#Fun fact: this is the longest entry I've written so far

[doctor-bus]

Hello my darling my dear, I would like to hear these, please! 2, 5, 11, 40, 65! If five is too many still, narrow as you see fit. <3

Krista my darling!! Thank you for indulging me 🩵I will gladly yap about all of these things :3c

ask game here

2. Talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

There is a scene in Chapter 3 of Down for the Count (which will be going up soon!) where Cardia and Van Helsing have a meaningful conversation. That conversation, which was completely and totally unplanned, ended up having a huge ripple effect that added a few thousand words across Ch. 2 and 3. I'm pretty happy about it because it made a couple of previously cut moments with Impey and Fran thematically relevant again :3c Cardia really just waltzed right in, undaunted, and set off a whole massive domino effect. Which is very fitting given how much she does that in canon.

5: Have you ever made a playlist about something you were writing as an elaborate means to procrastinate when you could have been actually writing and if yes drop a link, son

Guilty as charged 😅 I have playlists for the Norse trio from Kamigami no Asobi, and I end up just listening to them and daydreaming entirely too often. Chasing Cars by Imogen Heap has been my recent go-to for blorbo thoughts (it's so Loki & Thor it HURTS) Loki/Balder playlist (by far the longest) Thor & Loki playlist Norse Trio general playlist (...putting this together made me realize their initials are BLT. Another iconic trio.)

11: What’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general?

Ooooh boy. Tetrodotoxin. I already knew a lot about tetrodotoxin from my job (ttx does so much for us and I love her for it) but I ended up reading a TON of case studies when working on my Bustafellows WIP, Asystole. (Which, the fact I've worked with it is high-key the inspiration for the fic in the first place. ttx is a bad bitch and I cannot abide by how canon disrespects her!!! She's a paralytic that causes death via respiratory paralysis!!! He wasn't even paralyzed!!!) Anyway. The most common cause of ttx poisoning is via ingestion of improperly prepared/the wrong species of pufferfish, so I wasn't sure if the reported nausea/vomiting was due to the fact that the entry point was the GI tract or not? However, it seems like it might not be? Ttx is a major component of blue-ringed octopus venom, and those bites ALSO cause nausea/vomiting. Weird, right?? I ended up reading a lot of case studies about it. I also read a lot trying to figure out how ttx interacts with cardiac voltage-gated sodium channels. Ik ttx blocks the voltage-gated sodium channels in neurons, but it seems like cardiac ones are different since the main cause of death is suffocation??? Not cardiac arrest??? Based on what I could find, it seems like it can partially block those channels and cause bradycardia, but I'm not 100% sure. Still, should be good enough for a tiny fandom whump fic lol. Which is to say, I care about research entirely too much. Enough to get massively hung up on it. The perfectionist paralysis is a huge part of why Asystole isn't even close to being ready to post 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅 oops. But it's fun nonetheless :3c

40. Best piece of feedback you've ever gotten

I used to be in a big ARG server on discord (to those who know me from there, hiiii :3c), and there was one that I was playing that was more of an RP than an ARG? One of the things that another player told me really stuck with me: “Your writing makes my book bone drink the hell yeah juice!” It was so sweet and evocative. It’s my favorite writing compliment I’ve ever gotten and probably always will be.

65. What's your favorite title for a fic you've written?

That’s a hard one! I love most of the titles I’ve chosen. I go for puns as often as possible, and as you know I love puns. If I had to pick, I’d say that I’m particularly fond of Carved in Relief? I feel like the double meaning packed in there is really fun in an angsty way. In that fic, Van Helsing is being shaped by having pieces of himself stripped away (like a relief sculpture), and the way this is done is via emotional manipulation (including the sense of relief a close relationship can bring to an otherwise very isolated person). Not to toot my own horn (on the tooting my own horn post) but I think it’s very juicy :3c

Thank you so much for coming to my TED talk and giving me the chance to yap!! And thank you for talking writing with me so often, it's very fun to talk shop with you 🩵🩵🩵🩵 You always have fantastic ideas when we're bouncing things around.

