#yeah I recommend rewatching this after you see the final episode

[tornrose24]

Rewatching ‘the many lives of Scratch’ TGAMM is…. Ah, quite an experience after the series finale and knowing what I know.

-first off, there’s the whole ‘I don’t remember my death day, but I’d rather forget this moment’ line is…. Uh… well… Ouch. 

-Also the irony of Scratch never remembering his death day because he never really had one.

-And apparently his reaction to hearing about Geoff’s death day involved hiding in the doll house and shut himself off from the others…. which parallels how he reacted to certain things as a human.

-side note: I love how Dana delivers Scratch’s ‘Oh…. No,’ line when he first sees the death day party everyone throws him.

-When the McGees and friends sing that one song, there’s a line where they want to know how Scratch left his body and became a ghost. And I’m all ‘Oh… yeah… that’s actually true. But it’s not a happy tale.’

-Just the fact that everyone’s guesses were so wildly incorrect. I’m sure we all had our theories and guesses and yet the truth ended up being so average sounding (as well as sad).

-Geoff’s story kind of hurts now. Though I like that he also imagines Libby to be the president and Darryl is her body guard.

-As Libby told her story, I’m thinking ‘why does the cow remind me of Todd? It almost has the same hair and eyes.’ Also I think it’s sweet that she imagines Molly being like a little sister to Scratch, though I bet that detail would have been altered if she knew how old Scratch actually was.

-Also, I can’t get over the fact that Libby had Scratch AND Molly both die in her story. It’s a bit morbid, but I’m guessing she couldn’t imagine them being separated. That or she wanted to create an insane ending. 

-I liked that Libby imagined Scratch to be someone who’d be willing to be brave enough to take on danger for someone close to him, which is what he is now… but actually wasn’t when he was human.

-Scratch kept insisting on having an appealing body type in the stories. The poor guy has no clue what he looked like as a human and is desperate for a more idealized version of himself. And yet the truth is… his real appearance isn’t that bad looking, and it actually IS a perfect match to what his personality is like, but it’s not one he’d be thrilled about going back to, even without the memories of what happened. (And this fuels a belief of mine that Scratch was more than likely insecure about his appearance before he lost his soul.) 

-Scratch complaining about nobody making him human is now an interesting line. I think none of them ever imagined it because they are so used to Scratch looking like a ghost. Molly was the only one who had a hint of what he looked like as a child and yet… when she makes her guess, we don’t see her imagining anything. Was it because what she imagined would be too accurate/close to the truth since she knows Scratch so well?

And it’s also ironic because by that point he and Molly have actually seen his true appearance and didn’t even realize it at the time. And then coincidentally come the very next episode, we actually see his human form once more in two specific moments. One of which draws specific attention to him. As if to remind us about someone….

#the ghost and molly mcgee #scratch the ghost #molly mcgee #yeah I recommend rewatching this after you see the final episode #The irony in this episode is too strong

[am3mb3r123]

hi yes i’m watching the Bad Batch arc of season 7 for the millionth time so here are this rewatch’s thoughts for all four episodes:

Marshall Commander Cody, highest ranked clone in the GAR: “let’s just wait until we’re in enemy airspace to debrief this highly important mission”

watching TBB inflict damage is always so much cooler than reading it, thanks aphantasia

wat tambor can suck a dick

Rex having both his greatest hope and worst fear confirmed is fucking *chefs kiss*

everytime they zoom in on Hunter it’s like a bad video game cut scene and i love it

poor Rex, Anakin puts him through so much

i will never get over Crosshair using Tech’s shoulder as a stabilization

god i wish TBB tv show showed more of Hunter giving incredibly specific orders in increasingly vague numbers

did i mention wat tambor can suck a dick?

yah know what? i’ll say it. Cross deserved that punch from Rex

TBB theme behind Anakin trying to brace Rex for Echo not being there?? kill me now

“Yeah, it’s a lift”

“His mind is ours” STFU TAMBOR

THE IMPLICATIONS THAT ECHO HAS BEEN RELIVING THE CITADEL FOR what TWO YEARS HELP

Anakin sees Echo back from the dead and doesn’t bat a fucking eye he’s seen so much since the start of this war

Wrecker blowing up Echo’s chamber so they can’t use it again warms my heart look at how much Wrecker cares!! (excuse me while i refrain from my full emotionally intelligent Wrecker rant)

I FORGOT ECHO JUMPED ON THE KEERADECK BY HIMSELF MINUTES AFTER WAKING UP FROM A MEDICAL COMA

so much time is devoted to the battle between the techo union and the TBB/Rex and Anakin/the Poltechs and i genuinely just want so much more of it

saying “hopefully it’s gonna be just like old times” to a man who’s been kept as a science experiment for two(?) years is insane

the narrator will not let us forget that Echo’s an ARC Trooper and i’m so grateful for it

whoever decided to give Echo a scomp arm i am kissing you on the mouth

“to be blunt” Tech you’ve never not been blunt in your entire life

has no one informed Admiral Trench that his “algorithm” has been compromised!?

Windu trying the “can we not?” method with the battle droids is so funny to me

“if it makes you feel better, it isn’t my plan” Anakin you little shit

unrelated but since when is the entire back of Jesse’s helmet blue??

Anakin wasn’t super justified in cutting off half of Admiral Trench’s limbs and then killing him, but who boy i love watching him go from Jedi to Jedi-adjacent to Sith

god i love Wrecker, if you’ve made it this far and have Wrecker-centric fics to recommend let me know

and, finally, love seeing TBB give a clean salute to Rex and knowing that they’re only doing it bc of Echo lmao

#mem talks #the bad batch #the clone wars #tcw season 7 #TBB arc #emotionally intelligent wrecker

[lover-of-mine]

Your last post is funny bc just TODAY I watched that season finally. I’m literally 2 episodes into season 5 right now. As someone who just watched that for the first time (and hadn’t noticed it WAS the season finally when I started watching it) I was losing my goddamn MIND watching those episodes. Just constantly 😯😯😯. I began watching 911 when I started seeing posts circulating about Buck being bi. At the time I had no idea who he was other than the occasional gif set but it made me intrigued and I have been HOOKED. Literally trying to get through as many episodes as possible so I can watch the episodes live. Questions for you (since I have no one else to talk to about the show); when did you start watching? Have you had any predictions while watching the show that didn’t/ did come true? Like for me when I watched season 1 and Abby went to the fire department for the first time I SWORE up and down that her and Bobby were meant to be endgame (was clearly wrong lol). But also after Chris got stuck in the Tsunami I called it that something would happy to Harry later on (just a feeling that no one was safe lol, not even the kids). I’m just so curious to see what the fandom theories have been over time lol since I missed out on it!

Yeah, no, watching suspicion/survivors for the first time is WILD. Like, imma be honest and bit oversharing, I watched the show for the first time in a depressive episode, so I watched everything up to 5x10 in like, 6 days according to the posts I made on Tumblr about it, so I didn't realize theorize about anything, I was just hitting next episode like my life depended on it. But I didn't know anything about the show, like, at all, I had just watched 911 lone star in a weekend because it was on the tv and there were only like, 20 episodes of it out it at the time and a network in my country was just showing all of them on a loop, and I opened the Disney app fully intending to rewatch grey's anatomy, and 911 was the first show on my recommended to you list, and I had liked lone star enough, and was like sure why not. And I legit couldn't stop watching. All of this happened the week before 5x11 aired on the us, so 5x11 was the first episode I watched like "live" (the first episode I actually watched live was 5x16) but I watched it in the same week, I think I finished on a Tuesday? And the episode aired on Monday. I can't really give you any theories I have witnessed so far because they would be spoilers tho, but if you wanna come back once you catch up we can talk about some of the madness that goes around here. But I had the same thing happen to me, I didn't realize it was the season finale, and I didn't know anything about the show, so I had no idea what was happening, and I thought I had learned my lesson with the tsunami arc, because I watched 3x01 at like 3 am fully saying this is the last episode I will watch and then I'm gonna go to bed, and then the tsunami hit, and I was like well fuck and then Chris fell in the water and next thing I know is 5 am and Eddie is making me cry at the end there. But I saw the 13 and didn't realize the season only had 14 episodes and then everything kept happening. I seriously cannot imagine what it was like to be forced to wait a week between those 2 episodes it was SO CRAZY. When Eddie got shot I legit froze. Watching that for the first time not knowing it's coming is SOMETHING. I do remember thinking that they were gonna kill Shannon but I didn't expect to be right, I also remember clocking that Jason was Doug pretty fast. Something funny tho, I remember posting that meme that's like "I've had blank for 1 day and a half but if anything happened to him I'd kill everyone in this room and myself" with Buck and I waited until I had been watching for a day and a half, that means I posted it while watching the season 2 finale. I hit post and the truck blew up and I legit went like ????????? and that is still the most ironic thing that ever happened to me while posting about 911 kspskspkspakapkapa (here's the post, I actually came back to edit the tags because I was in shock lol) and I laugh every time I remember that lol but I'm glad you're enjoying the show, you can come back to talk to me about it any time!;

#i feel very luck to not know whats coming never in this show #i mean #we did know a few things with promos and stuff but like #i never had any major spoiler going into any episode for the first time and i love that #anon 😌 #i really need a tag for asks #911

[thelightthatruins]

Have you been getting into Good Omens while I wasn't looking? 👀

I can't help but notice a slight influx in GO content in my dash ahihih

HOW DID YOU KNOW IT WAS ME—

(I say as if I didn't just reblog something Good Omens related today)

But yeah, I have!! I was going to tell you but it appears I have forgotten AGDJDG (I thought I already did but. I don't think so–). I finally caught up with the series on January and boy it was a personal rollercoaster for me /pos

Some of my friends may or may not have uh, witnessed how slightly emotional I got after the last episode of Season 2.

(I wasn't even sad, I just felt betrayed and broke into tears /lh /notneg)

BUT !!!

Do not let this fool you for these are Tears of Joy (well. not exactly occurring because of joy but they're not negative!)

Overall, I quite enjoyed the Good Omens experience. I thought it was a very fun show with solid writing;

The storyline wasn't too hard to follow and despite the Lore it has, it's not too heavy and honestly easy to digest. Light yet juicy.

It's labelled as a comedy television series and honestly I can see it. I enjoyed the humor the series has, I giggled and smiled a lot whilst watching it.

I found the characters to be very enjoyable and it was real fun to see how everyone interacted with each other. The dynamics everyone had felt natural and not forced to me.

By extension, the dialogues too! Flowed nicely imo, the actors did a great job in bringing their characters to life. Everyone was so entertaining lol (especially a certain Inspector in S2... iykyk)

ARGH SPEAKING OF CHARACTERS, AZIRAPHALE AND CROWLEY LIVES UP TO THEIR DYNAMIC DUDE... I love them as a duo and I love them as respective individuals!! They absolutely carried the show and did well as the two main leads, they are so so enjoyable and I loved every single screentime they had. Their bond is like?? so goddamn good??? so goddamn tasty?!?! Like you can simply feel the amount of care they have for each other even at times where it is not stated in front of you and how much they just. work so well with each other and I AM SO SICK OF THOSE TWO!!!! (/aff)

Also the Ineffable Husbands are such queerplatonic fruits to me and I absolutely fucking love that along with the fact that I am not alone on this train. They are literally qpr soulmates guys, it takes one to know one so listen to me listen to me—

But that is a discussion for another day ☝🏼💡

Ahem. anyways. THE INTERPRETATIONS!!! Heaven and Hell, the angel and the demons, The Four Horsemen— you name it dude. I just love how this show interpreted some of these things? I'm not going to spoil it for you just in case, but for example, The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse... I liked how the show portrayed them, Pollution was my personal favorite.

I AM YAPPING... I'M SO SORRY, I DIDN'T MEAN TO LEAVE MY GOOD OMENS REVIEW ON YOUR ASK JSDBDJ

But simple TLDR: Good Omens is a good show!

Or at least in my opinion, to each their own! I personally found it rather charming and would definitely rewatch till I get bored of it. Would I recommend it to other people? Yes, actually! I'd tell you to give this silly little series a chance. I can't promise that you'd enjoy it 100% since, well, everyone has their own tastes. But I sure do hope it will at least entertain you positively.

#fishy wisdom #← I forgot I had a tag for inbox replies HAHA #crispy lure #good omens #but seriously I love this show it's so fun #very happy to know that it's getting an S3 #hehe I'd offer to watch it together but numero uno: I don't know if you've watched it before + is interested #and numero dos: each episode is like. 45-58 minutes or something? so. there's that– #you're not obligated to watch it ofc none of you are #just wanted to get these thoughts out u_u #long post #oops

[agirlnherfandoms]

Omg same though, i was all about zutara growing up! Recently, my bf saw atla for the first time, and I was watching it with him (its been years, it was so fun!)

I guess back then I was kinda using katara as a self insert?? Haha I just had the biggest crush on zuko 😭

But watching it again recently idk I found this new appreciation for kataang, and aang especially! I just think aangs so charming and cute? 🥴

Like the headband episode? I mean, come on! Gahhh that episode made a kataang stan (the near kiss, and the way they look at each other at the end of the dance 🥺). Also that last atla comic had such a cute art style, and the kataang stuff was adorable!

AND LET ME TELL YOU! WHEN👏🏼 I 👏🏼 FOUND 👏🏼 OUT 👏🏼 WE'RE 👏🏼GETTING 👏🏼 AN 👏🏼 ATLA 👏🏼 MOVIE 👏🏼 WITH 👏🏼 ADULT 👏🏼 KATAANG 👏🏼 / GAANG 👏🏼 🤯🤯 (and katara and aang as the lead characters, I CANT WAIT!)

Also one thing I hated about shipping zutara was all the aang slander that came with it by other zutara fans, I couldn't stand it 😭😭

Hi anon!! 😊

Yay love seeing people relate to the post I posted about becoming a Kataang shipper during my re-watch of ATLA 😘 (you can read it here if you haven’t already).

Firstly, yesss, watching ATLA is still fun after years. Ngl I think when I was younger (mostly because Netflix wasn’t really big), I watched Avatar but not thoroughly. It was more like, if the episode is on the TV, I’m going to watch it. I might have missed an episode or I’d have to wait till next week to see the next episode. This is compared to when I got older and I could do a full binge watch of the whole thing on Netflix (which I recommend 😉).

Secondly, haha I soooo relate to crushing on Zuko. Honestly, still do lol (literally have you seen what he looks like in the comics!?! I didn’t know his hair could get better than season 3 but 😍). And yeah, definitely understand using Katara as a self-insert for the Zuko love 😂. Love an enemies to lovers!!!

(The above two are from The Promise)

(…and these two are from The Search)

Aww yes, I don’t think I paid much attention to Aang when I was younger (other than him being the main character lol) because of how much I loved Zuko. But truly, every single character is so amazing that they all deserve the same amount of love and attention 🥹.

THAT DANCE!! I don’t know what’s in the air at the Fire Nation but Aang was too smooth. After watching that episode, my standards went up by 5000%. I feel like that might have been the episode on my rewatch that made me think a bit differently about Kataang. I think prior to that I was still fully on the Zxtara (going to x the ship name out again in case shippers don’t want to see this xx) train but then that episode happened and I thought this is fricking cuteeee (then of course proceeded to rewatch again).

I’m so happy they’re giving us more adult Gaang content!! So so excited for that movie 😍 and all the Kataang content to come.

Yeah, and on your final point, I do remember lots of Aang hate from some shippers (I do think there might still be some even now). Definitely not saying all Zxtara shippers hate Aang (and definitely don’t think that was what anon was implying)!!! I do think it was a small minority who were probably just trying to find an excuse to hate Aang but I have seen many Zxtara shippers who absolutely adore Aang which always makes me happy because he is a sweet sunshine who deserves all the love and appreciation ☺️.

(This above picture still forever makes me soft 🥹)

-

Disclaimer just in case you didn’t read the post anon’s replying too / you don’t want to read it lol: I still ship Zxtara and this isn’t Zxtara hate. I just found that rewatching ATLA has made me ship Kataang as well. Perfectly fine if you favour one ship over the other! I’ve just found love for both :)

-

Love hearing opinions because none of my friends or family want to talk about fandoms with me so please keep them coming 🥺.

#avatar the last airbender #atla #kataang #atla katara #atla aang #aang #katara

[butwhatifidothis]

Have you ever considered, once you finish sporking that fic, washing the taste out of your mouth by taking a look at fics in the fandom you like/think deserve more attention?

Even one of my favourite sites, Cake Wrecks, does a feature on Sundays were it's cakes they think are really nicely-decorated so it's not all downers.

😭 i think i need to clear up something lmao

I already read fics that I enjoy - reread old ones, look out for new ones, write a good few myself (here's two of them lol). I read my trashy little otome isekai villainess manhuas that I love to death. I play the shit out of Hades. I play DnD with irl buds every Wednesday. I'm watching - and rewatching - episodes of the new Bleach anime, and am eagerly awaiting for June to come around to give more. I play Smash Ultimate with my big sis and lil bro. I replay VW every now and then. I play BBS and hope to finally pull the last couple Valentine's/Academy Momo's I need to have fully completed all the Momo's in the game (so far).

I already do plenty of things that I thoroughly enjoy doing - I talk about the fic a lot here, but y'all don't have to worry; I do, in fact, do things I enjoy doing lmao.

But! I do want to give some attention to fics I really enjoy! I've already talked about most of them before, but it never hurts to do it again lol. Most of them are dmcl so if that's not up your alley, well, rip, but if it is then yeah!

Princes of Silver and Gold is sooo good - and very meaty! It deals with Dimitri and Claude getting bopped back to the prologue after the events of Saving Derdriu, after a mysterious spell seems to ambush them during a moment of peace. It's has a lot per chapter to take in - 4 chapters, +129,000 words, a very dense read - but imo it never feels like too much. I've reread this a good few times actually! There's a lot of 3H's lore that's played around with and given more oomph to it that really makes the fic feel alive, which is always nice.

Be Not Proud: an absolute downer for sure, can't ever get through it without snivellin' and snottin', but it's a really touching look into Nader and Claude's relationship. It revolves around Claude's last moments on a CF run where he isn't spared - very sad oneshot, but very memorable imo.

Everyone Leaves Eventually: an interesting oneshot about the Black Eagles leaving Edelgard's side one by one as she gets more and more aggressive with her war, from Hubert's POV. Granted, Hubert is more than a smidge OOC for it to work - he's given a good bit more morality than he's shown to ever have canonically - but as a concept it's interesting, and it's a neat read all around. If you're willing to accept that this Hubert is less like canon!Hubert than he ought to be, I'd definitely recommend it!

