#or random chunks of fucked formatting

[jacksprostate]

Have you ever wanted to read fight club. Did you know a lot of the copies floating around on the internet are kind of fucked up. Did you know I just spent two days fixing it. Did you know you can make a copy of this file and have it for yourself. And share it with others. You should read fight club

#fight club #i may delete this after a week or so? Make a copy and spread it lmao okay #The original document I was working from here was spread that way! It just unfortunately had Flaws </3 #have you ever wanted to control F search this damn book? #I Have. #Now You Can. #this version is view only #dont be a weirdo #it's painfully accurate. yes there's probably a random typo or two #but most are chucks #and theres no longer entire missing sections #or random chunks of fucked formatting #think you might want a searchable copy of fight club? take it

[mikkaeus]

house md fic recs — short fics (<10k). hilson + rarepairs

Other house rec lists: long fics | episode tags | postcanon | infidelity trope (all of these are mutually exclusive apart from the infidelity one)

highly recommend not skipping out on the non-hilson fics!! scroll to the end for a list of some really great ones. No huddy though because I'm not the biggest fan.

house/wilson and gen fic

I decided to just lump the gen fic together with the slash because really most of them can be read as slash with a G rating. Before we get into the fics, here are some notable authors that have written several house fics. Not all their fics are going to be listed individually, but if I have the author there I've read all or a lot of their stuff and enjoyed it, so I recommend going through their backlog.

otter: Some really excellent prose and great atmosphere. A little soft, a little pensive. And they nail the characterisation and dialogue.

ignaz: im sure everyone has read ignaz's longfic (a modest proposal and its sequel — the one where house and wilson get married so wilson cant testify against house in the tritter arc) but absolutely check out all their other stuff — it's all quality.

bironic: I really enjoy the bit of edge in bironic's fics. It makes them so yummy.

bethfrish: What stands out about their fics is how they peer into all the pointy edges of Wilson and Julie's relationship, thus making them excellent and unique Wilson character studies. Great prose and dialogue that rivals the show's.

Transformatron: fics that are transcendent and porny, all featuring a d/s undertone or theme (wilson as the dom)

astolat: if u dont know astolat idk what to say to u. just go read their fics.

blackmare (livejournal / ao3 pseud 1 / ao3 pseud 2 / lj pseud third_owl for slash fics i think) Does really great short fics (mostly gen) that slot into episodes. Like meta but in fic form. All of them are worth a read. Some of their fics are on ao3 but a lot aren't (like nearly all the episodic ones).

Namaste (livejournal / ff.net): Some short fics, some much longer ones. Mostly gen focussing on H&W friendship, with some fics on canon pairings. Interesting character studies and exceptionally discerning prose that is a pleasure to read.

In order of length. *faves, ***underrated faves

***Touch by zulu (<1k) (2007) The number of ways House could embarrass him with touches, Wilson thinks, is practically endless.

Silent Sigh by thedeadparrot (<1k) (2009) Wilson, autumn, melancholy, and House. Second person.

Heartbeats by thedeadparrot (<1k) (2009) Three moments in which House and Wilson are almost kind of functional.

No Pain by bironic (<1k) (2008) House finds a permanent solution to his pain problem and convinces Wilson to give him what he needs. Vampire fic! Frottage! hell yeah.

Also check out the sequel: No Mercy by daasgrrl (3k)

***The Game of Wilson: Six Cards in a Five Card Game by paradisecity (1k) (2006) If you're going to play a game like moving in together, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time. Fun and snappy. Great dialogue.

*we're getting good at this by ad astra dean (1k) Wilson had a migraine. Established relationship. Soft and sweet and realistic esp after 8.19. fuck. Premium hurt/comfort.

**********three more stories by besselfcn (1k) The first time it happens is (New Orleans, 1991 | Albany, 2009 | Augusta, 2012) and they are (drunk | sober | out of time). This fic emotionally obliterated me. I’m obsessed with the format like it’s prose halfway to poetry, so creative and unique and well-executed??? I cried so much. I am UNWELL and immeasurably fucked up about them put me in my grave. (Yeah I said these lists were mutually exclusive but this fic is the exception bc idc)

The Awakening of Wils-Ankh-Amun, Royal Concubine by blackmare, Nightdog_barks, pwcorgigirl (1k) It was a rather unusual 'morning after.' This is hilarious. Reads like a classic prank episode. They're so dumb together I love them.

The One Where House Has Always Been a Woman by thedeadparrot (1k) (2009) Despite the hospital gossip, House is not, in fact, a man-hating lesbian. Genderswapped House but not Wilson.

Gray Morning by starlingthefool (1k) All he remembers is that the transition between a stupid joke and the meeting of mouths was almost seamless. Christmas fic that takes place one year after "Merry Little Christmas" (3.10).

Loser Day Blues by blackmare, Nightdog_Barks (1k) February fourteenth is just another day, and another evening in which Wilson winds up at House’s, although — this time — not for the usual reasons.

*indefinable by PaintedVanilla (1k) House can hear Wilson getting ready for bed; he can hear him brushing his teeth, undressing, being unusually quiet. Normally there’s a humming; a breathless energy that House won’t admit to loving about him. He doesn’t hear it tonight. It’s dead silent.

criteria by PaintedVanilla (2k) “I don’t think they know that we’re married.”

***We Live Together in a Photograph of Time by ignaz (2k) Wilson's hair curls when they're fucking. God I'm devastated. The ✨atmosphere✨. This is so in character. And can we talk about the banger title and summary??? I was gnawing my arm before I even opened the fic. Set in s4.

***Things To Do Before You Die by thedeadparrot (2k) In which Wilson turns thirty-eight and a half, thinks about kittens, and doesn't have a midlife crisis. But not necessarily in that order. Prank war with a twist. I’m so fond. Hits all the right cadences with the writing.

So Let Us Melt, and Make No Noise by ignaz (2k) (2007) "You kill patients all the time," House said. "You never stay at work until--" He peered at the clock. "--Four in the morning to make sure they're really dead."

***Curiosity by Namaste (2k) (2006) From Cameron's perspective. Fun character study of her and by extension House and the other two musketeers. Not shippy.

Welcomed Change by JammiesDodger (2k) A cute G-rated getting together fic.

Alone, Together by daasgrrl (2k) Finding new ways to be intimate.

*Keep Your Eyes Wide by deepimpact (2k) There is no specific amount of time passed, no big event, no one thing that Wilson can pin as the catalyst. Obsessed with this. Great atmosphere, excellent prose, and and everything feels authentic and in character. Set pre-season/s1.

***Carrion Eaters by ignaz House, in some indeterminate future or an alternate universe, from the perspective of a new hire. I really loved this story. It's sharp and sad, with great build up.

***Projection by bironic (2k) Remember Ali, that really pretty 17/18 year old clinic patient that was obsessed with House? This fic is Wilson's elaborate fantasy about fucking her, which is of course as much about House as it is her. Post 3.04.

***No Exchange of Payment by otter (2k) The gifts that House gives to Wilson. I adore this. It's about the little things. Otter has exceptional prose and always nails the characterisation, which makes their writing a real pleasure to read.

***All the Effects of Intoxication (3k) by otter This only happens when they're drunk. Just as yummy as that one-line description suggests. I love this a lot — the characterisation and dialogue are excellent and I think this scenario is very realistic for them.

Leave This Harbor for the Sea by otter (3k) House was never the kind of friend who'd help you move, even when he'd had two good legs, not to mention two good arms perfectly capable of lifting boxes. He'd always been the sort of friend who'd stop by while you were packing, make cutting remarks about the failures of your romantic relationships, and use all the half-filled boxes as an excuse to root through your things.

***the growing up, the falling down by riceonrye (3k for the series) Wilson is trying to buy a nice make-up present for his girlfriend, but there’s a guy in the shop with him brazenly shoplifting. Wilson, meet House. This is so good!!! I grinned like an idiot all the way through. It captures the throw-bottles-at-windows side of Wilson so well. A very cute AU of a different first meeting whilst still remaining true to the characters. Don't forget to read the sequel as well.

***never rains (but it pours) by Transformatron (3k) So... remember that episode where House can't pee? I present you some excellently written pisskink pwp. Nails the hilson dynamic, so even if piss isn't your thing, give it a go?

***Blind Spot by blackmare, Nightdog_Barks (3k) Wilson becomes blind after a head injury. genfic.

***Four Blocks South of Eden by bethfrish (3k) If you wanted paradise, you're a little off. I loved the tentative, slightly off-kilter feeling of this. Bang on characterisation, dialogue, and use of 2nd person POV (House). Set in s1 — Wilson's marriage is falling apart, and it leads to a night that could be the start of something new.

***Lie To Me by zulu (4k) It's terribly simple. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after. Exuberant ketamine summer House!!! Equal parts sexy and heartbreaking. Check out the sequel as well (1k).

Stumbling Towards Something Real by ignaz (4k) House and Wilson on holiday in Mexico. (A flagrant excuse for smut, basically.) I'm soft. In character and well-written.

Goes the Neighbourhood by Dee_Laundry (4k) One month into their permanent positions, the new fellows catch a case on the weekend and have to track House down.

***Easy by GoldStarGrl (4k) James Wilson is the easiest person in his dorm. At McGill. In all of eastern Canada, maybe. A fleshed-out version of their first meeting, as well as an insightful character study of Wilson. Slots nicely into canon, whether you believe in the "wilson has cheated on every wife with house" version or the "they fucked when they first met and never talked about it again" version. I really enjoyed this — they’re beautifully in character, and it's excellent writing.

***A Momentary Lapse of Reason by otter (5k) Wilson and Julie through House’s eyes, from the beginning to the end. Skips back and forth between the past and now. The quiet yearning!!! Also *standing on the table with a megaphone* have i mentioned how GORGEOUS otter's prose is??

*Blow the Candles Out by bethfrish (5k) Another year older, another year wiser, another divorce lurking just around the corner. So good!!! Wilson celebrates his birthday amongst the detritus of his marriage. The prose is really exceptional here. House's dialogue is also especially well done. It's a fun read that holds up well on a re-read.

***midnight rain by GoldStarGrl (5k) Wilson can't possibly know the pain. But he wants to. I am vibrating!!! Set precanon, in the aftermath of the infarction. Infidelity, spanking, hello??? Hot, vivid, excellent characterisation, excellent writing etc etc. A+ no notes.

***Through The Looking Glass (The Male Gaze Mashup) by zulu (5k) "If Wilson didn't know, great. What he didn't know couldn’t hurt him. If Wilson did know, it didn't matter, because if he hadn't berated House for it yet, then it was permission to continue." Interesting character study of Wilson and the way House slots into his life. Imaginative and fun descriptions. I did feel slightly lost at some points but it was still a great read. Excerpt: House tears open every envelope, even those addressed to Occupant, then brings back the well-read contents like a cat offering half-dead moles to its hunting-deficient human.

Empathy, Inc. by sassyjumper (5k) Cuddy hires a company that provides 'empathy training' to doctors. House reacts. Set in an earlier season.

***All's Fair In Love (and war) by Transformatron (6k) House and Wilson are enjoying the last day of their holiday when an urgent call comes through from Princeton-Plainsboro - a medical mystery that only House can solve. And he does intend to solve it, despite Wilson's best efforts to distract him. (Established relationship.) Wilson making House do a case whilst fucking him?? I'm an absolute sucker for this trope and I was delighted to find a fic with it.

A Towered Citadel by Namaste (7k) A differential diagnosis for Wilson’s serial cheating.

***And the Borders of Old Cities Get Redrawn by blackmare (7k) Continuation/canon divergence from 8.02 "Transplant". Ch1 is the most perfect episode tag I am vibrating . The way they fall back into their old rhythm!! House seeking out his touch like a cat and Wilson accepting it, even liking it!! The hints of pre-relationship are so delicious. (This is a rare slash fic from blackmare.) Ch2&3 are also absolutely brilliant!! Great characterisation, pacing, and tension-building.

A Voice in Ramah (Welcome to Holland) by ignaz (8k) Cuddy POV on her pregnancy journey. Diverges from the show. Really well done. ignaz did this topic and Cuddy's character justice. I also particularly liked House in this one.

Singapore by thedeadparrot (8k) (2009) In which the boys go to a medical conference in Singapore, House has a few surprises up his sleeve, and Wilson figures some things out.

*A Helping Hand by bironic (9k) Wilson has an unusually rough day and House decides (somewhat despite himself) to help. Things go further than he planned. A believable foray into non-platonic territory, set in between 2.22 (Forever) and 2.24 (No Reason). What better way to take your mind off your patients than a good-ol handjob between friends? Chuck in an absolutely delicious fucked-up overtone characteristic of them and we're golden.

Rarepairs

Chase/House

***pretty doctor by spqr (5k) AU where Chase is a hooker. House becomes obsessed with him after he off-handedly gives the correct differential diagnosis. spqr is an excellent writer that I've followed across multiple fandoms, and this fic did not disappoint. Well-written, great chemistry, hilarious. I could read 100k of this.

***atonement in the locker room after hours by missaa (2k) robert chase makes two mistakes in one day Tags: Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, degradation, God Complex, Catholic Guilt This is just as yummy as those tags make it sound. Someone needed to capitalise on the whole *waves hand vaguely* thing that Chase has going on and by god did this person rise to the occasion. Love the characterisation and the elegant prose, and the structure that flashes back and forth between two scenes. I'm insane!

Chase/Foreman Shoutout to ignaz who sold me on this pairing.

*Pretty Harsh (Confirmatory Testing Remix) by everybodylies (2k) Foreman might have flirted with Chase six months ago for like thirty seconds. Chase can't stop thinking about it.

***Two For The Road by ignaz (3k) For the first ever Foreman Fest, prompt 107 -- "after a break and enter gone wrong, Foreman and Chase are both sentenced to 300 hours of community service, which it looks like they're gonna spend picking up trash on the side of the road." Really solid writing (I mean it’s ignaz), believable characterisation and relationship building. I love them 💓💓💓 just overall a real pleasure to read. Also it's hilarious.

