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makeste · 1 year

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BnHA Episode 122, a.k.a. NOBUHIKO YOU'VE DONE IT AGAIN

THEY CAN'T KEEP LETTING HIM GET AWAY WITH IT!

oh my god.

so first off, let's just get the one big major criticism out of the way: this episode was definitely not up to the same high quality standards as the first third of this season. and hey, I get it! you're doing 24 episodes in all, you're on a time crunch, and you've only got so many animators to go around. and the quality of some of these earlier season 6 eps (118 and 119 especially) was seriously some of the best this series has ever had. by contrast, chapters 284 and 285, while still easily ranking among my favorite chapters of all time, definitely do not go as hard with the visuals as some of the other War arc chapters (that very last 285 page being the one standout exception).

anyway so yeah, it was still a slight disappointment, but I'm fine with it. it does mean Deku vs Kacchan 2 will still retain its crown as my all time fave, but the real meat of this episode was never going to be about the flashy visuals -- it's all about that sweet, sweet character development.

two more very minor criticisms before I get to the OMG nonstop gushing part of this post! one, they did cut out this scene from ch 282 where Tomura originally had TWO quirk-be-gone bullets in his possession and Kacchan actually destroyed the second one.

YOU THOUGHT WE WOULDN'T REMEMBER, BONES. BUT WE DID. so for everyone who is giving Kacchan his well-earned love, praise, and admiration today, don't forget to also give him props for saving Aizawa's other leg, or whichever other appendage this doubtless would have hit. my boy out here lowkey saving his sensei from being ReDestro'd.

and then one final nitpicky little quibble, which is that the anime subtitlers declined to use the "Catch-A-Kacchan" translation, despite it being the single cleverest translation of all time, and by far Caleb Cook's biggest and most important contribution to the BnHA canon. alas, twas not meant to be. BUT ANYWAY NOW ON TO THE GUSHING.

okay so first off, we all know that Aizawa is an absolute badass and the most metal motherfucker in this entire series, and that Shouto has by this point all but perfected the art of swooping in to save the day at pivotal moments, and that the U.A. kids all need ALL OF THE THERAPY GODDAMMIT, and that Deku is a COMPLETE LUNATIC who thinks that HAVING FUNCTIONAL ARMS IS OVERRATED ANYWAYS. yes and yes and yes and yes. and if you wish, you can read all about my thoughts on these things and more, here and here and here and here.

but you already know what I actually came here to talk about today.

first of all, YOU GUYS. the music. THIS FUCKING MUSIC, THOUGH. they used the exact same OST track that was used for the "why was I the one who ended All Might?" speech all the way back in DvK2. THIS IS OFFICIALLY THE "TIME FOR NOBUHIKO TO FLEX HIS VOICE ACTING CHOPS" MUSIC. A TRADITION HAS BEEN BORN.

anyway so if anyone needs me I'll just be sitting here playing this scene on repeat until the end of time. no big deal though. I can quit at any time. not like I'm obsessed with it or anything. I definitely love this scene and this character a perfectly normal amount.

All Might talking about how Katsuki understood from the get-go about how OFA was a secret that could put other people at great risk really hits hard in hindsight. especially when you realize that Katsuki really did know right from the start, and he willingly accepted that risk with no hesitation, and he absolutely did suffer consequences for it (it was his knowledge of OFA that led to him following Deku and subsequently getting involved in this battle). and I don't doubt that he has absolutely zero regrets.

okay but can we seriously just talk for a sec about the way Kacchan's anxiety is practically boiling over when he starts to ask All Might about the Fourth's cause of death?? I feel like this is one thing that kind of got overlooked at the time in the manga because we were so completely distracted by EVERY SINGLE OTHER DAMN THING IN THAT CHAPTER lol. but hearing it again here, you feel how worried he actually is about Deku, and idk why but it all of a sudden just hit me so damn hard.

"I'm worried about him. you are, too." because that truly is what this whole conversation is really about. or at least that's the driving force behind it. behind this whole episode, in fact. it's simple, when you get right down to it: Kacchan is afraid that Deku is going to die. it's literally been the biggest fear on his mind ever since Deku unlocked SIXQUIRKS. right from the start, his mind was immediately going to the worst case scenarios. he immediately deduced that OFA might have a deeper connection to AFO than any of them realized (shoutout to Kacchan for being the original "Deku is a horcrux" truther lol. ONE DAY HORIKOSHI WILL FINALLY REVEAL THE TRUTH AND PROVE US RIGHT). he instantly zeroed in on the sobering fact that all of the previous OFA users died young. and as he reveals here, he took particular notice of the fact that All Might seems to be hiding something about OFA IV's death, and he is goddamn PRESSED about it.

and I absolutely LOVE the way that Nobu voiced this part of the conversation. when he starts to question All Might, his breathing starts to pick up a little, and his voice starts to get louder, and the words start to spill out faster and faster almost like he's in a rush to get it all out, and his voice starts to crack just a little, and he goes from not looking at All Might to hesitantly, almost fearfully glancing at him from the side, and then finally turning to face him head on with his eyes all wary and his teeth gritted like he's bracing himself for the very worst (because he is).

and then he finally just asks him, "was it because you realized something?" and then he takes in this achingly hesitant little breath before finishing with, "...about One for All?" and just. the whole scene is just SO well done. like, he's seriously so fucking scared about this, though. but at the same time he just needs to know, and just. oh my god. and Nobuhiko manages to emote all of this so clearly, and that is such a difficult line to walk when you're dealing with a character like Katsuki who's always so hesitant to show his vulnerability. he has to portray these two separate layers of Bakugou at the same time -- the part of him that is trying his hardest to be nonchalant and matter-of-fact in order to hide his fears and emotions; while at the same time also portraying said emotions which are clearly seeping through anyway, regardless of his efforts.

anyway so yeah. I could talk about this for eighty years and never get sick of it honestly but let's move on.

let me tell you guys, I've been bracing myself for this scene for two full years, and it still kicked my ass. THIS SCENE HAD NO REGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE. literally RIGHT IN the feels. direct hit.

"he's always been that way." no, but guys. the regret when he says that. the way he states it with such simplicity and clarity. almost profound. this is just a truth of the world. this is just how Deku is. this is something that took him so long to understand, but now that he does, he can't fathom how he was never able to see it before. and then that ever-so-slight bitterness that creeps into his voice as he goes on to describe how he fucked it all up. ;_;

and then last but not least!!

"ijimeta." one word, in Japanese. it all comes down to that. and his voice gets so quiet. this whole last part of his speech is so quiet and so soft. but when he says this very last part, his voice wavers perfectly on that last word, and it just. sounds so resigned, somehow, but also just... almost faltering, for just a moment. you can hear the regret as clear as day, but you also hear the fear once again as he finally reveals this fact -- literally his biggest shame; the worst thing that he's ever done -- to All Might. his hero. just, damn.

anyway. so needless to say, despite my expectations being SKY HIGH, this scene absolutely met all of them and blew me away. as expected from the best fucking voice actor in Japan, according to me, a single lone person, whose subjective opinion is absolutely definitely not biased in any possible way.

back to the action! and Nobu getting to do his very best Deku impression lol.

can you believe this kid. one single nerdy analysis speech was all it took for him to start emitting such powerful Main Character Energy that even Endeavor got taken in and was just automatically following orders lol.

awesome choice of music here while Deku and Tomura continued to battle and Bakugou laid out his plan. you know it's good when they still manage to make you feel the tension even though this is basically just a generic action scene, and you additionally already know exactly what's going to happen.

I have no idea why, but that part with Deku's "Kacchan... my 'Deku' means 'you can do it!'" speech juxtaposed against the image of him going all out against Tomura with such fierce determination hit me like 100x harder than it did in the manga. I was NOT expecting that to be as powerful as it was. damn near gave me chills.

literally the only time I've ever been on board with the whole "FUCK YEAH, I'LL JUST BREAK ALL MY BONES AT YOU!!" deal lol. it literally makes no goddamn sense but this scene is just so raw.

THEN WE YEET THE ENDEAVOR!!!!

SO ON-BRAND. NO DEKU-INSPIRED PLAN IS EVER TRULY COMPLETE WITHOUT A GOOD YEETING.

and then the next few moments are some of the most legitimately unsettling of the entire series, as we have Tomura screaming at the top of his lungs while being burnt to cinders (and I mean, I love Tomura dearly, but I get it; he literally just Thanos'd tens of thousands of innocent people), followed by AFO's creepy fucking ghost hand reaching out all "LEND ME YOUR BODY~~~" which is a scene that absolutely NO ONE ASKED FOR but okay.

but then right afterwards though! when AFO finally did take over, and you hear that "TV shutting down" sound effect all of a sudden? and then the next few scenes with all the BKDK flashbacks are also weirdly TV-themed? I could not for the life of me figure this out at first, but now I'm actually thinking it could be a reference to the chapter 306 color page?

OR MAYBE NOT? I actually have no idea. anyway though it may have been random af but it worked for me, what can I say.

AND THEN THE MOMENT OF TRUTH AT LONG LAST.

THIS ACTUALLY IS SO PRETTY THOUGH?? LIKE I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT COLOR COMBINATION AT ALL?

AND IT HAPPENS SO QUICKLY!!!!??? YOU BARELY EVEN HAVE TIME TO BLINK?!?!!

oh. my. god.

THE WAY THE MUSIC SUDDENLY GOT QUIET. THE WAY HIS NARRATING VOICE CAME ON AND, PRAISE EVERYTHING, IT REALLY WAS DEEPER. THAT REALLY WAS THE ADULT HIM. SAME AS DEKU. MY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS ARE SO FUCKING MUCH RIGHT NOW.

AND THEN THE FLASHBACKS!! THE SCENES OF THEM IN MIDDLE SCHOOL!! AND GROUND ZERO!! AND THEN CUTTING TO THE TWO OF THEM AS LITTLE BABIES, AND THE TV SCREEN ALL OF A SUDDEN SWITCHING TO COLOR??? AND THE HANDS??? THE REACHING?!?!

AND THEN?!?!?!

"HEY MAKESTE, IF WE GO AHEAD AND ACTUALLY MAKE THE VOLUME 29 COVER CANON, WILL YOU FINALLY FORGIVE US FOR ALL OF THE HALF-BAKED PAINFULLY OOC FILLER EPISODES AND OVAS?" WELL, STUDIO BONES, YOU DRIVE A HARD BARGAIN, BUT HOW CAN I POSSIBLY REFUSE.

AND THEN THEY FULL ON MURDERED ME!!!!!

that's right bitches. DREAD IT. RUN FROM IT. THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT ARRIVES ALL THE SAME.

holy shit. and then THE END CREDITS oh my freaking heart. words can't even describe.

