#i'm going to have to rewatch the stream later

[hotwaterandmilk]

Magilumiere at Jump Festa time!

Koyama Rikiya as Shigemoto, now we're cooking.

Honestly I'm pretty satisfied with the casting for the rest of the key Magilumiere staff! Yamashita Daiki playing Nikoyama who looks uncannily like Deku is A+ no notes. Oosaka Ryouta I hadn't pictured as Midorikawa but I now that I think about it... that casting kind of rules.

Unfortunately only Fairouz, Hanamori and Koyama could be there in person but everyone seems pretty pumped.

Edit: Oh and here are the other newly revealed anime designs:

Kana and Hitomi only had existing designs shown so I haven't shared them. No date for the anime was revealed beyond “Fall 2024."

Edit 2: New character designs and cast comments are now available on the official anime website.

[dotterelly]

I'm so happy T-T

[breannacasey]

every show I watched weekly for 5 seasons or more I've had moments where I was less into it and almost wished it would end. every one. except NCIS. been watching that show for 20 years and I do not get tired of it. it makes absolutely no sense but it's my constant. it's been there every week since early in my high school career when I was watching it dubbed in french. and it's still there into my thirties when I watch it in the original English as it first airs. when everything goes to shit, when I want it all to end, when I don't know what I want or enjoy anymore, it's always there. I get tired of other shows but not that one.

[heyhoeudoin]

Can I request a senku x fem reader where she goes with the group to the cave instead of magma and her and senku end up cuddling for warmth and senku is all flustered by it.

WARMTH

"Guess you can still be flustered, huh?"

pairing: senku ishigami x fem!reader

words: 2.9k

genre/s: fluff, comfort?

warning/s: she/her (sorry!), s1 ep 21-22, swearing, mention of tits

synopsis: senku never would have imagined that he'd get flustered over a simple hug (and like it a lot)

masterlist

a/n: i know it's been a year... i got busy, but better later than never! also, while rewatching this episode, i got so emotional like holy sht. the way senku got emotional in this episode just got me tearing up! i love senku so much and i miss dr stone a lot more than i thought i did (IT'S ONLY BEEN A YEAR SINCE IT ENDED LIKE?!?!)

as the group walked up to the edge of the cliff, the sun rises and the stone in suika's hand glowed bright blue shocking everyone around.

"it's blue... a gemstone," chrome says.

"why is it glowing?" suika asks looking at the rock she's holding.

"oh my god, it's scheelite!" you exclaimed as your eyes sparkled at the gem-like-stone in front of you.

senku smiled at you and exclaimed, "ten billion points for you, y/n!" he then walked forward pointing, and bending down at it. "it glows blue when exposed to ultraviolet light. reactions to ultraviolet light are especially visible right before the sun rises. in other words, only right now."

"a magic stone that glows just for this moment... " gen says with a small smile.

chrome went closer to the stone with a curious face. "i've never seen anything like it," he comments.

"me neither," senku says with sparkles in his eyes. "it's an ultra-rare gem. you guys did an incredibly good job, chrome, and suika. this stuff is used in modern filaments. atomic number seventy-four: tungsten!"

"it's the strongest metal in the universe!" you continued his thought as you kept hitting senku's shoulder in joy and excitement.

"ow~" he muttered holding his shoulder. you quickly wrapped your hands around the shoulder you kept hitting to try and soothe it while giving an apologetic look.

the next day, everyone gotten ready to make a cave expedition, and by everyone, it's just senku and chrome.

"this small chunk won't be enough, but it came down the stream in the cave. there must be tons further inside. tons of this heat-resistant treasure called tunsten," chrome says as he held up the stone.

"we only have one set of lights left," senku says holding up the said last pair of lights. "the last member of the exploration team will be... magma!" he called out making everyone shock, most especially you. "tungsten's tough as hell. we're going to need brute force to collect it. let's go cave diving. we're a trio of spelunking buddies. to the fun treasure dungeon!"

"buddies?!" magma exclaimed, shocked, and confused.

"senku, chrome, and magma?!" kohaku exclaimed.

"i've never heard of such a risky group," suika says.

"i-i-is that even safe?!" ginrou exclaimed. "he might be like, 'i'm the chief!', and attack you, or something, senku!"

"come on, let's get going—"

"objection!"

the group turned to where you stood firmly with a hand raised in the air. "what is this? a court?" gen commented.

you dropped your arm and stomped your way to senku with a pissed off expression. "you may be a genius, but you're still a dumbass." you looked down at him as you jabbed your finger into his shoulder. you spread your other arm to point at magma. "i do not trust him yet!" you exclaimed, bluntly. "which is why i'll be coming with."

senku deadpanned at you and sighs. "y/n, there's only three lights and we need magma to carry the scheelite," he stated.

you rose a brow and placed a hand on your hip. "oh? and you're saying that i can't do that," you retorted with a challenging tone.

senku's mouth snapped shut. how can he forget? you're a hundred percent the strongest here! he shakes his head. "well, it can't be helped," he says, shocking the rest. he turned to magma and told him, "you heard her. take those off."

"whaaat? that easily?!" chrome exclaimed.

senku shrugs, sticking a pinky in his ear. "i can't really stop y/n from doing what she wants. if she wants to come, let her."

"then who's going to carry the rocks?" gen asks.

"y/n will," senku answers.

"what?!" gen screamed. "i-isn't that a bit...? can y/n even handle it?" his arms waved around.

kohaku crossed her arms. "are you saying women are weak?" she looked at him pointedly.

gen furiously shook his head at her. "no no, of course not!"

"right, i never told you y/n's last name, haven't i?" senku comments as he turns over to you, who's walking over wearing the equipment.

"my full name is l/n y/n," you announced. "i am more than capable of carrying the scheelite." gen starts foaming at the mouth. however, those who aren't from the modern world, they don't understand.

"basically, y/n's family is famous for a lot of crazy things and she's stronger than anyone else here," senku explains. "now let's stop wasting time and go!"

you and senku followed chrome to the cave where he got the scheelite from where a small stream of water ended. senku dipped his fingers into it. "the water's lukewarm," he mentions with a chuckle. "we can definitely find some treasures."

the three of you ventured deeper into the caves. however, once they got to a certain part, senku immediately noticed something. "get back!" he screamed, extending his arm behind his back.

you and chrome stopped, tensing up. "what's wrong, senku?" chrome asks.

senku bent down, moving carefully, and cracked a piece of the floor. "it's mica. it's like baumkuchen." you let out an 'oooh', but chrome looked confused. "it's a rock that's brittle enough to break with your hands," he says as he tears a layer off of the one he's holding. he then looks up, shining the light in front of him. "look, they're natural pit traps."

the three of you look over to the abundance of pits. "damn," chrome lets out. "nature's traps are nasty."

"is it possible to get out of that once you fall in?" you then asked.

"yeesh, try to get back up with a rope or a ladder and it'll just cave in on ya," chrome grimance.

senku stood back up. a crack, you heard from under his foot. you leaped over and push him away. you tried to land as delicately as possible, but the ground couldn't handle it. a hole formed immediately beneath you, making you fall straight into it. you reached your hand up to try and grab the edge out of reflex. another hand reached out for yours and took hold of it. it was senku's hand... although he is having a hard time pulling you up.

"no, senku! let go! it's going to cave in under you!" you were able to scream out. true to your words, the ground beneath senku did cave in. you both fall into the pit.

"senku! y/n!"

you pulled senku closer to your body, putting an arm under his neck and legs. you quickly moved your body upright and looked down. your feet hit the ground with a thud and you bent down into a squat so that you don't crush your legs. you let out a sigh of relief as you stood back up and gently placed senku down.

"are you okay?" you asked him while removing the stuff behind your back.

senku stares at you dumbfounded. "no, no, are you okay?"

you chuckle. "i'm fine, senku. i continued the momentum, or whatever you call what i just did to prevent shattering my legs," you tell him reassuringly.

"go sit down while i try to think our way out," he says as he walks over to the wall in front of you. you did what he said and sat down, your eyes never leaving him as you didn't want to miss it in case it happens. senku sometimes lets out these cute noises whenever he thinks or tries something out. to your pleasure, he's making the noises! (a/n: bro he's so cute in this scene) you let out a giggle after he slides back down from trying to climb out.

senku turns to you with a raised brow. "what're you giggling about?"

"it's just... you're adorable," you bluntly answer him.

he blinks, then slightly smirks from the familiarity. "how long has it been since you've last called me that?"

"it's been a while that's what," you say with a smile. just then a stream of water flowed down into the cave. you and senku looked up to see chrome peering down, holding a glass bottle.

"chrome, what are you doing?" you ask with furrowed brows.

"if i keep pouring in water from the pond that's nearby, you might be able to swim back out," he explained.

that caught you off guard. you turned to senku and asked, "will that work?"

he starts cackling and from that alone, you already got your answer. "hang on, that's not bad," he says, then raised a finger in front of his face. you perked up, smiling with glee as you listened to senku's calculations tangent. you love it whenever he says his calculations out loud, and he does it with his pointer finger raised in front of him as well! it's adorable... and insanely attractive.

senku lowered his finger and lets out a laugh. he looked up at chrome and shouts out, "chrome, i'm going to tell you how to craft something. can you do it?"

"yeah, of course i can." chrome nods. "don't underestimate chrome the science user!"

after you tossed the bag with the big glass bottles, you waited patiently as you listened to senku instructing chrome on what to do. shortly after, pillars of water starts flowing down into the pit. "huh? how is the water going from low to high?" you and senku heard chrome ask out loud. you giggled as senku explained to chrome what a siphon is.

you looked to see the water slowly, but surely rising from the floor. your feet being already submerged into it. then your gaze went to senku, who's looking up. "are you sure you won't freeze before we could get up there?" you asked with a hand on your hip.

senku turned to you, still looking up. "i did the calculations. it should be fine before we get hypothermia," he says.

you rose a knowing brow. "that's for a normal person, senku, and you're not a normal person." by this time the water is already about half way at senku's body (you're taller than him so it's not really half way at your body yet).

senku stuck his pinky into his ear, shrugging. "it'll be fine," he says.

it was not fine.

the water's only at half way of the pit, but senku's already shaking and chattering from the cold. you slowly floated your way to senku and wrapped your hands around him. this shocked senku, jolting a bit from the sudden touch. "what are you doing?" he managed to ask.

