#if what happens in the last ep festers

[fairytaehl]

days on a wire (ling miaomiao x mu sheng)

summary:

Two days. It took two days for Lin Yu to recover from the Reflection Domain. Despite the silence from her lack of presence, his mind had never felt so disquieted.

or

the time miaomiao is passed out between the end of ep 7 and beginning of ep 8.

notes: my first contribution to lgief of hopefully many. i did my best to show ziqi's inner turmoil and get my details right! cross-posted on ao3 here. enjoy!

For as long as he could that night, Mu Sheng kept Lin Yu in her room, hidden away from his sister and Liu Fuyi. It was pointless, only lasting just under an hour before his sister barged in in a panic, calling her name. Thankfully, he had already healed both of them, before they even left the Reflection Domain. Still, the girl in the bed was passed out, looking nowhere near awakening from her slumber.

“Lin Yu meimei!” Mu Yao repeated when she saw the two of them, rushing to the bedside to lean over her friend and assess her. She whipped her head so quickly to Mu Sheng he thought she could’ve hurt herself, wary clear on her face. “A’Sheng, what happened?” She asked.

Mu Sheng, who was sitting on a stool with his hands folded on his lap, cast his eyes downwards. He had been struggling with a lie to tell her, one that was believable, at least. There was no chance he’d say the truth, lest he wished to implicate himself. No, that was entirely not an option.

“A’Sheng?” She said, voice laced with more concern than before.

He sighed. “I was resting inside my room, but I heard a scream and when I went outside, Lin Yu was in the water nearby.��� He tried to avoid looking at her, but when he glanced sideways and saw her astounded expression, he added, “She couldn’t have been in there for longer than a minute.”

She pursed her lips, shaking her head. “A’Sheng,” she breathed out once more, each time sounding more and more disappointed, in the situation, in him. She touched Lin Yu’s forehead with the back of her hand. “She’s not sick, but she’s still passed out like this,” she murmured, resting a pair of fists on her knees.

Mu Sheng felt his throat constrict. He anticipated that he was about to get scolded, but instead, his sister was silent for a moment before sighing quietly, so much so that he wouldn’t have heard it if he wasn’t intently watching her, eyebrows turning down when she stared right at him.

“You should go. I’ll take care of her,” she stated. It was obvious there would be no discussion.

He nodded dumbly. “Yes, a’jie,” he replied, getting up off the stool. He paused for a moment while she lifted up a hand again to tuck Lin Yu’s hair, clenching his jaw and dragging his feet as he left Lin Yu’s room, sparing a final glance at his sister having taken his spot, body tensed.

Though most of him was bothered by his sister’s dismissiveness, there was something nocuous inside of him that was beginning to fester, and he feared the outcome if he didn’t cauterize it at its root.

The best course of action right now was to distract himself. So he headed out towards where he and Lin Yu had been training, internally cursing at associating this spot with her.

He closed his eyes.

Breathe. Relax. Allow nothing to create a disturbance.

When he reopened them, he summoned the sword from a bracelet, gripping it tightly. Double quick, he began to swing it around, turning and stepping on the dirt, making leaps from one side to the other. He thought of the water demon who bested him, who wanted to bleed him dry, but strangely, when envisioning a body to thrust his sword into, his demon form was all he saw.

He faltered, yet felt even more fired up by it.

If it weren’t for that thing, he wouldn’t have had to use a reverse talisman. He wouldn’t have had to be weakened, struggling to fight. He wouldn’t have had to lie to his sister and watch disappointment wash over her face and the rest of her body, slumped shoulders and knuckles curled in hard enough to see nail marks fainting when she requested him to leave.

He grunted aloud and jumped up, flipping and slashing through the air. For some reason, he felt angrier than he had when his demon staff was insulted and tossed aside by the water demon. This part of him that he could not erase, could not deny when his own blood was the evidence. And now, it wasn’t his own secret.

Mu Sheng grit his teeth. When he took a step forward, then one more, wishing to jab the apparition, his body burned, setting the sword alight even more. The anger was boiling inside, though he kept from yelling so as to not draw attention to himself.

This back and forth with a non-existent entity went on for what must’ve been hours. The sun had long since hid itself behind the expanse of trees, as if fearful that Mu Sheng could outburn it, and the air was cooling, though his body remained hot.

He was panting when he came to a stop, finally feeling like he exhausted his pent up frustration. His throat was too dry, he knew he needed to sit and have some tea to calm down.

That morning had been the last time he ate, though he wasn’t hungry at all. If anything, the thought of ingesting something at this moment repulsed him. Not because he was punishing himself (okay, maybe he was a little bit), but because, after everything that happened, he didn’t think he could keep it down.

Something was making him feel sick, and it wasn’t just in regards to his sister.

He shook his head to dispel the thoughts, unwilling to give them any attention of which they did not deserve. He took a sip of the tea after pouring it and sighed.

Maybe he should just rest early tonight.

---

Tossing and turning throughout the night wasn’t uncommon for him, but this was more often than usual, each time a vivid image of Lin Yu crawling towards him and ripping off his headband on the forefront of his mind. Later in the morning, he even had sweat above his brow.

The sky was barely beginning to light up, and though his bed was calling him, he just couldn’t risk letting his head go back to that. He should get started with his day, perhaps find herbs and anything else with medicinal properties to gather that’d be helpful in their journey. For later on, that is. Not presently. Lin Yu was fine. She didn’t need anything. He already healed her. Not that anything should be wasted on her anyways.

Yet, he couldn’t help but go to check and see how his sister (and her) were doing.

He found Mu Yao resting in bed with her, both sound asleep. It shot a twinge of jealousy through him, wondering how she could so easily receive this affection from someone he’d known for as long as he could remember. Lately, it felt as if his sister’s doting was reserved for this new figure in their group, getting scolded more than before.

He did his best to shut the door behind him gently, even if each part of him was encouraging him to make his presence known. Yes, he didn’t like to argue with her, but even negative attention was attention.

Mu Sheng was better than that, though, especially now, knowing what could come of it. It was better to venture into the nearby forest to compose himself. This was his fault, after all. Kind of. If Lin Yu hadn’t been so stupid and careless, none of this would be happening. No, it wasn’t his fault.

He flipped his bangs out of his face, fetching a bag to bring along, heading out towards the woods with the intention of blocking this all from his mind, that things would simply go back to the way it was once she woke up. What was she even sleeping so much for anyways? She was in so much need of attention that even her subconscious acted like this?

Whatever, if his sister wanted to take care of her, fine. He certainly didn’t want to, so he wasn’t going to fight for the position. It was much more convenient for him to pluck at some familiar roots, using a knife to free them from the ground or slice them off a tree. They were decently stocked for the time being from Taicang County, but given that they were in a small place now and their journey was unpredictable, he knew it was best to seize the opportunity.

A rustling of leaves perked up his ears, yet he kept himself preoccupied so as to not seem as if he was alerted. Whoever was trying to ambush him was doing a terrible job, but he wasn’t going to let them know that. If anything, they became even louder, to the point where Mu Sheng thought it was on purpose.

Turning around, he tried to find the source of the noise. There was the sound of a twig snapping, so he slowly leaned over to catch the culprit, yet saw no figure. He wasn’t imagining things, no way. He crouched down and silently took a few steps towards the area which had an echoing sound of the ground being tapped.

Prepared to summon his demon staff, he got closer, but a loud cluck threw him off kilter, followed by a chicken speeding away in the opposite direction of him just as it came into view.

Mu Sheng scowled, rolling his eyes. He didn’t even think chickens would be around here, given what the man at the inn said in regards to their menu.

His shoulders tensed up and he took in a breath at the reminder of why that was even a concern; Lin Yu.

It just reminded him again of his sister’s graciousness towards her, something that he refused to participate in, unlike Liu Fuyi.

So what if he wasn’t welcoming to her and spoke harshly and acted even worse? Some petulance should be allowed; she knew he didn’t like outsiders.

He bit the inside of his cheek. This was why his sister spoke to him like that. His lack of self-control, his temper and reluctance to accommodate anyone were the exact opposites of her, and adding someone to the picture, who she took a liking to, just made it worse. He knew this. He knew all of this. And yet, there was still something about Lin Yu that he wouldn’t let go.

Why did she want to burn the Hundred Demons Mountain and Sea Map? Who was she, what was the world she spoke of? To turn a blind eye to her mysterious behavior would be foolish. And Mu Sheng was not a fool.

Although it did prompt more unwelcome thoughts to roll around in his head; why did she save him?; why did she say she cared about him?; if she really wanted to hurt his sister, wouldn't taking the talisman and leaving him to die have been the best outcome?

For some reason, the last one made his heart race. He didn’t want to let whatever was spiking it to surface and provoke any other foreign feelings, so he pushed it down.

Huffing, he figured it was already time to get back. This was supposed to clear his mind, to give him something else to focus on. Instead, it only felt even more muddled than before, giving him more to sift through the next time it would cross his mind. But that was not now, so it wasn’t his problem. Presently.

He clicked his tongue, returning to the inn, bag stuffed with his pickings. Perhaps he could go check to see what his sister would like to eat. Surely she wouldn’t be upset with him for this. She wouldn’t still be angry.

With newfound avidity, he marched towards Lin Yu’s room, confidently opening the doors to greet his sister, but who sat there was not her. It was Liu Fuyi.

Instinctively, his mouth twitched downwards. What was he doing here?

The other man turned around at the noise, face standardly calm as usual. How irritating. He acknowledged him with a nod, but Mu Sheng only rolled his eyes and crossed his arms in response as he went in a few steps.

“What are you doing here?” He questioned, already on offense, keeping his eyes off of Lin Yu and directly at the man seated on the stool.