***Eric Foreman Doesn't Take It Up The Ass (But If He Did, It Might Happen Something Like This) by ignaz (6k)

Self-Defense, or The One Where Foreman Teaches Chase How to Throw a Punch by ignaz (1k)

Cameron/Foreman/Chase

Third Wheel Rolling by ignaz He's not jealous, but he's been the third wheel for so long that it's hard to tell the difference. Sexy + great characterisations.

Cuddy/Stacy

***Your Reflection and Mine by Starlingthefool (3k) Sweet, hot, well written.

Amber/Thirteen

***Hate (to the power of 13) by ijemanja (2k) (lj) Porny, with snappy writing and believable characterisations.

Hen Night by zulu (<1k) This is how breakups go. Amber's seen movies.

Release by zulu (1k) Wilson dies on the bus instead of Amber.

Chase/Wilson

Erase by bethfrish (<1k) Featuring a bar and crossdressing. Precanon. Second person, Wilson POV.

Patrick Bateman/Wilson

Just Like You, Only Worse by bethfrish (1k) Ok before you raise your eyebrows at the pairing, give it a chance. Bethfrish is an excellent writer. This fic is really a Wilson character study, and it's an interesting read. Second person POV Wilson, set in s1.

#house md #hilson #house x wilson #house fic rec #house md fic #house md fic rec #my rec list #please let me know fi there are any formatting issues or random chunks of text that shouldnt be there or whatever because tubmrl sucks #i spent way too much fucking time on these rec lists

[hollownoire]

God I want to make a video game so bad. At this point I'd devote myself to any project I could get my hands on.

Alas I know absolutely nothing about coding and it feels like there's absolutely not enough time in the day to chase all of my goals/projects/dreams at once.

I want to practice art, I want to make art, learn it. I want to make games, learn how to make games...

Hell, I've been debating making a YouTube channel for years now. But again, there's like...4 or 5 steps towards that end I'd have to see through.

What video editing software do I use? Is the way I record optimal and enjoyable to view? What about my mic? What do I even record? I've thought of doing speed paints, drawing tutorials, video games...like I wanna do a mixed bag of things that interest me and are fun to make. I had this fun idea to have a speed paint of the thumbnail I made for the video at the end, kind of merge art into whatever other creative process I'm working with. Especially video games, I currently have a chunk of Lethal Company footage sitting in a dusty corner of my computer that I've just been staring at timidly.

But with recording things and possibly even dropping my voice into the internet for random people to hear, I'm horribly self-concious about how my voice sounds. I don't have the money to drop on getting proper voice training and finding time in my already packed schedule to practice solo is frustrating enough to make me wanna fucking eat chalk.

Still need to make an "about page/intro" page to pin to my blog, alongside cleaning up the formatting and just making it look nicer.

I have multiple art projects planned...a few commissions that I need to do...oh yeah, I still need to make comm price sheet to post/pin/link as well...

The cherry on top is paypal has my dead name plastered on it 🤢

I'm so goddamn tired.

#rant #rant post #personal rant #trans #transgender #artists on tumblr #its 2:30 am and I have a doctors appointment at 9 🫠 #At least I have DnD tomorrow #hollownoire #hollowsays

[fishfingersandscarves]

did you hear that paramount (i think that's who owns the property) is releasing DS9 in a de-mastered format. it's gonna look like it's a vhs recording. and they're gonna put commercials (from back in the day) in. and, the most egregious imo, they're gonna put random other shows and/or chunks of sports events in (like the vhs messed up the recording time/channel, or like a family member recorded something over the episode.)

like do they really think people want that bs fucking up the content they paid for. like yeah there's a nostalgia angle, but. why am i going to pay for DVD's of a show i'm not even going to be able to watch all of every episode.

make it make sense, if you can.

I mean to be fair it's an interesting viewing experience and sounds like something maybe I wouldn't rewatch but definitely would at least once just bc it's a cool way to format that

#my asks #fishfingersandscarves #anonymous #🤷‍♂️

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Re: writing something like shounen manga: From my observation and experience, it requires a lot of vulnerability and a little bit of stupidity. It means getting silly, going entirely over the top, making mistakes, and stepping far out of your comfort zone.

Oh, those aren't the parts I have problems with. The parts I have problems with come in a couple parts:

The serial nature / arc format of most shonen, especially the longer running ones. Manga is just a very different format that novels or even short stories get these days in Western Trad Pub. You cannot have things parceled into Discrete Chunks--they're very structurally different, and leaning too far into the episodic nature fucks up a novel's pacing.

The expansive worldbuilding that just doesn't fuckin' matter. Worldbuilding is not a thing I'm good at, particularly, but there's a way a lot of shonen just makes sure you know there's endless places to explore. You can Feel the 500 million places left unexplored in HxH. You know there's a billion more aliens species in DBZ. You know you don't know everything because something new and random is always waiting to be introduced. This is hard to keep contained in a novel format and also make it not...distracting?

So, so, so many shonen feature protagonists with the vaguest goals ever. Adventure! Exploring! Becoming The Number One Hero! Doing Various Jobs for the Underworld when they send them to you! I honest to god have no idea how to replicate the potential openness of that.

It's not the Power of Friendship I struggle with. It's not the Raw Human Gutsiness I struggle with. It's not the genuine emotional heart and enthusiasm and fun. It's the Exploration and Potential. I don't know how to do that.

[tuzesdays]

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

(This can also be in dms :3)

its 3am and someone just set off two fireworks directly outside my home so hi andy good morning lets talk dayshift

so i use grammarly and basic spelling correct to edit, right? what yall dont see, that i do, is before every chapter i plug everything into the text box and let grammarly go at it - usually this ends up with.... id say the average number of corrections it suggests is around 70. and every time, i go thru the whole thing checking every correction because man, grammarly does NOT know how real people talk. theres a certain cadence to verbal speech yknow? something i try to emulate in my regular texting style, but in a properly formatted story its different (not harder or easier, different) because while you cant capitalize random words for Emphasis, you CAN do a whole bunch of other stuff: dashes, sentence breaks, i especially like to split a chunk of dialogue in half with a described action. maybe not every misspelling is intentional, but all the words are.

and some of the stuff i thought about is NEVER - or at least UNLIKELY to be - coming up in the story!! for instance, i dont do things like flashbacks. what you see of the characters background and experiences either comes from what they say or what their actions imply. sunbite gives the benefit of internal dialogue and memory, but its a yn fic so even thats spotty sometimes.

people who just read the fic would Never Know that sunbites blood relation father only ever saw them once. and i also dont include things that wouldnt be apparent to the characters- it has no effect on them, how would they ever know? how would sunbite ever know that they have a little sibling, possibly more than one? how would you ever know that obi's "heirlooms" from his grandmother included another ring passed down maternally for the last five generations with a decent sized sapphire on it? would you know that sunbite loves dogs because their first imaginary friend was one, and they named him Lucky? this stuff has no effect of them now, practically forgotten about. but its there cause i say it is.

storytelling is fucking Wild, dude. of course i took some inspiration from bamsara and naffeclipse (god damn at this point what dca writer hasnt a little bit) but also im pretty proud of my 'do no harm, take no shit' yn. it was always gonna be them, theyre the only person for the job in my mind. the way ive structured things and the way things are going to go, only people with that attitude - and that unkillable amount of hope and love - would be able to make it all the way through. maybe thats not the easiest character to project onto, but hey, its more a personal thing. dayshift go figure is, among other things, a power fantasy.

anyway, took the oppurtunity to ramble, its 3am. tldr; i put a lot of thought into word usage and character history, and most of those thoughts arent important to anyone but me.

#dayshift go figure #tuz asks

[therelentless]

ooc;; kinda miss how simple was rping back in the day. you had a URL, some fucking big ass gifs and you were good to go. no APA format, not throwing two paragraphs of random sometimes unnecessary description, because if you just throw in there a chunk of dialogue it makes you look lame, oh! having fun reblogging aesthetics posts, and even more aesthetics, without worrying about "oh can't reblog too many things, gotta have some threads in there too and look professional"

yeah.

#{ house meeting! } ;; ooc #we made this harder on ourselves

[not-poignant]

Thinking about the post on media and film distribution I added to yesterday, what I forgot to add is simply that a lot of you now spend the hours that you would have once spent on cinema and television on Tiktok and Reels and (to a degree) YouTube. If you know you spend 1-3 hours on Tiktok each day, well, in the 90s, nothing like that existed. You only had books, cinema, television, radio. So people weren't hyping memes and random dances and Good Emu Person and Shitty Emu Person etc. and everything folks talked about - even on early internet - when it came to mass media, centred on those specific forms of mass media.

Cinema will never ever be the same again so long as people give 12+ hours of their week to Tiktok / Instagram and similar sites, instead of cinema and television. You can't cry out for a golden age that's gone when it's gone because the audiences moved on. The fact is, one of the most common media watching memes on places like Tumblr is a version of 'everyone is recommending shows or movies to me and I don't have the time / energy / inclination to watch them.'

I'm part of this, I spend a lot more time on Tiktok than I do watching television or cinema, and this obviously only applies to the folks who do spend huge chunks of time scrolling through short pieces on the internet. And there's also nothing wrong with that until you go 'omg why aren't we getting shows like we used to / why is fandom so different now / why aren't we having these experiences anymore.'

You took the time and investment away, and that's why. It's way easier to get rabidly hyped in a fandom if you don't have Tiktok, or YouTube, or Instagram**, because what's left over (film, television, etc.) is all you have. And that's a pretty huge and significant reason why a) the budgets for film and TV are smaller (overall, it's similarly extreme on the other end, re: Sandman and Marvel etc. But I'm including everything here) and b) fandoms aren't as huge or long-lasting as they used to be.

I'm still noodling on this, and obviously there are a lot of factors going on here (many of which I went into yesterday, it's so fucking opaque to say 'we don't have films like we used to' because like, we do, people just don't know where to find them anymore, what we don't have is indie films hitting the zeitgeist like they used to, which is a different issue and it's multifactorial, and some of it is that people are now screaming about Emmanuel the Emu instead of the latest indie movie that came out). But I do think where Tiktok is making billions off of people, those billions are not going to more 'classic' forms of mass media.

If you want it, you have to give it your time. It's that simple.

** (Obviously these things can also be used as tools for fandom, it's just so much of fandom has also now ported over to transformative works around real people (i.e. dueting / stitching / replying / remixing / meme-ing etc. are all a form of transformative work that take time and labour, they're just different to what we classically think of as transformative works) and/or Tiktok fandom moves really fast by the nature of the format).

#thoughts #media studies #mass communication #the mass migration of audiences to reality social media #from fictional mass media spaces #this makes me miss my masters #please remind me not to go back #i don't want to do a PhD #fdsalkjfsa #anyway i'm 100% a part of this #there was a time when i watched nearly every pilot episode at the beginning of pilot season #to check out fringe television #ih aven't done it in years #you know what i do now? #i check youtube and tiktok every day #think about it

[dernarrleid]

What’s something you find weird on here?

What’s something you wish to improve?

Questions for the Mun | accepting!

Weird, no? Alright well, I don't like blogs that do replies once a month in between all these random rbs of musings. That's not weird though, since 40% of the blogs I've seen do just that, and if I'm lucky a few prompts too. That they'll never- man. Something I don't really understand? I've already vented about it, I understand on some level, but... like bro moderation.

My general prose. I feel like everyone has a distinct style, and I can kind of see mine but it doesn't see me. I'm more action and dialogue, so these long winded, introspective monologues be goin over my head. Don't get me wrong, I love them very much. Just ain't in my repertoire right now. Part of it has to do with me getting negative hours of sleep every other night.

I can't think of anything I like or don't like about writing trends because I don't notice them. Generally, the people I follow write very similar length/style/punctuation. If you mean formatting, then: e x t r a 2 -3 s p a c e s b e t w e e n w o r d s, sub and sup text, ᏇᏂᎩ ᏗᏒᏋ ᎩᎧᏬ ᏬᏕᎥᏁᎶ ᏖᏂᎥᏕ?, colors, when did icons/banners take up a whole two inch chunk of the prompt? I feel like it's longer than the ask sometimes, matching lengths when unnecessary (never happened to me, but I go around reading threads (probably weird) and see it happening, only for them to complain on a confessions page and yikes-), fucking please go back to legacy editor PLEASE.

#nezumivc103221 #* [...] answered ask #/ recent rp theme changes are great #/ i can finally read them instead of seeing containers less than 20% of the screen with -2pt text and big ol cursive letters at random word

[bookwyrminspiration]

How you word so good and much????

Excellent question! The short answer is that I'm kinda just fucking around and finding out and kinda shambling my way towards improvement

The long answer is under the cut and that "good" writing is very subjective and depends on what you're looking for and what appeals to you. I found some of the things I liked by looking at stories I enjoyed and what about the format appealed to me.

Good writing also comes from being able to make and accept critique without taking it personally. You make things better by deconstructing and reconstructing, pointing out flaws and fixing them. You need to get comfortable with being critiqued and open to critiquing yourself. It's not anything against you, it's to make your work better! When I see a weird sentence in my draft that feels wrong, I don't get caught up on how I didn't write something good, I take it as an opportunity to make it better.

Bad writing isn't something you leave behind forever. You'll improve and will have a better understanding of how to write well, but every single writer has times where they write and it's terrible. That's not telling of your writing as a whole, it's how things go.

Sometimes that means switching out a word so you're not repeating yourself. Sometimes that means taking out a whole chunk of your writing because it's not working--though I don't delete the big chunks, I put them in a separate document to hold on to in case I ever want to use those lines/interactions/ideas again.

Writing well is a continuous process of trying things and trying again and critiquing yourself (not in a mean way) so you can grow! And the process never ends, it's an infinite journey. Which I think is wonderful. How boring it would be if there was an end to growing.