[etrosgate]

for fun here's a kh analysis rec list. that also happens to double as a “what convinced me that soriku endgame actually” list? but it's not exclusively about that.

Stuff for Everyone

Constructing Kingdoms

a video series analyzing all sorts of aspects of KH from a literary perspective. there's 20 episodes so far and every single one is a banger. it's difficult to articulate just how much this series increased my understanding and appreciation of KH's narrative. and while most of the essays on this list are Really long, the videos here are pretty short (most are under 30 minutes, and the longest is still just around 40). and a lot of entries on this list are covered in some capacity on this series too! it's a must-watch, and the perfect place to start.

youtube [playlist]

Riku is Gay (and why it matters)

it's not super concisely written, but this video is a fantastic compilation of all the evidence for why riku is, in fact, gay. textually. and not potentially gay in the future, but how he's already canonically intentionally gay. right now.

youtube [main essay] [addition 1] [addition 2]

“That Person” How a Pronoun Revealed the Heart of a Story

a two part essay that presents some major aspects of sora's side of chain of memories that were almost entirely lost in translation (largely due to the nuances of jp pronouns), and extensively analyzes the implications of that source material.

[btw, i made a patch for gba CoM that attempts to reinsert these elements into the game's english script, which you can get here. or you can just watch the cutscene compilation on youtube here]

anyways, im not joking when i say reading this may completely change your perception of CoM. it's now my definitive favorite kh entry (narratively), and i just become more certain of that the closer i look into it. it's so damn clever.

google docs [essay part 1] [part 2] article from "the gamer", abridged [link] and if you think you can debunk it, you're Required to read the Entire original essay first. cause i can assure you, they're probably spent more time evaluating that point than you have.

Necklace Theory

this one should probably be in the section below, but it just ties in so much to the previous CoM essay (and has enough basis) that i'm putting it here. do you remember the meteor shower memory from CoM? this theory posits that in the true version of the memory, the "charm" was sora's crown necklace, given to him by riku.

tumblr masterpost [link] youtube, abridged [link] article from "the gamer", abridged [link]

The Music of Kingdom Hearts

what it says on the tin, an analysis of the music throughout the series, the connections between tracks, and how they're utilized in the narrative.

youtube [playlist]

Stuff for Theorists

The Sleeping Realm Theory

you might've heard about this one. though presented as a singular theory, it's also just a really fantastic documentation of a lot of the Weird Shit that's in kh3+remind. speaking of which, if you know of any other good theories about the puzzle box that is kh3, please tell me.

google docs [essay] youtube, comprehensive+additional discussion [playlist]

A Type-0 Fan's Guide to the Foretellers

this essay establishes the definitive connections between kh (specifically, the χ[chi] saga) and the game final fantasy type-0(+its mobile game), and uses that as a springboard for speculation. it happens to also lend some genuine credibility to "demyx is the MoM" theory? it's a fun read.

google docs [essay]

False Light: A Master of Masters Analysis

an essay compiling all the known info about the MoM, and then providing some speculative theories as to his identity and future in the series. a lot of great stuff to chew on, highly recommended