Liu Fuyi was unperturbed, another infuriating characteristic. He rarely ever wanted to argue back or fight him. He was always the good guy; the cool, collected, older gentleman. Only recently, when he accused him of stealing the Hundred Demons Mountain and Sea Map in front of his sister, did he react in the way he wanted for once. Regardless of whether or not his words stung, for once, he got Liu Fuyi, renowned peacekeeper, to snap, just a bit.

He gestured to Lin Yu. “I’m keeping an eye on Miss Lin while A’Yao gets something to eat,” he replied, voice even.

Mu Sheng glared. “She asked you to watch her?” He didn’t know why he was even that mad at this; he didn’t want to do it. Something about her going to him instead…

Liu Fuyi’s eyebrows went up slightly. “You weren’t around when she went to your room.” He hated that that was what happened, and he hated that Liu Fuyi didn’t seem the least bit bothered by Mu Sheng’s annoyance at him without knowing all the details.

He rolled his eyes and tch’ed. “Not like there’s anything to watch over here,” he mumbled, turning around and heading back out, but his name being called stopped him, making him regretfully turn around.

“A’Sheng,” Liu Fuyi said again, “A’Yao told me to ask you what happened.” The lack of judgement on his face was irksome. Enough so that he chose not to give him an actual answer and went right back to leaving.

“It’s not your business,” he retorted back as he passed over the threshold, shutting the doors roughly.

Stupid Liu Fuyi. Aggravating, unpleasant and punchable face Liu Fuyi.

His mood was even worse than before thanks to him. This was ridiculous. He needed to talk to his sister.

There was no one seated at the table when he went to the dining area, though. Had he missed her on her way back to the room? No, that couldn’t be possible, it was a rather open area and it’d be hard to miss her since no one else was there besides them. Maybe she was in her room?

But when he knocked on her door, calling “a’jie,” there was no response. Usually, he would go right in, but with the unsettled air between them, he wanted to tread lightly, if possible.

Minutes went by without an answer, so he peeked inside, going around the wall and seeing that she wasn’t there either. He put his hands on his hips. He was out of options. Unless she stepped foot off the grounds of the inn, he didn’t have many guesses as to where else she could be.

Ah, bathing, perhaps. That was always an option, too.

Speaking of, he felt rather disheveled since yesterday, even though all of his blood was cleared off him, the look and feeling of it dripping down his chin still lingered. He needed to clean himself up, and the hot water would ease his nerves, as long as he didn’t get himself worked up again.

He’d wait til later, right before he went to sleep, to uncloud his mind and rest well this time, without any unwelcome visions.

For some reason, now that he was at a loss of what to do and where to go, his brain unhelpfully supplied the reminder that he was her shifu, and he could do something for her, like make her a magical weapon.

That was dumb. Why would he think that? As if he would go to such lengths to provide for someone helpless like her. There was no need to expend the effort on a thing like that for her, who wouldn’t even make it another week in her training, and that was being generous. And who knew if she’d want to continue after this?

How ridiculous to consider it.

---

Mu Sheng cleaned his bracelets gently, like he did most days, feeling a dull ache in his chest at how his sister, the only family he’d ever known, made this for him. He would feel bad at how he continued to cause problems over what seemed like small things, but it was all for her. Regardless of whether or not she knew this, of whether or not he was overly cautious, he’d rather be the bad guy than risk anything happening to her. If she was mad, so be it.

He knew it wasn’t that simple, though. Because it still hurt to hear her upset with him, to look at him with disapproval. When would her patience wear thin?

Although he had no intentions of it earlier, he felt the urge again to make something easier for Lin Yu to utilize for spells. Be it his guilt of what happened to her or his sister, it stayed for a moment until he shook it away once more.

There was no point in doing that if she wasn’t going to want to keep learning, at least from him, anymore. He wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t want to. He had been terrible, on purpose, and despite how much she bounced back, the fact that she was lying asleep right now for almost two days would be enough reason for her to never want anything to do with him again.

So what if she said she wasn’t afraid? Was she even thinking right? When she woke up, would she still feel the same?

It didn’t matter. Who was she to him? Just a nuisance he had to get rid of, someone who had bad intentions for his sister that he had to find out. At least he thought.

Ugh, this was too confusing. There really was no reason to want him to live if she was as ill-natured as he believed her to be. Did she really… care? About him?

He hated how he felt his heart rate pick up again. But he couldn’t deny the feeling that having someone say they wanted him to live, the gesture of her ripping up her easy escape, spurred within him.

Comforted. Wanted. Liked.

For him.

She saw him at his worst state, knew his worst secret, and wanted to save him.

He clutched the cloth tightly in his hand. He should finish wiping these so he could go eat and then go for that bath.

---

This time, when he entered the dining area, Liu Fuyi was already having dinner. It nearly had him heading right back out, but his stomach growled, and it’d be foolish to deny himself something to eat. He’d had lone meals with him before, he could do it again.

Reluctantly, he sat across from him, who didn’t realize his entrance until then.

“A’Sheng,” he greeted with a nod, placing a bit of rice into his mouth.

Mu Sheng grunted in response, grabbing some of the food to add to a bowl. He had no intent of verbally addressing him.

They sat in silence for several minutes, only the sound of their chopsticks touching the dishes and soft chewing filling the air. It was Liu Fuyi who had to break it, of course.

He cleared his throat politely, and Mu Sheng had to hold back the eyeroll. “A’Sheng, could you tell me what happened with Miss Lin?” He asked.

This again.

He glared at him. “What does it have to do with you? Why do you have to know?” He responded, already angry, though his companion remained poised.

Liu Fuyi placed his chopsticks down. “Miss Lin is our friend. I am worried for her, and for A’Yao, who’s been staying by her side. I want to help if it is within my capabilities,” he stated.

This time, he really did roll his eyes. It made sense. Of course it made sense. But he had never been a fan of things like that.

“Surprised my sister won’t tell you?” He quipped back, going back to eating as if the discussion was over. To him, it basically was.

Liu Fuyi inclined his head just slightly. “I’d like to hear it from you, if you’d share with me.”

Mu Sheng swallowed his food roughly and tossed his chopsticks onto the table. “Well I won’t!” He declared, getting up from the bench, staring him straight down. Now, he had no appetite. That was what he told himself anyway while he stormed out.

But his stomach said otherwise, so he had to go back in, avoiding eye contact to grab his bowl of rice, filling up another with side dishes, taking them both to his room so he could eat in peace there.

When he finished, he relaxed himself in the hot water of the large bath, shutting his eyes. It was shockingly easy to become lost in the feeling of a warm hug, his lungs clearing from the steam, comforting him enough to the point where he could sleep here.

He sighed, opening his eyes and sitting up properly, looking at his hands and reflection, which were covered in blood yesterday. He wiped at his face absentmindedly, rubbing his hands together under the water roughly as if they were dirty. He felt like he was. Being a half-demon, lying about it to the one person he loves. It wasn’t exactly noble, but it also wouldn’t be something his sister would ever accept. So if he had to live his life feeling like the soil beneath her shoes, so be it.

---

The next morning, he slept in. Perhaps all his anger exhausted him to that point, since he didn’t have much of any dream that disturbed him, meaning that it wasn’t his guilt.

He only awoke when he heard a knock and the mention of his sister from Liu Fuyi outside his door. He practically leaped out of bed, slightly anxious at why he was being summoned by her. As he got dressed, he eyed the apples resting on his table. Something inside of him told him to grab them, so he stuffed them in his robes. Once ready, he swung open the doors to see Liu Fuyi standing there. They held eye contact before Liu Fuyi spoke.

“As I said, A’Yao asked for you to go to Miss Lin’s room,” he stated.

Mu Sheng scrunched his nose at having gotten this message from him, but he didn’t have the energy to fight. He pushed past him and went over to Lin Yu’s room, the doors already ajar.

He stepped over to stand beside his sister who was seated on the stool, taking in her mood. She didn’t look mad, but she didn’t look happy, either. After a moment, she broke the silence.

“A’Sheng, could you stay with Lin Yu meimei for me? I’d like to take a moment to rest,” she told him.

He hesitated, pointing to himself slowly. “Me? Not… Liu Fuyi?” For some reason, despite the task, having her ask him personally for this made him chuffed, though he tried not to show it. If only he didn’t miss this opportunity the day before.

She nodded once and stood up, facing him. “Yes. I came here to ask you yesterday, but you weren’t here,” she stated, which he already knew. Did she not know he knew? Did Liu Fuyi not tell her he stopped by the room?

Mu Sheng blinked and glanced down. “I… I went to gather some things for our travels,” he explained, tentatively looking back up.

Her small smile was enough to let him release the breath he didn’t realize he was holding. “Thank you, A’Sheng. That’s very kind of you,” she said, placing a hand on his head and smoothing his hair. “So you can do this for me?”

“Yes, a’jie, go rest,” he insisted, wanting to bring her to her room, but knew that the point of having him here was to not leave her alone.

He did watch her leave, staring at the empty air before turning his attention to the girl laying in bed.

His eyes rested on her face, peacefully still. He traced the curve of her cheek, the slope of her nose and counted the obscene amount of eyelashes she had that she liked to bat at him. Even when she slept, she looked like a governor’s daughter, perhaps even a princess. It confounded him that she didn’t act like one. How could someone born with such privileges be so removed from them? He didn’t know what was more frustrating; the fact that she was a governor’s daughter who didn’t act spoiled, or that she was a governor’s daughter who was overtly kind.

Either way, he couldn’t stop the thought that had been trying to rear its head while he stared.

She was pretty.

Mu Sheng physically recoiled, face twisting in displeasure as he sat down.

Yeah, she was pretty.

Pretty annoying.

What a ridiculous thing to think. Her face was that of a baby’s. It was only cute like-

No. It wasn’t cute. At all.

He grumbled at himself, a little louder than he meant, unable to help cautiously glancing at her to see if that disturbed her. But no, she continued to sleep without even a strand of hair falling out of place.

