effect of pulling your scent back to its’ ordinary level. Your scent may have regulated, but the ache in your body persisted, each movement making you fight back a wince. It was with gritted teeth that you sat on the bench, and pulled your clipboard towards you. Suna gave you one last assessing look before beginning to warm up.

Your gaze was unfocused as you stared down at the words you had written on the page. They swam in front of your gaze, coming apart and then joining again in dizzying confusion. As you stared, you found your mind wandering, nose twitching as you found yourself seeking out any scent that felt comforting, felt familiar. Your head snapped up from the clipboard, falling on a pile of discarded jackets. From the pile, and wafting towards you in the air, was Atsumu’s rich scent that made you recall moments where you were held in his arms and shielded from the rain, Osamu’s that brought forward memories of laughing in the kitchen and collaborating on random food creations, and Kita’s that filled you with comfort, reminding you of his quite support.

Before you could process what you were doing, you were moving towards the pile, hand clutching the first jacket you found. You buried your nose into the material, breathing in Atsumu’s scent, a soft whine escaping your lips. Your own team, too engrossed in warming up, missed the sound. It did, however, attract the attention of the team on the other side of the net.

You were unaware of the sudden, and unwanted, attention, shrugging off your jacket and pulling on Atsumu’s. You turned your head into the collar, taking in a deep breath. Though the scent satisfied you emotionally, the joy at being wrapped in Atsumu’s scent, caused you to release your own pheromones, made you feel slightly dizzy. A sudden spiking heat rushed through you, and a quiet ‘shit’ slipped from your lips. Hurriedly, you began to head towards the exit, keeping your head ducked and trying desperately to stop sending pulse after pulse of pheromones into the gym. You figured that, once you were safely in the confines of the bus, you could send a message to one of the coaches, apologising for having to leave and explaining that your heat had suddenly started.

A large hand wrapped around your wrist, causing you to come to a jolting stop. The owner of the hand yanked you back into his chest and you let out a surprised squeak. His arm wrapped around your waist, holding you close to him as he let out a pleased hum. His nose ran along the scent gland at your neck, making you stiffen suddenly. Fear made you kick out, knocking against one of his teammates who was standing beside him.

“Get off me,” you panted, weakly thrashing in his grip, a sharp and bitter scent escaping from you. Across the gym, Atsumu and Osamu’s heads snapped in your direction. “Just want to leave. Need to leave.”

Twin growls ripped through the gym, sending shivers down the spines of many people in attendance, including the male currently holding you. All you could feel was relief. He looked over his shoulder, making eye contact with the furious twins. Their fury had caught the attention of the rest of Inarizaki, who all suddenly stood to attention.

“No need to be aggressive,” chuckled the male, though he made no move to release you. “I was just going to take care of this omega.”

“Like fuck ya are,” spat Atsumu, lunging forward and grabbing the male by the back of his shirt. His eyes were dark, expression twisted as another growl ripped from his throat.

“Get the fuck away from her,” growled Osamu, who had taken the distraction Atsumu provided to step in front of the male. The rest of his teammates had wisely backed off. One who had been about to pull Atsumu away had been stopped by Kita, his grip tight as he had pulled the man away by his shoulder. Despite the warning, the male’s arm remained around you. Despite Atsumu at his back and Osmau at his front, he had the nerve to push his nose against your scent gland and breathe you in deeply. A nervous whimper escaped your mouth, all Osamu and Atsumu needed for any last bit of restraint they had to evaporate. He muttered darkly, “I gave you a warning.”

Osamu’s hand curled around the male’s wrist, yanking it upwards harshly and twisting. His other arm went to catch you, pulling you away as Atsumu finally snapped. His arm wrapped around the male’s throat, his muscles prominent as he tightened his grip, crushing his windpipe. It was clear Osamu was frustrated too, eager to leap at the male. Yet, you were beside him, looking up at him with fear, and his first instinct was to protect you. He pulled his gaze away from the scene in front of him, scanning the gym until he finally found Kita. Kita was already walking towards you, anger prominent in the lines of his body. He took you from Osamu, letting you wrap your legs around his waist and snuggle your head into the crook of his neck as he held you. Kita left Osamu with a nod, giving permission the other man had not needed, but appreciated, to attack the male who had harassed you. He would let the coaches break it apart. Right now, you were his concern.

Kita walked from the gym, heading towards the bus. It was fortunate he was always prepared. Though he was certain you would be responsible enough to bring your own, he had packed heat suppressors in the buses emergency kit just in case. You let out a soft whine, hands curling into the material of his shirt.

“Atsumu… Osamu… Are they okay?” you questioned, needing to know. Kita let out a comforting purr, coupled with a release of soothing pheromones. The scent wafted around you, easing your racing heart, though it did little to cut through the haze of your heat.

“They’re fine,” he reassured, hand rubbing a soothing circle into your back before he placed you gently on a seat in the bus. You wrapped your arms around yourself, nose immediately pressing against the inside collar of the jacket, breathing in Atsumu’s scent deeply.

“Want the twins,” you whimpered. It was normal for you to want to be close to them. You had been with them since you were born, the three of you inseparable as soon as you were able to toddle. It was their scents that made up the majority of your nest, with the occasional addition of something Kita or Suna or another member of the team had scented.

Kita ignored your comment in favour of grabbing the heat suppressants from the bag. He turned towards you, grabbing a water bottle from where the spares were kept. Deciding it might be better for you, more peaceful and less painful, he also decided to include a sleeping pill. Kita handed them to you. “Have these. It’s heat suppressants and a sleeping pill.”

He watched as you took the medicine, carding his fingers through your hair affectionately. He gave your fingers a reassuring squeeze, “I’ll be back, along with the twins, when the match is finished.”

You nodded, barely registering his words as you let sleep overtake you.

When you woke up, strong arms were wrapped around you, holding you against a chest. You snuggled into the warmth, letting the distinct scent of Atsumu wash over you. Fingers stroked your hand softly, tracing its shape before sliding between your own. Your hand was lifted up, soft lips pressed against it before a face nuzzled into your palm. Sleepily, you looked up, blinking up at the twins. Even in your half-awake state, you could see the slight bruising that peppered their skin. Despite it being two-against-one, the male had landed a few solid hits before the coaches got involved.

“You’re awake,” cheered Atsumu, brushing a kiss to the top of your head as his fingers ran up and down your back, sliding beneath his jacket and your t-shirt to rest against your bare skin. Osamu gave a small cheer as well, a warm smile overtaking his features as he gazed down at you. That warm smile didn’t stop him from scolding you, something you were expecting from Kita and not him.

“And an idiot for not realising you were starting your heat,” he said, reaching over to give your hair an affection ruffle.

“We always know when our ruts are so you should know when your heats are,” chimed in Atsumu, ignoring the weak punch to his chest that you gave him with the hand not being held in Osamu’s.

“That’s because I always remind you,” you grumbled in response, though your anger was short-lived. The pheromones they were pumping out were so distracting any emotion but bliss was hard to feel, let alone hold onto.

“Considering how long you’ve known each other,” said Suna, deciding to add his two pence to the conversation, “I would’ve thought you two dumbasses would know what her pre-heat symptoms are.”

“You’re her friend too,” protested Atsumu, the only thing stopping him from engaging in a fall-blown argument was you in his lap. “Maybe you should have realised.”

“I did realise,” smirked Suna. In a quieter voice, he continued, “I just thought she was tired.”

“Can you all shut up?” snapped Aran, to which Kita was quick to agree, explaining that you would appreciate the peace and quiet.

That put a stop to any argument that could have broken out, both of the twins refocusing on you. Osamu resumed lazily playing with your fingers, while Atsumu nuzzled into your neck, rubbing his face against your scent gland. You let out a content sigh, finding comfort in their touch and the scents of the team wafting around you.

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thirddoctor · 2 years

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Doctor Who spoilers below.

So I’ve been pretty positive about Flux the whole way through, in spite of my issues with this era and with the Timeless Child stuff in particular. It was fun and engaging, even if the writing definitely isn’t on the same level as previous eras, and I’ve really given it a chance. I’d rather enjoy Doctor Who than complain about it.

Unfortunately, it’s time to complain about Doctor Who.

I was sceptical that they would be able to stick the landing, but I didn’t expect it to be this much of a mess. There was so much crammed into this season, but none of it really amounts to anything? Except a lot of people are dead now, I guess? I can’t even tell how much of the universe the Flux is supposed to have destroyed. Is the solar system gone?? Like, once they stop the Flux, everyone acts like everything is fine, but it still caused so much damage???? And then the Lupari were all wiped out offscreen, which sucked. Chris Chibnall is way too casual about killing off whole species. Maybe I’m just too empathetic towards fictional people but I don’t enjoy that.

Anyway, some point by point stuff:

Vinder and Bel aren’t the Doctor’s parents (unless the specials bring them back and make that happen), so now I’m just confused as to what purpose they served. Vinder I kind of get, but a lot of attention is given to Bel even though her plot relevance turns out to be basically zero. And what was the point of her being pregnant? It felt like it was all building to something, and then it just didn’t. I mean, I didn’t want them to be the Doctor’s parents, but at least that would’ve been a payoff.

The Sontarans don’t work as a big bad for a season finale, sorry. I like them but I just do not take them seriously as a threat. Shout out to the Sontaran who loved chocolate though.

I don’t know what the point of the Grand Serpent was either? Again, they built him up... and it didn’t matter? Does the fact that he has a double heartbeat and refused to name his species mean anything, or is his story really wrapped up now? Like, it’s possible it’s going to be relevant later (and since Vinder is tied to him, he and Bel may come back too), but I really can’t say with Chibnall because he has a habit of building up characters and then abruptly dismissing them when he feels they’ve served their purpose.

Which brings me to Tecteun. A lot of people seemed to assume she would turn out to have survived because killing her off the way they did in the previous ep would be too underwhelming. I remembered what happened to Ashad, though, so I wasn’t surprised when she didn’t come back and was totally irrelevant in this ep.

I still don’t really understand Swarm and Azure’s motivations and honestly, I don’t really care. Also, why was Azure on Earth disguised as a human? That’s never brought up again.

The personification of Time (and Death) was a bit of EU nonsense I always hated, so I can’t say I’m thrilled to see it here.

Don’t know why Kate was here, but it was good to see her again I guess.

The Doctor and Yaz actually have a scene together, so that’s nice, but she and Dan still barely know each other. The Doctor/companion relationship used to be the heart of the show and I miss that.

idk there’s more I could talk about, but overall it’s just a disappointing conclusion to the season. I appreciate Flux’s ambition, but it bit off way more than it could chew and needed a far more skilled writer at the helm, as well as some actual themes at its core to turn into a cohesive story instead of just a series of Things Happening.

And they went for the cheapest possible emotional punch and killed off Professor Jericho 0/10

Okay if I’m being fair, uh, 4/10 maybe? The Doctor flirting with herself was fun.

And finally, re: the specials: Another New Year’s Dalek special? Why? Can we not switch it up a little?

Anyway, I already knew he was coming back but despite everything I’m looking forward to seeing my boy next year. I’m always ready to be let down one more time.

#Ranger shut up about Doctor Who #DW spoilers #DW criticism

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thewhitefluffyhat · 3 years

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Major Takeaways

Have a scattershot conclusion for a scattershot show.

Would I recommend SotsuGou?

