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jules-slayer-of-the-vampyres · 3 years ago

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sorry about tour, i understand your frustration :( hope you can get some rest soon!

i rewatched the anti-hero music video today because of how much i love it, and i finally have been noticing a lot! (my observations are in no way unique to me but i also haven't seen much discourse on the mv myself)

• what does the breakfast plate at the beginning represent? it forms a smiley face, but when she cuts into the eggs, it oozes galaxy-ish, deep purple liquid. (this liquid is very mysterious to me as it's a constant throughout the entire video). she sings that midnights become her afternoons, but the plate of food here is clearly a very american breakfast, and breakfasts are something you associate with mornings, not afternoons. (maybe this is to show that her depression causes her to have a very messed up schedule and lose sense of time, which i personally relate to as a fellow depressed insomniac).

• what happened to the three ghosts? they haunt her at first, but when the second taylor shows up, we don't see those ghosts again. (i've seen theories that the three ghosts represent the eras prior to 1989, while the second taylor represents the 1989, lover, and reputation.) the first taylor ran away from the ghosts while the second taylor did nothing to combat the ghosts, so what happened to the three ghosts, really?

• the scene in which the archer who suddenly shoots her with an arrow fascinates me. firstly, who's the archer and where does he come from? how did he know that giant taylor was there at the party? secondly, why does he shoot giant taylor? and in doing so, she bleeds the mysterious glittery liquid. the “pierced through the heart but never killed” lyric perfectly works with this scene, tbh; i've seen an interpretation that this lyric could mean that as a celebrity, taylor is constantly hurt and attacked by various people, but since she's got a shield of immunity from them with her status, she's just supposed to take them as is. she will be hurt and hurt and hurt, but she won't die that easily. also, why does she cover up her wound with a political sticker? what does the “vote me for everything” campaign mean?

• i do think that one of the themes in anti-hero and the album as a whole is that she doesn't have the courage or what it takes to be openly vocal in the political / social climate like other outspoken celebrities - for example, jameela jamil (love her <3). taylor doesn't have that strong, consistent, or powerful voice to be speaking up about every issue. she can, at best, advocate for herself and the people around her; she can, at best, demonstrate her support through her actions (donations, supporting smaller artists, bringing diversity to her music videos, the like). not using this as an excuse to justify her pseudoactivism, but i definitely do think the political aspect of the lover era is being mentioned here.

• the funeral scene definitely feels both metaphorical and literal. metaphorically, it could represent the internet and this fandom; the constant search for clues in her words is a uniquely swiftie thing. furthermore, i think her peeping from the comfort of her coffin (if she stays in the coffin, people will let her rest, whether she's actually dead or not) is a reference to #taylurking. meaning, taylor is always around and aware of what's going on in the fandom (and she did say this in the late night interview during the red tv era). when the fight breaks out between what i think are various parts of the fandom, taylor is too horrified and shocked to do anything to stop the fight. all she can do is look on like a mute spectator, as if she's watching a trainwreck. again, i think this is a reference to the fact that whenever swifties go too far (for example, sending death threats), taylor doesn't speak out against them though she is horrified by their actions. plus, a lot of swifties call taylor their mum, so there's that.

• literally speaking, i think taylor has a fear that her loved ones are / will be using her for money and fame, and they don't love taylor swift the person, but rather, they love taylor for what she can give them. i think this is a common and rational fear that many celebrities and rich people have; the question, “do they love me or my possessions?” i also think she's worried about what will become of her legacy after she's gone.

• frankly speaking, i don't understand the transition between the funeral scene and the ending. are we to assume that all of the drama has been happening inside the house and taylor got so exhausted of all the chaos that she decided to go up on the roof and just take a break from everything?

• i do think that the first taylor is Taylor Swift The Person, the giant taylor is Taylor Swift The Artist/The Celebrity, and the second taylor is Taylor Swift The Brand. the brand taylor needs person taylor to look and act be a certain way (brand taylor is fun because she does shots and breaks guitars! brand taylor is pretty because she's skinny! but all of that is too much for taylor the person, because she's a human being, not a product).

• instead of villainising any of her selves, taylor ends the music video by showing us that all of the three taylors have found friendship in each other in spite of their flaws (person taylor runs away from her problems, brand taylor is toxic, and giant taylor is too much for other people). accepting your flaws is a major component of self-love; being able to be at peace with yourself is, frankly, the hardest yet the best thing to achieve.

�� another question that lingers is... does the alcohol mean anything? the shots? the wine bottles? the three taylors passing around the bottle at the end? the bottle being empty when the giant taylor tried to drink it at the dinner party? brand taylor drinking more shots than person taylor?

thank you for letting me ramble, and i'm excited to hear your thoughts!

Thank you! I have not rested. I suspect it’s a nap later kind of day. Oh well. I appreciate the ramble and here is mine. It felt coherent as I was typing it. Hope it is. If not, I did it without my glasses so I’m sorry 😣

I suspect the breakfast is both a way of talking about her messed up schedule and also a reference to the line “breakfast at midnight” from 22. Especially since the beginning of the video is visually a love letter to Red. The glitter is weird to me. So it comes out three times: eggs, as blood, and as puke. Okay so I did some googling around about this and I’m taking some other opinions and forming my own. She has referenced one of her lyrical styles as being “glitter gel pen” lyrics. This album and this song in particular could be accused of being that style. I think the idea may be that at first glance it’s bouncy and fun but it shows its true self when you look closer. The glitter shows up in her moments of weakness. Which would sort of tie into the smiley face breakfast saying this isn’t actually a happy glittery moment paradoxically.

My personal reading of the ghosts is it’s like in scary movies when someone is being haunted the little ghosts disappear when the true ghost arrives. They’re pieces of the second Taylor.

Okay so I think the archer is sort of harkening back to the concept from the archer the song. This album covers her fears of being left and this song tells us about them explicitly. The Archer the song is about that concept about wondering who could love you enough to stay. In this case, she is shot by the archer. She is the prey. Narratively, I don’t think it’s much more than he saw a scary big monster on the hill and shot her. As for pierced through the heart but never killed I think is about how often people try to take her down, think how many Taylor swift is over parties Twitter has had. But she isn’t over so she isn’t killed. The vote for me for everything campaign is two fold. It references her fears to pick a side and speak to much about political issues and wants everyone to like her and also the ways she has tried to ensure the music industry gives her what she wants. I think she wants to be liked really badly and has some trouble dealing with the sheer number of people who don’t like her just by virtue of how famous she is.

Strong agree about the activism. I understand why it might be frightening for her. She is a human and we’re not meant to comprehend that number of people loving or hating us. It’s something she should work through as other celebrities have managed but I understand it. Especially since how young she started and how long ago.

I think you’re right on the money for the metaphorical read of the funeral scene. And I agree. I think it’s probably scary to want to plan a future with a husband and children and wonder how you manage the wealth she has accumulated. Do you leave it all to them? Is that a good way to raise people? Will their love always be tied to that?

Yes I think Taylor goes to find her other self. She sort of seems to reach an acceptance about being the problem. It’s exhausting but she has herself and she can deal.

I love the way you explained the three Taylor’s and I agree. She accepts all of herself and becomes a full person. Love it.

I think the alcohol is partially meant to be funny because it pops up every time she says tea time in the song. On the other hand. She does talk some about substance abuse on this album and since her brand self introduces it and is her bad influence self I suspect it’s not entirely meant to be viewed in a positive light.

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madeofcc · 4 years ago

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I got Strangerville so I could make DH4 for sure and not change my plan so I wanted to create a new family to discover the story with and here they are.

Meet the Amali Jeffersons !

As usual, while I was creating André, the 37 yo dad, I thought about his story and now I have the perfect plan for them all. Want to know more ? Read below

André Jefferson is a 37 yo “divorcé” who just moved in Strangerville. While he didn’t see a lot of black folks around, he didn’t had time to notice how weird the town seems to be ... Summer is starting and André has to take care of his daughters : Whitney (17) and Missy (11).