google docs [essay]

~~~~

+i've got some really good reblogs in my kh tag

and if YOU have kh analysis/theory recs (in any format, on any topic and arguing any position, so long as its well reasoned/gives you stuff to think about) PLEASE GIVE THEM TO MEEE <3 <3

discussing soriku endgame actually with fellow believers

[satelliteofmstielove]

K18 The Million Eyes of Sumuru

                                 Like Fu Manchu, but with more sexism!

General notes

          So, sorry it took me like four months to get this next entry out. School got busy faster than I expected. But last time it was almost a year and a half, so at least there’s that…anyway…

          The Million Eyes of Sumuru is a 1967 British spy film about a scary lady and her army of scary ladies. It’s based on a book series by Sax Rohmer, a man whose name sounds like the title of a film-noir western about a jazz musician wandering in the desert. He also wrote the Fu Manchu books, which explains a lot. Also, it was directed by a guy named Lindsey. This movie includes some celebrities (sort of- does Frankie Avalon count as a celebrity?) and was produced by our other Castle of Fu Manchu friend, Harry Alan TOOOOOWEEEEERRRRRRRSSS. Wilfrid Hyde-White is in this, he played Colonel Pickering in the movie version of My Fair Lady. (I only mention that because I somehow didn’t recognize him until most of the way into this movie, even though I’ve seen My Fair Lady several times.) It also stars George Nader, from the famous and hilariously terrible Robot Monster, which we’ll get to watch later on in Season 1.

          The main interesting note about this episode is that Tom Servo leaves partway through the movie. Again, it’s a case of Josh needing to be somewhere at the same time they were taping. He’s still in the host segments, because they always taped those before the movie part. Now, let’s get to Sumuru. (I don’t have a link for this one because it’s not on YouTube, but you can find it at Club MST3K.)

Prologue

I don’t know if I ever mentioned that I like the little tentacle things in the KTMA doorway sequence.

Oh man, continuity! That’s unusual for this show in general, not even just KTMA. They did a “previously on…” sketch as the intro for The Deadly Bees [905], but that one purposefully had nothing to do with anything that has ever happened on the S.O.L. They also did general premise recaps fairly often in Season 1 and occasional other times, and some story arc recaps in Season 8 when they were forced to have a story arc. This is the only episode I know of, thought, that has a classic “previously” bit, separate from the rest of the host segment, that recaps with a clip from the previous episode. Neat.

Also, does anyone recognize the voice-over voice? Josh or Kevin are the usual deep-voice go-tos, but this doesn’t sound like either of them. The musical sting comes from Fugitive Alien (I thought it was Time of the Apes at first, which goes to show how well I don’t know my Season 3 episodes).

After the clip, we join the Mads trying to get a look at Joel floating outside the satellite. They confirm for us that he is not floating naked in space, but is actually wearing underwear (which we could kinda tell from that very accurate action-figure Joel model). I had to look up what “BVDs” were, though. I had to look at this so now you do, too:

Whatever camera they’re using to look at Joel must have really good zoom if they can tell his cheeks are blue.

Has he been out there for a whole week? That’s impressive. Much later, in Time Chasers [821], the S.O.L. seemed to maybe have a Tardis-like air bubble-forcefield thing around it when it docked with Pearl’s van, so maybe that’s how Joel managed. Of course, a week in the cold of space with no food or water doesn’t really leave him very well off even if he had air, but those are all science facts. More likely this episode and the last one just take place closer together that that. (My default headcanon assumption is most episodes take place roughly in real time with when they aired, but there’s exceptions to that for sure). But again, I’m more than willing to relax about this kind of thing. I just speculate for fun.

The Mads are 2001-loving dorks, and we love them for it. As characters. As people, they’re jerks.

I think this may the first occurrence of weirdly affectionate Dr. F nicknames for Joel. We’ve had a few weird insults in previous episodes, but I think this is the first of this particular kind.

I didn’t know the Mads could open the S.O.L. doors from down on Earth. But I guess they control all sorts of other things from their lab, so why not the doors? Larry doesn’t actually press any buttons, but Joel gets inside anyway. Maybe he pressed it under the desk.

