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#she said its the end of the 3 episode arc
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genericpuff · 4 days
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I've been seeing you say/speculate Rachel Smythe has been cut loose from webtoon, could you elaborate what you mean by that?
It's only a tinfoil hat theory that people should take with MOUNTAINS of salt (seriously, I'm more likely to believe that Rachel really is just done with LO), but there's a general suspicion that LO wasn't meant to end here and that Webtoons decided to cut the cord. I've made a post about it before but some new stuff has surfaced since then.
1.) The announcement the series was ending was made quietly at NYCC and not shared to either Webtoons' socials or Rachel's socials.
The only way fans initially knew about the series ending was through a screencap from the Discord where someone else who had been attending NYCC passed on the info from a Q&A that LO would be entering its final arc.
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For a good while the only other way to know the series was ending was through the Discord, a Cosmopolitan article, and my own post.
Though it sounds odd for a series to get cancelled halfway through its third season, it's not uncommon for Webtoons to suddenly axe series while they're on their midseason hiatuses, it's happened before. So there's a general suspicion that Rachel may have found out during NYCC that LO would only be given one more arc.
2.) The actual finale announcement was made in a text post on Instagram that suddenly announced it would be ending on May 11th, despite the fact that there was still lots to wrap up in the story.
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What this implies is that Rachel was given one more arc, with no concrete end date... until Webtoons told her to wrap it up in a limited number of episodes, hence why despite us knowing it was in its final arc, the end date still felt too soon. This is also supported by the fact that her initial announcement was vaguely "early/mid 2024" - she couldn't give a more accurate end date because she didn't plan for the actual ending.
3.) Things that Rachel has said implies that she was either hoping for the final arc to go on longer, or that she didn't think LO was going to be ending now.
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(that "nothing is set in stone" quote further supports the theory that she may have been hoping to get renewed in spite of the lukewarm ending announcement - that the only reason the announcement was so quiet was because WT hadn't fully committed to it yet and wanted to see how the series would do upon its return; now that they see it falling behind to other series, it might mean WT became more sure in their decision to cut it and gave her an actual deadline to wrap it up by.)
4.) Webtoons has stopped promoting Lore Olympus despite it ending.
Any promotional spots that it has gotten have been stuffed into the dead zone of the banner reels (seriously, anything past the 3rd spot is practically useless because it takes actual committed scrolling to get there vs. the first 1-3 banner spots which can be seen as soon as you open the app/site) and the banner art itself does not in any way advertise the series being in its final arc. These banners also only seem to be appearing for a day at most, compared to the days upwards of weeks they used to get.
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Webtoons also hasn't been doing any sort of promoting on their socials for it. Considering The Mafia Nanny has been consistently beating out LO in the top rankings for weeks now, and that LO's rating and view count is still dropping, it appears that Webtoons has finally given up on shoving it down people's throats and put their focus elsewhere.
Again, this is all tinfoil hat speculation, so take it with massive doses of salt. Considering this is Webtoons, I wouldn't be surprised if they finally decided to put LO out of its misery, but this is also Rachel and I wouldn't blame her in the slightest if she finally wanted to be done with it after the past two years of people clowning on it. And I say that knowing I, myself, am a clown LOL
Either way, I feel like either outcome is plausible in its own ways, but whatever is the true reason, it doesn't change the fact that LO is ending and has 3 episodes left to wrap itself up. And whatever comes after will likely involve the launch of Inklore which was estimated for the spring.
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Trolls overall has a Big problem with the idea of Holding people accountable for their actions.
here's a numbered list of examples of what I'm talking about.
Cloud Guy in the Tv shows not only because he Harasses Branch most of the time with no consequences but also because Poppy goes out of her way to defend him even when his actions cause trouble for many other people.
like when he flooded the village just out of spite because Branch wouldn't do what he wanted anymore and not to mention how even when she found out that he also Harassed other people from each of the Troll Tribes she still took his side and got mad at them when they stood up for themselves and "" upset Cloud Guy "".
which even if it hadn't been revealed that it was all an act by him just to mess with them it would still make Poppy look bad since she Refused to do anything about his Blatant Bullying yet got mad at his victims when they stood up for themselves.
and not to mention made excuses for why his behaviour wasn't so bad making out like he only Harassed them because he was trying to help them which is just all kinds of wrong.
2. a lesser example but still a bad example imo is in the Trollstopia episode where Dante uses Branch as his muse and he stalks him breaks into his home and disrupts his daily Jobs which he does.
and when he goes to Poppy for help she makes out like Dante's behaviour is reasonable and tells Branch to suck it up.
and after Branch does something to get Dante to back off Poppy then gets mad at him when Dante isn't able to come up with any music ideas like that's somehow Branch's problem?
Dante needed help but Rather than ask for it he just went ahead and took it by invading someone's privacy.
and breaching their trust and then Poppy made out like Branch was wrong for setting down Boundaries with him which is just iffy to be honest feels like this episode was written by Joe Goldberg or something lol.
3. and there's Creek as I've said in the past I love him lol but I do agree that his Return in TBGO could have been done better where he could have had a little arc of slowly earning back people's trust maybe over the span of a few episodes.
4. some people like to go on about the Bergens being forgiven too easily and I agree to an extent but given how Gristle Jr couldn't exactly punish the majority of the population I don't think they really had much choice in this matter.
I feel the only problem is them acting all chummy with the rest of the Bergens like letting them off for killing their species is one thing but acting like friends with them is a whole other like staying friends with Bridget and Gristle is fine given their history and the fact that they were too young to have eaten any Trolls prior to the escape.
but acting friendly with the rest of them feels a tad insensitive like in the opening of TBT we see Branch and Poppy acting all chummy with Random Bergens and Branch even High fives a couple of them and I was just thinking to myself
"" dude they probably ate someone's loved ones in the past how would you feel if you saw other Trolls giving Chef a friendly High five? ""
5. anyway moving on there's Barb who enslaved countless people destroyed their homes and tried to wipe out all other kinds of music and she was let off in the end.
its not even like she had a last minute change of heart she literally just got beaten and that's the only reason why her plan didn't succeed and afterwards she was just instantly forgiven.
6. Bro zone I've already talked about them in Depth in the past but yeah unreliable selfish insensitive and at worst cruel not to mention they never truly change their ways.
they keep on doing the same crappy behaviour and they don't show that much remorse for their past actions yet they still get forgiven in the end Despite everything.
because yaaaay family is amazing even if they Treat you like shit over and over again.
the films message feels like it was written by a toxic parent to please other toxic parents to be honest which judging by how this film won over general audiences I'd say it worked like a Treat lol.
so yeah Despite my love for it Trolls overall as a franchise has a serous problem with actually Holding people accountable for their crappy actions and Behaviours I feel the only exception is Veneer as even tho his turn at the end felt Rushed and out of nowhere imo.
I was pleasantly surprised that the movie didn't just let him off the Hook and he still got arrested and accepted the punishment for his crimes in the end.
I feel the same thing should have happened with Barb given everything she did.
anyway if you've made it to the end of my post thank you you have the patience of a saint lol anyway what do you think about this aspect of the franchise?