"here, the tits will keep you warm."

senku gapped at you. why are you so goddamn blunt? because of his shock, he missed the part where you gently placed his head on your chest and guided his arms to wrap around your back. "well, aren't you red?" you say with a teasing smirk which brought him back to reality.

"huh?" senku felt flustered and embarrassed. he tried to push himself away from you, but with his strength versus yours... yeah it didn't work. "stop that!" you scolded him. "be glad that it isn't magma who's cuddling with you right now."

senku grimaced at the thought. "don't even mention that!" he exclaimed, looking up at you, making you chuckle. in the midst of your chuckle, he tightened his hold on you, pulling you closer to his body.

"well aren't you bold?"

he looked away, avoiding eye contact and letting his head rest on your chest. "i am doing this for the sake of getting warmth so that we both don't die of hypothermia," he says.

you rolled your eyes. "oh please, just admit you're liking this much more than you thought you did," you teased him.

his ears tipped red as he stayed silent.

you watched senku and chrome fanboying at the treasure cove of rocks with a smirk. a chuckle left your mouth, but the mood quickly died down as you pressed your lips together. "are you guys done yet? the sun's going to set soon and we should go!"

"ohhh come on! just a little bit longer," chrome whined.

"yeah, after all, we found a mountain of treasure," senku added.

you hooked your hands on the back of the boys' shirt and lifted them up. "when i say let's go, let's go."

the three of you exited the cave and the sun's already setting. "hurry up," you say as you picked the bag senku's carrying and hugged it against your chest. senku looked at you with protest, but you merely rose a brow at him which caused him to back down.

"why are you suddenly in a hurry?" chrome asked, looking slightly confused.

"you'll see."

once the three of you drew closer to the village, you dropped the bag in front of you took and out your makeshift blindfold. "senku dear~ could you wear this for me real quick?" you asked as he turned around.

he rose a questioning brow at you. "and for what y/n?" he asked. but you ignored his question and covered senku's eyes. you picked him up and threw him over your shoulder like a sack. "y/n? y/n?!" you picked up the bag up from the floor and happily jogged back your way to the village while humming.

chrome blinked then ran after the two of you. "what are you doing, y/n?!"

senku now stood in a room, blindfolded and hands tied. he knows that that's your hand on the back of his neck which means you're standing directly behind him.

"hey, senku-chan~ welcome home," gen says in front of senku, but he doesn't know that.

"huh? what's going on?" senku asks with an unwavering tone.

"hah!" kohaku triumphantly laughs. "don't bother trying to call for help, senku. we're all working with gen," she announced.

senku chuckles. "so you bastards finally figured out the hack, huh?" he says. "all you need to do is hand science and my head over to tsukasa, and the village is safe. it's perfectly logical." you could feel him trembling with nervousness. "...leave y/n out of this," he muttered to which only you heard.

gen lets out a short snort. "well, i have no idea what you're talking about, but..." he gave you a nod. you untied his hands and slowly took off his blindfolds.

senku stared in front of him, eyes swirling with nostalgia. you stared at him with a fond smile. it's been a while since you've seen him that emotional. he stepped towards the telescope and peered into it. he took a step back in awe. "an astronomy telescope... or rather, an observatory..." his voice gotten softer by the end. you blinked, trying to get rid of the tears that threatened to fall.

kaseki lets out an excited laugh. "january forth; rock day!" he exclaimed.

kohaku stepped up with a wide smile. "y/n told us it's your birthday today, senku!" she said.

"we all got you a birthday gift!" suika happily announced. senku walked closer to the window to see mostly everyone from the village standing outside.

"y/n told us everything we needed in order to make the telescope, and the whole village worked hard to make the observatory. you're going to have to fine-tune it yourself, senku-chan," gen explained.

ginro approached senku with a smug look. "are senku~ are you moved for the first time in forever? you can cry, you know. you don't need to hold it in," he teased.

"you're so low, ginro," kinro commented.

senku turned to the group with a smirk. "good job, everyone! this is extremely practical. we can use it as our own watchtower against tsukasa," he mentions with a wide cheeky smile.

"y-yeah, that's true," kohaku replies, not sure what to make of his reaction.

"your feedback's as rational as ever," gen comments.

"a guy doesn't bother mentioning his own birthday, and yet..." senku glanced at you. you gave him a smirk and a smug wave. a chuckle escapes his mouth.

"actually, i found out on my own even before y/n said anything," gen corrected to which senku immediately understood and the two conversed on how gen found out.

a while later, it's only you and senku left in the observatory. "did you really think i'd let them hand over your head to tsukasa?" you rhetorically asked. "and also, i can't believe that's the first thing you thought of. do you not have faith in them? you healed their priestess."

senku didn't reply as he stayed silent, looking up at the stars. you sighed as you walked over and hugged him from behind. "are you mad at me for giving away your birthday?" you softly asked. "well, i wasn't planning on giving it away, but gen approached me for a birthday gift idea and... this happened."

"i'm not mad at you, y/n." he rolled his eyes. "it's just..."

your hold on him tightened. "it's fine. i know. you don't have to say anything," you tell him.

senku turned around and wrapped his arms around you, laying his head on your chest. you felt yourself warm up a bit and held him closer. "so i am right." senku lifted his head up to look at you with confusion. "that you're liking this much more than you thought you did," you explained with a smug smirk.

he turned his head away, avoiding eye contact as he stayed silent and his ears tipped red.

masterlist a/n: this turned out way better than i thought it would.

[usagifuyusummer]

Hello, sorry it took me so long (6 days), but here's your request @candyglumboy. I was experimenting a lot on these honestly.

From first to last in order, First memories/ Mortality/ Ascension (or an imitation of heaven?). I'm still unsure if these are the appropriate titles for these pieces lol.

Thanks for requesting me by the way! It was fun practice admittedly. (I still suck ass at backgrounds though.)

As usual, my insane ramblings below and some close-ups and concept art (will change if formatting is fucked up).

Oh yeah, I've been offline a lot because I'm so busy with uni stuff and... unavoidable family matters..., plus all of these took me a while to finish. I was brainstorming a lot on their request and these are the ones I've chosen to finalize.

I've decided to go with the concept of life, death, and rebirth on their request to just see Peri hugging Timmy lmao, because why not? It was to make me fulfil this request in a more enjoyable and exciting way.

I was experimenting and practicing a lot on understanding the Fairly Oddparents style in these pieces. My attempts are still far from perfect obviously, I mean the second one (Mortality) took the longest for me to finish just because I couldn't translate 3D poses into the 2D artstyle very well lol. (The second one was the hardest to make it look... well alright/pretty to me. It looks like a mess of haphazardous colors... I am terrible at coloring. I think I'll share the other scrapped poses later.)

Honestly, I struggled and got frustrated a lot with finishing these but still enjoyed the process. Here I'll list my inspirations for each pieces;

First memories - xblubotx (i won't tag them because i don't want to disturb): Their small Peri/Poof and teen Timmy fanart pieces continues to inspire me to this day. And yes!!! I see that they have made More Timmy fanart!!! Thank you xblubotx. I will continue to appreciate those in silence.

Mortality - I was thinking of loss and death a lot on this one. I thought what kind of embrace that shows this feeling? So, I used the famous, Ivan the terrible and his son painting, for the pose. I wanted to challenge myself if I could translate the 3D pose into 2D, so yeah, that's the final result... It looks like a mess of vomited red colors... I am sorry if you're squeamish towards blood by the way. I wanted to see if I could also attempt to draw blood streaming. I still think I have a long ways to go in terms of skill... For now, enjoy the nuclear baby about to explode because of overwhelming feelings <3 <3 <3!

Ascension (or an imitation of heaven) - @bevony: I hope I did not miscredit you, as I used your Fairy Timmy design for this one! I changed it a little according to my preferences/headcannon though. Still, I love their Fairy Timmy design! I like the hot pink Channel boots that they gave Timmy lol. (And the very comfortable formal fashion.) Keep on slaying~ My Fairy Timmy design will probably be heavily influenced from them when I get to that eventually... Tell me if you don't want me to, I'll back off. For now, I'll be enjoying the others fanarts of Timmy quietly.

(Additionally, my phone is slowly dying from all of these creative projects that I'm doing currently lol. Agh, I wish I had a drawing tablet or a better device to satisfy these creative urges....)

Again, thank you for the request! I'm okay with requests as I'm still not confident with my creative skills at this moment lol. So, admittedly I view these as a challenge or for practice. I can't fulfil them quickly though, as I have multiple responsibilities to do in real life. Still, I don't mind them once in a while.

I hope you like what I've done here. Sorry if it doesn't fulfil your vision candyglumboy. I'll keep on practicing my creative skills.

So yeah, I think that's all I wanted to share in the post this time. I'm still at season 3 on the FOP rewatch by the way. I am very excited to get to the specials eventually. Yeehaw!!!

Here's some concepts and close-ups of the pieces below this long massive yapping session lmao. Thank you for reading. Have a nice day <3

[avagarde]

Once again I have found myself watching through the entirety of the 2000's Nickelodeon show from Cartoon Network alumnus Rob Renzetti, MY LIFE AS A TEENAGE ROBOT.

The show was an immediate favorite of mine as a child and it has a lot of staying power as a piece of animation thanks to its visual style, themes, characters, and sense of humor. It's honestly one of if not my favorite cartoon and I wanted to get some people interested and give them some confidence while watching it. Usually these days people make skip lists for shows, that will probably be the smallest part of this post but I still wanted to give people recommendations and tell them what to look for and expect.

This list will help you find the GOOD EPISODES, GENDER EPISODES, and BAD EPISODES. I will also be providing a link to where to watch it for free below the read more.

As of writing this post the entirety of My Life As A Teenage Robot is available for free at pretty decent visual quality over at archive.org. This is how I rewatched the show.