Whitney used to be the sporty girl but now that she’s in highschool, she doesn’t know what to do with her life and this new town seems already too fucked up for her. On the other side, Missy, who’s already a total nerd, is super excited to discover if what people says online about this town is true . But it’s not easy when you’re 11 living with two protectives grown-ups !

You got the idea, I now want to write a kind of family comedy with them three ^^ I already have the dynamics : André would be an artist and smoker, a bit lost in his life because he still loves his ex wife and tries the best for his daughters, Whitney would be the pragmatic one always questionning everything and making the all gang about preparations and stuff and Missy would be the funny brain of the family. Always making jokes and fighting with her big sis but the smartest of them all to solve a mystery ^^

Oh and here’s a picture of the mom, Jameela. Amali is actually her name, Jefferson is André’s. She chose Whitney’s name and he chose Missy’s one, based on icons of course.

What do you think of them ? Would you like to actually see a story with them or more gameplay stuff ? I’m still playing with Soster in the HOB these days though, crazy stuff happened !

#ts4 #sims4 #new sims #ts4 strangerville #I can't wait to discover the story #I haven't been spoiled a lot #except that people are going crazy because of a giant plant #first time I queue a chapter so hope it works #I already love the town's energy #the buy/build looks nice as well #also this family #super cute #André is actually hot #Missy is going to be soooo funny

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weareonejazzhand · 6 years ago

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#anon i don’t know what to say to you if you’re disappointed in someone who entertains you not being vocal on issues #i don’t expect young entertainers to be activists #I do love it immensely when it comes as a natural progression from an experience they’ve had #sadly when some of them became vocal about a cause they’d get plenty of backlash from some big blog or the other #have you seen how awful people are about niall supporting young golfers #its like he’s personally destroying the planet by his support of golf and golf courses #so many blogs completely missed the point and dismissed niall efforts #and here i can tell u my unpopular opinion on someone tumblr seems to adore #a person i routinely dislike is jameela who has seemingly built her entire brand these days on attacking the kardashian way #they’re literally the easiest target and pretty much half the world think they’re shit #women held to unreachable beauty standards isn’t a unique cause yet somehow jameela is now the premiere voice #of the anti kardashian movement and is invited to sit at the table w other women #who actually made a mark for themselves as performers and creators and along the way supported good causes #jameela a moderate actress at best got lucky being part of a hit show has now built an entire brand and profits from her ‘activism’#so if you ask me if i want my fave entertainers to be spokespersons for a cause #my answer would most likely be No because more often than not it feels like a brand building strategy hatched in a boardroom

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majorkphob · 3 years ago

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12, 24, 36, 40 for Milo

44 and 47 for Jameela

6, 12, 17, and 48 for Sandra (post game) cuz I love them and miss them

Jay this is so many and it means the world to me ❤️❤️❤️

Milo

12 What is their favourite food?

Homemade sourdough and curry squash soup!!

24 What is their sleeping pattern like? Do they snore? What do they like to sleep on? A soft or hard mattress?

Milo falls asleep at 9pm every night and wakes up at 5 am every morning like clockwork. Once Milo is asleep he will not wake up, and that is a threat.

36 What are they good at? What hobbies do they like? Can they sing?

Milo literally had a whole side quest where Alice and him tried every hobby imaginable and Milo was so bad at all of them. Finally they decided that Milo could use a green owl familiar to learn Sylvan as a cook down activity (the Doulingo owl lol... turns out that Milo signed a demon contract with it so now homeboy is cursed whoops)

40 Do they like energy drinks? Coffee? Sugary food? Or can they naturally stay awake and alert?

I think Milo will drink green tea if he needs to stay awake, but is under the firm belief that the best way to stay awake is a healthy sleep cycle lol

Jameela

44 What is their favourite season? Type of weather? Are they good in the cold or the heat? What weather do they complain in the most?

Jameela will complain at any weather, but probably most hates the rainy reason because her homunculus Jahid gets fussy when it is wet

47 How do they act in a formal occasion? What do they think of black tie wear? Do they enjoy fancy parties and love to chit chat or loathe the whole event?

I think that most people who assume Jameela to not be good at looking nice, but her twin was a drag queen so actually Jameela Can look nice when they need to. That being said, 8 charisma doesn't fix everything...

Sandra !!! My god child!!! My favorite little guy!!! My special little god killer!!

6 What were they like at school? Did they enjoy it? Did they finish? What level of higher education did they reach? What subjects did they enjoy? Which did they hate?

Sandra pretended to hate English class but I think they genuinely loved books with a deeper meaning. They got really good at subtext/telling a hidden truth since they were stuck with a curse that hid all of their prophecies from the world for millennia... they hate math though... why would Sandra need calculus?? They were alive before it was even invented!!!

12 What is their favourite food?

Kentucky Fried Chicken next question

17 Do they like to take photos? What do they like to take photos of? Selfies? What do they do with their photos?

After Tonathan taught Sandra how to use a phone, they probably took lots of pictures of their friends and cool places they went. I think that Sandra has a tricky relationship with their face, as it reminds them of their twin brother who was taken over by Apollo....

48 Do they enjoy any parties? If so what kind? Do they organise the party or just turn up? How do they act? What if they didn’t want to go but were dragged along by a friend?

I feel like Sandra would like to be invited but not actually go to parties lol... they would much rather go to Scary Queen (monster mall version of Dairy Queen) and get blizzards with Emmanuel or go stalk corrupt politicians with Tonathan (Sandra does a whole thing where they Ebenezer Scrooge a politician until they change their ways to be a better person lol)

Thanks for all the asks they mean the world to me :))

#ask game #friend tag #wastelandjay #milo whiskers #jameela faheem #sandra the unchained #monster mall #cowboy campaign #graysons games

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statisticalcats2 · 1 year ago

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(CW: talking about bad gorilla welfare)

I can't help but wonder if part of the reason Mogo Zoo is always conveniently unable to film much interaction between Kaius and G-Anne (but the cameras are always ready to show Zookeeper Chad with Kaius) is because the introductions aren't actually going well (which I and others have suspected) and even they realize that but they've wasted so much time parading Kaius around for the media instead of focusing on integrating him with other gorillas (or finding the right family for him, which it looks like they should have been doing) and they refuse to change anything now lest they have to admit they haven't been doing what's best for Kaius. And especially God forbid they have to send him to another zoo for a better life, then they'd have to lose their easy media popularity and money!

Anyway go check out the hand-rearing journey of Jameela, born at Fort Worth Zoo and recently moved to Cleveland Metroparks Zoo for a gorilla hand-rearing journey full of keepers and staff who actually deserve positive attention and respect.

Fort Worth Zoo and Cleveland Metroparks Zoo have done more for Jameela in two months than Mogo Zoo has done for Kaius in one and a half years.

#mogo zoo negative #statcat gorilla blogging #statcat zoo blogging #i really hope kaius is able to have a good life despite how much mogo zoo have failed him

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lady-griffin · 5 years ago

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So, I finally watched the finale of The Good Place.

I didn’t want to watch it, because I didn’t want what has become one of my favorite shows to end – which is very fitting with the subject matter of the last episode.

But my Janet was it satisfying.

I don’t think I have ever been that satisfied or at peace with a show’s ending before, but my goodness did they do it. I have one problem, but really it was just so wonderful that I hardly call it a problem, just a difference of opinion.

The Good

Shawn

Shawn’s little evil, but trying to be sincere moment, was just so funny.

Vicky

Her talking about acting and being so pretentious, she was always such a delight. I hope I’ll see Tiya Sircar in more things, she was fantastic.

Mindy St. Claire

I just loved how she was grateful that Elenaor cared about her and her afterlife as she didn’t. It was just sweet and of course a bit pervy with those two, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Derek

Hilarious as always.

The Second Gang – Simone, John and Brent

It was nice seeing them again. Just the quickness of it, was good. Simone hanging out with Chidi and Eleanor and people she might not have hang out with before was good.

That last bit of gossip from John.

And Brent still going through the test.

Maybe their moments were too short, but I would rather have a short few seconds with them in the end then cut anything away from the main gang.