Despite how much I wanted to love it, my final answer is... no. I think it's just a straight, plain "no." If you're interested in WTC, you should read the OG Higurashi or Umineko.

About the only reason to watch Sotsu is if you're really, really, REALLY into SatoRika and/or LambdaBern. And even then, I'd preface that recommendation with a huge warning that it won't actually be romantic or provide a satisfying origin story. You'd be watching entirely for the vibes and for the cool fight at the end.

I suppose if you’re looking for more Higurashi, I also would recommend SotsuGou over Kira. And over Outbreak, given that the latter never even had a conclusion.

But to the average fan, just watch the Saikoroshi parts of Higurashi Rei and stop. Maybe look up summaries of SotsuGou and fan content and enjoy imagining what could have been.

SotsuGou’s Many Goals

As for why I wouldn’t recommend it? Well, in the end, SotsuGou didn't justify its existence.

I thought for most of the show that I would end with “I got what I wanted, but at what cost?” But no. I didn’t get what I wanted either. No one won.

-SotsuGou didn't make for a good entry point to the WTC series. The original Higurashi’s mysteries were a better hook, and the new viewers it did bring in found the series confusing and rushed.

-SotsuGou didn't provide any interesting counterpoint to Higurashi's themes. We went through two seasons only to end up with the same ending as before, except Rika and Satoko learned an underwhelming lesson about friendship that… actually didn’t even require looping to accomplish.

-SotsuGou didn't connect Higurashi to Umineko or Ciconia in a satisfying manner. Instead of establishing a coherent emotional throughline for the meta characters, it torpedoed the idea that there even is a timeline or any consistency to those characters as people rather than concepts.

-SotsuGou didn’t work as a moment in the spotlight for Satoko and Rika - the characters were inexplicably and offputtingly different and shallower than in the original.

-Heck, SotsuGou didn't even make SatoRika canon. Like, doing that wouldn't have justified the anime for everyone, but come on. Now I can't even recommend it as trashy toxic lesbian fun! Into the bin of typical anime yuribait it goes...

SotsuGou teased so many great ideas, but in the end it pulled off none of them.

And as a result, it didn’t justify itself in what should have been the easiest way: being a fun new entry to rekindle old fans’ love for Higurashi.

While SotsuGou sure brought the fandom interest roaring back, it’s glaring flaws led to a fractured fandom and months of angry arguments. Being a Higurashi fan this past year often felt more stressful than it did fun. And instead of "graduating" from Higurashi and leaving on a good note, I think a lot of people will leave the franchise with a bad taste in their mouth after the whole experience.

Are there any positives?

But even with all of that, there are still a handful of good things I’ll take away from the show.

-The OPs and EDs. All of them were incredible and well-used, from the instance of the original anime’s OP in Gou’s first episode, to the amazing new songs for both seasons (Irregular Entropy is probably my favorite ED of any Higurashi season!), to that wonderful new version of ‘you’ in the finale. No matter how disappointed I got with the show itself, every time I saw or heard them, I was reminded of the anime I wanted to be watching.

-Satoko and Rika’s final battle really was that spectacular. I’m glad it exists, and it might even be worth watching out of context. (I mean, if watching it in-context doesn’t do it any favors, then…)

-As a concept, SotsuGou had some truly awesome ideas! I loved the idea of giving Satoko more focus, of her doing her own loops and becoming a witch. I loved the idea of Looper Thunderdome, and Rika having to solve things on her own for once. I loved the potential in SatoRika as a romance. And oh my goodness even the mere hint of more explicit Umineko connections and SatoRika becoming LambdaBern made me more hyped than I thought was possible!

-This was my first time ever speculating and participating alongside an active WTC fandom. Even if the experience ultimately turned very sour, still I met a bunch of cool people through it, and that’s an uncompromised positive!

-At the very least, the outpouring of fanart, fanfic, and analysis while the anime was ongoing was wonderful to be part of. I think I said this in a tag before, but the fans really were the true heart of SotsuGou all along.

So even though my own thoughts were nothing more than a drop in the vast ocean of this fandom, even though my theories were often quite off-base, I hope these posts will be something other people take away as a positive aspect of SotsuGou too.

If you’re not sticking around for Jun and the other continuing Higurashi content, then I guess this will be farewell. I hope we’ll meet again when something else cries! ♡

#when they cry #higurashi #higurashi sotsu #higurashi gou analysis #higurashi gou critical #sotsu analysis finale #my ramblings #read more #but seriously I've still got a fanfic to finish #I may need a little break #but I'm not going anywhere just yet!#my higurashi gou sotsu meguri thoughts

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shinylitwick94 · 2 years

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Wheel of Time S1 episode 8 thoughts

Under the cut for spoilers

Ok that was admittedly weird.

I’ll start this by saying that while I like WoT I’ve never particularly liked EotW, and I disliked its ending in particular for being a giant convoluted mess that had nothing to do with what had come before. I expected it to be changed, for good reason.

But I really don’t think this was the way to do it.

The stakes were both too high and too low, the power levels were all over the place, the writing was suddenly weird and clunky again, and it was just very, very confusing.

I was really hoping they were going to keep the prologue for this episode, and I’m rather disappointed they didn’t. The scene with LTT was fine, but it fails in getting across the enormity of both the DR’s power and what LTT is about to do. I liked it well enough, but it needed way more oomph, IMHO

Not letting Rand fry the trollocs in Tarwin’s Gap was another mistake. We’ve had a whole season of jumping around with every other character, trying to keep the mystery of the DR. We needed this episode to be all about the Dragon, and therefore all about Rand.

The need to give every other character something to do in this episode massively dragged it down. It might have been best to just have them sit in Fal Dara, have them help out a little bit, maybe have them all involved in the Fain subplot or looking for the horn, or darkfriends or sth, build up the approaching trolloc army, and then have Rand blast it.

The bit with the women channelers was clunky and had too much awkward dialogue. Nyneave burning up was unnecessary, and having Egwene heal Nyneave and not the opposite is a sure way to piss off the fandom. Perrin most obviously had nothing to do and that entire exchange with Padan Fain made no sense in where it came in the episode and in terms of what both characters know. Perrin’s choice in particular is weird because there’s been not enough setup of his issues of axe vs hammer, so the whole thing feels like it comes out of nowhere.

Ishy and Rand were ok, but again underwhelming. It honestly makes me feel like maybe a bit more exposition was needed here, but I guess if you want to keep the whole Ishy is not actually the DO you can’t say much? Basically, I think the audience wasn’t given enough to understand why this wasn’t the last battle and that Rand and Moiraine were tricked into coming to the Eye. We’re just...told that, seemingly out of the blue, by Fain and Moiraine. There is no feeling, no impact in OMG we just did all of this and it was for nothing. I think if that had been more clearly set up and explained it would have helped this episode a lot.

And then there’s a few things that are just bizarre...Fain stabbing Loial? Rand just taking off into the Blight? And then the Seanchan were just...there? I mean I like seeing them, but that was just weird and out of nowhere.

So yeah,all in all one of my least favorite episodes this season. Which is a tragedy really, because I felt like we had been getting continuously better since Ep 4.

I’m seeing words like ‘butchered’ and ‘neutered’ being thrown around which I find both excessive and irritating, and in the case of ‘neutered’ indicative of a certain mindset I can’t stand. I’m sick of feeding the rageclickbait industry and I will have no part in it. So none of that from me.

Yes, I didn’t particularly like this episode, I thought it was frustrating and disappointing, and I may vent about it again. But that’s it. I’ve better thing to do in life than be permanently outraged.

Final veredict:

Do I dislike it more than EotW’s ending? Eh, they’re about equal amounts of nonsensical, but this one irked me more.

Do I like the season overall better than EotW? Hell yes, no argument there.

Would I recommend the show? Yes, it’s fun and probably will get better in later seasons.

#shinylitwick watches tv shows #wheel of time #wot show

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scorlettimagines · 3 years

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Thoughts on Part 4

So last night I finished Part 4 and put out this post asking if you guys wanted to share your thoughts on the last season of our beloved show. I woke up this morning to quite a few responses so I decided to culminate all of the ones I could respond to onto this post and share my own opinions.

If anyone has anything else they would like to share, please feel free to do so either by sending me an ask or reblogging this post (this is a side blog so replying to the post, as much as I appreciate it, doesn’t let me respond as @scorlettimagines). Okay, here goes:

@fearisholdingmedown: lol the whole season didn't make any sense and the ending skdnmgh Sabrina and Nick?????? and Zelda questioning Hecate? and just. left me really underwhelmed

I agree with this. I was extremely underwhelmed with the season; don’t get me wrong, some parts were great and really made me smile, but other parts? To me, and to my Dad who watches it with me, it felt like the writers tried to cram too much into it. There were definitely plot lines that didn’t get wrapped up, and things that seemed out of character for some.

Zelda questioning Hecate: I kind of understand, because wouldn’t you obviously question your Goddess after you prayed to her to save your niece/daughter and she didn’t? It is out of character for Zelda to question her faith, but I don’t blame her; she’s never lost Sabrina permanently before and I imagine it’s broken her a fair bit.

Sabrina and Nick at the end: Okay, so when Nick showed up at the end, my first thought was that a lot of time had passed and Nick had had a sort of happy, but long, life. When he said he went swimming in the Sea of Sorrows, I was disappointed. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with Nick’s character this whole season; it feels like the writers didn’t put enough effort into him and just reduced him to a love interest. (I felt that with another character too but we’ll get to that later). Yay they got reunited, but also not yay for the way it happened at the end.

@screechingexpertpruneneck: I loved the ending. I loved that Sabrina saved everyone but sucks she died. I think we can all agree that Ambrose is by far the smartest character on the show. Caliban obviously deserved better. Nick proved himself worthy of Sabrina this season and I’m glad there together now. I still can’t believe he killed himself just to be with her.

I did actually like the end; yes it was sad that Sabrina died, but it was a nice way to wrap up the show. I think her heroic qualities got detracted from in the last season with the whole Queen of Hell thing so it was nice to see her get those back. Kiernan smashed it with the death scene, and that whole montage of her birthdays had me in tears.

Ambrose is 100% the smartest character on this show. To me, he was the best thing about this season, as he was one of the only ones who seemed not to have changed at least slightly. Ambrose has been my favourite character since the pilot. I don’t write about him because his character is so complex, so eccentric, so fully-fledged that I don’t think I could do that justice. It was nice to see that Ambrose remained that way until the end, and I’m not going to lie, I could watch a whole spin off show about him. This is me being calm before I get to the next point. Oh God, I’m running out of things to say here. Prepare yourselves guys, here goes.

Can someone please explain to me how the fuck-fuck-fuckity-fuck-fuck Caliban went from Prince of Hell, main villain of last season to well, that? Like when he showed up dancing, I was so confused. Like, they missed out the whole section about what happened after Sabrina literally turned him to stone? The wedding was bizarre; I wanted Calbrina a few months ago, but I don’t anymore. Then in episode 3, when he was sitting on the throne and revealed his plan (you can bet your bottom dollar I’m going to be using that for imagines) hope was restored. He was still the crafty little shit that I fell in love with back in January. But then, it was never mentioned again? Like, he was just there. As Sabrina Morningstar’s husband? For me, it was cringy and I feel like the writers definitely didn’t put enough effort into him- it was like they didn’t know what to do with him. Although, his part in the AU episode made me laugh. Considering that I’ve been following Sam Corlett’s career over 2020 and I know how well he can act, I was disappointed to see him reduced to basically a prop for a bit of eye candy. His “death” was anti-climactic and a bit shit. Anyway, Caliban to me is always gonna remain the Caliban he was in Part 3 (and tiny little bits of Part 4) because there’s character development and then there’s just taking the mick.