The first suggestion comes for WATCH ORDER. This one is easy, the episodes are ordered as they should be aside from Escape From Cluster Prime parts 1 & 2 (Season 2x09a & b, as listed in the archive.org playlist) which you should watch after having finished the rest of season 2 first.

Season 3 of MLAATR comes out after the events of this special episode so don't save it for the very end.

Now for Content Lists. There are a few categories I'm making lists for. To make this easy keep in mind that pretty much every episode (EXCEPT THE LAST) of this show is totally watchable, even when they aren't great. So these content categories will come with the added modifier that if I think they're VERY GOOD I will highlight them GREEN, and if I think they're BAD I'll highlight them RED. I'll talk about my favorite episodes after we get through these.

GENDER/BODY IMAGE CONTENT

For a lot of you I imagine this is why you're here. Jenny has become a bit of a transgender icon for trans women who watched cartoons in the 2000's. I do want to preface this by saying Rob Renzetti has gone on record saying this was not his direct intention but that he is supportive of the interpretation and as a trans woman I find Jenny's struggles very relatable and in some ways as an autistic person she hits a lot closer to home than other canon trans characters.

So if you want to just watch a couple episodes just to get a shot of gender struggle so you can point at the screen and tell your friends "see! I told you Jenny was trans!" this list will have that. I am also including general body image content on this list because I think that's very relatable for but not exclusive to the struggles of trans women. Any body image centric content on this list will have BI listed after it.

"It Came From Next Door" 1x01a

"Pest Control" 1x01b (BI)

"Raggedy Android" 1x02a (

"The Great Unwashed" 1x06b (BI)

"The Return of Raggedy Android" 1x07a

"Hostile Makeover" 1x09a (BI, and it also makes a great case for puberty blockers imho)

"Tradeshow Showdown" 1x12b

"Victim of Fashion" 2x01 (BI)

"Humiliation 101" 2x03b (BI)

"Weapons of Mass Distraction" 3x01a

Season 1 definitely has the most to do with Jenny's self image, so you'll find it coming up in various episodes. It becomes less apparent as the seasons go on due to Jenny building self confidence.

SHELDON CONTENT

The chaser of the show. Not everyone hates Sheldon, but his crux as a character is being a creep/nerd who doesn't take no for an answer. I think at times his utter depravity as a toaster fucker and the butt of jokes works so I tolerate him for the most part but the way the show plays with his role/the possibility him and Jenny could get together is very Cringe/Cringe Comedy. He also sort of turns into the "gay friend" role in later seasons, which I'm sure a certain kind of person could dig into what that means for the themes of this show. Anyway, here's just a heads up for what episodes center Sheldon if you hate him or love him (???????).

"Attack of The 5½ Ft. Geek" 1x03a

"Ear No Evil" 1x04a

"Shell Game" 1x10b

"Saved By The Shell" 1x12a

"Love 'Em Or Leash 'Em" 2x04a

"A Robot For All Seasons" 2x05

"Dancing With My Shell" 2x07a

"A Pain In My Sidekick" 2x09a

"Designing Women" 2x10a

"Escape from Cluster Prime" 2x13-14 (I mean... he's IN IT... but don't skip this one)

"The Price of Love" 3x06b

"Good Old Sheldon" 3x07b (had this been the last episode with Sheldon in it, my opinion on him would improve greatly)

"Infectious Personality" 3x08a (this episode is mostly just weird)

"Agent 00' Sheldon" 3x09a

Silver Shell stops showing up in season 3. Also by season 2 Sheldon gets a lot of furry/pet play content so... do with that as you will.

SHIPPING CONTENT

Here's a list of some episodes if you're working on fics and need a reference. These eps are focused primarily on supporting whatever argument you're trying to make and I'll try to be impartial in this. Also I'm not really gonna do side characters.

"Hostile Makeover" 1x09a (Jenny x Brad)

"Saved By The Shell" 1x12a (Jenny x Sheldon)

"Love 'Em Or Leash 'Em" 2x04a (Jenny x YK9)

"Bradventure" 2x11a (Brad x Melody)

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Troubles" 2x12b (Jenny x Misty)

"Escape from Cluster Prime" 2x13-14 (Jenny x Vega)

"No Harmony with Melody" 3x02a (Brad x Melody)

"Mist Opportunities" 3x05b (Jenny x Misty) (primarily in conflict however)

"The Price of Love" 3x06b (Jenny x Sheldon)

"Agent 00' Sheldon" 3x09a (Jenny x Sheldon)

"Ball and Chain" 3x11a (Jenny x Brad)

OFFENSIVE

Okay, so what in this show do I think is bad or could offend people? Well, several of the cartoons show other cultures in a way that could be considered derogatory. This is again going to be me trying to be objective because I'm just some white girl who can't make the call for a lot of these, and a lot of these are issues in episodes I like.

"Speak No Evil" 1x05b (Japanese people depicted with yellow skin)

"Around the World in Eighty Pieces" 2x07b (Various cultures depicted in caricature such as the middle east and japan)

"Samurai Vac" 3x13a (SKIP, this one I feel pretty confident in saying the depiction of Japan is offensive and reductive. I also just think this episode is mostly bad and weird? The characterization of Jenny doesn't feel like her at all. The episode after it "Turncoats" isn't really worth a watch either, so you can call your watch through after Queen Bee.)

AVA'S FAVS

Here are the episodes I really like that I think you should definitely give a look! I will mostly be focusing on a few that haven't been mentioned here unless I think they're so good they need to be brought up again.

"It Came From Next Door" 1x01a (Obviously we've been here before, but the first episode of this show is solid enough that even if you just want to watch one episode, the first episode I think can do that for you)

"Raggedy Android/Return of Raggedy Android" 1x02a & 1x07a (These are just two episodes that work well together as dialogues with Jenny's self image/relationship with femininity and they get pretty creepy with it too!)

Various Great Season 1 eps: "Class Action" "Doom With a View" "Unlicensed Flying Object" "The Great Unwashed" "The Boy Who Cried Robot" "Grid Iron Glory"

"The Wonderful World of Wizzly" 1x13a (Rob Renzetti hates Disney part 1)

"Victim of Fashion" 2x01 (Jenny's outfits in this episode are VERY GOOD)

"Mind Over Matter" 2x02b

"Around the World in Eighty Pieces" 2x07b

"Mama Drama" 2x11b (Jenny is a terror)

"A Spoonful of Mayhem" 3x04a (ACAB)

"Girl of Steal" 3x05a (They managed to make their "don't steal" episode very funny and not preachy)

"Indes-Tuck-tible" 3x09b

"Historionics" 3x10b (Rob Renzetti hates Disney part 2)

"Voyage to the Planet of the Bikers" 3x12a

CONCLUSION

My Life As A Teenage Robot is a really exceptional show that I think should be remembered as more than just the vehicle for Jenny's introduction into the world. As an adult watching this show I really can't get over the art. The character design, the shading, the backgrounds, their commitment to drawing crowds as various different character styles. It really was a show that was going for it's style and it cohered very well. The humor also stands alongside other successful comedic shows like spongebob handily. As an adult, the sort of nerdy humor with fewer annoying bits works better for me than going back and watching a lot of cartoons.

As an adult I think I also appreciate how much the show was going for "dealing this situations." Obviously the show has morals for kids, but I think a bit thing it was going for was just showing characters dealing with tough/ridiculous scenarios. The show DOES stuff TO its characters giving what are very simple characters a chance to shine.

It's also very fun to see a character build confidence and earn the forgiveness of people. Obviously the world is unfair to Jenny but at it's core I think it shows a world that cares about her and can appreciate her just as much as it can anyone else. Despite standing out, Jenny is as much appreciated as she is derided. I really loved getting to see the life Jenny had to live, and I hope you do too.

[thecoolerliauditore]

I need your thoughts on Martyn.

Jesus Christ in heaven where to start.

I was planning to write massive essay posts about each of the winners sooner or later, I guess Martyn can skip the queue. As a treat.

BAD traffic series martyn analysis post don't read. LONG POST

note: rules I'm operating by are to keep the analysis primarily traffic-based (although this one's kind of an exception because. mr watcher lore) and I'm not rewatching entire POVs so stuff might be wrong so on so forth

Why is he... Like that?

So before I even start talking about 3L I feel the need to address Martyn's background first because, not unlike alot of the other members of the cast, Martyn's previously established relationships from series like Evo have a significant impact on how he behaves.

This is kind of difficult for me to talk about because it breaks my "no material outside of the traffic series" rule for these essays specifically, but I think it's honestly just more fun incorporating Martyn's off-series lore drops and such into his character instead of leaving them out.

So here's the basis I work from -- Martyn is the most unreliable narrator in a full cast of them. His lore is his character's version of events, not an unbiased retelling.

Whether the Watchers exist and whether they're the same entities present in Evo doesn't matter all that much, since all we know is that they are very real to Martyn, at least. Taking the lore as Martyn's POV also helps iron out some of the more awkward creases it creates when viewing the series as a whole (e.g. Grian's involvement with the Watchers surely means he would reference them himself, yet he doesn't) and lays the groundwork for some really interesting things about Martyn himself when you try to put the dots together on how he arrived at these conclusions. I'll be referencing these as they come up chronologically.

So, without over complicating things, here are the rules I'm playing by when it comes to pre-3L Martyn:

Evo did really happen with the same people, however the exact details are muddy.

Martyn knew Jimmy prior to the games and the two already had some sort of personal connection going in.

We're not trusting a word out of his mouth. Especially if he says them on stream. But we are going to acknowledge what those words are.

With those parameters set, let's move on:

Third Life, and the guy who gets a little too into it

Like Grian, Martyn immediately acclimates to the game's survival-based mechanics. Martyn spends a good chunk of the first session of 3L seemingly aimless, but he makes observations and choices throughout that show he has survival at the back of his mind (e.g. him quickly establishing an alliance with Grian and Bigb while sneakily putting them in his debt through the diamonds he finds early -- even if this doesn't end up paying off to anything).

Unlike Grian however, Martyn less desperately clings onto a need for an edge to survive and seems almost comfortable in playing the game. A running theme for him throughout all the seasons will be that he seems to feel most comfortable when he has some amount of unspoken power over others, whether that be something as silly as testing the waters with his creeper soundboard or later when he starts playing 4D chess with himself in regard to his loyalties.