The Judge

Now listening to podcasts. Maya Rudolph is always a treasure.

The Doorman.

I love the transition of him basically being alone when we first saw him to being the center point of the afterlife that was very nice. Especially seeing him being surrounded by frogs and being so happy, to being bored and annoyed by all the frogs, to him getting a real frog.

I love Mr. Jumpy Legs

I didn’t know that was something I even wanted, but my gosh was that precious and such a nice microcosm of the overall afterlife affect.

Team Cockroach

Tahani

Tahani and her being with her family was so very touching and her living with her sister (it looked like) and them being sisters and friends to her accomplishing everything on her list and still realizing there’s more for her to do was just so damn wonderful.

I’m really happy with how her story ended, or I guess how we left her. Her not going through the door, but her finding something else to do and finding satisfaction with that was good.

Michael

Michael becoming human. That’s perfect. That’s so nice for him and Ted Dansen’s real-life wife playing his guitar teacher was so sweet and lovely.

Also, Michael trying to go through the door and it not working, was hilarious.

Such a charming former fire squid who deserves only the best.

Also Michael Realman being is actual name on earth, is hilarious and forking fantastic.

The Bowtie

Michael giving Tahani the first bowtie we ever saw him in. That was super touching. I hope either Jameela or Ted got to keep it or stole it from set.

Janet

I love Janet. I mean Janet being a constant and experiencing all of time at once is just so Janet.

My favorite not a robot and not a girl there ever was. And I am so in love with Manny stealing the necklace and giving it to her.

Hello and Goodbyes – Janet and Michael

I love how Michael’s and Janet’s first lines were greetings and their last lines were farewells. That’s just very nice and fitting.

Janet and Michael’s relationship was just the best friendship ever. And Michael making sure Janet knew she could be sad and that she could always talk to him and Janet fretting over Michael in his human form, they are just the best.

Jason

Jason was very sweet.

Him waiting for Janet to come back and him knowing that all the other Janets he saw weren’t his not-a-girl. That was very touching. And even though Jason was ready to go, him waiting and being at peace with it and just thinking about life and Janet was truly satisfying. He truly became a monk.

And of course, Jason’s first line being about waiting for Eleanor to him actually waiting several eternities for Janet and telling Chidi to wait up was so nice.

Chidi & Eleanor

OMG. These two. What can I even say about these two. I love them so much, these two will probably be in my top 10 ships forever.

I legit started to cry when Eleanor was so desperate to keep Chidi and telling him she didn’t want to be alone and she’d been alone her whole life. Then Chidi saying he’ll stay with her, because he loves her and Chidi never wants to make Eleanor sad.

His literal moment of peace happened when Eleanor received maternal affection and love from both his mother and her own.

I mean come on.

But of course, Chidi is ready to and wants to leave. And Eleanor realizing that letting him leave is the best thing for Chidi, no matter how sad it might make her feel, is the right thing to do.

Eleanor has grown so much from the first episode.

I mean, from someone who basically entrapped Chidi to lying for her to letting him go because it’s the best thing for him (a selfless act), she really has grown so much. And Chidi, Chidi being ready to go and being comfortable with the biggest choice of his life without a second of hesitation. My boy has grown.

It’s so forking satisfying.

And when he left her that calendar, it was so funny and sweet and stupid and just wonderful. And oddly is very fitting with this show and how it makes you feel.

The Not So Good

Honestly, nothing was bad in the finale for me. I was truly satisfied by it.

I do wish the last thing in the show, was just Eleanor walking through the door and the sound of waves being the last thing we hear.

To me that would’ve been a bit more fitting and satisfying.

At least for me.

There’s something about a show that is literally about the afterlife and the final episode being about how we have no idea what is going to happen in the end, is just so excellent to me.

I love that so much.

There being no definitive answer, is oddly the most satisfying thing this show could’ve done with what happens after you go through the final door.

That being said, I do really like and love the idea that after you choose to leave the afterlife - a bit of you becomes a moment, a little voice to another to do the right thing.

Fitting with Eleanor’s journey and the whole, what do we owe one another question.

And just the idea that the world is becoming a better place, with the good place residents being allowed to leave and becoming said moments on earth and the bad place residents being allowed to try, try again until they get it right.

So, I really don’t have a problem with the ending and I do really love it.

I would’ve just ended it with Eleanor walking through the door and the sound of waves.

I personally just like the question not being answered in the end.

But by goodness, did they end this show with perfection. It’s hard to write about my so called problem, because I did love the ending we got, even if I might’ve done it a bit differently.

What a truly lovely and satisfying show, that has beat my expectations every single time.

Just a truly well-made, well-acted, wonderful and lovely show with a lovely and wonderfully diverse and talented cast.

I love The Good Place.

And while I hate to see it go, I loved watching it leave.

#The Good Place #The Good Place Finale #eleanor shellstrop #chidi anagonye #tahani al jamil #jason mendoza #Janet #Michael #Kristen Bell #william harper jackson #ted dansen #d'arcy carden #manny jacinto #jameela jamil #tiya sircar

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dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram · 4 years ago

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I found this similar to Gemmas comments but wanted your thoughts on it; did you see Jameela Jamils post about being pressured to comment on Palestine and what did you think of it? Thanks 😊

I hadn't seen Jameela Jamil's post, and I might have reacted differently if I wasn't comparing it with Gemma's.

Because I do think that there are some very important differences. Gemma's post is incredibly wet - she mentions pressure as part of her complaining about the unbearable weight of some people disagreeing with her. But she's not making any kind of argument about the pressure, who is pressuring her, why that's wrong. Mentioning, but not actually opposing feeling pressured makes Gemma's statement seem all the more pathetic to me. It feels part of her unwillingness to take s position that people disagree with.

In that context Jameela Jamil's post is quite refreshing. She is prepared to name what she thinks is happening, who is doing it and why she things is wrong (something Gemma Styles struggles with no matter what she's talking about).

I probably need to be clear that I am generally opposed to pressure on celebrities to speak in an abstract way to bring awareness to an issue. I don't think it's good political strategy - it concedes power to other people and even if you succeed it does very little. It often end up being part of a very controlling mindset. And it's encouraging lots of vapid, shallow statements by people who don't know that much - which I don't think improves the world.

Those are very different reasons from Jameela Jamil's of course. And in general I think the wisest response to social media pressure is better use of the block button. Even more than that I think feelings about how people's reaction to genocide make you feel are best kept among close friends - rather than suggesting they're other people's problem by posting them on main.

I find people bring loud and messy and wrong, much less infuriating, than people being passive aggressive, whiny, refusing to admit where they stand and wrong.

#don't pressure celebrities to take action #take action yourself

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thtdamfangirl4 · 6 years ago

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Saying Goodbye to The Good Place

Tonight I watched one of my favorite shows in history end. I watched it live with freaking commercials and I tuned out the rest of the world. And I cried my eyes out so many times. And I don’t know how well I can explain that, or how exactly to put into words what this show has meant to me, but I’m going to cry.

I started watching this show when season 2 came on Netflix. I had heard good things about it online and a friend or two had watched it, so I decided to give it a try. (I had watched the first, like, 2 episodes months before but hadn’t kept going or given it a real chance.) I found myself completely hooked. I watched the first season in two days and had finished everything the show had to offer by the end of the week, diving into tumblr accounts, twitter threads, the cast’s social media pages. None of that is uncommon for me when I first become obsessed with a show.

But The Good Place was uncommon. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen, and remains so to this day. It had fabulous humor in many facets, from Jason’s lovable idiocy to Chidi’s relatable indecision to Eleanor’s perfectly captured selfishness to Tahani’s name-dropping to Janet’s cacti to Michael’s comments about humans and the dynamics between them all and so much more. And the show, the writers, balanced all of that with so much heart. With Eleanor’s drive to be better. With Chidi’s ever-present willingness to help. With Jason’s unexpected and loving wise advice. With Tahani’s desire to be loved. With Michael’s growing understanding of humans and our lives. With Janet’s evolution and coming to understand what it means to feel and to love. And it was absolutely beautiful to watch these characters go through whatever they might go through in a given episode. I would watch this balance of perfectly imperfect in any situation you put on my screen.