Nick, yeah. He did prove himself worthy of Sabrina, and I cried when they got back together, but as I mentioned before, I feel like that’s all he was used for this season. He didn’t really get a proper arc like previous seasons, and the fact that he killed himself just to be with her grated on me a bit, because that’s not what I would have expected from a character like him.

@robinisthebestfellow: Can we just talk about how random some of it was I mean like oh he’s good and honest annnnd then no

Assuming you mean Caliban? Just to add to the above rant, I didn’t want him to be nice. Yes, I write about him being nice in my imagines, but I always try to keep some of his actual character in my work (at least, I hope I do). But yeah, for my rant on Caliban see above.

@eyebagsarebetterthanhandbags: Whoever was on costume design for prudence knocked it out of the park she was gorgeous every millisecond of screen time- wished her and Ambrose made up tho at the very least😔 they were my fave couple

Prudence was another favourite of mine this season; she didn’t change in her character and she was, of course, absolutely stunning. For her and Ambrose to make up would have been lovely, but I have a feeling from how close they were in the final episode that the writers were planning on it.

@itscoldinwonderland: Lilith, Zelda and Ambrose all deserve so much better.

Okay, starting with Lilith. I agree here. I feel like the whole Hell family (Lucifer, Caliban, Lilith etc) was just used and abused this season. I think she got better as the season went on, but for me, killing the baby was a bit extreme. Her last scene was mental; I don’t think she deserved to go as insane as she did, but well done to her for finally taking down Lucifer. Fuck the patriarchy.

Zelda. Yes. Yes. Yes. She deserved to be happy. Miranda Otto killed it this season with the emotional side of things. The whole thing with Vinegar Tom made me sob harder than anything else this season; it was something I relate to and well done to Miranda for getting that across perfectly.

Ambrose. I would have liked to have seen a more rounded ending for him rather than just standing at Sabrina’s graveside. But discussing seeing more of Ambrose’s character would open up a whole can of worms, for example, WHY did he try to blow up the Vatican?

@supportstudies: it was so weird?? I guess it’s because the writers had to rush the ending but now I have more questions- also sad bc I wanted more caliban

I was under the impression that this was written before the show got cancelled, but if they already knew then this makes more sense. For me, a lot was rushed and there were a lot of questions that were left unanswered.

Caliban? You’ve seen the above rant, you know how I feel about that.

@lizmny3: Mambo Marie really had me there

Same, lovely, same. More for Zelda than any other reason.

Okay, so that’s it for now. Again, if anyone has anything else they would like to share please do. Requests are open again now and you should be getting another Caliban imagine next week (fingers crossed). I’m off to write two bibliographies now. Wish me luck!

#caos #caos spoilers #Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #caos imagines #chilling adventures of sabrina imagines #Caliban #caliban imagines #nick scratch #nick scratch imagines #Nicholas Scratch #nicholas scratch imagines #harvey kinkle #harvey kinkle imagines

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mitigatedchaos · 3 years

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Review: SAC_2045

(~3,700 words, 15 minutes)

This post will contain some minor spoilers for SAC_2045.

Summary: You may have thought SAC_2045 was a poor entry in the Ghost in the Shell franchise - actually, it's just intended for younger audiences.

Previously: Standalone Complex 202045:1-4 (superseded)

-☆☆☆-

And what did you think of the remaining episodes of GitS:SAC_2045?

[ @irradiate-space ]

Standalone Complex

There's a certain indescribable feeling associated with Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex as a work, an artistic touch related to the director associated with it, independent of other considerations. SAC_2045 has it, which isn't too surprising since Kenji Kamiyama is back.

SAC_2045 is Standalone Complex. For a brief moment, while watching it, I inhabited my pre-2016 personality and outlook. I can't tell you how much that means to me. Since the arrival of streaming I've tended to bingewatch series, but on the first run-through I decided not to bingewatch this one.

If you approach this show as season 4 of Standalone Complex (Solid State Society being season 3), it's underwhelming. Now, viewing it again, it's become obvious that a conventional season 4 of Standalone Complex was never the intent of SAC_2045 to begin with.

For those of you who have delayed until now, the English dub has been uploaded - it released without one due to the pandemic. They bring back a number of the voice actors from the excellent Standalone Complex dub, though having already watched it with subtitles, I didn't feel the need to confirm the dub's quality.

Sustainable War

To properly describe a new theory of war is the same thing as to invent it. While the idea of war as a for-profit industry has been kicked around for some time, it's generally assumed that this is a kind of parasitic relationship on the part of the war-making industry.

As time goes on, warfare becomes more abstract (partly because warfare happens where it can happen), much like society itself is becoming more abstract as information moves more quickly and humanity gains access to more energy.[1] In SAC_2045, "Sustainable War" is part of the context of the world and its current issues, but we aren't really told how it works - if it's similar to contemporary information warfare and a blurring of the lines between state and non-state actors, it's bound to be quite confusing.

I believe my earlier assessment of "Sustainable War" is correct. The key feature of sustainable war, the reason they say it's safe if you leave it to the experts, is likely that it involves AIs constantly forecasting against each other and moving units around with few direct confrontations. The goal would be to lock in a victory without having to fire a shot, except for small skirmishes that don't escalate to major incidents (due to the AI forecasting).

The presence of armed separatist movements even in Japan may also indicate that the ruling institutional bodies are engaged in a kind of Post-International Politics,[2] which treats all international relations as fundamentally existing between subnational entities - however, I believe that later information suggests this wasn't their original intent.

What makes it "sustainable"? Since if done correctly, very little is actually physically destroyed, the cost is less than conventional warfare, and thus the war can continue indefinitely. Why does it threaten humanity with destruction? Because there's an awful lot of military hardware waiting for someone to actually pull the trigger.

Season 1: Ep. 2

So what is the intent of the series' creators? I think they may be telling us through this dialogue between Togusa and Section Chief Daisuke Aramaki in episode 2.

Aramaki: Seems time has toughened you up. Togusa: Is that supposed to be a compliment? Aramaki: It is if you want it to be. Togusa: Then thanks for the kind words. “I made the right decision by choosing this line of work over my marriage.” That’s what you’re saying? Aramaki: Perhaps. [...] Togusa: They're bringing back Section 9? [...] Aramaki: But my takeaway from the proposal is this: The PM's reason for the urgent reforming of Section 9 takes priority over his personal motives. I believe his true objective is meeting the Americans' demands for the dispatch of special resources. Togusa: So it's as the Liberals feared? An American-born Prime Minister would be no more than an American puppet? Aramaki: I've yet to meet him in person, so I can't really say. But this is an opportunity to have the Major and the rest of you undertake a major operation for me once more. Togusa: What sort of op? Aramaki: Over the past few years, I have searched for an answer on how to deal with a society in turmoil. I'd like you people to lay the groundwork that will help the next generation find that answer. Togusa: I don't know what a man in my position can contribute, but I'll humbly offer whatever assistance I can.

Those of us who cried, Kamiyama, tell us the future once more! based on Standalone Complex's prophetic analysis of a memetic crime wave were bound to be disappointed. SAC_2045 is less rooted in the near future than in the now - cyberbullying, endless war amidst historic prosperity, employment suppressed by automation, savings eaten up by the complex machinations of finance, and a breakdown of national borders? That's today.

Those of us who hoped for a Ghost in the Shell: Unicorn, a psychically overpowering work that synthesizes the full body of Ghost in the Shell into a single coherent form to elevate us to a higher level of understanding, should have tempered our expectations. To reach each new philosophical level is more difficult than the last - to achieve that with Ghost in the Shell of all things would have required a multidisciplinary genius near the limits of current understanding.

Kenji Kamiyama is just an anime director. And anyhow, Gundam Unicorn was a book before it was an animated series. And who among us even knew we'd have to write a book before 2015? Ghost in the Shell was well-understood enough, so I instead wrote 25,000 words worth of hypothetical country and became a blogger, like the infamous Scott Alexander.[3]

If we approach SAC_2045 from the lens that it's a humbler work designed for younger audiences, however, some of the creative decisions make more sense.

Purin

Just how old is Purin, the MIT grad who joins the team later on? If I had to guess, that's '23歳' on that profile she provides, and Ishikawa notes that she 'skipped a few grades' on her way to a PhD. But she acts like someone a lot younger. She's enthusiastic and we're assured she's intelligent, but seems to be lacking social training. For example, she makes the mistake of assembling an era-accurate music player for Batou combined with a playlist after consulting the Tachikomas to find out what he listens to. There are two ways to take this.

The first is that she's intended as a relateable character for someone who would make this class of mistake. It's the sort of mistake I might have made at age 13-14, meaning that the show would probably be aimed at someone that age or lower. Overly enthusiastic, doesn't understand romantic relationships, impulsive, poor reading of boundaries / poor modelling of others outside of certain domains, impulsive in a way that causes social screw-ups? Yeah that could certainly apply to an ADHD kid of about that age.

And all of a sudden the tone of the first five episodes with the gun-fighting, the literal Agent Smith, the decision to place the focus in America, and even the mystery of the series being much simpler than Standalone Complex 2nd Gig's plot regarding Asian refugees in Japan make a lot more sense. This is Ghost in the Shell for kids!

Wow, I didn't think that could be done!

...is what I should say, except that around the time I acquired the ability to futurist shitpost, and I used that ability to predict that it would.

Purin II

The second reading is that the youth of the future are fucked up. She probably has some tricked out modifications, both cybernetic and genetic. Now usually you would tell someone to try to become a well-rounded human being. But...

The global economy has crashed. Batou mistakes her for a robot - creatures that look like pretty young women are a dime a dozen. In the dating market, she would be competing with full sensory immersion VR pornography on the one hand, and at the upper end of society where cybernetics are more widely available, likely women with a similar appearance but decades more experience and professional standing.

Note that in the original Standalone Complex, the team take down an 80-year-old Russian spy with the full prosthetic body of a 20-year-old. Full cyborgs aren't common then, nor are they in SAC_2045 (though cyberbrains are ubiquitous), but if the economy recovers that may change, and the sector she's trying to get in to (full-time salaried government rather than marginal private employment it would seem) is going to be very tough to enter either way.

So Purin may have to be over-optimized even to just appear on the screen. In fact, she says,

"Just so I could work at Section 9, I moved most of my sentimental memories to external storage."

Youch! It's no wonder she's socially maladjusted. Just how much of her social learning (in particular key events necessary to rebuild logical inferences on the boundaries of behavior on the fly) has she locked away?

Purin III

But you know who Purin looks like? Notorious internet personality, Gamer Girl Bath Water seller, and IRL video game character Belle Delphine.[4]

Or rather, it's the other way around - 2D animation compresses real detail into suggestive abstraction, letting your mind fill in the rest. Going from those impossible 2D shapes to 3 dimensions creates strange results, like training your machine learning algorithm on the salient features of a cat's face, applying it to human shape, and putting pink hair on the result. Belle Delphine adopts that otherworldly kind of appearance as part of her act.

Technically, this a stylistic choice. Within the framework of SAC_2045, this is what "a 23-year-old female" looks like.