Joel is putting on his jumpsuit as he comes onto the bridge. The bots must have left it right by the door. Why did Joel take it off to go outside in the first place? Was he in the middle of changing and got sucked out the door? Actually, a random semi-nude spacewalk doesn’t seem too far outside something Joel might do on purpose…

Joel also thanks the Mads for letting him inside. It’s good to be polite to your captors, I suppose. In some episodes, rudeness does result in punishment, so probably a smart idea.

 Locked you out again? How many times has this happened, Joel? Maybe you need to get another key. Although if he’s going out into space in only his underwear, he might not have a good place to keep it…this is getting weird, let’s move on.

Trace’s weird expressions in this segment keep making me laugh.

The Mads are really enjoying taunting Joel this week. I like their doofy handshake. I can imagine them doing that in the halls at Gizmonic and other mad scientists just looking at them like they can’t stand them.

Joel’s response is actually much more sarcastic than usual for him (outside the theater). 3-12 weeks? What’s he talking about there? Anyone know? Did KTMA have multiple seasons?

Poor guy, he sounds really done. Being stuck out in the vacuum of space for a while probably does that to you.

The Mads’ movie intros are starting to sound more like they will for the rest of the series. Also, Larry tells Clay to get the movie, and he does. I sometimes forget that Dr. F and Dr. Erhardt were portrayed mostly as equals during KTMA. The junior doctor/henchman thing didn’t really get going until Season 1.

I never know what to make of angry Joel. It happened more often in KTMA, but still not that much. Also, his hand gestures are weird.

We didn’t see the bots in this segment, probably because they’re off hiding from Joel and their impending punishment.

Movie pt. 1

Wow, the Mads were right; this is a really washed-out print.

Joel comes into the theater dancing to the parade music from the movie. He seems to have forgotten about being angry. Maybe the bots got an earful on the way down.

4:32, time and temp: 6:04 and 67°. The episode originally aired in early May, so I’d assume this is sometime around then, if not the exact night. I don’t know if TV23 re-ran these or not.

Crow mispronounces “emperor” at 4:39, and corrects himself, which makes Joel chuckle.

At 4:43, Tom tries to apologize for locking Joel outside, saying they “didn’t really know it was [him].” Joel understandably doesn’t respond.

During the opening credits, they do a lot of “relative of famous person with same last name” jokes. Those became a staple during credits for the rest of the show, especially the Joel seasons.

Servo doesn’t know who the Buddha is at 7:27. Also, Joel’s Wisconsin accent really comes out when he says “Buddha.”

At 7:46, Joel starts a riff that just sort of peters out. Something about the plant in front of the camera, but I’m not sure what he was trying to say.

8:13, Joel makes a pun and asks Crow if he likes it. Crow doesn’t seem overly enthused, but he says it was cool, anyway. Tom then tells him should laugh at it, since Joel’s upset with them. He hasn’t been acting too upset since they got into the theater, but maybe he’s been glowering or something.

Crow and Joel both talk at the same time at 8:31. They’re usually pretty good at not doing that, considering it’s improv.

At 8:35, Joel says “whoops” and looks down. It looks like he was just moving out of the way of the movie, but maybe he hit Crow’s arm or something.

Movie thing: I know it’s not even 10 minutes in yet, but the editing in this is really bad.

At 11:52, Joel tells Crow a terrible joke, which he kinda laughs at, but it seems to make him a little bit sad. Joel laughs, though.

Servo’s Frankie Avalon joke at 12:27- does that come from somewhere or did Josh just make that up on the fly? It’s very clever. Josh always has been the best of the MST alumni at off-the-cuff quips. Crow and Joel groan, though.

At 13:01, I’m not sure what Joel’s laughing at.

Joel bats at the old man at 13:16.

Movie thing: Gosh, 60s white-people dancing is always so second-hand embarrassing. Also, along with being washed out, the sound is really bad in this, too. I’m having a hard time understanding what anyone is saying.

I appreciate their Batman riffs at 15:43.

At 16:36, Tom makes fun of Frankie Avalon for being in the movie, but since Frankie’s hugging a pretty lady on screen at the time, Crow disagrees with his assessment. His enthusiastic follow-up about Frankie’s hand placement makes me laugh, along with Joel.

Josh calls commercial at 17:22, while making fun of Colonel Medika’s line delivery.

The guys are talking over each other a lot this week. I guess they’re just full of riff ideas.

Joel’s delivery at 17:45 is kind of adorable, for some reason.

All their riffs about the van starting at 18:26 are really funny, but what was that, Joel? Freeze him and make him into little bongs? Bombs? Huh?

I’m sorry, but WHAT IS HAPPENING?!