But the writers and creators put them in a situation I’d never imagined would be on TV: discovering morality and spirituality in the afterlife. These characters navigated dilemmas we all face in our everyday lives. They made jokes and went through ridiculous scenarios and reboots and they messed up and tried time and time again, and through it all, we the viewers were learning. To be good. To be better. Maybe not necessarily by copying these characters, and certainly not their lives on earth, but by inspiring us to think about these questions and the implications of our lives. This show was a lovely escape from reality for 22 minutes until the picture faded and I found myself contemplating the things Chidi’s ethics class had tackled that week, or thinking about my own actions, what my version of the good place would be. All in all, this show made me think about the kind of person I want to be. And it actually made me a better person.

I think a lot about the little speeches made on this show, which have been anything but little to me. (Don’t get me started on Chidi’s wave speech I’ll be crying about it every day forever.) And I find myself thinking about what Michael says to Bad Janet almost every day. That what matters is that we try to be a little better today than we were yesterday. That that’s where hope for humanity lies. And that thought, that simple thought which should not boggle the mind of any decent human being, is groundbreaking. Because these simple and profound truths about the universe and humanity were nestled in every single episode of the good place, right there between jokes about Jason’s dance crew and Janet’s void. And they found their way into our lives, and I know that even just watching this show once a week was one of the things that made me a better person that day. Which is why I’m so grateful to this show.

Eleanor taught me that it’s okay to make mistakes. That being a little trashy is always fun as long as you have a good heart. And she and Chidi taught me that love is out there. That soulmates are something you make, not something you find, and that even if you can’t understand why at first, people who love you are going to come into your life and the real ones won’t disappear. She taught me that the walls have to come down someday, and that when they do, the view is so much better. Most importantly, she taught me that nothing is ever set in stone. That people can change and get better and learn to love and care and be loved and cared for.

Chidi taught me that the little things can’t hold me back. I felt seen by his (albeit, exaggerated) indecision and anxiety. But he grew throughout this show and through his journey, I learned to move aside the little struggles to make room for the big joys. I learned that helping someone is always worth my time, because even if I never see them again, or I never get thanked, I’m putting a little more good into the world. And he would always do that. He taught me that it’s okay to come into your own and stand up for yourself and what you believe in. He and Eleanor taught me that there’s always someone out there who has your back, and that love means putting someone else first. I especially saw that in the finale.

Tahani taught me that it’s okay to know who I am. That confidence is something each person deserves to feel. She taught me that there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be loved, as long as you remind yourself that it doesn’t determine your worth. She taught me that mistakes are a tool for learning, but they can’t be used if we pretend we didn’t make them. She taught me that it’s okay to be a little frivolous when frivolity brings you joy. She taught me that spite can be a great motivator, but the results are much more fruitful and enjoyable when you do things for other people.

Jason taught me that I don’t have to have all the answers. That there’s more to life than numbers and books and school and all the things that give a college student looking at the future anxiety. He taught me that it’s love that matters, and doing the things that bring you joy. He taught me that people are not always what they appear to be at first glance, and that everyone has something worthwhile to say. He taught me that words don’t have to be fancy or eloquent to be poignant and meaningful. He taught me that embracing who you are and what/who you love is what makes a person happy.

Janet taught me that knowledge isn’t everything. She reinforced the idea that emotions are not inferior or contrary to facts and knowledge, but rather something even deeper and more meaningful than trivia or information that could come from google. She taught me that life is a complicated mess full of millions of questions, and there are some that cannot be answered. She taught me that you love who you love, even if it’s unexpected, and there is zero shame in that. And she taught me that one of the noblest pursuits in the world is that of making people happy, especially the people you love.

Michael taught me that humans are complex, and sometimes they kind of suck, but they are still worth loving. He proved that people are not all good or all bad. He taught me that what matters is trying to be good and kind and honest and loving. He taught me not to give up on what I know is right. He taught me that it’s okay to change your mind when you learn new things, and that it’s more than okay to decide to do what’s right at any stage in the game. He taught me that people are worth believing in. He taught me that being wrong can be one of the most rewarding things in the world. And he taught me that the human life we have is a gift.

Together, these characters taught me that we are all capable of changing and improving. They taught me that it’s okay to be who you are, even if a lot of things change. You can still be loved for all of your little quirks and flaws and habits. You are worthy of being loved even if you aren’t the best version of you yet. And they taught me that we can all get there eventually. More than anything, they taught me that the love we have for each other, the bonds we build with the people in our lives, the friends, the family, the significant others, everyone, is what makes us human and what makes us whole. It drives us to be better and to make others happy. It supports us and holds us as we grow together.

So I just want to say thank you. To Michael Shur for creating this show and its characters. To the writers for making me fall in love with these people and stories. To Kristen Bell and Ted Danson and William Jackson Harper and Jameela Jamil and Manny Jacinto and D’Arcy Carden for bringing these characters to life and making them into people that I will never be able to let go of. To anyone involved with this beautiful show that I have enjoyed through the very end. Thank you for giving me a reason to laugh, cry, contemplate, and feel content with a show that was groundbreaking and stunning and hilarious and heartwarming with thousands of good moments and a perfect ending. These characters will always be a part of my heart, and I will always try to be a little better tomorrow than I was today because of them. Thank you, and goodbye to new episodes. I have a feeling I’ll be watching all the ones which are now old time and time again.

#the good place #tgp #eleanor shellstrop #chidi anagonye #michael #tahani al jamil #jason mendoza #janet #kristen bell #ted danson #william jackson harper #jameela jamil #manny jacinto #d'arcy carden #michael shur #goodbye good place

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popculturebuffet · 5 years ago

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Ducktales Reviews!: The Split Sword of Swanstatine! or Sometimes You Just Have to Punch Your Problems Away

The race for the missing mysteries takes Scrooge, the kids and a sorta hyjacked Lena and Violet to a mystical market to hunt down the pieces of the mythical sword of the warrior king swanstanine. Naturally a split artifact leads to a vignette episode as the kids pair up to find the pieces while Scrooge and Heron face off. Dewey and Webby face blindness, Louie and Violet face Louie’s reputation as an underworld kingpin, and Huey and Lena face Huey’s Feral Side. The race is on with full recap and spoilers under the cut.

Not a lot of background here.. I was excited enough for this one as Steelbeak and Rockerduck came back, but I went from “This will be pretty good and oh look Flula Borg” to HOLY SHIT LENA AND VIOLET ARE BACK LET’S GO ALREADY. So yeah, there’s not a lot to get started here that can’t be done as we go, let’s get out there and talk about some ducktales. We open in a vast marketplace whose name i’ve already forgotten.. it’s almost 4 in the morning here and I have terrible memory with name sometimes, I make no apologizes. Naturally given the big declaration at the end of the last episode the family is on the hunt for a missing mystery.. and Dewey is on the hunt for Street Meat, though Scrooge denies him any till they get the job done... I mean they can eat and go treasure hunting. They can do two things. Let him have some lamb dammit, spiced lamb is fucking delcious you monster! Or whatever that is the point is it’s larged, well seasoned and makes me hungry! But starving his grandchildren aside, Scrooge has no doubt they can acomplish this as a family.. and then notices his future in laws are also there and his whole big speech game is thrown off by the question of why. To me it’s because we need more of them, quit old man your already 0-2 this episode, but turns out the explination is one of the funniest jokes of the season.. and this is a season that’s include “There now your susceptible to vampires”, “Yipiee Kai Yay Mr. Falcon!”, Darkwing’s Cookbook, Gene’s Soda Commerical, Gladstone having a mental breakdown over having to be a normal person, and Della trying to deflect the blame for traumatizing children. This bit is on par with that. Violet explains that Scrooge told everyone to get on the plane. I assume Donald and Della are with their signifigant others, Beakly was getting some much needed therapy and Launchpad.. was flying the plane.. and also had Drake and Gosalyn with him because he double booked and had to take them with him to assist whatever ex of his is in trouble this week. Point is that bit’s freaking hilarious and Scrooge simply asks if they enjoy history and the answers are a predictable “Not really” from Lena, which given her own personal history is vast, terrible, and traumatizing up until the last year and her adoption by two gay men, relationship with a charming young lady, and gaining a beloved nerdy sister, that tracks. Violet of courser says it’s her life. Scrooge takes it: He’s used to having half his adventuring party either not caring about culture and history, the Saberwings just keep the average up. So Webby does the natural thing and tackle hugs her girlfriend and future sister in law while Scrooge smiles because why wouldn’t you.