Studio Bones out here not resting until they've succeeded in making EVERY SINGLE PERSON feel the MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF SADNESS THAT A HUMAN BEING CAN SUSTAIN. their callousness truly knows no bounds.

anyway so there we have it! part one of the spectacular season 6 Bakugou Katsuki Redemption Saga. I laughed, I cried, I cried, I cried, I cried a little bit more, and then I cried a little bit more after that. final verdict: yeah, it was pretty good.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha season 6 #bnha episode 122 #bakugou katsuki #bakugou meta #makeste watches bnha #okamoto nobuhiko appreciation post #and I feel character development in this chili's tonight

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livepoultryfreshkilled · 6 months

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just watched the meromorphic video essay (x) on morel orel. disappointed, and here's why:

surface level interpretation overall despite over an hour runtime, bad pacing

got some unspoken but clearly shown plot points wrong (orel did not KILL CHILDREN FOR THEIR BLOOD. it was obviously him getting his friends to drain their own blood into the bath. they were all shaking and holding their wrists over the tub. missing a key detail like that makes me doubt his takles on this media entirely)

heiniously underacknowledged the complexities of alone (ms sculptham wasn't just raped, she was part of her own plot to get creepler i think cause there was a whole thing about her dying her hair, "i just left the door unlocked," and he didn't even mention that she got an abortion with a coathanger. come on)

NITPICKY, ADMITTEDLY: cited a personal reddit post on representation of rape victims in media, which was not enough of an analysis of rape culture or the episode to serve as a source. but its a personal video essay he can get jiggy with it but i disliked it PERSONALLY. the post did make good points about how joking about rape in the previous seasons was greenlit but addressing the effects of that rape on the women got the show cancelled, but that wasn't even mentioned in the essay and it SHOULDVE BEEN

claimed it to be a criticism of "Southern Baptists in the Bible Belt" when it is explicitly portraying MIDWESTERN. american middle class nuclear family WASPs. SPECIFICALLY. the lack of faith, the prioritization of protestant work ethic and money, the structure of the puppington family (especially clay, literally a deconstruction of the glass of scotch pipe belt whupping american father) and like. the entire everything being about MIDWEST WASPs was key to the portrayal of the show. "southern baptists in the bible belt" come the fuck on

acted like it was a reveal that bloberta was racist? they're literally all racist. this is a portrayal of the ideal white supremacist WASP society. monoracial. they push this idea from the jump they are all racist dude to act like season 2 was where it showed up and saying thats the example of the tonal shift is just. naive at best.

used the concept of "whoa they were clay puppets with silly names but the show was serious and dark" as a justification for the vice quote/thesis "moral orel walked so shows like bojack horseman and rick & morty could fly"

which is a stupid way of saying it opened the doors not only for adult animation reaching darker topics but taking those topics seriously (as opposed to stuff like robot chicken) and executing them artistically anyway

but that isnt even a compelling justification, i wish he had gone more into the fact that the show was cancelled BECAUSE of that episode and that there was a followup episode called "Raped" that contributed to that. like if you're going to make your thesis imply the presence of meta-analysis FOLLOW UP ON THAT! not just that you personally drawing the conclusion of "the show is about dark things and everyone is sad" the show is about REAL things the show is about americana!

and bitch i could say more too. 2/5 stars. pedestrian. and so ends my catechism.

#moral orel #meromorphic #video essay critique #aries.doc

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fateviled · 1 year

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full spoilers for s2 under the cut so don't perceive if you haven't watched but-

i spent the first half of the season thinking 'if i just don't think about it in terms of the books, but as it's own stand-alone thing it's fine, right? im being nitpicky about it because i want what i already know, right?' god i really wish that was the case. there were things about it that i really liked, and things that made absolutely no sense, and things that just felt insulting to watch with my own two eyes.

unfortunately, right now i can't think about what i did like because im just so disappointed lmao, so what i hated:

everything, absolutely everything, felt rushed. they didn't give you a second to breathe before throwing in the next plotline. what do you mean the pekka rollins plotline was fixed in 3 and a half episodes when that was supposed to be kaz's big bad to overcome? the fun moments between alina and mal where they feel like they're believably, fully in love? never heard of them. who is the suffocating feeling of mal being trapped in a palace watching the girl he loves pass him by? i heard of her but i never saw her!!

it escaped my view the first few times it happened but it genuinely felt like they threw in book quotes blindly just for fan service in places where they didn't fit, and in turn we lost all meaning of what the quotes are supposed to mean. it happened more times than i can actually look back and find a specific one, but specifically, mal's lines declaring his love for alina just felt... god, flat? forced? i'll get into that more later.

we got to see more of zemini and shu han cultures, and that was great for the few seconds it lasted... but why were our actual shu han characters reduced to mere two-dimensional characters? what was the point of making tolya's love for poetry nothing more than a gag for laughs? tamar was missing for so long in the trilogy sequence that i entirely forgot she was with nikolai and the gang and couldn't remember if she'd gone with the crows or not. her and nadia's romance? if you can even call it that. these were supposed to be integral characters to the og trilogy and they were so completely absent that they might as well have not been cast.

david. i'm not saying anything else. just. david?

jesper's trauma over hiding who he is is solved by a hallucination sequence and his mom saying it's okay, following a short conversation with a saint who didn't even get an ounce of his life story, and just immediately rushing into 'being grusha'. like, damn. i need me therapy that effective.

speaking of jesper, please dear god that wesper felt entirely like fanservice and bait and not at all the vibes of the book version of what they are and? also felt like a slap in the face considering the lack of tamar and nadia content we received. once again, just say you hate lesbians and like to use gay men to sell.

this list could really go on forever.

no because i'm mad about the disrespect put on tamar and nadia's names and it felt like tolya was purposely given more screentime with the crows while the only lesbian rep was left out of the process altogether.

the mal specific issues, which we all knew were coming.

i didn't hate the ending of his arc/beginning of his new adventure. in fact, it felt like a necessary step toward who he is as a person and giving him that choice felt like understanding his character. but it felt like understanding book mal, not at all the show's boy we see who would just choose alina over and over again. we were robbed of seeing mal at his most comfortable on the ship to novyi zem, about how naturally he fits in around people and how trapped and stifled he was in palace life. in rushing everything, we weren't given characterization that is integral to understanding who mal is. what drives him, what he was giving up. what he gained by getting that choice in the end.

just slap me across the face with a brick that says 'mal is the amplifier.' really, it would have been more subtle than everything the show did. i know a lot of people complained about how it came out of nowhere in the books but, really? there was no suspense, no crushing realization when baghra reveals it. even if you didn't know, you would have known well before that.

i still don't get why the mal/zoya stuff was removed. explain that to me. why could this man not have a relationship with someone that wasn't alina? and what was so wrong about letting him be flawed like he was throughout s&s?

i hate to say it but it felt like malina just wasn't the vibe here. with the quick pacing of everything, these two didn't get to have any actual intimate moments that weren't forced to include book quotes, and maybe there was a reason for that. but why give us s1 malina if you were just gonna disappoint like that? i genuinely don't get it.

there's still so much i think about it but it's making me more upset so i'll leave it here for now but GOD.

tl;dr the lack of tamadia was purposeful homophobia, the pacing wasn't it, and i think i'm entitled to financial compensation for what i just experienced.

#╰ 𝙾𝙾𝙲 ╯ ⋯ himbo energy but like ‚ lesbian #grishaverse spoilers #s&b spoilers #i just [screams into the void]

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deeeepsteep · 2 years

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I also adore s2! Can I ask what you dislike about s4? I thought Tyrell’s and Angela’s endings were abrupt but other than that it was a pretty good conclusion

Wooooo I always get so happy when I find another season 2 lover! It’s such a shame that so many people dropped the show because of it because they’re definitely missing out.

One of the biggest issues I have with season 4 is its pacing. It feels very choppy and abrupt compared to the other 3 seasons which flow so well within the context of their plot lines. The big info dump they launch on you in the final episode with the Mastermind felt really rushed to me. They literally dump all this info about him like…half an hour before the show ends lol. My justification for it is that it’s because we’re supposed to put ourselves in the Mastermind’s shoes and we’re supposed to feel like this is all very sudden, new information because that’s what he feels like, and of course when you rewatch the show you catch all the hints and foreshadowing and stuff, but I still don’t like how that was handled. The show did such a great job with its bigger reveals before. This one felt sloppy to me.

I know Mr. Robot is pretty mind bending, and you’re supposed to take a lot of things with a grain of salt, but even season 4 was a little too unbelievable to me. The 405-409 stretch takes places within 24 hours (Christmas Day)…which is just…I don’t know. Too much happens in these episodes and I find it hard to believe that the characters are able to handle THAT much within a single day. There are also a lot of things about 405 and 409 that just straight up wouldn’t happen lol, or it would take a lot longer to do. Up until this season the show had a strong dedication to making things as realistic as they possible could within the realms of its own universe, especially with the hacking and stuff, so this was kinda disappointing - but again, this is just me nitpicking. At the end of the day it’s a TV show - a piece of fiction. Anything can happen I suppose.

Everyone and their brother praises 407 for being the best episode in the series - and don’t get me wrong, it’s a phenomenal episode for so many reasons that have been explained billions of times, but personally for me I think there are better episodes in the show. I also don’t really like how they did the “big reveal” in this episode. Therapists typically guide their patients to the truth, rather than dictating suggestions to them like what Krista did, because doing so has the possibility of implanting false memories or you can severely re-traumatize your patient. I also struggle with repressed traumatic memories and you have to be VERY careful when you’re dealing with a patient who has them because of the reasons I just listed. It just doesn’t feel like it was handled as well as the other therapy scenes in earlier seasons. I guess you can use the excuse of Vera holding them at gunpoint so they’re forced to step outside the box and do a little unconventional therapy, but yeah. It didn’t sit well with me - especially when Krista just…leaves him in 408. A therapist or any mental health professional wouldn’t just let someone like Elliot who had a giant breakthrough wander off into the city by himself in the middle of the night. Again, this is just me being nitpicky.

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lovecolibri · 2 years

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Things that did NOT Spark Joy-4x09

*deep sigh* I started these episode posts on Wednesday night after I finished the episode and then just...didn’t look at them again until today because I’m just...so, so tired. So tired of the disappointment and bad writing and waiting for anyone to be allowed to care about Alex for more than a second or two at a time. Anyway, if you want to see the gems plucked from the muck, that post is here, otherwise, welcome to my salt gremlin din of despair.

First up on the List Of Sins, Liz is alone in the lab with Shivani when the episode ends, but the next one starts in full panic mode with NO explanation of how they even knew anything was wrong. It would have flowed better I think if the previous episode ended with Max calling and hearing his voicemail asking where she is playing over the scene of her laying on the ground inhaling the mist, or have a cut of the rest of the group trying to get ahold of her or something and being worried and bursting in and seeing Liz and Shivani collapsed in the lab. It would have made starting with them in the middle of the rescue make more sense. YES it’s nitpicky but this is the pacing issues people are always talking about that that the show has always struggled with and it’s irritating that it’s never been even attempted to be addressed.

It’s nice to see that everyone is allowed to know something is up with Liz and drop everything to deal with her (except Kyle which, honestly good for him) while Alex has spent the last eight weeks in a hole in the desert without anyone being allowed to care or drop anything to go rescue him. Plus everyone was allowed to worry about Bonnie and Dallas going missing and Heath is allowed to drop med school to come help Liz and hear news about Dallas he could have gotten at home and then chose to leave med school for but it was that important to him to get news in person about his soulmate brother while Michael is still guilt-tripped for leaving a room full of people working on Liz to be the sole person to go look for his boyfriend who easily could have died of dehydration by now. I hate it here.

Also we find out that the writers DO know how phone calls work and how to work in a missing character when the actor isn’t available, they just actively chose not to do so with Alex. Love that for us 🙄

I enjoyed the “Wild West” theme, but rather disappointed they didn’t lean harder into the Cowboys and Aliens genre instead.

The absolute double standard of Michael being shamed and guilt-tripped these last two episodes every time he tries to care about and go after Alex, vs the show allowing Max to do exactly the same thing is...VERY loud.

I guess Alex got a little shout out in the missing posters but it’s kinda gross seeing him on the same level as a member of the dark triad who made Michael sick (which with basically no immunity to human viruses could have killed him but I doubt we’ll even get an explanation on why Michael was the only one to get sick since Max didn’t and Bonnie said it never happened before since it was clearly only an excuse to have m*ria taking care of Michael and to give Liz something to do, instead of having her and the whole group working this whole time on how to get to the other dimension to save Alex. ANYWAY, I digress), and it’s also weird that either a) the writers forgot they gave Dallas a last name (it’s Haines), or b) that Liz never bothered to learn his last name. But that would mean admitting that almost none of these people actually care about each other because the show would rather have pointless drama with guest stars than focus on building relationships with their mains and instead just tell us these people care about each other while often showing us quite the opposite.

Why would you die in the real world if the person's mind you're in dies, instead of just getting ejected? I know that was a thing for *drama* last season when they were trying to save m*ria, though instead of it being used as a reason to pull m*ria out, it was actually a way for her to continue to put people in danger for selfish reasons and to get info Alex already had, so ya know? I guess that tracks for why it’s happening again now 🤷🏻‍♀️ Liz apparently needs to have Max be in danger in order to get anything done which is...certainly A Choice for a show that tries to claim it’s soooo feminist.