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gizkasparadise · 4 months
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final leg of a journey to love thoughts!! (eps 35-40). this got so gd long so under a cut it goes. spoilers, of course:
PLOT STUFF/PACING
pacing for the plot definitely got shredded in the last chunk, which is a damn shame because otherwise i've been finding the pacing pretty much perfect. eps 35-37 in particular felt like they could have been like a 10 episode arc. ep 38, which mostly dealt with wu palace politics, should have been cut or streamlined imo and more time given to the characters we've actually been riding along with the whole story. by the time we get back to the pregnant empress, prince danyang, the first prince whose name i dont even remember, and the prime minister, i do not care about any of them and i think this subplot was simply just trying to fit too much shit into one bag
that said, this show still let the emotional moments hit and breathe and linger. i love the grief for the fallen liudao comrades as we go, as well as the less heavy but still emotionally important moments like yang ying and tongguan bonding over their upbringing. and we got a wedding /;3;/!!! for this show, the relationships and characters matter more than the storyline so im not mad about anything at all
side note: it's so gd millennial to have a story about a bunch of 30 something year olds who want to fake their deaths and retire into obscurity but instead they go and die for a boss they hate
CHARACTER STUFF
this show consistently brought a lot of depth to its side characters (and side side characters!!). i said it in an earlier post, but it bears repeating that even someone like deng hui i didnt expect anything from, but he got such good development and writing that he became a stealth fave. his dying words essentially being "dude, quit fucking around" ? iconic.
i didnt like tongguan as much as everyone else, so im pretty meh about everything regarding him. the attempt to force-wed ruyi was tonally really weird and didnt make sense (i assume there was some cuts made surrounding it). but LOL at him reusing all the outfits and decor immediately for his wedding to yang ying. baby duke, you tacky motherfucker. i ultimately think yang ying deserves better than him, but the good thing is that she knows this, so she'll be able to hold her own and then some entering into this partnership
shisan really was the heart in a lot of ways--the mom to yuanzhou's dad for the liudao. i was not expecting him to break my heart the way he did, but the fact that he held both qian zhao and sun lang as they died and then tried his best to remove yuan lu from harm and saved chu yue and was just very much a nurturer all the way through got me. his character couldve been cheap comic relief but the writing + performance really elevated him into one of the (imo) most memorable wuxia characters. his line wondering who would get to behead his beautiful skull!!! and how his mantra was always that he was going to drink the best wine, see the most beautiful women, and make the best of friends and he dies having lost the ability to see and having just had wine in memory of qian zhao, yuan lu, and sun lang. like. shut up!!
ruyi and yuanzhou were both so great and they're gonna be the drama OTP to beat forever. i loved the gender reversals, that they both were so respectful of each other, and that they also felt very mature in how they handled things and communicated. they were really interesting characters both together and apart and that's always a win-win. they had a schroedinger's ending where it's not super clear if they're alive or dead (i interpreted it as the latter), but what's kind of beautiful is that either option is satisfying to me. if they both died, they're reunited and with their comrades and the story is truly about the journey and the meaningful short connections we have. if they both survived, it's a bookend with the beginning where they each faked their deaths to escape. A+
COSTUMING
i gotta just separately mention the costuming for this show because it was 15/10. the textures, shisan's accessories, the way red became integrated with yuanzhou's wardrobe and blue with ruyi's. the details on the liudao name amulets!! SO GOOD. i love when characters' clothes tell a story on their own
overall i just really loved this drama it is probably my favorite wuxia ive seen so far! it's gonna be in my brain for awhile lol feel free to send fic prompts if you've made it this far :'D
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Reporters tantalized their readers with stories about the “plutocratic Osage” and the “red millionaires,” with their brick-and-terra-cotta mansions and chandeliers, with their diamond rings and fur coats and chauffeured cars. One writer marveled at Osage girls who attended the best boarding schools and wore sumptuous French clothing, as if “une très jolie demoiselle of the Paris boulevards had inadvertently strayed into this little reservation town.”
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Many of the Osage would rush to see a gusher when it erupted, scrambling for the best view, making sure not to cause a spark, their eyes following the oil as it shot fifty, sixty, sometimes a hundred feet in the air. With its great black wings of spray, arcing above the rigging, it rose before them like an angel of death. The spray coated the fields and the flowers and smeared the faces of the workers and the spectators. Still, people hugged and tossed their hats in celebration. Bigheart, who had died not long after the imposition of allotment, was hailed as the “Osage Moses.” And the dark, slimy, smelly mineral substance seemed like the most beautiful thing in the world.
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A short, stout man, with a luxuriant mustache and a shock of red hair, Burns had once aspired to be an actor, and he cultivated a mystique, in part by writing pulp detective stories about his cases. In one such book, he declared, “My name is William J. Burns, and my address is New York, London, Paris, Montreal, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, New Orleans, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and wherever else a law-abiding citizen may find need of men who know how to go quietly about throwing out of ambush a hidden assassin or drawing from cover criminals who prey upon those who walk straight.”
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Meanwhile, Ernest’s aunt was muttering, loud enough for all to hear, about how mortified she was that her nephew had married a redskin. It was easy for Mollie to subtly strike back because one of the servants attending to the aunt was white—a blunt reminder of the town’s social order.
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Hoover demanded that his staff wear dark suits and sober neckties and black shoes polished to a gloss. He wanted his agents to be a specific American type: Caucasian, lawyerly, professional. Every day, he seemed to issue a new directive—a new Thou Shall Not—and White put on his big cowboy hat with an air of defiance.
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Blackie, evidently enjoying himself, looked squarely at Burkhart and said, “Ernest, I have told them everything.”
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The judge advised the jury members that they must set aside sympathies or prejudices for either side. He warned, “There never has been a country on this earth that has fallen except when that point was reached…where the citizens would say, ‘We cannot get justice in our courts.’ ”
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In 1932, the bureau began working with the radio program The Lucky Strike Hour to dramatize its cases. One of the first episodes was based on the murders of the Osage...The broadcasted radio program concluded, “So another story ends and the moral is identical with that set forth in all the others of this series….[The criminal] was no match for the Federal Agent of Washington in a battle of wits.”
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The historian Burns once wrote, “To believe that the Osages survived intact from their ordeal is a delusion of the mind. What has been possible to salvage has been saved and is dearer to our hearts because it survived. What is gone is treasured because it was what we once were. We gather our past and present into the depths of our being and face tomorrow. We are still Osage. We live and we reach old age for our forefathers.”
Killers of the Flower Moon, dir. Martin Scorsese // Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (3/3)
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cloud-navi · 9 months
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So I finished DuckTales (2017), my thoughts:
⚠️ Spoilers ahead ⚠️
- Bradford Buzzard:
His feelings for hating adventure and chaos is valid but he should have told his grandma to fuck off and got therapy instead of trying to destroy it. Also its not his fault that Della took the Spear of Selene even if he told her about it.
You can’t have one thing without the other, there must be chaos if there is stability and vice versa.
- Webbigail Vanderquack and Bentina Beakly (Agent 22):
It was a good twist, but it makes me question where FOWL got Scrooge’s DNA to make Webby and why her exact clones (sisters) aren’t perceived as Scrooges kid like Webby is.
My theory: “The Papyrus of Binding only appears to a direct heir of Scrooge McDuck” I think it mean’s physically and emotionally. If June and May are Webby’s clones that means they are just as much Scrooge’s physical child as Webby is, except they don’t have a relationship with Scrooge. Scrooge even before knowing Webby was his kid thought of her like his Grandniece, like family, making her an heir like the boys.
For how much Beakly talked about how important and strong a family is together when getting the boys to talk to Scrooge again in Season 1, it doesn’t make much sense to have her go in alone without informing the family of what she knows of FOWL from SHUSH.