You can’t really see it because the quality is so bad, but at 19:27, Joel and the bots lean along with the car-chase cam.

Terrible pun from Joel at 20:20ish.

Some more of the Crow attitude we know and love at 22:20.

At 22:29, Servo complains to Joel about hearing voices in his head. Joel sounds a little concerned, but then Tom drops it.

Joel starts poking at Frankie’s giant chin at 22:57.

Crow just can’t let the poor framing in this scene go.

Tom’s confused about the number of Sumuru’s eyes at 26:10.

Joel gives the naked woman two thumbs up at 26:52, then stands up to look down at her chest! Unexpected from him. Things are getting awfully blue in here…

Crow starts a game of tag with Joel as they leave the theater, which is cute. Joel takes a huge obvious step over Trace on the floor, and mumbles something. I can’t tell whether he says something to Trace, or say something about “chase”. Either would make sense in context.

Host Segment 1

 We go right into the host segment, skipping the doorway sequence. It’s hard to tell with these VHS recordings whether that’s how the episode was made, or if the person just cut it out. It does look like a little bit from the beginning of this segment is cut off.

Joel is still mad about being locked out of the ship, so he’s attached “idioprobes” to the bots. They look like strings, and apparently administer pain while attached. That seems a little harsh to me, but I’ve also never been stuck out in space in my underwear, either. I like the way Crow sidles sideways into frame.

When Joel rips the idioprobes off the bots, you can clearly see the string on Servo, but he just pretends to grab something off of Crow. They didn’t have any extra string for a prop?

After Joel removes them, Servo starts trying to give the “we didn’t know it was you” excuse again, saying they thought it was any of several dead musicians. (All the people in the list are drummers, except for Elvis.)

Joel’s not having it, and threatens the probes again. I’m not really sure why they’re called probes; they’re not really probing anything.

Tom demands a trial by his peers, and Joel says that he’d build them more peers if he could. Interesting- does that mean he’s used up all useful robot building parts on the ship already? That would explain why he stopped at four, besides the fact that four is more than enough to deal with.

Then Joel asks where Gypsy is, and the other two hem and haw and finally admit they left her stuck in the spiral-on-down, which I think is the way to the theater? I know they’ve used the term before, but infrequently. Anyway, Joel’s not happy about that, either. Servo’s defense is pretty reasonable, since his arms don’t work. Crow’s in trouble, though.

Apparently you can unstick Gypsy from the spiral-on-down by pressing a button on the little control panel thing. I wonder if that unsticks her from anywhere in the satellite, or if it’s just for that one spot. Crow calls it a robo-purge button, which kind of makes it sound like the former.

I love Gypsy’s screech when she gets released.

Joel seems so done with the bots and everything by the end of this segment. He can’t do anything but smile and (metaphorically) wave. The cheesy grin isn’t usually his style; that’s more of a Mike thing.

Movie pt. 2

Still 67° at 6:38 (am or pm).

Joel sings a little Sumuru song at 35:48. I’m not sure if the tune comes from somewhere or if he was just making it up on the spot. Anyone recognize it?

At 36:20, Joel and the bots mess with the car dashboard.

37:33- Tom makes another off-color joke. I have a feeling more are on the way, given the content of the movie.

At 44: 20, Servo brings up the slant-6 Swinger car again, the one they mentioned in a few previous episodes.

He also calls commercial at 44:45.

Joel’s sounding extra sleepy in a lot of his lines.

Ah good, it’s time for the movie to dial up the sexism again.

By 51:11, Crow’s lost patience with the kissing scene.

At 52:04, Tom tells Joel he needs to leave, because he needs to go bake brownies for the Pinewood Derby. The real-life reason was mentioned at the top, but I’m thinking in-universe, Servo was just tired of watching this movie. Joel’s fine with him leaving, as long as he agrees to show up for the sketches between the movies segments. Tom promises, and wonders if they have eggs. Just a pointless thought, since it doesn’t matter how they eat (or breathe), but I always assumed either the Mads send them supply shipments, or they have some kind of food synthesizer that makes it for them. They definitely have the latter by the end of the series, since Crow mentions it in Soultaker [1001], but earlier than that, it’s not clear. Maybe both?

Host Segment 2

Joel tries to hold a trial for the bots, but, as usual, everything is a joke to them. They just won’t go along with anything he’s trying to do. The courtroom thing reminds me of Crow’s trial for cheating in Wild World of Batwoman [515].