The apples he tucked away shifted, reminding him of their presence. He took one out and eyed it. There was a plate resting on the table right by the bed, likely having been a placeholder for a cup, given its cleanliness, so he picked it up and placed it on his lap. He grabbed the knife he carried with him and, without any reason, started to carve out little rabbits.

For some reason, he thought that maybe she’d like them. And he wanted to do something that she would maybe like.

When he was done, he wiped his hands and knife clean, hiding it away again.

It took a second to catch up that he had just done that. What the hell was wrong with him?

He shut his eyes and took a deep breath to try to realign himself, but it didn’t help. Instead, he saw her, again, in the Reflection Domain, determined to save him. He squeezed his hands together to make it disappear, but then he saw her shaking her head when he asked if she was afraid. His heart skipped a beat.

He reopened them slowly, focusing on a fixed spot of the comforter that was blanketed over her. She was mixing him up, he didn’t know what to think, or feel, anymore.

Could he still consider her a malicious person? He knew she was strange, knew something was off about her, but was it in the way he thought? Maybe her nonsense wasn’t related to anything harmful. He wouldn’t let his guard down, yet he couldn’t help but entertain the thoughts.

The idea that someone who had no reason to care for his life, had no reason to want him to live, did… he didn’t understand it, nor the way it made him feel. The thumping in his chest increased, his palms felt a little sweaty, and he wasn’t hungry, nor overly famished, but his stomach was unsettled.

He needed to know. When she woke up, he would ask. He would definitely ask.

He wanted to ask. Maybe he would. If she wasn’t mad at him, that was. Then it’d be meaningless to bring it up.

What were the chances of her being upset? She never seemed to be, although he was repeatedly rude to her. Though, there could be the chance that he crossed the line this time, since he put her in harm’s way.

This didn’t even matter. Why did he care? He couldn’t risk having her around, right? She knew his secret now. It would be dangerous.

But what if it wasn’t?

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw hers flutter open.

[legacy-yeosang]

last twilight ep 7 thoughts, feelings, etc

ALRIGHT i ran my errands, caught up on pit babe and playboyy to relax, and now i'm doing my speedwatch. i took some notes while watching the first time and they're a fucking MESS but hopefully they help me remember everything i want to comment on because without fail i always forget something.

you'll all be glad to know this week's meta bullshit from me is far, far less romantic and wistful than last weeks. you've all been spared by my adhd brain not being able to piece together a single poetic thought.

i kind of knew from this moment the trajectory the episode would take. Day is clearly nervous but not defensive - this isn't out of the realm of something Mhok would do for him but with recent context it probably feels fairly intimate. i think this was a really good indicator of what we're in for.

there's a collection of sunflowers in Day's room, tucked away in the corner, not unlike Mhok tucking away his feelings for Day's comfort. the poor things are shrouded in shadow, away from the light. the pain is unending and forever.

Day's flashback to the kiss has me curious. his eyes are closed so he's not even thinking back to seeing what he can of Mhok up close. as he reminisces about this kiss is he simply remembering the sensation of Mhok's lips on his own? how his hands curled into Mhok's jacket? and i'm sure we've all seen the post but - was he thinking of the way Mhok tasted like cigarettes? this isn't to romanticize his disability, i'm just genuinely wondering what exactly he's drawing on here in this moment, because it's clearly something significant to him.

Porjai just keeps getting prettier every episode and it's making me insane. i just think i should be allowed to take care of her.

"I'm jealous of Day's ability to make you smile."

this makes me think Mhok's smiles have been few and far between, and maybe Porjai has been looking to bring out that smile for a long time. does she ever worry that maybe someday Mhok could end up like Rung? does she worry about finding him too?

oh i so very badly want the context for this, i want to know everything. but also, it's really not that surprising. not when we've seen the things Mhok has done for Day. Mhok lives his life in extremes; anger, kindness, protectiveness, his work, etc. everything Mhok does he puts his whole self into it and it's nice to see his love is no different, because why would it be?

i'm once again in awe of what P'Aof has done with Mhok and Porjai, though. they live together so easily and naturally. there's nothing strange or awkward about it, just two people surviving life together. it's such a breath of fresh air.

Day just cannot catch a break when it comes to August. this has to hurt so fucking badly, the pity has to feel amplified by 1000. not only was August trying to force himself to like Day back because he's blind, but also because he was thinking of leaving. Day is a stronger man than me because i would be frothing at the mouth pissed.

but once again, Mhok doesn't let Day stew in his fish tank. he encourages him to go out and resolve his feelings, even if that means screaming at August and letting out all his hurt and frustration. he's seen what happens when Day lets his hurt fester and he won't let it happen again, not while he's around.

"He's a lot stronger than I thought. It's me who's so weak that I let him down."

as much as August pisses me off, i do think this is him realizing his pity was misplaced, and he failed Day in that way, so he gets some redemption points here. (still think he's a stinky bastard man tho)

the immediate distance Mhok puts between himself and the group never fails to hurt my heart. i get it, he's there for a job, but their relationship has progressed past that - now even moreso, and i cant help but wonder if this is his attempt at keeping a distance, curbing his expectations, reminding himself that while his role is to be by Day's side it's only in a professional capacity.

i love that Gee acknowledges him with a little head nod, occasionally looks in Mhok's direction as if to include him, she's just - ugh - i love all the women in this show so fucking much. i just wish someone would invite Mhok over sometime, encourage him to join the conversation (like they did back at the party.)

sometimes Mhok really is the embodiment of a shadow - both of Day and of his former self (for good or bad.)

(he looks so fucking sexy leaning like that with his shirt tucked into his pants tho, whew.)

Gee also becomes one of my favorite people for asking Day to take the photo of all of them. she just gets it, she includes him, she doesn't act like he can't do things, she even insists he can, she's just !!! the women of all time in this show i swear!!! I LOVE WOMEN!!!!

also the "you don't drink coffee, girl spill the tea" from Gee is just so good. she knows a diversion tactic when she sees one.

i want this expression framed, she's so cute, HELP.

i wish i had the time and energy today to make gifs for this week but ugh. the journey Mhok's face went on here to end up at quiet resignation. because he did figure. someone like Day? with someone like him? because we know Mhok's opinion of himself isn't great, largely influenced by his incarceration and reintegration into society, i'm sure, along with his guilt. but there had been that little bud of hope, a little sunflower seed that had bloomed just a little too far, reached for the sun a little too much. it must feel like a weed in his chest.

the way Day says 'here' so softly, with so much vulnerability made me feel like screaming. he doesn't know what his feelings are for Mhok yet (you can't tell me he doesn't feel anything) but he knows he doesn't want to lose Mhok and the sudden idea of it is terrifying. Mhok is the only person that really understands him, one of the only people he's comfortable around anymore, and he can't lose that. he doesn't want to go back to the dirty fish tank.

i also think this was an indicator to Mhok that maybe Day doesn't know how he feels, and maybe he can get away with flirting in tiny, subtle ways because from here on his secret flirting game is in full effect and it's so fucking cute. he's careful not to completely push past Day boundaries, but to test them in gentle ways.

THE SHOES MY BELOVEDS. we all know what i feel about these shoes after last week and i'm so glad to see all of my stupid babbling confirmed here. i love that Mhok constantly mends things instead of throwing them away. the sentimentality of items means something to Mhok and we love him for that.

we also got a proper 'sweet dreams' this episode, finally!! thank you subbers!

so many shots of feet this ep tho and lemme tell you as someone that HATES feet, this was rough.

oh you are so smitten. Day realizing Mhok is warm, warm in his own way, warm in such a gentle and understated way. UGH. you would've thought he knew after everything they've been through but sometimes people need a reminder and maybe something to drive them to pay closer attention. our boy is BESOTTED. kicking his feet and giggling. i think this is the happiest we've ever seen him.

so here's where i'm probably going to wax poetic the most. Mhok is finally opening up to Day in such an incredible way. he brings Day to his home with no fear of pity or judgement. he brings him into this sanctuary created by him, his sister, and Porjai and he cooks for him and cares for him and in letting him in Day sees even more how impossibly warm Mhok is.

what's even greater is there isn't a single moment where Day is jealous or questions Porjai being there. Mhok has told him she's expecting and he's never weird about it, just kind and understanding and it's all so normalized, it's fucking beautiful. Day even takes the time to encourage Porjai, to share about his mom, and about the strength it takes to be a single mom. P'Aof i adore you.

Mhok has planted jasmine simply because he knows Day likes it, and maybe now he likes it too. and he brings Last Twilight home to practice reading (i'd always wondered how he managed to read without stumbling over himself lmao) and he's done it so much that now Porjai wants to name their child Mee, wants to create this connection to Day forever.

and once prompted, once Day knows enough to ask, Mhok opens up about Rung, talks about her more. Day comments on the warmth of the house, something started by Rung and cultivated by Mhok. it would be so easy for the house to feel cold and clinical, especially knowing what happened here, but Mhok has kept it a home - warm, inviting, comforting - all the things Mhok has been to Day.

the noises took me by fuckin' surprise tho, i genuinely looked around my house like who the fuck is making all that noise and then i was like OH THOSE ARE-- OKAY--

and I know people are like haha P'Aof has a scent kink but like. idk. maybe it's just me but scents are something i'm drawn to. i remember the way someone smelled more than i remember their face. i recently took a shirt out of my closet and immediately started crying. it smelled like face powder and perfume. it smelled like my grandma. the leather jacket pushed to the side smells like cigarettes and horses, like my dad always did.

scent is such an ingrained memory, something that is so hard for our brains to let go of. every time i get a familiar smell it knocks me on my ass, and i'm so glad to see some of this represented in these shows.

this absolutely warmed my heart. whatever is going on with Night and Day is clearly more on Day's side than anything else. Night clearly loves his brother and i'm just fucking DYING to know what is going on that is causing Day to drive a wedge between them. sure, Night hasn't been perfect, but there's love there and that counts for so much.

and what exactly are you doing here??? this is a charity run for blindness - does he know someone that is blind other than Day? did meeting Day inspire him to participate? has he spent time talking to Mhok about Day and maybe the difficulties of his blindness? i am filled with questions but i love this character so much, he's just so kind.