Goldie O’Gilt:
I love her so much, except in the ImpossiBin episode, there she was okay. At the end of the ImpossiBin episode Goldie calls Scooge assuming he took the fountain of youth when they agreed to keep it for both of them, (she went back to steal it for herself so she says). They made progress in the Youth Fountain episode and having Goldie call him about it being gone kinda defeats the whole purpose of their bonding in that episode. Except I understand they needed a character to tell him it was gone like the other missing mysteries but I find it defeated the whole point.
Lena and Violet Saberwing:
To me it looked like Violet’s parents adopted Lena and I’m all for that. Also love the hinted gay rep with their dads.
Magica De spell:
While it was Scrooge that blocked her spell, it was still her spell that she shot that turned her brother into a raven. Theres no reason or obligation for Scrooge to have caught him and give him to her when they were both terrible people. If anything her brother got a new chance at life as a raven instead.
I wish there was kinda a redemption arc when she was training Lena, if not for Lena a little redemption for Gladstone because I like those two.
Fenton Crackshell (GizmoDuck) and DarkWing Duck:
I like Drake with Fenton regardless if he’s Drake or playing DarkWing but I feel like he needs to accept that GizmoDuck is also a hero. Bro needs to know the difference between hero and vigilante.
Fenton is pretty bbg too <3
Launchpad McQuack:
Giant himbo and I love him so much.
Daisy Duck:
Love her, not much else to say. She had standards, that was clear when we heard what she said while driving away from their second date except she still fell in love and was willing to put up with Donald enough to go rescue him and keep going out. Overall a girl boss <3
Huey, Dewey and Louie:
While Dewey should have come forward earlier about looking for Della I understand his intentions more then Huey did when he found out. Louie was right, its not okay, but in the beginning Dewey was just trying to find if she was alive or not, not where she was. He was sorry because he ‘got caught’, he was genuinely sorry. It’s difficult to want to tell someone you’re finding all this stuff about someone you all seek when none of you know if they’re even alive or not. Dewey didn’t want them to lose hope that Della may be alive even if he found out she might not have. Yes he should have told them but I understand he didn’t want to them to be more hurt that she’s unalive instead of just missing. Also they aren’t even teenagers and communication skills are ass with teenagers what makes you think they’ll be any better as 10 year olds?
Again, their anger is misplaced when they’re mad at Scrooge for building a Spear of Selene.
Scrooge McDuck (sugar daddy?):
I like his character and I feel theres a bit of development through out the show with him and the kids, to be a teacher you need to be able to learn from your students.
While yes, he shouldn’t have built the rocket right there he also didn’t tell Della about it. Not his fault she left. Also the audacity to find out it wasn’t really his fault or the fact he nearly went bankrupt looking for her and they didn’t apologize at all.
Donald Duck (DILF):
Literally the best man in the whole show. He put his family first the whole time even when he should have taken breaks except he stepped up. We know that he had some form of falling out with Scrooge because of Della but even so he stepped up to take the kids and stayed in DuckBurg instead of moving anytime in the 10+ years they lived there. I have a feeling they stayed because he knew deep down that he could somewhat still count on Scrooge if not Beakly. Why else would he have stayed and gone to Beakly to watch the kids, granted he didn’t want to talk to Scrooge, Scrooge still took them in and watched them while Donald was off getting a job.
Donald may not be their bio-dad, but he is no way a fucking Uncle. He raised those boys by himself for 10+ years, through their formative years and until they were old enough to know he wasn’t their bio-dad. He stepped in to be a parent because Della chickened out and chose to go to space even when he told her she shouldn’t so she can be with her kids.
Donald Duck, not an uncle, a father.
Della Duck (cool-ish weird Aunt):
My opinion has not changed, she still isn’t a mother to me. Della is an estranged aunt that comes by and is the ‘cool aunt’. She willingly, without obligation, without threat, consciously CHOSE to leave her kids. Regardless of if she knew she would get killed or stuck in space, “there were too many variables” -Huey. She had a fight with Donald that specifically told her that it was a giant, dumb fucking idea with kids on the way. The idea that anyone would accept her back as a parent so blindly is so dumb. Yes she’s their egg-layer, but there is no way in hell she is their mother. A MOTHER would never choose to leave their children unless they positively fucking had too (obligation for safety). Whether or not she regrets it holds no power because she still chose to leave for a stupid reason.
Season 1 finale: “Get away from my kids” by Donald Duck will forever hold more power and significance then anytime she ever says it because she gave up parent rights before they were born. No parent would willingly, without valid cause like their safety (not fucking exploring space for funzys) would leave their child.
Over all:
Scrooge and Donald are DILFS and Della can get bent.
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pleasantmsp · 7 months
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Been rewatching some of the Mighty Nein campaign cause I was missing them and also I'm excited for their one shot soon! I've seen a few people speculating about the one shot so thought I'd put my thoughts out into the void as well.
I honestly don't know at all what to expect from this one shot. I don't even remember what the description was beyond that it has to do with the apogee solstice stuff. I haven't kept up much with campaign 3 for my own reasons that I don't need to get into now. However, I did actually watch a couple of the episodes during the solstice and got lucky with watching the ep with beau and caleb in it. But otherwise, I barely know what's going on. I have no idea what the M9 will be dealing with. My theories include anything from getting Beau and Caleb back and dealing with cultists along the way to dealing with the Cerberus Assembly's/Ludinus' attachments to this whole thing to stopping Tharizdun or some other entity from doing some fuck shit. Honestly, I don't fucking know man. I don't even really think any of that shit will happen.
I don't know if it's been confirmed that Caduceus is gonna be the one in this one shot but I really hope it is him. One of the things that's been bothering me about this arc from the BH perspective (at least that I've seen) is that none of them or any that they've come across has been able to argue for the side of the gods and the good that some of them can do. As someone who really likes the worldbuilding and rp that gods can bring to settings like this, not having that perspective represented has been disappointing for me. (This is not the fault of the cast or their guests or anything like that, that is not what I'm saying. It is their choice what characters they play and it is Matt's choice as the DM which NPCs/areas they come across in wherever they decide to explore. I'm just mentioning my own preference and feelings as it pertains to the one shot which is what I'm talking about). Anyway, I hope it's Caduceus because I think he will bring an incredibly interesting perspective on this whole thing. And I think Fjord will too but not to the extent that Cad can since Cad and his family grew up as worshippers of Melora.
We don't know the fate of Beau and Caleb and while I don't think they're dead, I really hope they aren't gone for most of this one shot. Beau is my favorite character in any media ever. I fucking love Beau so much. And Beauyasha is my favorite couple, I love them. I will be literally so sad if Marisha isn't playing Beau for this one shot. Like I'll understand but also I will indeed be devastated. Beauyasha is like my Roman Empire (this joke will be aging this post LMAO but its a good comparison honestly), I think about them A LOT. I want to see more content from them. I was at SDCC, I was there when Ashley said she felt like she wasn't fully finished with Yasha and that's exactly how I feel. The Mighty Nein's story was so good but the way it ended felt so long and then so abrupt (but that's another post). I will always be wanting more of Beau and Yasha's story. I want to know as much as Marisha and Ashley are willing to give us. So I hope the one shot starts with Beau and Caleb and how they reunite with the Nein and then get to business. Or even better, with them already reunited for maximum Nein time.
Those are my main two thoughts for now. I actually need to go to bed cause I got work in the morning and it's been kicking my ass these last two weeks so imma cut it there and check back tomorrow. If you somehow see this, I hope you enjoyed my ramblings lol
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mdhwrites · 3 months
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Saw the TOH Finale in Its Entirety.