The bots go off on another word-association tangent, which leads to a game show sketch, while Joel just looks on impatiently.

He uses the button panel as a gavel.

Even Gypsy gets in on making life difficult for Joel. It looks like maybe Josh was throwing his voice to do Gypsy from the other side of the desk. Either that or they recorded that part in post. Either way, Trace or somebody else must have been operating her.

Time and temp comes up on the host segment this time; Still 67° at 7:07. The updates are more frequent this week than last time.

Joel gives up on getting order in the court, and picks up Tom and kisses his head while misquoting Jimi Hendrix. What else can you do but give into the madness?

What is that on the desk besides the papers? It looks like an upside-down mug, maybe?

I like the weird noise Crow makes when Joel calls Movie Sign.

Movie pt. 3

 As Servo mentioned, he doesn’t go back into the theater with the others. Joel was holding him as they ended the last segment, so I guess he must have put him down somewhere on the way to the theater.

Joel and Crow try to move away from the spraying champagne at 55:10.

I agree with Crow at 56:27, please stop.

Man, Crow keeps saying what I’m thinking.

At 59:45, Crow calls back to the oceanic opening credits from the Gamera films.

Oh goodness, again with the Brain That Wouldn’t Die-style KPORN saxophone…also, so does security want to like, check her bag or anything before she goes in to the president? No? Yeah, see, that’s exactly why security exists.

Wait, he did get shot? Huh? It would be nice if they would SHOW us what’s happening! And this is the most ineffectual political security ever.

Host Segment 3

As promised, Tom is back for the host segment.

I love Crow’s flowers on his net.

Joel was out in space for five weeks? I guess it was longer between episodes than I thought.  That’s what I get for not checking first.

It amuses me that the bots are just now asking about this, even though they obviously thought about before, since Servo did calculations. But Joel’s got a guitar and he’s ignoring their questions, sort of like how they ignored him earlier when he was trying to put them on trial.

Time and temperature again, 7:28 and down to 65°.

Joel and the bots sing us a lovely part of the theme song to remind us to just relax about the eating and breathing thing. I’m guessing they anticipated people calling/writing in with questions about how Joel survived. As much as this episode guide exists to overthink things, that kind of science fact I am quite relaxed about, and I don’t mind being reminded.

I wonder whose guitar that is. It might be Josh’s, since I know he has musical inclinations. It doesn’t look the same as the guitar Larry has during the Clay and Lar’s Flesh Barn song in Women of the Prehistoric Planet [104], but that doesn’t mean it’s not still his. Also, do you think Joel’s really playing the guitar here? It sure looks like he is, but I’ve heard him say in interviews that he doesn’t play the guitar. Maybe he just meant he doesn’t anymore, or very much.

I think Crow is just moving his mouth, not actually singing. Nice harmonies from Tom, though.

Movie pt. 4

Haha, she’s running to her inevitable death, it’s funny! These highly-trained assassins sure jog at a casual pace, don’t they? I guess they’re probably in heels.

At 1:08:21, Joel mentions that he likes a movie with lots of midriff. This one ought to make him happy, then, no midriff shortage here.

Classic “oh wow” from Joel at 1:12:28, and another at 1:12:39. I don’t know if I’m going to note all of them. Maybe I should, and then someday someone can make a pointless compilation video or something.

Wizard of Oz reference #16 at 1:12:46. Maybe someday someone can make a pointless compilation of these, too.

Crow makes Joel laugh at 1:12:53.

The guys have no patience for Frankie’s fourth-wall-breaking joke at 1:13:01.

Wow, what a pointlessly prolonged scene leading up to nothing. They did in two minutes what they could have done in 30 seconds. That’s padding Roger Corman could be proud of.  

Also, that cut. This movie can’t decide if it wants to be a comedy or not. Not that it’s succeeding at comedy, but sometimes it’s sure trying.

“I know it’s best” because I’m a man, albeit a wimpy, useless one. Man, just like City on Fire, this movie annoys me so much I can’t leave it alone, even though that’s not what this guide is for. (I also think it’s easy to start filling in riffs yourself in KTMA, when it’s slow.)

I just noticed Joel’s leaned way back in his chair.

He calls commercial at 1:21:07.

Sumuru’s mines are operated by switches? That seems far less effective than normal mines…

Joel keeps talking about midriffs. I guess he really is a fan. 