Survivor's Burden: another one that's kind of a downer, but with a much happier ending than Be Not Proud. Revolving around the idea of Claude and Dimitri surviving SS Gronder, with Claude doing his best to keep him and Dimitri alive in the woods. It's a bit long for a oneshot - a bit over 30,000 words for one sitting - but! It's definitely worth it imo. Plus! It was part of the dmcl Big Bang that happened a couple years ago, so this one also has great art to go along with it at certain points!

to this vow, i hold fast: yet again this is being recommended by me lmao because it is beyond amazing. It's a slow-burn dmcl political-marriage AU of post-war Fodlan, and it's just a joy to read through. The one thing I'll say about this one, as much as I love it to bits, is that, hm... you can tell the author also ships Dimi///leth. Understandable what I mean by that once you read it, and it can be quite a bit annoying to see it imo, but also imo it doesn't take enough away from the quality for me to ever do anything but recommend it lol. This multi-chapter fic is actually almost complete, from what I understand! So there's that too.

seeking humanity: a dmcl AU where Claude is a traveler and Dimitri is (seemingly, anyway) the god of death, and they make a pact: Claude either gets Dimitri to like humans in half a year's time, or he gives up his soul to Dimitri. I am a huge fan of how the characters are, well, characterized in this fic; everyone is just a joy to read through! Even characters I don't care that much for (especially with how they tend to be written in fics), like Leonie and Lorenz, are just great. And the mysteries this fic has in it are also really fun to think about, with all the crumbs the story lays down to try and follow.

please give them a shot!! If they're up your alley anyway lol

#ask #anon #like y'all do NOT have to worry lmao I have plenty to keep me happy and entertained

[the-rewatch-rewind]

Finally finished the transcript for this one so I can post it here!

Jane

Hello and welcome back to the Rewatch Rewind! My name is Jane, and this is the podcast where I count down my top 40 most frequently rewatched movies in a 20-year period. Today I will be discussing number 19 on my list: RKO and Vanguard Films’ 1946 spy drama Notorious, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by Ben Hecht, and starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains.

After her father is convicted of being a Nazi spy, party girl Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) is recruited by American agent Devlin (Cary Grant) to help infiltrate an organization of Nazi scientists in Brazil. Alicia and Devlin quickly fall for each other before learning that Alicia’s job is to seduce Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains), a friend of her father’s whose house seems to be a current Nazi headquarters, which complicates Alicia and Devlin’s relationship.

Notorious is a fascinating, well-crafted, underrated gem of a movie that not nearly enough people talk about, so I was delighted when I learned that my friend James Hefel is also a fan of it. We had a very fun conversation that I hope you will enjoy, but before we get into that, I want to warn you that we do thoroughly spoil the plot, which probably isn’t surprising if you’ve listened to other episodes because I usually spoil the movies I talk about, but Alfred Hitchcock was the Master of Suspense, which means that spoiling his movies does kind of ruin them more than spoiling a typical movie does, so if you haven’t seen Notorious and think you might want to, I would highly recommend watching it before listening. It’s currently available on YouTube. Anyway, here’s our conversation, proceed at your own risk:

Hi, James!

James 

Hey, Jane, how's it going? 

Jane 

Good. How are you? 

James 

Oh, I'm all right. Just chilling on this fine day. Ready to talk about Notorious. 

Jane 

Yes, Notorious. The first Hitchcock movie that I'll be talking about on this podcast. 

James 

Oh, there are more? 

Jane 

Yes, well, one more. 

James 

I have a hunch I know what it is. 

Jane 

Yeah, I would say that Notorious probably is my second favorite Hitchcock movie, so, uh, it's appropriate that it's my second most watched. 

James 

Yeah, that would make sense. 

Jane 

Cary Grant was in four Hitchcock movies and two of them are like my favorites, and two of them are, like my least favorites. So it's it's interesting. 

James 

Shall we talk about this, the second favorite one though I suppose? 

Jane 

Yes, so Notorious, I was looking back to find out when I first watched it and I think I had like this major Hitchcock phase when I was like 14-15 ish, I watched like a ton of Hitchcock movies for the first time. And so I was I was looking at my my little notebook where I wrote them down, I'm going to show you. The audience can't see. But there's this, this notebook where I wrote down my movies. And so I have like this section here, where it's like Shadow of a Doubt, Family Plot, Strangers on a Train, Rebecca, Notorious. 

James 

I mean, that's a damn good lineup. 

Jane 

Yeah. That was that was me being introduced to, I think I had seen a couple or at least one before I'd seen my favorite one first. That was the first Hitchcock movie I watched was the the one that I'll be talking about later. Um, but yeah, I I think I was just getting a bunch from the library and just like sort of starting to devour his work. 

James 

But I think every young person who considers themself a movie buff goes through a Hitchcock phase every so often, so there's got to be bound to happen eventually. 

Jane 

Yeah. Do you remember when you first watched it? 

James 

I was introduced to it actually in college. It was very late to the game with this one, but the class was for it was called gender and sexuality in Hitchcock and the professor kind of picked out specific movies within Hitchcock's cannon that, like had those issues and ideas sort of in the center stage and turns out there's a surprising number of them that do. And when we got to this one A) I'd never heard of it, but he introduced it with like, “this is kind of like uh considered a forgotten gem among Hitchcock enthusiasts” and I think that's fair because like this movie doesn't really have, I don't think the cultural permeation that movies like Psycho and Vertigo have, but I think it stands on the shoulders with them and I remember watching it and I don't think I was like… I was aware of Cary Grant at this point, but I wasn't really like…a fan of his, I wouldn't say? But then when I watched this, I was like, “Goddamn, he's really good at acting!” Like, this is a character who would be really difficult to play and he just nails it. So that was kind of like started my really big appreciation for Cary Grant. And then when I met you, which was after that, I pretty sure I was like, “Oh damn, this is great, I got a fellow Cary Grant fan to talk with. 

Jane 

Well, I was very excited because I'm used to sort of introducing Cary Grant to people. And so it was fun to meet you and be like, ohh, someone who's already a fan! Nice! 

James 

Actually, now that I think about it, I had watched North by Northwest, but I didn't really under- like I didn't really get Cary Grant from that point. I was just like, I was just like a, you know, rather attractive looking, old Hollywood actor. But like this one, I was like, damn, he's…good. 

Jane 

Yeah. Well, it's it's very different. I mean, he's very different character in those. And I think it's interesting because most of the Cary Grant movies that I've talked about so far are comedies. And I feel like I tend to enjoy him more when he's being silly. Like I I enjoy him more in comedic roles, and sometimes in dramatic roles I feel like they don't quite work like. Like, have you seen An Affair to Remember? 

James 

I haven't, I've heard of it. 

Jane 

Yeah, so it's like a really famous movie. I don't feel like the end of that movie works. Like, I don't believe that he's sincere at the end of that movie, for some reason? Like I just, I feel like maybe I've seen him in too many comedies, but I feel like you can't, a lot of times you can't really take him seriously, like he always sort of has a little joke. And what I think is so interesting is like Notorious is a dramatic role and I feel like he's really good in it, and I don't know that I think he's as good in other dramas. So that's part of why I enjoy this movie is it's like, so different from the Cary Grant movies I usually watch and enjoy. 

James 

Indeed, although you can see glimpses of, like what made him like such a charming comedic leading man in this role, but whenever he's doing that, it's almost always when he's, like, trying to fool specifically Alex, like he's trying to fool Alex into thinking that something else is going on when it's not actually what the subject of his conversations is about so. 

Jane 

Yeah, no, I know exactly what you're talking about. Another thing that I enjoy about Cary Grant movies is that a lot of times the woman is really the lead. Not always, obviously, like North by Northwest is very much Cary Grant. In North by Northwest the female lead doesn't even show up until like 45 minutes into the movie, but Notorious like Ingrid Bergman's character is the lead. 

James 

Oh yeah. 

Jane 

It's really more Ingrid Bergman and I love her. She's great. And in this movie, she, like, totally kills it. 

James 

Yeah, well, I have a couple of notes about Ingrid Bergman, specifically in regards to that. So I'll let you finish, but I'll go on to that afterwards. 

Jane 

I just think that she absolutely gets this character and like just is completely into it. It's also very funny to me, having watched a lot of Ingrid Bergman movies, how often she's just sort of like… whatever European nationality you need her to be. 

James 

I mean, she was Swedish, but in this case, she's playing like a German American. 

Jane 

Yeah. And I believe that her mother was German and she was… she was fluent in like 5 languages. So it's like she knew German, but it's just really funny to be like, yeah, OK, she can be German in this movie. She can be Italian, she can be whatever. She can be Russian. She was Anastasia. Like, whatever European nationality you need her to be. 

James 

And that seems like that was the case for a lot of European actresses of that era, I'm sure, especially the ones that were in America. 

Jane 

She has a vague accent. She's European of some kind. But yeah, I just I one of the main reasons I keep revisiting this movie is just because I love her performance so much. 

James 

Oh yeah. So I was gonna say was OK, so the two male leads, Cary Grant and Claude Rains, their characters, essentially, those two are playing, like kind of opposite the types that they've been cast in at that point. Like Cary Grant's playing like a kind of moody, sulky, you know, leading guy who's kind of a bad boy almost in some respects. And Claude rains is playing a respectable villain, but he's also playing a a villain who seems to have take things very hard in the chest and like is very sensitive and jealous and you know, not as secure as maybe a lot of his other roles were, and a lot of other villainous roles. So there's that. There's that kind of inversion there, of their types and then, but Ingrid Bergman is basically playing like, exactly the type that she had been playing for her entire career, it's like. But it's just like the perfect role for her because, like you say, she gets this role perfectly, and she's just able to find all the little nuances to make Alicia real. Like you can always see like the moments where she's really trying to be happy and then some situation happens where it's just like squashed completely and she just has to default back into, “OK. I guess I'm just like, uh, you know…” – I don't want to use this word, but it's only word coming to mind – “like a, like, a slutty young woman trying to like, you know, sleep with everybody I can.” And that's just like her protective mask. And it's just you can see that. Go on and off so perfectly throughout the entire movie. And the other thing I wanted to say is I watched the special features on Criterion that included like a whole interview style documentary with people near and close to the movie and they had one with Peter Bogdanovich, where he talked about, he had talked to Cary Grant about this movie and asked him what he thought about it and Cary Grant was like… - by the way, Peter Bogdanovich does amazing impressions - but he was like, [Cary Grant impression] “Oh yeah, that was the one that Hitch threw to, threw to Ingrid” and Peter Bogdanovich was like, huh, that's a very interesting way to think about this movie, but it's true, like Ingrid Bergman is just perfect for this role, so.... 

Jane 

Yeah. Well, and I I think it's really interesting because like, yes, she played characters like this a lot, but at that point she had more of a reputation of being like more pure and and like she'd played like nuns and stuff. And it was before the whole scandal with cause, like…

James [overlapping]

With Rossellini.

Jane

…there was a huge scandal in the middle of her career that she had an affair and got pregnant when she was married to somebody else with with Rossellini. 

James 

Yep.

Jane 

And but that hadn't happened yet at this point. And so I think it's kind of funny because, like everybody called her a slut after this. And also I think it's really interesting, like Hitchcock did this a lot, like pushing the boundaries of production codes cause like you couldn't say like, “Oh, she's a slut” in 1946 in a movie.

James

Right.

Jane

But like, that's very heavily implied. Like, that's why she's Notorious. 

James 

Ohh yeah. 

Jane 

And like originally, I think the ending was going to be that she was going to die, and they were going to show people looking at an article about her death and being like, “Oh, she was Notorious” and that's why it was called that. But then of course they made the ending a little happier than that. 

James 

I mean, a little. 

Jane 

She doesn't die that we know of. 

James 

No, but someone dies. Definitely someone dies. 

Jane 

Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, he kind of has it coming. That's another- like, OK, so yeah, it's an Ingrid Bergman movie, but Claude Rains is so good too. In this, like, villain that's actually kind of sympathetic. Like you feel bad for him even though he's a Nazi, like he's bad.

James

Yes.

Jane

But like he really does love Alicia, like he is in love with her. And she totally breaks his heart. Obviously, like that's her job. But like, you feel bad for him at the end when it's like, he's clearly going to die. 

James 

I had a note that going back to really quickly to Alicia is like you were saying that you can't say she's a slut, but there was a line that she says in that conversation with Devlin at the horse race where she's like, “You can add Alex to my list of playmates.” I have no idea how they managed to get that line past the Hays Code. Like, that one was like… that's pretty like clear what she's talking about. And you're like, oh. 

Jane 

Yeah, but that that line in itself, like if you said it out of context, maybe like playmate could be innocent, but like… 

James 

She’s like, you know, a 20-something woman. 

Jane 

It is, it is very clear what she means by that. 

James 

But yeah, I’m trying to go back to my Claude Rains notes real quick. Yeah, I kind of already mentioned what I was my primary note, but just the idea that there's this inversion of like what kind of role that Claude Rains and Cary Grant are playing because like, I feel like if you had switched their roles, that they might have actually played it in a way that fit more their like established personas at the time. But it works so much better that they're doing it in the way that they are, because it's just like they're just so perfect for those roles. 

Jane 

Yeah. 

James 

And like you said, Claude Rains is just... 

Jane 

He's amazing in everything. 

James 

Right. But he wasn't really known for playing like characters kind of you can see their heart. Like he was known for playing very cold, dispassionate kind of villains like, you- I mean, maybe like, Phantom of the Opera’s kind of an exception where, like that's his whole point. But even still, there's just like, he was known for being- he kind of like almost established the like British, archetypal, like, you know, “I am a very cool but charming villain” sort of deal and then, but this one you can just see like he's charming, but he's also, like, he gets sad, he gets upset, he gets angry. That's why you like him. 

Jane 

Yeah. Well, and I think that often in, like when the villain is the husband it’s like, he's very manipulative and like trying to control his wife, and it's very much not that at all. Like she's manipulating him essentially because, like, she's just trying to get in his house and find out what he's up to. And he's like, very genuinely in love with her. 

James 

Mm-hmm. Well, it's it's a very strange kind of thing, cause apparently he knew her when she was like, a minor. And you're just kind of like…eugh…. 

Jane 

Yeah, that is uncomfortable that they talk about how like… 

James 

He knew her growing up. 

Jane 

He was he had a crush on her when she was young, like. 

James 

And there's a very clear age difference between the two of them. Like if he was like about her same age, it wouldn't be so bad. But like knowing that he was, you know, probably in his 20s when she was in their teens is just kind of like…. 

Jane 

Well, yeah, he's a friend of her father’s. 

James 

Exactly, that's why. 

Jane 

Yeah, it it is uncomfortable. But I feel like he's not trying to take advantage of that.

James

Yeah.

Jane

In the, in what we see. I mean, maybe when they met before it was inappropriate and… 

James 

Yeah, maybe they did that to like, try and reemphasize the fact that like, you're not really supposed to like him because as if the Nazi thing weren't enough, but like, it's maybe easy to forget that somebody is a Nazi when they’re not like decked out in Nazi regalia. So just having this like visible age gap maybe was kind of like a way to, like, make sure the audience doesn't fall too hard for Alex as a character. 

Jane 

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and it's also interesting that they have, like the other Nazis seem more evil than he does, because like, he, there's the ones that are, like, very coldly talking about arranging the death of one of them, who almost gave away the wine bottle thing. 

James 

The only other one that does die is the one that like also looks the most sympathetic because he looks like just a, you know, nerdy little man. 

Jane 

Yeah, the way that they portray all of the bad guys in this movie is like, there are the ones that you're like, “OK, that's the evil Nazi!” And I don't know if maybe it's because, like, Claude Rains doesn't have a German accent, so you're, like, not automatically associating him with the evil Germans? 

James 

Yeah, I think I read somewhere that, like Hitchcock, gave him the option to do a German accent and he was like, “No, I just want to do my normal accent,” and they're like, “OK, fine.” I just, I don't know if that was necessarily the right choice, but it works. 

Jane 

And I I do think that there's like, well, especially at that time too, that the audience was more likely to be more sympathetic to someone with more of a British accent than more of a German accent. 

James 

Mm-hmm. that's also part of why like Ingrid Bergman's, you know, natural accent, if that was her natural accent, I haven’t… I honestly don't know what she normally sounded like, but maybe that's why they also kept that in there because you think the idea is that you're not really supposed to get a good read on her for until about halfway through the movie, or even 1/4 of the way through the movie, about like what her deal is. 

Jane 

Well, and I think that she doesn't even know, like, as a character. Like, she's kind of trying to figure herself out because she was definitely conflicted about the whole thing with her father and like, that she knew that he was a Nazi, did not agree with that, but also didn't turn him in. 

James 

Right. 

Jane 

And is sort of dealing with that and that like her coping strategy was to just be a party girl and, like, pretend that everything was fine and but clearly she wasn't actually fine. 

James 

This is not to get too meta with yours in my life, but this reminds me of another certain character that we both have a very notable connection with, shall I say? Lydia Bennet from Lizzie Bennet Diaries. 

Jane 

I was wondering if you were thinking about that. Yeah, it's it's a lot like that, actually, of like, that people on the outside are like, “Wow, you're being irresponsible,” and she’s actually like, “No, I'm just trying to deal with my feelings!” 

James 

“And the fact that I'm rejected by my family for various reasons.” 

Jane 

Yes. Yeah, there's a lot of similarities there actually. So yeah, going back to trying to get around production codes, there’s a very famous scene between Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant that we must mention.

James

The kissing scene?

Jane

The kissing scene, because according to production codes of the time, a kiss could not be longer than three seconds, and so Hitchcock instructed them to just, like, stay in each other's arms, but come up for air every three seconds. So they're like, they'll kiss and then they'll say a line and they'll kiss and say a line. So it's a very long kissing scene, but they don't actually kiss for more than three seconds continuously. 

James 

Right. Which is just like genius move, I have to say like… 

Jane 

Yeah, very sneaky. 

James 

Malicious compliance to the max because like people have written about this already, but like, it does end up being like, oh wow, this is… they're really into each other at this- like it, it's- you can… they're almost more, they feel more into each other for that reason than they do with if they had just, like, been making out continuously for, you know, 10 seconds even like it's just that going back and forth like that's something you only really do if you really feel comfortable with the person and there's like not just like straight lust to driving you, like there's other things going on there and that really adds to establishing what this relationship has early on in the movie. So I really appreciate that. 

Jane 

Yeah, their relationship is set up so well because like it's this whole thing of like, Devlin is in love with Alicia, but he doesn't want to be. 

James 

He doesn't want to admit it. 

Jane 

Yeah, exactly. And so he's, like, he's like, really mean to her some of the time too! 

James 

Yeah and that was what- that was one of the things I was mentioning, I think before we recorded that like, my feelings of this movie have gotten a little bit more complicated on this rewatch because I forgot that he was actually kind of mean to her before he even like needed to be. And I'm just kind of like, OK, I get that you don't think you should be in love with her, but like, you don't have to, like, insult her down to her bone right off the gate. You can just like be more disinterested. I don't know. It's just like, he's just like he goes right for the gut on the first shot. And you're like, jeez, dude. 

Jane 

Yes, he is, there's so many mean things he says to her and she's just like, “Wha- what did I do to you???”

James

Yeah, exactly, it’s like-

Jane

The part when she- when he finds out what her job is going to be and he comes back after they had the kissing scene, and she's like, “Oh, what do you need to tell me that you have a wife and two adorable children and this can't go on?” And he's like, “I bet you've heard that often enough.” She's like, “What? Why did you say that?” 