Purin is in fact so non-threatening that her big red coat obscures her figure. I'm gonna go with younger audience. Now if only I could remember what pronoun she uses.[5/☆]

Motoko

With a full prosthetic body, outward signs of human-like aging are almost an artistic expression, much like in a world with cheap tissue engineering, visible scars are a choice.

When she was first introduced in the original Ghost in the Shell manga, we don't know how old Motoko Kusanagi is. It was once said that her name is analogous to "Jane Excalibur," which in English would be an obvious alias. In the first movie (from 1995), she's cool, almost cold and robotic.

In the original Standalone Complex, Motoko has a more mature personality than in the manga, but she has a clearly adult look by the standards of anime. Seriously, check out this fantastic character design (combat suit), although admittedly the better-known "leather jacket and bathing suit" design is more ridiculous, fashion-wise.[6] (Fortunately, she gets pants in her much more stylish second season outfit.)

ARISE starts off with a young Motoko Kusanagi in a chaotic post-war period before the Section 9 we know was assembled. This shows in her character design, but it really shows in her personality. This was actually why I had joked about an even earlier Ghost in the Shell.

There is a sense in which the 2017 live-action movie's Motoko is even younger. Scarlett Johansson is a killer cyborg with amnesia. She doesn't even have one day of formal combat training.

Motoko 2045

Ilya Kuvshinov designed SAC_2045's Motoko Kusanagi.

Yes, that Ilya Kuvshinov. You could be forgiven for thinking this is a teenager that hardboiled assassins Saitou and Ishikawa in the background have been hired to bodyguard.

Despite this, Atsuko Tanaka has resumed her role as Motoko's voice actress. Standalone Complex's Motoko looked 25 and felt mid-30s. SAC_2045's Motoko looks 16 and has the voice and attitude of 40.

This may make more sense than you might think.

Through Whose Eyes?

Throughout much of Ghost in the Shell as a franchise, Togusa, the only non-cyborg on the team, who is pulled from a police department instead of a military background, tends to be character used to help the people of our time relate to the future. He's the guy that doesn't know the things we also don't know, so in explaining concepts to Togusa they're explained to the audience.

In SAC_2045, most of the team are off doing cool cyborg things in America. Aramaki (whose in-world function is to create the bureaucratic environment within which Section 9 operates) tasks Togusa with finding them. The original Standalone Complex first aired in 2003. It's been 17 years since it was created - a similar situation to finding someone that reached adulthood who was born after 9/11. And during this time, Togusa's life has changed - the family man is now separated from his wife. And the world has changed - Togusa is now working for a private security firm. Togusa's role in the first five episodes isn't to guide the new viewers.

His purpose is to guide or stand-in for the old viewers.

The New Viewers

"Do you still hold a grudge against the Major and the others for leaving you behind?"

For the original viewers, SAC_2045 is your world, too. Togusa is there. Togusa is you.

The new viewers are Purin. Enthusiastic and smart but awkward and not confident in their skills. How could they measure up to these much more talented and experienced characters? (Also consider who is going to watch any sort of Ghost in the Shell - it's probably going to be a moderately bright and introverted kid, who is the kind of person that may be more comfortable socializing with people outside of their age band.)

But Motoko is visually separated from the rest of Section 9. Batou, Saitou, Ishikawa, Boma... they all have a much more adult look in keeping with their appearance in previous versions of Ghost in the Shell. What gives?

Batou is sort of a cool adult male figure - this is actually a pretty natural use of the character and his sense of humor as previously established in other Ghost in the Shell properties. We especially see this come through in 「PIE IN THE SKY - First Bank Robbery」 episode, with the old folks and the 21st century bank robbery.

Motoko's difference in appearance is because she's acting as a bridge between the two. The new viewer (as represented by Purin) is supposed to grow into being like Motoko as they gain confidence and experience. (The characters aren't each limited to a single role, of course.)

But SAC_2045 is still a work that's shared between two groups, similar to how the excellent Into the Spiderverse features both the teenage Miles Morales and an older Peter Parker that has lost his way, with the loss of the vibrant young adult Peter Parker being what starts the plot going.

The Last Quarter

With this framework, the rest of the work should express its nature as targeted at a younger audience itself. Watch the last few episodes through this lens and you'll see how much sense it makes. One takes place at a school. Even the bizarre 3D style that resembles recent video games makes more sense. If we take Togusa's earlier conversation with Aramaki as a discussion of SAC_2045 itself, later on there's even a sort of acknowledgement that Ghost in the Shell is a difficult work for someone of a young age.

So with that context in mind, does it work?

Standalone Complex

If I remember correctly, years ago, when I was perhaps 15 or 16, I was watching a tiny CRT television some time after midnight, and I saw the thirteenth episode of the original Standalone Complex - NOT EQUAL. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was immediately taken by it. And, from what I remember, I immediately understood it.

It was as though it were made just for me.[7]

To me, Ghost in the Shell is like a textbook. I thought that as a creator who has reached a place where I am able to be involved in that kind of work, I'm in a position where I have to convey its contents to a younger audience. Well, I knew it would be a lot of work, but I figured it would be my way of giving back to Ghost in the Shell. I thought that I needed to accept the baton and offer Ghost in the Shell to a young audience, to the same degree that Ghost in the Shell raised me to be who I am.

- Tow Ubukata, in a 2015 interview, regarding ARISE

For many people, Ghost in the Shell is a profound influence. I felt that it lifted me to a new level of understanding.

SAC_2045

But what about SAC_2045?

I can't view Ghost in the Shell with new eyes. When I first saw it, I wasn't the kind of person that casually memes futuristic ethical dilemmas as a means of practicing politics.

Compared to the anime I watched back when I was 13, would I have watched SAC_2045? Yes. Is it more philosophically and politically sophisticated? Yes. Would I have found it memorable? I think so.

Would a 13-year these days watch it? That's difficult to assess. I bet someone who does data science for Netflix could tell us, if they wanted. I'm sure Kenji Kamiyama and Shinji Aramaki are considering the same thing.

2017

How does it stack up compared to the rest of the franchise?

For most enthusiasts it's going to be one of the weaker entries, though it certainly does a better job explaining itself than ARISE.

Compare it to 2017's live action movie, however, and I think we'll find it isn't the weakest. The reason is that the writers of Ghost in the Shell (2017) decided to tell a story about bodily consent in which becoming a cyborg is a form of trauma. On some level this may have been a reasonable decision, but they didn't commit to the concept sufficiently fully to execute it well enough to carry the movie - and simultaneously, they dumbed down parts of the regular Ghost in the Shell material for American audiences. As a result the movie flopped both financially and artistically - except for the visuals.

In fact, I wrote a sequence of posts (1, 2, 3, 4) on how to rewrite the live action movie as an actual Ghost in the Shell property. I feel no need to do so for SAC_2045 - and I can't even think of what changes would need to be made.

I look forward to the second season.

-☆☆☆-

[1] It's short, but that's a concept in this post. "Advanced by Left-Wing theorists, Ninth Generation warfare sees all acts as existing on a spectrum of political violence. Most acts of ninth generation warfare consist of extreme pranks."

[2] If we accept the idea of "Fifth-Generation Warfare" as motivated by a desire to prevent the enemy from using their conventional military assets, then a corresponding theory of international politics would involve preventing enemy factions within foreign governments from taking control of those governments' institutions - effectively treating all countries as in continuous level of conflict analogous to a soft civil war.

[3] There is a kind of technique to this, but in my case I substituted ADHD for raw IQ and conscientiousness, which is part of why my posts are so much shorter than, for instance, Moldbug's. In any case, technically, Scott's blog posts on the matter amount to roughly a mere 11,600 words, and the book of the black forest amounts to approximately 26,000 words (which I'm told is entertaining reading), but I'm sure if we go looking we can find an additional 15,000 words worth of worldbuilding from a man known for writing 16,000 word blog posts.

[4] Would it be more of a legal liability to sell regular water with GGBW branding, or actual GGBW that could prove to be a potential health hazard?

[5/☆] There's some future strand lurking beneath the surface here that I can't quite put into words; a culturally divergent moe meltdown where an appearance this ridiculous becomes normalized among some sub-population. To quote the Funko Pop Hatred post,

There are questions about the anatomy of anime people and their internal organs, and particularly about what sort of impact-dampening alien meta-material their softer bits are made out of, but at least homo sapiens gokuensis looks like it’s a branch off a similar starting hominid! Whatever transhuman engineering company was responsible for manufacturing the creatures in the typical harem anime has some weird ideas about human beings, but we’re clearly in their ancient lineage somewhere.

Under Late Safetyism, everyone is a declawed catgirl.

Anyhow, I don't want to alarm you, but I can't guarantee that this won't be the future somewhere. Both Purin and Belle Delphine resemble Xiaoice, "The AI Girlfriend Seducing China's Lonely Men." (2020)

[6] Motoko's ridiculous outfits are a major flex on the non-cyborgs, who aren't indifferent to ambient temperature and whose natural bodies may have unflattering features. Similarly wild fashions can exist in places like Second Life, a 3D digital platform with mostly user-uploaded content. Presumably they're also a flex on every Japanese salaryman who still has to dress like a normal guy.

[7] "It's as though it were made just for me" is also how I feel about the original game Mirror's Edge. Its follow-up, Catalyst, is also a personal favorite of mine.

#miti does media #longpost #flagpost #ghost in the shell #sac_2045 #standalone complex #review

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normadeathmond · 4 years

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the spanish princess ep 2 thoughts

I’ve been enjoying all the reaction posts so here’s mine (spoilers included):

- I’ve had kind of a revelation this week regarding The Spanish Princess. This show is basically the modern day version of those dubiously accurate medieval historical chronicles. Not only do we have extra supernatural elements (the cuuuuurse, prophetic dreams), but we also have the contemporary authors’ personal biases inserted all over the place, and the addition of mythical stories about the heroes (Catherine fighting at Flodden this week). For some reason, this has made me a lot more forgiving towards the show. (it probably also helps that my fave Maggie B is dead now, so I don’t have to worry about them shitting all over her anymore, and I don’t have a particularly strong attachment to any of the other historical figures depicted)

- erm wtf, did anyone else catch that scene with Maggie and Edmund de la Pole in the previously on that we’ve never seen before?? I guess this plotline was supposed to be included in episode one as well, which probably would’ve helped it feel a bit more developed and less like something they suddenly remembered had to be tied up from last year. The whole sequence of Edmund being reintroduced and killed off in less than five minutes was very rushed.

- I’m glad baby Henry’s death hasn’t been totally forgotten, but do we really need so many grief-stricken sex scenes between these two? These are supposed to be the years they’re deeply in love, let them have some happier sex

- ehh I’m not sure that Catherine’s big reveal to the council actually changes much. A very early pregnancy, possibly with a girl, doesn’t really make the line secure. I think the focus should have been on Henry’s own desire to prove himself in battle, which would also have added to the humiliation when Catherine successfully defeats the Scots while his military exploits fizzle out.

- I really like General Howard, Peter Egan is fantastic (albeit a bit too polished for a grouchy, uncouth soldier type)

- “and now this book is closed” - god I hope so, bc I hate Maggie’s plotline from last year. It was interminable watching her whinge about how unfair it was that the Tudors suspected her of plotting against them because she had always been the most loyal person ever, as though she was suffering from some kind of selective memory loss about literally being a spy for the Yorkist rebellion in The White Princess. ffs Maggie can be either a completely innocent woman unfairly maligned by the Tudors or she can be a badass Yorkist rebel, not both.