"Power" might be not exactly the right word for what Martyn yearns for, but it's the best word I can find to really describe it. He's always the one with a card up his sleeve or a plan B or, arguably most importantly, the one with control over the situation and responsibility over his own and others' wellbeing.

In my mind, at least, I think it might be a consequence of Martyn actually being quite sensitive in terms of relationships and having this very deep-seeded need to protect his loved ones from harm but lacking the emotional intelligence necessary to allow himself to be vulnerable about those feelings and communicate properly. So instead he finds some way to protect himself emotionally (usually overdramatic and makes him way worse) and treats everyone including himself with a level of un-seriousness that alleviates the tension for him.

If I were to dig deeper into this specific point I must say Martyn seems to have chosen to perform a very specific breed of masculinity, with his constant agonizing need to protect and lead while not having to confront his own perceived weaknesses, and alot of his insecurities and frustrations come from being denied that husband-y role to play.

His interactions with Jimmy early on in 3L portray this side of him quite plainly. After seeing Scott hit him around at Renchanting, Martyn gets Jimmy alone and asks him if he's okay but after Jimmy dodges the question, Martyn quickly becomes frustrated and starts acting very overdramatic (e.g. threatening to cut Jimmy off, "I can't look at you", so on) even as Jimmy keeps insisting they keep talking.

In my humble opinion, it's clear to me from how he speaks to Jimmy in this scene and further on, and from his referencing of their Evo relationship, that this is these two's established dynamic - the way Martyn dramatizes everything feels almost as if he were making a joke of it, teasing Jimmy, almost akin to how an older sibling or very old friend would act. It's possible that Martyn didn't expect Jimmy to take any of his threats seriously (although he definitely was laying on the pressure to try and get him to agree in the moment) and that's why he's so taken aback when Jimmy does act almost afraid of him from this point forward.

Not once does Martyn ever verbalize his own feelings regarding the matter. He never says that he's scared or worried for Jimmy, or even makes any sort of subjective judgment on Scott's character for hitting Jimmy in the first place. He makes it all about Jimmy, never communicating *why* he is doing what he's doing which ends up giving off the impression he thinks he knows what's best for him, which of course never communicates to Jimmy that Martyn cares for or loves him and ends up pushing him away as a result.

Speaking of Scott, despite Martyn clearly not approving of the way he treats Jimmy (judging from the aforementioned conversation and his later lore streams where he essentially calls Scott and Jimmy's marriage a sham), he does not ever act antagonistically towards Scott. Which I think is indicative of another key trait of Martyn's - an almost uncanny ability to push aside his own feelings at least momentarily for the sake of the game.

Martyn does not speak badly to or about Scott. He even explores the nether with him very early on and the two literally joke about trapping the Flower Valley and killing Jimmy together.

I think there's an understanding and perhaps a level of respect, on Martyn's end, towards Scott. One of the first observations he makes about Scott's base, after all, is its defensive location and Scott, like Martyn, values his own competency and likes to pretend he's more emotionally unattached to his partner than he really is (the parallels between Martyn/Ren and Scott/Jimmy are even somewhat lampshaded by Martyn himself when he refers to them as "my red" (Ren) and "your red" (Jimmy) later).

It seems that Martyn doesn't dislike anything innate to Scott's nature, and even has love for his manipulative traits. If it were anyone other than Jimmy Scott was hitting, I'd argue, Martyn wouldn't have raised a fuss about it. Not to mention, there's also a sense of "keeping your enemies closer" when it comes to these two, as both seem acutely aware the other is useful on their side and a threat anywhere else.

I'd argue despite the fact he's able to push his dislike towards Scott aside, he definitely still feels spiteful towards him, as he ends up hunting him down pretty mercilessly come the end of the series (after Jimmy dies too - so perhaps there was also a level there of feeling the need to put up with Scott beforehand as he was Jimmy's only ally, but now that Jimmy's gone there isn't any need to be friendly with Scott anymore.)

Now onto the heavy-hitter Martyn 3L relationship - his dynamic with Ren.

I'll be honest I think most treebark shippers have summed up their relationship way better than I could. You could probably go into the tag and see thirty eight analysis posts more indepth and accurate than mine. However I will say that one thing I see rarely mentioned is this very obviously being Martyn's first time meeting Ren (I'm talking about characters here but here is your acknowledgement this is definitely a result of this literally being the case for the CCs).

He's not used to Ren's mannerisms -- during their first meeting, Ren says his usual "ex-squeeze me" (instead of "excuse me") and Martyn responds "no thankyou, I'm married". Not to get too into it as this is The Martyn Post but Ren's POV would imply the same since he sees Martyn's name in chat and he immediately starts theorizing about what kind of player he is.

I think Ren essentially being a stranger to Martyn at the start of the series makes it easier for him to act manipulatively and keep him at arm's length, as well as be in denial about the whole emotional attachment thing. For so much of their alliance during 3L Martyn is acting, performing to match Ren's vibes, except he's not.

^this quote and the concept of freudian slips informs like 88% of my worldview, if anyone's wondering why I'm. like that.

"The Hand" is very much not how Martyn naturally acts or behaves, down to the change in speaking patterns. It's a persona that I think both Ren and Martyn never take too seriously or mistake for Martyn's authentic self, but it's also something Martyn uses to express his innermost feelings he disallows himself from usually. Yes it's all silly even in-universe but I think there's something special about how he constantly expresses his devotion as The Hand, even if he's doing it with a layer of irony. Plus, I think it says something that, jumping later in the timeline, his flashbacks in LimLife are much more true to the character of The Hand than Martyn himself.

This section is already long enough but I do have to mention Bigb, Grian and Scar or I'll explode.

Earlier on, I touched on Martyn giving Grian and Bigb diamond swords early and it being an attempt to leverage an alliance between them. This I admit might be a slight reach however the reason I say that is Martyn continues to pursue Bigb and Grian as allies throughout the season.

Bigb is cut and dry enough, he ends up floating around the outside of Dogwarts as a not-quite-member after the siege in which pretty much half the sever were antagonized by Grian and Scar. I'm probably not the person to thoroughly dissect Martyn/Bigb but there's something interesting there about how alot of people tend to have this general fondness towards Bigb and Martyn is no exception.

As for Grian, Martyn acknowledges that Grian is responsible for the siege, possible moreso than Scar, but keeps questioning how "gone" he is, worded as if he believes Scar is manipulating him. I've seen people compare this to how he acts towards Jimmy and Scott which I can definitely see the throughline. However, I think while both are an example of Martyn's protector/saviour complex, they are innately different due to Martyn's relationships with both the perceived victim and captor in each case.

Despite Grian also being an ex-Evo member, Martyn does not act towards him with the same familiarity he does with Jimmy. He also brings up Grian's welfare with Bigb and not Grian himself, with Bigb being the other person involved in their earlier established sword alliance. To me, it feels as if Martyn is more testing the waters for if he can still get Grian on his side than out of any genuine concern for Grian, although it is possible he's projecting some of those leftover feelings regarding Jimmy's situations onto Grian and Scar.

The other reason is, I think, Martyn might genuinely be afraid of Scar himself and villainizing him as a result. Everytime Scar shows up in Martyn's POV he's paired with tense music and sporadic editing that makes him appear more unhinged. Martyn has also said on tumblr he found Scar intimidating at the time, which is of course a dubiously canon source but I find it applicable enough.

It makes sense, too. When you compare Martyn's treatment of Scar vs his treatment of Scott. These are both people he has recognized as real threats and he assumes both are manipulating their respective partners, but while he remains friendly (at least outwardly) towards Scott he's constantly wary of Scar, drawing weapons on him pretty much on sight even before the siege.

I think Martyn fears Scar because he doesn't understand Scar. Scott is someone like him who he knows the inner workings of, or at least that's what he believes, so while he doesn't care for him he doesn't feel a need to keep him away. Martyn always assumes a level of coordinated malice from Scar that is more than often either completely unfounded or a result of something originating from Grian (my favourite example of this is, right before the siege, Scar wanders over with his bee on a lead and Martyn starts yelling "he's got a bee! what does that mean?!" as if expecting the bee has some pvp reason behind it. when scar just wanted to have a bee).

That isn't to say that Scar isn't malicious - Martyn is right like 90% of the time that Scar's not-so-subtle friendly hellos have some sinister plan behind them, but he doesn't ever truly get that Scar isn't the evil mastermind he thinks he is.

I'd argue this fear is what also makes Martyn not pick up on the fact that Grian is the more manipulative one out of the two - something that even Scott seems aware of - because he never spends enough time with them on friendly terms to be aware of that dynamic.

Last Life AKA big brother syndrome in full blast

Okay that was a long ass section sorry lmao have to establish everything there. Everything from here on is gonna be a lot cleaner I swear.

The Southlanders could honestly have their own ultra-long post about how they're the perfect disaster team-up lord of the flies esque situation the series has to offer.

Impulse, Grian and Martyn are all similar in that they understand they have to play the game a certain way through keeping their loyalties dubious while Mumbo, as a newcomer, is extremely naive and goes along with whatever the more assertive members of the group say. And Jimmy is Jimmy.

Martyn takes on a leadership role within the group, being the one to constantly spearhead their humour and come up with new often disruptive plans (usually targetting Scott because he totally isn't spiteful still, albeit in a very playful way). After Joel traps their base with tnt minecarts, Martyn is the one to keep everyone else back and disarm them, a huge contrast to 3L's siege.

Their group embraces the rules of the game - if you turn red, as Grian does early on, you are kicked out from the group as a threat. There's this sinking feeling throughout all their spyglass shenanigans and life-trade trust exercises that this is still an alliance in a death game and if you prove yourself to be a detriment, you will be kicked out.

It's no wonder than why Jimmy, who gets his usual bottom of the barrel treatment, tries to run away with Martyn's life during one of their trust exercises. He's been shown at this point he can't fully trust the Southlanders to protect him forever -- how could he, when Martyn, again, never slips in any sign of affection between the teasing?