I’m sorry I keep talking about movie things, but why the heck is Frankie here? Isn’t his character just some rich playboy with no actual skills? Did I miss some line near the beginning that explained his extensive military training? I really might have, the sound was terrible.

Joel’s riff attempt at 1:32:26- he pauses to get his sentence in order, then still says “fooms” instead of “films”. I find that way funnier than I should.

Is Joel okay? He’s having a really hard time getting over Trace on the way out, again. Maybe they’re squished closer to the wall than usual?

Conclusion

 Apparently Servo’s mouth is broken now, so Joel moves it for him and makes him sing.

Joel mentions they’ve got 900 people in the fan club. That’s extremely impressive for a dinky little puppet show on local UHF. Seems like people could tell from the beginning that MST3K was destined for greatness.

The fan club newsletter is called The Binding Polymer? I wonder why. Just science-y sounding, I guess.

Why does Joel need to move Servo’s mouth to talk when he’s not even onscreen? Maybe he can’t talk at all if his mouth doesn’t move. That seems like an odd design choice for a robot, but then again, so do most aspects of the bots. Speaking of Tom’s mouth, is KTMA Tom’s mouth the same as regular Tom’s mouth, but upside down? I’m probably just crazy.

Crow seems shocked by Joel’s sudden button press.

As he often does, Joel looks offscreen before the camera cuts away. He really does seem tired this week, doesn’t he? Hope he went home after this and slept.

Kevin’s listed under “Puppet Operation” in the credits. Maybe that means he was running Gypsy in the second host segment.

Thoughts on the Movie

          Wow. You know, after reading a little bit about it, I had hopes that The Million Eyes of Sumuru would be a little bit higher quality than the past few movies we’ve seen. In some ways, that’s true.

          But overall, I have to say…WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS MOVIE?! I have so many questions: Why can’t George Nader and Frankie Avalon stop being smug and sardonic and cutesy for three and a half seconds? Why did they frame shots so half the time you can’t tell what’s going on? And President Boong? First of all, Boong, really? Second of all, Sinonesia? What? Third of all, he is clearly a white guy in eyeliner and all of this is supposed to be remotely acceptable to the audience!? I mean, Fu Manchu was racist, too, but at least they made some attempt to suspend audience disbelief.

          And the really big one: how do you think they fit this much misogyny into one film? Remember, even if a woman hates men and has dedicated her whole life to destroying them, she still becomes instantly smitten if touched by a man, no matter how unattractive. Also, even if she is a trained martial-artist-assassin, she will not make any attempt to stop said man from touching her, because she is a woman. Yes, women exist solely as sexual creatures who could never desire anything more than to be dominated by men, no matter what they may try to convince themselves otherwise. In fact, every human being is motivated only by sex at all times! And was that significant glance between Helga and the other chick at the end there supposed to redeem anything? Sax Rohmer, Harry Towers, Kevin Kavanagh (screenwriter on this fine, fine film)- y’all have issues.

          This movie has plenty of other stupidity which I’m not going to bother to get into. I think I’ve expressed my feelings adequately. It’s not unwatchable in the way Castle of Fu Manchu is, but it’s plenty more offensive. Let’s just move on with our lives.

Review

          This one was okay. As I said before, Josh thrives the most on the improv riffing, and the second part really starts to drag once he leaves. I still laughed out loud at several riffs, (favorite riff- Crow: Does she always make that noise when she walks?) but there’s a lot of dead space in between. Compared to the past few episodes, it definitely has less energy, which also makes it easier to get caught up in the badness of the movie.

          Overall, had good parts, wouldn’t put it in my KTMA top five, by any means. Still, with every episode the guys seem to figuring out more and more the feeling they want in the movie and host segments. You can see it moving towards its destination.

[visibun]

...holy fuck, my last post is quite literally the very first time that I've ever reached the tag limit for a post, and I primarily pulled that off by prattling on about Cinnabun at extreme length.

I didn't even know that there was a limit of 30 tags per post. I've never had any reason to hit that limit before. If that doesn't fully prove and emphasize that this little trauma rabbit isn't my most detailed and obsessed-about OC brain worm of all time, I don't know what the hell else could possibly spell it out any better.