James 

Yeah, and like… Like at that point I kind of get it because like, again, he's trying to like, you know, distance her so that she can potentially do her job better or whatever. But like even still, like it was even before that in the scene, like at the cafe where right before they even kissed for the very first time on screen, you’re like… He's still saying things similar to that and you just kind of like… Dude, you got issues it seems like. 

Jane 

Yeah. And then he gets really mad at her after she says the the playmate line that you mentioned earlier. And it's like that was, that was what she was supposed to do!

James 

Right. 

Jane 

Like, that was literally her job, and he's just like, “Ugh, I thought you'd changed.” It's like… She didn't want to! 

James 

Yeah you just feel so bad for her this whole time. You're just like…. I mean, that's again part of the point, but just like… ugh. And apparently David O Selznick when he was producing this movie wanted Joseph Cotten to play this role. And I'm… I think it's a stroke of genius to Hitchcock got Cary Grant to do it instead, because like and I know he wanted Cary Grant to do it anyway, but even still, it's just like had Joseph Cotten done this role, like Joseph Cotten's charming enough, but like… you've seen Shadow of a Doubt, you know, like when he wants to be mean and and nasty he can be real mean and nasty. And I think he would have overdone it. So, like having Cary Grant there, like his natural charm kind of helps you overcome the like, just meanness that Devlin throws at her, but at the same time you're just still kind of like, if you step back, you're like, oh, yeah, this is just…ahh. 

Jane 

Yeah, I do think that that's a good point that Cary Grant doesn't quite cross that line that some other actors would have of, like actually being really vicious. And you can kind of see that the reason that he lashes out is because of, like, his inner feelings. And like he doesn't want to care for her, so he's really trying to make her not like him. 

James 

Right. And there's also like parts of it where you can kind of see in his eyes, I think that like even he doesn't really want to be saying what he's saying, but at the same it's like, he still says it, so... 

Jane 

Yeah. Well, and he defends her when she's not there. 

James 

Right. That's the other thing. 

Jane 

Yeah, because like, when he's in the room with the other like… 

James 

With Prescott, who was, I think the worst character in the whole movie. That man just...ugh. 

Jane 

They're like talking about, like, cause she goes there to say, like, “I don't know what to do. He asked me to marry him and I don't know what to do about that.” And so they're like, “Oh, yeah, why is she showing up here? A woman like that” and he, like, Devlin goes off on them. And it's like, “Hey, she is, like, risking her life for you guys, and you're just like, insulting her character.” But it's like, but you said the same thing to her face! So like... 

James 

Again, I feel like that might be kind of him trying to, like, make amends for what he feels as his own terrible actions. But again, it's just like, ugh. He's a very, very complicated character and I think again, that's deliberate. But it's just like…ugh 

Jane 

Yeah, it's like you could have made things a bit easier on yourself if you hadn't been so…conflicted. 

James 

Yeah, but I guess it's like maybe that's a statement in itself is like trying to like highlight, I mean in a complicated way like patriotism or like feelings of patriotism at the time where it's like America and veterans and people who fought in the war, like, did really terrible things, you know, to other people but at the same time, I feel like there was also this rhetoric, especially amongst against like, you know, Europe Germans as opposed to the Japanese, where it's like, but the Germans are still such a noble and historical people and they like, you know, deserve some sympathy from us in the end. And like, that's part of what leads into like the Marshall Plan and the rebuilding of Germany by the Western powers. and whatever else but it's just interesting that like… there's an echo there of like how the rhetoric of the war kind of would have played into that I feel like. And when you look at when you recognize it as a whole that this movie takes place immediately after World War Two, it's like, you can really see the kind of complicated feelings of you know, OK, how do we treat- How do we as the world move on here and you can see that kind of evolve I think in Alicia and Devlin's relationship, at least I think so. 

Jane 

Yeah, definitely. And it's like it not it only takes place right after the war, it was made right after the war, too. 

James 

Even during in parts like it was written during the war too. 

Jane 

Yeah, so people definitely were having those feelings. The people who made the film, the people who would have watched it on its first release, were definitely wrestling with that and it's interesting how it reflects that a lot of Nazis did flee to South America and showing that it's it's just, it's interesting to watch it from a historical perspective, if nothing else, I mean I watch it because I enjoy the acting and the characters and things like that, but it's also very interesting from a historical perspective. 

James 

And I think a lot of that comes down to Ben Hecht. as far as I know, because he was really tapped into like all of that. Like he was a former journalist, and so he had all of his journalistic connections, so he would have been really into, like, trying to make this movie feel like that from a plot standpoint anyway. Like, really current and fresh, so props to him, the screenwriter, for anyone who doesn't know. 

Jane 

Yeah, so I think that just there's so many things that really work. One thing that I do think is interesting, it took me a few rewatches to pick up on, is that when they're in Brazil, there's the like one Brazilian guy and then the rest are American people and they make the Brazilian guy really clueless. 

James 

Yeah, he's, like, totally deferential to Prescott and everything. Like he, he immediately changes his mind after on the plot after like Prescott does a very basic explanation of what's going on, and you're just like… this does not does not make the Brazilian government look good. 

Jane 

No, it's like it's very sort of like American savior mindset sort of thing and I don't, I don't love that. 

James 

Ohh yeah. 

Jane 

I think that's really like they could have made him smarter and more like in on what's going on instead of being like, “Why don't we do this?” “No, we're going to do it this way.” “Oh, yes, you're right.” 

James 

Yeah. And then it's just like, he disappears like halfway through the movie and like the rest of the movie, you're just seeing Prescott and maybe one other American superior agent, and it's just like eurgh. 

Jane 

Well, and the guy who plays Prescott, I think Louis Calhern, like I am used to seeing him in High Society, which is a remake of Philadelphia Story where he plays the Uncle Willie character. So he plays this like, really slimy Uncle guy, and I feel like a lot of times he played like a bit more slimy character. So, like, I think you're supposed to like him in this movie, but I like can't see him as not a slimy character. 

James 

Well, I I think you're maybe supposed to like him initially, but then like he's I think he provides like a… a foil for Devlin. Where, like Devlin clearly has reservations about this, and Prescott is very much just like, “Nope, this is just going to happen.” And like literally, the last scene you see him and he's laying in his bed like eating charcuterie and just like, totally casual, even though, like Devlin is seems pretty concerned that Alicia is in mortal danger and it's just like, this man literally does not give a crap, and you're just saying like, I feel like you're really supposed to not like him that. 

Jane 

Yeah, he's just like, “OK, you can check on her if you want to” and like she's literally being poisoned to death. It's like, uh yeah, I think you should check on her. But that's another thing that, like, she uses her, like partying as a defense mechanism, and she's so used to doing that that, like, even when she does need help, she tells Devlin, like, “Oh, I'm just drunk. It's fine.” 

James 

Well, I think at that point it's also, just like she's possibly baiting Devlin to be like, “Hey, can you see past my mask at all and see that I'm actually really in trouble? Or are you just going to like, let your prejudices against me get in the way again?” because, like I think at that point, she knows that something's wrong. She may not necessarily have any idea what, but she's like actively trying to put up a wall against him because it's like he's been treating her like everyone else in the world has, so why should she, like, let it down for him at this point, and then, you know, it's like it's a test, really is what it is and then Devlin only passes it very belatedly. 

Jane 

Well, and she has found out that he asked to be transferred and he won't admit it to her. 

James 

Yeah, I was gonna say cause like that was one thing I noticed is like he seems to be completely, like, clueless as to the idea that he's aware that he's been asked to be transferred and almost like the point that he doesn't even know that he's being transferred. Like I I read from that scene that he's he just seems like he's not even aware that anything should be wrong, that he should be treating him this way and it's like, OK, did you actually ask to be transferred? Was Prescott lying? Like I was trying to like… Hmm, this is odd. Like his behavior just seems like almost too clueless to me in that scene. I don't know. 

Jane 

Yeah, well, he's still, he's trying. He's trying really hard to not be into her. And because I think at the end or like towards the end when he finds her, he says like that that was why he asked to be transferred because he was so in love with her and he was trying to seem clueless in front of her. And so, yeah, there's layers. 

James 

Definitely I think that scene is one of the best acted scenes in the movie between those two, where you kind of have to you see them, like really playing with each other. At least her playing with him. 

Jane 

Yeah, I just she's just so on in every scene in this movie. Like, she's just so good. 

James 

Yeah, she's never, like, the only time I could really see her say she's kind of being casual is the part where she's like, after Devlin comes home and she's been fussing with that, like, chicken that she was trying to cook. And she seems like that seems like the happiest moment she has in the movie, honestly. And then it's just like, boom, everything starts to fall. 

Jane 

I have this very funny memory of one time, I think in college I was hanging out with my friend and I was saying like, “We should watch a movie together,” and she was like, “I saw this like clip of an old movie of like somebody saying that they didn't like to cook, but they were gonna make chicken” and I was like, “Notorious!” She was like, “How did you know that from that one brief thing?” I'm like, “Well, it's, I don't know, it’s a notable moment in the movie.” 

James 

[laughs] That's… that's such a you moment. Like just knowing you, that's such a you thing that would happen. 

Jane 

Yeah, well, yeah. My friend at the time was like, “Of course, you would know that was what- you would know exactly what movie that was.” So, yeah. So I watched it with her then. 

James 

Oh, nice. If I can pivot, I have like another big part of the movie that I wanted to talk about. 

Jane 

Go for it. 

James 

The cinematography by Ted Tetzlaff and just like in general, just like the decisions made during this movie, I feel like are unlike most every Hitchcock movie that was made before or since where, there's just an intense subjectivity to the camera that doesn't really like reappear I don't think in any other Hitchcock movie like the for example, the part where Alicia is like realized if she's been poisoned, she stands up and then the key lights drop off of Alex and his mother and they all they look like are like black silhouettes. And like there's this whole sequence where Alicia’s like stumbling out of the room and then it's just like all twisty and turny and…and then, not to mention the long tracking shots that happened twice, at least twice during the movie where like it goes from the top of the staircase all the way down to the key in her hand. And following the cup of coffee as Alex's mother, like carries it over the table and all the shots were just like, right in next Alicia's face. And you're like, “Oh, God, I hope she doesn't drink it. Oh, God, she's going to drink it!” Like there's just so much cool stuff that goes on in this movie that just like, frankly, genius in in the ways that it just tells the story just by visuals and major props to Ted Tetzlaff and his team for pulling that off because this movie, like when you really watch just the images, you can really tell what's going on. It's amazing. 

Jane 

Yeah. About the the key shot, there is another earlier Hitchcock movie called Young and Innocent, which is not one that's talked about very much. And there's a whole thing where, like the bad guy has, like, a twitch in his face. And so they're trying to find him again. And it's like this big shot of this whole, like, I think it's like the dining room of a hotel or something. And it's like this big crane shot. And then it goes and it, like, zooms right into the the band and the drummer's face. And then he twitches, like, right when it's like, right on his face. It's a little disturbing because he is in blackface. 

James 

Maybe that's one of the reasons why the movie isn't remembered very well. 

Jane 

Yeah. But that's a very similar thing to the shot of like the entire like entryway of their house. And then it goes right into her hand, and then she, like, moves it, and you can see she's holding the key. So that had been used in a previous Hitchcock film, but I think it's it's even better here and, and yeah, with the the poisoned coffee cups. They actually got like giant cups to put in the shot when you see it like in close up because they didn't want the background to be more blurry.

James 

Right, yeah. 

Jane 

So you could see like the shots of like the big coffee cup. And yeah, you're right. There's so many great, like shots and and the lighting, and I… I never know if Hitchcock movies count as film noir. I feel like some of them have sort of noir aspects? I feel like this is probably the most noir of his movies. 

James 

I would make an argument for Shadow of a Doubt being a little bit more noir,

Jane 

Oh, that's true. 

James 

but like still like I get your point. Like this was right in the middle of the noir period. And yeah, there's definitely a lot of, like, noir elements to it, and I think it's hard to say whether or not like that's Hitchcock or the crews that he was working with because those were obviously a lot of the same people who were working on a lot of these other movies. So I don't really know because I I also took a class on noir in college, so like to bring it all the way around. So like, I think Hitchcock movies don't always have a lot of the major elements of noir, but there are definitely like some of them there. And yeah, this movie definitely has quite a few of them. So if it had to be compared to another famous noir would probably be Gilda, it would probably be the best comparison. 

Jane 

Yeah, because it's like, Ingrid Bergman is not a femme fatale in this movie. 

James 

You know, most femmes fatales like, they're actively trying to, like, sabotage the men for their own purposes, which, if you actually flip that idea, it means that they would be really cool protagonists in most other movies, but that's beside the point, but in this case, like the movie is happening to her, she's very much not like in control of the situation at all. 

Jane 

No, no and I think it's really cool how they show that, like, she has not been really trained to be a spy. 

James 

And yet she's somehow quite good at it. 

Jane 

Yeah, she's very effective. Like, she finds out a lot of information until Alex and his mother find out what she's up to and manage to keep her from finding things out, which is again how she figures out that they're on to her is like they interrupt the guy who's about to say where the stuff comes from. 

James 

And they also prevent them from picking up her coffee. That's what, that's the major tell. 

Jane 

Ohh, that's true too yeah. 

James 

Because that it's after that point that she actually like looks at the coffee and then looks at them and she drops her jaw. And you're just like, oh, oh God, she knows. And they know she knows. 

Jane 

That's a great scene because, like, there's the the guy who's talking has no idea what's going. 

James 

Right. That's Doctor Anderson, who's like, the Nazi who, like, seems to actually like, try to care for her the most. 

Jane 

Yeah, he's another somewhat sympathetic villain character.

James

Right.

Jane

But yeah, so he's just like talking and she starts to notice that they're interrupting him and she's kind of like, “Huh, that's weird.” And then he, like, almost drinks her coffee and they, like, freak out, and she's like, “Ohh, no! This is why!” It's… yeah, it's it's good. It's good! 

James 

I think we've danced around her a bit, but I also want to bring up a moment to say, like, the character of Alex's mother: brilliant.

Jane

Yes.

James

Like, as far as I've read, she's like the first, like real domineering mother in Hitchcock canon. And like, they did a great job of writing her. Like, I don't think she like fully overtakes Alex in the course of the movie, which is a good thing. Like, Alex needs to also stand on his own in certain ways, and he does in certain scenes, but there are also elements where it's like no, even though he tries to stand up to her, she undermines it a couple of times. Like the first time he stands up to her fully is when he's like, “I'm going to get married to Alicia and we would like to have you at the wedding” and she doesn't show up. But then, like she tells all the servants to go to bed so they come home to a dark and empty house and you're like, this woman is something that's for damn sure. 

Jane 

Yeah, it is because she's, like, jealous. And it's it's very interesting to see, like, the progression from this to Psycho. Like, there's a lot of similarities in that sort of dynamic, but also, like, it's very funny when Alex tells her like, “Oh yeah, she's an American agent.” And and the mom’s like, “I knew! I didn't know, but I knew” kind of thing of like she knew there was something wrong, but… 

James 

She just thought she was just a slut and, like, cheating on him with Devin the whole time. But then she grabs the cigarettes and just like, does that cool trick where she like, drops the bottom and then the lid next to it, and then whips the cigarette out. You're just like that's a cool move, but anyway. 

Jane 

It is, but it's also just kind of like she's so excited to be justified. And she's like, “Oh, yeah, this is exactly what I thought would happen.” Like, no, it's not. You just didn't want him to get married. 

James 

And you just want an excuse to have her die. 

Jane 

Yeah, yeah. She's so excited to be like, “We can kill her now! But but we have to do it subtly!” because Alex is like, “I'm just going to strangle her,” and she's like, “No, you have to poison her gradually.” 

James 

Right, because we can't tip off your friends that like she, you know, sold information on us. 

Jane 

And I also love how he he's like, “Yeah, the one guy really doesn't like me.” And she's like, “Yeah, but even he wouldn't think he would be stupid enough to do this, so it's fine.” And like, “No one will suspect that you actually married an American agent.” 

James 

Right. “We have been stayed by the magnitude of your stupidity,” I think is the line. 

Jane 

Yeah, it's- they have an interesting dynamic and I think it's great that they used- because there aren't really any other female characters in the movie. 

James 

Right. 

Jane 

That are at all important besides Alicia and Alex's mother. But they're both so interesting. 

James 

Right. Shout out to Leopoldine Konstantin, the actress who played the mother like apparently this is her only American movie and she was suggested for the role by the guy who played Doctor Anderson and she was apparently like a major German actress for a long time. So like the fact that she got to play a role as good as this one in her only American movie was pretty good I think.

Jane

Yeah.

James

One shot I did think was interesting is that when Alex is telling his mother about the fact that Alicia is an American spy, like there's a mirror in the background that like doubles him and I think that's almost like an interesting moment to show like, OK, Alex has now fully been able to separate like the guy who loves Alicia from the fact that he is, you know, a Nazi and he, you know, is probably going to try to kill her. And like that, separation is just really interesting. 

Jane 

Oh yeah, I don't know that I'd ever picked up on that. 

James 

It's just this movie’s so good. 

Jane 

It's one of those movies where, like I cause I've watched it like 20 times and every time when it gets to the the parts when, like Alex is starting to figure it out and stuff I like, I'm always yelling at the screen. Like, “Don't put the key back on his chain! Make it look like it fell on the floor!” 

James 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking like if she handed it to him and he was like, “Oh darling, I saw this key on the floor. I think it's yours” I think that would that he would have bought it. I think he would have bought it. 

Jane 

It's just like they do everything wrong there to make him really suspicious and like that they put the bottle with the wrong year and… 

James 

Yeah, they could have just… What what would have worked is just pulling up one of the bottles from behind and moving it forward and just leaving like a gap. I don't think he would have really taken any notice of a gap just like… 

Jane 

Yeah! They just they, I mean, they panic and it's it's fair like cause I probably if I was in that I probably wouldn't have known what to do. But now that I've seen it, I'm like, “No, there's so many ways you could have done this better!” 

James 

I know. Oh one other thing about this that we didn't talk about but jumps all the way back to the beginning of the movie. The opening score. I didn't notice it initially, but that opening score sounds like a romance movie score. Like you just hear that like, soft strings and it feels very like, you know, sensual and like field of poppies or whatever, and it's just like… And when you know what this movie is, it just feels so dissident to what it actually is. But it also could serve to highlight that, they want you to believe in the love story initially, and then they're going to just like shank you in the side. Like, oh, actually, this woman has to, like basically prostitute herself for the US government, haha. 

Jane 

Yeah, well, and I think that Hitchcock does that a lot of like sort of playing with romance and murder or like other crimes, and I think that's part of why I like a lot of his movies, even the more like romantic ones is like, it's it's not the way that movies typically deal with romance. And I always find that so interesting. 

James 

Yeah, like Truffaut famously attributed him at that, like big party that happened in like the late 70s at the end of his career by saying, like, “You respect him because he shoots scenes of love like scenes of murder, whereas in France we respect him because he shoots scenes of murder like scenes of love.” 