I think I need a little time away from talking about TOH after it. I have some blogs prepared but I may just let myself breathe a little bit. This isn't me suddenly calling the finale good. No... No. Like For the Future, it was an episode I'd always seen and heard enough to know I wouldn't like it. I'd watched enough of it to know it was bad. I had to watch the Collector's redemption for a different blog though and when that portion was done, I decided to watch the last fifteen minutes I hadn't seen.
And... I could say a lot about it but this picture is all I need to focus on.
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This was the end of the series.
Oh yeah, there were six minutes after it that showed them in the future but this was the end of the series. They had just spent 3-4 minutes with epilogue narration, a curtain call saying farewell to everyone and showing they were safe, showing us that the Isles would heal and then it came to this. Luz thinks about how she'll miss magic but grew as a person and how all of this will have made her better. Made her able to face the future and then you get this shot.
That is the end of a story. Period.
But then TOH wastes six more minutes running it back and doing the exact. Same. Thing but worse. Because it doesn't end on the thematic focus of Luz's journey, growth, and what you can take away from it. It ends on self indulgence, takes EVEN LONGER, and on a forced group shot that includes villains and one off characters for some reason. It's much worse composed than this, it's much less meaningful but they decided not to cut it. They decided they couldn't choose one of two endings and so did both.
All while the Collector fails to properly finish his redemption arc or admit that what he'd done was wrong. While Luz dies in a sequence of like five plot beats and reveals that happen in like a minute's time. While the episode is repetitive and contradictory in the most infuriating ways and even when it's looking good, the story boarding and choreography and lack of real creativity is holding it back. All while claiming it's so much better than other media while doing exactly what it's mocking.
In other words... It was indeed a finale to TOH.
But it's a finale that makes me feel worried about being able to kind to it. After all, the creators of this show complained about being shortened. Claimed they had so many ideas. So many they never got to tell. But then... Then they made this finale and spent a fifth of the time on two different endings rather than actually completing and fleshing out their story.
I don't think Dana's name will do anything but turn me away from a project now. Not unless I know she's not a part of the writing team. And... While that may still just be due to the quality of her work, I do not want this thought so fresh in my mind. Not when my analytical roots sadly still stem from an angry part of me and was first birthed out of an angry part of the internet. It doesn't change my opinion but like I said, I think I just need some time and I have some blogs cued to post in the meantime, as well as some Amphibia asks I can get to instead.
See you all next tale. Hopefully I find a new one to get stuck into properly soon.
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coraniaid · 6 months
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Good news: I have objectively ranked Buffy's worst multi-episode subplots. By which I mean, these are the ones that I personally most object to, and I ranked them in a spreadsheet so this is practically science.
7) Willow/Xander secretly cheating (Season 3). Not quite as bad as its reputation, honestly? Yes, it's not much fun to watch and yes, Alyson Hannigan and Nicholas Brendon don't have any obvious chemistry (although I really have to think that's intentional). But it at least serves a useful thematic purpose in the season, with Xander and Willow's secrets both mirroring Buffy's own secret about Angel's return and influencing how they react to finding out about it. Plus, it gives the writers an excuse to break up Cordelia and Xander, so it can't be all bad.
Speaking of which:
6) Cordelia and Xander (Seasons 2-3). Yeah, this just sucks, sorry. As a silly one episode gag it was fine, but spinning it out for longer than that was a mistake for both characters. Sure, you can try to retcon it to be something more interesting than it is (especially by taking the more human and sympathetic version of Xander that the show hadn't actually bothered creating yet and projecting him back into it), but as presented on screen this is the closest the show ever comes to writing Xander as an actual Joss Whedon self-insert fantasy. Oh, of course, the pretty and popular cheerleader falls in love with awkward misfit Xander Harris (no doubt won over by his strategy of lingering hostility and constant insults and allegations of promiscuity), and of course she abandons all her friends to be with him. Of course she finds it romantic that he tries to cast a love spell on her "for revenge" after she tries to break up with him. Of course he makes her so much happier than any of her other older or more popular boyfriends did. Uh huh. As is true for so much of Buffy and Angel, Cordelia deserved a lot better than this.
5) Oz and Veruca (Season 4). In which Seth Green annoys Joss Whedon and gets written out of the show in revenge. This wouldn't be the first time that something like this happened, of course. And it's telling that Oz, unlike Darla or Cordelia, is only sent away from town at the end of the arc, rather than killed off outright. But that doesn't change the fact that this is still pretty bad. Oz has been a werewolf for almost two years by this point. It doesn't really make sense that it would suddenly start making him act like this. There were ways to write Oz out that didn't involve such blatant character assassination. (Not that Oz ever had much in the way of characterization.) Oh, and the werewolf costumes are still awful. Only this low on the list because it sets the stage for Willow and Tara.
Speaking of writing characters out of the show:
4) Riley's secret late night vampire visits (Season 5). I don't like Riley. As far as I'm concerned he's one of the weaker links of Season 4. I think he's an incredibly boring character, that he's not particularly likeable as a person and that ultimately he's a poor fit for the show. I'm glad he was written out. However. Writing him out by first making him (at least metaphorically) unfaithful, something he'd never shown any sign of being before, and then having him issue an ultimation to Buffy in which he threatens to join a secret paramilitary squad in South America if she doesn't immediately forgive him for said infidelity, and then having Xander lecture Buffy about how great Riley is, actually, and this is really all Buffy's fault for not paying him enough attention while her mother was in hospital with a brain tumor was ... uh. A choice.
3) Willow's magic addiction (Season 6). The use of magic as a metaphor for drug addiction was not new to Season 6. Arguably it's the first metaphorical use for magic in the show at all, going all the way back to Giles' backstory as revealed in The Dark Age. The show's metaphors are usually a bit subtler than this though. But the real problem is that Willow's magic addiction ends up replacing a much more interesting story the show had been slowly setting up for years, about Willow over-relying on magic to find easy solutions and not particularly concerning herself with other people's opinions or consent and her slightly warped personal morality ("occasionally I'm callous and strange", but also "I've also thought of myself as a good person"). Once all her problems can be reduced to something external, to something which happens to her rather than because of her, something which she's almost tricked into by her (retroactively) bad, unsympathetic drug addict friend Amy, the show just forgets all about this previous character work. What memory spell?
2) Spike's hypnotic trigger (Season 7). Having chosen to interpret soul lore in the least interesting way they could possibly think of (having a soul makes you Good and any of the people you hurt should just get over it), the writers realized they had a problem. Other than sitting around in a basement feeling sorry for himself, they didn't have anything for the newly ensouled Spike to actually do. Their solution -- what if Spike were ... hypnotized? -- does nothing but set up some incredibly boring new conflicts that have absolutely nothing to do with his established character or existing past. Or indeed with much of anything. I mean, come on. If this is all the writers could think of doing with a souled Spike, why even bother giving him a soul at all?
This would be easily the worst of Buffy's subplots, seeing that it throws out five seasons of existing character development, wastes any number of potentially interesting story ideas and culminates in the absolute nadir that is Lies My Parents Told Me, were it not for:
1) "Is Giles the FIrst Evil?" (Season 7). A long-running mystery that spans multiple episodes and which requires all of the characters involved to not only be complete idiots but to actually cease to exist when the camera isn't pointed at them. (None of them ever thought to touch Giles despite knowing about the First? None of them hugged him or shook his hand despite not having seen him in months? None of them ever accidentally touched him while sharing a house for weeks?) And it's a mystery that largely only exists for the audience, a question which the actual characters don't even ask themselves until getting a phone call from a complete stranger who by his own testimony can only still be alive if Giles isn't the First (if Giles had been killed by a Bringer, then why would they have left any witnesses?). All in the service of a subplot which takes up valuable time from an already painfully overcrowded season and whose only actual payoff is a wretched and sordid little joke about Giles touching teenage girls. Just abysmal on every level.