- it seems her memory problems are back this episode because she goes storming off to complain to Catherine about Edmund de la Pole getting his head chopped off, conveniently forgetting than she was also heavily involved in his plot and her family is only out of the Tower thanks to Catherine interceding for her with Henry. Catherine was 100% in the right here, Edward of Warwick was innocent whereas Edmund de la Pole was a fully cognisant adult who spearheaded a revolt to take the throne (and likely would’ve had both Henry VII and Henry VIII killed if he had succeeded), so the idea that she’s suddenly heartless because she apologised for the former’s death but not the latter’s is ridiculous. The whole scene, including Maggie’s kids’ ‘whoomp here she goes again’ reactions, unintentionally have her coming off as rather hysterical.

- hopefully the rest of her story this season focuses on her mending her relationship with her sad silent son instead and possibly getting her leg over Thomas More

- ahhh Lina’s face when Catherine bitchily says she’ll be having a girl. Catherine’s not going to be able to stop herself from lashing out at her now that she has twin boys.

- first the clothes comment last episode, now they have Ursula saying Charles may not be good-looking but he’s rich as fuck. I guess she’s being set up as a gold-digger.

- is it just me or does the Anne Boleyn’s actress look a little bit like Charlotte Hope? The dress they had her in when Henry returns even looks like something Catherine would’ve worn in season one. I’ve no idea why they’ve brought the Boleyn girls in this early though – are they going to be sent to France then come back later? Henry still has to make his way through Anne Hastings, Bessie Blount and Mary Boleyn before he gets to Anne. The episode summaries make it look like his infidelities won’t start until episode four so he’s going to have to have a new girl every episode to get through them all.

- I’ve kind of come around on the whole Catherine-in-armour thing. Frock Flicks wrote an interesting article this week where they pointed out that while historically battle armour for women did not exist and women very rarely wore armour, depictions of women in armour have been around for a long time and would have existed in the Tudor period. In this pseudo-historical retelling of Catherine’s story mythologizing her as a warrior queen, it does make sense to carry on that visual tradition and have her armoured up.

- Unfortunately I think they did kind of undermine the visual impact of the armour on screen by focusing on it so heavily in the promos for the season. Possibly it wouldn’t have affected a casual viewer so much, but anyone who’s followed the show’s promo cycle has been seeing pictures and clips of Catherine in the armour for weeks now, and when she entered stomping down the corridor in her full battle gear it didn’t blow me away like the first look at that outfit should have done.

- I know this series is never going to have the budget of Game of Thrones, but Flodden was a disappointment, from the rousing speech (“mothers are warriors too, amirite ladies?”) to the battle itself. You can tell they really wanted this to be their big epic action sequence and unfortunately it felt underwhelming. I remember the battles in TWQ/TWP being much more impressive, for what was probably a similar budget.

- as soon as I saw how heavily pregnant Lina was this episode, I knew a birth/battle juxtaposition was coming. I get what they were trying to do with the whole ‘childbirth is women’s battlefield’ theme, but the attempt to fake-out Lina’s death fell flat - there’s no way they were killing her off. (I’m not sure why she was giving birth in the hallway, with apparently no midwives, but it was inadvertently hilarious watching Maggie - the only one with any childbirth experience - try and talk her through it while the other three were basically no help at all.)

- also everyone being like “omg Princess Mary you can’t possibly be at the birth” felt so out of place given that Meg and Catherine were both hanging around a battlefield at the same time

- on the one hand I did like that Catherine didn’t end up being some amazing warrior just off instinct; she’s almost immediately pulled off her horse, staggers around looking confused as fuck and then is shocked when she actually kills someone. But on the other, what was the point of all the warrior queen build up if she barely even does anything useful on the battlefield? (also why did they have her kill someone who looked so much like James?? I’ve seen several people think she killed James herself and I thought that too until he was shown being taken down afterwards - it was needlessly confusing)

- JAAAAMES. I’m so sad he’s gone. Georgie Henley knocked it out the park this episode, especially in her big mourning scene. Although given how sweet he and Meg were this episode, and her comment about him being her best friend, it just makes the punch last episode seem even stranger.

- I’m so sad we were robbed of seeing Catherine try to send James’ corpse to Henry as a victory gift and have to be talked into sending just the coat. If you’re going to make her ride out in armour let her keep her savage penchant for gruesome war trophies!

- oop, Catherine absolutely fails to sell the lie that she’s pleased about Lina’s two boys, and Lina can definitely tell.

- with Maggie B gone, Wolsey is the new evil religious cockblocker in town!

- I would like twenty more scenes of Lina and Oviedo being cute and bitching about their work days thanks

- I like Catherine defending Howard to Henry. It would have been nice if there was more time to show the development of a begrudging respect between those two.

- overall I found this episode disappointing. The big sequences weren’t impressive in the way last week’s were and there weren’t enough character moments to make up for that. I’m still looking forward to the rest of the season though, especially Meg, Mary and Maggie’s storylines.

#the spanish princess

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timeagainreviews · 4 years

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My Series 10 Rewatch: The Pilot

Hello friends! If you caught my last update, you'll know I took the last couple weeks off to study for my Life in the UK test. My test was on Saturday and I am happy to report that I passed! I think it took me longer to go through security than to take the actual test. After two weeks of studying, I am very much ready to get back into the groove of talking about Doctor Who. We now continue with my series ten rewatch!

The title "The Pilot," is an interesting choice for the first official episode of series ten. While it references the plot of the episode, there is also an implication that this story is a bit of a reset to a new beginning. It acts as a pilot to the Doctor and Bill show. Not only had Clara been the companion for basically three seasons at this point, there was also a year of hiatus between "The Husbands of River Song," and "The Return of Doctor Mysterio." It is a weird placement for a final season for a showrunner and lead actor. It's also a weird place to drop a brand new companion.

This new version of Doctor Who opens with the Doctor as a university professor teaching possibly the worst class on campus, that everyone seems to love. His star pupil is a girl named Bill, who isn't actually a student but loves his lectures. Speaking of star pupils, there is also a love interest for Bill in the form of a girl named Heather, but more on that later. The Doctor's office at the university is peppered with references to the past. On his desk sits a jar with the sonic screwdrivers of previous Doctors, like an assortment of pens. There are also portraits of River and Susan. And tucked away in the corner of the room sits the TARDIS, with an "out of order," sign hanging from its doors.

The first time I watched this episode I started to groan at the fact that the TARDIS was out of commission. Not because it should never happen, but more that I expected this to be incredibly tedious. After several years of Steven Moffat's plot arks leading to disappointment, I was bracing to be underwhelmed. As it turns out, the TARDIS works as good as it ever did. But the Doctor and Nardole are grounded regardless. This is due to the fact that there is some sort of door or safe they've been tasked with guarding, which brings us back to the whole bracing for mediocrity thing. I remember immediately thinking "Missy is in there." Spoiler alert- she absolutely is.

Dumb safes and meaningless promises meant to build up empty intrigue aside, the real reason to get excited for series ten is Bill. I was immediately interested in the concept of a black gay companion with a gender fucky name. I remember when the pictures circulated of her wearing a vintage Prince jumper and everyone was speculating whether she was from the '80s or '90s. This only added to my excitement for her character. As many of you know, I am a big fan of the idea of companions in modern Doctor Who that aren't from modern-day earth. Sadly, as it turns out, she's not a hip '80s lesbian, she's once again from modern-day England. Oh well, at least Nardole is from the future. Though I don't understand why he is suddenly a cyborg that makes whirring noises and drops lug nuts. There was none of that in Doctor Mysterio.

The Doctor calls Bill into his office where he confronts her about attending his classes. He wants to take her on as her personal tutor, despite her not being a student. He mentions that he noticed she smiles when she's confused, which is a good indication that she is openminded and naturally curious. It's even implied that he sees a little bit of Susan in her. I liked that little nod to Susan, though it begs the question why the new series has never had her return. While looking at the pictures, Bill indicates that she has no pictures of her mother before she died.

The Doctor uses this as an opportunity to do a kindness for his new friend Bill. Using his ability to time travel, the Doctor goes back in time to take a shoebox worth of photos of Bill's mother. Nevermind that doing this might change the trajectory of her mother's life, thus undoing any chance that she might meet Bill's father. It's a sweet moment for Bill, but it's undercut by Moffat's shitty writing. Bill notices the Doctor's reflection in one of the photos, but never brings it up. She doesn't even thank him. It doesn't really go anywhere other than to inform the audience that the TARDIS does, in fact, still work.

It's this kind of gay people need tragic backstories for no reason mentality that frames a lot of this episode. While I applaud Moffat's inclusion of a gay companion, it comes off as a middle-aged man's depiction of a young gay woman. There is diversity on the screen, but none in the writing room. This is made all the more apparent by Bill's horrible chips anecdote. Bill has a crush on a student who comes into the cafeteria where she works. So she gives her extra chips every day until it starts making the girl fat. The Doctor asks her why she is telling him this story and she replies with "I was hoping it would go somewhere." As did Steven Moffat, but it didn't. It just hangs there like a fart saying "Did I mention I was gay?"

The next few scenes take place over a montage. We see Bill and the Doctor in their respective student and tutor roles. And we also see Bill having a bit of a social life. Bill catches the starry-eyed glances of Heather at a club and they both stand there on the dance floor staring at each other. There's an implication that the two of them are into each other, but we never actually see anything to show why they would actually like one another other than raw animal attraction. In fact, their few interactions are actually rather awkward and cold. There's about as much chemistry between the two of them as there was between Clara and Danny. Which if you remember was zero.

There isn't really a whole lot of focus on anything other than characters for this episode. Moffat usually writes in one of two ways- heavy on character and light on plot, or so heavy on plot that it sits weird against his characters. This would be the former, as the plot is nearly non-existent. Bill begins to notice Heather around and tries to chat her up. Heather shows Bill a puddle that doesn't make sense considering it hadn't rained in days. I kind of love Bill's reasoning that the puddle is piss from the men on campus. That was genuinely funny. Well done, Moffat. But there is more to this puddle in that it also shows your reflection wrong. Heather notices this because the reflection of the star in her eye isn't where it should be.

Let's talk about Heather for a moment. She's a very odd character. Firstly, there is her eye, which has a defect that gives her iris a star shape. Bill asks the Doctor what kind of defect would do this, but neither the Doctor or the show has an answer. Much like Moffat's running gag from "The Curse of the Fatal Death," said- I'll explain later. But later never comes. Other than her eye, Heather's other two biggest traits are that she's most likely a lesbian and that she wants to leave. Her personality isn't really all that important other than to act as the thrust for the plot, which is sadly from another episode of Doctor Who altogether.

Doctor Who is a very old show. It’s bound to repeat itself. Chris Chibnall ripped off "The Silurians," wholesale with "The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood." I get that this was necessary as a means to re-establish the Silurians and why they've remained underground. But on other occasions, Doctor Who seems to repeat itself out of sheer laziness. Remember when the library in "Forest of the Dead," saves everyone at their time of death? Or when Missy plucks people out of their timeline at their time of death? Or when the Testimony records people in history at their time of death? Or when the Thijarians comfort people at their time of death? Because I do. So it's not surprising that when Moffat wants to steal from another episode, he steals from one from his own stint as showrunner.