To Martyn, however, this is a betrayal of his trust. His plea to Jimmy to return sounds a lot like their conversation back in 3L on the snowy mountain regarding Jimmy and Scott, except this time Jimmy accepts Martyn's offer and Martyn tells him he was lying, calling him an idiot for believing him in the first place. This is probably the harshest Martyn acts towards Jimmy in the series, but it's worth mentioning that to Martyn the timeline of events goes he offers Jimmy his protection and alliance--> Jimmy refuses--> Jimmy dies (which Martyn probably sees at least partially due to said refusal) --> he gets Jimmy back and does everything in his power to keep him safe --> Jimmy does the equivalent of *killing him* and tries to get away with it.

Martyn still obviously cares about Jimmy despite being upset at him, as after his usual dramatics and declaring a trial for Jimmy in which each of the Southlanders vote on his fate, Martyn still votes to keep Jimmy in the group (again, something Jimmy is never made aware of).

Possibly partially because of the Jimmy incident and the overall dog-eat-dog culture of the Southlanders, Martyn does to them what he never managed with Dogwarts - betrayal. At least, on some level.

Ironically, it's Ren he betrays them for, forming the Shadow Alliance and even giving the life Jimmy had attempted to steal from him to Ren instead. My read of this has always been that it supported Martyn truly being happy enough for Jimmy or someone else to have his extra life, but Jimmy's act of betraying him itself being what hurt him.

I think now's a good time to start mentioning the Watcher Lore, as here is where it starts kicking into gear. Martyn's claims of emotional bonds not carrying over from previous seasons is not only a very natural progression from his emotional distancing in a coping mechanism sense, but also enables him to betray Ren too later on and not have to confront the guilt that comes with that when he tries to lead him into a tnt trap in the final 1v1v1v1. However, he still cheers for Ren as a ghost and even says that he would be happy to see Ren win, indicating he really does not hold any malice towards him.

I've seen people make jokes about the watcher lore being Martyn schizoposting and I'm sure I've made similar jokes in the past but. Speaking very genuinely here Martyn's questionable sanity is a big part of his character to me.

His Episode 8 of LL literally begins with him acting out the usual running joke of him stealing Mumbo's intro, except Mumbo and Jimmy are dead at this point and he is doing their voices and talking to himself. When the illusion is broken, he panics and the video immediately cuts to him running around obviously distressed with a disembodied voice demanding things from him.

I'm obviously not authorized to diagnose every single one of Martyn's many mental illnesses, but I think mentally breaking down in a timeloop death game is a fairly average thing to happen to someone, and Martyn might be especially susceptible due to his aforementioned need for power and responsibility in every relationship (i.e. I'd like to think he feels some helplessness/guilt over Jimmy and Mumbo's deaths, leading to this sequence).

Not to mention, someone who is emotionally vulnerable coming up with a nebulous Group of Evil People who are the source of all the bad things in a helpless situation of violence is. Something that happens historically quite alot. To try and find reason in the madness is just a human instinct, I think.

One thing I feel like I should mention is his "marriage" with Mumbo which. I honestly don't see as anything more than a gag. Not that Martyn isn't a massive hypocrite but "marrying" Mumbo would be very much contradict what he has to say about Scott/Jimmy's situation. I do think he cares for Mumbo and potentially Mumbo's naivete served as incentive for Martyn to put on the usual assertive/provider role but I don't think there's much more than that (no hate to the shippers, tho, if they knew eachother for like a week longer they would've kissed)

Double Life. Oh no

Double Life Martyn is one of my favourite POVs in the series because it is. Hilarious. Unfortunately.

To start off, he is one of the players who almost immediately accepts the soulbound system as romantic and his views on Cleo/Scott's relationship are heavily based on that (I love that one clip where he mocks them in front of Jimmy).

Him acting flabbergasted at Cleo rejecting him despite pretty much having no relationship with her prior to this season is a really funny contrast to Scott and Pearl, especially when he continues pursuing her like they're recently divorced and Cleo's just like. rolling her eyes. It's all very performative on Martyn's end and why I mentioned his sense of masculinity at the start, because in theme with DL being The Feminism Season TM this is when it comes full throttle in display with the way he treats Cleo.

Martyn keeps referring to himself as a "provider" and refers to Cleo's relationship with Scott as "childish" -- Martyn trying to win over Scott's partner to his side, assuming he knows best for the partner and calling their relationship a sham? Does any of this sound familiar?

Cleo is not like Jimmy, however, and is very clear to Martyn in terms of what she wants from him - which is an apology, no diamond swords or heart-shaped houses, but Martyn in all his emotional denseness can't understand this and keeps assuming there must be some hidden strings attached.

I couldn't find the original meme I had in mind but these are within the same genre. The one I remember had captioned something like "dads don't say "i love you" but they will buy ten boxes worth of the fruit they overheard you say you liked once", which pretty much sums up Martyn's emotional intelligence to me. He would much rather give you way too much of something he thinks you need (e.g. with Jimmy the playful teasing, with Cleo the acts of service) than just say "I love you".

Cleo's blunt honesty serves as a stark contrast to Jimmy and brings something out of Martyn that we rarely ever see -- a genuine, vulnerable interaction in which he has to admit he's hurt. Cleo immediately denies him the role of rescuer he wants to play by telling him directly that she, not Scott, was the one who came up with the idea of teaming up and even gets Martyn to verbalize he's hurt by their actions and cares for her.

Once that illusion is shattered for Martyn and Cleo even admits she's acting manipulatively towards Scott, Martyn realises he and Cleo are more alike than he initially assumed and that he doesn't need to take care of her like he always tries to with his relationships. Ironically, the one relationship he has that is born almost entirely out of government mandated performative romance, is the one that gets him to examine how he views people especially his romantic interests the most.

This is, of course, all said with the fact that following this very heartfelt moment, the next time he speaks to Cleo he pushes her off a fucking cliff and kills her in mind. And the fact that he was very much beating the shit out of her and even called their relationship "toxic" himself early on in the season.

It's kind of hard to gauge Cleo and Martyn's relationship from this point forward but Martyn definitely chills on the namecalling and cooperates with Scott and Cleo for the main part going forward.

I think it's also worth mentioning that, despite Scott once again being the object of his spite, Martyn is once again friendly with Scott all season. When he catches Cleo and Scott mid-axe crit, it's Cleo he starts hitting and not Scott, despite them both being responsible. Behind his back, Martyn will claim Scott is "ruining" Cleo but to his face Martyn is always respectful. He actually even calls Scott "pretty"/"hot" in the last episode, which has some implications I'll talk about more in the Limlife section.

Martyn, like everyone else, is weird about Pearl. Uniquely in his case, Pearl isn't a witch nor demoness, but rather a non-factor he seems to have had written off and her triumph in the end comes as a shock to his system.

He dismisses her concerns over and over in the first episode as they are exploring together and, instead of seeing her as a natural source of allyship, doesn't value her enough to keep her around as an alliance even after Scott and Cleo dump them. In his heart to heart with Cleo, he even very randomly speaks badly of her, although he immediately seems to feel a bit of guilt over it.

He never seems to view Pearl through a sympathetic lens despite the two being in the same circumstance and, again in the same conversation with Cleo, they both agree that she could act as essentially a pawn (an "extra healthbar") for them like Cleo uses Scott.

I feel the need to clarify that while, yes I do believe Martyn is Weird About Women, I also do think he's honestly above average and sees them more as people than some other men in the series (note: my standards are not very high)

He sees most people as nothings that can be manipulated or competition that also can be manipulated, it just so happens that all the women in the series so far land squarely in the former and it took Cleo saying to his face "I'm taking advantage of Scott" for him to realise she wasn't a victim. However, even afterwards, he never treats her with the same competitiveness he has for people like Scott and Scar (albeit it makes enough sense in this season since she's attached to his healthbar, but this remains the same for future seasons). And as a reminder, he holds respect for those he deems as threats, which might have something to do with why he feels comfortable hitting Cleo but not Scott.

As for Ren and the Broken Hearts Club, they didn't get a lot of time together this season since both were preoccupied with their own soulmate dramas and being awful to Pearl but what we do see of them ranges from heartwarmingly nostalgic to a little bit hollow. Martyn saying to Pearl that they're the same at this point doesn't really read to me as him being truly sympathetic since this is post the "you should go use pearl as your second hp bar" conversation and Ren is way too busy to deal with the emotional turmoil of what's going on between himself and Bigb to really pay attention to Martyn.

Ren is still very kind to Martyn, especially considering the last time he saw him in LL Martyn was trying to kill him, but there's an emotional gap between the two that's very noticeable at least to me when compared to 3L and LL.

I think Martyn, at this point, convinced of his own "emotional bonds don't carry over seasons" logic, might be a bit too comfortable on relying on Ren. In both DL and LL he runs to Ren when his current alliance gets shaky and Ren is a source of definite comfort for him (as he said so himself on stream). Ren, as a source of comfort, is not a threat to Martyn aka not someone he needs to keep tabs so when said source of comfort falls through the gaps, you get:

Limited Life. The one where he compares himself to Joffrey from GOT

I don't think I have much to say about LimLife Martyn that hasn't already been said.

I will say I don't necessarily think Majorwood is purely his rebound relationship from Ren, the Mean Gills forming is very much not OOC for either Scott or Martyn (this is pretty much how they acted with eachother at the start of 3L) and their resulting give and take coworker-esque dynamic is a very natural place for them to end up from their previous interactions. Scott, like Martyn, tries to shed his emotional attachments with each new season so they are, in a very literal sense, making eachother worse by reinforcing that habit by normalizing it to eachother.

However, the parallels to their respective 3L partnerships I can't blame people for pointing out, right down to Martyn killing both Ren and Scott in the seaons he was teamed with them and the latter being happy about it.

I think it's time to say what I've been implying with Scott and Martyn throughout this whole thing and that is that they are eachother's ideal ally. They are both aware of the game, play the game, emotionally distant, manipulative and make themselves suffer more for that mindset. I don't think there was ever a moment in their allyship where either assumed the other wasn't going to stab them in the back later, despite the mutual respect they have being very real.