Day's hesitation to cross the finish line was also something i found so interesting. it felt long, possibly too drawn out, but Day needed to think, needed time to understand that if he crosses that finish line, if he accepts Mhok's request to be his boyfriend, their lives will never go back to how they were. things between them will change forever, whether the relationship is a success or otherwise. it's an incredibly mature thing of Day to do, even if it felt a little lengthy for us, the audience.

i strongly believe that in addition to Mhok Porjai is going to be a big driving force in Night and Day's reconciliation. i would love to see Porjai gain Night's side of the story, Mhok gain Day's side of the story, and the two of them working together to see how they can reunite these brothers.

also if i had a nickle for every time P'Aof paired Mark with a pregnant woman in his shows i'd have two nickles, which isn't a lot but it's interesting it has happened twice.

while i, like everyone else, hope the mock proposal is a parallel we get to see later i want to focus more on this moment.

i forget who said it, it's long gone to the depths of my dash by now, but someone commented that disabilities do not stop for love, and fuck is that so true. i love Mhok's concern, his immediate reaction to soothe, and the way he seems to feel Day's fear as his own. and poor Day, he can't even enjoy this moment of bliss with Mhok because of course, of course something like this had to happen. it's so fucking real in the way Last Twilight has been this entire time.

the constant excellent representation of disabled living has been incredible to see, i've seen so much of myself in this show (even though my disability is so very different) and it's been like a warm blanket put over very single comment: you're too young to be disabled, you aren't THAT disabled, you're being dramatic, etc.

from the bottom of my heart, thank you P'Aof and team.

tag loves: @benkaaoi @callipigio @infinitelyprecious (as always tell me if you want to be added {for LT only or all meta} or removed!)

[eris-136199]

On RamilPaytai

For all my complaints abt the series, I commend tnp on how they chose to show ramilpaytai's abuse as someone who grew up in an abusive household (I have complaints about them too but the positives outway the few negatives)

For a while I thought I was doing too much for thinking that Paytai had some resentment slowly festering inside him the longer he stays by Ramil's side (this does not mean that I think he loves Ramil less!! I just projected on Paytai as I feel the same way towards my mom sometimes even fully knowing she's also a victim to my dad and grandparents) so watching ep 13 and witnessing the betrayal and hurt on Paytai's face before he calls Ramil pathetic in such a distinct tone that (if I remember correctly) we've never heard him use towards Ramil before was so heartbreaking but made me feel so validated and calmed me down from shaking when Rachata was in the room with them.

Paytai pushing himself up quickly while still shaking before Ramil could reach him. Pushing Ramil away when he leaned down to kiss him. Not raising his head to meet Ramil's eyes when he held his cheek (I think Ramil was going to try to kiss him again if Paytai did let him but not sure). Verbally denying Ramil (and himself too) the comfort they usually give each other. And finally leaving Ramil truly alone as he can't take the dehumanisation coming from Ramil especially, which will happen more often and will probably all they will ever be if he stays longer so he chooses to leave despite how painful it is for both of them, reminds me too much of how it hurt to leave my mom as she couldn't protect me from my grandmother.

Now for Ramil, and by God, I have never felt so represented by a character. Ramil's fear of his father, his fear of punishment, his pain, his isolation, his bitterness, his jealousy, his anger, his dependency on the only person who understands him and stands by him. It's a half joke thing that the only way they can escape his father's abuse is Rachata dying but it truly was the way for me to escape my grandfather's and gave some quiet to my grandmother's, I won't say much on what happened to my father in case non-novel readers see this.

I wish I could talk more about Ramil but my heart hurts too much and tears come too quick for me to ever put into words just how grateful I am for his character and how much I love this character and how I would defend him and Paytai until my last breath.

Regardless of how this series decides on what to do with RamilPaytai in the end, I will give their characters and JimmyOhm a standing ovation. They truly have my whole heart and made me look forward to the end of every week.

JimmyOhm deserve all the praise and love they get for their performance in this series because of how emotionally driven their scenes are all the time, which I know is NOT easy and they deserve to be praised in general.

[sapphicscholar]

Hey! I loved your thoughts on the finale, i honestly hope we get a full circle thing from their 3x09 where Ava was like "you are selfish, you are never going to put me first", so i think imo the most logical thing would be to have D prove her wrong. But we'll see. I was wondering what are your thoughts on their dynamic so far this season?

Thanks! And we very much did lol!

But re their dynamic this season...I think I said a lot of this in my little rambling post about this most recent episode, so I'll try to avoid rehashing it, but I do feel like we saw growth especially as it came to its fruition this week’s ep--and specifically, a kind of imperfect, not always linear form of growth. What I didn't talk about there is that I think the combination of big gestures from Deborah (eps 6 and 9 specifically), coupled with the steadfastness of Ava's devotion, in ways that take her into a much more mature space than we've seen her in past seasons (I'm thinking about her coming back day in and day out even as Deborah made her life hell, her choosing to call Deborah and try to talk to Deborah when she thought she was being iced out the night of the Oscars, etc.), allow the two of them to heal some of these wounds that have been quietly festering between them for years.

I ship them and love them and like to imagine they've spent many very happy days and weeks and even months together over the stretch of the past few seasons, but we've also seen them hurt each other deeply in the way you really only can once you've let someone in deep. And while we've gotten a few big gestures, like Deborah showing up at the funeral and climbing into a dumpster or Ava leaving her fiancée and turning down head writer of On the Contrary to be there for Deborah, I don't know that we've ever had such obvious forms of redress as we have this season. We see Ava forcibly challenging everything Deborah expects of those around her (that they'll leave the second things get difficult, much like we saw Kathy do at the end of s3 when she couldn't even handle the idea of what Deborah with Late Night would be like). And we see Ava really broken up about how many times she's let herself believe that this time, things will be different; this time, she won't get hurt. But here we see Deborah not just having to sit with that and respond to it verbally, but also putting her money where her mouth is in a major way and choosing Ava over everything. For me, it positions them as a much stronger united front than we've ever seen from them (which is how we get Bob and the contract and the company coming in to fill the void of end-of-season crisis, moving us from the interpersonal to the external as JPL set up the foundations for next season).

I also talk a bit about this in my 4.09 review (and plenty of the others), but I'll acknowledge that, beautiful as I find the moments between Ava and Deborah this season, it often felt jerky. The growth was there, but it was often implicit, the moments elided into guesswork for the viewer. Even at the most basic layer of time passing, it's really, REALLY hard to glean exactly how long this season lasted, and that shouldn't be the case! I don't need exact days, but it would be really helpful to get a sense (for instance, if Deb has 18 months left on her contract, I'm assuming it was about a 6 month season, but it's not at all clear when and where these pivotal moments happen within that durational span. Instead, we jump around, finding the characters at a particular moment in time with no real sense of how they're feeling about the arc they followed to get there. So kudos to Jean and Hannah for bringing a level of embodied intensity to all these scenes that at least lets us get deep, if not comprehensive haha! And my kingdom for a better script continuity editor next season, shewww

[jq37]

Just spitballing here: considering that Porter has everything for the ritual but Fig has laid claim to Ankarna's domain, do you think the final battle might transition to the Bottomless Pit for an epic fight in Rock and Roll Hell?

Other idle thoughts: the "skin and fuck" joke was honestly tasteless and creepy but it is hilarious that Ivy continued being irrelevant. KP is two seconds from an aneurysm because she watched her nemesis jump into lava. And where the hell is Sandra Lynn?

Hmm. On the one hand, the Gym battle specifically is a clear choice to go full circle from the OG finale. On the other hand, that would be really cool! We shall see and ten extra credit points to you for Divination Class if you're right!

Fabian has a history of saying wild out of pocket stuff in character as Fabian (there's a scene in I think Sophomore Year where he has to properly claim the Hangman for some reason and instead of some kind of Boy And His Dog Power-Of-Friendship thing he's like that dog is my SLAVE and I was like *LOU WHAT???*--he obviously didn't mean it in any type of way other than in character badly trying to posture but it was WILD) which I guess makes sense considering he was raised by someone who casually flays peoples backs off to write contracts on them. Not surprised he went hard though since she had just shot his dog/bike on top of the Mazey comment that was clearly festering all year. But I appreciate that Mazey was like...yeah not sure how to react to that tbh. Love when people have moments of reacting like real people in the middle of the ridiculous cartoon situation that's happening. And yeah, Ivy talked a really big game for someone who couldn't even last a round.

Kipperlilly giving up her insane hiding spot because she saw Riz purposefully swan dive into lava is so funny. No matter his financial struggles, Riz never has to worry about having a roof over his head because he is living in Kipperlilly's mind rent free.

And I'm also a little concerned about Sandra-Lynn given Baxter showed up without a rider two eps ago and that was never resolved. I can offer one possible non-dire speculation. I think Baxter appeared after Fig rolled really well to not fall out of the sky (it might have been a Nat 20 but I'm not sure). It's possible Brennan, as a reward for that, just had Sandra Lynn sense trouble and do that so they'd have an extra mount in case something like that happened again. But that's just a guess. We'll see if it's addressed in the finale!

[indi-k]

Tyler is a HUGE RED FLAG

(i already posted this in the wenclair community but im posting this on my main blog too bc i wanna see it there aswell and I DO NOT KNOW HOW TUMBLR WORKS)

Ok, so I don't find ENOUGH ppl talking about how INCREDIBLY CREEPY Tyler is to Wednesday in Ep 7 and I've already ranted like a madman to ANYONE who has come within five feet about this in the past few months.

Needless to say i have a LOT of thoughts.