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eternalera · 3 months
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Some problems i had with the finale in hazbin hotel
now before i start i just wanna say that i absolutely love and adore this show with all of my heart but with that being said i can still recognize its flaws and god does it have some
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lets get one of the most obvious things out of the way first. charlie did literally nothing. she hit adam once or twice and he beat the shti out of her which was just a dumb excuse to have lucifer show up nad beat the shit out of him.
but more on that later. charlie is the main character and she only gets the motivation to go full 'god mode' when sir pentious dies? even then she didnt do anything. dazzle ends up dying but oh well its fine (or razzle i cant remember). she stabs adam once and even then he beats her up more than anything. hes powerful yes but charlie couldve put up more of a fight
she even has a song in episode 7 about taking charge but honestly... she doesnt really do that. actually sir pentious had a better arc than her and we hardly see him throughout the entire show
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sir pentious' death was fine we see him gearing up and it was kinda leading onto the big scene where he would take on adam but...
bro got obliterated in less than like a second and then adam made a joke off of it. tbh at this moment i started laughing so hard because goddamn was it hilarious but then you have charlie and the hotel mourning it like not even five seconds after- like half a second after the joke.
the tonal whiplash of that scene was just... ugh-
like i didnt care about it being serious because guess what? im already laughing at the joke like everything that i cared for about him just thrown into the gutter because guess what? haha funny :)
but for that to be what makes charlie go into her full form still makes me mad- ugh
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adams death was fine. he was killed by nifty so like- okay i guess. honestly i didnt really care for it. it was funny but then ONCE AGAIN you have lute cry over him and actually i cared more for that than nifty-
but its just like- nifty?
dont get me wrong its funny asf but... nifty? they treated both of what was meant to be serious deaths in this show as a goddamn joke and expect me to not call them out on it? like okay nifty shes a funny character but her killing adam just made me go though 3 different stages in the span of like- five seconds
bro just got stabbed wait what-
omg its nifty thats kinda funny
actually i dont really care for nifty so wtf-
like huh?
the death just kinda felt like... nothing to me. like i get thats its funny misogynistic asshole gets stabbed by crazy straight small bug woman. but i didnt really care for it. nfitys fine but i dont care about her enough for me to laugh out loud at this moment
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lucifer's entrance was horrible. bro can open portals, he knew what they were doing, he knew what was coming yet he comes in like- halfway through the fight only when charlie's getting hurt
all im sayin is that if he was in it at the start the final episode wouldve been like half the amount of time it actually was...
oh yeah and pentious would be alive, but no they needed him to die to show that the hotel works so why not just hold him off.
im sorry but lucifer stole all of charlies glamour in this scene like charlie was getting choked after hitting adam once and then boom. daddy to the rescue ig
like are you kidding me? at least make it fucking vaggie or smth. not lucifer and why was he late? we've pretty much established that man doesnt do shit so like-
its fucking pointless it a quick and pretty damn cheesy ending. if he wasnt there at the start we dont need him at the end. or at least have him arrive earlier not at a convenient ass time
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going back to the fact that NOT A SINGLE DEATH WAS TAKEN SERIOUSLY.
i know that sir pentious was coming back so its fine to make it a joke but like adam? bro thats your main villain right there. a show is only as good as its villain and honestly his death just wasnt satisfying (as i mentioned before)
like seriously wtf?
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this all being said though i really enjoyed this show with my whole heart and i do love it and some of the things that it did. the fact that this show even got out is a goddamn miracle <3
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1000sunnygo · 4 months
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(1.6.2024) Mugiwara space vol. 17 feat. Kazuya Nakai and Kamiya Hiroshi highlights! I don't promise accuracy
Source (give it a listen if you have time! it has teasers to the new opening and ending)
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Kazuya Nakai - Zoro || Kamiya Hiroshi - Law
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-It's Kamiya's second time in Twitter Space, previously he was with Mayumi Tanaka (Luffy). He says that last time he babbled a lot thanks to Mayumi san's presence, even though he forgot most of it by now (hmm how convenient that you forgot this, kamiya san 🤨)
-Anytime One Piece (the 24/7 YouTube broadcast of the episodes) has 150M views and already in its 4th lap having completed broadcasting all episodes 3 times.
-The entire Space focused on the two voice actors reading out a heap of letters from the animation staffs about the Zoro vs King and Kid-Law vs Big Mom episodes.
-Kamiya jokes about being slightly younger than Nakai and calling him "Nakai-kun" instead of "Nakai san". Funny that Kamiya's career as a voice actor is actually longer than Nakai's.
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-The Zoro vs King finale had 20000 frames in the episode which set a record. The movements were a lot more fluid and film-level. After all, often it's considered overwork if it crosses 5000 frames in a TV episode.
- The animators themselves tried out new things. It seems in one of the shots, Wado ichimonji's direction was reversed from the manga's direction as a realistic correction. Cue jokes about Zoro (and King's) long (long) attack names. Also, anticipation for legendary Mihawk vs Zoro to match the quality.
- Cutting to Kid-Law vs BM, Kamiya commented that it was scary that the fluidity of movements was so good that it made him wonder if that level of effort was necessary at all (he said it's like a Disney movie).
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(in case you didn't know, this scene was indeed animated by an animator who worked in Disney.)
- Kamiya says it was both fortunate and unfortunate that Mami Koyama (Big Mom) wasn't there with them in the booth (she recorded her part separately). Both Kamiya and Nakai agreed that they'd give up immediately if they were to confront against Mami Koyama somehow.
- Kamiya also noted that Big Mom used "ore" to call herself in the final scene ("I am Big Mom") - exerting dominance 💪 her falling scene was intentionally animated beautifully.
- 1066 was animated by people all over the world, so the time adjustments and language barrier was a challenge. Episode director Henry thurlow balanced it well. In his letter, Henry credited the animation director for adjusting a variety of art styles from all participating animators. It was his first time directing a One piece episode, in fact it's the first time a foreigner has directed an anime episode. He thinks the episode was successful.
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- Kamiya was calling Kidd "the extra budget man" for having his complicated-to-animate attacks costing extra budget 💸
-In the final scene vs Misery, Kamiya was asked to ad-lib breathing sound for Law. Kamiya immediately said "sure, got it". Regarding this, Kamiya said he loves doing ad-libs, it adds a little more life to the characters.
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- Finally, announcement for the upcoming Egghead arc debut in anime (Nakai was exhausted of reading letters so Kamiya took over to read director Nagamine's final letter lol)
- The Egghead arc would appear in a new artstyle. Unlike the serious WCI and Wano, there's a more relaxed, "fun adventure" vibe for the future adventure island. And the animators are finally free from the torture of drawing Kaido's scales (and the kimono design patterns) so they're in a relaxed mood having escaped wano 🌞 and entering "the cool future where zoro has long legs and wears dove shoes" 👢✨
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-(letter cont.) "..Also, about a certain change in Law! What will happen to his voice? It's an interesting future!"