As nice as it was that we got Heath back for a minute the WHOLE premise of this is so, SO stupid. He has to drop everything to help Liz while people are keeping from him what happened to Dallas (though at least he’s allowed to be mad about it) but also there’s this whole Rosa connection? Why do they even need that when he HAS a connection with Dallas and that should have been a good enough reason to contact him and get him involved! I think it would have been more fun for someone to call him about Dallas and mention what’s going on with Liz, and then seen him pacing around his house, and then an airport or something, split screen with Michael, or Isobel (since she’s been doing surgery with Kyle and all, and Heath talking them through what he thinks needs to be done. I’m so baffled at this show constantly inventing random connections between people out of nowhere when they don’t need them!

I absolutely get the urge to have Sanders show up in the Old West theme, but if they were gonna do that, then the bottle breaking should have involved Michael as well as Liz which would also have given us a reason for Michael NOT going after Alex. Otherwise it was just so random having him in LIZ’S mindscape when she’s never spoken to him before on the show!

The “Kyle as a horse” thing has been mentioned before but I’d be remiss if I didn’t put it here, that the writers accidently gave us the perfect visual of how Liz has since the very beginning, thought of Kyle as a tool to be wielded. It’s also interesting how Michael shows up as basically a lackey to help Liz with whatever she needs because he’s just soooo grateful for how her and Max have looked out for him all this time, but also how he acts impulsively, and his hotheaded, cocky attitude about avenging someone he cares about leads to his death. I’d say this was purposeful but the writers have proved over and over again that anything good that comes out of this show was entirely by accident and they work very hard to then undermine that stuff so it’s far more likely they are just as tone deaf as Liz when it comes to what is happening here.

Again, far more eloquent people than me have talked about how ridiculous the scene is with Rosa and Michael. First, guilting him into staying to help save Liz when he’s not actually needed (they called Kyle before, call him again, and let the two actual medical people hash out what needs to happen. We don’t even see Michael working with Heath so what even was the reason for all this?), and when he IS needed to look for Alex since NO ONE is currently doing that, and 5 people, 6 including Kyle, are there to help Liz. Second, throwing how they as terrified kids who thought they were the only 3 aliens on the planet and had ZERO support and quite a lot of fear about being discovered handled covering up her death. While it’s something she does have every right to be upset about the ramifications of, it’s something that wasn’t done with malicious intent and something Michael has been the only one to really apologize to her about. But also, it’s something that has absolutely zero bearing on what is currently going on because third, Max just made an impulsive decision to jump into the mindscape after Liz but gets a pass while Michael is told that HIS impulsivity (which would really be impulsive as he has for sure been working on a plan since the night before when they told him he couldn’t go right that second) would help “no one”, when he’s actively going to look for 3 people who are missing! It sure AF would help them! And fourth, the reasoning that she needed to go to Heath, he sisters ex hook-up for help on her powers is SO far out of left field! a) when would either of them, but especially Heath being in med school and all, have time to meet up and train regularly, and b) I get her not wanting to work with Liz, Max, or Isobel because they were never able to really help her, but Michael did! He was the one to really help her get her powers under control last season and they worked SO well together! AND that would have been a great way to keep Rosa’s name mentioned and what’s going on with her in episodes Amber wasn’t available to film for if Michael was talking about working with her and what they’re working on. Because again, Heath is already connected to them through Dallas and Dallas has gone missing! There wasn’t a need to connect him further through Rosa and it’s really freaking weird seeing every be cool about it when Rosa is barely out of her teens, Heath put her brother Kyle into a coma and Rosa was never allowed to react to that and has clearly just been forced to forget about it, and Heath was actively sleeping with her sister within the last year.

Was Shivani supposed to be Allie all along, but Shiri was too expensive/busy? Because it would make sense for the two of them to end up in the mindscape together then and explain why she’s the only one who isn’t fully “in” this world and knows what Liz’s quest is supposed to be. It would also explain why Shivani was conveniently not affected or around while they worked to save Liz. But also, I’m a little confused about Allie being the “reasonable” one trying to get Liz back on track to confront her issues when a few episodes ago Liz was told by Shivani how Allie was so buried in the science she forgot everything else, and it showed Liz a mirror to her worst impulses and what she didn’t want to be. So which is it? Is Allie the wise mentor telling Liz to face her issues, or a cautionary tale of what Liz could become if she lets her fear take over? Either way, we only needed one of them (Shivani OR Allie) and waaaaay less screen time for whichever one we got.

Love that neither Isobel or Kyle are allowed to talk to people who actually love, support, and care about them about what’s going on with them and instead get stuck with m*ria as another invented thing for her to do 🙄 we should have seen Kyle talking to Alex last season, and Isobel talking to Michael or Max this season instead. This show comes up with the WEIRDEST pairings for important conversations instead of focusing on the dynamics we know and love.

I’m still cackling about the show still trying to force this narrative that one of the most selfish characters they have is the “heart”. Sure Jan. Also, love that this group of people is dubbed “family” when she’s never spoken to Sanders before (and if they needed someone to be “grit” why not have ALEX who can certainly show up in her mind even if he’s missing in real life?), and Heath is her ex that she used and then treated terribly, and never mentioned again (also isn’t SHE the brains?).

I am IRRITATED that we got that cool shot of someone snapping Clyde’s neck, and I couldn’t even fully enjoy it because it was all about “boss babe” m*ria when we didn’t even get to see Rosa putting up a fight, she just dies off screen.

I’m confused when they spent all this time on Evil!Liz making it clear that Max was holding her back, why they’re telling us that Evil!Liz loves Max too and the argument is Evil!Liz needs to win so she can protect Max.

Liz being worried about making the perfect life and having it taken away so she’s just keeping herself from being happy is...just a touch hard to sympathize with right now when we’ve seen Malex from the start just wanting to be together and being forced apart by circumstance (NOT by differing opinions and moral stances like Echo always seem to be), and wanting to not waste any more time, and then Alex getting quicksanded for weeks. 🤷🏻‍♀️ And maybe both her and Michael being “powerless” (her figuratively, him literally) to protect their soulmates would have been a cool story to tell IF we had them going on in tandem all season but alas, that would require having a plan, and allowing our main characters to work with each other instead of guest stars and apparently we can’t have that.

I actually didn’t totally hate Max this episode (I hate that the writers made me hate him at ALL, but here we are). He’s always at his best when he’s helping Liz and, this time he gets to be the damsel in distress, leaving clues for her to find him and talking to her about not giving in to her fears. He’s also a little insecure and sad to think that he’s the thing holding her back, which would all hold more weight if he wasn’t actually holding her back and we saw these things outside of just this moment instead of this weird push by the show for her to give up her dreams and live in Roswell forever.

Still pissed about Heath no homo-ing him and Dallas after that very soulmate-y speech earlier so the show can continue to insinuate this hella awkward thing with Rosa 🙄

The final, and perhaps MOST egregious sin in this rather long List Of Sins this episode committed, has to be taking all urgency away from Michael about looking for Alex and having him chilling by a firepit with his ex talking about how they need to make a plan or something to go look for their missing friends (NOT mentioning Alex specifically), while....not actively doing ANYTHING but hanging out with his ex while his boyfriend dies of dehydrations probably since it’s been more than 3 days at this point and we don’t even know if there’s water down there. Literally WHOMST, after aaaaalll the backlash during season 2, and the continued backlash in season 3 for not addressing the issues with m*ria and actually making them worse, thought that not only burying Alex for more than half the season was a good idea, that not allowing Michael to care/worry about Alex missing for over half the season was a good idea, but also that paring Michael up with m*ria of ALL fucking people, was a good idea?! (insert *gif of El yelling “was that a right choice at papa* here since I couldn’t find one in the .5 seconds I searched) It’s been disgusting the way they have wedged her into this storyline just to have something to do. The best thing I can say is that there are only 4 episodes left, and that whatever Tyler and Vlamis have for us in the finale drop will be better than anything the show has given us for them, ever.

Link to previous episode posts: 4x01, 4x02, 4x03, 4x04, 4x05, 4x06, 4x07, 4x08

#rowell nm #roswell spoilers #things that did not spark joy #4x09 #anti maria deluca #not really anti any other character but jesus h christ the writers screwed everyone over

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jiamiuxin · 6 months

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to your eternity review (anime spoilers!)

i just finished season 2 and wow. just wow

i feel like my initial thoughts about it were "pleasantly surprised" because it took a turn i didn't expect it to. at first i thought it going to be like a collection of short stories about the human experience as fushi collects more vessels. i was really happy that there was an overall story instead. i lowkey had to let it cook but regardless i'd still enjoyed it that way

i greatly appreciate the anime built fushi from the bottom up. remembering when he was just joann the wolf at the beginning who couldn't speak and just wandered the world after march died is crazy comparing him to after the battle at renril

i really just have endless praise for this anime. not hypersexual, has action, emotional, good ensemble, unique story. the pacing is overall good too. i think it's one of the few anime i'd genuinely feel comfortable recommending to non-anime watchers; it's not too over-the-top in any way but i think it still retains the anime charm

if i had to be nitpicky i got frustrated with fushi a few times. fool me once shame on u fool me twice shame on me type kinda thing. wah wah wah "fushi is basically 5 years old" like yeah he's inexperienced like a 5 y/o in some aspects but he can articulate and learn beyond a 5 y/o. fushi did some bs later on in the story when it had been like either decades or centuries and i was like yeah yall silent on this now huh. but im overall pleased with how he is by the end of season 2. feels crazy to even try to compare him to the beginning

a little analysis/commentary

parts of the humanity fushi experienced:

emotions

i think he experienced grief, pain, and anxiety the most

followed by depression and pressure (despair)

but hand in hand with joy and hope

desire to protect

disappointment, betrayal, frustration

as of season 2, he is learning romantic love

lifestyle

eating at the dinner table with loved ones

friendship

parent-child (booze man and pioran)

child-parent (march) ((even tho she's his mama technically LMFAO))

siblings (march and parona, gugu)

advancement of human civilization

religion

politics

i think the aspect that had the biggest impact on me is how fushi questions "why?"

why do people act this way? why are we here? why do things happen the way they do? this leads me into thinking about how things aren't always black and white; perhaps kahaku could be good to explain this? as a viewer, i generally liked kahaku, but no doubt his nokker was really annoying and troublesome to deal with, making him a gray area "good and bad" character. same with bon and how he initially only wanted to use fushi to become king. but in the end, they redeemed themselves. i dont know, but i also find myself thinking about when it comes to applying morals irl, there are always exceptions--probably more exceptions than situations that do follow our rules. but when is it considered "enough is enough"? is it right for some people to take a beating just so someone else can have character development?

rest of my thoughts (jumbled)

fushi kinda reminded me of jesus. in that he was kinda there to "save" or protect everyone and how he was immortal [and on the third day jesus rose again]

the church of bennett was eye twitch for me bc of the hypocrisy and it was a lil too real to irl bc even tho it wasn't tho it was an obvious ploy it wasnt an in ur face type thing. like it wasn't a major plot thing but it j mirrored irl too well LOL

i felt really bad for arctic king (nameless boy) in the beginning bc ik damn well if it was me i'd go insane after 5 years of being alone--or maybe he was lowkey mentally ill? optimism or denial? both?

the reunion was really heartwarming but when it's first revealed that the spirits follow fushi i couldn't help but wonder what the others who decided to move on thought of fushi

i hate that bitch hayase

the time jumps were kinda crazy but i was still there for it; besides someone said for an immortal being like fushi a century is nothing

every time the beholder spoke i was like o g a t a (golden kamuy)

#to your eternity #anime review #might add to this later

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neeterloveschenford · 3 years

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RNM 3x07

Hello my fellow lovers of all things alien! Another episode down and six more to go. First I’d like to start by congratulating Heather Hemmens! What an accomplishment! I hope you can continue to pursue your passion for directing. Also I would like to once again put forth my deepest desire for someone to rescue Lucky out into the universe. He’s a good boi! He deserves better!! And on that note, let’s dive into this episode.