First off, When Tyler brigs up the topic of rescheduling their date, Wednesday is caught off guard, like VISIBLY off guard. She then brings up two VERY VALID POINTS as to why she can't go or hasn't talked with tyler about it.

Tyler then CUTS HER OFF saying AND I QUOTE "Hey, no excuses, Figure after what happened after last time, you owe me." so not only did this man just call Wednesday's reasons for not being able to go, (a HOMOCIDAL MONSTER and her FELON UNCLE) "excuses" he also believes that Wednesday OWES HIM a DATE.

if it isn't obvious (at least not to tyler) YOU DO NOT OWE ANYONE ANYTHING!!! Regardless of romantic interest or guilt or WHATEVER. people in relationships don't OWE each other their time.

Dating someone shouldn't be out of obligation, it should be done out of mutual interest and willingness to spend time together.

Basically if someone you're interested in says they cant make it to a date you don't say they OWE YOU. LOOKIN AT YOU TYLER GALPIN!

Anyway, Wednesday then tells Tyler "I cant sneak off of campus, all eyes are on me." Its important to remember that if she's caught out, she could be EXPELLED but also, when has Wednesday Addams EVER been afraid of RULE BREAKING or getting CAUGHT, she is literally harboring a FUGITIVE on school grounds currently. All I'm sayin is if she REALLY wanted to go, she would.

SOMEHOW Tyler doesn't pickup on these very OBVIOUS HINTS and presses on, telling Wednesday that he'll come to her. Again, pretty creepy because Wednesday has done everything except explicitly saying 'No" and he is STILL pushing for her to go with him.

So why didn't she just shut down tyler? Wednesday has no real trouble voicing her thoughts with little care as to what others think, so why didn't she just say no?

this could be overthinking BUT everyone has their limit, even Wednesday. Her best friend just left her after a huge fight, her only other friend has been hospitalized for reasons that Wednesday blames herself for, and Xavier just told her that there's nothing to like about her. She probably feels isolated and unwanted, Addams or not everyone needs a friend.

TLDR: Tyler sucks and Fester should have put him in the Romanian sleeper hold. also ENID SINCLAIR WOULD NEVERRRR

[silverspadesss]

i think the pacing in ep 7 definitely could have been better, and i really think those missing two episodes in comparison to last season aren’t doing it any favours.

but ed and stede are ‘whim-prone’. that’s already been established. and they’re very new into this relationship and both still quite immature, and i do have faith that everything’s going to be fine.

stede was bullied as a child and has felt inadequate and left out his entire life, and now he’s being recognised and celebrated as a pirate. he feels like he fits in now. and for someone who’s spent his entire life feeling like the exact opposite, it all comes crashing down on him at once. and predictably, he doesn’t know how to handle it, and so he gets arrogant and a little selfish. stede is currently caught up in the rush of being the person that he thinks he always wanted to be, and being liked for what he sees right now as who he really is. and now with the english upon them and much bigger things at stake, hopefully he’ll be able to realise this. hopefully he can snap out of this high caused by sudden social esteem and realise what - and who - truly makes him happy.

and meanwhile ed doesn’t want to be a pirate anymore. just like when stede left him on the dock, his feelings of not being worthy of stede and the life that stede apparently now wants to live are bubbling up again, and we’ve seen how in tune with his emotions edward is and how much things can affect his mood and self-esteem (and that’s not a scathing endowment of his character at all), as someone who’s still working on making himself feel lovable. that’s why he wanted to take it slow, and that in my eyes is why he made that snap decision to leave. because he’s impulsive. he’s whim-prone, as much as stede is for immediately changing himself for the sake of feeling good about himself and admired by people. and right now he’s crashed from an incredible high - rebuilding his relationship with stede and the crew and becoming the person he wants to be - to an incredible low - suddenly feeling out of place again and that who he wants to be doesn’t fit with stede.

and to his mind that means of course stede is going to grow tired of him. he’s going to leave him again. if they had a proper conversation, which i hope they will, ed would realise this isn’t true. but as someone who suffers from extreme anxiety i recognise that thought pattern building, and it’s had time to build and fester inside ed’s brain because while stede has been basking in his fame, ed has been alone with his thoughts. and now those niggling fears have in his mind turned to absolute unwavering truths - that he is not good enough for stede bonnet anymore. that stede does not need him. and so he must leave before he gets left, as he cannot go through that heartbreak again.

there is probably a better way to word this and i am aroace and know nothing about relationships so bear that in mind but to everyone panicking about david pulling a good omens on us, it’s much less likely to happen. they just need to communicate, and hopefully realise that being with each other is what allows them to grow as people. their relationship is what helps them become the person they both want to be, not superficial fame or emotionally distancing themselves for what they perceive to be as for their own good.

tl;dr - there is still hope for stede and ed’s relationship to turn out happy and healthy by the end of this season. keep your hopes up, fandom. it’s not over yet, and their relationship is far from ruined forever.

[jenyifer]

Ray doesn’t deserve to be friends with Boston.

Last week I made a post about how Boston deserves to have his Ray back as a friend. The same can’t be said in reverse which personally breaks my heart. I have written Extensively about BostonRay they are boys cut from the same cloth and I feel like they were invisible best friends unlike their relationships with Mew or Cheum. I even headcannon that they are longer established friends maybe even childhood buddies. I don’t think their friendship is over simply because of SandNick but that’ll take a lot.

So let’s get some ground rules I’m not going to super cover the early eps that’s mostly covered by last weeks post. Now be fair here I don’t think BostonRay are Fantastic friends to each-other both boys have emotional mental issues that they try to hide. Boston is not the best with other people in general which he tells Nick about. Same goes for Ray. He’ll fuck up causal convo with sand but sand will push it off. But Boston is there for Ray. The end credit scene where Boston is at the bar in his white shirt is before Mew’s bday party when He knows shit is going down. Boston still goes to this party. He stays quiet while Ray attacks him. Something Boston never ever does despite having more than one opportunity to is blame Ray or dismiss him to Nick that doesn’t happen despite the two fights where Ray attacks Nick someone who is very important to Boston. Why? Because Boston believes what Ray said is true and he doesn’t believe in lying. Ray also does like Boston… or he did… I don’t think Ray would’ve asked Boston to stay with him and that he loved him if it wasn’t a real request.

I particularly love how open they are about their current love interests before Boston has to throw cold water on Ray at Sands bday party. Then Ray throws a spear at Nick in response. Both boys regret what they do but they don’t apologize. Just let things fester something we see Ray and Bostons do multiple times moving forward. They don’t like fighting because they know eachother the best. They know the other one doesn’t lie and does genuinely care for the other. Boston doesn’t need to be friends with Ray and Ray knows it. Boston has money and Ray’s drama is annoying but he sticks about and is always there for Ray. They are too prideful to say it.

Ray didn’t enjoy Mew trying to actively kill Boston either. In fact Ray did try get inbetween them and tried to de escalate things but Ray is a coward always has been. Boston also steps in to save Ray from getting punched by Top even after Ray tries to say Boston was still dating Top. Yeah really seems like the two of them loveee fighting and not supporting each other.

Okay sorry got distracted let’s go to ep 10 and talk about why Ray needs to apologize. Yes yes Boston needs to treat Ray better but at least he fucking tries (Mew Cheum I’m side eyeing you) dealing with an alcoholic or what Boston is is exhausting. Especially if change fails to ever come because you don’t have the words to magically make things better.

Boston thought Ray would understand that he and Atom are adults. Possibly Boston thought Ray would never believe he’d black mail someone either. Boston has talked to Ray about his escapades before. He’s never done what Atom is accusing of him. But no Ray is gleefully enjoying Bostons downfall sticking the knife in that even his best friend doesn’t love or understand him.

Ray knows Boston is telling the truth that’s why Ray can’t look at his face for too long you actively see him look away (gd khaotung why are so so good at acting holy shit) because Ray knows it’s wrong. Boston is crying. I’d bet none of his friends have seen him cry before. You know who leaves without a word when Bostons eyes immediately turns to them as fast as humanly possible? It’s Ray.

I really want Boston and Ray to be friends again. But at the same time. Boston doesn’t need a friend like Ray who is a coward. Can’t fully admit to being his friend. Ray can possibly make it up to Boston by being there for him in the future or apologizing but honestly. I hope Boston doesn’t try to establish contact himself. But who knows with Ray’s recovery and Boston learning how to deal with people in a normal way (he has been growing by the way he isn’t the same boy we had ep 1) maybe they can be actual friends with a good example like Sand and Nick about

This post is too long so I’m just going to post it I hope it made sense.