Kamiya: Well, I just finished recording that. My voice is still cracking 😎 *nonchalantly continues reading*
Nakai: is it okay to spoil like that??
(fr Kamiya would not share Law's role with ANYONE even if he turns into a woman huh)
And that's it for the highlight!
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Doctor Who, but Chronologically: 45
It's 1974! I can practically feel Jon Pertwee.
But this is not a UNIT story - instead, we get a ghost story! Fun! Matt Smith is back but with Clara this time, and they're off to a giant country house, here played to perfection by Margam Park on the outside. Inside it's sporting Her From Call the Midwife and also actual literal Dougray Scott, so the acting quality skyrockets.
This seems to be early Clara, though. And hilariously, we just watched an Amy/Rory/River episode that went hard on the arc mystery for a story this watch order had already resolved for us; with Clara, though, we seem to be getting the mystery in real time. I think the only odd bits currently are (a) what did he mean about the souffles, and (b) why the fuck did she hang out with Capaldi. But this here is early Clara, still new to traveling, and the Doctor trying to work out what she "is".
The plot here is in two halves. The first half is a nice-looking but fairly toothless ghost story. Midwife lady and Dougray Scott are ghost hunters (or more accurately, he is; she's an empath trying to help the ghost), and they're in this big house because it's been haunted by a ghast since time immemorial. The Doctor and Clara just sort of turn up for a bit of a nose. There's a fun scene where Dougray Scott (I really cannot get over that this is real Dougray Scott holy shit) shows them his board of ghost photos and talks them through the ghost's history, which is fairly sparse, but the genuine Dougray Scott is the one acting it, so it's creepy as fuck anyway. Also Clara spots that the ghost is always in the same position in every photo. It's very good, I liked that bit.
Funnily enough, the rest of the ghost story is badly served because of this stupid watch order. Say what you like of this era but the previous episode with the Silents was genuinely creepy and scary and horrifying when it played with its "There's something in the room with us" moments, so this is more, you know, generic, just with Dougray Scott.
Then halfway through there's a scene that very neatly bisects the ghost story half of the episode and the generic sci-fi half. The Doctor and Clara jump in the TARDIS and take a photo of the ghost from the Earth's creation to its death so they can make a movie of it. This means they can see it's just some time traveller stuck in a pocket dimension running away from a sort of unspooled corpse trying to be a crab, but more importantly to US it means Clara has a moment of realising the existential dread of her own mortality, leading to a mildly trite conversation where she demands to know if she's just a ghost to the Doctor.
"No," he says. "You're the only mystery worth solving."
By contrast to the ghost story, that's actually well-served by this watch order. It makes it sound like he means humans in general, which would be sweet and also a fascinating character beat, rather than Clara specifically, which is unsettling and kind of intense for a first date.
Anyway the rest of the plot is them opening a portal to the pocket dimension (using the blue crystal from Metebelis 3! Which Matt Smith cannot pronounce! I said I could feel Jon Pertwee) and rescuing the time traveller from the unspooled corpse crab. There's a bit where the TARDIS is a dickhead to Clara; I like Clara, but I fucking adore TARDIS-as-character stuff, I'm an utter SLUT for it, so I was delighted. Why though? Who knows! A new plot thread!
And then the final five minutes becomes a lot of lacklustre romance between multiple characters, but I'm not criticising because two of those characters are unspooled corpse crabs. We go the whole episode not being properly shown them, and then right at the end Matt Smith goes back to the pocket dimension and is like "COME WITH ME! i'LL TAKE YOU TO HER!!!" :D :D :D
And then it finally rises behind him and it turns to look at him and
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well
I'll be honest I fucking howled. Best bit. Loved it.
And then the Doctor asks the psychic midwife what Clara is, and she's like "...that would be a normal human girl, asshole" as the double negative moodlet from the Sims appears over her head. So that mystery remains mysterious.
Let's update! No new threads, nothing resolved, one minor tweak.
“She” (an unknown person) is returning (perhaps River returned as Missy. Maybe Me? Maybe Clara???!)
There is something on Donna’s back
An entire planet, Pyrovilia, just… disappeared, somehow. (Maybe because the TARDIS is exploding??? Saturnine was also lost, and that WAS because of the TARDIS exploding. The lion man’s planet was also lost but he was a bit of a knob about it if I’m honest. The Thijarian planet was destroyed by some sort of impact). Is this the Flux?
Amy is maybe dead (she’s not)
The Doctor has been cubed (he’s out, but how?)
River is possibly blown up  (unless she’s Missy. Nope: she is definitely not blown up)
The TARDIS has blown up  (It’s fine now. Except it’s sort of melting now because it’s corrupted, but it’s fine again. NOPE, back to not working.)
The universe appears to have ended  (the universe is back again)
The Doctor has employed(?) Nardole
(And Nardole was “reassembled???” Nardole had glass nipples and invisible hair?? WHAT THE FUCK IS HE)
There’s a vault in the TARDIS and it contains Missy but we don’t know why (sometimes she knocks for the bants)
There’s an immortal Viking girl now. Her name is Me and she’s now looking after the people the Doctor abandons
Why was Rory entirely unconcerned by the entire world suddenly going silent when that is Not Normal and should have been, at the very least, extremely disconcerting?
What did the Doctor do to Queen Lizzie One?
Why is Amy seeing a one-eyed woman in a vanishing window? (She’s with the Silents, but we don’t know why Amy saw her)
Why is Amy’s pregnancy inconclusive? (Maybe because the baby had Time Lord DNA?) She’s deffo pregnant and the baby becomes River, but why inconclusive?
Who is Sarah-Jane Smith?
How is the Doctor Bill’s teacher and why/where does he have an office?
What is going on with the Cyber War and the Cyberium???
What happened with the Other Cyber War?
What happened with the Third War that deleted the void?
Why does Rose seem particularly important?
What order do these Doctors go in? (Eccleston, Tennant, uncertain, Smith, Capaldi, Whittaker)
Which companion just… forgot the Doctor, and how?
Yaz and Vinder are about to die as Mori/Mwri/Muuri (Not anymore, somehow)
There is a Lupari shield around Earth.
What’s a Time War?
What’s the Rift?
What’s Bad Wolf?
In which war did the Doctor become a war criminal, and how?
Who is the Master?
Why has Amy forgotten Rory? How did she forget a Dalek invasion?
Is Rory plastic or not?  Yeah, must be, he couldn’t possibly remember being plastic otherwise
Why is the Doctor sulking on a cloud?
How exactly does the Doctor have a cloud?
What exactly happened with Strax to, uh, tame him?
Which friend killed Strax?
Which friend brought Strax back?
Where did this lesbian lizard and human couple come from?
What happened with Clara as Souffle Girl and the Daleks?
How does Clara actually join?
Why so many Claras? NEW INFO: A psychic midwife says she's just normal human
Why is Missy apparently in robo-heaven?
Why is probably!Missy pushing Clara and the Doctor together?
What is Trensilor and what happened there?
Who is Handles?
The Doctor is about to be dissolved by a beautiful geode man
The universe is being crushed by the Flux
Will the Doctor open the fobwatch?
Sontarans are invading Earth again
Who is Kate?
Who is Osgood? Another name of Clara’s again?
The fuck is the deal with the Grand Serpent
Does Martha get to go to an ice cream planet with 12-fingered massage aliens?
How did the Doctor forget Clara?
Who is Bill’s puddle girlfriend Heather?
How did Nardole die?
When does Bill get Cyberman-ed and die?
When does the Doctor shrink and enter a Dalek called Rusty?