And I was happy about this: not just hte tackle hug, because that was precious, but Scrooge eagerly accepting them along for the ride. I was worried for half a second that as good as the gag was that’d be the episodes big underlying issue.. but nope, his confusion was more “Wait why are the extra children here”, than questions of worth and given their previous appearance had him willingly inviting them along, and Lena and Violet only opting out due to fears about her magic getting them all killed and to support her sister, it woudln’t of made any character sense for him not to, doubly so since their up against a shadowy organization of ruthless thugs. Granted Beakly likely sighed after returning from her midnight therapy and called the Saberwing parents by Ty and Indy are probably used to their daughter’s friends elderly Uncle taking them to strange places in the middle of the night by this point. I mean one of their daughters can turn bluper sayain now, the ship on normal behavior kind of sailed over a cliff a while ago.

But Scrooge soon detects what he thinks is heron but is actually a woman who justifiably punches him. Turns out Heron was actually hiding in a stall though, and brought all her friends with her.. except Blot.. and while at first I was going to make a joke I realized they probably don’t want the guy who drains the magic out of everything near a magic artifact he’d probably destroy despite the consequences. So Bradford probably just sent him to murder the lucky charms leprechaun... he DOES have a life outside of trying to Murder scrooge... he can want to murder cereal mascots too. He’s a renascence evil mastermind. A sword fight ensues, with Scrooge telling the kids to pair up and go find the pieces while he keeps Heron busy.

Cue Credits and cue the episode itself being split into three vignettes. I do love vignette episodes, episodes of half hour shows that split into 3 different stories taking place at the same time and break from the formula, with two of the best I can think of being the Avatar classic “Tales from Ba Sing Sei”, most famous for the really gutpunching bit with Iroh singing at his dead son’s grave.. jesus I teared up, not a joke or an exaggeration literally teared up, just thinking about it. On the opposite end we have the season 12 Simpson’s episode Trilogy of Error, which while during when the rot started to set in for the series is easily a classic on the sam tier as the first 10 seasons. It alfeatured an at the time young Daniel Radcliff as Lisa’s love interest, Marge getting accused of attempted murder after accidently chopping homer’s finger off, Bart and Milhouse turning informant ont he mob and the tragic life of Linguo. It’s a classic.

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But yeah three pieces, three teams of two, and three story segments. So like last week I can easily divide the stories up and unlike last week I won’t be frontloading or forgetting anything since their divided up much more evenly and are played back to back to back rather than intercutting. So with that in mind...

Dewey and Webby: The Hidden Truths of Temporary Blindness and the Albino Snakes We Mistook for Cats Along the Way

The Dynamic Duo Returns! Seriously I did the legowork, I.e. went to google and despite the two’s dynamic being a sizeable part of season 1 and a plot point at the start of season 2, which also put the final nail in my shiping them coffin as it was very clear they were basically siblings in all but blood at this point and I wisely jumped off the ship and nuked it from orbit. But outside of Webby’s subplot with Dewey and Louie in “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!”, it just.. hasn’t come up again. They’ve just had other dynamics to explore with the show and thus the two really haven’t interacted as much for the rest of the series thus far. They still interact, it’s just not really as a major part of any episodes plot till now. So while not a pairing I was expecting it was nice to have it back. For about ten seconds. Yeah cards on the table this is the weakest of the three segements. While the other two have intresting settings, setups, and character dynamics we genuinely haven’t seen this one has.. a weird version of a dynamic we’ve seen done better, and an antagonist who feels oddly flat this go round. It’s just not THAT intresting despite some intresting moments but it’s best to just get into it to explain why.

The basic setup is Webby is hoping to use bold de-ducktion to figure things out while flying under the radar while Dewey’s solution is naturally to ask everyone they meet, and then shout at Gandra when they do find the piece. This naturally gets a flashbang thrown at them, though we do get one great bit where Gandra asses their threat levels with Webby’s being high and Dewey’s being Eh, which tracks. And the thing that stings here is.. Gandra COULD’VE been an intresting opponent for Webby. While Huey and Violet, being fellow genuises as well as Huey’s personal stake in it for her hurting Fenton last year/season would be a better match, pitting Webby against someone just as focused and thought out in fighting, but who rather than use strength uses cybernetics and various gadgets would be really intresting, especially since the other two villian matchups are equally perfect. But instead.. it just feels like Gandra could’ve been replaced with a random fowl soldier. She just uses a flash grenade and some pakour, no real unique skills of hers or insight into her character or anything remotley intresting on her first Fenton-less outing just... “eh I use tech stuff because i’m the tech girl bleh”. The show can do better, and Jameela is given nothing to work with to the point I genuinely worried she’d been replaced.. she hadn’t, but it’s NEVER a good sign when you give an actor so little to do character wise I can wonder that. Also it’s a bit of a nitpick but it genuinely bothers me that Flula Borg, John Hodgman and Jason Mantzokus all got guest star credits.. but April Winchel and Jameela Jamil got nothing. And you could say April’s a long standing voice actor and all that.. but Tress Macneile also got a guest starring credit for next week’s episode solicit, so it’s clearly not that, and just comes off unintetionally sexist and obnoxious and has bothered me since the episode summaries came out.

That out of the way the basic conflict is our heroes are flying blind, literally, with Dewey able to easily amble along, while Webby struggles as she can’t analize blind.. which comes off as bullshit to me. I HIGHLY doubt Beakly, paraoid mess she is, would not train her granddaughter to be able to fight without seeing. It’s one of the most basic training techniques in media. There’s a reason it pops up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a lot. To fight on instinct and with your other senses. And the instinct part is the lesson and insn’t a bad idea, it’s just the tool they use for it means they have to make Webby entirely helpless in a way that’s nonsensical to her character to make the plot work and it drags the bit down, thoguh we do get an utterly hilarious bit where Dewey mistakes a coiled white snake for a kitten. But our heroes make it through, Webby eventually saves Dewey with a leap of faith and Dewey has Webby hit a flash grenade back at Gandra which works somehow and blinds her optics despite you know.. someone who uses this kind of tech probably being smart enough to protect her own cybernetic eyes from flashbangs. But the kids have the piece.. and a snake now even if it terrifies them. I wish one of them had taken it home a snake fits either of them and Webby’s dealt with worse.. which is the whole problem with this segment. That being said getting to see Dewey pull a hank venture and turn his normal near-suicidal reckleness into a strength was great I just with it was framed in a way that wasn’t “plannig and knowing things is stupid USE IMPULSE”. Thankfully we can move on. Louie and Violet: The Silver Tongued Viper and The Violet Blade versus the Billion Dollar Man

Next up is Violet and Louie, a team up I didn’t expect at all but works well, and is a much better contrast. Webby and Dewey are similar enough, despite his rampant stupidity, that having a “one side teaches the other how to use something else and tap into their inner self”lesson didn’t work> Here it works perfectly: Someone who speaks frankly and seeks the truth through reason and research paired with someone whose greatest and most cherished talent is the ablility to lie and swindle. It’s a good contrast. Their headed for the underworld since, as I forgot to mention, each of the clues is framed as coming from the heavens (the first piece being on top of a statue), the underworld and the heart of the earth.