...if you've been reading her tag on my blog, but can't understand what her deal is thus far: She's a Lopunny OC, and hers is a mature, fairly dark, and very heavy story, taking place in the Pokemon universe. Yes, I started writing this in a very low, very mentally/emotionally fragile, and really dark part of my life, so yes, this started off as "me effectively venting/'self-harming' in a way through her." I know that OC stories involving both Pokemon and sensitive subjects like death, self-harm, suicide, and so forth are usually frowned upon by a good deal of the fanbase or whatever, since that's not what the source media is like on the surface. But at this point, I hardly care to even acknowledge that stance... you know, past the upcoming walls of text.

Prepare for an encounter with an autistic hyperfixation hidden raid boss fight just below the post cut.

For one, Cinnabun starting off as a sort of "projection" of myself made her both VERY special and important to me, to the point where writing about her low points started to actually personally resonate with myself. This made writing about her in great detail that much easier, since whatever thoughts and feelings that I felt as I was coming up with ideas for this story was on par with how she was meant to feel in those particular scenes. I've quite literally never synchronized with an OC this deeply before, and this let me write out the longest story that I've ever written in my whole goddamn life. It's been a fun and engaging process from start to finish, coming up with plot points and general story details, and then figuring out how to weave everything together so it flows in a way that I like. It's all very special to me, for that reason.

And then two, to be blunt... life is short. To be even more blunt... who knows how much longer I have to be around and enjoy small things like this. I don't care to stunt my ideas just because the theme/tone in its given setting isn't regarded as "popular" by many others in the Pokemon fanbase. It gives me a massive creative outlet — the biggest that I've ever had, really — and working on it to any extent feels really great to my mind that's otherwise typically too crowded up with TV static and disorganized/negative thoughts to let me ever experience a single moment of catharsis to any degree.

I know that the setting of Pokemon is considered to be an odd choice for a story that is largely very upsetting and dark... but, in my defense, the world of Pokemon is already very heavily implied in canon media to be utterly horrifying behind the scenes. A lot of Pokedex entries straight-up designate a good deal of Pokemon as "chronically suffering," like Phantumps being dead lost kids in the woods, Cubones crying over their dead mothers (whose skull they wear) loudly enough to attract their natural predators straight to themselves, or Yamask carrying a depiction of its face from its past life and crying over it. And then, there's other Pokemon who are designated as "chronically making others suffer," like people getting their spirit stolen by looking into a Shedinja's back, Drifloon being a Pokemon "formed by the spirits of people and Pokemon" that casually abducts children, or the fact that a strong pseudo-legendary like Hydreigon has a habit of "biting anything that moves" and has tales of it destroying whole villages. And then there's other Pokemon who just... accidentally create problems by existing. Some casually explode for little to no reason. Others make a lot of earthquakes or other natural disasters just by going about their business. Shit like that.

Like yeah, obviously these details aren't going to be shown in regular Pokemon media, since it is ultimately a franchise geared towards the enjoyment of kids and young teens (with a great deal of fossils like myself obviously still latching onto the franchise for longer than I thought I'd still care about it). But like... there's enough context clues just out there in plain sight to know that the Pokemon universe is 100% capable of being a circus of both horrors and dangers. As far as I can give a damn, my little story and the poor rabbit that it revolves around would be considered "just another Tuesday in Hoenn" in comparison to what else could happen in any of the regions at any given time.

So... yeah. I don't know what possessed me to talk at length about this to like... no one in specific, but that's my mental word salad about that OC and her story. I like writing about her since it gives me a massive creative release, and I fully disagree with the thought that every original story in a Pokemon setting has to be sterile and pleasant or else it's just "bad" or whatever. If I wanted a tame and clean story in the Pokemon universe, I'd just watch the show or play any of the official games... hence, me writing out my own story, and then defending its existence to no one but I guess myself for what feels like the past hour.

...I should probably go and eat something now;;