Martyn spends a lot of time this season just wandering around talking to various people, alot like how he acted in 3L before he and Ren became an official thing. It's almost as if, without Ren there, he loses his default go-to guy and is once again sizing up the competition around him.

The one exception I would say would be his interactions with Cleo, who he seems genuinely friendly with, even offering himself up as a "godfather" for the Clockers before the whole server became some form of extended family. You'd think this alliance would also have some basis in the ever present Scott/Cleo alliance but Scott's constant sacrifices for the Clockers are never discussed between him and Martyn, in fact the two of them rarely talk about anything ever past base-building and dolphin-wrangling, and the Clockers seem to treat them as two seperate entities rather than an alliance (e.g. Bdubs seems almost entitled to Scott's life after a certain point, but none of them ever even consider asking Martyn for time).

That, and of course the fact that Martyn kills Scott very unsympathetically towards the end, really point me in the "Martyn is still spiteful towards Scott" direction -- after all, alliance or no alliance, I don't think Martyn would want to be in the conversation with Scott where he tells him about his "love you back" exchange with Jimmy. Martyn certainly respects Scott, loves Scott I'd even say, but I don't know if he actually likes Scott.

I think it's also interesting that it's this season where Martyn's Watcher Lore interludes make a return, just in time for his source of comfort (Ren) to be missing.

Re: the watcher lore the comment Martyn makes about swapping out souls of players who are too "damaged" is very in line with his DL seeing women (and "weaker" men like Jimmy, Mumbo and, of course, Ren) as default victims as, knowingly or not, he implies through this that all the women in the series have souls too weak to withstand the horrors. This also in turn implies that he himself is not broken, which I think he'd like to believe.

Secret Life. It's happy again :D oh wait no

Secret Life starts with Martyn kissing Jimmy. I feel like we moved on from this way too fast in general I mean on the cheek or not he did kiss him he did literally kiss him.

I'll be honest I think the Big Dogs POV is the one I'm least familiar with out of all of these but from what I do remember it's very nice to see Martyn and Jimmy settling back into what seems like their Evo dynamic or even their pre-horrors LL dynamic.

Unfortunately Jimmy is not Cleo and thus cannot get Martyn to be the slightest bit vulnerable, so their dynamic remains stagnant and neither acknowledge the awkwardness that still resides between them.

Jimmy is at least very clearly holding onto some discomforts, judging by his behaviour late in the series when he acts aggressively towards Pearl and celebrates Lizzie dying. He even chases Scott down with a sword on horseback earlier on and, very early in one of Pearl's episodes, he quickly switches between sounding sad and angry.

It's clear to me at least SL Jimmy has reached some sort of breaking point, and this never gets acknowledged by Martyn (I like to think he just lacks the EQ to deal with it). This all cascades into Jimmy attempting to kill Martyn and running away before dying.

SL Martyn feels almost like, to me, the 3L Martyn who successfully convinced Jimmy to team with him and the disaster that comes with that. Martyn certainly has continued to be his survivalist self, not trusting outsiders to the point where when the Wither/Warden combo is unleashed, he immediately assumes they're picking off reds and goes to hide.

Weirdly enough, his protective tendencies towards Jimmy are pretty much gone. It's almost as if when he doesn't see an active threat (e.g. Scott) he assumes things must be good enough and leaves it at that, which also implies he can't comprehend that He might be detrimental to Jimmy himself.

Obligatory. Yes he still misses Ren. Him literally basing his alliance concept off of dogs is. hilarious. I'm so sorry babygirl.

Real Life is, again, non-canon to me but turns up the "dad who buys you 45 mandarins" energy to 11 with him being Ren and Skizz's pseudo-dad. I love Ren having a crisis about his own RP btw it's the funniest thing and he does it like. Everytime.

Uh yeah I hope that's long enough

[real-time-umatani]

Real-Time Eternal Love Fandub, anyone?

My bluray for the movie is on the way, and I got the idea that if it arrives before Crunchyroll posts it/any subs come out/we have any idea what's going on...

...we could do something like Snapcube's Real-Time Fandubs in the Boueibu Discord?

I'd stream the video over a call, and we'd all dub over our respective characters, and I could add music/SFX later. (There's a bot we can use to record everyone in the call, and it spits out an individual file per person!)

So, this post is really an interest check, to see who'd want to participate, what character you'd want to voice, if you'd prefer a Saturday or Sunday and what time/time zone (cause it's gotta be done all together), etc.

(I'm calling Kinshirou (@deuterium51614), and I think @koolkitty9 possibly has her eye on Akoya?)

(Most likely not going to post it anywhere publicly, just sharing privately via Google Drive and/or OneDrive so you can download a copy to rewatch!)

(And in usual fashion, I made the blog for Umatani in general so we can do it for other series in the future if we feel like it! But I figured it'd be best to start with the movie to get the most chaotic energy out since most of us really don't have an idea of what's going on with its plot.)

[katurdayss]

In the wake of Val Kilmer's death I've been looking for his movies on streaming services to watch (just saw Heat which I have thoughts about okay so many thoughts) which of course meant I mentioned Top Gun to my dad and how....80's it was. And like yes, I realize it was made in the 80's but the choices were CHOICES okay?

Like every single guy in that movie was just constantly sweating? Standing still, sitting in a chair, etc sweat just beading up all over the place. PLAYING VOLLEYBALL IN JEANS ON THE BEACH. SUNGLASSES IN A BAR AT NIGHT.

I digress. Yesterday my dad tells me he rewatched Top Gun because I mentioned Val Kilmer and he just goes 'It aged so badly' and I'm like RIGHT?! and then we both just go 'the relationship!'.

At this point I feel the need to tell the younglings on this hellsite that it's not that the acting was bad, but like you've been spoiled for choice by the level of movies nowadays (don't get me wrong there are some great old movies). The quality and expectations of movies have evolved so greatly that a lot of old movies just seem....bad?...even though Val Kilmer was an objectively good actor.

I don't think there is even a point to this post? IDK if Kilmer had been born like 30 years later I think he would been as big as Tom Cruise because he woulda had more choice in types of movies for his acting skills to devour. Hot Take.

[docholligay]

Takeaways from yesterday's stream

Wow I came so close to quitting this show ahaha. 9-12 is a just a repackaged monster of the week thing and, fuck my life. As I was streaming it, I went, "Okay I actually don't feel guilty for hating this because it does suck." I knew we had today, which, the upcoming chunk basically saved the show for me. It still hits me as so weird that we dissolve Nina and talk about the roles of alchemy and humanity and experimentation and then we, fuck off to go on little adventures. I'm not saying a breather episode can NEVER work but they have to be better than this.

That being said, Fake Hot Tall AU Ed and how angry he makes Ed just by virtue of existing makes me laugh every time.

Also, back to Nina, boy do they lay it on thick. I was less impressed with how quickly I twigged to the fact she was going to get killed on a rewatch, because they basically are like, "DO you looooooooove this child? is she sweeeeeeeeet?" and I'm like "Sir I have experienced a narrative just murder her already."

Also very very taken by the way that, about 80% of the time, let's say, that Roy is being INSANELY hard on Ed, not for no reason but certainly a touch magnified, it isn't about Ed. In these early episodes at least--I think later the animosity gets a little more real, but for sure Roy Fucking Started It. But when he's grabbing Ed's wrist in the alleyway and telling him this is what the military is about, I'm like, "Babygirl, you are yelling at you of however many years ago. This small blonde thing is not you." And I don't expect Ed to see it, because I don't even think ROY sees it. I don't think Roy gets why this kid makes him so crazy. I think if you tried to tell him that, he would not react well.

(also, lol, these fucking two. "Hey, Colonel, have you ever had a panic attack so hard you black out, screaming." "uh...no. Obviously." "Yeah me neither just asking." God.)

I have a nascent thought about Hawkeye, but I'm going to let it develop a little more before I decide much about it.

uuuuhhhhh I think that's it, this was not a real banger set of epidoes, mostly ahaha. I might have forgotten something I wanted to say though. I should have written this last night.

[michellejonesgf]

would it be enough? • tashi duncan x wife!reader

characters: tashi duncan x wife!reader

summary: tashi makes notes as her wife makes some of her own.

warnings: she/her pronouns for reader, written in third person (tried to do no y/n but did end up using it once), angst, reader is walking out the door with your bags (shout out clairo).

a/n: i have a bunch of wips begging to be uploaded, please accept this instead! i promise i'll get back to them SOONEST. (maybe looking to make this into a series? let me know if thats something that sounds good?)

tashi slides her index finger against the screen, trying to look at the same move from a different perspective. years of reassessing gameplays and yet it felt like three watches weren't enough. there's always something missed, something that becomes clearer on the next watch.

behind her, a swift gliding of a four-wheeled stroller almost misses her attention. almost. maybe if she was on her second rewatch she wouldn't have noticed it at all.

"what are you doing?" tashi says looking up from the screen, pausing the video, eyes trailing the gait she'd come to love, to seek the sound of every time she keyed open their home.

"i'm putting some clothes in this suitcase," a non-committal reply.

"are we going somewhere?" tashi hopes if she starts off joking, this matter will diffuse itself. she really needs to get back to the video.

"i know you want to get back to the game, baby," there seems to be not a tinge of anger in her voice and tashi wonders what she has done to deserve a love so considerate and caring.

"honey, i want to talk about it," tashi knows if she doesn't take this seriously, she may not have a chance to later.

"what do you want to talk about?" putting the tshirt she was folding into the case, hands on her hips, tashi's wife looks at the woman she's loved for longer than she's known herself.

bottom lip finding its place between her teeth tashi begins, "whatever's bothering you, baby, let's talk about it." she pats the spot next to her on the couch.

a deep breath in, she slowly walks to her, "i love you. i'm not sure if it would be enough for you, though."

she cups tashi's face, looking deeply into her eyes. tashi wants to say something, disagree with her, pull her towards her and make her forget she ever had those thoughts in the first place. she remembers something to add to her notes, slower backhand swing post-match break.

tashi feels a dip in her chest, its not guilt but it does feel just as heavy. with her palms on her cheeks, y/n leans in and hopes that the kiss conveys her thoughts for her. tashi misses the cool of the ring against her the moment she pulls her hands away.

tashi's thinking about the backhand swing as she watches her wife zip up the small suitcase and stroll it to the door. "i love you. dinner's in the fridge, it should be enough for two days."