Whittaker is falling to her death rn
Was that ring relevant?
Does anyone know the Doctor’s name?
When did Yaz talk to Dan about fancying the Doctor?
When did Dan talk to the Doctor about fancying Yaz?
What’s happening with the bees?
What happened with Donna’s ex and a giant spider?
What war wiped out the Daleks, and is it one of the ones already mentioned?
What did the Doctor mean when he said “The (Daleks) always live, while I lose everything?”
If Dalek Caan is the last Dalek left why are there more now?
How did the rest of the Time Lords die?
How and why did Amy melt?
What’s the question that will make silence fall?
Why do the Silents… want silence to fall?
How and why are Silents at war with the Doctor when he… hasn’t even heard of them?
How does Hitler get out of the cupboard?
What’s the significance of fish fingers and custard?
Why does the Doctor feel guilt about Rose, Martha and Donna?
What happened with the space whale?
When does Rory defend Amy for 2000 years? Since Roman times, it seems
How does the Doctor survive River? He doesn’t, apparently
How does he erase himself from history
Did Captain Jack lose his memories to the same people as the Doctor? What did he lose?
When did the Doctor send the Daleks into a void to save the universe?
What’s with the weird crack in the wall and is it affecting memories?
Why do Amy and Rory think the Doctor is dead? Is it because of River as an astronaut?
Is Matt Smith’s Doctor a tree racist?
Why is the beautiful geode woman stealing people into a Passenger form?
River says she’ll die one day when the Doctor doesn’t remember her, let’s hope she doesn’t mean it
NEW INFO: why doesn't the TARDIS like Clara?
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The Problems with HOTD's Alicent
Hotd made a lot of interesting choices about their characterizations, especially when it comes to Alicent. First off, there's the obvious age change, which I know has been commented on a lot, so I'm not going to be talking about that in this post. What I'm going to talk about is the changes in her character itself (made supposedly in the name of feminism might I add) and why that hurts the story itself.
To start off: the constant victimization. Now, having Alicent being a victim of marital rape is not my issue, it was definitely not uncommon in the time period asoiaf is based on. My issue is turning it and her many other victimizations into one of her only personality traits. Literally Alicent's main traits are: Rhaenyra's former bff, victim of Otto, victim of Viserys, teen mom, and victim of Larys. Can everyone see the pattern? Victimization for the sake of it is disgusting and exploitative, and it's even worse when they, in order to fulfill the storyline created by grrm, turn her into an abuser herself. Like she has no development past the victim-abuser cycle and its depressing at best and enraging at worst. How is that feminist?
Now how does that hurt the story? Well I did allude to it above, but I say it clearly this time: it gives her no character arc and stunts one of the main characters which cripples any emotional tension the writers are trying to build. Rhaenyra in episode 8 may as well be talking to Alicent in episode 5, which is the last time we see Alicent develop at all. We see Rhaenyra change over the episodes, especially over the 10 year time skip, but Alicent remains the spiteful, paranoid girl she was at the end of episode 5. That's half the fucking season as a stagnant character! This wouldn't be so bad if she was a side character, like Harwin and Lyonel, but she's literally one of the main characters, how the fuck is this good writing?
Next change: turning Alicent's main motivation into protecting her children. This is something I like to call the Cersei effect: the belief that if your main female antagonist, just giving her the role of protective mom is all you need to make her nuanc3ed. Which is total bs and totally misses what exactly it was that makes Cersei an interesting antagonist. Actually they took more than just the children thing from Cersei, I think that's also where they got the marital rape, loveless marriage, and being called the ex's name from. But anyway, the reason this angle doesn't work (aside from it being fucking lazy) is because, in this story, Alicent helps start a fucking civil war. How the fuck does that protect her kids?? And on top of that, how does forcing your 13 y/o daughter to her 15 y/o abusive brother (and don't say Aegon wasn't an abuser yet, he was bullying and harassing Aemond long before the marriage) protect her? By keeping her close? What was she going to do, supervise them every time they're alone? Make sure Aegon is sober and not assaulting her? Basically what I'm getting at: Alicent's actions are completely counter-intuitive to her supposed main goal of protecting her children. And it shows since she had to live through all of them dying because of her and Otto's actions.
The reason that is harmful to the story is pretty much what I said above, but I'll say it more clearly here: if your antagonist/rival's actions are completely nonsensical with their goal, they are a bad antagonist/rival and the story is therefore lacking any real conflict. The only time Alicent's actions made some sense were in episode 7 when she attacked Rhaenyra, that was clearly years of resentment boiling over and anger over how Viserys reacted to her son's maiming. That is the only time I've ever found her compelling after episode 3.
All this to say: Alicent's hotd characterization makes no sense and it destroys any actual conflict beyond pettiness in the story, which completely ruins it. Thank you for reading this far, I know this was really fucking long.
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copiouscouples · 1 year
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Random Thoughts on the First 3 Episodes of Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies
This is a FUN show.
So far I’ve liked all the music. I didn’t think I was going to like the song about the country club but darn it if I wasn’t like this is a catchy song about how terrible you all are. 🤣
I’m loving the increase in diversity that’s going on in general in tv world (although I’d love to see more characters with disabilities in media, but we’re getting more than we used to with shows like Speechless and As We See It).
That said...I think there’s two ways to handle diversity successfully in historical fiction. 1) Go the Bridgerton route - mention it, but don’t make it a major theme. 2) Make it a major theme and handle it satisfactorily - either in a realistic way or in a way that gets resolved suitably.
In these first episodes, a major theme has been Jane and her family acclimating to Rydell and community. Her mom specifically has worries about it being found out that she’s Puerto Rican. I feel like this is very period typical and an accurate representation as frustrating as it is to watch someone who doesn’t feel free to accept and rejoice in their cultural heritage. I love that Jane wants to fight back against all that, but in the last episode - I was kind of disappointed how the whole thing got resolved. She sings a song in the diner and bada bing, bada boom her mom's suddenly OK with it all. Felt a bit quick and sloppy of a fix. But this show is about Jane and not her mom’s trauma. Overall, it’s not a big deal for me. I just was slightly irked by the sloppiness of the resolution.
Olivia - The most intriguing of the Pink Ladies so far for me. We’ve got a sliver of her backstory with the teacher, but outside of that we don’t know much about her yet. Plus I want to know was she in a full on relationship with this guy or did they kiss that once and got caught?
Nancy - Another character we need more info on. I like her general don’t give an F attitude, but I’d love to see more of her deeper thoughts and emotions. We’ve got a hint at that with how much she deeply cares about college and getting into fashion, but I’d like more.
Jane - This actress is my favorite singer on the show. Her “I Want More” song is my favorite song thus far. I know she’s the main character and that’s why we know more about her. But honestly she’s not all that interesting and I wish some of her screen time was given to the other girls.
Cynthia - She had a good storyline this episode. I felt it was a bit rushed, but I think drama is a great fit for this character and Principal McGee knew exactly what she was doing.
Hazel - She was introduced this episode and we got to know a little bit about her. I do feel for her and how homesick she is. I have and always will be here for the wallflower/shy girl trope.
Richie - Things are still kind of surface level with him, but right now he’s kind of a meh character for me. I like him well enough but the show’s writing hasn’t really developed him enough for me to care about him yet.
Buddy - Likely unpopular opinion here...I don’t hate him? At least not yet. I think he’s treated Jane terribly, but I see redemptive qualities in him. The fact he feels guilt, has some sense of self-reflection, and is uncomfortable with his choices shows me we could be in for a good character arc with him.