As for how I write so much, for me it comes down to consistency. The wings au didn't spring up overnight and it didn't grow the way it did with random writing sessions where I pounded out a few thousand words and then waited for the next dose of inspiration/motivation.

Inspiration and motivation can be unreliable, so it's beneficial to be able to write without those. At least for me, it's too sporadic to be my only way to write. There are nights where I am dragging myself through my word goal for the day wanting to ignore it, but if I keep waiting for motivation I could be waiting for days, weeks, months, who knows! And sometimes the act of writing is exactly what you need to find it because you get caught up in your story and want to keep going. Sometimes you gotta write when you don't want to

I do that by trying to be as consistent as possible with my writing. I set a word count goal to hit and little by little, that builds into a story. For the majority of the wings au, that daily par was 600 words. Yours can be more or less (and it doesn't have to be daily), but please make it realistic. You want this to be something actually achievable so you aren't constantly failing to hit it and feeling worse about yourself.

Keeping up with that will slow and steady build your work into what you want it to be! And it will make it easier to write when you don't feel like it because you know you're capable of hitting your goals. This part does take a fair amount of commitment and determination to do something difficult, but I think it's worth it. Writing isn't always easy.

Also, take breaks! You're a person and you shouldn't be chugging forward without stop. I know I just said that you shouldn't wait forever for motivation, but there's a distinction between taking a break because you need it and not writing because you're putting it off.

Sometimes I want to skip my words for the day and when I do, I evaluate why. Do I want to skip today because I'm busy with more important work, because I'm sick, because I'm burnt out? Those are great reasons to take a break! Or am I wanting to skip because I just feel like putting it off for no good reason and browse tumblr instead? That's the kind of thing I like to push against and write in spite of.

Breaks are excellent. After NaNoWriMo in 2021 I didn't write a single word for over a month because I needed the break and life was chaotic. So don't feel bad about taking them, just be honest about if you're actually taking a break or if you don't have a good reason (and a good reason can look different for different people!). I'd encourage you to challenge yourself to push through if you don't have a good reason.

Those are kinda the basics of my thoughts about writing good and much, so hopefully some of that is helpful! I'm sure I could say a lot more but I don't wanna make this longer than I already have. But I'm always down to talk about writing and exchange experience/thoughts/tips/etc.

happy writing!

#writing advice #quil's queries #nonsie #i love the way this ask is phrased #by thank you i /do/ word good and much :) #lot of words in my head. splurge them onto paper #and by paper I mean a google doc #hope this helps a little!! #i don't really know if it will this is just how I see things and what I do #not everything works for everyone!

[thessalian]

Thess vs Unfairness

As predicted, Sunshine’s departure has left us a hot mess at work. With still no replacement for Sid, and the other staffer still off (I presume sick, but no one tells us anything anymore), and all the new trainees dictating reports, we can’t catch up on the backlog. Even keeping it from getting any worse is a Sisyphian task at best.

Today, though ... oh fuck, if I didn’t hurt so bad I would be punching walls right now. Came in today to find that Temp had once again grabbed a chunk of typing from only the short, easy bits, and Goblin only taking one report at a time, pretty much at random. This left me with two five-minute bits of insanity from a trainee with no concept about the format we use, two monstrosities (six and eight minutes respectively) from one of the old hands who still manages to cut off important bits of information and ends up stopping in the middle of the block key (dictated at the end) to ask me to add in a sentence or two in some unspecified bit of the original report ... and a seventeen minute report from guy who never does his reports in order and insists on adding detail that we don’t actually need to reports - hence their length. Even the short ones I had left were the ones with tricky accents, no concept of keeping to the format, and general high annoyance levels.

So as you can imagine, the day was already pretty shit.

Then came about 3pm, an hour before I’m due to go home. Scruffman dropped an email that said he unexpectedly had to leave early and was leaving at three, and Temp left at quarter to three for ... some reason or another. (Oh, also, she’s decided that she wants to move into the tiny office because she’s afraid Scruffman’s peering over her shoulder whenever she stops typing. I mean, A) I assured her he’s not because I used to sit there and he never paid attention to what I was up to, and B) if she’s that paranoid about him looking at what she’s doing, I have a feeling she’s trying to hide the fact that she’s still taking all the easy typing and leaving me with the hard stuff.) Anyway, point is that it was basically me, Goblin, and Milady in the office.

At which point, Goblin abandoned her desk entirely and spent forty minutes in conversation with Milady. Which left me with the ever-expanding typing queue, the phones, and the door (or at least the entryphone we use to let couriers in). On my own. When I’m in absolute agony and we’re backlogged to hell and back. Forty. Fucking. Minutes. Not to mention that when I had to get the phone, I got a very nice but somewhat ... sorry, but clueless-sounding lady with a very strong accent and not only did they move closer to me while that was going on but Goblin at least spoke louder, despite their new position meaning they could see that I was on the fucking phone. And from what I heard of that conversation, it was nothing to do with work at all; just another one of Goblin’s complaint-sessions. So I had to bust my ass to at least try to get the typing queue down a little on top of bending in painful ways to buzz couriers in and talking to a lady who seemed to think that explaining her situation in great detail would change the fact that the reports she was after were not on either of our systems and she would have to talk to Scruffman when he came back tomorrow because I don’t handle requests.

I didn’t say good-bye to anyone when I left. I was in too much pain and too fucking angry.

Worst part about all this was that I was going to bring up some of the ... issues in the office during my performance review today ... but, as I pretty much suspected, we’re having to postpone that because of the mess the office is in. And there is no easy way to have a conversation about this sort of thing with Scruffman without a situation he can’t wriggle out of - he hates confrontation and will absolutely dodge any attempt I try to make at flagging up situations that might involve him actually having to manage things in the office for which he is office manager, so if I go to him and ask for a private word about some things that concern me, he’ll say, “Yeah, we’ll talk about this another time” and then absolutely won’t. And I can’t go to Head Honcho because if I do, Scruffman will throw an absolute fit.

Again, I ask: why is it that every job I have ever had goes entirely to shit after a couple of years? Some go bad sooner, but there’s never more than two years before any permanent job I have turns into hell on earth.

Right now I know I need to book some holiday time soon, because I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to manage without significant time off. Thing is, with us so understaffed right now, I would just spend the week panicking about how bad the backlog will get in my absence. Because it would. It got that way even when we had Sunshine and Sid in the office; I’d come back to a mess of typing. Without them? It’d be horrific, and I can’t spend a week relaxing when I know that it’s just going to end with me having to bust my ass even harder when I come back.

This would be a wonton soup day if it wasn’t for my fucking intolerance to gluten. And it’s more financially reasonable to eat the food I have at home anyway. I had been thinking about something that’s not leftovers tonight but I doubt I have the strength to put together breakfast-for-dinner (eggs, bacon, potato waffles) or the tuna broccoli lemon pasta, never mind the chicken broccoli pasta bake I had in mind. At least I have stuff I can reheat. Not that I’m hungry, mind you, but I know I have to eat something. Just like I know I have to bathe and do something that isn’t flumping on an available soft surface sulking. Or ... well, not sure ‘sulking’ is the word when it’s a combination of justified rage, horrific depression, looming anxiety and the kind of bad pain day that involves back spasms. I think it’s a holdover from being a teenager: every time I think that it’s just not fucking fair, I have that remnant-voice planted by every single person who had authority over me in my teens accusing me of sulking. It’s the only reason I can think of that I still feel guilty for feeling that way and attempt to belittle the feeling, even when it really is unfair. Hell, especially when it really is unfair, because most adults will generally tell you that “you’re just sulking” when they’ve done something unfair to you but gaslight you because they know they’ll get away with it.

(It really isn’t fair, though.)

#Thess has a day job

[formulatrash]

Hi Hazel, FE charging infrastructure "asker" here! Do we really have no clue about the sporting format of a Gen3 race? I assume fanboost will get canned. Am I right to assume that?

we really don't know. I spoke to James Barclay (Jaguar team principal) about it at the launch. no, wait, in the press conference and uhhh lemme dig out the quote.

so I asked him about the chicken and egg process of developing a powertrain for a sporting format that isn't yet agreed, before you've had a chance to see the chassis it has to fit into, to regulations you don't know yet and he said it was important that they got a chance to test before anything was nailed down:

"The expectation is that [the sporting format] will come a little bit later on and it's quite important that, although the car has had its testing via the FIA manufacturer, the car manufacturers, the actual manufacturers themselves, once we put our powertrains in the common chassis, the common front powertrain, and the new battery it's all really critical that we validate that with our own powertrain.

"Before we decide the sporting regulations, we really need to make sure that we've had the cars running and then the data that is generated from the on track testing and the manufacturers will be really helpful in terms of shaping, getting that format right.

"So that's the right kind evolution as well, just to really validate our own testing, what the FIA have seen, Spark have seen and Williams have seen on the battery side. And we'll be then able to take our data and put together that forms, I think, enough information for the FIA, Formula E and ourselves to help shape it from a sporting point. versions."

basically, these cars (car) have been tested by one (1) driver, Benoit Treluyer. the only testing that has taken place has been with the manufacturer Spark and the FIA; that's for safety and to check that it performs within the boundaries of what is expected.

now the teams need to get their powertrains in and decide what is actually practical in the very short runup before Gen3's first public test, in October. none of them currently have hold of a chassis; mechanics were swarming the one at the launch event in order to measure the chassis so that they can start planning the garages for next year. I don't think anything's been delivered this late since Gen1 and that was a fully spec car for the first year.

there are understandable reasons: global supply chains are really fucked, Ford and GM and Toyota and VW can't get hold of enough parts or chips or wiring cradles or battery materials right now and clearly FE is not going to pull a Tesla and use random, substandard parts in order to keep up production. but it's getting very close to being a very gigantic problem if manufacturers haven't got their powertrains in there soon.

another twist is that recent documents (as reported by e-formel.de who wrote it up publicly first so full credit to them) there will be a massive price increase to the Gen3 chassis, going up by over €100,000 since the launch. that's accountable for with supply chain problems and resource shortages currently but also a massive chunk to add and doesn't entirely give confidence that the manufacturing is in place to get these cars out fast enough.

chassis priority goes to manufacturers who need to get their powertrains in to test them but basically: until the chassis is verified, no sporting format. until the sporting format is agreed, hard for customer teams (which there are more of than ever for Gen3 because making powertrains is hard) have nothing to simulate. until everyone has an actual chassis and an actual powertrain, we can't go testing...

they. they can't go testing. got to train myself out of this. anyway, basically: car needs testing before sporting format can be agreed, car has not yet been tested. not quite panic stations yet but not far off.

and yes, Jamie Reigle basically told me last year that fanboost would go.

wrote a big thing about all the various aspects of Gen3 that we know about so far here, although obvs feel free to ask anything.

#fe asks

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 110 Rundown

Kaguya-sama: Love is War: I like how this one starts out by literally fast-forwarding through the intro bit, kinda wish more anime did that. We start off with a conversation about teenage fucking that would make Shinzo Abe cry and ends with Chika having to give the birds and the bees talk to Kaguya because everyone in this series is a ridiculous virgin but Kaguya exists outside of the realm of sexuality entirely apparently. Next up is a twenty questions game that has a neat format but I could see the punch line a mile away, I do like that the actual revelation comes because Miyuki knows that above all Kaguya is an asshole and of course is going to troll him, like these people are all horrible people but at least they call each other out on it. And last Kaguya’s cat gets a cat stuck in the engine which… idk if that’s just a random thing that happened or considering the insane level of improbably planning this series boasts I wouldn’t put it past her for Kaguya to shove a cat into her own engine so she can get some alone time to walk to school, like they don’t say that’s what happened but Kaguya does seem callous enough to do that. Anyway after a story that makes me kinda sad that America literally has nothing in walking distance from anything else, we get a nice little moment for Kaguya and Miyuki to ride to school together and they do show some restraint at least by having her wildly dangerously dangle off the back of his bike instead of the ‘grab onto me so you don’t fall off ‘ trope, I still have a lot of mixed feelings but this was a fun episode with some good moments and the dub voice acting is incredible.

Inuyasha: Bankotsu and Inuyasha finally clash and for the fun of it everyone else gets a little skirmish too, I wish we got some more in-depth fights with the side characters and these secondary Band of Seven members but usually all we get is them swinging their weapons at each other for a minute without anyone gaining any ground but it’s still nice to see Miroku and the background gang get some action. Renkotsu’s after Kagome because she knows he took her jewel shards and hasn’t given them to Bankotsu yet which… I mean I think the whole group knows that? Like it’s been a few days she probably told them. Sesshomaru’s group is at Mt. Hakurei and Rin meets up with Kohaku to find out there’s a fuckload of demons inside the supposedly pure mountain. Naraku calls return on the Band of Seven so they gotta cut the fight short and meet up with Kanna at Mt. Hakurei so they can go ‘hey kill Sesshomaru while you’re at it’ and repair Bankotsu’s Banryu from Inuyasha Wind Scaring a chunk out of it. Kanna rightly points out that Bankotsu would’ve lost if Inuyasha just opened with the Wind Scar like he never does for some reason and Bankotsu reveals he knows Renkotsu has Kagome’s shards and jams them into Banryu to fix it and power it up which like… couldn’t we have done that on the battlefield? This is literally ‘this could’ve been an email Naraku’ but the real reason is to push the reset button on the fight fights going on so we don’t have consequences from Miroku fighting Suikotsu or anything. But no Bakotsu is stronger and Inuyasha thinks that since Naraku’s Demon Puppet smelled pretty nice they can use that to get past the barrier or something idk.