Violet, and understandbly given her sister is magic and the general nonsense the duck family runs into, takes the underworld part literally taking an axe and some coins to pay the ferryman with her. Louie however figures it’s usually just a flowry way of putting a con.. and while he’s wrong about mythology given the ducks have met gods and the ENTIRE next episode (which likely features selene since i’ts now established they leave out guest stars if there’s more than three apparently) is about the gods they met... his instincts are not wrong and it is nice they aren’t. Sure some myths are real but sometimes a clue isn’t literal, and it’s clever that hte underworld here is the criminal underworld.

Turns out center piece for the sword is an underground den for the criminal underworld focused around spice eating and general no goodnik shenanigans and Louie’s come prepared. In a bit of character stuff I REALLY love, Louie’s built up a rep as “The Silver Tounged Serpent”, with him bluffing that violet is his companion, having simply used a web of lies and word of mouth to build him up as the worst and most vile criminal imaginable. It’s not a bad plan and while Violet rightly points out he’ll have to live up to it eventually, and Louie naturally deflects that as “Future Louie’s” problem, not realizing in this case Future Louie is about 2 minutes from being present Louie, it’s not a bad scheme. Sure it’s risky as hell and he picked the worst place to use it.. but having an alias he can use to sneak into places like this where Scrooge would be made in an instant, and can easily come up with lies for the rest of his family minus Huey, whose useless not for being easily detectable but because he can’t lie to save his life and this very episode cements it. Most of his family is certified grade a badass, and can easily help him bluff or back up his claims or make him look like one. it’s just this time he happened to get Violet instead whose brutally honest and while badass, isn’t great at running con games nor pleased about any of this. That and Louie’s biggest weakness is forthought: While his brothers either don’t plan at all or overplan, Louie underplans: He has good ideas and good schemes and scams.. it’s just he has no real endgame for any of them and Violet sees right through that. Still meeting the Spice Baron, played by Flula Borg who I mostly know from this song he did with Ninja Sex Party, though I also forgot he was in PItch Perfect 2...

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Your welcome. But while he’d like to give our fake arch criminal his prize, someone else already offered him a literal, not figurative ton of cocaine.. I mean Gold. Got the wrong show there for a second. Unsurprisingly it’s Rockerduck whose done this and unlike the wasted opprotunity above this battle of wits is between the perfect opponents. Rockerduck is easily what Louie would become without his family: A shifty conman with a flair for lying, contacts in the criminal underworld and aversion to doing the hard work himself. He’s such a perfect opponent for Louie I don’t know why I never considered the two going head to head before, but it’s utterly fantastic. John Hodgman is also far and away the MVP of the episode guest villain wise, with some of the best lines too, my favorite being, after making a spice pun, demanding the assorted roughnecks “Laugh, LAUGH AT MY SPICE PUN”.. just the way he demands it with a mixture of karen and a whiny teenager is inspiried. But yeah, Rockerduck knowing who he’s dealing with challenges Louie to a spice duel, basically eating the hottest spices imaginable till one folds, winner takes all. Naturally Louie’s ep included being a champion at this, and naturally his first instincts are to bail and when that fails, keep lying while Violet encourages him not to. I mean he’s ignored the pink and red angels on his shoulder telling him not to do bad things, why would the new purple one be any different. But Rockerduck has the edge as his taste buds were burned off in cryo.. though in another great line he laments he can never enjoy hard boiled eggs again. Which fair enough but.. you know two geniuses.. one of them can simulate taste buds. Regardless, Louie’s in trouble and his attempt to simply cheat his way out fails and the baron dosen’t tolerate Cheaters.. or Cheetahs.. or Cheating Cheetahs as seen in a great sight gag with a cheetah which requires the Baron to clarify it’s both. Point is Louie is screwed.. but Violet then downs all three, without a bead of sweat for reasons the episode explains at the end of this segment, but works since we don’t know violet well and the mystery of how she did it is a compelling question for a second. Our heroes have won but Rockerduck plays his trump card: that they aren’t who their saying they are.. but turns out the truth is even better than the lies Louie has, as Violet quickly spins Louie’s legend with the outright acomplishments he’s had, including defeating the bombie and defeating Scrooge’s entire Rogue’s gallery with a pen stroke.. both true. And unlike the last segement this bit of true strength feels earned: Louie’s other ablility besides lying is seeing all the angles.. and thus like Violet.. he sees the truth. He can see what a person feels, know them better than they may know themselves or the lies they might tell themselves simply through a keen eye. He can pick apart a million dollar defense system simply with a few glances as seen last episode. Louie’s lies may be useful.. but his biggest strength is inddeed his ablility to see the truth. Louie backs violet up as conquerer of the shadow realm (techincally true) and scourge of magica de spell (not even remotely true as Magica has the same problem with face blindess scrooge has with Darkwing and just Darkwing but with everyone). Rockerduck tries to complain but the crowd turns on him, our heroes escape, and Louie compliments violet. As for how she did it meditation, which fits her pefectly so I easily accept it, and a spice of the month club.. which is oddly specific but eh, this bit was really fun so i’ll give it to her. Plus her usualy steely demanor means she likely has a great poker face.. as seen by the fact sh’es soon guling a nearbye trough of water and screaming. Great. As you can tell I liked this segment better, as it’s a clever duel that uses wit instead of strength ilke the others this episode, and forces Louie to find his real strength as his usual one backfires and really helps define Violet even more giving her a strong sense of truth, which fits her like a glove, and a nice dynamic with Louie. It was an odd pairing, but it worked wonders and brought the episode back to life after the last segment killed some of the momentum. And thankfully that momentum keeps rolling into the best segement:

Huey and Lena: Harnessing Your Inner Feral Goblin Child for the Greater Good

As you’d expect, our heroes are doing what they do best: Lena is trying to reign in a quirky nerd, and Huey is overthinking everything by trying to triangulate where the blade of the sword is. Naturally Lena just finds it as it’s embeeded in a compasss pattern on the earth, hence being part of the earth. Unsurprisingly Lena’s solution.. is to wack it free with a mallet... you know there’s a reson she’s one of my favorites and it’s nice to see two of my faviorites who haven’t interacted hardly at all have some time together. Naturally Huey objects to destroying the thing they came for and figures out how to remove it using the clues. Unfortunately for him, but happily for me, Steelbeak is back!

I missed this feral asshole, and Jason while not getting a ton of lines sadly, does make the best of what he has, and is used less as himself on purpose. Also while he’s still kind of a moron, as I mentioned in my Tiff of the Titans review, this version is still CLEVER. He may not be book smart, but he can think on his feet and come up with plans and here.. his plan was the best of the three we’ve seen: Just wait for the ducks to come by and solve it for him and then beat them up and take it or as he puts it “Not the first time a nerd did my homework for me. “ Dumb dosen’t always mean incompetent, and he still has his classic self’s easy sense of planning. Had Lena not been there he would’ve won his piece and been the ONLY member of his group to do so. But Lena is there and now fully trained, so she stops steelbeak by freezing time, Za Warudo! style. Though unlike DIO she can’t manipulate anything, or go get a steam roller though given her powers she can probably make something into one, so tha’ts still on the table. She instead enters someone’s mindscape and uses that to freeze time for a bit.. how .. I have no idea, but it’s an interesting concept and the white look of the void their in now is neat, with only steelbeak himself present in a black and white negative of himself. Huey takes this as time to plan indeiftely till he finds one that works, shooting down actually fighting Steelbeak as “a cowardly brute’s way out”. We then get a great montage as Huey tries everything, from reasoning, to barganing, to crying, to a TON of hilarious and obviously ineffectual disgusies, to lying.. which as you’d expect is simply holding the massive sword blade behind his back and going “what sword.” It’s a really great montage that shows off two things: Danny Pudi’s talent, and that Huey.. can’t reason or trick his way out of this. He can’t plan his way out. And that’s why Steelbeak is the perfect foe to put him up against: Unlike Webby who faced something she could understand and Louie, who simply faced his evil counterpart, Huey faces his exact oppsotie: Huey thrives on logic and as we soon learns bury’s his emotions and impulses and dosen’t fight unless he HAS TO and even then it’s usually in a group. Steelbeak.. is a dumb, impulsive, thug who thinks out his plans on the fly, if at all, laughs at logic, and thinks the best solution to everything is punch it or blow it up. He can’t be reasoned with, Huey isn’t good enough at deception to trick him, and outrunning him was the first thing Huey tried and failed miserably. Steelbeak is made of huey’s blind spot, his inablaity to act without thinking. And he can’t fight it.