"will you come to bed at night?" tashi's inquiry feels small, feels selfish.

"you should write down that note you just thought about." y/n doesn't wait for more than a minute. "you might get a good idea after another watch of the previous match, you almost have jose's strategy as an opponent down."

four years ago, she had passed tashi a napkin with notes from a student's practice match during their engagement dinner. could she tell just by the depth of her gaze that tashi had mentally checked out? it was only a five minute break. (although, she doubts she should seek a five minute break from her engagement dinner with the love of her life).

"i love you. you've always been more than enough." tashi doesn't feel emboldened to say any more than that. something about her voice feels like it may crack.

the door closes, tashi the only one coloured by the sunlight streaming in through the apartment windows. she reaches foward and opens her notebook scribbing down slower backhand swing post-match break.

[coraniaid]

Just how dangerous is Sunnydale before Buffy arrives?

Later seasons of the show will offer a pretty clear answer to this question. Sunnydale's Mayor is an immortal who works with vampires and dabbles in demonology and the police force are involved in a long-running conspiracy to cover up vampire attacks. In Season 3 Mr Trick will applaud the fact that Sunnydale has a morality rate which "makes DC look like Mayberry", Oz will claim he doesn't know if the school paper is getting depressing because he "always goes straight to the obits", and Buffy's classmates will enthusiastically applaud her for her efforts in ensuring that "the Class of '99 has the lowest mortality rate of any graduating class in Sunnydale history".

But, way back in Season 1, I don't think the question is so easily answered.

This is something I'm going to be trying to track as I go, but for now I'll just note a few things. While a vampire does kill a boy and stuff his body in the school locker at the very beginning of the season, and vampires are actively hunting victims in the Bronze even before the night of the Harvest, the impression I get from rewatching is that vampires haven't really been active much since the Master was imprisoned.

Giles tells Buffy that "that boy [that Darla killed] was just the beginning", which certainly implies there wasn't a steady stream of vampire murder victims before Buffy arrived. In order to "just" be the beginning, you have to be a beginning.

Giles also tells Buffy that "the influx of the undead" is "getting worse" and that "it's been building for years". So I don't believe the "fairly odd occurrences" he mentions as evidence the town is on a Hellmouth are meant to be as dramatic as frequent murders.

The ceremony we then immediately cut to strongly implies that the Master himself has been inactive for some time before this moment ("the Sleeper will wake" implies he was previously, well, asleep)

When Giles sends Willow to research things later, she tells him that before the earthquake of 1937 which buried the Master the town's newspapers reported "a rash of murders". The clear implication is that murders in Sunnydale are not the norm, and that after the earthquake -- after the Master became trapped -- the murders abruptly stopped.

Nobody in the Bronze reacts in a way that suggests they've seen vampires before when Luke and the others take them hostage, and nor do I think we're meant to think they have and just failed to realize it (yes, Giles does say that people have a way of forgetting things they can't rationalize away, but I don't think we're meant to assume that they've repeatedly done this before).

Of course, if for whatever reason you're wedded to the idea that the show does represent a consistent secondary world, it's not too hard to explain all that away. Giles is a new arrival in Sunnydale and doesn't know much of its history. Even if the Master wasn't sending out minions to bring him food, other vampires unrelated to the Master existed and could have filled the void he left. Maybe strange murders continued after the earthquake but the Mayor intervened to get the papers to start hushing them up.

But that's not really the way of approaching the show that appeals to me. I don't care if different seasons have slightly different settings or backstories, as long as the characters stay consistent and the season's worldbuilding makes sense internally to that season.

Oz's reaction to learning that vampires are real next year ("actually,that explains a lot!") makes sense for the world which the show had, by that point, largely settled on. But equally, I think, Willow and Xander's disbelieving and incredulous reaction to learning that vampires are real in these opening episodes also seems to make sense for the version of the show's world that existed at this point.

As I said, I'll keep an eye on this as we go, but my memory is that this doesn't really change until early in Season 2. (Even in When She Was Bad we learn that Sunnydale was unusually quiet while Buffy was away in LA, and that vampires only seemed to return to the town when she did.) Yes, by the time of The Prom Sunnydale has always been incredibly dangerous and Buffy is doing wonders to keep as many people alive as she is. But, at the time of The Harvest, Sunnydale is a mostly safe place which Buffy is trying to protect from the intrusions of the supernatural.

Sure, nobody seems to care that Jesse dies, but I don't get the sense there is a whole sequence of murdered and equally unmourned Sunnydale students of which Jesse is merely the latest example. Not yet, anyway.

[katsdynam1ght]

the power of touya "copycat" todoroki

hello to my beloved friends, acquaintances, and enemies:

last week, after watching the pro-shot of the west end production of next to normal with my good friend caro (@peternumber4), we rewatched a certain episode of mha (s7e157, "i am here"). it was during the streaming of this episode that a thought occurred to me—one that i have not seen mention of before, although in hindsight it seems rather obvious.

i'll admit here in advance—i could be stating something that everyone else has already understood and summarily dismissed as unimportant, but in the event that no one else has connected these dots, my good friend pink (@pinkedify) has prompted me to make a post on the matter.

but enough with this introduction—let's get down to business.

i think it's clear enough that, aside from his raw talent, one of touya's best skills is his ability to mimic what he sees. we see him in an earlier episode (s7e146, "two flashfires") watching videos of endeavor in an effort to learn his moves:

which then make an appearance later (in his life) in s6e124, "dabi's dance", in which he attempts to use "flashfire fist: jetburn":

given that a large part of touya's character is his obsession with endeavor, it's no surprise that he's able to mimic his moves. (and if you ask me, mimicry is a big theme in mha as a whole—characters like izuku, toga, touya, monoma, shinsou, twice, and plenty of others play into this theme quite well.)

(it also continues to strike me in the image below that he burns off the same arm endeavor lost in an effort to mimic him. it's their right arms, which is also relevant due to endeavor's use of it to signal his victory over the high-end nomu at the end of s4. he mentions in s5e89 that all might uses his left arm, which is now all that the two of them have left... interesting. screencap below is from s7e157)

in my opinion and personal headcanons about him, touya is someone who is very good at copying. anything he sees, he can mimic—but as twice's quirk proves, a copy can never be quite as good as the original. with no formal training, everything touya is capable of is absolutely incredible, don't get me wrong—had he been given proper training and support, i am absolutely willing to bet on him against most of the adversaries in this show. i'm not at all denying the sheer raw power he has.

that said, his mimicries lack the precision and coordination possessed by someone with refined skill, someone who's been taught to hone their abilities in a practiced environment. this, just like his mimicry of endeavor, is no surprise.

so what is?

see—something else happens in season seven. in the episode "i am here", we witness something absolutely extraordinary (and viscerally devastating): touya's quirk factor is not built solely upon enji's fire, but also upon rei's ice. this is his quirk awakening—an evolution of power catalyzed by extreme conditions, just like katsuki's ability to produce explosions all over his body (as witnessed in s7e149, "light fades to rain").

touya's manifests with ice bursting from his heart, the core of his being, in the moment when he finally has his father in his hands.

"but kats," i hear you saying, "we know this already. what's your point?"

my dear, fellow fans.

in the same episode where we receive more of touya's backstory in his battle against shouto (eleven episodes previous), we also find out about shouto's special move, "phosphor", which he uses in that very fight:

"phosphor", as he describes it, is "difficult to maintain", and he "can only count on it for short periods." it is also, as he states, a manifestation of his right (ice) and left (fire) sides at the same time. both quirks "converge over [his] heart" and circulate blood through his body, balancing him out. i could go on at length about what this means for him and his quirk, of course, but that isn't the point of this post. you see—

after shouto appears to win their battle, we receive approximately two shots of this (s7e147):

and later, in episode 150:

(and one from 157—)

touya mimics phosphor.

touya todoroki, barely alive, beaten by his youngest sibling, mimics a move instantaneously that not only took shouto (who had proper training) months to master, but required the co-circulation of both fire and ice. a move that is reliable only for short periods, and yet touya manages it for the remainder of his battle, all the way up until he is finally defeated in episode 157.

this is a move that touya should not, under any circumstances, be able to replicate at all. this isn't his quirk. it's not a move he knows. he doesn't know how it functions, much less how to maintain it for such a long time, and at the point he manifests it, not even he is aware of the ice power within his quirk factor. when that ice fully appears in his fight with endeavor, his mind is so far gone that he's calling out for natsuo of all people. he shouldn't be able to do any of this.

and yet—what could possibly stop him? touya todoroki, who has lived on hatred alone for years—perhaps it's wrong of me to be so surprised.

so yes. he copied phosphor. but from the lack of discussion i've seen regarding that fact, i'm not sure anyone has fully processed what exactly that means.

he isn't just mimicking flames—he's mimicking a quirk that isn't even his.

it's a little terrifying when you sit down and think about it. jack of all trades, really.

enji todoroki, you could have had your perfect son. there's nothing that boy is incapable of. you just had to give him the chance.

you just had to look at him.

[andreal831]

What are your top 5 episodes on both TO and TVD?

This took me some time to put together but if you push me on any of these, I'll probably cave. I haven't rewatched in a while and I feel like I would have to sit down and actually rank them to get a list I feel confident in. A lot of my favorite scenes aren't even in this list because the rest of the episode just doesn't rank high for me. But without further ado, here is my tentative top episode list.

Top 5 Episodes for TVD

5. 1x22 - Founder's Day

Despite how problematic the 'Founder's Day' was (like how they completely disregarded the actual founders. Justice for the Bennetts), Katherine's entrance was done so well. The revelation was a great twist and I love watching people watch this episode for the first time.

It's not higher because everything else was kind of just a normal episode. I love at this point we are getting glimpses of how powerful Bonnie is and Stefan's devotion to Damon. It also begins to build on the mystery of Tyler which was fun. But other than that, it was just a lot of high school drama. Katherine's entrance really made this episode.