I know I can get flip floppy when it comes to Maria, but just a few days ago she was jumping off rooftops and shooting up adrenaline to try jump start her powers. Now she’s strong enough to put Jones in a cage? Maybe if there had been a time jump, but we’re still on day 7. I don’t buy it. I don’t think they know what to do with her even after 3 seasons. I’m not expecting any kind of comeuppance for last season. I think they are completely correct in sweeping that all under the rug. It’s not the show for something like that. If this were Dawson’s Creek or One Tree Hill, sure. But I want to see sci-fi and aliens more than friendship and relationship drama. So I’m not sure where they think they are going to end up with her, but so far it’s been hit or miss for me.

Next we have Liz being all sciencey. I love seeing her, Michael and Isobel working together. But I gotta say, her plan was kinda rubbish. I mean, Jones has been one step ahead of everyone and Liz is gonna Mata Hari him? Don’t think so

Dear Deputy Pete, why are all men so dumb. Every moron on this show hates Max but wants to get into Isobel’s pants. I get it, but it’s so cliche.

Hello Father Dallas! Betcha Rosa’s not gonna miss mass this week! I like him. He quoted Biggie. I already like his relationship with Rosa ten times more than her relationship with Wyatt. I liked his advice too. He works on the Res. Does he know Greg? I wanna know. And he was in a bts picture with Vlamis and Trevino a few days ago. Guess we’ll be seeing more of him.

Alex keeps talking about Afghanistan this season. The last two seasons he only talked about Iraq. I know he served both places, but shouldn’t his line have been something along the lines of he survived the deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq instead of just one of them? Maybe I’m just being nitpicky.

Why is Kyle just being kept in a barn? Is there someone with medical knowledge there taking care of him? Did Eduardo just take him there and hook him up to that equipment and leave him there? What the heck is going on? That barn can’t be that sanitary. And where was Maria in that flashback? Did he just leave her there? Did her shooting Kyle up with adrenaline make things worse for Kyle? Does Eduardo have medical training? Does Kyle know he has an uncle? Who were the guys that were breaking into Max’s house. So many questions. So few answers.

Poor Lucky! Can we find him a new home please?!? HE’S A GOOD BOI!!

I like Isobel having female friends. She has grown so much since last season. But this plan is sooooo bad! Seriously. How did they think this would work? I know they were getting desperate, but seriously!

I’m gonna need Michael and Rosa to have a scene together every episode from here on out! I love their dynamic. And Michael is such a great teacher. Patient when she needed it. Challenging her when she needed it. And the sass coming from Rosa! Also, how stinking cute is it that Michael played baseball! I can just imagine my sweet little Guerin making a home run and being all smug about it. And I’d just like to point out that Heads Up 7Up was my favorite game when I was a kid. I would be devastated every single time we played at school and my thumb didn’t get put down. Memories.

Seriously Liz. How could you not realize Jones was onto you. When has Max ever referred to Maria as DeLuca? She has always been Maria to him. Wait. Hold up. Michael was the only one who ever refers to her as DeLuca. Was this a clue to the big reveal later on? We may never know.

I really love Greg, but he’s really kind of bland these days. I really hope when Maria gets out of that coma that he starts to challenge her. She needs Greg the former drag racer. Not Greg the super sweet boytoy. Michael let her run their relationship last season and look how that turned out.

Rosa’s new power is cool. That’s all I have to say on the matter.

So if Trevor went crazy and committed suicide while working on the Lockhart machine, how did Travis become so nuts? Did Alex referring to Trevor as the crazy boot maker who chased them through a corn field a continuity error? (I mean yeah, it’s gotta be.) Who’s in charge of checking things like this? Can I apply for this job? I think I might do a better job.

Obi-wan Junkyardy could be the best line this show has ever come up with. Especially now that Michael is, in fact, a jedi.

I think Liz has more chemistry with Jones than with Max. Nathan is an amazing actor. I had forgotten, since Max was so bland. But Jones reminds me of how much I loved him on General Hospital. Jones is just sexy. There’s no ifs ands or buts about it. And Liz knows she’s attracted to him. It’s impossible not to be. Cause he’s HOT! And as much as I wanted to bash my head against the table with how dumb her plan was, I loved watching the cat and mouse between them. And then she punched him. It was glorious!

I love that Eduardo knows about Malex. It was a nice parallel that last week we got the Michael and Sanders conversation, and then this week we got the Alex version. Even when they don’t have scenes together, they are still ever present in each other’s lives. I think Alex might not have even realized that the real reason he joined Deep Sky was Michael. And I don’t think that the Lockhart machine is going to drive him crazy like it did everyone else. Maybe Nora built it to be accessed by whoever Michael “bonds” with. He’ll figure it out and I’m very certain that it will hold the key to defeating Jones.

I would just like to point out that most of my theories get debunked pretty quickly. But I was 100% correct about Jones being the Dictator and Michael’s father. I am pretty darn proud of myself. I still think Louise might be Jones’ sister. Which would make Michael and Isobel cousins. That would be cool.

Also I love the fact that Rosa wound up saving the day. Cause she’s a badass.

Which brings us back to Maria and her mindscape. Jones is going to use her to access Patricia’s memories. But memories of what? The Lockhart machine? Whatever she was a part of at Caulfield? That part does interest me. But I do hope that Maria beats Jones by the skin of her teeth. Or maybe because of a fluke. If she kicks his ass or something I will be disappointed.

So lastly, I would just like to point out that today I read a review of this episode on another website and the reviewer referenced Gargamel. 👀👀 I don’t know how to feel about that.

Anyway, all in all it wasn’t a bad episode. But it’s not my fave. And I’m not even going to get into nobody worrying about Kyle. But next week I am expecting much bigger and much better things. Cause, you know, Malex and such. So until next time my lovelies!!

#roswell new mexico #roswell new mexico s3 #s3ep7 #s3 spoilers #s3 speculation #it's only my opinion

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thoughtfulpaperback · 3 years

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Charmed 03x04 review SPOILERS!!!!!!

I really liked this episode so much that I actually had to be nitpicky to fill the dislike section. This episode brought back some of the very missed parts in season 1 that season 2 didn't fill. Mainly a feeling of domesticity combined with the looming danger. Season two was very much constant drama and angst. At the same time, Mel was given a relevant and very true to her character storyline that wasn't rushed unlike season 2.

The vibe felt like a good balance of season 1 and 2. I was entertained and intrigued by the promise of new lore-what is older than the oldest recorded magic?- and satisfied with the jokey/serious bits (like Macy's underfed and overhyped libido). Its a solid 8/10 (only because i save my 9 for the later episodes) because it is kinda rebooting itself again, in that we are getting a "new" magical text (the rock) there isn't anything to complain about lore/canon-wise and I am intrigued so I'll give it a solid 8/10 lore wise as well because the previous seasons set lore hasnt been contradicted so far.

I am super happy with what we've got so far. Moving on.

Dislikes

1. The new monster/threat seems more science fiction than fantasy/magic.

This is a nitpick. I am not unhappy about it but even when the OG Charmed and even Supernatural played with concepts traditionally reserved for sci-fi (parallel dimensions, alternate universes, and alien abductions for example) it still felt true to the genre of fantasy/supernatural/play on religon/etc. As soon as I saw the monster I screamed "It's an Alien!". And the end scene had me asking when Charmed became a sci-fi show. I am interested in where its going but it really was a noticeable shift in vibe so I have it in my dislikes.

2. Suffering as protest

I am not mad at it. I get it. And overall the message is that there is always cost to disrupting the status quo and we have to be willing to deal with that...... BUT, risking your emotional and mental health in abusive situations that you can get out of seems like too much. I believe that you can and should force yourself into spaces that people try to exclude you from and dealing with the reactions (usually negative) that come from that. But living with someone who is emotionally and mentally abusive is not okay. I would never tell a woman or man to continue living with someone who resents and retaliates against them for just being themselves in the hopes they will change somewhere down the line.

I do get it, I just think it is a fine line to walk. I dont think the show handled it poorly. I've seen worse, but it is important to be conscious of the possible ways it can be viewed or possibly trigger people.

3. So.....they not dead and its okay

They may explain it later which is why I didn't count it against the episode lore/cannon wise, but if they are using real names now does that mean they aren't legally dead now. Was that a magic reversal? Or they just magicked thier way passed the credentials and legal documents like last season? I give a pass since I felt the whole witchness protection program thing was underdeveloped anyways and they cam quickly resolve it was a throw away line later on. It's not a devastating contradiction to lore in the grand scheme of things.

Likes

1. The domesticity

Unlike last season the small ways they have shown the sisters routines helps to feel as if they are close and that they are a family and not just people forced together by duty, circumstance, and blood. They all felt closer to each other even with the lack of being physically close. And that's was done just by quick scenes showing how they know each others routines, how thier lives overlap, and how they interact with each other. Making breakfast, grabbing coffee for each other, walking together to the university. Little things like that made such a huge difference in my opinion.

2. Mel doing her thing!

I think what made season 1 Mel so great was that drive to help people. Not out of some idea of duty or responsibility, but out of truly being passionate about fighting with those who are oppressed and/or mistreated.

Mel was an activist both in the magical and non magical world. Season 2 Mel wasn't the same, it felt more like Mel was a prop and she was just going through the motions and just doing things out of a sense of duty which later on she seemed to resent.

I want to see Mel be passionate about saving and working with non magical people AND magical creatures. But if they reserve that for the non magical world, I won't be terribly disappointed as long as the writers continue to give Mel well written storylines and character archs.

3. Hacy

This was a good example or real couple issues and not just drama for the sake of drama. I think my biggest complaint of season 2 was that rather than focusing on realistic issues (not that miscommunication isn't a real issue) the writers threw in angsty and unnecessary tropes (love triangles and other love shapes) that they dragged put too long. You can have flawed couples facing issues without going to those extremes. I think this episode and even the last few episodes did really well with this.

Plus I love a soft hacy scene any day.

4. Maggie/panic attacks/and jordan

I love that not only are they not just dropping Maggie's panick attacks but they show her growth. Her calming herself by remembering what Jordan told her was amazing. She isn't dependent on others to "fix" her. She is using coping strategies effectively. I stan.

Also I do love that Jordan is still around.

Epsiode Highlights

Harry's entrance into the house

Macy's libido

"Kiddo"

Mel teaching again

Alien monster

Maggie suggesting "Men Talk Over Me"

"I love you as fully as I know how...."

Figure jumping out of a rift in the time space continuum

#charmed spoilers #charmed 2018 spoilers #hacy #harry greenwood #harry x macy #macy vaughn #charmed reboot #macy x harry #charmed cw #charmed remake #cw charmed #charmed 2018 #maggie vera #jordan chase #mel vera

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fonulyn · 3 years

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I need to scream about RE ID bc like. Did I enjoy it? Yeah, I did. Was it. Just wrapped up way too nicely and quickly? Also yeah. I was a little disappointed by it tho, like the length, and the flashback scenes weren't as clear as I think they should have been? Like I understood what was happening, but it took me a little too much brain power to like keep up with what was and wasn't a flashback lmao

Also I wanna say, I get wanting to keep Jun See alive but god, that did not look fun. Just let him die, dude, no one wants to live like that, smh.

Thank god they kept Leon's one liners tho, like thank you for that at least lol also Claire, my GIRL, I love her holy shit. Honestly she was amazing, like, just perfect. Not sure why she has a gun in the promotional poster, bc she just. Never has a gun throughout the entire show, I don't think? Also can we talk about how she took that guy down with that lamp, and then hopped on top of him just fucking ready to continue to beat the shit out of him? Chris would be so proud 🥲

Okay also, I saw what you said with that flirting scene, and I agree that it seemed like Leon was trying to lighten the mood, but it so didn't need to be put in there at all @ the writers. Like this show could have gotten away with no romance, or just that one moment near the end with Claire and Leon (which, I don't ship them much, and that moment at the v end where she was like "are you ever gonna stop treating me like a kid?" And he responded with "probably not" or whatever kind of ruined whatever was shown earlier? Like it feels like she's had that convo with Chris before too, so I'm like hm no don't imply romance and then imply that he treats her like a little kid every time they run into each other, now it's weird lol) and been fine. None of the story was contingent on any kind of romance between anyone.