While Lena’s humored him despite her annoyance with Huey’s stubborness, she finally breaks and tries to force him to admit he has to brute force his way out, with Huey refusing.. but his refusal brings out a door to “the duke of making a mess”. Naturally something this ominous and personal, and the fact they have no other options and she wants to prove a point, is catnip to Lena who lets the king out.. who turns out to be what you’d get if Bart Simpson’s evil deformed twin Hugo and the messed up Dipper Clone from Gravity Falls did a fusion dance. While also in a nice nod looking VERY similar, with his broad fangs and red eyes, to the evil version of mickey from runaway brain. It’s also somehow the SECOND TIME i’ve seen a child supress his negative emotions to the point they manifested into a person shoved deep inside our hero’s head. Lena naturally loves this feral goblin who Huey explains as all his impulses and emotoins, his spur of the moemnt ones anyway, funneled into one being so he can use logic and only logic. So basically.. Huey is bruce banner.. get.. this kid.. some therapy.

Point is Huey dosen’t want to embrace his wild side, while Lena points out he needs to, and that sh’es learned from experince being a part of ones self someone ignored entirely as Magica’s shadow he can’t just ignore this and hope it goes away. And given Bruce Banner eventually got several more split personalities which turn into hulking rage monsters, which are a sadist with a good core, a raging child and a las vega leg breaker, and that KO repressing TKO just lead to his other half killing everything he loved and only getting that snapped back thanks to god himself... yeah maybe Lena’s right. And this really brilliantly plays into Lena’s development: Her past two episodes have been entirely about her solving a problem, her nightmares and her wondering magic, that she’s been running from by facing it. She’s learned by now you can’t just ignore something and expect it to go away. Again, that’s how you get Hulks. You have to face your sometimes literal demons and yourself to get better and make things better. And now she’s learned that, it’s Huey’s turn. His entire problem has been that he functions entirely on reason and when reason can’t work, he falls apart. It’s something I honed in on last week and has come up again. The point Lena, and the episode, is making with this bit is that sometimes you just have to trust yourself and go with your gut. Huey, reluctnatly lets the duke out who goes Donald on Steelbeak... seriously while the big team shot of the cousins and triplets at the end of season 2 showed Huey as Fethry.. he’s easily the most Donald of the group. He’s considerate, romantic, seriously the date he set up for Fenton really was sweet and Violet is in for some very nice evenings.. but also stubborn, prone to mental breakdowns, badly needs therapy (which donald IS getting so there’s hope), and when angry is a demon sent straight from hell. I REALLY hope this gets pointed out at some point. However without focus the Duke is useless so Lena convinces Huey that he needs to not fight the duke as some evil demonic part of him but accept him: USE his rationality and strategy with his more violent and angry impulses. The two reunite with a hand shake, seriously i’m getting so many KO and TKO vibes this episode what the actual hell, and thei rmerged self easily beats steelbeak witha wedgie and tied shoelaces. It’s beautiful to see and Lena is brought to tears. Before we get to the finale, this was EASILY the best segment, using Lena’s character growth to faciltiate Huey’s that’s been going on all season: making him see he needs to step out of his comfort zone of logic and accept his own inner strenght, his complete self, to really function. It’s good well done stuff and the setting is really intresting. THE FINALE: You are my Inner Strength

So naturally all the parts come together as Scrooge and Heron’s fight lands near Huey and Lena with Webby, Dewey, Violet and Louie all showing up soon after. Scrooge in a really nice moment is utterly proud of the kids, having had the utmost faith in them to get the pieces, and having his faith validated. He may be a cynical, sometimes assholish, old man.. but he loves and believes in his kids and future kids in law, he trusts them more than himself and he’s come far enough to not doubt them when he needs them most. FOWL however has regrouped, and Scrooge.. just gives them the assembled sword. Unsurprisingly, if still awesomely this is a ploy: Heron tries using the sword.. but it flies out of her hand and into Scrooges. He out gambited them. Also getting JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure vibes this episode with all the planning and counter planning and I am loving it. As he explains the sword reponds to true inner strength, while heron is all surface level: All malice and schemes and nothing beneath her character, as are the others. There 3 dimensional characters.. but their all pretty open with who they are and not really open to introspection, where as our heroes are and thus grew.. and Scrooge already knows his inner strength: The kids. THey helped him become a better person, all of them except violet and she just joined the family give her time. They’ve all helped him let his walls down and let people in again after the tragedy of della destroyed him emotionally and put the walls up thick, with Lena being the one to finally get him to destroy them for good. They’ve all helped him be better and he’s helped them all be better in turn, giving them a live of adventure where there their best selves and becoming great kids who will become incredible adults. Their love for one another is what drives them. And thus activates the sword. FOWL seemingly decides to just book and our heroes have won. Scrooge rewards his kids, new additons included, with some street meat cut byt he sword, and we get nice little shots of the lessons having sunk in with Huey knawing into his like a rabid wolf and Dewey and Webby sharing theirs blindly i’ts a sweet conclusion to a fun episode. But given we’re in the thick of the story arc now, FOWL naturally didn’t just book it for no reason.. this was all a setup. Heron calls back to Bradford with a mission accomplished and a lock of scrooge’s feathers.

It’s genuinely impressive as there’s no way F.O.W.L. can loose here: They win the sword.. and they have both the feathers for whatever nightmare they have planned for the Ducks, and another Missing Mystery for their grand scheme. They loose.. and they likely already have a plan to get any mysteries the ducks gather, just like last time, and they still get what they want. Either way Scrooge and the audience are unaware of the real plan, and FOWL is still ahead.

Dew-abolical!

Final Thoughts for the Episode as a Whole:

While a bit weaker than the last two weeks, and almost entirely thanks to the first segment, this episode is still a fun ride and a great way to kick things off now the ducks and F.O.W.L. are both on the offensive. It was also a great way to bring the Saberwing Sisters back and give them some fresh dynamics outside of Webby for a change, bring back some old faviorite vilians and in general pack a fun, Barks and Rosa style adventure story into the myth arc while still dripping with the character progression and dynamics this show lives for. One dark spot aside this really is a great episode, and the other two segements are clever and fun enough to easily ignore that. This season continues to be the show at it’s absolute peak doing what it’s always done best: taking the past and making something fantastic with it. Next Week: The kids, sadly minus my girls, audition to replace Zeus! Horay! Finally Zeus got MeTooed! It took long enough.. I mean they wrote entire sonets about his sex crimes. This isn’t a Bill Cosby situation where it suprised the general public, no one liked him since greek times to begin with. Also DAISY RETURNS! Horay! And so does the incredible storkules, MASTER OF COCKBLOCKING! Also Horay! Seriously unlike the last two blocks of episodes there’s not a one i’m not excited about in the bunch. Until then you can check my blogs for more reviews, and I plan to do the first episode this month and adjust my patreon rewards accordingly. You can follow said patreon at pateron dot com/popculturebuffet, comission reviews of other ducktales or cartoon episodes for 5 dollars an episode by shooting me an ask or message on here, and get out and vote tomorrow.. that’s not related to me but given how crucial this election is. Do it get out and vote. Until we meet again it’s been a pleasure.