Jane 

Yeah, yeah, that's exactly it. To him, it's like all strong emotions and passions are related. 

James 

Mm-hmm, I think he's not necessarily wrong in that, but I also feel like he drew some interesting conclusions about that at the end of his carrer. 

Jane 

Yeah, yeah. Well, and, I mean, he was… Hitchcock was a very strange, disturbed individual, clearly based on the movies he made, but also there’s stories of of how he treated some of his actresses that are not great. But I think Ingrid Bergman worked with him three times? 

James 

I know she worked on him in Spellbound and I think there was one more after this. Yeah, it was the one that took place in Australia.

Jane 

Yeah, Under Capricorn I think it's called. 

James 

Yes, I think that, yeah. 

Jane 

Yeah, I've only seen that one once. I don't really remember it. 

James 

I wanna see it because I've heard some people say it bears revisiting. 

Jane 

Yeah, well, I don't know, maybe I'll watch it again. I have seen Spellbound a few times. That movie just cracks me up. I think it's so funny. It's like so bad. The way they deal with psychiatry in that movie is just, it's so funny now. I don't know if you've seen it. 

James 

I've seen clips but… 

Jane 

There's like this whole thing when, like Gregory Peck has this very intricate dream. 

James 

Oh yeah, the Salvador Dali sequence. 

Jane 

Yes, exactly. It's very famous. But like when they're interpreting it, it's so funny. They, like, know exactly what it means. It’s like, “Oh, something was chasing you? That must have to do with the name of the ski resort!” It's like what? No, that's not how that works. But it's so funny. But anyway, yeah, so I think this is definitely her best Hitchcock movie. 

James 

Yeah. One note I did want to highlight that I made the champagne in general, champagne as a thing in this movie is really interesting because the first time we see it is Devlin has a bottle with him when he goes to the government office to like, learn what Alicia’s job is and he forgets it there. And in that moment it almost feels like the champagne represents like Alicia's like love for him. And like, he kind of almost forgets that in the next scene, because that's only at the end of the scene that he realizes he forgot the champagne at the government office. And it seems like he has a little bit of regret about what he just said to Alicia. And then later on, when we reintroduced to champagne, it's the big party and obviously, the fact that the champagne is like running out very quickly is like the source of tension in the scene, but then you- it almost becomes a double meaning, because then you're like it contains what the government wants, which is like, you know, their uranium. And they're like, you know, that's what everyone's fighting for. And then it almost also becomes a reintroduction of the idea that it represents Alicia's love. Because that's also what the government is after because they want her to use that to like leverage Alex. And so there's so much meaning baked into the champagne in this movie. And I really think that's just a genius writing in that level. And I've really admired that in this rewatch. 

Jane 

Yeah, I agree. It's very nice, like the way that the champagne bottle is important early on and then it's like, oh, this is actually really important to the story. I also enjoy that, so Hitchcock is famous for making cameo appearances in most of his movies, and he's helping deplete the supply of champagne so they'll have to go down faster. 

James 

It's just like he just appears in after a cut, drinks an entire glass of champagne in one gulp, walks away. It's just like… perfect, Hitch, perfect. 

Jane 

Yep, great. Cause it it started in his like, early early films when they like they would need an extra and just like not have that many people. So he would he just kind of ended up being in a lot of the movies. And then it became sort of a running joke of like, when you going to see him? And then in his later movies, it's usually very early on, because he didn't want to... 

James 

…distract anybody… 

Jane 

…from the suspense of the story, but this one is is kind of in the middle. So that's, that's fun. 

James 

Yeah, and one other thing I noticed, speaking of the scene where Devin has forgotten the champagne, there's a lot that's been talked about where this movie where drinking just in general, not just champagne, but in general is like really important to the story. Like you know, the fact that Alicia is drunk and the first party where she needs to, Devin, and then she drinks the orange juice that he gives her and… et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Alicia only takes a drink during that scene after Devlin has really, fully, just like, broken her and she walks off of the balcony into the apartment behind the curtain that is see through so we can see her in sort of a silhouette and then that's when she picks up a bottle of wine and pours a glass for herself and like… Drinking is almost a part of Alicia's mask, and like at that, I think that maybe somewhat unintentionally Alex and his mother play into that and that's why they poisoned her coffee. It's like, the mask itself is killing Alicia in multiple different ways, and again, like I keep going back to my notes and most of these are just like impressed by the writing and directing choices. 

Jane 

Yeah, well, yeah. And and there's also the scene when they have, like, recently arrived in Rio, but don't know what they're doing there yet. And they're at like the-

James

The café?

Jane

Outdoor café, yeah. And she's like, “Oh, I don't need any more to drink.” And then he's, like, insulting her and she's finally like, “I'll have more to drink now” because she's like, “Yeah, I've changed. I'm actually becoming more, like sober and enjoying my life.” And he's like, “Well, yeah, how long is that gonna last? Like, obviously you're gonna go back to your old ways.” She's like, “Fine. I'll have another drink.” 

James 

Mm-hmm. It just goes back to, Devlin makes a lot of mistakes in this movie. 

Jane 

Oh, my gosh, yeah. He's so mean to her! 

James 

I know it's just, ugh, like, why? 

Jane 

But he's also nice to her too. It's not like he's always horrible. 

James 

Right. But like the times where he's mean, it almost feels like he doesn't make up for that in the scenes where he's being nice.

Jane

Yeah.

James

Which means I kind of don't buy the romance at the end of it, which maybe is also entirely the point. 

Jane 

Yeah. I think that the scene when they're in the cellar and he's like, so casual about it. She's, like, freaking out, like, “What if they come down?” He's like, “Oh, that would be unfortunate.” And that is very Cary Grant. Like, that's how he is in all of North by Northwest. And so I I think that's very funny that he he does get a little bit of the like making light of the situation Cary Grant that we know and love. 

James 

He also kind of does that in the staircase scene in the end, which I think is part of why he's able to get out of the house is just he's so, almost disturbingly laid back about the situation where everyone else in the scene is like either invalidated by the…you know, her, Alicia in this case, is being like, you know, poisoned. And then Alex and his mother are basically just frozen in shock. Whereas Devlin is just like, “All right, this is going to happen. Let's just keep walking. Let's just keep walking. Do I have to pull out my gun and start shooting? Let’s just keep walking.” It's just like… 

Jane 

Does he even have a gun? 

James 

That's the other thing, too, is he's like… what? 

Jane 

He's like pretending he has a gun. Does he have a gun? We don't know. 

James 

Yeah, we don’t. 

Jane 

He's like, very much in control of the situation, even though, like he has every reason to be freaking out. 

James 

And he's just like, “No, I'm just going to be casual. I belong here.” 

Jane 

I also really enjoy when Alex tries to get into the car and he just like reaches over and locks the door. It’s like, “Sorry.” 

James 

“That's your headache.” It's just like…

Jane “Bye!”

James

Like, that's again, that's I don't, I don't think Joseph Cotten could have played that. I only think Cary Grant was- would have been able to just play that like complete, like utter inability to like give a fuck at all.

Jane

Yeah.

James

It's just so, so fun. 

Jane 

Also, going back to the- how they're walking down the staircase, they had actually built a separate, longer staircase for that scene so that it takes longer for them to get to the bottom and increasing the suspense. And that's another thing. I think that like in a lot of Hitchcock movies, the end feels very rushed and like like he was building up suspense for the entire movie. And then when you finally get to the end, it's like, OK and then it's the end. We we don't know how we're gonna deal with this. And I feel like Notorious is one of the best Hitchcock endings. 

James 

Definitely. I think going back to North by Northwest, though, I think the ending of North by Northwest feels very much in that way of like, oh, it's just the end now. Like there's a match cut, but even still, you're just like, OK, that was the end? Like… 

Jane 

Yeah, it's the same thing of like they didn't know how to wrap it up. Like he doesn't know how to do denoument, you know? Like it's just like, here's the climax, the end. And I think that that the way they made the staircase longer is like there's still tension at the end and then it doesn't feel like, “and we just didn't know how to end it.” Like, it's very much like, you know exactly what's happening after the end of the movie. They didn't need to show that. And it's just sort of like, OK, Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman got away. Claude Rains has to go back and face his Nazi friends, who now know that something major is up. I like that they have that little part of like, “There's no phone in her room.” Like there's like, they're starting to pull apart his story and they're like, “Uh, we need to talk to you now.” And it's like such a great ending. 

James 

And that slow walk back up another staircase into like this imposing facade of his house and, and Roy Webb’s amazing score that just… 

Jane 

Yeah, it's so good. 

James 

So good. And also that was another thing I thought of when with regards to the staircase is there's a series of shots in the part where Alicia is like fading from the poison after she realizes where when she gets back into the house from, like the outdoor sitting area that they were at or whatever it is, the first thing she looks at is the study where the Nazis have been hanging out the whole movie. And then she turns and looks at the staircase and I almost like read into that, maybe too much, that it's almost like a choice between hell and heaven, where, like, you know, Nazi hell in the study that's got black doors in the staircase, which you know, is always a poignant metaphor for, like, the stairway to heaven or whatever. And later on, of course, Devlin, you know, goes up there to rescue her and bring her back down to the place of the living. And then notably, when Alex goes back in the house, he like, is facing the direction that we that's been established is towards the study. And I just feel like there's a lot going on in there that if you want to do like a Christian read of this movie, it's there to be read. 

Jane 

Oh, yeah, that's a very good point. 

James 

Yeah, I don’t know, just like that came to my mind immediately. And then maybe it's just like it could be too much reading into it, but whatever. And then the other last note, that's a major note here that I had was when Alicia has come back to the American Embassy or whatever it is to announce that Alex has asked her to marry and like for most of the seeing Devin standing over by a mirror and he's got the noir blind shadow on him. So like going back your idea of it being noir, like there's a very clear like noir symbol right there. 

Jane 

Yeah. Well, and also, do you know about the movie Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid? 

James 

I've heard of it. I haven't seen it. 

Jane 

OK, so it's a very fun movie where they like, put clips from old noirs in to like, but it's like Steve Martin and. 

James 

Oh yeah. 

Jane 

He's like doing a noir sort of parody, but there's all these clips from noirs, and they have some clips of Notorious in that movie. And so it's it's pretty fun that that like you get to see Ingrid Bergman interacting with Steve Martin. 

James 

[laugh] I'm especially imagining some of the lines that are in Notorious like her talking to Steve Martin and like, Oh my God. 

Jane 

Yeah, they have, they there's like 2 moments. And also they have it so that she poisons him. And there's like the from the party at the beginning, you see Cary Grant’s back. 

James 

And they and they show a reverse shot of Steve Martin? 

Jane 

Yeah, the back of Cary Grant, the front of Steve Martin. So they have like a little bit of that in that section. And then he says something like, “You put on your fancy black dress and then the next shot is of them like getting ready for the party in the House of like when she's like going to steal the key and stuff so that there there's a clip of that in there too. So I'm like, OK, well, the people who made Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid clearly think that Notorious is a film noir. 

James 

Yeah, I know it's it's a, it's a debate that many scholars have had for a long time, and I don't think it's really gonna, we're not going to be able to solve that debate right here. 

Jane 

I think that with film noir, it's not really a firmly defined thing. It's just sort of like a a feeling of like it's it's it's a mood so… 

James 

It's also people described as a style or whatever else. It's just it's could be all of those things or none of them. 

Jane 

Yeah, because people weren't specifically making the movies to be like, this is going to be categorized this way. 

James 

Yeah, it's it's a retrospective assignment that the people gave to them. 

Jane 

Yeah, exactly. So I usually watch it during noirvember, which is part of why it has made it, because it's like I'll usually either watch it for Cary Grant's birthday, or for Ingrid Bergman's birthday or for Hitchcock's birthday, and then also watch it in November for Noirvember. So usually watch it once or twice a year. 

James 

Yeah, now that makes a lot of sense. When did you watch this? Like, what's your watch history of this movie? Because I've noticed like this is just a thing, meta podcasting, you haven't really talked about your history of watching movies when you have guests on them, so. 

Jane 

Yeah, that's true. I usually don't cause we've we we talk enough about other things, but yes, so I watched it for the first time in 2004 and then I watched it in 2006 and 2008 and 2009 and then I think that might have all been before I had a copy. So I was just getting it from the library. And then I watched it once in 2011, twice in 2012, once in 2013, twice in 2014, once in 2015, twice in 2016. 

James 

There's a pattern. 

Jane 

Yeah. And then I broke the pattern. I didn't watch it for a couple of years, and then I watched it twice in 2019. Twice in 2020, once in 2021 and twice in 2022. So. Yeah, I watch it, usually once or twice a year. I don't know why I didn't watch it in 2017 or 2018. 

James 

Maybe you were tired of seeing Cary Grant be mean to Ingrid Bergman. 

Jane 

Yeah. 

James 

Which I wouldn't blame you. 

Jane 

Well, they made another movie together called Indiscreet, which I don't like as well, but they're also kind of mean to each other in that movie. So I'm like, couldn't they be nice to each other? 

James 

Yeah, it's weird cause apparently they were really, really good friends in real life, so it's just like... 

Jane 

Yeah, I don't know. 

James 

The key prop that they had, there's a story that Cary Grant apparently took it from the movie set and had it for 10 years, and then gave it to Ingrid Birdman in the hope that it would bring her good luck cause apparently he had for him. And then at the same big party that I talked about with where Truffaut tributed Hitchcock, Ingrid Bergman was the emcee, and she had apparently kept the key on her that whole night and, like, gave it to Hitchcock at the end of the ceremony in the hopes that it’d also bring him good luck, and I think it was Peter Bogdanovich who was also there, or some- one of the people I saw in that same documentary interview that, he then turned to Cary Grant and was like, “Is that the key?” And Cary Grant was like, shoulder shrug.

[both laugh]

James

It's a great story regardless, but you know it- who’s to say if it's true? 

Jane 

They just, they just took a random key. It's like, “This is the key from the movie!” It's like, you wouldn't know. 

James 

I mean, apparently it still had the same brand on it, so there's that. That was one thing that was very distinctive about the key in the lock and the movies that you could very clearly read the brand on both of them, so…

Jane

Yeah.

James

That was another cool shot too, was when Alex is at the bottom of the staircase going towards the wine cellar and walks straight up to the camera and then he lifts his hand up and his hand is perfectly in focus in frame and you can see the three keys spread out, missing the important fourth key.

Jane

Yeah.

James

That was really cool. And then he just casually is like, “You know,” – whatever his Butler's name was –

Jane

Joseph.

James

“I think they've- think we've served them enough champagne, haven't we? They've got wine and whiskey, don't we?” 

Jane 

Yeah. I do wonder what Joseph thinks about everything that's going on because he seems to be kind of oblivious to the fact that he's serving Nazis. Cause he seems genuinely concerned about Alicia when she's being poisoned, like I don't think he knows the like political stuff that's going on. 

James 

But I think he does know that the people that he's serving are Nazis, but I don't necessarily think he knows that Alicia is a spy.

Jane

That’s fair.

James

That part I don't think he knows, but I think he knows most of what's going on in the movie, he just doesn't talk about it. 

Jane 

Yeah, I could see that. 

James 

I do love like a good, like, you know, semi-passive servant character just because they provide like a great character for all the audience to bounce off over. It's like if I were in that situation, I'd probably laugh, but they aren't, so I have to. [chuckles] So yeah, that's just, lovely little background, stuff like that. 

Jane 

Yeah, I think this is just an incredibly well-written, -acted and -shot film. It’s like, what more could you want? 

James 

Right. And the fact that it's not as well-known as like some of Hitchcock's other masterpieces. Is a real shame, because it really is a masterpiece, especially for this time period in his career, I think. 

Jane 

Yeah. And it's fairly early in, like Ingrid Bergman's American career, after Casablanca, which is probably her most famous movie, which I think is so funny. There's this quote from her of like, “I made all these other movies that were so much more important and people only ever want to talk to me about that, Humphrey Bogart one.” Just like... 

James 

It's like like that movie didn't win Best Picture. I think, right? It did win Best Picture? 

Jane 

Yeah, yeah. But I also like, it's interesting when you watch it that like, her character is not- like she doesn't get any of the iconic lines besides the “Play it, Sam” line, like most of them are Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains, who is also in that movie. But yeah, it's like her character is not nearly as well developed as like this one. It's kind of a similar sort of thing of like people being in love with her, but also being like, “Oh, but you're a slut.” Although she was less of a slut in Casablanca, but like, yeah, she doesn't get as much interesting stuff to do. So I could totally see why she didn't like that movie as well as some of her others.

James 

Agreed. Yeah. 

Jane 

Because like compared to her character in this, like… 

James 

Or any, really, or most other movies she was ever in. 

Jane 

Yeah, exactly. It's like her character doesn't get much in that movie. The famous line that she gets to say is the one that everyone misquotes, so… 

James 

Right. So yeah. I mean, confession: I've never actually seen Casablanca.

Jane

WHAT?!

James

I know I have to, but I haven't. 

Jane 

It's not in my Top 40- How many times have I seen Casablanca? Oh, I've seen it 10 times. 

James 

So fairly largely outside of the potentially could have made it to the countdown. 

Jane 

Yeah, I've seen it half as many times as I've seen Notorious. But yeah, it's good. It's a good movie and it's a classic like, I mean, I feel like everyone should watch it at least once. Actually at least twice because I didn't pick up on a lot of stuff until I rewatched it. But like with Notorious, I'm like, everyone should watch it like as many times as possible, because I'm still discovering new things about it that I hadn't appreciated in my earlier watches. Like the mirror thing that you brought up, I still haven't picked up on so it's like, I got to watch it again and look for the mirrors. 

James 

I feel like it's just like my professor in college has said it really well. It's a masterpiece that's kind of forgotten, and it's a shame that it is. It's like possibly one of Hitchcock's best constructed movies, and better even than some of his more well-known ones. And like I feel like, I don't know why this movie hasn't stuck around in the popular consciousness as much as say, North by Northwest or Vertigo, like it's just… It may not be like as surreal or flashy or like, you know, experimental with its structure as any- some of those other movies, but it just does the structure that it has, like impeccably and as we've talked about like you, you- the more you dig into it, the more you can pull out of it and it's just like, I don't know why it hasn't lasted. 

Jane 

Yeah, I don't know. I I think that it'll probably be one that not as many of my listeners are familiar with, but-

James

But you should be.

Jane

You should be, yes, so watch it if you are listening and you haven't seen it. 

James 

Especially if you're a Hitchcock fan. 

Jane 

Oh yeah definitely. Cause like, like Vertigo is one of his most praised movies and I rewatched it recently, and I was like, but this story isn't actually very good. Like, I don't actually like Vertigo. I I think that it does really cool things with color and like that sort of thing. But like, as a story, I don't like Vertigo. 

James 

I agree 100%. 

Jane 

Yeah, it's like, really, this movie? And it's fine if people like it, but it's like usually so high on on people's lists of even just like movies in general. Like, it's it makes it really high into when people do like the best movies of all time lists.