Now with that said, can I just say Patrick absolutely wanted to suck Leon's dick? Like he was smitten, and I bet you they at least fuck after all this is said and done, if not date for a short period of time. I thought they were gonna kill Patrick off, I'm glad they didn't tho, he was v wholesome lol.

Also I wanna mention that every serious moment (save a small handful) I just. I couldn't take it seriously, it was too over the top. Acid? Really? That's the self destruct measure? Slowly rising acid? I dunno, that doesn't seem quite right to me, I don't think that's how it works lol

Honestly they should have just made this into a new movie, bc making it a series implies more to follow and in general a longer narrative, but these eps were barely 20 minutes each, so there's almost no point splitting it like that. Did I enjoy myself? Yeah, I always do when Leon is involved, but it could have been so much better.

Also the silly little shipper in me is kind of desperate for more interaction between Chris and Leon, bc as far as I'm aware it's just RE6, RE vendetta, and RE ID (and I think the person who told Chris to save Claire in either code x or Veronica was Leon? Not 100% about that tho lol) where they actually interact with each other, and considering that they're the two main characters of the franchise, they should probably meet up more? Idk, that's just my gay ass hoping for more Chreon content lmao but still.

ANYWAYS yeah, I would rate the show like a 7.5/10? It wasn't amazing but it wasn't garbage, either. Probably my least favorite of the four animated movies tbh, but I will take the Leon content, thank you Capcom. Also it was interesting to see Leon around the time following/around RE4 and RE degeneration, I thought, I dunno.

oh boy I agree 100% it was wrapped up way too quickly in the end. like killing Jason? by just dropping him in the acid? it was way too simple and easy if you ask me. and like, why didn't he yeet Leon into the acid when he had him by the throat? him not killing Leon makes zero sense to me??

asdfg yeah I get they weren't ready to let Jun See go, but I bet Jun See really would've preferred to go...

I am so happy that they kept the one liners!! Leon felt very, very in character which I loved so much. I was afraid they'd tone it down or make him super serious or so, and it was such a relief they didn't. he was so eager to help and so goddamn kind to everyone I don't know if my heart can even handle it ;;;;;

also Claire!! so badass!! I loved the part where she attacked the guy with the lamp (yes Chris would be super proud haha) and THE HEADBUTT seriously, one of the top highlights of the entire series :'D

(but honestly this is gonna get long i'mma gonna hit that read more here)

and the flirting scene, I do think they could've left it out entirely and it felt a little strong-armed in. but I'm trying to look at the silver lining? Leon was super goddamn adorable in it, like, so cute it hurts :'D and Shen May didn't seem bothered really, it was more this joking thing between them. so while yes, it was unnecessary, i'm focusing on the joking feel of it and choosing to interpret it as such :'D

also, can I just say, the "romantic moment" with Claire and Leon near the end didn't feel very romantic to me? I know it's a romcom cliché (or at least a fanfic cliché lmao) how they ended up in a pile after the rescue but ...it didn't scream romance to me? although I do kind of like the pairing! (not a top fave but a cute one)

and yes, the whole "when are you gonna stop treating me like a kid?" "probably never" felt SO much like a sibling moment!! such big brother energy from Leon, and I don't know, that made me super duper happy?? I want them to be friends. I neeeed them to be friends gdi. which is why I am unhappy with how mad Claire seemed to be at Leon in the end and how they left it off like they did. I am hoping that it sets things up for a second season? and they for whatever reason need them on kind of the opposing sides at first? because otherwise it makes no sense to me for her to be that disappointed in him. in Degeneration they already establish they work in different ways towards the same goal, and for that to do a 180 now feels... like a disservice to the characters? idk?

lmaooooo but yes Patrick 100% wanted to suck Leon's dick he didn't even try to be subtle about it :'D idk I would've wanted Patrick to have more depth and screentime too, i so wish they would've made it a longer series and given the characters more development. because I liked pretty much all of the new characters they introduced! but it feels none of them reached their actual potential!

then again that is kind of the whole deal with resident evil in general, they set up awesome characters and end up wasting them half of the time :'D guess i shouldn't be surprised.

THE SLOWLY RISING ACID PISSED ME OFF lmaooo c'mon!! it doesn't seem like a good self destruct measure. especially since ...you'd need different acid to dissolve organic matter and to dissolve inorganic matter if we're being nitpicky. and how would it be plausible for them to store enough of it safely to even do this?? they should've just detonated the whole place and blown it to smithereens or something, the acid was. stupid.

i agree, it feels like a movie. but I think @tirsynni is probably right when saying that it was sort of a test run to see if they should make more? which I am so hoping for. because even with the complaints I have of this, I DID enjoy it, a lot!! and I do want more! and maybe this time we get Claire and Leon actually working together for more than fifteen seconds! :'D

also I definitely would not say no to more Chris and Leon interactions. (yes it was Leon who told Chris to save Claire :) at least that) it... in general makes no sense to me how capcom seems to think friendships work? like how Sherry is all "Leon and Claire are my best friends" and then they imply they haven't met in years? if not more? idek it's. weird. it's like their characters go into storage containers in between their missions to be stored away so they can't even accidentally have personal lives or friendships or anything. weird.

(what I said about having amazing characters and ending up wasting their potential? yeah)

for me, personally, it's... well, my score for the show would depend on whether I just focus on the characterizations and what I liked, or if I try to actually take the plot and all into account too :'D but I did like this more than Degeneration! already the fact that Leon has actual facial expressions is enough to put it way above that one. (and for the record, I don't hate Degeneration either, I do like it, but... Leon is such a cardboard cutout with zero personality in it, it's super frustrating)

idk I think I need to still process this a bit to see how I will like it in the end :'D there are things i'm super hyped about in it, and things i'm disappointed in, let's see how they'll weigh in the overall experience eventually.

#idutr #replies #ask and i shall answer #re answers #infinite darkness spoilers #spoilers #infinite darkness

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nikibogwater · 2 years

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Niki Blethers: Book of Boba Fett--ep 4

At last, we get to see the origin story of our dynamic duo, and it's....fine...? Which is definitely an improvement over last week's episode, at least! But as much as I wanted this show to do well, at halfway through the first season, it's becoming painfully clear that Book of Boba Fett is struggling.

...Except for any scene where Boba interacts with animals. Those are Cinema Gold.

As I mentioned in my Blether about ep. 1, Boba and Fennec's friendship was the main draw of this series for me. I liked what we saw of their dynamic in The Mandalorian, and I was pretty eager to see more of it. So far, their interactions have been some of my favorite parts of this series, and I was excited to finally see where their friendship began.

...And apparently, it began with Boba carrying Fennec's unconscious body to...the Star Wars equivalent of a tattoo parlor???

...Uhhh....Do they just....not have any medical facilities on Tatooine? Also this grandpa strolls into a tattoo parlor with a body and you're telling me not a single person asks any questions or offers help? Like, I know Tatooine is the rough part of the Outer Rim, but like...no hospitals??? No normal, human reactions to the sight of a dying woman???? How does anyone even live here??????? Oh what's that, the tattoo guy knows how to perform life-saving surgery on the fly? And has all the equipment for it right there? ...Well, alrighty then.

Look, I know this is probably nitpicky, and I'm certainly no expert on sci-fi worldbuilding, but I'm pretty sure small cybernetic implants for purely cosmetic appeal and the artificial reconstruction of someone's internal organs are two entirely different things. How in the world did Boba know that this piercings shop would be able to save Fennec's life?

Okay, y'know what, nevermind. Small discrepancy. We're moving on.

So Fennec agrees to help Boba steal his ship back from Jabba's old palace. Like Fennec, I do not understand why Boba couldn't just walk in there, hold up his Clone ID and go "Hey, sorry about leaving my ship in your garage for so long, but I can get it out of your hair for you now." Boba's answer to this is extremely cryptic ("Because I might not like the answer. And I'm much less intimidating without my armor.") so I'm still a bit confused, but hey, I dig a good heist story, so I'll let it slide for now.

I cannot impress upon you just how much I love the fact that Boba being a stereotypical Dog Person is a consistent trait of his character. That scene where he releases his Bantha just warmed my heart. "Go! Find other Banthas! Make baby Banthas!" fajhdgfajhdgf OKAY MAYBE THIS IS VERY DISRESPECTFUL TO THE ORIGINAL BOBA FETT'S LEGACY, BUT I'M LAUGHING AND SMILING SO I HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO CALL THIS A WIN.

While I know a lot of fans have been disappointed by Favreau's reinterpretation of Boba's character (and trust me, I can see the glaring incongruity with what we've seen of Boba in the past), I do appreciate that this Boba Fett at least has his own semi-unique presence. I think this show would have been ten times more boring for me if he'd just been another Cool Mysterious Guy in a Helmet, ala Din Djarin. He definitely doesn't feel as complex or interesting as Din Djarin, but at least they were trying to make something new.

That being said, I can understand why a lot of people were really put off with this new talkative, mostly-helmetless version of Boba. I was never a huge Boba fangirl to begin with, so the character inconsistency doesn't bother me as much, but I totally get where the disappointment comes from. But back to the episode itself.

I really enjoyed the scene in the kitchens, with Boba and Fennec having to deactivate the droids as quietly as possible. The Rat Catcher is my new favorite class of droid, and while the scene was probably entirely unnecessary, I took immense guilty pleasure from watching Boba Fett chase that little bugger around, Loony Toons style.

Buuuuut once they got out of the kitchens, I found myself spacing out again. I kept waiting for some emotional punch, something that would serve as the turning point for Boba and Fennec's alliance--the point where they go from mere allies to friends. But it never really came. They just grabbed the ship and got out of there. So when Fennec reveals that she wants to stick with Boba for a little while longer, it doesn't feel completely earned. Like, it's nice, and I can see that they work well together and make a good team, but it doesn't quite feel like a friendship yet. Maybe this will be addressed more in future episodes, although pacing-wise, it felt like it should've been done here.

If I want to be a little harder on this show, I would say this lack of compelling friendship-building is part of a bigger trend in Book of Boba Fett: the Tell, Don't Show trend. Again, I want to see this whole thing through before I make any sweeping judgements like that, but the number of times I've realized "Wait, they're acting like I should care about this specific thing, but I don't care about it at all because they haven't spent much time on it" is really beginning to stack up.

This is especially noticeable regarding the Tusken Raiders and their impact on Boba's character arc. As I mentioned last week, the death of Boba's tribe had very little emotional impact--it felt like an afterthought, like it didn't really matter. And yet in this episode, we are told that all of Boba's motivations can be traced back to what happened to the Tuskens. Moreover, he describes the Tuskens as having "rescued" him and "treated him as one of their own." Which uh...Well, yes, they did treat him as one of their own, after enslaving him and forcing him to prove himself as worthy of respect. Let's be perfectly clear here, the Tuskens did not immediately take this man in out of the kindness of their hearts. And we were shown practically nothing of Boba's life with them after he was accepted into their tribe. So Boba doing a complete 180 in character and motivations feels very unearned.

Speaking of weird character motivations, why is the Wookie so mad all the time? No seriously. Why's he so upset. He just ripped some poor rando's arm off for having a nice time at the casino, wth is this guy's deal.

The fact that I got SO excited over the tease for Din Djarin's return is a little embarrassing, but also I love that they did it without any dialogue--they know his musical theme is so iconic and easily recognizable at this point that they don't have to tell us who Fennec was talking about. After Boba completely hijacked The Mandalorian, I am high-key hoping Din Djarin returns the favor here.

Much as I really wanted this show to do well, I have to confess that at this point, the only thing that brings me back for each episode is Boba Fett being a Dog Parent, and the promised return of Din Djarin. Which is....not great. I suppose it's still possible that they could turn this whole thing around within the next 3 episodes and end on a fantastically high note, but....well, I'm not holding my breath.

#niki blethers #star wars #book of boba fett #semi-review

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eldestnightwingsyndrome · 3 years

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ROTD Analysis

revolution of the daleks was a real mixed bag. overall, it was really fun to watch and i enjoyed, but my media analysis brain is going into overdrive, so here are my Thoughts.

quick disclaimer, these are just my opinions and it’s okay if you disagree! feel free to let me know what you disagree with as long as you do it kindly.