[angelmichelangelo]

oh absolutely! i agree in that it’s never really said outwards like for me, rise raph has some sort of anxiety disorder, but it seems to just be written into the show without it necessarily being written out in black and white

but going back to your point about the 2012 turtles and their own separation anxiety.

they lost their dad twice (three times?) having to witness his death twice and that final time being permanent. if that isn’t gonna mess them up amongst everything else they go through then idk what will lmao

looking back at it, during the whole farmhouse arc with leo’s coma definitely triggered something. april pointedly narrates that raph doesn’t really ever leave leo’s side as he lays unconscious in the bathtub, and then when leo awakes he seems to be constantly by his side or always rushing to get him.

i imagine raph holds a lot of unnecessary guilt towards what happened with leo. he wasn’t with him and was the last to return to april’s before he even knew that leo was missing, giving him what? like five seconds to process all before leo is being launched through that window.

even in the season one finale, leo sacrifices himself to kraang and raph is thrashing about trying to get to him before donnie is holding him back for them to escape safely. there’s no doubt that raph doesn’t have a seed of thought planted in his mind that sometimes leo’s way of thinking was pretty destructive and dangerous and he knew that if he wasn’t there to maybe stop him, he could potentially lose him.

the sibling relationships in 2012 is so endearing to me. i don’t even entertain the whole “raph is abusive/mikey is bullied” narrative some fans spew just because i really do enjoy the complexity of them not always being the kindest to one another, but at their cores loving each other so fiercely like only siblings could do.

and they’re so fiercely defensive of one another. i think back to the first leatherhead ep where leo donnie and raph all immediately jump to the conclusion that mikey was in dangerous and go to defend him against what they believe to be a threat to their family. their relationships are so well complexly written, they’re not perfect and i don’t think any sibling relations ever are and that’s what makes it enjoyable to watch :)

how it would manifest for one another is something i wish we saw more of in the final seasons with leo as their sensei after splinters death! them really wanting to kind of move on with their lives as they get older but constantly having this… festering guilt looming over them that they’d be abandoning everything they ever really knew…

i think for all of them, their separation anxiety would for real be something they’d all do very well to hide at first. they’re teenage boys that have proven not to always portray their emotions in the best way. it’d be there in the way of checking in on each other as they sleep or texting a string of “hey where are you” when maybe someone goes topside and isn’t back at a certain time.

and then i think it’d probably get worse over time, kind of ironically drawing them apart because it would feel kind of suffocating whilst they were unknowingly doing the exact same to each other, until there’s some sort of breaking point and they’d have to face their feelings.

i did enjoy the last season and of course they’re gonna jam it full of silly adventure episodes but man, i really do wish we could have gotten something that focused on their lives moving forward dealing with their trauma.

i mean didn’t the writers allude to leo experiencing actual psychosis in those last episodes or was that just a rumour? because either way that boy was NOT well hallucinating splinter and everything.. they all needed help :(

do you have a favorite 2012 episode?

ooh i’d have to say possibly ‘within the woods’ or ‘in dreams’ !! i really love when 2012 leant towards their horror side because i think the writers just really did a great job of making those episodes a lot of fun :D

i also really like ‘attack of the mega shredder’ also just because mikey + leo team up is always a win for me :) oh! and also the usagi eps from the last season. i think the animation in those episodes are especially beautiful and i really love usagi haha

it’s hard to pick an ultimate favourite but those would be the ones i’d come back to more regularly when rewatching

what’s your favourite? :)

[notllorstel]

Anyone else been thinking about time-skip designs for the party because boy have I

[tobeornottotc]

Hii! What are your theory for next ep? I don’t know why Big and Ken are hitting Porsche but I hope is not for Kinn

 

Hi, thank you for the question. Before I go deep into my thoughts, here's a quick summary and break down of what I saw in the promo for episode 5.

 

Summary:

Aftermath of Episode 4- Kinn wakes up looking very troubled and worried, while Porsche is asleep.

I do think due to the nature of what happened in 4, this will be a massive thing that both Kinn and Porsche will have to discuss and deal with. For Kinn, this is not just guilt festering about losing control and ending up with this situation but also fear, and realisation of what is truly happening with him and Porsche. How they're going to deal with the subject of episode 4, I don't know so I can't predict that aspect, but I think there will be feelings of guilt and some punishment towards Kinn as the aggressor.

-For the Plot however, this situation would definitely unleash a massive well of feelings from Kinn despite the messed up nature and outcome. From thinking it would disappear; this uncontrollable obsession and attraction to Porsche  after he finally did the deed and acted on his lust, and then realising it hasn't,  I think we will see the episode focus on him realising that distance is important because being this way is very dangerous and must be stopped asap:

1. It's dangerous because Porsche is his bodyguard and people talk and are looking for ways for him to fall, Vegas is already manipulating and using this over him. He's become somehow weakened in front of his subordinates (other guards who saw his frantic panic) and he's now seen as having favourites, weakened in his resolve and his claim to being better than his father, which people keep hinting they don't think he is . His father is also telling him this, so the steps to regain his control is to show power and show distance and coldness so he can still seem unmoved by his bodyguards and in control of his situation. He can't afford to seem vulnerable and emotional.

2. It's dangerous because it is so clear that Kinn has trauma from love, and he has tried to lock it away and avoid it at all costs, this is also how love makes him; weak, childish, and irrational during important and serious times such as the auction in episode 4. It distracts him from his goals and makes his brain short circuit. Due to his feelings for Porsche, he's frightened because they are irrational, automatic, and uncontrollable and even after episode 4 we know the intensity of that connection is going to be doubled for Kinn, he will try to form a barrier immediately and push it away as soon as possible. Either feigning disinterest like he did when Porsche asked him if he was special to him in the last episode or actually actively making Porsche see him as cruel or cold (his mafia mask). Kinn however is still a kind person, so I believe his guilt will make him want to protect and take care of Porsche but be talked out of it, or Porsche misunderstands and thinks he's the one who sent the message that he doesn't care that he gets hurt or punished despite what happened between them. 

 

Voiceover of Korn telling Kinn he messed up and his reputation is on the line -

This could be why he does what he does as shown in episode 2, he has to be harsh to Porsche to prevent rumours of weakness and favouritism and people saw him leave and be frantic over 1 guard. Korn might have been the one instead that did this for fear Kan would think Porsche was important. Korn might be supportive of Porsche as Kinn's queen but he's also cunning and manipulative; he could punish Porsche for failing to protect his son and getting again into harm's way; endangering everyone. I'm still on the fence of if Kinn is the one who does this because of his desperateness to keep his mask on and look powerful and serious, I can see him do this but because of the nature of what happened in episode 4 he knows Porsche is in pain, and needs care i think his guilt will override his need to be cold and distant. Like he will stay away but to send people to hurt Porsche? Not sure about that. But it could be a misdirect, he could send the guards with an instruction to instruct and reprimand Porsche but didn't know that, that's the way they'd do it, like expecting them to scold him instead of actually violently harassing him.  But we'll see.

 

Porsche tied up and being taunted by Ken and Big in the pool scene: they seem gleeful taking it out on him this could be either

1. They decided to teach him a lesson on their own to punish him for being incompetent, I can see this because the show showed in episode 4 their frustration with the favouritism Porsche recieves, they will kind of snap on their own and want to teach him a lesson and because Porsche is weakened at the moment and they have a chance of doing major mental damage to his self esteem as he deals with the trauma and mental struggle of what happened in episode 4. Both Ken and Big walked away once Kinn screamed for them too, they looked angry and annoyed because Kinn wouldn't normally do this for the guards. Ken is irritated because he feels Porsche is incompetent as a guard and shouldn't be in his position, and Big is jealous and upset about the affection Porsche receives from Kinn. I think the show could use them as tools to further worsen Porsche's mental struggle and vulnerability of this situation and make him think even furthur that Kinn does not see him as special at all, which will lead to him wanting to leave.

2. Kinn sent them because of protection and running away from his realisations, again this makes sense as we've seen him have to hurt Porsche before for both their benefits and protection in episode 2 with Macau. However it could also be how he avoids the truth he keeps convincing himself about, that Porsche is not just a guard to him and he's important as a romantic interest (which is something he's not ready to accept or move on from)

3. Korn sent them and Kinn has no clue but this causes Porsche to misunderstand that Kinn sees him as a rebellious guard like the others with no special favours. This is also interesting because Korn doesn't want to seem harsh of Porsche in fact he normally lets him get away with things others can't; he has a favour on him so I don't know if he could be the one that does this unless the show is ready to show more hints to his cold and calculating Mafia above his relationships energy. However I think he's still gonna be a hidden threat for now, so this is least likely in my opinion.

 

Why Porsche shouldn't get special favours:

-Special treatment already shows chaos and disorder in terms of how Kinn rules and controls his subordinates, it makes Kinn look like a pushover and unfair making the other guards lose respect and see Porsche as a rival the most. But also exposes Porsche to Vegas completely as a target (he already is) and others who are trying to find Kinn's Achilles heel.

-He needs to learn to be more protective and how serious his body guard duties are, he's a diamond in the rough sure but he can't be putting himself in these situations, he should be trained more and dealing with him in a fair and strict manner is needed to make him grow in that aspect.

 

Why he should:

The nature of episode 4, the fact that he is a victim who was assaulted, and he needs a break to process and heal from the activities  both healing of his mind and body. Kinn sending people to hurt him makes no sense, because he's the aggressor and the one in the wrong for taking advantage of the situation.

 

What I think:

Looking at these options I'm unsure, but I do feel like it makes sense for Big and Ken to form a mutiny against Porsche and just use his weakness to attack and use it as a guise for training and growth. To make him feel small without being sent by anyone else. It will also make Porsche more weary and hurt and misunderstand Kinn once again and how he views him (which is a huge thing in their relationship, their inability to communicate or open up and be truly vulnerable and let the other one know they have control over them and see them as special). I think Kinn would go to his father and listen to him but distance himself from Porsche due to his issues, apologise without actually apologising and taking responsibility. Kind of like his duty instead of looking like he actually cares or sees Porsche as more than a one night stand type situation. He'll be apologetic and guilty but his barriers would prevent him from being too honest about how bad he feels and how scared he is to lose Porsche or see him hurt. This will then be coupled with the mental breakdown that makes Porsche want to choose himself over these feelings and try to leave.

 

Kim and his duality

Kim decides to accept the guitar coach role to further his advances and discovery of his mission

-Nothing apart from the fact that their story is going to have more importance, and I think Chay will soon somehow know the truth about the whereabouts of Porsche.

 

 

There you have it, I'm on edge and impatient for episode 5 but I can't wait because the show is slowly having me in its hooks and I adore all the characters so far.