James

Yeah.

Jane

And I- and like no one talks about Notorious in those contexts and I don't really understand why. Like I can see with like like Psycho and The Birds were, like doing different things than had been done before. 

James 

And it's also like those are horror movies, which is, like puts, which allows them to be genre movies in a completely different way than most of Hitchcock's other stuff. 

Jane 

So I think that those get talked about in a different conversation and I understand that and obviously I love North by Northwest, not to like spoil that that's going to be talked about on this podcast. But yeah, so I I understand why people talk about that that a lot. And Rebecca was the only Best Picture winner that he directed. So I can see why people talk about that. 

James 

But it's also really good. 

Jane 

Yeah, yeah, and it's good. And that was his first-

James

American-

Jane

-Hollywood film. Yeah. I will say tha,t not to flex, but like I've seen all of Hitchcock's American films and many of his British films. I haven't seen all of the older ones. But there's only two that made it into my top 40. Part of that is that a lot of his movies sort of lose their appeal after you've seen them a couple times because, like the whole point is the suspense, and it can feel really tedious when you know where it's going of like, oh, they're just dragging this out artificially to make you wonder how it's going to happen. And once you know how it's going to happen, it's like, okay, I don’t need to watch this anymore.

James

Right.

Jane

But Notorious is definitely suspenseful, but I feel like it gets even more enjoyable when you know where it's going, because then you can focus on just how layered the characters are and their relationships without like worrying like, are they gonna be OK? Because you know how it ends. 

James 

And then also the other technical aspects that we talked about that you wouldn't necessarily notice at first glance, but like the cinematography, the music, the writing, the structure like, you can't really appreciate all of those things until you've watched it multiple times. And it's just a movie that really holds up in that way, and that's not to say like some of those other ones don't. But like you said, a lot of Hitchcock's movies, like they're not as rewatchable because of the fact that they are so… to kind of like paraphrase Rian Johnson, they're like puzzle movies almost. They're like movies where the whole point is you don't know what's going to happen at the end, but once you do, that's it. You know the tricks. You know the turns, but Notorious, there's so much more to appreciate. Like everyone who worked on this movie was just very good at their job. 

Jane 

Yeah. Well, and a lot of it too is that, like, Hitchcock really liked to manipulate the emotions of the audience, and was sort of, like, very fascinated with how films can do that. And I think he was really good at it. But again it's like, once you know what's coming, it's harder to feel that emotional ride as well. And I think that his movies that I enjoy more have more to them than that of like, that the emotions are deep enough that you can still feel them even when you know where they're going,

James

Exactly.

Jane

…and enjoy the film, again from a technical perspective, from a character perspective, even when you aren't quite as into the emotional aspects of them. 

James 

Exactly, yeah. And I think it's specifically at least for me, Alex kind of jumped out on this one in terms of like viewing his character and emotional like wavelengths that he was going through. Because at least at first, he's kind of like, just like this dumb puppy that you just like, you can see like the joy in his eyes and just like all of that and everything. And then like, he slowly but surely like slinks into being like a more manipulative and crafty villain, but even still, I never really felt like that scared by him. I was more scared of his mother than I was of him because he, for the most part is just like following his mother's directions, and his mother is the one who's really like, coming up with the whole scheme. 

Jane 

Yeah, well, you can really see that, like, not to just keep bringing up Psycho, but like, the line between Claude Rains’s character and Anthony Perkins’s character in Psycho is very interesting because like then… I mean, I'm going to spoil Psycho. Do people know how Psycho ends? It's a very old movie. 

James 

I hope they do. 

Jane 

I'm assuming people know like his mother is dead and so he's like playing…

James 

His mother. 

Jane 

…himself and his mother. But I think, like, you do kind of feel bad for Norman Bates when he's himself. That he's being manipulated by his mother, who is really him. 

James 

Himself. 

Jane 

But but it's a very similar thing. So I I like I find this movie fascinating as like sort of a precursor to Psycho in in those terms that like having a sympathetic villain who's being manipulated by his mother. Which is a little bit… I don't know it's a little bit sexist or something, but… 

James 

It's also very Freudian. 

Jane 

Yes, there is that. Claude Rains is just a fantastic actor and I feel like among people who like old Hollywood, clearly like he gets a lot of praise. But I feel like he's not quite as remembered as a lot of the like flashy movie stars of the time, and I'm just like, anyone out there who's not familiar with his work should like be seeking out Claude Rains movies because he's fabulous in everything I've seen him in. 

James 

Yeah, I mean, I've mostly only seen him in other in horror movies like The Invisible Man and The Phantom of the Opera, but he was perfect in those, so... 

Jane 

Yeah, he plays villains, he plays not quite like the movie star leading man, but he he can play more sympathetic characters, and uh and also his character in Casablanca is fascinating. So like, since you haven't seen it like you should watch Casablanca for Claude Rains alone. Because his his performance and just his character is so interesting cause he's a horrible person, but also somewhat sympathetic. 

James 

Similar to Notorious. What do you know? 

Jane 

Very similar to Notorious again, and Ingrid Bergman is also in that movie, but he doesn't, he doesn't interact with her nearly as much in in Casablanca because he's not married to her. But yeah, also, oh, this is another thing that I wanted to bring up is that Claude Rains is very short and Ingrid Bergman is very tall. 

James 

Yeah, that was one thing I thought was really cool was like, Claude Rains is very clearly a short king in the movie, but anyway. 

Jane 

Yeah, but they they wanted to like even it out a little bit more. So there's definitely scenes when they're standing together where he was like on a box or like, there's one scene when he walks towards her and they, like, built a ramp so that it would look like he was closer to her height when he got next to her. 

James 

Probably the one where like he does the key pass behind his back I would imagine is that probably that. 

Jane 

Oh yeah, yeah. When he comes up to her and is like starting to kiss her- That is really funny, too. The way that he like... 

James 

Goes for her fists and just like… 

Jane 

Yeah, yeah, that's that's good Hitchcock suspense right there is like, because she's holding the key in one hand and he, like, opens her hand and kisses her palm, and he's about to do the same to the key hand. And she just, like, grabs him. 

James 

Pulls him into a hug and then passes the key across, hands behind her back and then kicks it under her chair. 

Jane 

Yeah. Oh, it's so good. So well done. It's like, why was she so good at that? But then she didn't think like maybe I'll just throw the key on the floor and make it look like it fell off his chain instead of putting it back on his chain after he's noticed it's gone? 

James 

Speaking of that scene though, like, that's the cover of the Criterion Edition of Notorious is that that passing scene. 

Jane 

Ohhh, nice. 

James 

So that's pretty cool. 

Jane 

OK, I just have it in a Hitchcock collection. 

James 

Nice. How many movies are in that thing? 

Jane 

There's only, I think there's eight, but it also has, like, little like information about the movies. It's like a little notebook. 

James 

That's pretty cool. 

Jane 

Yeah, it's a good collection. It has a lot more of the like movies that are still kind of remembered, but lesser known, I mean, Rebecca's in it, but besides that, I mean, it also has that Young and Innocent movie I was talking about. And The Lodger, which is kind of considered his first Hitchcockian movie. 

James 

The Lodger's good, yeah. It's only his third movie, too, which is really impressive. 

Jane 

Yeah, that movie really holds up.

James

Definitely.

Jane

What I'm saying, if you're listening to this and you're not familiar with Hitchcock, is that there's a lot of good choices out there. It's not just the ones that are the most well-known. He made a lot of movies and some of them are not actually very good and some of them… 

James 

Are very, very good. 

Jane 

Very, very good. So it's like when Hitchcock's good, he's amazing. When Hitchcock's bad, it's kind of painful sometimes, but you can also make fun of them, like with Spellbound. 

James 

Exactly. It seems like we've just done a lot of wandering around trying to find the end and we're just like… 

Jane 

I mean, it's like Hitchcock didn't always know how to wrap up his movies. So we're having trouble, uh, wrapping this up, but uh, it's just, it's just fun to to chat with you about this movie and… 

James 

Other Hitchcock movies. 

Jane 

I could just talk about Hitchcock for a while, part- One, like, project that I've thought about embarking on is like trying to watch through like all of his movies consecutively and sort of paying close attention to the evolution. But I don't know if I'll ever actually do that.

James 

That also does sound kind of painful like you were saying because there are ones where you just try to- you would try to watch it and you’d just like…ugh that's that's… I can't watch this. This is so…yeah.

Jane

Yeah.

James

Like I I don't, I can't think of a specific one, but there I feel like there's one Hitchcock movie I've seen where I just like tried to watch it, and it's just like, this is painful to get through. 

Jane 

Yeah. And there's some that is just like, OK, that was fine.

James

Yeah.

Jane

Which I think is true of most directors in their careers. They don't-

James

Right.

Jane

Nobody has like a career that's only masterpieces and it's like, you know, he was trying things. He… he experimented with things and sometimes they worked really well and sometimes they didn’t. And I think that that's…

James

Admirable.

Jane

That's what you should do, like if you're going to make movies you should take some risks. This was one that definitely paid off. This was a very, very well-done movie. I don't know that it was one of- it wasn't one of his more risky movies, but uh… 

James 

Well, it was one of his more daring, I would say, in terms of like the with the kiss at least, like he really dared the censors on that one. 

Jane 

That's true. It really, when you look at the plot like it could be made now, like people would make a movie like this now. It would have a lot more nudity in it probably. But like it's it's a plot that sounds like it's from a at least post Hays Code era period when-

James 

Right. 

Jane 

Cause there's- it's just a lot of implied sex in this movie and violence, but I think that Hitchcock did that a lot. And like a lot of his movies, there's implied homosexuality that I don't know how he got past the censors. 

James 

Yeah, especially Strangers on a Train that one like that one's obvious in a lot of ways. 

Jane 

And Rope.

James

Yep.

Jane

Like they only have one bedroom with these two guys that live together like there's definitely some queerness in his movies. 

James 

Which is why there was a whole class about it at my college and that's why I took that class. 

Jane 

Oh, yeah, exactly. Yeah, there's, there's just a lot of of characters that seem… not straight in his movies. This this isn't a great example of that, although I do feel like, I don't know, there's something about Claude Rains that just seems… kind of queer-coded to me sometimes, which is weird because he's very much in love with a woman in this movie, but uh... 

James 

No, I I can see what you're saying. Like, it's that same kind of refinedness that Hitchcock always seemed to like associate with queerness. Like another example, is like when we watched Shadow of a Doubt in this class, like there was a large implication that there was an attempt to queer Uncle Charlie and, like, make him seem like a queer person. And then like, I don't know that I buy that. But I can see that there's this idea of Hitchcock where, like the more classy and refined you are, the more queer you may or may not be. And it's just like it's an interesting parallel that he seemed to draw in his career. So, but yeah, I see what you're saying about Claude Rains and yeah, other than that though, like, I don't think there's any way you could do an aroace reading of this movie to keep with the theme of the podcast. 

Jane 

[laughs] No, not really. I mean, maybe some of the Nazis are, but I don't really wanna…

James 

And who cares about those? 

Jane 

Yeah, I I don't want to go with that. Yeah, no, it's it's very it's it's very romantic and sexual. But I think the element of like using sex is definitely like… I think that as someone who… took a long time to figure out my sexuality and not quite understanding that I didn't… because it's hard to understand that you don't experience something, you know? Like... 

James 

Exactly. Yeah, no, I get it. 

Jane 

I think it's easier to figure out that you're gay because if you're feeling attraction for someone, like, you can tell. But if you don't feel attraction toward anyone, it's harder to know that that's a thing. 

James 

It's almost like you feel… It almost feels like you're expected to have a magnet in your hand, and then you just like you suddenly turn your hand around. It's like, oh, there's not actually a magnet there. 

Jane 

Yeah, so I think that that just like… sexuality in general has kind of fascinated me in a way, because I don't understand it. And so, like seeing people using sex in ways that are separate from actual attraction has been always kind of interesting to me in a way.

James

Yeah.

Jane

So I think that that is part of what has intrigued me about this movie from a younger age. Seeing movies like this of like being… I guess I can't say it's super open, but like it's pretty open for a 1946 movie about like that, it's about sex. But also that, like particularly the way that Alicia is using it to find out information from Alex is like, she's not attracted to him, she's just like, pretending to be, and I think that sort of like pretending to have attraction for people resonated with me in a way that I didn't consciously realize. 

James 

I mean it, it has echoes of like what you were talking about with Chicago, like that same idea. 

Jane 

Yeah, exactly. And those- I like didn't unpack why those movies fascinated me until, like, later, so it could be, you know, I'm assigning meaning that wasn't actually there. But I think it makes sense to to be like, I don't understand attraction, but I can understand like, pretending to have attraction and like, especially when you're using it to get something important. And like in Chicago, they're using it for themselves, but like… 

James 

Here they're supposedly using it for the greater US benefit, and it's just like they never really, like... I mean, they estab- they get the idea that there's, like, maybe an atomic bomb could be made by out of this. But like, they also seem to imply that the Nazis are having trouble actually like, putting together a bomb, so like they never really established that it's like that pivotal that you know, they just uncover the source of what's going on in the, you know, the uranium and everything because like, she gets all that information and Devin is, like, making notes of it in his head, and it's clear that that's going to be solved by the end of it anyway. But the whole idea that… you know there's danger for the greater United States just feels immaterial, which almost makes this move even more tragic, where it's like, this really didn't even need to happen. You know?

Jane 

Yeah. Yeah, it's uncl- well and they call it – what do they call it, a MacGuffin?

James

Mm-hmm.

Jane

Where like, there's with the wine bottles, it's like they're there to further the plot, but they're not actually important in and of themselves. And so like the plot, is more about like her and like it's in the context of, like, they're trying to help stop the Nazis and whatever, but like, that's not actually, that important to the story.

James 

Right. 

Jane 

It's like it is, but it is not the point. And so, yeah, so we don't actually know if they were going to succeed in making a bomb if she hadn't interfered. And we don't really know if they all get caught or what happens after that. But that's like kind of outside the scope of the story, which is interesting to be like, you wouldn't ever really describe this movie as being like about the Nazis or like stopping the Nazis. It's like about this specific person and her journey and like falling in love with the agent and things like that is like, very interesting layers there. 

James 

It's also just an interesting time capsule of like a very short period of time, where the United States's interests were more concerned with Nazis than with Russia, because the Cold War hadn't really started yet. And had this maybe even made like even a year or two later it probably would have been Russians that they were trying to trick. But in this case it's like, you know, Nazis on the run, which is just a very, very interesting like little time capsule of when this movie could have been made exactly in this way. 

Jane 

Yeah, because I think that soon after this, the American government decided they didn't really care that much about Nazis anymore and it’s part of what has led to a resurgence of them in recent years, it's like it was never really fully dealt with. It was just kind of like, OK, that's not important anymore. We're going to fight the Russians now. 

James 

Yeah, and also not to mention that you know, a lot of the Nazis who would have had the capability to do such a thing were just eventually just actively recruited by the United States.

Jane 

Yeah, exactly. 

James 

It's just like, uh… interesting. Anyway… 

Jane 

Yeah, so you're right. It is. It is an interesting time capsule of like that, that brief period when it's like, no, we're going to try and kill them and not try and work with them. 

James 

So and again, going back to what I was talking about with like the interesting relationship that Alicia has with Alex and and Devlin, and how that kind of mirrors the interesting relationship that the United States had with Germany and German people as opposed to the Japanese people after the war. It's just like… it's interesting, like, oh, you have things I want, but you're also kind of not a good person, but I want you. It's like, it sounds more creepy when you put it that way, which is exactly what I'm talking about.

Jane

Yeah.

James

So and on that note, I think we've talked and we've gotten off on tangents multiple times trying to wrap this thing up. We should probably stick the landing. 

Jane 

Yes, yes, Nazis are bad. Let's end on that note. 

James 

Yes, Nazis are bad, and the Americans choosing to work with them after the war instead of executing them all was a terrible decision. 

Jane 

Yes, but, anyway, Nazis are bad. This movie is good. Go watch it.

James

Watch it!

Jane

And thank you, James, for talking to me about it. 

James 

Yes, thank you for having me and thank you for sending us off on multiple tangents that we didn't need to go on but I still enjoyed nevertheless. I'm also responsible for them. I don't want to make it sound like you're the only one responsible. 

Jane 

Well, you know, it was fun to chat with you, and I don't know how many of the tangents I will keep in. I might edit some of them out for time, but you know, hopefully people enjoy listening to them.

Thank you so much to James for all of your insights about this movie, and for your tangents, and thank you to everyone else for listening! Happy end of Pride Month! Remember that queer people don’t disappear or stop being queer on July first; we’re always here and we always deserve the same rights as straight cis allos. To all my LGBTQIA+ listeners: stay proud! Anyway, as Pride Month comes to a close, so too does my run of guest episodes, so next week The Rewatch Rewind will be back to just me, when I’ll be talking about the only movie I watched 21 times, which will make it the first non-tie on this list. That movie is also from 1946 but has a significantly different tone from Notorious. As always, I will leave you with a quote from that next movie: “You don’t like coconut?! Say, brainless, don’t you know where coconuts come from?”

#notorious #alfred hitchcock #cary grant #ingrid bergman #the rewatch rewind #these guest episodes were so fun #but i'm kind of excited to get back to pre-written episodes so i don't have to transcribe them after the fact

[bethanyactually]

@pressdbtwnpages tagged everyone who felt like doing this, and I enjoyed reading her list so here we go.

last song: uhhhh I think it was Dead in the Water by SPELLES

last show: I am also not much of a live-music person generally, but I went to see Barenaked Ladies last summer in Oregon with my best friend, a show that had been postponed since 2020, and it was super fun.

currently watching:

Thanks to @itsactuallycorrine putting it on my dash a lot lately, I've started my first Ugly Betty rewatch, and I had forgotten how goofy and hilarious and sincere and full of heart that show was, so I'm super enjoying that.

@wereadtoliveathousandlives and I are coming to the end of our slow rewatch of Nancy Drew because S4 is FINALLY ALMOST HERE, May 31st on the CW, 8pm EDT!! (@samirant, take note!)

Troy and I are slowly making our way through the most recent season of Mythic Quest, and we just watched the first episode of Night Agent (@andyouweremine kept putting it on my dash) and might keep going with that.

We've paused on Ted Lasso so we can marathon it once the season is through.

currently reading:

I just last night finished my re-read of the Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom duology. I might give the Nikolai Lantsov books a try next, since I haven't read them before and now I've met him and some of the other characters on the Netflix series Shadow and Bone (my annoyance with S2 is what prompted my re-read of the Crows books).

Technically still in the middle of listening to Broken Homes, the 4th Rivers of London book, with Troy.

Also, thanks to @amazingstacey's recommendation, I've listened to most of Mrs. Wickham by Sarah Page, a fun audio play about what might have happened with Lydia Bennet after her marriage to Wickham.

I just finished Contested Will, a book about the history of anti-Stratfordians who doubt that William Shakespeare was the guy from Stratford.