Yu Yu Hakusho: So turns out Kurama got up a quarter of a second after his ten count (which he was kneeling for his attack against Karasu so that counts when the attack actually connected instead of when Karasu died or when Kurama fully stood so that’s actually kind of more generous than they had to be if you think about it) but yeah I’m just confused as to who’s making these rigged committee decisions anymore given Sakyo and Toguro murdered the whole committee before the final round, something Sakyo even admits to when Hiei says he wants them all dead when he wins, so who’s sitting here making these jacked up decisions and producing mysterious VHS tapes to provide frame by frame? Anyway it’s time for Bui vs Hiei and Bui can just... make axes, like this is the second guy whose power is making shit out of thin air which is still cool I guess but it’s kind of a weird theme for Team Toguro. Hiei manages to use the Mortal Flame to be a Kaioken man and fuck up the axes so Bui has to take off his armor which is of course ‘my fights are no fun unless I inhibit myself’ armor and Bui’s real power is… being a DBZ guy? Like he shoots ki and flies and shit, I think Bui vs Hiei may be the most referential fight to DBZ in the series and that is saying something. Considering Hiei broke his sword in the last fight it’s basically an aura battle between him and Bui to see who can go Super Saiyan harder, so then Hiei is all ‘thanks for removing your inhibitor thing, now I’ll remove MY inhibitor thing” and releases his black dragon super saiyan aura and I swear these are like the most anime fights ever.

Fate/Apocrypha: Sieg busts out of gay baby homunculus jail and Astolfo’s like ‘oh cool, a naked sticky guy that can’t stand up under his own power, dibs!’ And he and Chiron are like ‘well dude, congrats on being born, you’re gonna die’ and Sieg’s like ‘isn’t everyone?’ and Chiron’s like ‘well yes but you’re gonna die like before Sonic 3 comes out’ also Karna hunts down Jeanne and is all ‘I have a divine sun spear of immeasurable flames’ and Jeanne’s just like ‘cool, I have a flag, we’re evenly matched’ and then Sigfried steps in and his master is like ‘come join us’ but Jeanne’s all ‘I gotta sit here judging you all impartially’ and he’s like ‘well come be impartial on our side’ and she’s like ‘I don’t think you know what impartial means’ and we get a few scenes with Fran and Chiron, basically Fran wants a waifu and Chiron wants to not die and their masters want shit too but they’ll probably be dead soon so who cares. Also Mordred and Lion Dude are hanging out with the cryptkeeper and get the message that Spartacus is still running towards the castle which god damn dude he must be really slow he’s been running for like two days and still isn’t there while Karna was able to get from the Church to where Jeanne was coming in FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY and back and Sigfried was able to get out to fight Karna at the same location in like one day tops, bro Spartacus is weird and creepy-looking so if we could deal with that plot thread as soon as possible that’d be great.

Nisemonogatari: We finish up at Suruga’s house from last time with some slightly ominous commentary on the dynamic between Hitagi and Hanekawa and on his way out Kiyomi meets a dude named Kaiki who is basically the word sketchy in human form and is talking about how Suruga’s Apparation Power Level isn’t worth making money off of. Kiyomi mentions how he has the same feel as Oshino and another Apparition Hunter we haven’t heard of until now and Kiyomi basically ‘NOPE’s the fuck right out of there to not have to deal with him. He meets back up with Hitagi who puts him through the ringer about his harem shenanigans today before he mentions Kaiki and we flash forward to the scene from the start of the season where Hitagi has him in some kind of SAW type trap and they were doing weird water games. Hitagi finally comes clean that Kaiki was a conman that ripped her family off for a lot of money when she was having her weightlessness problem and ducked out before they could realize nothing had been done about it but she talks about him a lot more like she’s scared of him for more than just swiping money and is for some reason convinced he’s going to be after Kiyomi. He then gets a text from his little sister that just says ‘help’ and he breaks out of the Saw trap in a ‘for the record I could’ve done that at any time’ type of way and says he wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t run headlong into danger to help a female friend, especially a family member and Hitagi has to back down. Turns out Hanekawa’s also bossing Hitagi around because she calls her and Hitagi speaks more politely and submissively to her than she does to anyone else so that’s weird and also Kiyomi’s sister may be dying so we should probably hurry or some shit.

Speed Grapher: So now we’re getting somewhere, picking back up from the climax of episode 1 it turns out Kagura’s kiss to Saiga gave him the power to make anything he takes a picture of explode. Now at first I was like “That’s mildly more useful than just having a fucking gun’ but honestly it’s pretty cool and used to good effect as he combines it with destroying the scenery around him. He takes Kagura and hightails it out of there only to be cornered by Suitengu and his… ummm, guard dog lady I don’t remember the name of. Kagura’s understandably a little freaked out by the realization she’s become the supernatural crux of an Eyes Wide Shut cult of the Ultra Rich hoping to obtain superpowers by sexually assaulting her and decides to yeet herself into the river, dragging Saiga along with her. They resurface on a buoy and have a little heart to hear about how as long as you’re free and alive it doesn’t matter what you’ve been through and you can keep moving forward and all that. It’s a really quick little chat but it does help that we’ve had a full episode of backstory on each of these two that fleshes out where they’re coming from in this engagement. The Club goons catch up with them and take Kagura and shoot Saiga but luckily one of his new powers seems to also be wolverine healing (because a camera that reloads itself and randomly sticky hands weren’t enough of a bonus) and once he gets back Saiga kinda reflects on how Suitengu said Kagura’s kiss grants you desire and apparently Saiga just wanted to fucking murder people with a camera which he admits is kinda fucked up of him. Kagura wakes up in the family jail that all rich families have and Suitengu’s like ‘yeah all that Eyes Wide Shut sexual assault and murder photographer and almost drowning that happened? You dreamed that’ which has to be one of the weakest gaslighting approaches I’ve seen but to be fair he does play it straightfaced and already has her locked up so he doesn’t really need her to believe it. Saiga goes to his cop friend’s house and she’s like ‘oh boy he looks half dead he must wanna bang’ but he can’t because apparently he can only fuck when he’s taking pictures of the girl but now if he takes pictures of her she might explode and also she can only fuck if she’s holding a gun to someone’s head and this may be one of the weirdest relationships I’ve seen in anime and that’s fucking saying something. He does some research and finds out Kagura’s real identity with the magic of the internet and Kagura requests a magazine in her jail cell that has Saiga’s famous picture about freedom he pointed out to her and now they both know who each other are and take solace in the fact they may be able to help each other.

Durararax2: Everyone’s kind of scrambling in the fallout of Kadota’s hit and run, Walker and Saburo are hitting the streets and out for blood, Masaomi’s got a small group of the Yellow Scarves back together to beat Mikado’s sect of the Dollars up if they have to, Mikado’s got the abandonded building where the Russian Mob kidnapped Vorona as his base and are using it to ban Dollars trolls and keep an eye out for people fucking around before they find out. Aoba has a plan for Celty to be the Dollars new “mascot” now that Shizuo quit and Kadota’s MIA and despite Celty seeing right through this shady shit Aoba gives her the puppy dog eyes and she agrees to go see Mikado. Meanwhile someone hacked into Izaya’s Discord profile and is spreading rumors to start a gang war, and worse… meowing, the greatest of early 2000s internet crimes.

#ooc #Toonami #Custom Toonami Block #Kaguya-sama Love is War #Inuyasha #Yu Yu Hakusho #Fate/Apocrypha #Bakemonogatari #Speed Grapher #Durarara!!

[awesomephd]

Watching Through My Collection: Day 9/36

Spider's Venom (1971) aka Venom aka The Legend of Spider Forest

Day 8 / Day 10

Despite the Wikipedia page being under the name Venom and the IMDb page using The Legend of Spider Forest, I'm leading with the title used on the copy I own.

It was so obviously a digitization of a low-quality VHS recording that I let my curiosity talk me into watching this twice to see what it should actually look like.

CW: Spiders, Nazis, consent issues, a generous dose of T&A

Editing really is everything. Formatting and audio, color balance- it's all a vital part to how a story gets expressed. Nothing proves that quite like the blast from the past this DVD was for me.

The brightness contrast is so bad it distracts from how washed out every other color is, dialogue is constantly lost for being too soft or covered up by ambient noises, and the whole thing has very obviously had massive chunks on both sides of the screen cut off.

The strip of static distortion across the bottom of the screen really drove home how much the copy I own had been recorded straight onto VHS without any reformatting.

These are the same scene.

Less than a movie, my copy of Spider's Venom is a historical artifact in the study of home video distribution.

But beyond the fun, weird history lesson I got out of this experience, once I found a version I could actually see and hear, it's actually a pretty fun thriller about Nazis and folk stories.

It opens with the strangest flashback? establishing scene? dream sequence? of a man and woman skinny dipping and going to fuck in the woods. It's shot in a sort of lime green monochrome with the light turned up to 11 and then a starburst filter thrown in. (In my copy the color is so bad it's more of a pale blue and there's even more contrast. I couldn't even see pubes like I could in the original.)

Unfortunately, after they do it, the guy gets poisoned by spiders and dies, but then again that's just what you get for being ass naked in a forest. Get arachnids on ya.

We then get to follow a random English painter named Paul on vacation/artistic retreat in the mountains of Germany where he runs into the girl from the opening and she totally just decides to get him wrapped up in a Nazi scheme. She tampers with his camera film so they think he's a spy and in a later scene totally kills the actual spy.

There's actually a sort of gothic romance that happens between the two of them. She believes she's cursed so that spiders kill any guy she loves, and the locals who see her running around the forest call her the Spider Goddess, but he hasn't died yet and he just wants to stick with her. Sadly, instead of just having there be a Spider Goddess who summons spiders, they reveal by the end that it had all been the scientists doing experiments on her- following her in the forest and killing everyone who gets too close.

The potential was there!

The movie invokes aspects of a folktale in other ways too- other than the romance. For starters, Paul has so many fucking outfits where he wears a wide belt over top his fucking t-shirt and pants. With his calf-length black boots and pants tucked in them, he looks like a little prince!

Then there's the antagonists. It's a good thing the only synopsis my DVD had to offer was that Nazis are trying to make nerve gas out of spider venom, because otherwise it'd be really hard to have any idea what their deal even is until the reveal at the end. Honestly, I would have never even known they were Nazi scientists- but I guess in 1971 you just needed Germans doing death experiments to be enough to broadcast Nazism.

The single woman among the Nazis, daughter of the sawmill owner helping fund the experiments and one of the ones that thought Paul was a spy, also has just the weirdest sexual encounters with him.

She breaks into his room to look at his camera film too and when she gets caught, I guess decides to fuck him as a distraction? It's a very sudden shift in the scene and I swear they look so much like they're wrestling naked I can't believe sex scenes got away with this. Then, after the obligatory guy-in-over-his-head-gets-ambushed-and-left-tied-up-by-the-henchmen scene, she finds him tied down in the forest and just straight up rapes him. He ends up untied and casually cuddling her afterward, but it didn't start off that amicable.

Weird things are just always happening in this movie!

There's the one henchman that's like 2nd in command and he doesn't even want to be a Nazi or anything! He kills the sawmill owner and plans to run away with some Bosch paintings they were using to fund the spider venom experiments. (I also thought he was like a very old man until I watched the regular version and could actually see his face.)

Hieronymus Bosch paintings are a subject of much conversation for how little they appear in most of the plot. They get mentioned as missing a ton, then off-handedly revealed to being used to fund the Nazi experiments, then Paul tries to steal them and sneak off with his not-actually-cursed Spider Goddess, Anna, and then they burn up with the house at the very end.

Also at the end, as Paul and Anna have managed to escape and he says they're finally safe, she says "no" and just walks casually back into a burning building. Wish I could come up with a reason why they made that be the ending.

All in all, it's a weird, fun crime thriller with a bit of gothic romance thrown in and a healthy bout of nudity and some balls to the walls editing choices. Whole back-and-forths in dialogue between headshot and music crescendos that cut off a good few seconds before a scene cuts, and Anna's scientist father in a wig at the end for no reason right before he dies.

I love it. I might buy a newer version that'll actually be watchable.

#nick is a dangerous man #collection reviews #the legend of spider forest #spider's venom 1971 #the legend of spider forest 1971 #spider's venom

[killerbananas]

Hello, my beloved 💝 I have some brain rot for you!!!

I've been feeling really stressed out and down in the dumps as of late. I'm dreaming of soft Daddy Erwin fucking the sadness away. I just want him to make soft, sweet love to me and I want him to praise me until I cry happy tears

Recherché

Headcanons, informal bullet writing, random dialogue of Erwin coaxing you out of your shell when the world is too heavy.

🔞 mdni | masterlist | 696 wc | afab!reader x Erwin

Warnings: smut; period sex, fingering, petnames enough to drive you nuts, sadness, period pain, DD////LG heavily themed, again petnames, fluff soft, Dom/sub tones, alluded punishment, subspace, praise, tears, bath sex alluded, established relationship, run-on sentences boarding brainrot wordvomit, biting/hickies, dirty talk, size sorta but not emphasized outside the repeated verbiage of 'little,' dry humping, palm grinding/riding/humping, piv alluded, kinda rough still because I'm just that way >.>; little humor, lmk??

AN: thank you for the opportunity to write this piece, sweet girl ♥️💋 if the formatting of the dialogue is not legible, please lmk and I'll fix it. I do not want to disadvantage anyone for the sake of "aesthetic."

Recherché [adjective]

re·​cher·​ché | \ rə-ˌsher-ˈshā , -ˈsher-ˌshā \

1a: EXQUISITE, CHOICE | 1b: EXOTIC, RARE | 2: excessively refined : AFFECTED | 3: PRETENTIOUS, OVERBLOWN

Synonyms: choice, dainty, delicate, elegant, exquisite, fine, rare, select

♥️ Erwin's hands are perfect for kneading every ache from your limbs, torso, breasts, tensed cheeks, spread thighs, womb with all the strategically tender care he knows how to cultivate.

♥️ The man is complexly capable and juggles the role of caretaker well when he knows you are at your lowest. You return it to him in spades by giving him every dark corner of your mind and body, such a willing flower for a charming gardener, thoughtful man, enthralling bedmate, supportive husband.