Thanks again :) 

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales: The Treasure of the Lost Lamp Movie Reviewcap! (Patreon Stretch Goal)

Hello all you happy people! And we have a special review today for two reasons. The first is that this is my second patreon stretch goal review, having hit the 15 dollar goal back in march thanks to my wonderful friend Emma, the same patreon whose responsible for the Green Eggs and Ham Reviews,  who helped me hit the 15 dollar goal.  As a result you fine people are getting three movie reviews each based on a Disney Afternoon Movie with Treasure of the Lost Lamp today, a goofy movie at the end of the motnh for  a weeklong tribute to my favorite dogmandadguy.  Extremley was going to be part of it but the length of this review convinced me otherwise, but I will be doing it this summer so keep an ear out. If you want to help me hit my next stretch goals do yourselve a favor and zip on over to my patreon YOU CAN FIND MY PATREON HERE. My next stretch goal at “OH Look 20 Dollars” would give everyone patreon and not, a monthly review of Darkwing Duck as decided by my patrons, reviews of BOTH season 2 mini series from Ducktales 87, introducing Fenton to the world and blighting it with Bubba before the 2017 series fixed him, and as a brucey bonus added last month a review of Danny Phantom the Ultimate Enemy. And if that wasn’t enough if you help me get to the goal after that at 25 unlocks another trilogy of disney film reviews, this time for the proud family and recess movie and the best kim possible movie, and dcom period, so the drama as well as Bryan Lee O’ Malley’s two stand alone graphic novels, lost at sea and seconds for you Scottaholics in the audience.

The other reason now the shilling’s done. is that the plan WAS to review this back to back with Treasure of The Found Lamp, to the point the orginal review had a whole thing about that, why it was delayed etc... but now that review’s been scrapped all together as something sudden and wonderful happened. After just kinda giving up someone came through with a translation of Della’s first apperance so presumibly i’ll be doing that as part of the build up to mother’s day, and since I still want ot do maternal instincts too, and already had to let the Floyd Gottfredson birthday special slide away as well... it had to go as I want to leave the only open space on the schedule for the lovely person who found the story for me. But this review is still done, i’m very proud of it so join me under the cut won’t you?

Behind The Scenes: Before I get into it i’d just like to note this article from SyFy Wire. It , along with articles I found via wikipedia citations, was an invaluable resource. 

The film was an experiment: It was an experiment to see if one of their tv properties could bring in theatrical money, to see if a movie made on a cheaper budget and still rake in decent money, to see if a film could be made being outsourced to several diffrent places, and to see what one of those places, their recently aquiried french stuido, could handle this kind of work. 

The film, if succesful would be the first of Disney’s MovieToons line, a series of films based on their shows. As you can tell by the fact only this movie and Goof Troop happened and the Movie Toons label wasn’t applied to that one it very much failed. While the film was warmly recevied by people who liked the show general audiences didn’t turn out for it. As a result the MovieToons label was scrapped, future projects with it were canceled.. but the stellar work put in by the french stuidio lead to it perserviering for several more decades and lead to them working on the Goofy Movie, which we’ll get to later this month but needless to say was a MUCH bigger hit with a much bigger budget. 

As for why the film failed... I have two theories. THe first is that parents were stupid back then and didn’t want to pay to see something on the big screen they could see on tv’s. This is a stupid mentality to me as generally a movie of a tv show puts in a ton of extra effort and usually goes bigger and dosen’t go home. It’s a likely theory given most liscened films of the era didn’t do quite well, with all three hasbro films tanking. And look I get Transformers the Movie is cheesy and killed a lot of people’s childhood toys, but damn if it ain’t aweosme.. and also something I need to cover at some point. Thankfully this died out by later in the 90′s with Rugrats getting a hugely succesful if flawed film, a better sequel and a third one that was also a crossover with the wild thornberries. 

And even now in 2020 we’re getting the Loud House and Rise of the TMNT movies sometimes this summer, we were SUPPOSED to have gotten the bobs burgers movie this summer but arne’t because Disney is being a dick about it.

And we got a phineas and ferb movie last year. With this trend hopefully thsi means we’ll get a Ducktales 2017 movie at some point since season 4 left a huge sequel hook laying right there to grab for a feature film.  One final note: The film was conceptually thought up as a 5 part serial like “Treasure of the Golden Suns”, “Catch as Cash Can”, “SuperDucktales” and “Time is Money, something that DOES show as the movie weirdly has act breaks. In a feature film. Yup. 

The Guest Cast:

I won’t go into the full cast since I’ve sung Alan Young and Russi Taylor’s praises PLENTY on this blog before, and I plan to go into Beakly and Launchpad’s actors when they show up in the pilot movie. But i’d be remiss if i didn’t talk about our three guest actors for our three new parts. 

First up is Merlock voiced by legend and if I had a hall of fame, hall of famer Christopher Lloyd.. I need to get me one of those. Lloyd is of course known for playing Doc Brown in back to the future but has done countless other films, voicework, and other good stuff. Among his MASSIVE filmography includes The Back to the Future Trilogy (Already mentioned it but it bears repeating), Star Trek III, Who Framed Roger Rabbit as the pants destroyingly terrifying Judge Doom, The Addams Family duology as fester, a role rip torn would ironcially play for the animated series made to captalize on said movie, Hey Arnold! The Movie, The Oogieloves in The Big Ballon Adventure (Look everybody needs money sometimes okay?), and Art of the Deal: The Movie, which was not, thankfully an ego filating nightmare made by trump himself but a film made by funny or die parodying his terrible book and having Llloyd return as Doc Brown. TV Wise he’s known for Taxi, Back to the Future the Animated Series, Cyberchase and he most recently popped up on Big City Greens. How I missed that ep I.. do know as I haven’t watched season 2. Gonna fix that later this month. Lloyd is utterly awesome, a great guy and thankfully still alive at the time of this writing, so I was happy to have him here. 

Less familiar to me but still known is Rip Taylor, a comedian known for his flamboyant unique way of speech and his marvelous mustache. He showed up in things occasionally and always seemed like the nicest guy and his passing in late 2019 truly is sad. He does a terrific job here but more on that in a moment. 

Finally we have Richard Libertini, a comedian I never really saw in anything besides this who according to IMDB was most famous for his ablility to do a foreign accent. I REALLY hope all of them aren’t as horribly racist as this one. We’ll.. get to that in a sec as it’s time for the plot!

A Treasure Uncovered:

We open our film gorgeously. The animation is great in the film, having some rough edges I chalk up to the film’s hectic production, the studio being new at working at disney properties, and the film not being meant for HD. That being said a few rough spots here and there aside.. the film looks ungodly gorgeous. Like most theatrical films based on a cartoon it takes an already great style and makes it look great. It feels like a more fluid evolution of the cartoons look and it’s a shame we didn’t get more movies in this style for both this show and others, ESPECIALLY Darkwing Duck. Can you imagine a Darkwing Duck movie with this lush animation? Hopefully we’ll get one eventually. 

So our heroes are going to somewhere in the Middle East. That’s.. that’s all wikipedia gives me and all the film gives me. As usual Scrooge is after treasure in this case the Treasure of Collie Baba, the greatest thief there ever was based obviously off Ali Baba from 1001 nights and that one Beastie Boys song. 

It’s here we find the WORST thing about the film, the thing that makes this a hard one to watch depsite otherwise being pretty good, and that makes my skin crawl knowing i’m a white man and a BUNCH of white guys, Ducktales series creator who did the voice casting for this character, the writers who wrote him, the direector disney them fucking selves who thought this was okay. 

The film has some horrible steroytping. It starts with a bunch of backgorund guys surronding Scrooge, with crooked teeth and steotypical voices. This on it’s own is odious. 

It somehow gets worse. Then we meet one of our antagonists. We meet Dijon. 

This Fucking Guy 

Djon is horribly offensive reminding me of other such luminaries in being ungodly offensive yet somehow getting put to film as Jar Jar Binks (With all respeect to his poor actor Ahmed Best, this is not his fault), Rob Schinder as a Sterotypically asian preist, Skids and Mudflap, Rob Schinder as a sterotypically mexican bandit, The Whitewashed cast of The Last Airbender, and Rob Schinder as a stereotypically asian preist. What i’m saying is Djon is an AWFUL, horribly offensive character.. and that Rob Schinder should be shot up into space, not to watch cheesy movies, he’s not funny enough for that, but instead to be sent to a satlitie that’s liveable, but also filled to the brim with spring loaded boxing gloves. Just tons of boxing gloves that feel like getting punched by a heavewight boxer all hidden... they could hit his legs, his face, his nuts, his face and his nuts, the point is he’s in constnat pain unless he moves carefully. 

And lest you think i’m exaggerating for starters this is his design. 

It just screams “vaugely but sterotpyically middle eastern” along with cowardly. The fact he’s also a literal rat is just the icing on the cake made of broken glass, shrapnel and broken DVD’s of Transformers; Revenge of the Fallen. They say if you eat a reveng eof the fallen dvd John Tutoro appears at the foot of your bed and watches you while you sleep.. and by they I mean me. It was a bad bet. I got rid of him with some insese and a bribe of five dollars. 

Oh but that’s just design.. when he talks it’s MUCH worse. His voice is like if they took Apu from the simpsons and said “This but MORE offensive”, and his perosnality is WORSE. He’s a thief.. and not in the endearing loveable rogue way but he’s a pick pocket and a running “Gag’ is that he’ll often grab eveyrthing within reahc. As the deisgn shows he’s a coward running at every opportunity. Oh and to top it all off he’s the willing servant of the white coded, given all ducks in this series are white coded and voiced bby white actors, big bad. And the actor is naturally VERY white to make this cocktail of offensivness so complete that if Disney ever got rid of this film I GUARANTEE the republcian party would be running in with accusations of cancel culture gone amok and never shutting up about this like they did the muppets. Which for the record THEY DIDN’T CANCEL THEM, YOUR POINT IS ILLEGITMATE, THEY JUST WANTED TO BE SENSTIVE YOU GHOULS. 