So that end scene, right? Totally seems to be foreshadowing a Hazel/Buddy romance. How would I feel if they went down that route? It depends on the chemistry of the couple. In fictional TV land, I can excuse a lot of misbehavior (even murder) if the couple is 🔥. Rio and Beth, anyone? That was a toxic dump of a relationship but watch me with my 👀 glued every week.
This show is very much love it or hate it. I think the people that are hating on it were hoping it would be an extension of the original Grease and while it gives nods to the original content - it’s its own entity.
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chaifootsteps · 5 months
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the music masterclass is so insane to me... aren't musical songs meant to be tied in to the plot? Wouldn't showing a season 3 song while half way through season 2 (and season 2 is going to go a whole extra year if sinmas is on Christmas) be a MASSIVE spoiler? He'd have been better off recording himself making a song and waiting til it was released and saying "this is how I made it!" or tracing his steps with the making of a released song but no one is joining that 7 hour, $99 class to learn how to write music, they just want the exclusive hb sneak peek and he knows it.
the main thing I'm getting from this is Viv gives him a small prompt like 'this ep is an ep about striker and I want a village mariachi band singing about how great he is like his personal bards' and thats ALL HE GETS and that's part of the musical failings of hb. The songs can never support or foreshadow plot because the song writer is not treated like a fellow writer who is brought into the loop on where the story is going and thats how you get songs like 'you will be OK' that get all the base details wrong about stolas.
In other series like Rebecca sugar series, she writes thr songs so they seamlessly integrate into her story and are continuations of the plot but in musical form. The sound design in TADC is unreal in backing the flow of the episode because goose was involved in both.
Even centaurword which I think will be Hazbin's closest contemporary (several songs an episode, only 18 episodes to work with), works because the songs are made to grow through the series along with the plot (each character has a song that transforms with several refrains that were obviously all planned from the start to demonstrate their personal journey/character arc) the utilization of seemingly nonsense songs that you realize foreshadowed EVERYTHING down the road when you have all the info is genius.
One more example is worthikids and big top burger (even though its not a musical) The first song literally tells you one character's entire backstory that gets revealed at the end of season 2 in the most unexpected of ways and you're left sitting their slack jawed thinking 'It was all connected!!!'
The fact that Sam can share his complete prompt from Vivzie and music making process for an episode an entire season away is a RED FLAG because it means he's not writing with the plot in mind (and if he is it's a terrible class because he has to keep so many of the details informing his decisions secret)
It also once again confirms to us he's full of sh*t when he goes on his soapbox and preaches to us about how off base our hh production speculations are because he knows almost as little as us and is a glorified fansong writer who can only work off the little crumbs Viv leaves for him and his general impression of the 'vibes of characters' (which is not his fault or a dismissal of his talents but rather, a further critique on how Viv sets her whole cast up to fail with disorganization and making up the story on the fly)
Well said. It's a colossal joke and a huge red flag, but we're talking about Viv stans, who would probably claim that "red flags are bad" is a statement that's been debunked.
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selfrinsert · 2 months
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💤 + weiss? 👁👁
THE PINING BEGINS HEHE
Timeline: Volume 7, Episode 5
Ris threw up another shield, just in time as Weiss’ knight summon brought its sword down on it. The yellow color shield shimmered and cracked, and Ris somersaulted out of the way before it could shatter on top of them. 
They were out of color energy, they could feel it, but between Weiss darting in with her rapier and her summon swinging around its sword, they didn’t have time to absorb more. 
Ris steeled themself, angling their broadsword to protect their torso. They *had* to get rid of that summon! They loosened up, stepping around, doing a pretty damn good job of dodging and blocking, Weiss’ sword clanging off of their own. They spotted their opportunity as the summon stepped forward, and swung their weapon in a powerful, wide arc. Once the knight’s leg buckled and began to disappear, they plunged their sword upwards into its chest, the momentum of it falling making the blow even more effective. 
“Hah!” Ris panted triumphantly as the knight turned to glittering dust around them. They spun, ready to end this duel, ready to *win,* but felt their feet go out from under them, and were swiftly met with the tip of Weiss’ rapier at their throat. She smirked down at them, tilting her head ever so slightly. 
They stared at each other in a brief stalemate, before Ris rolled their eyes, propping themself up on their elbows. “Alright, alright, you win.”
“Hah!” Weiss taunted with her hands on her hips, before straightening up and sheathing her rapier. “I told you I could beat you.” She offered Ris a hand. 
Two years ago, Ris would’ve scoffed and denied. But today, they smiled and took it, allowing the ex-heiress to help pull them to their feet. “Right, right…what is that, 5 to 1?” they grinned.
“3 to 1, at best! And it won’t be long until I’ve caught up to you.” Weiss folded her arms. She was so easy to rile up, and Ris had to admit they enjoyed it just a little bit. 
“Oh, we’ll see about that,” they checked their scroll, 10 o’ clock already? “Yeesh, it’s late.”
“How did the time go by so fast?” Weiss said, also pulling out her scroll. 
Penny and the rest of team RWBY *had* left the Atlas training room awhile ago. Ris pocketed their scroll, shifting their weight from one foot to the other. They watched Weiss check her messages, tucking a bit of white hair behind her ear. They were suddenly…nervous, being alone with her. Not at all a bad feeling, but their stomach doing somersaults couldn’t be a good thing. Right?
“How about…” Ris bit their tongue, but pressed forward, “how about I walk you back to your room?” They thought she would’ve scoffed, said she could handle herself just fine, but instead she smiled.
“Thank you.”
The two walked in silence, Weiss’ hand resting on the hilt of her sword, Ris’ hands held behind their head. 
“You’re a pretty good sparring partner, you know.” Ris blurted out. “I mean, I know you said you haven’t had the best track record one on one, but you’ve got a lot of tricks up your sleeve. Keeps me on my toes.”
Weiss laughed, “Well, you’ve been pretty good practice. I think I’ve learned how to keep a single target occupied now, so they can’t deal as much damage to me.”
They arrived at team RWBY’s door, all too soon. 
“Uh, have a good night,” Ris waved, unable to wipe the goofy smile off their face. 
Weiss brought a hand up to her mouth, stifling a giggle. “Sleep well, Ris.”
“You too,” Ris called before Weiss shut the door. 
*Agh, dummy! You were too earnest!* Ris pressed their palms to their eyes.
They lay awake in their bed, the sight of Weiss tucking her hair behind her ear playing in their head over and over. 
________
Weiss hardly noticed, but she was smiling at the floor, and let out a contented sigh after the door closed behind her. 
“Well, well, well!” Ruby grinned, chin in her hands as she lay on the top bunk. 
Blake and Yang had matching grins, the former propped up in bed with a book and the latter brushing her teeth. 
“Late night with Ris, huh?” Yang teased. 
“Wha-” Weiss looked up, immediately flushed, “Not like that! We just lost track of time sparring, that’s all.”
“Suuure,” Ruby giggled. Blake laughed, holding her book up so only her eyes were showing.
“I- I can’t believe you three!” All ganging up on her like that! “Me? And Ris? You’ve *got* to be joking,” Weiss tossed her head, striding to the bathroom. 
Yang just smiled, shook her head, and put her toothbrush away, joining the other two in the room. 
Weiss stared at herself in the mirror for a moment. Her and Ris?
No, she doubted Ris felt the same sort of butterflies…and besides, she had other things to worry about. 
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