♥️ When the pain is the worst he knows the two most successful ways to help lie in either soft supple soothing praise of sensual release or carefully controlled counterpain to encourage that drop that begs your tears to cleanse your conscience, conscious, soul, psyche.

♥️ When your mind feels as if you're crumbling and the water floods your lashline, Erwin's all open arms and legs as he brings you to his chest. With your legs astride or across his lap, he guides the cascading chunks as you fall apart in the cage of his heartbeat. Hearing the thunk thunk eventually distracts your mind when he pairs a gentle humming that vibrates like hymns resonate with the balance your chaotic mind deserts you of.

♥️ You crave the skin to skin contact and strip in haste to your panties, appreciative of how he cradles your form to his own by nature and nurture of his care for you. He wants his baby close and to touch you, ground you, let you work yourself up on his lap and grind down when you're good and ready to let him help heal the hurt.

♥️ He makes eye contact and will tuck your hair back all to see his pretty baby's face because he reads you delicately when you need this touch, consideration, investigation of how to juggle your mood with just enough balm to the ache and gentle coaxing that let's his wide palms span your skin, traipse your body, spread your legs, dip into your panties.

♥️ He kisses the pout, blush, embarrassment, arousal right across your person as if a kindling you need only ask to burn for you. Erwin gets a deep pleasure seeing your lips part, lustswollen as you worked yourself up into the gesture of his obsession, devotion, fixation, fetish.

♥️ Back to his chest while his velvet hard-on ruts prespend smeared arousal along the cleft of your ass, he suckles the faintest marks along your throat, keeps his fore and middle finger strumming over your slick puffy sore sensitive little clit until you're barely able to breathe let alone remember his name as your worked up pussy pulses around nothing, his fingers soon rectifying the emptiness by sliding right down and stretching you around three thick digits in a dominating backwards apology that only serves to intensify the cresting euphoria as you grind into his pressing palm.

♥️ He mutters filthy perfect praise in your ear for letting go and letting him in and trusting him with the state of you. He is reverent and gentle, but firmly captivating and assuring in his convictions he professes.

♦️ ️ 𝓢𝔀𝓮𝓮𝓽 𝓰𝓲𝓻𝓵, 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓴𝓮𝓭 𝓾𝓹, 𝓳𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓵𝓮𝓽 𝓰𝓸 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓶𝓮. 𝓘'𝓿𝓮 𝓰𝓸𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾. 𝓢𝓸 𝓫𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓱𝓽𝓪𝓴𝓲𝓷𝓰, 𝓼𝓮𝓮𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓽𝓲𝓽𝓼 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓿𝓮.

♦️ 𝓢𝓾𝓬𝓱 𝓪 𝓭𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓶, 𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓯𝓮𝓬𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓻𝓮, 𝓼𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓼𝓮𝓵𝓯 𝓼𝓸 𝓓𝓪𝓭𝓭𝔂 𝓬𝓪𝓷 𝓶𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓯𝓮𝓮𝓵 𝓫𝓮𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻. 𝓢𝓱𝓸𝔀 𝓶𝓮 𝓱𝓸𝔀 𝓰𝓸𝓸𝓭 𝓲𝓽 𝓲𝓼, 𝓼𝓪𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓴 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓶𝓮, 𝓫𝓪𝓫𝔂𝓰𝓲𝓻𝓵.

♦️ 𝓓𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓻𝔂 𝓘'𝓶 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮, 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓬𝓪𝓷 𝓽𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓽𝓱𝓻𝓮𝓮 𝓲𝓽'𝓼 𝓸𝓴. 𝓙𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓱𝓸𝓵𝓭 𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓸 𝓶𝔂 𝓪𝓻𝓶 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓻𝓲𝓭𝓮 𝓲𝓽 𝓸𝓾𝓽.

♦️ 𝓖𝓸𝓸𝓭 𝓰𝓲𝓻𝓵, 𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓽𝓽𝔂 𝓫𝓪𝓫𝔂𝓭𝓸𝓵𝓵, 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽'𝓼 𝓲𝓽. 𝓛𝓮𝓽 𝓓𝓪𝓭𝓭𝔂 𝓱𝓮𝓵𝓹 𝔂𝓸𝓾. 𝓖𝓲𝓿𝓮 𝓶𝓮 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓸𝓯 𝔂𝓸𝓾, 𝓱𝓸𝓷𝓮𝔂.

♦️ 𝓒𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮, 𝓭𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓫𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝔀𝓪𝓻𝓶-𝓾𝓹 𝓸𝓻 𝓭𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓾𝓬𝓴 𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓸 𝓫𝓮𝓭?

♦️ 𝓞𝓱, 𝓭𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓻𝔂 𝓪𝓫𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓶𝓮 𝔂𝓮𝓽. 𝓢𝓮𝓮𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼, 𝓲𝓽 𝓰𝓮𝓽𝓼 𝓶𝓮 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓴𝓮𝓭 𝓾𝓹 𝓽𝓸𝓸. 𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓼𝓮𝓮𝓶 𝓪 𝓫𝓲𝓽 𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓵𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓼𝓽𝓲𝓵𝓵. 𝓓𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝓪 𝓫𝓪𝓽𝓱 𝓽𝓸𝓰𝓮𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓼𝓽𝓻𝓮𝓽𝓬𝓱 𝓪𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓭 𝓶𝔂 𝓬𝓸𝓬𝓴 𝓲𝓷𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓪𝓭? 𝓦𝓮 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓫𝓪𝓽𝓱 𝓫𝓸𝓶𝓫 𝓗𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮 𝓶𝓪𝓭𝓮 𝓲𝓯 𝔂𝓸𝓾'𝓻𝓮 𝓯𝓮𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪𝓭𝓿𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓼.

♦️ 𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮'𝓼 𝓶𝔂 𝓯𝓪𝓿𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓮 𝓼𝓶𝓲𝓵𝓮. 𝓛𝓮𝓽'𝓼 𝓰𝓮𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓬𝓾𝓽𝓮 𝓵𝓲𝓽𝓽𝓵𝓮 𝓬𝓾𝓷𝓽 𝓼𝓽𝓾𝓯𝓯𝓮𝓭 𝓯𝓾𝓵𝓵, 𝓱𝓶𝓶?

♥️ NEXT TIME: Let's talk breaking down walls, brats. 😔🙄😌

AN: I rarely write softer stuff and feel awkwardness because of that and this got me a lotta raw feels. So, I'll come back for edits later. I don't usually do this kind of writing either because I do not accept criticism of DD////LG kinks well as it's a sensitivity of mine and please remember this is fiction, all 21+ adults represented in this fantasy, there is no regression in this segment. That being said, if this gets received well I might do the second part, but it's gonna be the molten dark content opposite but also raw. Feedback gently requested if you're about that, anon friendly.

Taglist: @alex--nya @antoxsmith @bakidose @butwestillrememberyourname @casuallyck @chaotic-nick @dearbaji @eyesucket @i1k @icecreamranwich @lavenderdaisyhoney @pockcock @saccharine-darling @seychellse @sinnerofthewalls @stigandr-the-cat @theinariakuma

#be gentle with me on this one y'all #asking nicely #period sex #aot #snk #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #shingeki no kyoujin #aot smut #attack on titan fanfic #writing with kbee #shingeki no kyojin fanfic #aot x reader smut #thirsting with kbee #thirsting #erwin x y/n #attack on titan erwin #erwin smut #erwin x you #erwin smith #erwin x reader

[popculturebuffet]

Top 20 Animated Episodes of 2020 Part 2 (#10-#1)

And we’re back.. The first part is HERE, which includes the first 10 and my thoughts on this past year in animation, so we can cut the long intro and get right into it. This is the best episodes this year had to offer in animation, and it’s , without meaning to, at least a third bojack horseman. On with the show. 

10. I Am My Monster (Steven Universe Future)  “We all had Steven when we needed him, but the only person who's never had Steven is Steven. He's always been there for us, so... how can we be there for him now?“ Oddly “The Future”, a finale I did really truly enjoy.. is not on this list. Really good episode, it’s just Future was easily one of Steven Univereses best season, tightining up the pacing without loosing what made the series feel special and really digging into some of more unhealthy aspects of steven’s life. And while the future is good and certanily the needed epilogue.. this episode is the climax, the cumilation of EVERYTHING Steven had done and gone though and something fans sadly saw coming and just had to simply watch, unable to help as Steven slowly lost himself. Previously on this list we saw him hit rock bottom and it only got worse: He went to home world, attacked white diamond due to his pent up trauma and once again ingored attempts to help him, this time from the diamonds and spinle, angrily refusing to listen to his own words she she sang Change at him.  This only got worse in the briliant and sadly edged out of the list “Everything’s Fine’ A really damn painful episode where steven tries to assert he’s okay and act normal.. only he cant and he destroys everything around him, and even repeats pearl’s text trick from a single pale rose with a pained voice message to connie saying to help steven. But the pressure of the LONG overdue intervension and the fact it came too late.. means steven confsses his recent sins.. and instead of taking them for twhat they are, spur of the moment acts caused by a toxic influence and a fuckload of ptsd and unreseovled issues with white that while certanly not okay are symptoms of a larger issues takes it to mean “Im a fraud”.. and thus he horriingly corurpts.  So here we are as Greg, Connie and the main gems all gap ein horor as Steven has corrputed himself, reduced to a monster whose not even malcious just.. sad.. so full of self loathing he can’t function and at risk of STAYING like that. And the relization hits hard.. and hits everyone who joins in hard. The auxilery crystal gems soon join but attempts from both groups to stop Steven do nothing. The diamonds arrive.. and not only are saddneed by what htey’ve doned but equally powerfless to stop him.  Everyone breaks down, blaming themselves for not seeing this sooner and for speding YEARS piling their issue on the kids, everyone ready to give up as they loose the person they care about most.. except one. Connie proves to be the hero of the episode, rallying the others with the above, pointing out Steven would happily help them if he could.. and that’s the problem. He’s spent his whole life fixing other peoples problems and focusing on that.. but never had someone to be HIS Steven. Fighting him’s not going to work.. he needs to know he’s loved... in the end the final battle of the series is not some struggle of life and death.. but of love. What wins the day isn’t a fight, though our heroes various powers do come in hand to restrain steven.. but it’s all of them, one by one telling them they love him in easily the most tearjerking moment of the series, cumilating in connie softly playing a kiss on his nose... and it’s this that FIANLLY frees steven from his self made prison.. finally realizing h’es not alone and that no matter who or what he becomes.. his family loves and forgives him. While we REALLY needed the next episode to wrap things up after this swell of emtitions. this was the climax the series desrved: after spending 6 seasons trying to help everyone ELSE and fix their issues he never should’ve had to.. it’s eveyrone else who gladly pitches in to fix steven’s own issues, to help HIM when he’s at his lowest point like they’ve been, and make it so he can FINALLY heal and finally find himself once and for all. IT’s one of the finest episodes of the series and easily the best of future. 

9. The Perfect House (Close Enough)  “I’m this close to connecting garfield, TO JESUS”  This one’s just really funny, charming and creative. Simple as that.. I could move on but eh i’m a wordy bastard. Once again we’re focused on Emily, this time as we find out an endearing hobby of hers: She likes visiting open houses and fantasizing about affording a better place she likely never will afford, one with trash can nooks, a kitchen and a living room that are fully seperate, and indivudal bins for tea and sugar... and when it’s pointed out she dosen’t drink tea it’s only because she has nowhere to put it.  But after Josh and Candace get them thrown out, if adorably so, Emily is forced to face reality... i.e. Alex, in one of the series finest gags, in his underwear with conspiracy boards trying to connect garifled to jesus and having a jug of his urine around for some reason. Did I mention I love this weirdo because I do. Brigette is painting in the ktichen.. using her body as the canvas, though in a bikini because the show wasn’t streaming only yet. You’ll have to wait a season for possible boobs. Naturally this just stresses her out so she goes to visit more houses while Josh vows to buy a family bike, a large circular bike for the whole family, as an activity because of course he does and of COURSE he also has a recurring issue of being mocked by some random kid about not having one. 

So she escapes and meets dave and caitlin, a husband whose family life is miserable and a child star who got emanicapted and they quickly form a psuedo family to look at open houses.. only to, as if to remind you what show your watching, instead end up in a tgif sitcom... and trapped in a styigian void, with only Emily desperate to get out. Also she’s been missing three days and Josh has some thoughts on that and goes after her.  Naturally given she’s crashing in on her fake sitcom family, this oly has him seen as a plot element, and Emily’s attempt at cursing and everything she can , while hilarious fail.. but the climax is what makes the episode and what inches it slighlty above quack pack.. which itself was fucking awesome. Instead of FIGHTING the format... Emily is forced to play into it, and realizes a cheesy moment of emtional honesty is what’s needed. She apologizes to her fake family, saying their nice but she has to face the world and to josh and much like Donald, seroiusly this episode was made years ago and there’s no way in hell frank knew about it, she just needed an escape but it’s more healthy: instead of wishing for a life she never had Emily just wants a break from the life she does for five minutes. She’s happy where she is, with her loving husband, wonderful daughter, impulsive but still carring best friend.. and well okay maybe not Alex, there’s somethihng really wrong with him, but as much as I love the guy I admit he’s not for everyone. I’m also a borderline feral man covered in hair who wants people to know i’m smart. I get him. 

IT’s this that sets her free.. and we get another amazing gag as Dave’s family shows up and Dave chooses the fantasy.. though instead of this being thorughly pogiant it’s just “classic dave”. COmplete with title sequence. And of course it ends on a family bike with Emily getting those tins from Josh. Their relationship.. is REALLY what makes both this show and this episode in paticular work. Here while Emily screws up, it STARTS innocently enough, simply faking being a family and spirals into tgif because while this show isn’t, possibly, in the regular show cinematic universe, it’s defintely in the same multiverse. She just wants some peace of mind from a chaotic life, but dosen’t resent her husband or anything.. he just frustrates her sometimes which is fair. But he’s never portrayed as an abusive asshat which you think would be a low bar to clear but.. you’d be suprised. Point is it’s a wonderfully weird and somehow still unique despite being one of three tgif parodies this year. Seriously that shit is a goldmine. It’s how Dashieel Driscoll got half a season out of full house and a good chunk of a very special epsiode as a whole out of it. Though a certain incident helped. 