Prison Break

the scene where jack breaks the doctor out of prison was fun, however i feel like it was a huge missed opportunity.

yaz spent ten months looking for the doctor, what if in all her research she found torchwood? she could’ve actually teamed up with jack and gotten the doctor out of prison, she and the rest of the fam. why would this have been a better idea (in my opinion) than jack committing a bunch of crimes and somehow hiding a bunch of alien tech and breaking them out?

it allows the fam to have a real impact on the plot of the episode. the only things they really did this episode were:

bring the daleks to the doctor’s attention, which she could and would have found out on her own eventually

yaz noticed the light changing in osaka, which again, the doctor would have figured out on her own.

and ryan had an Honest conversation with the doctor. kudos to him for getting her to actually talk about her feelings.

i’m so incredibly disappointed at how these characters are being used. they almost have no agency. if they had actively contributed to the prison break, it would have fundamentally changed the course of the episode in a way that didn’t happen in the canon.

three of your main characters barely had an affect on the plot.

Nitpicking About Companion Interactions

another thing, no one asked the doctor anything about stormcage? they didn’t even consider how long she may have been there? or what she could have endured?

i understand that they were upset, they were left for ten months unsure if she was alive. they had a right to be upset! but the doctor was in prison for decades, that’s got to have a negative effect on her psyche.

it just doesn’t seem right to me that none of the fam would ask what happened to her. i’m chalking this one up to bad writing, honestly.

Rose Mention

thank god we got a rose mention

however.

correct me if i’m wrong, but when jack brought her up, there was absolutely no reaction from the doctor? not a word, not a facial expression?

my guy. i wanted an acknowledgment of her existence from 13, is that too much to ask?

i’m so so glad she was mentioned at all, but i feel like it could been better? that’s so nitpicky, i know.

The New Companion

i don’t think we need another companion.

i’m not even going to touch on the fact that he’s a middle-aged white dude, so many people have already made posts about that and they’re great, go read them.

i’m going to talk about yaz and the doctor. not about thasmin at all, but about character development and the progression of their friendship (and possibly relationship, although i personally don’t think it will happen).

yaz is such a great character. she has ambitions, a career, a personality, she’s got family! she has clear motivations and drive. she is capable of carrying a season on her own, being the only companion.

it would give a great chance to explore her character further, she would have more screen time and more interactions with the doctor.

as someone who is ambivalent to thasmin, as in, i’d like it if it happened but i wouldn’t say i ship it, they need to further their relationship.

they need more interactions bro. they make such a good team. if it wasn’t currently 12:14 am, i’d list examples. i can’t wait to go more in depth on all this shit. but you know exactly what i’m talking about, yaz is intelligent and clever and it’s clear that the two get along well.

furthermore, this show really can’t handle multiple companions right now. character development has really suffered throughout seasons 11 and 12 because they’re trying to split screen time between three companions and their storylines, the doctor and her storyline, and the monster of the week.

it’s just too much. if yaz was the sole companion for a little while, it would give the show a chance to explore her, explore the doctor’s feelings about being the timeless child and coping with what happened on gallifrey and in stormcage, and again, give the two a chance to develop a complex relationship (platonic or not).

A Bit Of Positivity

here’s a few things i enjoyed from the episode!! obviously not everything, just off the top of my head.

i love that gwen cooper was mentioned. just the little details, guys.

jack’s interaction with graham? god the little things really make this show good.

i like that hotel guy (i can’t be bothered to learn his name) was literally going to betray the human race for what? capitalism? that was funny and sad, a bit too real.

the new dalek design was really cool. it’ll be good to return to something more conventional, but it was nice to see something new! it was sleek and modern, nice to look at.

this episode, and the previous episode featuring daleks in season 12, has been great at making daleks scary again. daleks are still a force to be reckoned with even outside of their casing! they can use people as their puppets! that’s terrifying!! i love it!!!

i enjoyed the weeping angel cameo and the silence cameo.

i know everyone’s said it before but the greasy hair. disgusting, please take a shower, but w o w. it looks good.

if you actually read this far, i’m in love with you. i owe you my firstborn. please give me your thoughts, tear me shreds, agree with me, idc. i’m hoping to go more in depth on this stuff and make a video essay on it, so i’d definitely appreciate hearing from other people. i hope everything i said in this made sense, i’m so tired and i’m not proofreading, so if it’s disjointed i apologize.

#doctor who #dw #revolution of the daleks #rotd #revolution of the daleks spoilers #rotd spoilers #doctor who spoilers

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 3 years

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Moriarty 8 - 11 (FINAL) | HypMic 12 - 13 (FINAL) | Taiso Samurai 7 - 9 | Akudama 9 - 12 (FINAL)

Hopefully I’ll be able to get on to all that backlog soon, because...I don’t want it to keep accumulating and Skate-Leading Stars (first winter 2021 anime) already has an advance 1st ep. up...

Moriarty 8

(Moriarty 8 notes deleted accidentally…)

Moriarty 9

If you want a modern equivalent to the Baker Street Irregulars, then I’d suggest you look this way *jabs finger at Odd Jobs Yamada (from HypMic)*.

These CGI background horse and carriages are…kind of distracting…

I’m guessing back in those days, the Irregulars were better than Google at finding info…because Google didn’t exist until the internet did.

Moriarty 10

Just this ep and one more until the end…at least, until spring 2021.

Wow, the use of colour here is really striking!

White lilies mean…purity/chastity…?

I’ve never heard of “bending someone’s ear” until now. It means to talk to someone, especially to ask a favour or to talk at length.

Probatio diabolica: the devil’s proof. I didn’t even know that was a concept until now…(I never once studied law, as you can tell.)

“William” isn’t normally shortened to “Liam”…It’s normally “Will”…also, notice all the footprints on the floor…

Moriarty 11 (FINAL)

Last ep. before spring 2021.

LOL, kabedon.

The fishy thing about Brits is that they’ve named things across the world names from Britain. I know there’s a Doncaster which isn’t anywhere near Britain, for one thing…

Observe the weird finger-like marking made by one of the bloodstains and the scratches on the suitcase. The latter was probably forced open.

Considering the number of signs the killer left, he was clearly in a hurry…

Well, based on that shoeprint we can find the killer if we can find traces of blood on his shoe.

“Duram” (sic).

Ah! If it was raining in Durham, then there would be traces of mud on the killer’s shoes. I remember early on in Detective Conan Shinichi, then newly shrunk, deduced Agasa was running in the rain based on the mud on his pants…this is similar.

Chloral (hydrate…?).

The “washroom” (apparently a Canadian term, the British term is “water closet”) has privacy and a place to get rid of the evidence, to some extent.

What about the rest of Eddie’s clothes?

Considering there are still 5 minutes of the ep. left…there’s going to be some kind of stinger for the next season. I can feel it.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait…Director Holmes??? Y’mean, Mycroft?! That is a good stinger! See you next time.

HypMic 12

“Ever since I was born, there was never a time I’d felt I’d accomplished something.” – Aw, Doppo, sweetpea (<- this blogger calls people “sweetpea” when they’re feeling lots of moe feels for them). Please don’t say that. You’ve accomplished more than enough in your life!

…Oh, almost didn’t notice it until Hifumi hid behind Doppo and the angle changed to confirm the jacket was on the bed, but Hifumi doesn’t have his jacket on.

I think I saw a tweet that said something about a wall being wrecked (specifically “Wall: Ow…”) but I wasn’t sure of the context, so I saved it in my bookmarks…LOL, so that’s what it means?

Samatoki, I know you don’t like Ichiro…but please stop trying to preach what his 2nd character song says in the title…(i.e. Break the Wall, LOL)

Jyuto’s very much a “I’ll leave this problem to the other guy” guy.

When the Funi subs say “dame”, I think Samatoki is just referring to an “onna” (woman). It’s a bit of an odd choice, really…although I can’t go and interrogate whoever was responsible for it. I don’t have the authority or the contacts that will allow me to.

This is not the time for fighting one another!!!

Notably, in the manga, Jakurai was going to chaffeur Hifumi and Doppo to their place, but then he had to go to work and so they rode the train with their prize money. This “run from Special Forces” ending is better, I think, since people got grumpy at Jakurai for having to abandon them with the money.

“…permission to cover a story.” - Permission from…who?

*screams* I was thinking Tom, Rex and Iris worked for a foreign government! They work for Ichijiku – why didn’t I think of that?!

LOL, I couldn’t even tell what Tom was saying until I played it back…it’s English, just…said in a spot where you don’t expect it.

“…that scares me.” – This may be nitpicky of me, but osoreru is actually a derivative of osore (fear), so “it strikes fear in me”…? “It strikes fear in my heart”? What would sound right…?

Go, host mode Hifumi! (...but does that imply host mode Hifumi is the only “version” of Hifumi able to rap? Certainly, he was able to do Wrap and Rap without his jacket, right…?)

You can tell Tom still respects Jakurai after all this time because he (the former) calls him (the latter) “Sensei”. Also, this’ll be interesting, we haven’t seen many mics and speakers beyond the standard bad guy ones (depicted in both the anime and the manga).

My gosh! All I knew of this song was that m-flo, also responsible for Human Lost’s theme song (and notably they’re a hip hop group with techno influences), was responsible for this song. Man, this s*** slaps! It’s great! (Sorry, I’ve just never really had the chance to capitalise on all the info I gathered on EDM DJs when talking in terms of things from Japan…m-flo is basically the only act I know which does that, so I’m really excited…can’t you tell from how verbose I’m getting in this note?)

That’s interesting that Matenrou won and Tom still took the gold chair symbolism to represent him and the Secret Aliens as the victor instead.

Iris’s parts are awesome. M-flo has a female vocalist and so I’d assume Iris takes on Lisa’s (m-flo’s vocalist’s) parts.

…Hmm, Gentaro’s made a reference to the track “Me Against the World”, has he?...Maybe.

I’m not quite sure, but I think Ramuda said “majo” (witch) when he was referring to Beauty and the Beast in the English subs.

…gosh, what is up with that airhorn…? Still, next time is the last time. See you on Christmas…no, Boxing Day.

HypMic 13 (FINAL)

This is the beginning of the end and the end of the beginning…y’know, considering how stuff trended on Twitter, I’d say this anime’s gonna get a 2nd season, but you can’t really say that until it actually happens. I mean, Boueibu is much less popular than HypMic and that got a 2nd season…

This is the 1st episode where I woke up early enough to watch without spoilers and had no obligations to place over it, so…this is exciting, in its own sense, but in a sense, it could also be called “profoundly disappointing” because this experience is only available to me as of the final episode.

One of the tweets I saw a few weeks back came to mind – someone became interested in sakuga houkai (terrible animation, literally “animation collapse”) because of HypMic…I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing…

…Dude, you probably shouldn’t answer a call from someone who just revealed themselves to be a traitor last episode…*sweatdrops*

(Spoiler for rest of franchise) Hmm…Dice’s face is pretty straight. Assuming at this point we knew Dice was Otome’s son, this is a good poker face from him…!

This thing about gangs was mentioned in their profiles (although the words used implies they “went delinquent”), so it actually doesn’t surprise me.

I wonder if this subway exists in the mainline story…?

According to the next ep. preview I saw on Twitter, TDD will reform to take down the Secret Aliens. I’m not sure if that was a guess or whether that’s true, so I’m waiting for the shoe to drop on it.

Samatoki-san, not -sama. Hmm…

There was definitely the word “team” in Dice’s line, so it’s “what the legendary team was made of”.

…oh gosh…they’re still using that airhorn…?

Again with the play on “lonely thunder”. It’s a really fun pun, but one I’d like to see in the rest of the series more.

Notably, Iris’s rap in English missed the word “charisma” where it could have fit (unless I missed reading it the first time).

Note Samatoki does actually use the word “shinsensa” (freshness), so there’s no lie there.

I still love how much they went in on Rex’s theme, even in his raps.

Huh, that’s new. Never seen a tag team like this before.

It seems Tom’s signature is using a lot of English, which makes it easy for us English/Japanese pair translators.