I read about ten pages of Murder Must Advertise, the 8th Peter Wimsey mystery, before getting distracted by the Crows, and I'll get back to that at some point (cc: @preux-chevalier)

Elliora and I will start our last two books for the school year on monday, First Light by Rebecca Stead and My Name is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson

current obsession: Yeah, it's still the CW’s Nancy Drew. If you are at all interested in people solving mysteries, found family, how people deal with trauma, ghosts, or sloooow burn romances, (to quote Kelsey) please join us, this fandom is so small and the text is so rich.

tagging: everyone I already tagged in this post, plus anyone else who feels like doing this.

#meme #me #Youtube

[sinkableruby]

What are your thoughts on each Monogatari season?

ok this will end up long... (like really fucking long holy shit lol) im gonna go from first - monster season (which is the light novels), so only read up to where youve seen. mostly only vague discussion of spoilers but still. ill put the individual parts of each season too for reference, in the order i watched and try to go over them briefly since i feel like you cant talk about the whole of the seasons without touching on the parts

first (kizu, bake, nise, neko black) - the kizu movies are so good!!!!!! i like them more and more as time goes on theyre like a fine wine. captures the vibe of a sort of proto-monogatari monogatari very well. it might just b because i watched it in this order but this is honestly my recommended order to watch the series. idk maybe you lose something from not seeing how mysterious shinobu is in bake and then getting the big reveal. bake - nice and airtight. very cool and classic vibes here, very nostalgic. cool introductions to all these cool fun characters while also giving them arcs that are resolved except nadekos but yeah. and of course this one has the very unique art direction thats super cool nise - just had a post about this so go look at that if you want my thoughts. drops a big theme that keeps getting developed which is the kinda important thing u gotta be doing during a season called the "first season" lol neko black - ehhh i think this is one of the worst ones of the anime entries. its not bad. i like the op a lot overall extremely nostalgic and very high quality, especially with kizu and nise in my mind. a bit of a bump with neko black but a very strong start in general. the first season offers much room for the themes and characters to grow but also stands well on its own. so it does its job well. (also note im not gonna be talkin about like the ost too much here just bc. i love all of it so much. its exclusively good.)

second season (neko white, kabuki, otori, oni, koi, hana) - season full of bangers lets go! neko white is the wonderful resolution to the buildup of hanekawa's character we'd been getting since the first season. very good kabuki is interesting... but definitely not the strongest entry here otorimonogatari is what originally hooked me once and for all on the series, for reasons ive explained before so i wont get into that too much here. but god do i love it to death. whew its good oni could hit much harder than it does but it doesnt. rip. still not what id call bad but eh koi is fuckin awesome. kaiki and nadeko... i'd talk more at length about certain parts i like but im writing this backwards from the later seasons to the earlier ones and i talked way too much about the later ones so im trying to conserve space here. i might talk about it more later or if someone asks me abt it hana i have talked about a bit before too but i love hana hanas great. so then all in all it's like 4 bangers. a great development of the characters we know and love and one that is so well written and just done in the best ways... i loved where this season took everyone. i think the non chronological stuff can be a hit or miss for ppl but i honestly really like it, especially on rewatches. when you think about it the order never feels pointless. even tho hana is chronologically after all the other anime arcs its still not at all something i would say you should watch after zoku lmao. the season does well as a continuation and development but not a conclusion to the series, and thus spendidly fits the role of "second" season.

final season (tsuki, owari part 1, koyomi, owari ge, zoku) - there are ups and downs to this season, but the ups far, FAR outweigh the downs. owari part one... its really good. i think shinobu mail (thats what its called right?) is like kind of slow at first, and i definitely wasnt SUPER invested in it on my first watch, but i think on a rewatch after you get past the first like episode or two it really starts to pick up and shine. that is not why i like it though ougi formula to sodachi lost is incredibly fucking good all the way through, some of the strongest entries in the series by far. i might do like a ranking of each part sometimes and those are definitely going in s tier when i do (even nisioisin said his favorite anime part was ougi formula in an interview although that might just be because he loves mysteries lol). hooooghhh those three arcs,, sodachis story is revealed and developed very wonderfully and impactfully and you kinda love her right from her return to the school where she screams at araragi. and of course, of COURSE ougi is the absolute goat in these arcs, revealing the mystery in the engaging and entertaining way she tends to while also being an incredible point of intrigue herself in her whole enigmatic shtick. and of course, if you know you know, but that doesnt make it any less enjoyable on rewatches ougi is just that entertaining of a character. not to mention her showdown with hanekawa... its so entertaining to see these two battle so passive aggressively or just plain aggressively. and the way it ends up is not surprising but it IS hilarious. and then the convo with sodachi in her apartment... heartwrenching, incredible. all of its very very good. probably some of the most fun ive had watching anime, these three arcs grab you and youre just along for the ride the whole time. i'd love to talk about it more in depth some other time probably FUCK that was just owari part one too koyomi we can go through quickly though. its just like a sorta reminder of where each character started and ended up, as well as giving a few details to set up owari ge. nothing special or bad. i love the ED tho oh fuck are you gonna make me scream about owari ge... this post is already way too long fuck... uhh basically mayoi hell + hitagi rendevous are great in and of themselves and are also wonderful buildups to ougi dark and the conclusion of the series. its so fun how it sneaks up on you that yes, ougi is the main antagonist (at least from second season - final). ougi dark................. ougi dark..... ougi dark. yeah ill save this for a different post. um, one billion out of ten? i literally think about it every day thats not a joke so i dont think i can talk about it here without running out of space (do posts have word limits?? whatever its too long already anyway) overall a very tight and absolutely wonderful conclusion to the series. in my mind this is like the "actual ending" and the light novels and other stuff that comes after is like bonus epilogue stuff (not that its not canon its just that ougi dark is too solid of an ending. its TOO good do you understand)

and now time for the light novels

off season - i think in general this season is pretty strong. i was pretty invested in how it was really taking the time to give characters other than araragi the focus, at least until musubi. but even in musubi its sort of like a "where are they now?" so we get lots of details about all the characters. although i think in musubi its a little hard to read bc we also get all these new characters that we dont necessarily care about (esp since its very much like a one-off thing), but i dont mind it that much because thats not what i like it for... the cool part is seeing the characters we love and where theyve ended up and where theyre going. like the part in (i think) mitome wolf? where hanekawa and araragi have drifted super far apart... wonderfully bittersweet. and i have a separate post about this but seeing ougi free and unable to be bothered in their new life? chefs kiss wonderful love it. so i think even though musubi breaks the format of taking a break from araragi, its still good enough to not bring down off season really. and on that note i honestly wish monster season would be more like off season. i dont really want to see stinky araragi's pov anymore! i think he should take way more of a backseat and instead make more guest appearances in other people's stories, like he did at the end of hanamonogatari. not that i dont like him (its a hate love relationship) but i think honestly hes really interesting in hana where we see kanbaru's view of him instead of his view of everyone else as usual. i love so much how the monogatari series Feels Different in different people's perspectives so i want to switch it up more!! of course he is the main character so i dont think this will happen but like. i'd much rather get kanbaru's misadventures with ougi than araragi's college misadventures. and of course i cant talk about off season without talking about nademonogatari. nademonogatari is SO FUCKING GOOD holy shit... i think i speak for a lot of people when i say nadeko is by far the strongest narrator in the series due to her arc's progression and her character development-- and even before it too, cuz otorimonogatari's narration was also really unique and engaging. it helps that she's my second fav but i think nademonogatari is generally well liked? and for very good reason. which is also why...

monster season - haven't finished these season still have to read ougi fright/flight and the next installment but yeah i feel a lil disappointed in this season because again... too much araragi. get this dirty stinky man outta my face. again i love and hate the guy but cmon let's be real... his peak was in owari ge and zoku and at the end of hana. i really dont feel the need to see more of him. of course the stories themselves are interesting and i like nisioisin's writing but i just find the stuff thats not narrated by him such a breath of fresh air... i really want to see more nadeko and kanbaru narration. i hope nisioisin, if he keeps on trucking through the series, will start putting more real focus on these two. or even like. just anyone else. give us ononoki again give us sodachi again. i want to see the other characters journeys!!!! we keep getting small little nadeko chapters like with mayoi snake and yotsugi shadow and like... those were awesome i loved those! more of that but longer please nisioisin!!! i feel like raising up kanbaru or nadeko more to the status of "mains" would be honestly really refreshing and a much better, less like.... stagnating? direction to take the series in ummmmm also nisioisin isnt writing about ougi enough ://// like... hellooo? ougi pov chapter when?? itd be the most fun thing ever nisioisin???? hello??????? hes so insistent on not writing them i swear he wants to relegate them to a side character spooky appearance every once in a while and thats cool but like im starving here dude cmon... even in the book named after them they dont get a pov chapter and only appear as a side character.... wtf........................... like thats so fucked up.................................................. especially since the parts where they acc were there were rly good :( but basically araragi stinky i want to cleanse my nose palette please PLEASE nisioisin throw him in the trash for a long while longer im begging you it'd be so much more interesting if you just let him become a side character his days in the sun should be OVER

#monogatari series #monogatari #long post

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Thoughts on Moon Knight E6

(and predictions for the future)

Ahhh, y’all, I promise this will be the last time I write about this show for a bit, but I always appreciate y’all humouring me and letting me obsess about it.

So, my non spoiler review of this show as a whole: I think this is my ABSOLUTE FAVE of the entire D+ Marvel shows. It’s not perfect by any means, but I think what I liked most about it is that it was not only super-disconnected from the MCU which made it feel very self-contained (and is a welcome change to the convolution that the MCU has been for awhile, even in their shows), but I also LOVE the characters of Marc/Steven, their development, and their arc. I really love character-piece shows, and I think this one was the best executed. That, and the acting of the entire cast was phenomenal. 

I genuinely want more of these characters, and I think they’re (meaning the Moon Knight system) now my fave after Doctor Strange; I never had a “favourite” Marvel character other than Hawkeye before Doctor Strange (and even then it was fleeting because Marvel did Clint SO fucking dirty until his own show), so it was a surprise to me to be so invested in this show with a character I knew NOTHING about and went into with skepticism.

Not much else I can really talk about without spoiling this show, but I do recommend it if you like psychological stories and character building stuff. I’ve rewatched it a few times, and that’s saying a lot, because the only other show I rewatched post-release was Hawkeye. So yeah, 9/10, losing half a point for rushing the finale and another half a point for not really discussing what their disorder is, just that they’ve got it (in a single synopsis for the first episode) and how they got it. I’d love to see a BIT more backstory relating to the end credits reveal, but I think Episode 5 did a great job for our two leads for THIS arc, and I think it was smart to focus only on them at this time, to ease casuals like myself into a very complex character with a very complex disorder.

So yeah. Below the cut, I’m going to discuss the spoilery aspects of Episode 6 that I enjoyed (mostly THAT ending, I’m OBSESSED), and maybe cover anything I missed in my other discussions and the series as a whole. Then I’ll follow up with my predictions and hopes for the future of the characters (that may contain possible spoilers since I will discuss things I have learned from watching reviews and breakdown videos) and just some general rambling.

And before I cut off I need to say: Steven is my comfort character, I love him SO MUCH, and I want to yum him up and keep him forever, LOL. And through him and his empathy, I learned to love Marc equally as much. I think that’s the real brilliance of this show, and I think they went the right way in making Steven the main character to start us off with. Emotional and heartbreaking and sweet all in one.

Thank you for reading, regardless if you continue on <3 

So, let’s start with my episode thoughts. I apologize for the point form, it’s easier for me to process this way:

I felt this episode was a TAD rushed, BUT I got exactly what I wanted out of it: A STUPIDLY emotional reunion between Steven and Marc, with a beautiful metaphor showing that they can now work as one TOGETHER, that one is not more important than the other, and that they still need each other. I sobbed, it was so beautiful.

And on the topic of the “rushed” episode, I’m a TAD annoyed about them just blacking out the main fight, BUT the payoff of the Jake reveal at the very end compensated for it. HOWEVER, I am curious what Layla saw, and given how much destruction there was, I absolutely feel like there was a different costume involved (comic-accurate Moon Knight for Jake?), given her incredulity at what happened. 

I love that they’re making Jake hispanic, like Oscar. That was a nice little touch. 

LAYLA. OMG I love her SO much. Her costume was amazing, and I hope she decides to stay as an Avatar, given that Taweret doesn’t seem to have any underhanded motives like Khonshu does, other than she just wants to have fun, haha. I feel like they’re going to keep her as one, with her accepting she’s an “Egyptian superhero” (which was cute, in my opinion, and so important).

Ammit’s design was AMAZING. Loved how her hair was also her tail. Just a very beautiful character.

Big-ass Kaiju fight was awesome LOL. Just another day in the MCU hahhahh. Though, I saw theories that no one other than the Avatars can actually see the fight, just lots of shit blowing around (like Steven and the Jackal in I think it was the second episode, where Layla couldn’t see it but Steven could), so who knows.

While I would have liked Jake to have shown up within the Duat to save them and “make the heart whole to balance the scales”, I think they way they did it – revealed him to be there all along at the LAST POSSIBLE MINUTE rather than the obvious route – was actually much better than I ever imagined. Upon rewatch, I think it was smart of them to only focus on Marc and Steven’s relationship and learning to co-exist in the body together in peace. From what I understand from a couple Systems on YouTube who reviewed the episode, this is a “realistic, but timeline wise not realistic” way a system learns to function (my understanding is that it takes YEARS of therapy and talking/opening up with each alter to get to the point Steven and Marc are at, but I understand it’s television so, liberties), as well as that it’s completely normal for a system to not know about another alter until later in life, or be aware someone else is there but not have any “walls” broken down yet because the system “isn’t ready for those memories”. I found that fascinating. So yeah, I feel like the show’s at a good place where Marvel can have another character-building plot line for them to bring Jake into the system (more in my predictions section about this).

Khonshu is ABSOLUTELY the morally grey character I thought he was, the manipulative bastard. I’m interested in how Marc and Steven find out they’re still stuck with him.

Actually, I feel like Jake may have accidentally slipped up and subtly let them know... Steven, in the final hospital scene, says “we’d rather go save the world” which doesn’t make sense if they know they’re free of Khonshu. So maybe they DO know (sorry I just rewatched it again) on some level? They know the hospital isn’t real, that it’s “just imagination”, and a manifestation to help them cope with something they no longer need to since they’re now in-sync (basically something is trying to rebuild the wall again, but it’s not working), and that reality is broken when they see the blood because their arc is done. I’m not sure what point I’m trying to make here, just that I think it’s here they realize for sure that there is a third alter, and by extension they’re still under Khonshu’s servitude. I still don’t understand why Steven says “I can’t believe that worked” when they wake up, but I think I just need to watch it a few more times to get it.

I was a bit confused about what exactly happened at the end until I watched it several times and watched a couple breakdowns. I BELIEVE what’s happening is a time-jump, and the post credits actually takes place BETWEEN the “deal break” and them waking up, with the fake hospital overlapping the real hospital. I think that we’re just supposed to fill in the blanks on our own that they brought Harrow back to London to a psych hospital (I liked the use of the lighting in the end credits one, by the way, to denote that it’s the “reality” OR not Marc/Steven’s mind space, and was my clue that the hospital scenes are meant to be overlapping time frames). I think then Jake goes to kill Harrow, while AT THE SAME TIME, Marc/Steven are having their final hospital scene, both plopped in there by Jake to keep them busy and walled off from Jake at the REAL hospital so they don’t realize that the body is currently murdering Harrow (time difference and their amnesia could be days or hours, as proven in previous episodes when Jake is suspected to take over), and then they wake up, tied down, indeterminate time later. I DO think they wake up in reality, now aware that there is a third trying to keep them from discovering him.

That said, I thought it was odd that at the end, Steven and Marc were still tied down. Initially, I thought perhaps it was Marc who was still restraining them because he is concerned about the third alter that they don’t know yet, but it’s Marc who’s fronting upon waking up... so he would have remembered if he or Steven did it. However, given that Steven and Marc now co-exist equally without pushback, I was thinking: what if it’s JAKE who’s still restraining them, as his own way to protect them post-resurrection? Bookending the show with first Steven being restrained by Marc, and now Marc being restrained by Jake, is a really interesting thought. It symbolizes that something is still holding them back from being a complete whole.

I don’t know why, but I love the metaphor of the goldfish in this series, and how episodes one and six mirror each other in that regard. Goldfish are famously known for poor memory; in episode one, the broken goldfish represents the poor, broken memory of Steven, “trapped” in a world someone creates for him for his own protection. Then, in Episode 6, the metaphor is now of two fish, expanded to Marc AND Steven, both trapped in a world someone else creates for them to be protected – symbolizing them being kept hidden from Jake – both with memory loss and an unawareness of what goes on outside of their little world, restrained (to represent the boundaries of the fishbowl) to stay safe from harm. I dunno I just think it’s cute in a very sad sort of way. I imagine after getting the body killed when he wasn’t fronting, Jake’s protectiveness went into overdrive and now he’s terrified of letting them do anything more than stay at home.

The four gunshots to kill Harrow was a nice touch: one for each of the alters as revenge against Harrow killing the system, and the fourth for Khonshu delivering justice against Ammit.

I have to ask though, where the hell did they get a nice-assed limo, clearly belonging to Marc in some capacity?! I’m wondering if in the MCU, they’re making Jake the “rich” alter, probably does more mercenary work than Marc ever had (in the comics, it’s Steven who’s the “rich” alter). I’m intrigued.

This isn’t episode-specific, more of a “series as a whole” thing that I liked: Marc gradually becoming more comfortable and accepting of the switches, ultimately allowing them to co-front with each other in the final episode is beautiful character growth. This includes switching in front of Layla... I know people were confused about Marc ripping off the mirror to switch in Episode 3, and I believe this was because he did NOT want Layla to see him switch – he was ashamed of his disorder, and kind of a nod to how people with mental health issues are made to feel ashamed about their own. I dunno, I think it’s a nice little detail they added to show how much Marc has grown. I absolutely love them switching seamlessly in the final episode, no longer fighting each other for the driver’s seat.

And Marc’s character arc as a whole is beautiful. He’s such an interesting character I want to do so many more deep dives on. His development is fantastic and I just really want to see more of him.

And on a silly note: I am SO AMUSED that the only on-screen kiss shared in the whole series is with Steven and Layla. Just, poor Marc, getting cock-blocked by his brain hahah.

And on a final note on the series as a whole, CASTING OSCAR was the perfect choice for this character. Literally the RDJ/Iron Man casting all over again. Oscar has the RANGE to do it, and I really honestly can’t see anyone else in the role.