The episode I'm talking about is "The Lodger," written by transphobic Brexiteer shitlord- Gareth Roberts. In it, a spaceship disguised as a top story flat lures people to their demise while searching for a pilot to take it into space. The ship's main criteria for a pilot is that the candidate be someone with wanderlust. Does any of this sound familiar? That's the exact same M.O. of the mysterious puddle. It latches onto Heather because it senses her desire to travel and extrapolates that into consent to take over her body and use her to pilot it around the universe. However, another part of Heather's psyche has kept it earthbound- a desire to be with Bill. If you remember correctly, this is very similar to how "The Lodger," ended. Craig and Sophie's desire to stay together is what kept them from being reduced to ash by a machine too stupid to realise it was killing its host.

Now, I understand that it sounds like I'm ripping on Moffat quite a bit, but I actually do like him as a writer. "Heaven Sent," is one of the best episodes in the entire history of Doctor Who. This one, however, is not great. After the puddle overtakes Heather's body, it begins to follow Bill everywhere. At first, Bill thinks the puddle is Heather, but her creepy Midnight-esque repetition of everything Bill says is enough to raise suspicion. Bill begins to run to the safety of the Doctor, where she finds him and Nardole fussing with the giant safe. The room in which the safe is located only lets friends inside, which is either telling or worrying as the puddle is able to simply wash into the room under the door. As I watched the water flow down the stairs I found myself feeling forgiving toward the effects department from "The Horror of Fang Rock." Green blobs beat slow-mo water any day.

For no reason other than it needed to be more spooky, the puddle screams like a wraith every time we see it. I loved the little addition of Heather's wet mascara adding to her ghostly appearance. The Doctor, Nardole, and Bill take a trip around space and time to see if they can shake the puddle. But no matter where they go, the puddle is never far behind. For a creature made of water, it certainly is thirsty. And trust me, that's far better a pun than the one I was considering. The WAP references were just too low of a fruit.

For reasons I can't exactly pinpoint, the Doctor decides to take the chase right in the middle of a battle between the Daleks and the Movellans. While I love the return of the Movellans in all of their Rick James majesty, it's a very weird scene. As far as I can devise, the Doctor is merely trying to see if the puddle can withstand the blast of a Dalek. It almost feels like Moffat needed to wake the audience up with a jolt of Dalek action. Up to this point, there has been very little tension. What I can't figure out is what Nardole is doing with the Fourth Doctor's sonic screwdriver the whole time. From what I can tell, he's shutting doors, closing off the corridors and locking Daleks out. Maybe? I really don't understand.

The Puddle takes the form of a Dalek just long enough to make us worry that maybe Nardole didn't get them all. Watching the Dalek disintegrate into a puddle of water was genuinely cool. I was reminded of things like the clear Dalek from "Revelation of the Daleks," or the visible innards of the teleporting Dalek in "Remembrance of the Daleks." I like it when the show does weird visual stuff with the Daleks. It's part of why I love Davros so much. The puddle reforms as Heather, holding out her hand for Bill to take, which the Doctor warns her not to take.

Part of the tragedy of the Doctor's character is how oblivious he is to human emotion. It's part of why he needs human companions in the first place. He couldn't possibly conceive of a situation where Heather's own yearning for Bill might be the cause for all of their problems. But Bill sees this. She sees the human desire underneath all of the scary and so she too reaches out, grasping hands with Heather. What I don't understand is why Heather needed to leave and see the universe without Bill. Why they needed to say goodbye at all is more of that "gays can't have nice things," bullshit I mentioned earlier. Let's walk through the logic a bit.

Toward the beginning of the episode, the Doctor explains that the acronym for TARDIS- Time and relative dimension in space, means life. If you think about this, it's him saying that life is basically you in a point of time and a point of space, relative to you. Thus it explains the very essence of being alive and experiencing the universe from your unique perspective. But toward the end of the episode, he changes this position to mean that TARDIS means "What the hell?" As in, just go ahead and live life how you choose. This comes after the Doctor trying to wipe Bill's mind and deciding he can't. This leads to the Doctor allowing himself to travel, despite the promise he made about the safe nobody cares about. Basically, Heather doesn't get to join in on the Doctor and Bill's travels because Moffat still had to do a thing.

A lot of this episode is neutered by this need to adhere to the season ark. Which I now realise is a major contributing factor as to why I so often forget Nardole is a companion. Nardole is forced to become the Doctor's babysitter, forcing him to hide his travels with Bill. Because of this, we see Nardole as more of an authority figure than a companion. He's the strict schoolmaster the Doctor and Bill are forced to sneak past on their way to adventure. What this does, sadly, is cut Nardole out of a lot of the adventures. The same thing happened to Danny Pink, whose opposition to the Doctor often times left him out of the fun. Also like Danny Pink, it's an arrangement that worked best with Rory Williams and has been imitated to hell and back since.

While I can't consider this episode a total success, I also can't write it off outright. It would be easy to damn it in a "Simpsons did it," fashion for taking its plot from a previous episode. It would be easy to write it off for being plot light queer bait where nothing really happens. I could rail on the inclusion of the Daleks for the sake of Daleks. But I have to ask myself- what is the function of this episode? The answer to this question brings me back to its title. This episode is a pilot for a new iteration of the series. We're in a new place with some new faces, and some familiar ones. The pieces on the board have changed location and strategy. If the function of this episode was to hit reset, I would say it succeeds.

Bill is a very likeable character. You immediately want to see more of her. Her introduction is both charming and endearing. The roundabout way she took to arrive at saying "it's bigger on the inside," seemed less thick than quirky, which is right on the money. You want to see more of her. You want to hear more of her questions. You want to experience the universe through the filter of her perception. We needed a companion who was different from the previous one. It was important that the audience is able to move forward with the new cast. We're not comparing Bill to Clara as many did with Martha and Rose. We're not being asked to forget the past any more than we are being asked to cling to it. This is exactly the right tone and in that way, I find it to be wholly successful.

#doctor who #the pilot #series 10 #steven moffat #peter capaldi #Twelfth Doctor #Bill Potts #Pearl Mackie #Matt Lucas #nardole #TARDIS #daleks #movellans

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ducktracy · 4 years

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67. i’ve got to sing a torch song (1933)

release date: september 23rd, 1933

series: merrie melodies

director: tom palmer

starring: sara berner (greta garbo/zasu pitts/mae west)

tom palmer’s second and final effort at warner bros. this fares better than the disastrous buddy’s day out, but only slightly. i also forgot to mention, looney tunes and merrie melodies have both adopted new theme songs. looney tunes’ 1933-1934 theme song is currently untitled, but it would be used all the way until “porky signature” replaced it for the 1936-1937 season (albeit a faster, more up tempo version of the song). merry melodies adopts “i think you’re ducky”, which would be replaced by “merrily we roll along” in 1936 and stay that way until 1967. back to the synopsis: celebrities and personalities are abound as everyone tunes into the radio station to overhear their wacky antics.

a little light of creativity is finally shown with the opening sequence, various shots of people tuning into their radio sets with bated breath. what follows next is a sequence of gags, all revolving around the same radio show: an exercise program, the announcer dictating “one, two, one two, breathe deeply, one, two”. a family is shown bending at the waist, a man tightening his wife’s girdle, a father rocking his quadruplets, a man pulling tickets from a machine, and even a caricature of benito mussolini riding a mechanical horse in his bedroom. bernard shaw is also shown boxing at a globe. the animation and delivery suffers like it did in buddy’s day out. everyone is wobbly and janky and feels unstable, insecure—a reflection of tom palmer’s insecurity and indecisiveness as a director.

a caricature of ed wynn rides a horse on a stick, pulling a whistle on his trademark firemen’s cap and waving a bell. he yells into a microphone, “when you hear the gong, it’ll be 8:00 whether you like it or not! clocks in a clock shop come to life and grunt “you’re tellin’ us!” tom palmer utilizes a lot of fades. fade between each scene. face between the clock faces and the clocks actually having anthropomorphized faces. there’s nothing to break up the monotony, and likewise things feel like they blend together and become predictable.

now, this did give me a good laugh (and not at palmer’s expense), so good on him. cros bingsby bing crosby is in his bathtub, singing into a microphone treading the waters. fade to a gaggle of gals gathered around a radio, listening to their favorite crooner. another woman cradles her radio and kisses it affectionately. back to bing, who had previously been shown covered in bubbles. he turns on the shower head and rinses himself off, and we’re greeted with a rather disappointing bing crosby caricature. he looks too normal and indistinct, too smooth. a good descriptor would be mannequin-esque. thankfully, the future holds many an entertaining bing crosby caricature for us to ogle at.

another clever trick that is standard at the same time. we see two pairs of legs tap dancing, a mystery as to who they belong to. pan up to reveal caricatures of james cagney and joan blondell with their hands in their shoes. the animation is awkward and floaty as ever when cagney playfully punches blondell, who merely glides away. it’s a lack of spacing. there’s no spacing in the animation, no accents, no impacts, nothing. as a result, everything glides and feels loose and wobbly.

back to ed wynn, who’s shooting a pistol and yelling “hello, 8:00!” elsewhere, we turn to ben bernie conducting an orchestra, which turns out to be a record player. not much to say on these gags, they feel very straightforward and present.

palmer’s view fails to come forth once more as we get a shot of a bunch of little globes floating in space and spinning. it’s supposed to symbolize that everyone around the globe is tuned in, not just us locals in america, but instead it reads as jarring and confusing.

i also suppose i was pretty foolish to think that now that harman and ising were gone, the casual racism of the 30s would be put on the back burner—especially foolish since i’ve seen many shorts that are equally unsavory, if not moreso than the ones made by harman and ising. we have ethnic stereotypes nonstop. cut to china, where a man is pulling a cart labeled “shanghai police”, all of the police asleep. the phonograph they’re listening to disturbs their slumber, and they tie it in a knot and go back to sleep. elsewhere, we fall back to the “african cannibal” stereotype, a blackface caricature of a cannibal listening to a cooking show whilst mixing up a big pot of comedy duo bert wheeler and robert woolsey. the gag is trite and uninspired, little imagination present. cut to the arctic, where an inuit man is ice fishing. he reels in a big catch—a whale, diving away as the whale eats the iceberg he’s sitting on. the whale salvages the radio and dances to some tunes. once more, the animation is alien and off putting, and the voice of the man screaming seems merely pasted on instead of a deliberate choice.

animation of a harem dancer is especially poor, without a basic understanding of anatomy. her limbs seem rubbery and almost broken. though it is the era of rubber hose, it’s clear that wasn’t what they were going for. the sultan observing her is just as unimpressed, turning the station to listen to minstrel show amos ‘n andy.

after some redundant attempts at some gags, we finally launch into our title song “i’ve got to sing a torch song”, sung by loose caricatures of the boswell sisters. the harmonies are lovely as always and a joy to listen to. probably the most bearable part of the cartoon.

other characters chime in, including a man robbing a safe with a torch, and two men playing a jigsaw puzzle in a hole (signs labeled MEN AT WORK).

more caricatures sing the song, such as greta garbo, zasu pitts, and mae west. once again, the animation is lost and confused, caricatures underwhelming, and any chances of a laugh dropped. what’s also confusing is that zasu pitts is clearly in another setting: photo limit prevents me from showing so, but the curtain behind her (she’s the one in the middle) is a totally different color. yet in the shot above, they’re all on the same stage. palmer’s view is muddled in his own lack of confidence. there’s also a random cutaway to a jimmy durante statue of liberty, likely a last minute attempt to throw in a celebrity.

finally, back to ed wynn and the tired 8:00 gags. he shoots a cannon, which launches himself into the air and straight through his own ceiling, where his wife and children (all dawning firemen hats) all cry “SOOOOO?”, a catchphrase of wynn’s as he laughs awkwardly. iris out.

though this cartoon was, well, bad, it fared slightly better by buddy’s day out, but not by much. tom palmer’s lack of cohesion, clarity, and confidence reflect into almost every aspect of the cartoon. the animation is vague. the story is vague. the caricatures are vague. it’s all vague. i’m really disappointed about the caricatures, they feel way too toned down and normal, not at all funny. being born in 2001, i’m not going to know who people born in 1900 are or what they look like (well, i mean i will, but the point is i don’t recognize every caricature i see. i spend a lot of time researching and frantically digging through the web as i type each review), but i can still appreciate them and laugh if they’re drawn, look, and act funny, and here there’s none of that. i do feel bad for tom palmer, though. being plucked from disney as an animator and put into a director’s position at a competing studio would definitely be shocking, especially with no prior directing experience. so i’m glad that he did what he did, managing to pull through, somehow. i wouldn’t recommend this cartoon: it isn’t even funny enough to hate watch. it just bears little significance overall. but, as always, i provide a link just in case!

link!