Saburo didn’t actually say “Ichi-nii”, did he…?

…based on the rock intro, this is Rhyme Anima, the OP, or something that sounds similar. What I’d need to confirm this is the “nautilus” line and the “ends corruption” line, which are the OP’s two biggest tells for AMQ.

“rainmaking” – Hmm, another link from Gentaro to Rei. This might be a different part of Rhyme Anima (OP) that wasn’t used as the OP proper.

“this white light invites and heals” (<- paraphrased) – Sounds like Sensei, alright!

…now that (rainbow bit). That’s sakuga!

*a silhouette appears* - Oh nooooooooooooooo! Now they‘ve done it! They’ve included Rei! That’s more than enough spoilers to last a lifetime for y’all anime-onlys!

I wish someone would work on this collaboration between Saburo and Riou…

Hmm…what is the series endgame? Putting in Dice as the new ruler??? I mean, Dice is the worst possible politician ever. He’s far too lax about things.

*Nemu enters* - No! Nemu!

Not only is Iris a “ramen shop owner”, it’s Tom’s favourite food…No wonder ramen has significance to her.

…ooh! A new song! Update: I don’t know what this song’s name is, although it probably will become clear what its name is on the 13th. I’ll keep my eye on Twitter in case the answer is there.

…I knew it was far too early to say if there was an s2 – the DVD’s live events go until September 5th and the 2nd DRB finishes in March. That almost felt like a stinger right there. Oh well, I’m more than happy to call this anime a success, even if I would call it the worst of the arms of the franchise. All HypMic’s anime had to do was deliver fun, before anything else, and it delivered on that front. See you around!

Taiso Samurai 7

Anime burnout means I’m coming back to the anime after the day it finishes.

This dancing scene is kind of like the one at the start of ep. 2 of IWGP, except it has the owl to represent the setting as well as the dance stage.

Leo doesn’t seem to know kanji or katakana, only hiragana.

Even though this part of the anime is set in London, the characters are still speaking Japanese (lel…?).

LOL, Edward Scissorhands much?

LOL, these background gossips are like the Plastics from Mean Girls…haha.

…LOL, that’s not one of those dismounting moves, is it? It’s just kind of…jumping off the bar.

Lookit how Leo’s sticker is 90 deg. sideways from what it should be, haha.

I don’t think it’s true that Olympic gymnasts have never failed. Like other people at the top of their game, they’re probably failed millions of times, but only outside the view of most of the world. Persistence and passion are what’s key to becoming the best at what you are, no matter what field you’re in.

Now Aragaki’s what I call a “determinator” (see TV Tropes on what that is).

Taiso Samurai 8

Notably, the word used for “clothes” is specifically for Western clothing, like dresses.

Well, now we know why Leo can do those stretches…

They’ve clearly sped up the dance here, but…it’s basically the same sort of movements Yuri on Ice used to suck me in. I’m here for it!

Leo seems to be the type who tries to push away his worries by distracting people (including himself) with other things…I see. I didn’t have much of a grasp of his character beforehand.

Britney! F*** you, Britney!

Ah, that must be the (a?) fabled owl of Ikebukuro. I’ve never actually been to Ikebukuro…the closest I got was Akihabara (to memory) and even then, that was for electronics, not anime…so I’ve never seen the owl statue I’ve been talking about close up.

Rei does kind of look like her mother like this.

Ah! Rei and Kitty have a pair look now! “Twinsies”, they call it.

Amakusa’s head is located right next to Leo’s butt, so I end up staring at it…LOL.

The Hoover mission.

“I <3 Ninja”, LOL.

LOL, “Nyapoo!”

*sighs* The problem with being multi-talented is that you’re going to be told to one day put one passion above the others, even if you don’t want that.

LOL, you can be a ninja with this WikiHow article. (I was looking for Kitty’s quote, but found that instead. It seems to be a quote from one of Tomoyo’s movies.) Update: I was right.

There’s a movie in the back where the title is “Black Rainmaker”. (Tomoyo, I presume) Mifune is the 1st person credited.

Considering this is 2003…you won’t be on Mars in 2013, Kitty.

Wow, a tape! That brings me back to 2003, indeed.

Charlie’s Angels…so that’s what the tape was.

LOL, a shoebill.

“blade in your heart” – That would refer to the character for “ninja”, which has a blade over a heart. Y’know Kiss Shot Acerola Heart-Under-Blade (from Monogatari), yeah? Like that.

…you might think emails were out of place in 2003, but a virus from an email caused me to be an avid reader and that virus was unleashed around the late 90s – early 2000s.

LOL, Kitty’s cat belt buckle.

You said it, Rei. You said it.

Taiso Samurai 9

Lausanne, Switzerland.

I noticed one of the boxes at the start of the OP says “Horizontal Bars”, rather than some random name to make the boxes look like they were discarded.

Someone encoded the video funny…

LOL, BB’s getting possessive of his territory.

Fuku-chan the fukurou (owl) in Ikebukuro…LOL.

LOL, randomly there’s a skeleton with a hat in the background of Britney’s clinic.

Notably, one of the wall hangings says “heart” on it – alternatively, “soul”.

Notably, Atlanta was the 1996 Summer Olympics…there is no 1997 Lausanne Olympics, as far as I know.

Akudama 9

I watched the part where it glitches twice and I can’t quite figure out what that circular symbol is…maybe it’s Hacker’s symbol…?

Ah! Only now they properly confirm Swindler used to work in the Seal centre.

“Life that never dies is defective.” – Doctor

Does that mean Doctor is actually older than she looks, due to plastic surgery…?

Marker? What marker?

Apparently that flower is a cherry blossom…according to Detective Conan.

…I know this anime wasn’t made in America (it wouldn’t be “anime” otherwise), but Anime Feminist is going to have a field day with this one…if they haven’t abandoned it already due to their idea of morals.

…now I can even see parallels between HypMic’s authorities and Akudama’s. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

“Why did this have to happen when I’m chief?” – Sounds like…basically every authority during COVID and BLM, to be honest.

See? Akudama likes the S word. I told you.

I haven’t watched The Shining, but reading the synopsis, you can figure out why Cutthroat is the way he is…sort of.

How does the iconic quote go? “Heeeeeeeeeeeere’s Danny!” (or something…?)

They even copied the iconic eye shot! There you go!

Way to take a guy out (with the door, LOL).

…with all this killing, I can see why Akudama Drive was only in one magazine now. (Then again, HypMic was in basically all of them and that also has a tonne of problems…)

Akudama 10

万死 literally means “10000 deaths”.

Babel.

That police chief is such a mood, LOL.

I can see why people didn’t recognise Swindler, but Courier never changes his look, so…uh…

You can’t become a police chief without a sense of justice, no?

“Since when did you know that I’m not-“ - *facepalms*

Is this what they call an “ass-kickin’ Christmas”? (LOL)

Y’know, Sister, you could just do the whole “wherever you are, I’m also seeing the same sky as you” thing some other anime do.

Notably, there are shide (the paper strips) and a rope over the vault…they really do treat the shinkansen and its immortal children as a single god, huh?

Hmm? They don’t care about Sister anymore? Just Brother? (Somewhere along the way, the priorities must have shifted.)

In the end, the best ship is Brawler and Hoodlum (lel).

Akudama 11

One more ep after this. I’m gonna miss this anime, even if it was crazy over-the-top and I didn’t finish it until after the day it ended.

I think the scariest scene in all of Akudama Drive is the one where the “cleaner” tosses the girl aside.

“This nowhere place!” – Around this time, the bunny and shark’s shirts say “morning”/”afternoon” (shark) and “evening” (bunny).

The blue bird of happiness…literally. That character on the birds is the one for “happy”.

…LOL, that one glitched Courier looks more like Cutthroat.

Hacker’s drone matches Courier’s head angles, LOL.

I guess if you think you’re falling in Kanto, you’re falling in Kanto and if you think you’re floating (like Courier did), you float. I always liked that concept.

War Games. Now the title makes sense!

…but they can be together if they stay here in Kanto as vessels for the citizens? (That sounds mighty antagonistic of me, but…that logic does compute.)

Maybe swindlers play games with the truth…? (What an interesting concept.)

“Just fine.” – I think Hacker needs a “This is fine” meme.

“We can hear your heart talking.” – It means something like “We can hear you spouting your true intentions.”

“…worth every last penny…” – That’s a weird thing to say for someone whose life got changed by 500 yen…Just goes to tell you how American the subbers can be sometimes.

Swindler’s smug face is so good, LOL.

Akudama 12 (FINAL)

This episode isn’t named after a movie. It’s named after the anime itself.

The TV says “Please watch away from the TV”, i.e. stand back from the TV while you watch.

“They came and stole the offerings…” – At this point, bunny’s shirt says “freedom” and shark’s says honpou, meaning “wild, uninhibited, rampant, extravagant”.

…where did Shikoku come from? Is that where Swindler and Sister landed after they tried going to the moon?

Ohh! That Christian imagery! That’s scary!

Is Akudama Drive a tragedy? No, I think…on the contrary, it’s a story of hope.

LOL, “s*** guy”.

I thought the girl had a bomb. Turns out she has a gun, which is…far worse, come to think of it.

Instead of red characters which say things about the situation, now Shark and Bunny have Hacker’s symbol on them.

There’s no way anyone who wasn’t immortal would survive the attack Courier took…

…why is it that falling over represents vulnerability in children in all of these stores where a war has happened and/or there’s a chase? Hmm?

Wow, Sister did everything with heels on…?!

Anyways, that was a fun time. See you next time!

#simulcast commentary #akudama drive #Chesarka watches Akudama Drive #taiso samurai #Gymnastics Samurai #HypMic #Hypnosis Mic #Hypnosis Mic: Division Rap Battle - Rhyme Anima #moriarty the patriot #yuukoku no moriarty #Chesarka watches Yuukoku no Moriarty #Chesarka watches HypMic #Chesarka watches Taiso Samurai

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constablewrites · 3 years

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In Which I Give Way Too Much Thought to the Sex Lives of Animated Characters

I’ve fallen off the wagon on my weekly posts here, because ::gestures vaguely at 2020:: It isn’t that I haven’t had observations to make, more that I lacked the particular motivation to actually write them up. But there’s one thing that can always drive me to the keyboard: getting nice and annoyed!

Star Wars Rebels is a deeply irritating show, mainly because when it is good, it is truly excellent, but there’s a lot of meh to wade through to reach those moments. It seems to be aimed at a younger audience than Clone Wars, and lacks that show’s advantages of both the well-established characters from the films and its urgent newsreel energy (because who needs Act I when Tom Kane can just yell exposition at you). There are a lot of interesting ideas and setups in Rebels that just never get properly explored, but the one I found most disappointing was the relationship between Kanan and Hera.

(Major spoilers after the cut. Go watch the show, it’s not terribly long and, as I said, the good stuff is really good.)

I was surprised by how much Kanan’s character grabbed me. Maybe it’s because I find the concept--someone who knows he’s unfit to be a mentor but has no choice but to fake his way through--to be highly relatable as an elder millennial, or maybe it’s just that I glom onto protector characters. He has great chemistry with Hera, and I am a shipper of the highest order. So when the final season started focusing on their romance, it should have been catnip for me.

Reader, it was not.

Oh, the interrupted kiss when they’re trying to get out of the city on Lothal is solid ship-tease stuff, to be sure. But then you get to 4x7 “Kindred” (not gonna link a video because I couldn’t find a good one and the damn things always get taken down later anyway). Kanan asks if she’s ever thought about their future together, Hera demurs and says that he knows how she feels. He isn’t so sure, so after a bit of cockblocking from the A-plot, she kisses him for the first time (that we see). The exchange is brief and doesn’t quite fit the established dynamic, but it’s fine.