Point is good show, jolly good show... and ew’ll be right back with the rest afte the cut

8. Agony of a Witch/Old Bodies, Young Souls (The Owl House) “You always thought you were better than me! That I could never Beat you at anything! “  “I AM Better than you!” “Then WHY WERE YOU SO EASY TO CURSE?!”  The Owl House was a show I took WAY too long to catch up on after missing the second half of season 2.. minus Enchanting Grom Fright which I caught first run and we’ll get to that story shortly. Point is my procastnation did me dirty here as this show , which was already fantastic just got better and better, cumulating in this epic, heartdestroying, soul punching, beautifully animated finale that takes everything the show has built up thus far, blows it up in some places and uses it to beautifully end in others, leaving us with a new road for the future.  So yeah naturally it’s been a long ride as one of Owl House’s strength.. is that no episode is filler. No really, each one has a purpose great or small in the larger narrative, and every major arc has been expertly paced and crafted, bringing us to this point. The only major arc or plot thread left out is Amity, and that’s honestly for the better. Make NO mistake, she’s a great character.. but like fellow great Donald Duck, she was left out because the episode had a LOT of emotional stuff going on, a lot of plot to fit in, and a lot to do and it’s simply better for her character and for the moment’s she’s bound to have in response to well.. everything happening here, to let it breathe next season rather than try to shove it into an already stuffed two episodes.  But this episode is one long string of payoffs, and payoffs creating more setups: So all season Eda, our loveable witch, has been grappling with a curse that turns her into an owl beast, one that’s been getting worse as far back as the mid season finale Escape from the Palisman. She’s been needing more and more elixer to combat it, a harrowing parallel to some real world diseases: Sometimes your meds can only DO so much to combat something actively killing you.. thankfully this time.. not speaking from personal experince.  And Luz finds out soon into the episode as Eda makes a cloak of witches wool, which can deflect powerful spells, to protect herself.. only to black out and go owl just as she’s saying she’s fine. Like most parents would Eda hid just how bad things have gotten and it’s gone from needing just one bottle of elixer to needing their entire suply, and even that barely worked. Despite her mentor’s assurances, Luz is now PAINFULLY aware her mentor is on borrowoed time... not helped by the fact the coven attacked earlier that morning and she finds out by finding hooty playing tea party with them, meaning Eda is outgunned, outmanned and while Lilith failed, again.. the emperor can now easily find her himself and send whoever he wnats and however many people he wants to fetch her.. and Eda can’t use too much of her magic or else.  So while Eda and King, touched by how much Luz has changed them, decide to throw a suprise party with King making a big cake to jump out of and Eda using witches wool she intended for herself to make her a cape. Meanwhile as you’d expect Luz.. is plotting a dangerous and life threatning mission: with a field trip to the Emperor’s Coven that day, one she was going to sit out because you know they hate her second mom for dogmatic and vile reasons the episode fleshes out, she finds out they have an artifact called the healing hat that can seemingly heal anything.  So she does what Luz does and comes up with an impulsive plan to heist the thing.. but for once her impuslivness isn’t played for laughs. Her mother figure is slowly sucumbing to a fate worse than death, for once instead of just acting rashly because Luz.. she’s doing so because she KNOWS, that she has no other choice. Nothing else in sight and she’s smart enough to know that if Eda had a cure she’d of told Luz about it. Even if it was dangerous or required a sacrifice or something Eda would’ve just left that part out.  But the trip serves a few other purposes besides getting Luz where she needs to be for the plot that makes it work: it elaborates on just what the emperor’s coven is like and WHY Emperor Belos gets away with everything: He claims to speak for the titan,  the giant dead monster whose body makes up the boiling isles and who, as Luz has discovered, is the source of the magic there. So when he bloodily, I mean it’ sa kid show so they dont’ say so but given how violent this one is i’m asssuming bloody, took power, he claimed they were doing magic wrong, killed any hertiics and set up the rigid coven system. It explains just WHY the boiling isles limits themselves, gives the whole thing a creepy dogmatic religion vibe.. something that i’m REALLY suprised disney let them get away with as they had to fight for gays in the series.. but at the same time shouldn’t be because hunchback of notre dame exists and Soul , released the same year, was a big gamble against the bible belt. So their not afriad of religious groups.. but they ARE afraid of homophobic groups.. which have a lot of overlap. 

Point is it’s a good storytelling device.. and cathartic given i’ve been playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses as I finally bought it with some christmas money. Good game, probably will talk about it in the future, not the point here. 

The point is that the visit gives us some worldbuilding that helps show just how much of a threat the coven is and why their so intent on capturing Eda. We also finally meet belos, god emperor and man tired of Lillith’s shit and giving her till twilight to get Eda.. or presumibly die. I mean he dosen’t say it but he sure is implying it as loud as he can.  That’s when things go pear shaped for Luz who finds the hat.. and LIlith who has found her barganing chip to lure Eda to her, which works as well as you’d expect and leads to the best figh tin the series thus far and one of , if not it’s best scene; A duel between edith and lilith. And while they fought back in Covention this time  it’s not a petty squabble between siblings masquerading as one trying to capture the other.. it’s  fight NEITHER can afford to loose. Eda can’t loose her protege and Lilith will loose everything, dying at best being cast out of the coven at worst, if she fails not to mention loosing what she feels is her only chance at saving her sister.  But it’s also VERY clear Lilith is groosly outmatched, and while no slouch herself Eda’s constant bragging about being “the most powerful witch on the boiling isles”.. is entirely backed up. Lilith barely is able to hold herself and only gets ahead by using a child as a shiled, going even lower than her sister. However the stress of this, the build of having been the older sister of someone who constantly outshined her then turned entirely against her, finally causes lilith to snap.. and reveal the curse is her fault. Cissy Jones delivery here.. is jsut perfect, showing a mixture of rage and pain, showing that she’s spent YEARS hiding this, years resenting her sister for constnatly being better desptie working harder and doing the right thigns. Even when she’s trying to HELP Eda, genuinely trying to undo her mistake as we find out and as we’ve seen genuinely sees the emperor as the wise and benevlolent god he portrays himself as.. she can’t let it go. SHe can’t see past her own bitterness to see her sister is right and if she could just let this go and work on Eda’s terms instead of forcing Eda into her world, then maybe it wouldn’t of gotten this bad. Maybe she could’ve told her. 

Eda takes it about as well as you’d expect, and Lilith.. uses this to threaten luz’s life and force eda to use up her magic to save her, leading to the series most heartbreaking moment and Wendy Mallick’s best acting so far as she bids her appretnince a tearful farewell. Luz RIGHTFULLY and angrily lashes out at lilith calling her a monster while Lilith takes Eda and urges luz to go home... and after a tearful ending with king realizing something’s deeply wrong.

So thus next episode after a history lesson from king and some suprisinging caution as he KNOWS what Luz is up against.. Luz still decides she dosne’t care. Eda’s sacrificed herself, to Luz it’s her fault she’s in this which while KINDA accurate missues some fine points such as her sister’s stubborness or the fact had lilith not shown up she could’ve taken the hat. And the fact LIlith saying the hat was junk was pretty unreliable. What i’m saying is maybe the child shoudln’t blame herself for being kidnapped while genuinely tring to reach the same goal. 

But Lilith soon learns to her horror her sister was right. While Belos restores Eda’ss sentience even fully owled.. he has no intrest in helping her, eveyr intrest in publicly petrifying her, and not even the slightest hint of remorse at betraying lilith this deeply. After all her faith in the man.. Belos spat in her face and told her to like it.  Meanwhile Luz goes on the warpath, and we see just how far she’s come.. and WHY Belos is probably so restrictive with magic and put it on such a tight leash: we see that with her natural power and just a handful of spells, the four she’s pciked up over the season, she easily curbstomps the conformotrium staff, gets to Eda fairly easily.. and fines sshe can’t free her and eda wants the door destroyed so whatever Belos wants with it, he can’t have it. Luz heads home, ready to destroy the door.. onlyt of ind two things. her magic dosen’t work there.. and Lilith followed her and grabbed king. After a breif fight and Luz angrily and rightously confroting the asshole, wish she was in Eda’s place.. Lilith admits luz’s right and gives her backstory: That her insecurity was so great that on the day before a duel with Eda to determine who got into the emperoror’s coven, she curfsed her own sister, with no idea it’d last this long or get this bad. And with no idea Eda had lost intrest in it and WILLINGLY gave her sister teh spot.. It’s very clear despite her masssive flaws that will need to be adressed.. lilith never stopped caring about her sister, and it took all this to make her realize that trying to fix the mistake on HER terms without including her sister.. instead has almost cost her it.  So Luz and King relucntnatly take her help, though the other two are quickly capatured when theyt ry to get to hte exceution platform and thrown in the cage with Eda.. which dosne’t help the coven’s reputation as gus and willow try to make a case for Eda. Meanwhile we get the SECOND best fight of the series as Luz challenges Bellows.. and it’s UTTERLY chillling and while he’s had scenes before this it’s here we get the true scope of who he is ..and that like eda the god complex is something he can back up. Whlie Luz proves just how strong she’s gotten by keeping up with him it’s barely, and it’s clear from the moment go, and one of the series best shots, with Belos creeply materlizing behind her before announcing “sure, i’ll play” that this is a game. She’s no challenge to him and he simply wants to see waht she can do and is mildly impressed if a tad annoyed at her actually damaging his mask. But with Eda, King and Lilith’s lives in the ballance the only way Luz can save htem.. is to give him waht he wants. 

Thing is, just like Lilith, just like everyone has, good an dbad all season.... Belos undereesitmated luz.. who left fire runes on the door, willnig to sacrifice ever seeing her mom again if it meant keeping him away from her. While he has no invasion planned whatever it is CANNOT be good. Luz saves them, and Eda flies them off with Belos saying the titan dismissed them. Also that Belos has a big penis.. super huge, size of a tractor that one. Yeah that’s the ticket. 

But we get  a happyish ending as LIlith does what she should’ve done a long time ago and apologizes, and Eda starts to fogive her, brought on by King earlier standing up to her as whle he’s not happy with her either, he realizes from her story she’s not a bad person.. just a very messed up one who couldn’t own up to her mistakes. One who belivied in the wrong person to fix her problem and finally takes repsonsiblity and part of the curse into her. So with the sequel hook of Eda having lost her internal magic power but still being able to use glyph’s like luz, we also find out the Emperor has the door and a mysterious masked minon,.. who i’m fairly certain isn’t amity only because it’s too obvious. This is simply how you end a season: It’s engaging, heartbreaking, well animated and pays off EVEYRHTING so far while setting up the season to come. It’s going to be a LONG wait till next time, mid-this year.. but I can wait. The high from this one’s going to last a while. 

7. Good Damage (Bojack Horseman)  “ That means that all the damage I got isn't good damage. It's just damage. I have gotten nothing out of it and all those years I was miserable was for nothing. I could have been happy this whole time and written books about girl detectives and been cheerful and popular and had good parents, is that what you're saying? What was it all for?! “

Bojack Horseman is one of the best shows of the last decade, and an important one to me. it was the first one I watched when we switched to all streaming. I really related to Bojack and his struggles with depresion and self loathing.. which backfired given he’s a much worse person than me and while I could relate, I also compared myself too much to a character who in retrospect is both far worse  and has FAR MORE issues than I do and diffrent ones at that outside of the depression and self hatred.  The point i’m framing is that the series and I have a complicated relationship and that coupled with how bad 2020 was meant it took until a few days ago to finally finish it, almost a year later. But I cannot deny how good the show is: it has faults, a bit of reptititon in some character arcs, casting a white woman as a Vietnamize-American woman (something both Ralph Paul Waskerberg and Alison Brie have apologized for to their credit), and .. I can’t think of a last one. They never brought Ralph back? Yeah let’s go with that one what the fuck there. So I felt I owed the show one last round and it payed off as the final stretch, while easily the hardest to get through due to covering the collapse of Bojack’s life, is easily one of it’s best. 

But before the fall, we get Good Damage, which instead of focusing on BoJack focuses on Diane, said asian woman voiced by a white lady, neurotic writer and Bojack’s best friend, who has moved to Chicago to be with her boyfriend guy, a chill, charasmatic and likeable buffalo cameraman. Things are going better than they ever have: she’s in a supportive relationship and thanks to her antidipresenants, while still her loveably neurotic self, is now not obessing over shit as much and is solving her problems with applomb. Even the weight gain from her meds, which she dreaded in the previous half of the season.. has insteead only made her look healthier and happier, and more beautiful than ever. 