And now, some predictions for upcoming appearances, and what I would like to see in the future (because I have SO many headcanons about Jake and I love him so much already):

As mentioned above, I suspect that Jake has a different MK costume than Marc does, and I’m going to guess it’s closer to one of the darker comic-variants of it than Marc’s (swathes of black throughout) which would explain Layla’s “what the hell was that?” (I imagine he would have swapped costumes, when dissociating, much like Steven has his own). She KNOWS something happened, and I imagine there was a visual change to the character to denote such. AND the fact that Layla was the only person or thing not harmed or destroyed says to me that Jake protects anyone important to the system as well. Kind of telling that she was actually pinned with one of the moon crescents to the car (it’s a blink-and-you-miss-it thing when she breaks it, but IT IS A MOON CRESCENT), so I imagine Jake did that to keep her out of the way while he just went OFF.

I believe Jake is the defacto “persecutor” of the system (sorry I know that’s an outdated term, but I imagine the MCU will use these designations to make it easier for the audience to understand how each character functions in the MK System), who protects the body when it’s near-death or when in deep physical pain, and a protector who takes on the trauma memories that Marc nor Steven are able to function with. I believe in the comics, he was “formed” when Marc was in the military, but I think in the MCU it will be revealed that he was actually the first alter who was “formed” over time and was enmeshed with Marc (hence why Marc remembers the beatings )... kind of messy breaking off and only fully splitting when Steven was first “formed”, taking on all those trauma memories Marc had and then put up the wall between them. Jake holds the “bad” trauma memories and protects Marc physically, and Steven holds the “good” memories and protects Marc when he’s emotionally scared or traumatized. All three, though, are protectors of each other in some capacity.

That all said, I don’t believe there was a “new deal” made with just Jake like other people are theorizing, and it bothers me because the evidence is in the subtle wordplay! Jake is stuck with Khonshu, unfortunately because of Steven. “We’re a package deal” and “release the TWO of us” which left Khonshu with the loophole he needed to keep Marc anyway.

I feel like Jake, though, was manipulated to believe that Khonshu is the best way to protect the body, that the system needs Khonshu or they’re always going to be in danger. For someone who I suspect always holds Marc and Steven high on a pedestal, I can see how this seems like the best case scenario. I don’t think Jake is malicious / sneaky at all against Marc nor Steven. I think it’s quite the opposite: he loves them fiercely and doesn’t want them to ever be hurt and have the need to splinter again (which goes back to my theory that Jake was first and refuses to let Marc split himself again). I think Marc’s latest death amplified that protectiveness ten-fold because Jake wasn’t fronting and therefore couldn’t save them (as a mirror to Marc’s guilt about losing Steven, Jake lost them BOTH). I just really hope this is the direction they will take his character, as one who hates/distrusts Khonshu as much as the other two, but is naïve enough to be manipulated into believing Khonshu only wants what’s best for them all

I think Khonshu manipulates Jake into killing without remorse by convincing him that all their targets are threats to Marc and Steven... hence why he willingly kills Harrow, because he’s direct threat to the system so long as Harrow/Ammit are alive.

It will be a terrible thing to portray Jake as a “psychopath” – from what I understand from other systems, this stereotype is harmful to people with DID / OSDD. I remain hopeful that, if they have a something that focuses on Jake, it will instead be established that he does what he does because it’s his self-perceived purpose. He takes care and protects those he loves (his system and Layla [proven at the end where Jake destroyed everyone EXCEPT Layla in the blacked-out fight]) and only fronts when the system is in severe physical anguish or near-death. Kind of a “black sheep” character but accepted and loved by Marc and Steven once he begins to co-front as well. I think the next character arc for Marc will be adopting Jake into their system the same way that Steven was. It’s important for them to be working together rather than against each other.

So yeah, that said... I’m sure it’s going to be an ongoing theme that Khonshu is the morally grey-almost-antagonist character pulling the strings on the sidelines. The character journey/arc for them next will be Marc & Steven convincing Jake that they can still work for Khonshu without the god manipulating them. As a team, they’re more formidable and more able to not be bamboozled by Khonshu.

I think that this show was always meant to be a limited series, called Moon Knight, that essentially explores the character behind the mask. They’re going to get around the “limited series” claims by making a show with the characters but NOT called Moon Knight. My guess right now is it’s gonna be called “Spector” and will be more about MK than the show actually was LOL. Seriously, though, I think the next thing they’re going to focus on before putting the system fully into the MCU is one with Marc/Steven discovering Jake and his role in their lives, and helping him integrate into the system so they all work together as “one”, in a sense, and coming to a mutual agreement/peace with Khonshu that the system is a team, and THEY decide how the justice is dealt. I don’t know, I just really want to see Steven and Jake having silly disagreements about if a bad guy deserves to be stabby-stabbed or talked into boredom and Marc just telling them both to shut up, LOL.

And I mentioned this on a Twitter post, but if the series is about Jake, I want at least ONE episode that shows all of the blacked out scenes from Moon Knight. I think it would be SO clever; it would add a lot of rewatch value to the original show, in a sense “completing” the show and as a metaphorical “completion” of the Marc-Arc (lol). 

I just really want more of Jake, is what I’m getting at here, because I think having these three interact will be great, once Jake learns he doesn’t have to always be scared for Steven and Marc’s safety. 

I hope we see more of Layla, and I hope she stays the Scarlet Scarab. And I hope she doesn’t leave the boys, I feel like such an interesting dynamic / insight into who she is to each of them can be set up here, and who they each are for her.

Bah, I’m sure I’ve missed a lot more I’ve wanted to say, but that’s what’s been bobbing around up in my grey cells since the show finished, aside from a couple plot bunnies for ficlets I want to write so I can explore their characters some more. I love this show so much, and I just really love the complexity of Marc. I’m sure if there’s another series, or more of the triad, I’ll be right back here talking about it, because psychoanalyzing fictional characters is a strange but soothing hobby for me. I had a lot of fun stretching my meta muscles again.

And of course, if I erred or unintentionally offended anywhere, please let me know and I will fix it.

Thank you so much for reading, all. I loved writing these meta very much <3

#moon knight #moonknight #moonknight meta #my meta #character analysis #spoilers below cut #my thoughts #i love them your honour #i want to protect them all #more of that last character please

[ciaossu-imagines]

Hope it’s alright that I’m responding to your admin chatter now with your inbox being open or the day. If it’s still too early, I’m really sorry. Damn. I hope you still got plenty of rest after pulling your all-nighter. And that’s very understandable. I’m also looking forward to finally talking about it since I didn’t say so much when you first mentioned the new chapter but would love to (or at least I hope to) say more about it. Super quickly even 😅 And I’m glad people are since you do deserve that. Yeah, it’s a romance anime and the summary (which I can DM you if you want) does sound quite nice. Do you not generally watch romance stuff? And thank you or saying that 😊 I’m currently rewatching Demon Slayer and I’m at the latest season, but I’m also rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender so it will probably be when I’ve finished with those two series. I see and it makes sense that that kinda stuff would take up so much room. And what you’re saying about the screencaps is very true. And I hope so as well because it does deserve so much love 😊

Sure thing 💕 And I’ve finally caught up on all of the posts, which is nice. Oh that bit about your manga app really does sound handy and nice. It that website really is. And it’s also colour coded so that also makes it easy to quickly see which episodes are filler and it also even says if an episode is mixed filler. And I see, that makes sense. Sometimes filler episodes can be good but yeah, it is indeed handier going for the source material so you don’t have to worry about filler. It’s nice to hear that you had so much un reading the Iruma-kun! manga 😃 And I see. That’s nice to know and it’s great that there’s still great stuff to come. Did / Do you watch it in the sub or dub?

That’s interesting. Thank you so much for saying all of that. Yeah, not only that but since we last spoke it updated on my computer and now the section that shows all of your conversations has become ever so slightly longer and I just don’t understand why and I do hate the constant,  unnecessary updates on the PC. It’s like they just love changing the way it looks since apart from that, the updates don’t really do anything good (that I can see). I’ll give you a breakdown sine it’s easiest like that. Seasons 1 to 3 are amazing adaptations, just so beautifully done in all ways (so that’s till chapter 190). But then there are two important matches of a different school and instead of putting them into the next season or something, they just shoved them into two OVA’s (so one match per episode), which is so rushed. Still looks great, just probably missed out on some bits. I mean, it definitely did miss out on this manga bit that I saved which is so cute, but since it’s been a while that I’ve read it, I can’t say just how good or bad the adaptation was. Then we have the first part of the fourth season and I honestly don’t know how good or bad an adaptation it is beause I didn’t read the manga for that but it is really nice, and the second part has great music (including one of my favourite OSTs) and stuff but I think it’s not as great as the previous seasons. So yeah, everything until the end of season 3 and the first two OVAs are amazing, it’s just afterwards that the quality unfortunately drops. But yeah, I can’t really quantify it in how much you’ll be missing beause we do get important bits, it’s just not the same quality (when it comes down to the last season) as in the manga. So I’d recommend watching the first three seasons and hopefully it’s back on your manga app or somewhere for free. I almost forgot to say that there are movies which kind of summarise the main match of the first three seasons (so one movie per season) and not only that but they have added scenes from the manga that weren’t put in the actual season. The one for the second movie is really feelsy and there’s this added scene in the third movie that I really love beause of how funny it is. It’s between two of my faves and the way the owl baby just says something is just so funny and gods I love that scene so much. But yeah, since I’ve saved it, I can just as well send it to you if you don’t feel like watching the whole movie. There’s also an extra scene at the end of the movie, which they have on YouTube. Either way, you’ll have to go to the manga if you want to continue since there’s still so much after the latest season, not only the babies grown up but also a very important match that I know is best read because it’s been put into a movie of 1 hour 25 even (that came out last month) though it deserves to be an at least 8 episode long in my opinion season, so yeah, hopefully with all this info, you can make an informed decision. True. It’s very nice. I’m looking forward to hearing all your Haikyuu!! opinions and who of all of the guys ends up being your fave, whether you end up with multiple like me and just anything really. And that does sound like a good plan. And thank you for that 😭

I hope the spoilers were so out of context that it turns out better than you fear. And that’s very understandable. The characters remain their lovable selves after all so no matter what, you’ll always have their scenes to look forward to in the manga. Glad to hear that you’ve recovered from your cold 😄 Oh that sounds so horrible and disgusting. I’m so sorry to hear you had to deal with something like that. And it is good to hear that your workplace is stocked up on those kinds of things. True. And I’m a sucker for justified text so I’m glad that I can always do that to my stories. No problem 😄 Glad to have been of service.

C

That’s perfectly all right! Just as a heads up, by the way, when I shut down my ask box, I’m only closing it to actual new requests like ‘can I have a scenario for reader reacting to Gojo SPOILER ALERT’ (by the way guys, it’s really not nice to toss spoilers into the ask box – while I had guessed at that particular one happening, I hadn’t read it as of that moment)! It’s always open for general chattering and talking to me though, so feel free to send these in! And thank you for that! I slept and slept well for once, that was for sure. I’m always running on not enough sleep, to be honest, so I’m pretty used to being tired anyhow, haha. And please, always feel free to say more about it! It was a great chapter and makes me happy and I’m genuinely interested in your thoughts on it 😊 Okay, that makes sense with the title! I generally don’t watch or read anything that focuses exclusively on romance, nope. I don’t mind romance around other things in the story – for example, YYH definitely has some romance elements, but it’s not the entirety of the story, Ouran has very romantic moments but there’s also comedy and drama elements of it, etc. It’s just not my cup of tea, but I’m always happy when other people enjoy things like that! I hope both rewatches are going well! A:TLA is just one of the most beautifully done shows and stories, in my opinion, and I’m sorely overdue on a rewatch on it myself, honestly! How are you enjoying the rewatches of both?

Wow, you got caught up fast! Thank you for catching up then and I hope you enjoyed most of the posts! It is really handy and I definitely had to search up that website. If it’s the one I found, it has a crap-ton of shows done up too, and from what I can gather, it’s all fans writing these up which is amazing and really shows just how useful fandom can be 😊 There are some good filler episodes, I do agree with that…but some filler arcs really, really drag on or sometimes shows (like Bleach, which is an excellent example) just have wayyy too many filler episodes and it makes it hard to get into them for me. As for watching Iruma-kun! I watched it in the dub, just because I can speed through dubbed stuff compared to a sub. I can get maybe two or three episodes of a sub in a complete day off, but I can get double that for a dub, since it doesn’t hurt my eyes as much. The dub was well done, with some really good voices and the English music was still catchy, though I’ve looked up the songs for the sub and they are amazing as well.

Wow, that sounds like a pointless update! It doesn’t really sound incredibly well-executed, but maybe they wanted more room for people who have to use larger fonts? I can only guess because otherwise I see no point, haha. Thank you so, so much for the thorough and clear explanation! It’s good to know that seasons 1 through 3 are well done at least. I’ll have to google the chapters following that point though, the ones for the OVA’s to see if any important details were missed, just because I’m that sort of person. I like to know all the details and the little bits and pieces. Good music is enough to interest me in the fourth season though…or any seasons of anything. Music is definitely something that can sway me to looking favourably on something, haha! I’m sorry to hear the quality drops though. I’ll definitely keep checking my manga app for it after I finish the first 3 seasons and the movies (which thank you for letting me know about them!) I really do want to read the manga for both that and Demon Slayer, so I might have to use that app at some point, even if I hate the chapter limitation. If I could pay and not be limited on chapters, I would be more okay with that, honestly. I’m still on the first season (again, struggle with subs) but I haven’t really gotten any favourites yet, it’s more like I enjoy everyone for their own individual quirks. They’re all cute and charming in their own ways, even the ones with slightly more noticeable flaws.

Oh no, that spoiler I’m hoping is completely wrong was very specific in that certain beloved characters of mine turn out to be bad guys and it really, really upsets me. But you are right – the characters are their loveable selves in what I’ve read before and I’ll always have those chapters to go and read however many times I want. And thank you – people can be really gross when out in public, haha, especially sick people but at the same time, I try to keep a kind mind. I am with you – a good bit of justified text is always nice and again, thank you! I hope you’re doing well, my dear 😊

#admin chatter

[pop-punklouis]

Hi loveee 💞

You might be right bc the first time I've heard my older cat hiss was when we showed her our younger cat lmaoo

Yesss attachment theory is so interesting I truly think it helps you understand yourself and others!

No exactly. That or I need someone to like encourage me. Being a perfectionist and having a fear of failure AND procrastinating are the unholy Trinity it runs together. The only reason I didn't abandon painting after a day is bc I somehow was okay at it. You bet your ass I've never watched a single tutorial I simply don't have the patience. I'm either decent naturally or it's not for me 💀

Re: fandom friends: I wholeheartedly agree

Re: shows. Nooo how do you do that 😭 I can't even watch more than one show at a time (unless they're all ongoing shows). I automatically go for light shows as like, coping but I also feel like watching several complex ones at once would be me if I wanted to cope but HARDCORE jfhfhf. Ooh I kinda get that. I liked ST season 3 simply for vibes and aesthetic and like, robin. I thought season 4 (while incredibly different from all seasons) was kinda cool but they kinda ended it messily which sucks. Guess we see where they go for the finale. Supernatural was good then bad then good then wtf?? Then good 👀 then the ending was: trauma I deserve compensation 😭 I do enjoy the earlier black mirror eps more but also I'll eat up more if they did more. White bear is a fav. I also like shut up and dance. I should rewatch it all I've got terrible memory. And I'll deffo be watching midnight mass!

Re: food. Oooh yes Mac and cheese. Simple yet so good. For me I think just Italian food. Pasta. I could have pasta for the rest of my life I think it's just so good.

For today: saw that you're graduating!! Congrats! But that made me realize I didn't know what you're graduating in, so if you feel like sharing, what did you study? Is this a postgrad? Future plans? (I usually hate this question so you can skip the last one!)

Have a wonderful day babe 💗

~🌱

hiiiii babe sorry this is so late this week has been so busy rip but!! i love that about you painting. yeah, i have to at least see some sort of potential in a skill or else i abandon it all together 💀 see! i’m like the opposite of a procrastinator?? if i see i have to do something like three weeks in advance i will think about it obsessively until i do it even though i still have like three weeks to have it done rip it’s so bad. i stress myself over something like i’ve got two days to do it instead of 18 days 🙃 but anyway yeah tutorials have never been my forte either. i like watching paint tutorial videos to help calm my mind down to sleep at night but otherwise

re: shows dude i KNOW i’m truly a masochist with my own brain watching shows. if i’m not watching three at a time i don’t know what i’m doing. it’s so bad. i could never watch multiple shows with other people because it would be a mess 👐🏼 omg how did i forget about robin yesss season 3 of ST had it’s good moments and i loved the robin character introduction. i think i would’ve liked season 4 a lot more if they had stuck to the original lore of the series instead of throwing new thinks in for shock value and plot twists to create new monsters and villains. and holy shit i forgot about the shut up and dance episode of black mirror that was also a really cool one. maybe i also need to rewatch the seasons again. but fr if they came out with more i’d watch them in a heartbeat. pls update me on midnight mass!!! also i recommend you watch 1899 too. i just finished it and i wish i was able to watch it again for the first time. it’s too good ✨

re: food. please love how pasta is both of our favorite foods. what kind of pasta is your favorite? i love cheese tortellini if i had to choose (besides mac & cheese of course)

and yes!! i graduated wednesday with my masters in film & media studies 🥺💕 i truly very little future plans at the moment besides relaxing for the next 5 or so months at home while i figure out what i want to do rip i have a lot of experience in a lot of different things in the industry but nothing has really grabbed me rip would rather just work in an antique store (own one is the dream) for the rest of my life. would be v happy i think 👐🏼

how has your week been? 🤍 have you done any christmas shopping? (if you celebrate!) i feel like christmas has just came so quickly i’m scrambling to do all the shopping and decorating two weeks out 😮‍💨 we just decorated our tree last week so it’s been frantic lol

#holiday pal 1

[mayasdeluca]

Toot! Toot! from me once again for telling you to start watching NCIS HI. It wasn't my kind of show either but yeah they do write the personal side really well. I kind of get lost in the case just because I don't know military terminology and I find myself googling a lot of it.

I know you said Kai was your favorite but there's something about him that I'm not vibing with. He's likable I guess but I think I just didn't like all the times he went rogue in season 1 because he's a native and he thought he knew better. Alex also bugs me, maybe it's just his teenager attitude but that's something you'll see more why in season 2, I don't get why he's a series regular. And all the other characters are great. They all work well together no matter who they put together. And I hope we get to meet Jesse's wife. Heather sounds like a badass, I want to mentally cast her with like Jes McCallen or Lauren German; not a huge name but someone who would be available to pop in from time to time to make guest appearances.

As for the Lucy and Kate scenes unfolding, I've written to you already how it got annoying (to me) how stubborn Lucy was because yes the love was clearly still there. Like the immediate explanation from Kate about Cara at the end of 1x11 was reasonable enough. Kate seemed more career than relationship focused which I'm sure Lucy knows (from their whirlwind first weekend together) so it is feasible that in Kate's relationship inexperience thinking moving to another state would end a relationship. I might've needed a day or two to think but I would've forgiven Kate after that. And I probably would've forgiven Kate the other times she apologized too but most especially after 1x20.

The serenade was a little awkward (it was released as a sneak peek) but then after a while the more you watch it the less awkward it gets.