#lt #i’ve got to sing a torch song #long post #reviews #racism m

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whitewolfofwinterfell · 5 years

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My favourite Charmed episodes - season 8

This is the eighth part of my Favourite Charmed Episodes meta series all posts in the series will be tagged as #favecharmedeps

Like most Charmed fans, season 8 is by far my least favourite season. I dislike parts of season 6 and 7, but season 8 really takes the biscuit. The more time I’ve had to reflect on the season, the more I think that the series would’ve been better if the season never happened. The season doesn’t add anything new to the characters or the story. To put it simply, it doesn’t work. Zankou was a great Big Bad to finish with, and Billie and Christy were poor in comparison. Without characters like Leo and Darryl, and a lack of guest appearances from recurring characters like Penny, Patty, Victor, Chris etc. the season suffered further. The addition of Billie as a main character didn’t really work and even now I still struggle to understand why that decision was made. The final battle between the sisters and Billie and Christy was basically a copy (admittedly a poor copy) of Something Wicca This Way Goes. With all of the seasons in this meta series, I’ve tried to find positives, but I don’t think I can with season 8. The finale is the best part, but as I said in my season 7 post, I would’ve rather season 7 have been the last season because I was happier with how that season ended. Overall, season 8 is so lacklustre and underwhelming that I really had to scrape the barrel to find any episodes I like. I chose 3 episodes from the season: Vaya Con Leos (8x10), Engaged and Confused (8x16) and Forever Charmed (8x22)

Vaya Con Leos (8x10)

Holly’s acting sells this episode. She’s so good at playing the emotional scenes/episodes and this episode is very emotional. After everything Piper and Leo have been through and all they’ve overcame to be together, it’s heart-breaking for her to discover that Death is now coming for him. The extreme lengths that Piper’s willing to go through to save Leo are understandable, albeit ill-advised.

Losing Leo is a huge blow for the sisters and for the fans, who are connected to him so deeply. In Oh My Goddess we got to see the impact that losing Leo has on the sisters and this episode reminds us of that once again. The scene where Leo is frozen is still one of the most emotional scenes of the series and always sticks in my mind. And the final scenes where the music is playing and all of the sisters are grieving for Leo in their own way is so touching. This episode is one of the only from the season that actually has an emotional impact, which is surprising since I found a lot of episodes from the earlier seasons emotional.

Engaged and Confused (8x16)

This episode is on here purely because of Paige and Henry’s wedding at the end, because I have no interest in the rest of the episode. Paige and Henry’s relationship was one of my favourite aspects of season 8 and their wedding was very understated but beautiful. Paige always felt like the sister that was less concerned with love and content to be single, but seeing her find someone like Henry, who was such a perfect match for her and complimented her so well, was lovely. And the cute little moment before the wedding where Wyatt steals some cake and Henry catches him is too adorable. Besides that, I can’t really say I’m in love with this episode. I basically just like Paige and Henry’s wedding and that’s it.

Forever Charmed (8x22)

Because it’s the final episode of the entire series, Forever Charmed is generally memorable whether you like it or not. The opening scene with Piper finding Phoebe dead is devastating and one of those scenes that sticks in my mind for the sheer emotion that it carries. The rest of the episode is very fitting as it takes us on a stroll down memory lane and introduces us to some familiar faces. I always love to see the Halliwell family come together and this episode brings nearly everyone (minus Prue) together in one room. I’ll always appreciate the scene with everyone hugging and smiling and laughing together. It’s corny as hell, but it’s so nice to see because the family rarely got to have moments like that all together. After everything the sisters and the family went through, they all deserved to have a happy and peaceful life, and I’m glad we got to see them have that.

However, there are many aspects to the episode that I dislike and would’ve changed. I didn’t like that the episode was dominated by Piper, I was disappointed that Prue didn’t make an appearance (even though I understand why given the circumstances of Shannen’s departure), I was also disappointed that Darryl wasn’t there since he was with the sisters from the very beginning and I felt that the end was too simplistic and happy. Even if the sisters won their “final battle” against Billie and Christy, that didn’t change the fact that there were still demons out there that would target them. I also didn’t like the fact that it’s insinuated that a happy ending (particularly for women) is marriage and kids. I understand that for many people, that is the case, but it felt too stereotypical and a little out of place on a show that I’d consider feminist. It felt particularly odd for Paige who was never very traditional. She never expressed any desire to marry or to have children so that image of her as a domesticated house-wife and mother never really sat well for me. Nonetheless, I appreciate the episode for the nostalgia it provides and the happy ending we got.

And that’s really all I have to say for my favourite episodes from season 8. Like I said in the previous post, my analysis was always going to be a lot shorter for season 8 because it’s the only season I actively dislike. Objectively, I also think that most people can agree it’s the weakest season of the series. I used to be pretty indifferent to the season, and I’d just skip it on re-watches but as time has gone by I’ve come to really dislike the season. I always think it’s somewhat petty when fans turn around and say that they’re going to ignore canon because they think a certain season/episode of a show has ruined it, but in this case I actually think it’s valid to ignore canon. If season 8 is removed from the series, overall, it doesn’t impact the story of the show and we still have a fantastic ending. Like I’ve said repeatedly, I actually prefer Something Wicca This Way Goes as a series finale, so I’d have been happy for it to end there.

Generally, the season has so much wrong with it. For one thing, it brings nothing new to the show; Billie and Christy don’t fit in with the overall tone of the show and their very existence undermines everything we’ve previously learned about the sisters and their destiny (it still frustrates me that two witches were supposedly powerful enough to take on the Charmed Ones, they could’ve at least balanced it out and made it 3 versus 3, because it just undermined the amount of power we were told the sisters had); Darryl was absent as was Leo for a majority of the season; there were two rushed romances (Phoebe and Coop, and Paige and Henry), an underwhelming final plot and final episode and a complete lack of character development or engaging character arcs. Maybe I’m being a little harsh but I can’t think of a redeeming aspect of season 8 (except Henry, who I do really like as a character). Everything about it is so meh and the whole season feels completely off-balance.

This post ends this meta series of analysing my favourite Charmed episodes per season. However, I love writing about Charmed so much that it doesn’t end here. I’ll be continuing the series with two additional posts. The first will discuss my top 10 favourite all time favourite episodes from across the series and finally, I’ll rank all of the seasons from my most to least favourite.

Thanks for reading and for those of you that have been keeping up with all of these posts, I hope you continue to enjoy what I write.

#charmed #charmed meta #my meta #favecharmedeps #text post

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talesofafangirlwithadvr · 5 years

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MAY PICKS

You seriously don’t realize how much you watch until you create a list like this. I’m even more shocked because at the start the semester was still on. Some nice picks this month. Check them out but be careful-as always-of spoilers.

GAME OF THRONES

I could probably dedicate a whole post to talking about this finale (and final season for that matter), but at the same time I have spoken about it to so many people that I don’t know if I can continue to do so at this time. Either way, I’ll keep it brief here. :) Like others have said this season was a combination of disappointing and underwhelming. It was rushed. Six episodes were not enough to finish this story properly. One season should have been dedicated to the Knight King and another to Dany’s madness. (Or rather to taking her down.) So many plot holes were left unresolved. I bought the first book years ago and I am considering to actually start reading them.

THE SPANISH PRINCESS

Starz’s third series in their Royal Collection tells the story of Catherine of Aragon as she comes to wed England’s Prince....Arthur. You heard me correctly. If you know your history you know who she actually marries and all the drama that will unfold, but nonetheless it is interesting to see how they portray the first wife of Henry VIII. (It actually made me do some research and I don’t know how I didn’t know they were married for so long before he married Anne Boleyn.) This series, just like the previous ones produced by Starz, is based on Phillipa Gregory’s books. So as expected they are not always the most historically accurate (but then would it be as interesting??) I did watch The White Princess before starting this series, but I don’t think you have to watch it. However, it will just make you feel like you know the family more. (See Binge-ing for my White Princess review.)

JANE THE VIRGIN

After all of my binge-ing earlier in the year I HAVE FINALLY CAUGHT UP!!! (Well, expect for this week’s episode--thanks baseball.) It’s always hard when you finish binge-watching a show or catch up to the live episodes. You have that feeling of: What do I watch now? Luckily the present season is still playing so I don’t have to experience that...yet. I’m even more upset now that it is the final season. I was a huge Michael fan when he was a regular on the show, but I was not overly happy when he returned. I felt like the show ran out of plot-lines and it wasn’t needed. I’m happy that this plot only was part of the season. Can’t wait to see where we’re headed!

SINGLE PARENTS

I AM SOOOO HAPPY THIS SHOW GOT RENEWED. I know it was on the bubble for a bit towards May sweeps and I am beyond excited that it got picked up. I’m actually shocked that I haven’t spoken about this show more on this page. It has become-HANDS DOWN-one of my favorites of the year. It definitely deserves a second season and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us. Did you see that finale? I LOVE Will and Angie and I seriously thought we were close to a kiss at the end of this episode. Please give us that next season writers!! I also loved seeing Angie’s ex, ironically played by Leighton Meester’s actual husband. At the start of the season I did not see Poppy and Douglas becoming a thing and I love their relationship too. I’m so excited for next season!! **Just noticed this picture doesn’t have the real Amy and Emma, lol.

iZOMBIE

Another last season from a CW show. iZombie is such a great one and there is nothing else out there like it. Each time it comes back I remember how much I love it. At first I was really upset of it ending this year, but I feel like it will end on a strong note. I’m not sure what other plot-lines they could explore. This show has come so far from the original season when Liv and the other zombies were the minority to now a divided Seattle populated by zombies and humans. I feel like this show does a great job drawing a lot of parallels to the world we are currently in. The character development has been so strong that if you were watching the first season you might not recognize some of these characters. I am definitely going to miss this show. As well as all the brains that Liv has consumed over the series. Last week’s dancing episode was fantastic and I especially loved Ravi’s montage of learning to dance. Clive seriously has the moves.