The only problem is she can’t write her long promised Memoir, which Princess Carlolyn, her former boss, agent and loveable pink cat and single mother, has promised to a lot of celebrities. She TRIES, she puts lots of work into it, keeps trying to sit there but nothing comes out. And what makes the episode truly great is how this is presented. Bojack is no stranger to beautiful, visually diverse episodes, Stupid Peace of Shit being a notable example and one similar to this one but uniquely great in it’s own way, but this one is easly the bes,t using a squiggly crude style to show just how chaotic and uncomfortable diane is and how stuck she is. She’s TRYING, but she just can’t make her life’s story into anything GOOD, she can’t get the words out which as someone whose had reams of projects I never startd, even to this day and who has genuine trouble writing fiction.... I related to this like all hell. But even people who have never had an intrest in writng can just get the feeling thanks to the wonderful writing and animation, from cameos by the rest of the cast to Diane’s father showing up as a goblin to the word boxes showing what she’s writtne it’s just a treat.  But what centers this amazing visual represtnation is Diane’s internal struggles as an encounter with a rude sales person leads her off on a tangent..and to Ivy Tran, a teen detective whose upbeat, optimstic, and in a great bit outlines who she is in jsut the right amount, and solves mysteries in a food court. It’s a genuinely good idea, one I honestly think could support it’s own series... seriously get on that Ralph-Bob. Get on that. Point is it’s good.. but Diane’s so hung up on what she SHOULD be making, she can’t see what’s right in front of her, despite guy saying the passages are good.  Things come to a head when Diane makes a huge mistake and goes off her meds.. which from experince never ends well: for the entire episode she’s been under the impression she can’t write because of them.. only to be proven HORRIFYINGLY wrong. It’s a  VERY necessary aseop: that your medication will always be with you and that going off it suddenly, or blaming it for writers block not only isn’t true but is DANGEROUS. Diane spirals, cries and her writing gets dark and full of self hate. It’s then Guy proves just how fucking majestic he is: he figures out what’s going on after she tells him, and helps her get to bed so she can rest, puke whatever she needs and they’ll talk about things after she takes her meds again and gets her head on straight, when she’s in a good place to do so. As someone with mental illness.. ti’s nice to see a character who not only supports someone fully, but knows how to handle it. Instead of a shitty third act breakup like many shows would do guy stands by her.  He does however step SLIGHTLY over the line, if iwth good intentions and reason and send Princess Carolyn the Ivy Tran pages, because as he puts it he made an executive decision.. and when Diane is a bit annoyed by that as it does sound a tad douchey, he rightly points out she was in a really bad hole of a place, stuck in a loop doign something that even before going off her meds was clearly hurting her and going nowhere, and needed SOMETHING to snap her out of it, and did so not to hurt her or because he thought he knkew better or , like her ex husband, because he was oblvious to her needs; he did it because it was the hard but necessary thing to get her to seee she had something special and that she dosen’t have to constnatly tear herself up by diving into past traumas because of some internal obligation. 

Naturally Diane dosen’t take it despite Princess Carolyn not only being impressed but PREFERRING the ivy pages, as she was genuinely unaware Diane had something so happy and charming in her. While Diane is worried about it when the two end up meeting in person, we soon find out why: If all the damage she went through wasn’t “good” damage, things she could writ eabout and use later.. what was it for? Could she of just been happy this whole time? Did she waste her life. And in a rare moment betwen the two PC helps Diane walk it back, explaning that she can do what she always wanted: write something that makes someone like her feel not alone. That she dosen’t HAVE to make her life story into something complicated, just make what makes her and other people happy. Something PC’s daughter could enjoy one day. So Diane finally accepts that maybe there’s something else for her.. and then we get a segue into the next episode with bojack having a panic attack and pasing out but that episode, good as it was didn’t make it so moving on.  We also check in with Penny, the daughter of an old friend of bojacks who he nearly slept with and is stil haunted both by the decision and a drunken later visit to apologize... which isn’t helped remotely when max and page, two reporters inovlved in teh subplot that tears bojack’s life apart, start hounding her. While they have good intentions, exposing Bojack’s connection to Sarah Lynn’s death, the two’s methods still come off as creepy, following a, at this point , 21 year old girl whose been through ENOUGH home. While the two aren’t terrible people their actions.. are.. while getting hte story ismprotant is it truly worth genuinely harming this person. And penny wonders if she SHOULD air her story.. she ends up not.. but only because her mother, while lettiner he decide, poitns out it may not be worth all the pressure and possible trauma it digs up,especially since Bojack is getting what he deserved anyway. IT’s a decent subplot tha tties up a loose end but really makes our journalist characters feel like assholes for again, basically stalking and harassing a young woman who didn’t want to rehash the worst moment of her life. Otherwise top notch stuff. 

6. Heart (Parts 1 and 2) (She Ra and the Princesses of Power) “Don't you get it? I love you! I always have! So please, just this once... STAY! Stay. “

Now we get to the gays winning.. and to one of the best series finale in recent memory. And given the other two titanic shows ending, one of which we’ll get to’s ending in a moment, last year, it’s a huge compliment. Heart is how you end a space opera... with big wonderful speeches, great payoff, a huge climax.. and a beautiful cathartic kiss paying off the relationship at the heart of the series that ends up saving the universe.  So let’s just go ahead and crack open that pinata: The kiss.. was easily one of the best moments of animation this year and, at a time when the quarantine was starting, misery was spreading, and things looked pretty damn bad, having a major animated show, one of the biggest of the last few years, climax with an emotional moment between two women, one the series had been setting up since day 1... it was a huge step foward for gay representation in children’s animation, and warmed my big bi heart. And it’s not just good because of that: the fact it’s a giant pile of representation is wonderous, but it’s because it’s also well baked into the show. This is the conclusion of both their character arcs: Catra finally realizes Adora will not abandon her and her leaving the Horde was not choosing them over her.. it was simply doing the right thing. So instead of running or trying to escape she’s grown enough to fight for what she wants and fight for a future with Adora.  Adora meanwhile finally overcomes her martyer complex, her determination, especially after Angela’s death, to make sure no one else is gone and she’s the only one that suffers and looses. To make sure there’s nothing else. It’s Catra’s confesssion that FINALLY gets it through her thick skull that she dosen’t have to be alone or bear anything alone.. she’ll always have someone with her to do that.. and even before Catra.. she’s always had friends for that. She dosen’t have to be alone. So the two embrace and it’s fucking beautiful..and gives adora the full power of the doomsday device they went to shutdown in the first place, restoring the planet.. and allowing her to destroy horde prime’s fucking soul. I just want to reiterate that because it understandably got lost in the shuffle of the gays winning, but our heroine fucking tears out the main villian’s soul.. and it is SO damn satisfying given what a truly repulsive , irredemible, asshat Prime was. So the two finally get a future together, a chance to build and to stop letting the past define them. It’s wide open.  But while that alone would probably net it on this list but it’s damn good otherwise, an epic final struggle between our heroes and the horde for the fate of not just their planet but ALL of htem as Prime prepares to finally wipe everything else out in egomanical genocide. There are just.. tons of awesome moments in this one: Bow and Glimmer’s suprising but welcome love confession, Seahawk annoying mermista into fighting her chip, the people of etheria fighting back.. and the reason they do is easily the second best moment of the episode. With the chips down, not literally, and things looking bleak Bow hyjacks Prime’s egoamnacial hologram.. and broadcasts for everyone to fight, to fight back, and to END THIS. After spending most of the series as the one trying to keep his friends together, the glue of everyone.. it’s bow’s heart, courage, and voice, the one that lead his friends through some rough times and severed as reason when they needed it most wether they listned or not.. that frees the world and with Entrapta turns the tide at long last. It’s just a hell of a moment.  And the only other moment equaling it is Hordak freeing himself and deciding he is his own man, he made himself tha tway for better and worst and kills prime, at least before adora finsihes the job with the badass “I am HORDAK and I DEFY your will. “ It’s just a wonderful, epic finale that pays off most of the shows major arcs, gives our heroes a MUCH deserved happy ending after spending their lives at war, and let it be said one last time, gave gay representation in children’s cartoon one hell of a win.

5. Nice While it Lasted (Bojack Horseman) 

“ No, I need to tell you... thank you... and... it's going to be okay... and... I'm sorry... and... thank you... “

Back to back finales here and honestly both are REALLY close in quality, both satisfyingly paying off their series. But both take equal and opposite routes: Heart is an epic finale in scope size and impact... while Nice While it Lasted is a very stripped down character piece: there are other characters in the background but after the intro the only voiced characters in each segment are Bojack and one of the main cast, each one both showing how much said relationship has evolved since the show began, and giving Bojack time to reflect on his possible future. I say possible because one of Nice While it Lasted’s best aspects it that there’s no real concrete ending for Bojack. Ther’es still closure: after his life emploded and he nearly died, more on that in a bit, Bojack ended up in prison, offically for breaking and entering but unoffically for all the shitty things he did with him glumly accepting it. So one year later he’s out thanks to Princess Carolyn for her wedding, sober again thanks to prison and even started his own acting class at the prison he’s geninley invested in, inteding to continue it once he gets out. But otherwise.. his future’s in flux. HE’s sober for now, but he’s painfully aware that could change again, his friends while, with one excpetion, still having a place for him in their lives, have moved on, and his career is on the upswing again despite being a pariah a year ago because as I mentioned earlier and as PC brilliantly puts it

So he could become a better man, get his career back, make amends for what he did and stay sober.. or backslide and fall down into the same traps he always has. It plays into an aseop the series has always preached: There are no real endings, life just goes on. Even for the rest of the cast hteir lives aren’t over.. their just in a good place.. maybe bojack will, maybe he won’t. Tha’ts up to the indvidual viewer and I like that. While ambgious endings can be frustrating and I get while some preferred the more concrete if still somewhat ambgious ending of a view from halfway down, I feel this fits the series better: Bojack, like the end of every season is moving on to something new, but this time we don’t know what, and that’s okay. IT’s time for us to move on.  Well okay not from this entry as each vingette deserves some praise: Our first has Mr. Peanutbutter pick up Bojack from prison, and even get him a new suit.. and then another one offscreen because predictably for his life BOjack got meatball all over it. He also calms our hero down when he wants to go back to jail, letting him know it’s okay and he’ll be there for him.. unless his friend Erica shows up but what are the odds... 1:1. But what’s nice about it is while Bojack still makes jabs, it’s clear he’s gone from truly hating and resenting PB for being the betterversion of him.. to truly seeing the guy as one of his best friends, his jabs having gone from hurtful and bitter to wry and warranted. I mean they were warranted a lot back then too he’s just a lot softer about them. 

At the wedding Todd and Bojack finally reach some form of understanding after years of awkwardness, the two having reconclied but not being really remotely close or in each other’s lives hardly anymore after Todd’s understandable blow up at Bojack in “It’s You”. Here Todd has Bojack rush him to the beach to cary him on his shoulders.. to watch fireworks because he could tell he was overhwelmed, the two having found a rhtym again, with, like with mr peanutbutter, Bojacks jabs being a lot friendler and Todd having a respect for his own needs while actually being present for bojack instead of ignorant of how bad things were like he was at the start. He even helps BOjack see even if he DOES replase.. he can get right back on the horse, couldn’t resist that one sue me, and as the hokey pokey says turn himself around. 

After, in one of the best payoffs of the series, finally trying Hondedew and finding it’s not so bad, Bojack dances with PC, admittingh e half hoped he’d have to help her go thorugh with it before the two run through the scenario, and PC expresses some honest fears with bojack helping her showing how the two hav egone from a horribly stiffing relationship.. to two close friends who are probably stuck with one another for life. Sunk costs and all that. And if bojack does want to act again she knwos some people. But for now PC finally really has everything she ever wanted:: A daughter, and a loving husband in judah. 

Finally we have the most painful of the group because of course the Bojack finale wouldn’t be all sugar and would have to punch us in the gut. Bojack finds Diane again who hasn’t talked to him.. because he called her the night of his near death/sucidide and due to putting the blame on her due to being high out of his mind, made her feel like it was his fault during the 7 hours she could reach no one and thought he was dead. Diane is hurt, feeling betrayed that bojack promsied he’d be fine then possibly left her with the pain of his death on her concious forever. Thankfully she’s doing fine, as she’s now married guy and Ivy Tran is a huge success and probably a series now.. but it’s abudnantly clear her friendship with Bojack is over.. but even this bittersweet, and necessary, seperation, as Diane has moved past LA and Bojack needs to stop relying on her and stand on his own two hooves, still warms the heart as she thanks him and lets him know i’tll be okay, and endugles him in telling her one last story, a rathe rfunny one about prison movie night bfore the series ends on the melancholy and apporriate song mr blue as the two gaze out and they see each other and we see them for the last time. 

4 The Wasteland (Infinity Train) 

“I'm as good as dead, and if my last act is to bring you with me, sliver, I can't imagine a better way to go!” “Well, I can! “

So from a bittersweet ending to holy shit that’s depressing, we have our only entry from Infnity Train on the list. That’s not to say the series did bad this year. Season 2 was easily the series finest hour, taking the framework from season 1 and crafting a gripping story of a teenage mirror person who just wanted to live without assholes trying to kill her for what she fundementally IS, and be recognized as a person, with the help of a magical deer and a more optimstic teen grappling with his peer pressure issues.  The series was still undoubtly silly with a parasite voiced by Bill Corbett, wonderfully so, and again a magical deer named Alan Dracula, long may he reign, it simply deconstructed the nature of the train and thus opened up the floodgates. By giving us a denzin who, after years of being someone’s reflection in both senses of the word, just wanted to live and how that clashed with the train and the racist assholes she met alnong the way, from the ones who wouldnt’ stop trying to kill her.. to humans who considered her as nothing more than a plaything at best and something to get rid of at worst. While Season 3 was not bad, if a bit way too strcuturally messy and trying to do too much at once, Season 2 still handled the same issues but in a much tighter frame storywise.  And that’s why only one episode made it: Most of the episodes, espicially the later ones, are pieces of a large whole, with the show being heavily seralized. Which while a great approach intended for streaming, also means it was hard to find a chapter that worked that well on it’s own, steven universe future had similar issues. But I did and the wasteland is easily the darkest, harshest and most intresting episode out of the batch.  The episode opens at MT’s darkest hour: The apex told the mirror police where she is, Jesse is gone, and MT is now running for her life from the sadstic assshole and his spinless partner who want her dead just for existing.. gee can’t imagine why a bunch of assholes refusing ot acknolwedge other peoples opinons, rights or even existance was a big topic last year.. or this year. 

So while Mace, the main mirror cop, manages to handcuff her MT manages to throw him under the train. THe result is her trying to escape the train by wondering i’ts vast desert, forced to drag Mace along as he taunts her, bleeding out slowly from you know being bisected by a train. It’s a really moody peace as Mace mock’s mt’s dreams of escape and justify’s his own selling out, while MT pokes holes in that: he was so desperate to not nonexist.. he’s willing to kill others who just want the same. IT’s a damn hard watch but fuck if i’ts not compelling. 