#ducktales #the split sword of swanstaintine #ducktales spoilers #scrooge mcduck #webby vanderquack #dewey duck #lena saberwing #violet saberwing #huey duck #louie duck #john d rockerduck #gandra dee #steelbeak #black heron #f.o.w.l.#weblena #huelet

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penzyroamin · 5 years ago

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Hi I know it’s been a bit but I’m the confused bi anon. I really really appreciated your response and it wasn’t too long. You made me feel a lot better. I was wondering if you could maybe suggest some books, tv, movies with bi female characters. Thanks soo much for the entire last response . You are absolutely incredible and so sweet. This means more to me than you could ever know❤️

of course!! i’m glad that my first response helped <3

disclaimer of course: i’m not bi! so i’m not an Authoritative Source on bi rep and what people want to see more of. i do actively seek out stuff about lgbtq+ characters, specifically girls and women, so i have some recs! however, i’ll also be adding some things that some bi folks i know have recommended because while lesbians and bi women have a lot in common, these are at the end of the day representing them, not me :)

extra-super favorites will be bolded! i’m putting this under a read more because... i read a lot of books. and recommended a lot of them.

books:

her royal highness by rachel hawkins-- this book is a pretty easy read-- don’t expect any massive revelations about life from it, and you’ll have a good time!!! essentially, a bi texan girl named millie, after having her heart broken by her friend-turned-sort-of-gf, goes to boarding school in scotland and ends up rooming with the princess, flora. if this sounds outrageous and sappy, that’s because it is! and i love it! sexuality isn’t a BIG part of this book, but it’s discussed, and it’s just a generally fun enemies-to-lovers story about a bi aspiring geologist and a no-fucks-to-give lesbian princess and them falling in love!

fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop cafe by fannie flagg-- hello this is actually my favorite book! unlike hrh it is... a LOT to read. it essentially follows 2 stories-- one about a housewife named evelyn and her friendship with an old woman named ninny threadgoode who she meets at the old folks home her mother-in-law stays at, and the other about the stories ninny tells her about her sister-in-law idgie and her partner, ruth. the book was published in 1987, and ruth and idgie’s story is set during the great depression, so they aren’t actively labeled as lesbian or bi, but it’s made obvious enough through coding and the fact that ruth has relationships with men prior to idgie while idgie spends her entire childhood pining after ruth. both storylines are fantastic-- they have a lot to say about the lives of southern women in the 30s and 80s, and about race relations at both periods. i’ll warn you that there are depictions of extreme racism and of abuse, but it handles both delicately. it’s a critical piece of southern literature, and a landmark for lgbtq+ storytelling. as a bonus, my copy has a bunch of great recipes in the back, so if you read it you might chance upon an edition with those in it. if you like poignant period pieces about wlw relationships, women losing their damn minds, and abusive men getting what they deserve, this is the book for you! you will sob. this is a fair warning.

you should see me in a crown by leah johnson-- i haven’t personally read this one, but i’ve heard great things about it from everyone i know who has! an anxious black bi girl in indiana has to win prom queen at her mostly-white school in order to get enough scholarship money to go to the college of her dreams, but ends up falling for mack, another girl running for queen.

@landlessbud wanted me to shout out red, white, and royal blue by casey mcquinston-- you’ve almost definitely heard about it before (first son and prince of wales, enemies-to-lovers with a side dish of political drama), and it is primarily about a mlm romance, but nora is a fabulously fun bi girl side character and there’s a lot of great stuff about figuring out your sexuality in it.

leah on the offbeat by becky albertalli-- i’ve read a lot of complex thoughts on this book, and mine are... i like it! it’s flawed, sure, and i wish it had handled a few things a little better, but you know what? it’s cute as fuck! leah is a fat bi drummer, and she’s super cool! abby is a great love interest, and she goes through a whole bi realization throughout the book. all in all, it’s just a fun wlw high school romcom with a couple solid dramatic beats and a lot of goofball shenanigans. also, if you were an american girl kid??? one scene in this book will make the entire experience worth it for you.

harley quinn: breaking glass by mariko tamaki and steve pugh-- hey, we’re in graphic novel territory now! this book is RAD. a really neat look at gentrification, community solidarity, giving people what they deserve, and fantastic lgbtq+ found families. teenage harleen quinzel is taken in by a group of drag queens, and is caught between two sort-of love interests-- mysterious vigilante the joker and classmate and community activist ivy-- and the different forms of protest and resistance they represent. the art here is STUNNING, and it’s a great read!

laura dean keeps breaking up with me, by the great mariko tamaki with art by rosemary valero-o’connell-- the vast majority of the characters are lgbt, with a lesbian main character, and the supporting cast including a bi nonbinary character, a bi girl character, and two mlm characters! this is mostly a piece about modern lgbtq+ teenagers and the way toxic relationships take over our lives. it’s one of the most cathartic things i’ve read in a LONG time, and especially if you’re at a point where your sexuality feels kind of vague, this is a great read because it embraces that vagueness by not needing to clearly label the characters and celebrates whatever point of clarity the characters are at. probably some of the most gorgeous art i’ve ever seen in a book, with a beautiful black-white-and-pink color scheme and a really neat approach to visual storytelling.

movies:

i don’t watch many movies, because i get bored really quickly hskdhskhds. but the movies i DO watch are usually gay!

wowie zowie its fried green tomatoes again!-- fannie flagg came back to adapt this into a film and HOT DAMN is it just as good. the plot is primarily the same, with some stuff obviously cut or trimmed to make it a two hour movie instead of a 450 page books fhsjdhsjhds. mary-louise parker plays ruth!!! it got a GLAAD award and an oscar nomination, and god it’s good. there are a couple scenes in here that i think are going to be in my mind until the day i die. the level of pure butch energy that idgie radiates in this film is a one-hit k.o. and it KILLS me.

birds of prey-- listen. this is not a profound movie. harley’s bisexuality isn’t emphasized, and romance is basically nonexistent in this movie. there is some... quite graphic violence. that said, this movie is so fucking fun. it’s mostly just a bunch of women fucking up everyone who crosses them while margot robbie gives a gleeful performance that you can just TELL she enjoyed the fuck out of. the last 20-30 minutes of this movie are the absolute best part, with a long sequence that kind of reinvented what an action/superhero movie could be for me. again, bisexuality isn’t a massive part of this-- it’s mentioned, and then harley just continues on in her gloriously campy outfits and breaks peoples’ knees. again, i CANNOT overemphasize just how fucking good the last 20-30 minutes are. this movie knows what it is and it embraces it. also, women beating people up in costumes that don’t horrifyingly objectify them is always a plus!

imagine me & you-- i’d be remiss if i didn’t mention this one, considering it’s probably one of the most iconic wlw romcoms. a woman named rachel, while at her own wedding, meets a florist named luce, and they fall in love. it’s a very sweet look at questioning your sexuality when you were already secure in it, and rachel’s husband wins “most genuinely understanding guy in a wlw movie” award. it has a lovely happy ending, and articles have been written about the importance of rachel being a bi character who a) gets a happy ending and b) isn’t shamed for figuring out her sexuality later on or slutshamed. this is just... a sweet movie. it’s the romcom a lot of us need in our lives. also, a LOT of floral imagery.

tv shows:

ok, i’ve got a confession. i reaaaaaaally don’t watch much tv. seriously, the only shows i’ve watched a substantial amount of recently have been parks and rec, schitt’s creek, the good place, and gilmore girls. i have a really REALLY short attention span.

that said, eleanor from the good place is bisexual!! the good place is a really wild ride, it’s half afterlife comedy half philosophical musing, and it will almost certainly make you gasp, laugh, think, and also probably cry. also, eleanor is just buckets of fun and she, like many of us, is often blown away by tahani (jameela jamil) and her beauty.

ummm shows i haven’t watched entirely or at all but that have bi women in them and seem pretty good: black lightning, sex education, jane the virgin, arrow.

if you haven’t already watched it, do not believe what people are going to tell you about watching glee. it will drag you into a pit of despair and white men rapping, and it’s quite biphobic to top it all off.

i hope you enjoy at least some of these!! i tried to include some of my own favs and some that were pointed out to me, so i hope that at least a couple connect with you and make you feel better. again, the bolded ones are my 100% favorites. i love you and i’m glad you reached out again!!! feel free to send some more asks later on <3

#asks #anon #bi anon #ily <3 <3 i hope these help #if anyone wants to add please do!! specifically bi women of color since theres a shortage of them in fiction and media #dont talk abt b/9/9 though id like to not praise diversity in a show glorifying cops

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