THE 100

Just like iZombie, the 100 returned mid-season with its sixth season. As usual, I was excited for the new season because I love this show, but the promo released made me very confused in what this season would bring. I have only watched 2 of the episodes so far and it does feel like a new show (which I guess makes sense with the whole: End of Book 1). I felt like I needed to re-watch season 5′s season finale (which I didn’t) to remember everything that happened and why certain people were mad at each other. I have seen some spoilers (because I am behind and I follow the show’s official page), so I don’t know if I’m ready for the direction the show is going but I’ll be there to see where it goes.

BINGE-ING

THE WHITE PRINCESS

As mentioned earlier one of the shows I decided to binge-watch this month was Starz’s second series adapted from Phillipa Gregory’s books: The White Princess. In anticipation for watching The Spanish Princess (now currently airing) I decided it was a good time to watch it and one of my sister’s watched it previously and really enjoyed it, so I was excited to give it a watch. This show is only 10 episodes and I quickly watched the series. The beginning instantly captured my attention. I am definitely one for an arranged marriage where the couple does not like each other at first; as it was with Henry VII and Elizabeth. As the Tudors take the throne they join the houses of Lancaster and York. I had heard much of the War of the Roses but (even though I know this show is fabricated) this helped me understand it better. I also watched a behind the scenes segment about how they wanted to show the York side differently as many people are familiar with Shakespeare’s Richard III, etc. Years ago I tried watched the White Queen and just couldn’t get into it (the series before the White Princess). Now I might give it a try to see some of the earlier versions of these characters. If you enjoy historical romance dramas then this series is for you.

IRON FIST

Last year I started watching the Marvel Netflix shows beginning with Daredevil. I had gotten up to the Defenders (which I did enjoy) but then needed to take a step back from this Marvel universe and watch something lighter. Unlike some people, I really liked the first season of Iron Fist. Previously I didn’t know anything about the character, so I liked learning about his backstory and why he had returned to New York City. Then I heard the great response the second season had gotten, so I am even more excited for this season. I am still early on, but am enjoying it so far. I have a lot of questions but I have a feeling they will be answered pretty soon. I know the show was cancelled so I might be disappointed by the ending, but maybe it will get picked up by the new Disney Streaming Service as many people suspect.

FUTURE SUMMER BINGE

THE WALKING DEAD

That’s right, I’m going for it. For the past couple of summer’s I’ve been checking off some big shows to binge and I thought why not watch Walking Dead. Back in the day I watched the first (maybe second) episode, but I only remember a couple of things. I’m ready for the journey!

GOOD OMENS

The Amazon Prime Original will be released May 31st and I am constantly seeing ads for it so I am getting more and more pumped. Only a couple more days.

So what are you watching? What are you excited to watch over the summer? Are there any shows I should add to my list? Let me know.

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sxpiosexualx · 6 years

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Funko’s next wave of GoT Pops.

Genuinely speaking, I’m not sure how many of us out there are into these but I for one was excited for them. However I’ve only been sourly disappointed by the reveal. I looked forward to adding an updated Dany to my collection, especially one of her rocking her new black outfit that seemed to symbolise her reconnecting with her Targaryen roots and embracing her “inner dragon”, and according to Michelle Claption, emulating Viserys, so to speak. I was even willing to look past the fact that I’d need to buy her with her throne, although I’d much rather have an individual pop of her instead. But alas, the pop itself hasn’t blown me away, and it’s to do with the throne itself:

**beware of critiques and my $0.02 down below**

This slab of plastic is anything but tacky looking. It just misses out on the finer details that made the throne be so memorable:

Sadly, it looks like a failed attempt at recreation. Next would definitely be the awkward pose they’ve got her in. Pops are cute enough with their large heads but in a sitting position like this, it just seems... a bit off. Not to mention, the fact that Funko may have been able to get away with how blonde they keep making Dany in previous seasons, but it’s not the case this time because S7 finally gave us silver-headed Daenerys. This is by far the one that disappointed me the most.

However Davos and Jon’s aren’t off the hook either. Davos is the most deserving of a pop in this line and yet, with little much to recreate, they managed to choose a very peculiar shade of green to dress him in. His show counterpart’s colouring is duller, and it’s no help that the figure tself is underwhelming. But I’m glad they finally gave him one anyway.

Jon’s is the most laughable. Not only for the fact that the entire subplot beyond the wall was mind bogglingly illogical, but what was funko thinking about his expression? He looks like he’s extremely distressed and confused - something the R+L=J reveal might trigger. But no, for all the detail they put into his outfit which I can appreciate, what let me down the most is how plastic-y his mould looks like. It just feels like Funko’s “”cheaped”” out a bit this time around.

Also... another wight pop! How surprising! How just like Funko to come out with a character that’s graced the screen for 5 seconds as opposed to focusing on releasing characters they’ve yet to even consider making, or updating KEY characters that many people have continuously asked for.

Well, I know I’ve been harsh but for what it’s worth, I’m thankful of any GoT merch we get, especially in pop form. I do still hope they listen to their customers and what we’ve got to say though! Still awaiting an updated Arya, a Theon, and of course, an ACTUAL Sansa Stark funko with red hair in her new Winterfell clothes because I’d assumed that being the Lady of Winterfell would have earned her a pop by now. Oh well...

#GiveSansaAPop2k18

#givesansaapop2k18 #funko pop #got funko #funko news #this got a little rant ish #personal #ive been so patient #when will i finally receive

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themeatlife · 3 years

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2020, Goodbye

If you are like me, 2020 has felt rough. There has been a lot of change, a lot of “new normals” and the like. I’ve been fortunate in many ways this year, but like many Americans have had to sacrifice for the betterment of communal and public health. This post will most likely be a stream-of-consciousness ramble of what has been on my mind since the spring. Not just one thing but multiple things. Not sure if I can put all of it in words, but I’m going to give it a go and we’ll see what happens.

Sports? Sports. Sports!

Normally I would have had a college football preview and several football related entries by now including a Bowl Season or New Year’s Six preview. This year with the initial will they play/won’t they play, then with all the COVID related issues postponing or cancelling games, I didn’t think I could properly give analysis or opinion. There was a lot out there. But I will say BOOMER SOONER and congrats to my Sooners on the Cotton Bowl domination of Florida. Opt out or no opt out, you still have to play the games and those opt out WRs don’t play defense.

In 2020 we went from sports drought in the Spring, to sports overload in the Fall. I honestly couldn’t keep up with all the watching! NBA Playoffs, NHL Stanley Cup Playoff, MLS, NFL, and College Football seasons all kind of collided at once in the early Fall. It was nice after not having any sports on TV for a few months.

Show me the Movies

I’ve cataloged a bunch of different shows and movies I watched over the course of the year and pandemic. I put some of that on pause when sports came back. But, I hit resume on some viewing over the holidays. I did post on my social accounts some short reviews but I wanted to dive a little more in the viewing I’ve partaken in during the Christmas/New Year’s window.

Wonder Woman 1984 Meat Rating: 7/10

I watched this and initially was a little underwhelmed. I thought it was solid and entertaining but not as good as the first. But then I started reading a lot of negative feedback online about the film. Even though it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, I didn’t think it was a bad movie. So I didn’t understand a lot of the negativity. It is a bit slower-paced the first two-thirds of the movie, so that might have turned off some viewers. I actually dug it. The last third is what disappointed me. No spoilers, I’ll just say that the emotional end of the movie happens about 20 minutes before the actual end of the movie, and that throws the whole thing off in my opinion. Still, worth the watch. And I love Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, and Pedro Pascal.

Soul Meat Rating: 9/10

Best movie of the year, in my opinion. Wow. Pixar has gotten so good at exploring human emotions and psyche like no other entertainment company. And through quirky animated features, no less. I may have to rank Pixar movies soon, we’ll see. Like features like Inside Out, this probably works better on adults than it does on kids. In any event, I laughed and enjoyed the ride, and I cried uncontrollably at the end of the experience. I’m glad Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey took us on this journey.

The Midnight Sky Meat Rating: 6/10

Where to start? Visually this film has some stunning shots. The scenes in the Arctic and the space scenes are visually great. The film’s weakness is that the pace is super slow. There are tidbits throughout the film that hint at an obvious twist. But the film is so slow that the payoff at the end feels worth less and almost unearned. Unless you are a big George Clooney or Felicity Jones fan (or Kyle Chandler fan, big ups to Coach Taylor), I would skip this if you have other viewing options.

Tenet Meat Rating - 8/10

As I disclosed on my social accounts, I am a big Christopher Nolan fan. Love his work, and was probably going to like this movie regardless. I did not have the opportunity to see this in the theater, and I kind of regret that because Nolan films are usually the ideal theater experience. Tenet is no different. Big, epic action set pieces. Visually stunning. Confusing AF in maybe the first half of the movie. I took my brother’s advice and just let it soak in upon first viewing. So as the movie progressed, the more and more you start to understand what is going on. The end pays off for me. I haven’t gotten a chance for a second viewing, I might do that this weekend. I need to rank Nolan movies now as well. John David Washington and Robert Pattinson have pretty good bro-chemistry and the movie plays off that well.

The Mandalorian - Season 2 Meat Rating: 8/10

I never reviewed the first season, which I would probably also give an 8. Some background, I’m not a Star Wars fanatic. I enjoy watching the movies and playing some of the games. I never got into the animated series Clone Wars or Rebels. So this current season of Mando, I probably wasn’t as geeked out as some Star Wars fans who have consumed that previous content. Even without the context of some of the characters introduced from those shows into some of these episodes, I still enjoyed Mando Season 2 tremendously. The Mandalorian is the best thing going on for the Star Wars franchise, and by the look of it from the recent Disney investors meeting, it looks like they are doubling down on Star Wars shows because of Mando’s success.

Toxic Politics, Conspiracy, and COVID

I have on occasion written about politics and current events, although I try not to make it too much of a habit. Not so much because I don’t think it’s worthwhile but because everything is so partisan now. Everything seems to be politicized, even things that shouldn’t be. Like the response to COVID. Why is public health and trying to prevent the spread of a deadly virus something political? Why is something like wearing a mask politicized? I never understood. I guess long gone are the days of “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” It is no longer United We Stand, but rather divided we stand. Every man for himself.

Was it always like this?

And how have all these false, unverified conspiracy theories become so prevalent? Part of the role of journalism is to not only inform the voting public but also be a reference of shared knowledge. But now we are in this “hot take” culture, where instead of facts we are subject to people’s takes. And the hotter the take, the more eyeballs get on them and the more these things spread. I’ve also noticed that information spreads much faster when it agrees with someone’s opinion, factual or not.

So what do we do from here? How do we correct this?

There are no easy and comfortable answers. Much like the matters of race in this country. Race and COVID are two issues that are treated similarly. There are serious and deadly issues that need to be dealt with, but there are many who think those problems don’t exist or are exaggerated.

For us to address problems, we have to progress as a people. Together. To move forward, we have to expand our own perspective. Not every situation is clear. Not every solution is simple. And not every path is the same. To make things better, we have to understand the other side of things. Not everyone that disagrees is an enemy or villain. And as such, not every idea from the other side is evil.

We are all people trying to navigate this world. Navigate through rumors and conspiracy. Navigate through racism. Navigate through a global pandemic. If we showed more compassion and empathy toward each other, it would go a long way.

2020, goodbye.

Onward to 2021.

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