And the climax is what makes it. MT finds out she can’t leave the bounds of the wasteland, as it only projects so far and after escaping the ghoms ends up back on the train, with Mace, not long fo rthis world trying to kill her.. so we get a 13-14 year old GRINDING HER HORRIFYING ABUSER UNDER A TRAIN WHEEL. Just jesus.. I mean I kind of get HBO Max’s point that MAYBE this is a bit much for kids. I mean i’ve seen other really dark stuff but holy fuck a man died.. and we see his blood splatter. But it’s this horrible, harsh moment that makes the episode.. as is MT”s reaction.. not one of triumph.. but of exaustion and horror at what she’s done, before steadying herself to prove him wrong. A hard one to write about but damn it was good. 

3. Enchanting Grom Fright (The Owl House)  “Dear Luz, will you go to Grom with me- Amity”  Now we THANKFULLY get to something lighter: the gays winning.. again. Coming out during pride month, phrasing, and only a month after the she ra finale we got this delightful episode. As I said earlier I watched this one first run: while I was super behind, I couldn’t resisit to the point I watched it before that week’s amphibia. I was that curious what was going to happen.  See as i’ve given out about quite a lot.. and I mean a LOT, Disney dosen’t have the best track record with gay representation: they don’t do horrible sterotypes or anything.. but they also don’t do much of anything for the most part. Alex Hirsch has outright spoke about how much he had to fight just to get Blubbs and Durland firmly together in the finale, and how the symbols for the love god were widdled down to just male and female. And around the time this episode came Disney was coming out of a REALLY bad batch of pr stunt gay representation: They made a big deal about the first gay x in an x having gay characters in avengers endgame, star wars: Deep Hurting and onward.. but these were cameos AT BEST, with the endgame one being so minor I genuinely didn’t realize the character was talking about dating a man and only found out afterwords. Sure Ducktales had gay dads, which is awesome and always will be.. but none of the major cast was allowed to be openly gay. I mean we know webby and lena are gay but hell if disney would allow that.  But miracoulsy.. shockingly and wonderfully.. Disney DID mange to finally just say fuck it and let some big gay rep in, something so obvious it can’t be ignored and that actually features the main character and one of the most major supporting characters. And what do you know, the good press and pats on the back outweighed the bad. It’s almost if giving up homophobic markets in exchange for doing the right thing.. is a GOOD thing while also being profable. Who’d a thunk. Point is via sheer perstiance, Owl House creator Dana Terrance got to not only make her lead bi, which Terrance herself is, but have her love intrest be a girl. And I find it genuinely wonderful that gay, bi, pan and what have you children can watch this and say “tha’ts me and this is okay”.  But even minus Owl House saying gay rights.. the episode is just REALLY good and part of it is who it focuses on. Amity easily has the most character devleopment out of the cast going from someone who walls herself off from everyone, revels in her superiority.. to slowly opening up to heroine Luz, realizing Luz is not a bad person and that Amity herself dosen’t have to be, and right before this starting the road to patching things up with her former best friend willow. Allt hrough this said friendship had been prettty, prettyy, prettyyy gay. And that’s wonderful obviously, but part of why I watched this was while I HOPED they’d get to be couple.. I wasn’t convinced since see a fucking bove. But I was happy to realize that oh my god I was wrong, the gays won all along. 

So with Amity a better person she’s naturally syampthetic when sh’es put front and center at hexside’s prom equvilent which while having a dance, gromprosals and a disco ball tha’ts also a sentient being, becuase boiling isles, it also has the queen or king forced to fight a horrifying monster that manfiests as your greatest fear. And, as we find out towards the end.. Amity’s is being rejected by Luz, having her love letter, which she fails to deliver due to running into luz.. and co (which is my faviroite gag of the episode and the adorable smiles gus and willow give in response are what make it). And . it makes sense. When you stop and think about it.. Luz is the best thing in her life. She got her to change as a person, genuinely cares about and adores her, just wants to be her friend and thinks the world of her. Given her siblings, while trying to be better, are two disaster bisexuals who just stopped a lifetime of untietonally harsh bullying and her parents are controlling asshats who made her abandon her best friend at a young age and she sees LILITH as a mother figure, just let that sink in given a few entires back.. yeah.. no wonder sh’es utterly terrified of rejection. Poor baby. 

Of course WE know Luz wouldn’t. Luz may be many things, including oblvioius to thte freaking obvoius as this story line has revealed, but shes not cruel and even if she said no, which I higlhly doubt she would, she woudln’t be a dick about it. But being surrounded by cruel assholes for some time has made Amity a bit paranoid so Luz volunteers to sub in to both genuinely help her friend.. and to prove to eda she can do this. Eda is also chaperoning. and looks neat in a suit, while King and Gus get a wonderful b plot of mcing the dance with the egotisticl king having issues with stage fright. I will get more into that when I review the episode proper, come back in a month for that.  But yeah while Luz does well when the time comes, and while sadly not wearing her otter suit does wear a wonderful tuxedo with a tutu.. she has her own repressed issues to adress as Grom takes the form of her mother, as Luz has been nursing guilt over not telling her the truth about what’s going on. Luz runs, and Amity ends up facing her fear to save her crush and the two get a wonderfully romantic, and desturctive dance together as they face hteir fear, untie as one and kill that motherfucker... well okay i’m not sure grom can die but it’s gone for now.  The dance sequence.. is easily one of the best scene’s all year, beauituflly animated and painstakingly planned out, with wonderful music.. it’s just awesome and what takes the episode ove rthe top, with the two perfeclty in synch as they take grom out in less than a minute. Also king become prom king and queen, he is best of both as Luz’s own personal issues put a damper on things. Also someone’s been writing her mom. 

Overall just a perfect episoe and a perfectly gay episode of one of the best shows going right now. Speaking of a perfect episode of one of the best shows going right now, tha’ts also on disney. 

2. Escape From the Impossibin! (Ducktales)  ”We have to keep them safe” “But not like this!”  So from some emotinal torment mixed with some lovely shipping, we get a whole buttload of emotional anguish but with a robotic scrooge and the time loop room and the time loop room and the time loop room, and time l...

As I said in part 1, Season 3 is easily Ducktales best so far, having far better pacing, character ballance and bolder and more intresting stories than ever before. While the first two seasons are still excellent, this one has taken everything great and honed it and no episode shows off just how great this season is than this one.  This one takes place in the fallout of “Let’s Get Dangerous!”, with the family dealing with finding out FOWL”s not only still alive, but is run by Bradford, head of scrooge’s board of directors former shush agent as we’d find out later, and asshole, who knows all their secrets. And given Scrooge is mildly paranoid on a good day and Beakly is extremley paranoid on her best day, it’s done a number on both as they’ve split the family minus launchpad, who just had a whole episode so fair enough, up: Scrooge has taken Della and Louie, wiht their see all the angels schtick, to test out his new security, while Beakly and Donald are securing the house while Beakly has webby throughly test the boys.  Neither side goes well. The bin ends up locking our heroes out due to Scrooge’s password being changed, and forcing them to work past it. Louie rises to the challenge, as does della.. but as they beat a robot versoin of scrooge, because of course the final test would be a robot version of scrooge, Scrooge is instead of triumphant at not being dead, incredibly depressed and furious. Because when told he’s scrooge mcduck he tellingly replies “AND WHAT IF THAT’S NTO ENOUGH’. For once.. Scrooge is SCARED, up against someone who knows his every move and is one step ahead, iti’s how it’s always been, no matter what he’ll do, he’ll always loose and Bradford will always win. I REALLY need to watch spies are forever, point is he’s scared and Bradford PROVING the point by revealing he was behind it and taking over the robot dosen’t help. Our heroes win though in a damn impressive action sequence, but as it turns out.. it was just a distraction.. but we’llg et back to that.  The other plot though is whyt his is so high. While the first plot is a fun romp with deep eomtional consequences.. the second plot is decidly far darker.. it still has some good bits as webby terorizes the boys and easily one of the best in the season when she horrifying imitates dewey, but its’ only when she does finally attack she realizes she’s taken it way toof ar. She’s terrorized her brothers, caused huey to break his leg and then turn her away when she tries to help.. all she’s done is turn them AGAINST each other and they can’t win this way.  Beakly strongly disagrees and clealry lost in her own paranoia and fear, prepares to attack huey.. and thus Webby steps in... leading to one fo the most heartbreaking and tense fights in the series as grandmother and grandaughter fight one on one but both are outmatched.. but Huey and Dewey, despite everything, refuse not to help their sister and help pull webby up, with Webby panickidly realizing something’s VERY wrong and her granny usually isn’t like this when sparring... and is also chasing them. This leads to the roof, in a rainstorm no less, and Webby relcutnatnly ready to fight even though she clearly knows she both can’t win.. and dosen’t want to anymore. Despite her wilingless to scrap, fight and train.. Webby dosen’t WANT to hurt her granny she just wants to help her. Thankfully, the boys attempt to stop this, while failing horribly, catches donald’s attention as he catches them, ntocies what’s going on and furiously refuses to let this go on. While Beakly tries to ignore it and fight..s he instead slips and despite everything, the rest of the group rescue her, with Webby impressing on her grandmother that they aren’t fowl. They wont’ win acting like them and tearing each other apart.. they need to be the family they are.  But if all that wasn’t enough turns out.. yeah, Bradford’s thing was a distraction and with the rest of the group distracted with Beakly, that meant his plan went off without a hitch: all the missing mysteries have been taken by FOWL, in a masterstorke that ties both plots together and brings what seemed like isolated adventures on their own in a tagnetally related plot into the fore. Everything so far has built up to this.. and despite the loss.. the family, having been through a dark night of the soul, is ready to fight back. They want the rest of the mysteries? Their going to have to fight clan mcduck in their elment. And it’s been glorious so far. A tense, well paced, hard hitting episode, this one’s a winner. and almost got #1.. ALMOST. But as much as I tried to not go with the obvious chocie, the one with tons of press and praise and that’s graced tons of best of lists... I had to go with what was honestly the best. So...

1. The View from Halfway Down (BoJack Horseman)  “Oh BoJack, there is no other side. This is it. “  This episode was my main reason for catching up with the series and finishing it off once and for all. Awash with praise and hype I was curious about this one.. and my curiosity paid off. This is easily one of if not hte best episodes Bojack put out in it’s storied run: it’s creative, impossible to look away from and devistating: in short it’s the show in a nutshell.. and it’s a hell of a view. 

Previously as mentioned before Bojack’s life blew up and he lost just about everything, from his friends, though as the finale bared out only one of them stayed away for good and for good reason, his only family in hollyhock, his house, even horsin around. He had nothing left.. so high on drugs and in his old house he passed out at the end of last episode.. and we wake up here with a recurring dream as Bojack has a dinner party at his mother’s house, another wonderful performance from Wendy Mallick. Everyone there is someone Bojack knew who died: his former best friend he betrayed Herb, Sarah Lynn his former child co start turned washed up 30 something he let die, Courdory, a co star who died trying to get off david caradine style, Crackerjacke, the uncle he never knew who die din the war and his parents, distant mother Beatrice as mentioned and his father, who is in the body of his hero secretariat who comited suiccide in this unvierse due to getting banned from racing, as that’s the kind of weird shit dreams do. Also Zack Braff, who has no real conncetion to bojack but still died during that time Mr Peanutbutters house sunk into the earth and his ex wife Jesscia bIel formed a death cult.  The group play a game of best and worst, lay into each ohter and have some really intresting conversations with Bojack confident of when it’ll end: before the show their always mentioing. But this time, it’s diffrent.. Bojack is there for it so we get a trippy and horrifyimng stage show as Bojack watches the various people one by one vo into a black door, allt he while bojack coughts up sludge and is persued by it, unaware where he was before this. Sarah Lynn gives one last song, a reprise of a song from previous in the series, Courdroy does a ribbon dance and zack braff gets on roller skates. And bojack has a frank conversation with his dad, with his dad/secretariat revealing he DID care but was just so filled with loathing he coudlnt’ admit it to his son and thus was an abusive ass.. and then reveals to bojack he’s not waking up and bojack horryfigngly see shimself, drowning ina pool. And while he frantically, heartbreakingly tries to flee... he can’t. There’s no exit for him. As herb tells him, this isn’t the afterlife, this is his brain making sense of his last moments, and ther’es no way of knowing if he’ll get rescued, no way to do anything but watch.. watch as his father secretairat shows suicide in all it’s horror by letting it know he wouldn’t of done it if he knew “the view fro halfway down”, a horrifingly haunting poem that sells just how bad it was. As beatrice and crackerjack also go we’re down to herb who introduces bojack... before going in himself, claming there is no other side. Bojack tries not to go genle and runs, and in a horrfying sequence is surronded by the ooze as he tries his damndest to escape.. but in the end he can’t. As herb said.. he can’t do anything about this. So speaking to his min’ds version of diane he accepts he probbaly won’t be coming back and we hear a monitor as we fade out. While we know it’s not the end now... there’s no way of telling then. 

The View from Halfway Down is a haunting, beatuflly animated, masterwork, taking 6 seasons worth of communinity and regret and shoving it in bojack’s face in an intresting way, while bringing back characters we thought we’d never see again for one last go round. It was patcually nice to hear LIn Manuel Miranda and Wendy Mallick again,, and Kristan Schaal is always great. The show ALWAYS had a horrifying habit of having it’s penutlimate episode be an utter gutpunch that broke you, with the finale picking up the peices and offering some hope.. and this was no exception. They literally saved the best for last, and it was worth the wait. The view from halfway down may be gahstly,.. but the view of this episode is hauntingly beautiful. 

So that was the list, and it was.. a lot taking 2-3 days to finish all together over both parts. But it was worth it and hopefully we can get back to some regular stuff later today. For now, thank you for reading, and hopefully i’ll see you somewhere in the sunset. 

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