I am so excited that you get to catch up to watch live. I wouldn't mind doing a rewatch and finally discuss the 6 episodes of season 2 now that the show is on a hiatus for a couple of weeks. This week Tuesday and Wednesday and then the next to weeks on Mondays and Wednesdays? I want to leave Thursday/Friday free because of the bombardment of S19 chatter. What do you say?

Haha yes! Thank you so much, it was a wise recommendation on your part. They definitely do write the personal side well and I think that's what's keeping me hooked because yes, sometimes I'm kinda lost on all the military terminology as well and some of the cases just don't do it for me lol but since I enjoy the characters it ends up being okay for the most part.

Really?! That's interesting! I never really got that vibe from Kai but I could see it...to me it felt like he just kept to himself initially since he was the new guy but then he started warming up to them and opening up as time went on which I enjoyed seeing too. I didn't even know Alex was a series regular! I feel like he's not even in that many episodes lol but I'm curious what he's up to in Season 2 now! I've been wondering/intrigued by why we've never seen Jesse's wife at all! It's a little strange...you would think she'd show up at least once or twice...it makes it feel like the marriage is fake 😂 I love the idea of Jes playing Heather though! That would be perfect.

Yes definitely...I wonder if it was just their way of trying to drag it out a little longer and not put them back together right away. I mean I understand Lucy being upset and not wanting to forgive her right away but she did seem to be harsh with Kate at times, especially when they had to work together. And then after the scenes in 1x20 I was surprised they just didn't get back together! That's wild that they spoiled the serenade/reunion in a sneak peak though...that would've pissed me off. I mean I don't mind spoilers/sneak peaks to an extent but not if it's major things like that for my favorite ship lol save it for the episode!

That would be great if you rewatched! I actually ended up watching the Season 2 premiere last night since I had some time and was eager to continue lol so I think I'm probably going to want to catch up when I can but whenever you're able to watch them and want to discuss them, feel free to send your thoughts or see if I've watched them yet! I would guess that I'll be all caught up by the weekend though since it's 5 more!

#asks #anon #i will probably be able to watch one or two tonight also! it helps that baseball is now over lol #smh yankees -_-

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

TMM New 10 - 12 (FINAL) | Kami Kuzu Idol 7 - 10 (FINAL) | Kekkai Sensen 1 - 12 (REWATCH, not including recap ep.) (FINAL)

TMM New 10

Shirogane’s dialogue reminds me vaguely of Mamoru from Sailor Moon. *thonk* (SPOILERS!) Also, the only thing I remember of the original Tokyo Mew Mew is that Ichigo turns into a cat properly at a critical moment and Shirogane does too IIRC.

“…gigantic cocoon…”

Fighting like cats and dogs…literally.

TMM New 11

Now, if only they talked about platonic love in its own terms… *sighs, but realises the anime is trying its best to communicate its own feelings*

TMM New 12 (FINAL)

I know there’s a s2 coming soon. Hold on to your horses!

This is why you don’t check your phone while fighting, kids. /half-sarcastic

Anyways, that was fun. See you for s2…if I can.

Kami Kuzu Idol 7

To be honest, occasionally I do so much of other things, I forget to watch anime. Lately I’ve felt really stressed for no reason…that must be it. (Then again, The Amazing Race has been on lately and I love that as much as I love anime – so much I make sure to know what happened in the episode on streaming services as quickly as I can after it’s aired - which may explain where time has disappeared to.)

WWAD: What Would Asahi Do? *sweatdrops*

…wow. Yuya just kicked all the hardcore single idol oshis in the guts with this talk, haha…

Kami Kuzu Idol 8

There’s a bunch of stars that just keep adding on as the episode count goes higher…cool!

The kanji says “whole body, whole soul” to go with the devotion talk.

One month ago…at Pig Lord [Bar]…

That appears to be a book on royalty and dogs that Yoshino has…

Asahi: How am I? How am I? Fufu~…

…I don’t remember if I noticed this previously, but…that’s Sho Hayami as narrator, yeah??? That was his Jakurai voice!!! *faints like Kasenjiki, /hj* Update: Yes.

…does being a professional model count as a job where you do nothing…(?)

So this is Hallelujah…? I never thought we’d get to hear it! Hooray!

Kami Kuzu Idol 9/10

Now that I’ve pinned Hayami down as the narrator, I wanna see Jakurai as an idol fan. That would be so funny!

The CGrass friend (I forgot her name) is such a nice supportive friend…

I like the zodiac flourishes on the stage. Gemini – the sign known for being two-faced – is the perfect aesthetic for an anime like this.

“Tired and unmotivated,” says Niyodo (Asahi version). *sweatdrops, but also grins*

Update: It appears “Mogami” is made of characters that read “the best”!

Welp, that was fun. It didn’t reinvent the wheel, but it sure did remind me how I got to be a translator, since Hikaru looks a heck of a lot like a character in a manga I was scanlating when I started out. Anyways, see you next time! *waves*

Kekkai Sensen 1 (REWATCH)

I keep recommending this show to other people, so it’s good that I can revisit this as well.

(I did have another note, but I was in the middle of doing chores at the same time…so I forgot what it was…)

Kekkai Sensen 2 (REWATCH)

*sigh* The ep with Zapp again…

[There were no other notes, except for apology after apology until the end. It probably didn’t help I kept doing chores while doing the “rewatch”, so I didn’t focus on the screen much, because I took my time...so much time that I ran out of time after the Sony merger and me deciding to cut my Funimation subscription as a direct result of that. I did move on to Kekkai Sensen and Beyond (dub on Crunchyroll) after this though.]

#simulcast commentary #Kami Kuzu Idol #Phantom of the Idol #Tokyo Mew Mew New #Kekkai Sensen #Blood Blockade Battlefront

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL

Dec 2021 Wk 4

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Gen Y 2 (YouTube) Ep 1 - Look... my dumpster fire soap opera is back and I am THRILLED. I really don’t care much about what happens in this show, it’s a delicious buffet of random tasty nonsense and, for me, presentation is mostly irrelevant because it tastes DELICIOUS. Okay that metaphor got away from me. But yeah. I’m trash watching and live blogging it here. 

Not Me (YouTube) Ep 2 - it’s good, I’m enjoying it, but for some reason I’m not totally feeling it. I think I might like the side dish couple better. (Which would be weird, since I hated Fluke in Dark Blue Kiss.) Maybe it’s because motorcycle gang romances have never been my thing? I don’t know, I’ll keep watching tho, don’t worry.  (For the record, I’ve been a biker all my adult life. My baby is a supped up first gen SV650 with a ton of after market mods, thank you for asking.)

Bad Buddy (YouTube) Ep 9 - It was a great episode, they used external conflict (the enemy of my enemy is my friend) to solve for the breach in the friendship groups was brilliant and Korn being the biggest PatPran shipper was a delight. GMMTV also used this episode to correctf or both gay for you AND wifey terminology - a red letter day! I’m live blogging it here.

Paint with Love (Gaga) Ep 5 - very cute, actually, and watching at 1.5x helps. Maze’s past with Nueng is revealed as a subverted step brothers trope. Other tropes included gay family domesticity (a favorite of mine), head on shoulder, and touch my lip and think of kissing.  

Loveless Society Ep 4 fin - didn’t drop prior to this post 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Mr Cinderella (Vietnam - YouTube) Ep 4 - oh this is so good. I love it when the confused bi just gays tf up and is all, “I like this boy, time to start courting.” Especially when it’s Vietnam because we know that means HIGH domesticity. We got my boyfriend’s closet trope. Could these two get any cuter? Well yes, and we can safely say they're going to. 

Tinted With You (Korea 1 & 2 Viki) - opens on a kiss. Certainly this doesn’t really show lips touching (whatcha expect, still Korea) but nevertheless, very daring. There aren’t really any expectations around historical BL (as opposed to bromances). Only China pre censorship and Korea has ever given it to us. And so far, only Korea during this current golden age of the genre. So far this one is elegant and atmospheric and a little disjointed, but historical romance is my absolutely favorite so I am quite taken. (This it portal fantasy time travel... think Outlander only gay and Joseon.) 

Utsukushii Kare AKA My Beautiful Man (Japan - Gaga) Ep 6 fin - i lost my mind over this BL’s ending, quite possibly one of the best final episodes in the history of the genre. If you don’t watch this fantastic yaoi-roots kinky af little show of utter dirty joy, the BL gods will be very disappointed in you. 9/10 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 

Kieta Hatsukoi AKA My Love Mix-Up! (Japan - Viki/Netflix) Ep 10 fin - This show is so much teen angst chaos even I (the world’s premier Make it Right apologist) might have reached my limit. Aoki is so wrapped up in his own drama, he never tries to understand or sympathize with Ida. While that is VERY teenager, eventually it felt selfish to me. Maybe because Ida is so obviously demi, I could see all along it would just take him more time, it’s frustrating that Aoki never understood that and made no effort to actually sympathize with Ida. So while I still enjoyed this BL, it kinda lost me at the end, even though the final episode left me smiling. I think my second hand embarrassment gene and the show’s slapstick wholesomeness will work against it for me in rewatch potential as well. So for all those reasons I settled on 8/10 still VERY MUCH RECOMMENDED. And I totally understand if you loved it a ton more than I did. Remember: 

In Case You Missed It

Charming Japanese slice of gay domesticity, What Did You Eat Yesterday? has a special coming to Netflix Jan 3. This might be the long awaited movie. 

The movie version of K-BL The Tasty Florida (Viki) is better subbed and has a little extra high heat content, and I think it’s superior to the original series. 

Trailers dropped for Thai BL Coffee Melody (looks less good than I was hoping) &  Heart by Heart (looks way better and more dramatic than anticipated), and Taiwanese BL DNA Says Love You (just confusing). 

ALSO, DO I SPOT CONSENT?! 

Turn’s out YES is the answer to that question. Or more precisely, you better. 

Korean queer production house Strongberry dropped trailer for a new short (Probubly to Vimeo and/or GaGa), The Summer Pasta Recipe which is a reunion romance. The tag line is: I'm curious about my ex's recipe. I love this because I while I have many exes and I don’t regret leaving any of them, occasionally I do regret not having gotten dat damn recipe first.

Speaking of Korea, supposedly coming Jan 2022: First Love For The Third Time based on a BL script that won Ascendio’s (You Make Me Dance) competition starring influencer Jeon Chang Ha and actor Jin Gun. A popular, picky and well-organized web novelist who remembers his past lives. While living his third reincarnation, he meets his first love, who is now an editor. 6 episodes, 25 min each. No platform announced yet.

BL 2022 Gossip 

That photo above is from social media. Son Woo Hyun (L) is currently filming To My Star 2. Speculation is wild that Jang Eui Soo (R) continues his one man quest to play pokemon with Korea’s BL industry. (So far he has been in: Where Your Eyes Linger, My Sweet Dear, Nobleman Ryu's, & Mr. Heart). 

MaxTul are appearing (as themselves in a guest drop in) on reality TV series Bromance (Thai gay dating show take on The Batchelor). 

Kpop’s best known out gay singer Holland, was rumored to be in a BL that now has a title: Ocean Like Me.

MAME’s upcoming project, Past Love In The Future rumored to star Smart Chisanupong and James Pongsapak AKA LeonPob of Don’t Say No. (Stop her or we’ll go blond.) I SENSE ANOTHER DUMPSTER FIRE. 

Color Rush 2 starts Jan 21 on Viki on, different cast same director, Hwall/Hur Hyun Jun (Yoo Han) is out. Read about it, plus us chatting our thoughts on why and what this might mean in the comments of this post. This is now rumored to be a bromance and not a BL. Description: In this season 2, the story focuses on Yeon Woo, a mono searching for both his mother and his probe. Meanwhile, his classmate Se Hyun will help him uncover the mysteries even as he also hides a secret.

Adventures in Miss-captions 

Vietnam always with the cutest versions. Honestly the more I read it, the less it makes sense. But *shrug* STILL adorable. 

Also I can’t believe it took me until now to realize this is the same actor as the seme character in The Ring Goes Missing! He hasn’t aged at all. I mean it’s eery, he looks EXACTLY the same. Another one for the vampire coven?  

Next Week Looks Like This:

Behind Cut starts on Monday on Viki. Love Area Part 2 starts on GaGa on Saturday. Happy New Year for those who celebrate it at this time of year, 2022 is looking great for BL.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here. I keep a full record there of everything I announce in the weekly updates. 

This week’s best moments? 

Oh look, GY2 serving up my FAVORITE archetype of all time right after Japan featured it! 

Please, fuck with our fairytales more, you Vietnamese queer geniuses, you. 

Also GMMTV correcting for its past mistakes! 

#this week in bl #bl news #bl updates #BL episode recaps #Japanese BL #adapted from a manga #Live Action Yaoi #long post #Vietnamese bl #taiwanese bl #Thai BL #Korean BL #Utsukushii Kare #My Beautiful Man #Mr Cinderella #Kieta Hatsukoi #My Love Mix-Up! #Vanishing My First Love #Loveless Society #Paint with Love #Bad Buddy #Not Me #not me the series #gen y 2 #gen y season 2

[annetteblog]

I spent January 1 watching YoI and it’s the best way to start a new year, I guess

So, yes, after all these years I finally watched Yuri on Ice. The biggest thanks to all people, who recommended me to do it, because it was amazing :) 

Now, beware of my incoherent rambling about the characters, the plot, figure skating, Victuri (Victuuri?), LGBTQ+ representation, and Russia, just because I need this 🙃

First of all, I had never thought that one day I would end up having a crush on a Russian man, but here I am, having crush on a Russian 2D man. Victor Nikiforov, how dare you steal my heart like this! He’s some kind of a damn Russian Apollo... So I perfectly understand Yuri’s gay panic in the first couple of episodes 🤣 dude, I feel you.....

What I specifically liked about the characters, it’s their growth. They were not frozen, but gradually developed to become more mature towards the end. Victor becoming less selfish, more compassionate and empathic; Yuri becoming mentally stronger and more confident. And Yurio... he’s such a lovely pirozhochek!!! :D Really, this “I-am-strong-and-independent-grown-up” kid with his love to pirozhki is just 🥰 But yes, he also mentally grew.

For me as a Russian, it was a pleasure to see normal Russian characters in a foreign show. They were talented and nice, wow, that really happened!!! Honestly, I’m so sick of this “bad-drinking-vodka-prison-tatoos-nucklear-weapon-terrible-accent” narrative (I watched Tenet the other day, and I was literally sitting like this 😐 the entire film; they forgot to add a bear for the full picture). And normal Cyrillic! Not perfect or 100% correct, but at least it was readable and understandable, not just a classic American movie with a Russian text, which looks like this - зжэщгардгрвъ шщыралойцы фвзпролдрппппп (yes, I just hit my keyboard). The same applies to the athletes from other countries. Kazakhstan!! Otabek!!!! 

I also needed to pause one of the episodes just to scream at this

Aeroflot (rus - Аэрофлот) is a Russian airline. And yeah, it sucks 😄

But seriously, you can clearly see that they did their research, cared for details and payed attention to things, and I, as a foreign viewer, really appreciated this. I really hope, that one beautiful day shows’ producers start to make characters from different cultures, who are just... you know... ordinary normal people? and not just a bunch of stereotypes?? or necessarily devilish evil just because they are from another country??? 

And now, the ship! 

I’m not really familiar with a lot of anime, and definitely not familiar with genres like yaoi, although I’ve heard about its stereotypes and certain common patterns. Here, however, it was a pleasure to see a same-sex relationship, which was not just a cool fetish for some young straight girls (nothing against young straight girls), but like... an actual relationship? Plus the creators successfully embedded it into the main plot, without shifting the central focus of the show and abandoning the actual sport competitions. 

I really enjoyed the delicate approach to the relationship’s development. Considering the characters’ own path of progress, the relationship they formed were equal and mature. Also their care and clear tenderness towards each other were speaking louder than words.

Sidenote. I had never realized how much I needed a Russian non-straight character in my life until, well, yesterday. Thankfully, I had the Internet since I was around 11, so I spent my teenage years watching a lot of American/ West-European tv-series. LGBTQ+ representation was not something out of the ordinary, it was not a taboo; and it mattered to me, a young girl, who tried to figure out what the F was going on with my own self. But I had never seen a Russian LGBTQ+ fictional character on the screen. Ever. Honestly, I had never payed attention to this fact. Normally I don’t really care about a person’s nationality, so I couldn’t even think that having some queer character, who is Russian, would be somehow important to me. As it turned out yesterday, it was actually important. And, I guess, one of the deeply personal reasons why I liked YoI, was the fact of seeing someone from my own country and my own culture, who was non-straight and being just fine and perfect the way he was. Even though I’m not a struggling young girl anymore. 

Okay, back to the tale, before I become a teary mess again. 

Their relationship was heartwarming to watch. Although there were clearly some sexual undertones, it didn’t end up being just some sexy gay boys. It was definitely about the growth of love, firstly fragile but becoming stronger and more affectionate with time. Their bond became psychologically equal; and they do complement each other, being codependent in the best sense. And it was beautiful. 

However, from what I quickly gathered while reading a few comments, some people still claimed that there was not enough clarity in terms of their relationship?? I have to disagree with this completely. Excuse me, but you don’t exchange matching golden rings in a church with your friend to wear it on your ring finger. You definitely don’t passionately kiss it seconds before an important performance. And you don’t cry your eyes out if your friend suggests you to end your partnership. If you do, I have some news for you, dear 🤡

I honestly can’t figure out what kind of a bigger clarity some people want. If the same plot was shown between a man and a woman, you would get the message from the episode 1. Or at least from that episode, where they were naked making out i mean...... practicing some moves?? wtf it was, honestly, I was too busy laughing 😆 However, seriously, what do you need? Is this really necessary to show an R-rated sex scene for some people just to get it? Lame. 

Sure, YoI was not perfect. Some bits with figure skating were off, and there was some obvious magic going on in terms of homophobia, more specifically - its absence. I mean, I’m not an expert in LGBTQ+ rights in Japan (although I know it’s not  that great), but if a Russian figure skater came out or just had some kind of (publicly known) unidentified close relationship with a same-sex partner, their successful career would be over. And not just Russian, I guess, any figure skater would face similar problems. It’s a very conservative sport. 

But, actually, I was grateful that they showed it the way they did. Fairytale-ish. A show doesn’t have to be realistic to be great. It’s enough if it warms our hearts and gives hope to the brighter future. The real world may be cruel and unjust, but we all need kind and reassuring stories to keep us going. And such story about caring relationship and love is the great example of this. 

Lovely, funny, refreshing, and heartwarming. 

Or, just quoting Victor

vkusno!!! (c) 

😄

I will definitely rewatch it at some points in my life.

and now excuse me, I need to fall into the rabbit hole of fanfiction, haha stupid me

P.S. 

This moment was 

hot

#yuri on ice #figure skating #victor nikiforov #yuri katsuki #yuri plisetsky #anime #victuri #victuuri #yoi #lgbtq #lgbtq representation #lgbtq relationships #not km related #long post