This is one that I would probably replace if I rewatched.

4. 6x21 - I'll Wed You In the Summertime /6x22 - I'm Thinking of You All the While

I'm already cheating and combing these episodes, but they are basically just a continuation.

I want to preface this with saying, I hate Matthew Davis more than I can express. I also don't think I like Alaric much in the later seasons. But I did really like him and Jo. This episode was so cute and light and fun. Up until it wasn't in true TVDU fashion.

I loved seeing season 1 Elena again. I will always defend Elena when people get misogynistic with her, but vampire Elena was not my favorite. When she took the cure, I felt like we got the old Elena back. If they hadn't of done that, I probably wouldn't have been sad to see her leave.

We got some really touching moments between Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline, with them getting ready and their goodbye. Bonnie and the feathers had me in tears the first time I watched this episode. We get Stefan torturing Damon with the fact that Damon loves being a vampire, sorry but I loved it. Caroline and Tyler actually talking as friends. Tyler and Liv making me sob. Stefan and Caroline moment. Kai's reappearance was terrible but pretty epic. Bonnie just being an amazing badass. Just all of the chaos was great and Damon faking us out thinking he wouldn't save Bonnie but then ultimately doing so.

My biggest complaint was that Bonnie was so separate from everyone, dealing with Lily with just Matt for back up. Though I do love a good Bonnie/Matt team up.

3. 3x05 - The Reckoning

Surprisingly, this was the first episode I ever saw of the TVDU. I was at a family member's home for a holiday and they had it on and I was hooked. Not only did I love the friendship dynamics in this episode, but the villains were so good. Klaus and Rebekah were unhinged in this episode. It was a great introduction to the best aspects of TVDU.

Stefan fighting the compulsion for Elena is one of the reasons I'll always have a soft spot for Stelena. I loved Matt and Bonnie's friendship in this episode. They were both such selfless people and I loved moments we got of them together. I don't typically like Damon and Katherine, but even their interactions were so funny in this episode.

2. 4x20 - The Originals

Is this cheating?

I always get so excited when I get to this episode because it's time to switch over to The Originals. But come on, we get to meet Cami and Marcel. We get haylijah and klamille's meeting.

It is weird that I almost like it more than the pilot of TO? Just purely for the nostalgia. Also because the pilot removed some of my favorite scenes that I always forget aren't there until I rewatch TO and then i have to go find wherever TVD is streaming.

And then stuff is still happening back in Mystic Falls, I guess.

I could probably also replace this one on a rewatch with a more TVD focused episode but I can't think of any right now.

2x08 - Rose

No one is surprised this one tops the list. Not only is it the introduction of the Originals, but more importantly it's Elijah's introduction. I know I am biased, but this is my favorite episode in TVD and usually the one I start with on rewatches.

I also love Rose and Trevor (RIP). But the tension in this episode is so good and the show struggled to recreate it. They built up Klaus' entrance so much that it was kind of disappointing. Nothing could live up to the hype. But Elijah came out of nowhere. We didn't even know he existed before this episode. He just shows up, all creepy and mysterious, and then just casually comes back to life after being staked in the heart.

I wouldn't change a thing about this episode.

Top 5 Episodes for TO

5. 3x09 - Savior

I'm a sucker for a Christmas episode.

But let's be honest, this is one of the best TO episodes.

We get the trio's reunion, if only briefly. We get Rebekah going mad and trying to kill everyone while dropping some hard to hear truths (sorry Hayley). We get Jackson starting to accept his in-laws. Cute scenes between the Mikaelsons, actually including Hope. Finn helping Freya save their siblings. Freya's first Christmas with her family. Klamille's first kiss. Plus a bunch of drama in the background.

One of my biggest complaints with TO is that it doesn't give us moments of just peace and let them be a family. It is so action packed that we never get to just have a comfort episode. It only took them 3 seasons, but we finally got one (mostly). I mean it ended terribly but I just stop watching before that.

4. 2x01 - Rebirth

This is just Elijah's best episode hands down. And yes I am making this list about Elijah. It's kind of what I do here.

But seriously, he looked so good in this episode and was just so perfect.

I had no idea what to expect out of this episode since season 1 ended with so much up in the air and this episode delivered. So much happened. Elijah being the mastermind while Klaus and Hayley grieved losing Hope. Then them all working together as a team for the first time. And I'd be remis if I don't talk about Elijah's infamous scene of walking into the Guerreras house like he owned it. Also love them trusting Cami to help. Marcel is also in on it. I just love them all working together.

Getting to see Rebekah raising Hope. Marcel and Cami just being hot. But also Cami going to check on Klaus, that scene, the tension. So good. Cami and Elijah talking and then Elijah and Klaus talking about Cami. Perfection. Davina putting Oliver in his place. And then Hayley later doing the same. The introduction of Gia. Even the tension between Elijah and Hayley is so good. I could truly feel all of their grief and desperation. I also love Klaus and Hayley actually talking and Klaus realizing that his scheming is what cost them everything (although he will quickly forget this lesson).

It's another perfect episode. No notes.

3. 4x03 - Haunter of Ruins

I'm honestly surprised an episode from season 4 or 5 is even on this list, but I do love this episode before everything goes to hell.

This episode was another comfort episode.

I clearly loved the amount of haylijah we get. We get our first "I love you" from both of them. Although I headcanon they said it before this. We get them just being super cute and flirty and then super hot. Hayley wearing Elijah's shirt when she runs to check on Hope is so perfect to me. I love the scene of them on the porch. They love each other so much and this episode does a great job expressing it.

We finally get the Mikaelsons all together, even Kol (sorry Finn). I love seeing them behave as siblings in the beginning, bickering. I love how they handled introducing Hope to them and how hesitant they all are, which is so out of character for them, but they have no idea how to interact with a child. Klaus and Hope was so sweet. And Rebekah finally standing up for what she wants and encouraging her brothers to do the same.

My only complaint is Freya and Keelin. I love them because this show is deprived of sapphic representation. But why did they have to make the only sapphic couple's origins be essentially stockholm syndrome. I loved Hayley standing up for Keelin but then Freya just immediately goes after her again. Only thing I would change is how Freya behaved in this episode.

2. 3x22 - The Bloody Crown

May be unpopular, but I loved seeing the Mikaelsons get put in their place. And then I loved Vincent standing on his morals and turning around and put Marcel in his place. Everyone needs accountability.

Marcel awakening as an upgraded Original was so good. We got the return of Rebekah in this episode and she was fantastic. I loved Klaus' trial and I loved Rebekah getting to stand with the enemies (even if it was just the curse/part of the plan). People love to say Klaus didn't deserve it because Marcel was really mad at Elijah, but all of these people were here specifically because of Klaus. They all needed some humbling. Except Rebekah.

I can't talk about this episode without talking about haylijah. The show opens on one of their cutest scenes (we aren't going to talk about the problematic stuff that happened in the episode before). Elijah watching Hayley sleep was adorable. And then we get the scene of Elijah telling Hayley to not grieve him. They break my heart.

2x09 - Map of the Moments

Not surprising, but another Christmas episode.

And no, it's not just because of hayllijah.

I mean, it's not not because of haylijah.

In case you can't tell, my favorite episodes tend to be the comfort episodes. I love the drama, but the reasons I adore these shows are because of bonds. We get to see the Mikaelsons reunite with Hope and actually have some moments of peace together.

There are so many scenes that made me actually laugh out loud. I just adore this episode so much. And yes, I love it because we finally get haylijah getting together, if only briefly.

This was such a fun ask, thank you! What episodes did I miss?

[willbee-1]

Rewatching "Yield Point" from near the beginning of s3

And man-

A) ⟟ forgot how scary /pos the vibes of this stream was all bc it was Rae going to talk to Ven

B) we see Perix becoming minor god, and the hesitancy that she has in become the goddess of illusions and Enderian like- getting her to take it

And it's so mhmmmmm- like- in-between that time of her becoming ⏃ god and when she gets Cas as ⏃ prisoner, so much of her hand changed- she was no longer this hesitant goddess, she was this goddess that only was (probably) taking her anger out into Cas and it's so- ararara

C) Rae talking ab Fable is the only one giving him information (as of that time) and Ven following up basically is that helping you or himself

Bc he scared of getting Fable back out and he cant even fully remember why

Bc Fable had killed him, Ven isn't even supposed to be there to begin with, he's supposed to be dead and that gotta be why he was so hesitatent of Fable coming back out

And yet he walks right back into Fable's trap and starts working for him again huh

Man I'm over here like- 'Rae- no don't trust him you regret that decision so much later, you have seen those horrors yet-

[crispylilworm]

I'm rewatching Neon Genesis Evangelion while I still have access to a Netflix account, and I first watched it in high school when I was the same age as the pilots and it gave me horrible nightmares

Specifically (spoilers) that whole arc where EVA 01 with the dummy pilot obliterated EVA 03 while Shinji watched and an angel broke into NERV and then EVA 01 went absolutely berserk and ate the angel and then Shinji like disintegrated into primordial goop as a stream of consciousness and seeing the EVA as an monstrous angel without its restraints...that was way too might for my teenage psyche to handle lol. It was just as scary rewatching literally 15 years later!!

Like lowkey I forget everything that happened but I still see memes of the show to this day (*cough**cough* hospital incident) but NGE is so iconic and so unique literally nothing is comparable. I question the validity of any "top anime" list that doesn't at least shout it out. The aesthetics alone, I distinctly remember first watching and thinking the NERV HQ and Tokyo 3 designs were so sick and that impact still holds, every angel battle has me holding my breath. And don't even get me started on the music themes - the ones with the heavy timpani drums and loud brass for battle, I rewind scenes just to hear the music lol

I have been rewatching NGE (dub) and Cowboy Bebop (dub) going through the Gundam 80s movies (sub) + probably the Gundam Seed shows after, I just love retro futurism and I love mechs and I love aesthetic and world-building heavy shows ughhhh

Also Chilchuck what are you doing here ?!?!? How did I watch both NGE and Dungeon Meshi dubs and not connect the dots that it was the same voice actor until I looked it up like a week ago