The problem is, immediately after that kiss, she gets on a ship and leaves for rebel command. The next time Kanan sees her is the rescue mission that kills him. So for the [Babies Ever After] epilogue to make sense, one of these things must be true:

Force ghosts can fuck

They find time during the harrowing escape to sneak away and hook up

Hera is already pregnant when she leaves Lothal

Not only do the first two seem unlikely, but the third point works with most of the rest of the series. A show with such a young audience was probably never going to state outright that two characters are doing it, so they just have to imply it in ways that older viewers will pick up on: Hera calls Kanan “dear” in the very first episode. They talk to each other about things they don’t talk about with the rest of the crew. And Kanan being squirrelly on Ryloth? That isn’t a guy meeting the father of his best friend or even his crush, that is [recognizably] a guy meeting the father of the girl he’s boinking.

I don’t have a problem with a kids’ show not getting into detail about the love lives of its parental figures, and I honestly think more media should feature healthy, established couples. But I feel like the writers realized that they couldn’t show the impact Kanan’s death has on Hera if their relationship is entirely off-screen. So they did finally make it clear that this is a romance--but they did it in a way that makes it seem like the romance started right there at the end, since Hera’s unhappy “We’ve talked about this before” gives the impression that she’s turned him down in the past. And that just doesn’t add up. (Not to mention the sudden ramp-up makes it pretty obvious that one of them is gonna die.)

But this isn’t Fandom Bitching Wednesdays. Was there a way to do it differently?

Potential fix: Cut the kid. Probably the most straightforward, since that’s what creates the out-and-out plot hole Issues: Also the most depressing option. Kanan’s son is the thing that gives him a happy(ish) ending, allowing a part of him to live on beyond just the memories of his friends. Plus, it makes their interactions in the early seasons kinda confusing if they were never supposed to be in a relationship at all.

Potential fix: They were in a relationship but were very private about it and avoided any PDA around the rest of the crew. Conversation plays out more or less the same, but Hera’s reluctance to talk is because she’s aware that the others are watching, and the kiss is significant because she’s choosing not to hide anymore. Issues: My vote for most satisfying option, but would still benefit from a scene or two earlier in the series setting it up. Also means that if you wanted to keep the bit at the fuel depot where Hera tells Kanan she loves him as a big climactic moment, you would definitely need to establish why she’s never said it before. (Especially because she calls him “love” during the evacuation of Chopper Base.) There are plenty of options for this that would fit in with her character--perhaps something about her own parents, or how they’re in a war, or how she just thinks it’s less complicated if no one knows--but you would have to pick one and show it.

Potential fix: They were in a relationship but it wasn’t “serious,” or perhaps was even a strictly friends-with-benefits arrangement. So when Kanan is asking about their future, it’s not a new thing but an escalation, and builds more naturally toward Hera saying she loves him. Issues: This is how I tried to headcanon it initially, because it’s the only thing that makes any of it make sense as-is. And it’s easy to see how Kanan would have initially been happy with that setup (more on that in a second), but less so for Hera, with her pet names and talk of how they’re a family. As above, her reason for putting up that barrier, and for keeping it up this long, would need to be clearly established.

Potential fix: FWB but reverse this scene: Hera is the one who wants more and Kanan is resisting. I mean, come on guys, the “Jedi are forbidden to form attachments” thing was right there. It’s a stupid rule, but you have the opportunity for Kanan to acknowledge it as a stupid rule and reject it. Kanan is also exactly the kind of guy who would try to ride out the loophole of “It’s okay that I’m in love with her if I never say it or call her my girlfriend.” Variant: they were in a typical relationship but Kanan pulled back when he trained with Bendu to control his emotions, so what Hera wants isn’t something new, but rather what they had before. Issues: The dynamic of “girl wants romance, boy can’t express emotions” is pretty played out. The fact that Kanan broaches the topic by asking what would end her involvement with the Rebellion further adds an interesting angle that builds on stuff that’s been brought up before--war is all she’s ever known so she doesn’t shy from it, while he feels like he’s already survived one war and wants to be done with it--and you lose that if she’s the one who raises the question. It also follows that he would then be the one to say “I love you” at the fuel depot, which somewhat dampens the power of his sacrifice to say that for him.

Perhaps the real lesson here is that sometimes there aren’t any perfect solutions to story problems, just a series of trade-offs. This is especially true in a serialized medium, where part of the story might already be out there by the time you realize you would need to make changes to it to properly set up where you want to take it. If you missed the chance to show us a very important conversation, the best you can do might just be to reference that it happened and hope (in vain) that your audience will just roll with it instead of being nitpicky bastards.

And maybe Force ghosts just fuck, I dunno.

#star wars #star wars rebels #kanan jarrus #hera syndulla #writing #writing advice #plot holes #tv tropes links #relationships #romance #writing lesson wednesdays #i feel like i'm a little late to this discourse #but that's honestly pretty on brand for me

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radioactive-shants · 3 years

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Negative opinions on season 2 (overall it wasnt as good as 1, but i did enjoy it and it definately had its moments- these are mostly nitpicky and super specific, im just into this stuff)

I sorta liked how solar opposites lacked continuity errors that other shows often have (changes in characters height, slight miscoloring or missing details on clothes, stuff like that, little details from past episodes such as the jeans in the freezer and the box the pupa got shipped off in), and i was sorta disappointed by a few big ones (such as Cherie being stabbed through the body, yet they wanted to keep her alive so they disregarded that entirely?? Also the baby survived the war, a huge fall, and everything else??). I did absolutely love the wall plot, especially episode seven, i felt like some of the scenes were a little bit like fillers-

On the subject of continuity, I also felt like some of the previous character developments didnt follow into this season? I know the entire point is its a sitcom, and every single episode begins in the same place (morally). I felt like they did a great job in episodes 1-4 and 7. The emergency urbanizer felt like a filler, but id say it was a really good filler. These episodes showed Korvo the same way as last season, impulsive and bitchy, but still caring about his family in the end (ex. Learning to appreciate his family for what it is in ep 1 and 3). Terry was still shallow and trashy, but learned to appreciate korvo in ep 1 and 2. Almost every episode leads into a moral about family, and i feel like that remained through those episodes. It feels kind of odd that in episode 8 they would all murder eachother, especially under the impression that death is completely permanent (although i gotta say, i liked the fulfillment montage and the episode had its moments, i just felt like it couldve been done better and in a way that makes more sense with the previous plot). Their thoughts about death have also changed a lot (in some ways that make sense and in some ways that dont.) in season 1 it was mentioned that when they die, they turn into trees which are used to build a house, now they literally grow back normally in the trees? How would death be final if the pupa was meant to kill them, yet they still had to a bunch of steps in the pupas evolution after the pupa killed them? It was also mentioned in season 1 that korvo thought the pupa would consume them along with the planet, yet in season 2 it was mentioned that they would have to grow the shlorpians stored in cryopods /after/ the planet is terraformed? This could mean they have to leave earth just as the pupa is terraforming it and come back when hes done? Its a little unclear. With life on earth/other planets its possible theres hostile life, and you would think the specialist would need to be there to care for the pupa during its final stages? I have a lot of questions about the pupa.

Also, i felt like episode 6 (The Apple Pencil Pro) was a short episide that was awkwardly stretched out. I also hoped to see more of the pupa and a little more jesse- otherwise i loved the season, it was really good for the most part- also thats all i can think of rn ahshja

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boxedblondes · 4 years

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heya, for you what would summarise what you think to be bad characterisation in S2? Are there any specific scenes that jump out for you or just in general?

Ooh, what an excellent question! I want to start by saying that I do dearly love this show and I genuinely think it is one of the best pieces of television of all time. Even though I think s2 is the weakest season overall, it is LEAGUES above any given season of virtually any other show on television. (Also, these are entirely my opinions, so if you don’t vibe with them that is completely fine!!)

I personally think there are three key things that make a show/movie “good”: an intriguing plot, relatable/well-developed characters, and appealing visuals. S1 of KE obviously has all of these, as does s3 (ESPECIALLY in regards to character dev. and the visuals/actual “look” of the show. The overall season plot has been somewhat convoluted, but the writers have done a wonderful job of building the tension every week and I think it will all really come together in the finale). S2, on the other hand, suffers from both plot and characterization issues, especially in comparison to the first season.

Anyway, I’m going to branch out a little from your question and address all of the major downfalls of s3, which are:

1. The overarching plot and dropped storylines

S2 had SO MUCH potential in regards to the plotlines introduced at the beginning of the season (not to mention the necessary continuation of the s1 plot), but the writers just... went nowhere with it? Not only did we get no closer to learning anything about the Twelve (arguably the core plot of the show, even if I’m really only watching for the gay shit), but the attempt at having Villanelle and Eve work together - while an exciting and intriguing concept - was disappointing in its execution.

Not to mention the Ghost storyline. Like... who was she? What happened to her? What did Villanelle do/say to her in that trailer that completely broke her? Why did she call Eve a monster? Literally none of this was answered, and the whole arc was just dropped halfway through the season.

And of course, Aaron Peel. I hated this plotline with a passion. Why would Nadia write his name on a piece of paper in s1 as her final message for Eve? What was his connection to the Twelve? Why did Carolyn/MI6/whoever want him dead? Why were there no repercussions for any party after his death?

I had SO many questions coming out of s2 that were never answered and probably won’t be.

2. The characterization of Eve and Villanelle (individually)

I’m sure other people have spoken more eloquently about this (someone please link me other posts if you know of any!), but for me, s2 was also frustrating for the way Eve’s and Villanelle’s individual characters developed.

For Eve, my main issue is that she was just written as a complete asshole for most of the season??? And why? Much as I loved the sheer quantity of V/E scenes in s2, I hated how frequently it seemed Eve was annoyed by/angry with Villanelle during them. I guess this could be excused as Eve still being upset with Villanelle for “ruining her life,” but then how do you explain Eve being a complete dick to Kenny? Or her new workmates?

As for Villanelle, I think she was written as somewhat of a caricature of herself throughout the season (particularly 2x06-2x08). There was substance to the Villanelle of s1, but not so much during s2 - with the exception of her scenes with Eve, which I found to be very strong regarding Villanelle’s emotional state/motivations.

This is nitpicky, but I also thought the Eve/Niko relationship was especially gross during season 2 (read: the opening sequence of 2x06 🤢). I also didn’t like how the writers tried to push the Villanelle-is-a-psycopath-and-therefore-irredeemable narrative so hard.

3. The characterization/development of the Eve/Villanelle dynamic

I already spoke a bit about this above, but the pervasive message regarding the Eve/Villanelle relationship in s2 was “toxic! bad! you should feel bad for wanting them to get together!” Much of this was insinuated by the "psychopath” storyline, as well as by Eve’s random and nonsensical hostility towards Villanelle.

At the end of s1, Eve and Villanelle were on relatively equal footing (before the whole stabbing thing ofc). S2, on the other hand, seemed to push the narrative that Villanelle was “bad” and Eve was “good,” but when she was acting like/working with Villanelle she was also “bad.” I think this sort of black and white thinking is what made the E/V dynamic seem so... off? during season 2.

In comparison, the character development we’ve seen in s3 has been MASSIVE for both these characters, as well as in regards to their mutual dynamic. Both Eve and Villanelle have gone on extensive personal journeys this season, which will (hopefully) culminate in them once again being on equal footing, as well as having a respect for one another. (And this doesn’t even include the shift in their romantic dynamic!!)

I said earlier that I agree with the opinion that s3 has felt more like a “true” second season/followup to s1 than s2 ever did... and I stand by that!! I genuinely think you could watch s3 directly after s1 and have a much better appreciation for these characters/their development as individual people as well as two halves of one whole than you would by watching s2 in the middle.

One final disclaimer (because this post is now officially WAY too long): Although s2 had its pitfalls, it was, in general, a fun season. I had a good time! I laughed a lot and envied Villanelle’s outfits and appreciated how much screentime Eve and Villanelle had together!! Even though I am critical of certain aspects of s2, it was a genuinely good season of television. If it were not naturally existing in comparison to seasons 1 and 3, I would likely have much fewer complaints! The only reason s2 gets critiqued as often as it does is (I think) because the bar set by season 1 was so astronomically high. Also 2x05 is one of the best episodes of the entire series, hands down.

Thank you for the question!! Sorry for rambling on so much, but hopefully this clarifies my opinions a bit more. Enjoy the finale tonight! 💗

#asks #actuallypjo #killing eve

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