I do have a reason for bringing up Disney’s content warnings... most damming of all given just how DEEPLY uncomfortbale this character is.. there isn’t one for this movie. I double checked: There isn’t even wanring notes on the website. It’s just.. on there. And given just how ghastly a sterotype Djon is.. that’s not right. Seriously they DID put them on certain episodes of the show, theyk now this sort of thing is wrong and they done wrong.. but for NO reason they haven’t done so for a film released 31 years ago. Around the same time as the series and just offensive as that show at it’s worst if not more so. This is flatly inexcusable.. par for the course for Disney’s incompetence but still horribly furstrating, disgusting and shameful.. which has been the theme of the last three days really. I expect better because when it comes to putting that warning label on this stuff, they usually are better. First the scheduling mixup and now this. You already do a handful of things wrong Disney why add this to the list?!

It’s just draining not only to run into another Disney Fuckup after a weekend of dealing with one of their worst in recent memory, but just to watch Djon. To see this horrible caractrure saunter onto the screen and go on with his harmful schtick, to see that THIS is what Ducktales 87 reduced non white people to more often than not.  It’s remarkable just how throughly and awesomely Frank and Matt completely and totally reversed this. Instead of horrible sterotypes in the reboot, we got TONS of loveable people of color, an endearing latino hero, a smart african american buisness woman who takes no shit but is still a consumate professional, and an egyptian HERO with an intresting story and a strong moral code instead of this horrible reminder that racisim in media was such an afterthought not ONE person brought this up during the scyfy wire stuff or in any inteview i’ve seen. No one cared. Djon was POPULAR enough that he got three episode sin the series. THREE FUCKING EPISODES. This film could be GOOD.. but it’s just so bogged down EVERY FUCKING TIME this artists interpreitation of what Tucker Carlson sees when he looks at a middle eastern person I had to pause to compose myself and had to take a break writing this review to avoid tyiping this in all caps and using the phrase YOU RACIST MOTHERFUCKERS every other sentence. And again i’m white, I get this is second hand offensiveness.. I do... but it dosen’t mean I can’t be offended other white people were so callous about other cultures behaviors this happened.

And what makes me feel worse.. is that I just sorta... never thought about white people voicing non white characters. Things like this I noticed sure, I realize now part of the reason I didn’t like this movie the first time I saw it was this alex jones version of a looney tune, but I do feel shame for not noticing or caring long before this. Sure I loved it when a character of color got played by a person of color.. but I didn’t realize just how deep that problem was and how LONG it went on for before the outcry post george floyd and the call to action lead to most shows still going course correcting. It’s why stuff like this extra botehrs me: because THIS was just as okay at the time. No one blinked twice about this and odds are the creators involved still haven’t. And that.. that’s just terrible and it hurts to think about and  I still have most of the movie to go.  

The Pyramid of Peril:

So we do get a gorgeous unvewling scene of a box Scrooge found out about from Collie Baba’s horde that should lead them to the treasure. This scene reminds me of Indina Jones.. and I bring this up because the poster was specifically made to mimick an indinia jones poster, to the point of getting drew struzan to do it. THe creator of Ducktales objected..l but I do not get WHY. While I”m not sure if he had yet, Speilberg flat out admits the Carl Barks comics were an inspiration for Indina Jones, with the iconic bolder chase coming from a similar scene in one of Barks Stories. Gotta cover that too. So yeah I don’t get not wanting an indina jones style poster when both were inspiried by the same work and it’s just simple logic and it looks so neat. Thank you. 

Scrooge finds seemingly just clothes.. and a map. Jeff Dunham’s Most Racist Puppet reports to his master, Merlock. Merlock is a.. meh villian. Christopher Lloyd does try.. but Lock is your standard evil overlord wants to take over the world type. He dosen’t have much depth, or personality and only his style saves him from dragging the film down along with Dana Carvey’s most racist disguise in master of disguise. He does have a deent shape shifting gimick and being played by Christopher Lloyd means he’s acted TREMENDOUSLY. Alan Young was apparently in awe watching him work and that’s wonderful to hear. The guy did his best. Weirdly Merlock would show up in tons of other works, mostly video games.. but even weirder he NEVER showed up in ducktales 2017. Both Djon and Gene would, Djon thankfully renamed we’ll get to all of that tommorow thank god. I need it after this. But Frank has outright said they didn’t use Merlock because there simply wasn’t anything they could do with him they couldn’t dow ith magica. My likely guess is the might of found a way to revamp him EVENTUALLY, it’s not like radical revamps weren’t there thing come on, they just had way more stories with Magica and didnd’t get around to it before the show was canceled. Just make him some sort of evil god or something. it’s what I might do. There’s a lot of angles with him. Though I would’ve still gotten christopher lloyd back. I mean most of the recasting is good but he’s still alive and deserved a better shot at things. 

So Merlock sends Djonn to go with scrooge as his guide to find the treasure, as there’s something of imense power within it. And I gotta ask WHY does Merlock need a minon. No really. This isn’t a situation like reboot magica where he’s trapped in another realm. He can shapeshift into any animal. We only see him use falcon, rat, cockroach and bear but theoritically he can become anything and bear alone is still a LOT. Why does he need this sterotype even other sterytopes ar eashamed of? The film dosen’t NEED Djonn. Just let Christopher Lloyd monologue and leave this post 911 propogranda cartoon at home. 

So our heroes nad rejected jar jar prototype head into the desert, and seemingly find nothing before finding a small pyramid all while Merlock follows desecretley as a mighty hawk. 

Scrooge makes the boys and Djon dig... because they clearly forgot the “work hard” part of his ethos. 

Our heroes unveil the pyramid... and while Merlock SAYS he searched the desert and I get it’s hard to see thourgh all of that.. the dude is immortal, had decades to search and had Mickey Rooney there on standby to force him to go comb the desert. I have an artist rendering of that hang on

So our heroes enter the pyramid and it goes.. really how you’d expect: there’s a bunch of traps our brave explorers have to pass, the boys minintpret a juinor woodchuck saying about loosing your marbles to mean using the ones they actually have which geninely comes in handy as they trip the traps and Rob SChinder as a carrot stumbles into one. Also launchpad is wearing a hawaiin shirt and shades. This has no baring on the plot, but it does bring the movie up a notch in my book and I question why the reboot never used this outfit. Then again they also never properly used Donald’s Quack Pack Outfit (Which bad show or not, is objectively awesome), or his Quack Shot Indiana Jones Riff Outfit, so  it’s not like there isn’t a presdecnt for not giving a character a cool costume change from a previous medium. I really should do a top 12 missed opportunities list for the 2017 cartoon.. the ideas for stuff are really piling up. 

OUr heroes eventually find the treasure which has insidiously clever security the more I think about it: at first I thought it had none, just a pit with some... scorpions? I mean their supposed to be but they look like they crawled out of the same stygian hole in the sky Doofus crawled out of. And if your asking me “wait which Doofus” the answer is both. Both these abominations crawled out of a stygian hole in the sky.

But the treasure is on a platform surrounded by scoprions with the only way out being the trap filled way they came in. Unless someone comes in with a full team and a bunch of lootin sacks, they aren’t getting out with EVERYTHING. They can steal SOME of the treasure but there’s no way to get any signifigant portion... and the team thing itself is an issue, something Collie defintely predicted being a thief himself: while some thieves can work well as a team, hence why we have four oceans movies 3/4 damn good, and for the record 12 is the bad one, 8 is how you do a soft reboot and a female led reboot right, a good chunk of professional crooks will turn on each other or try and swinldle... and tha’ts dangerous in a trap filled temple but hey some criminals ain’t so smart.  If they all were Rudy Gulliani wouldn’t have two razzies for preparing to pull his pants down, and have waved his phone around on tv like a dare for future adminstrations to arrest the shit out of him would he? 

But Scrooge has his family so they get loading. But not before Webby finds the lamp. Not knowing about it Scrooge has no intrest in it, but Webby does. We also get a really simple but hilarious gag where SCrooge dickers over the idea for a second.. before Webby picks up a Jeweled tiara to possibly take instead. The best gags to me are often the ones that just let the character’s perosnalities take the lead and bounce off each other. It’s why when I reviewed the four lilo and stitch crossovers recently I harped on character interaction as their biggest weakness: it’s what MAKES a good work for me. It’s why my faviorite comics and shows often follow a loveable group of disfunctional misfits. I like a group of big personalities who despite in theory should NOT be able to work making it work anyway. And it’s honeslty what’s made Scrooge last so long: Scrooge on his OWN is awesome.. but iwth the boys, donald, and in the case of this series and the reivival Webby and Launchpad, with people to bounce off of who he contrasts heavily with, from Launchapd’s buffonery to Webby’s inehrent sweetness in both versions, to the boys genuine honesty and sense of adventure.... it makes him truly stand out. He’s a great character on his own, don’t get me wrong.. but it’s the people around him that give him chances to show WHY. A good character on it’s own is fine and dandy.. a good character with other good characters around them is where it gets truly special. 

Merlock naturally bursts in and in a VERY Black Heron move needlesly outs what micheal bay sees when he closes his eyes as a bad guy... no really he grabs the guy with his talons as he captures the treasure and reveals he’s a bad guy. I don’t even get why keep Djonn alive. He’s done all Merlock possibly could’ve needed and Merlock is ruthless... this makes no sense and only happens because they need Djonn for later in the plot.

Our heroes barely escape, rafting out on the platform itself in a thrilling sequence.. but it’s the one right after that catches my attention. Scrooge utterly defeated, having searched for this treasure for forty years and unresponsive to everyone else. The anmation, coupled with the incomprable Alan young’s acting makes this the highlight of the film for me. Beneath the armor of wealth and skill.. is only a poor old man who just lost something he’s been chasing after most of his life. Scrooge tries his hardest not to be vunerable and both shows and the original comics all use that so when he truly is devistated like this, and i’ts belivible since this treasure is a personal goal of his and as someone who has had things that they seek out specifically, loosing them always hurts. It hurts to ALMOST reach a goal only to have it crumble out under you

But while this alone is good.. what’s next makes it great. Webby sweetly offers up the lamp. Scrooge turns it down, and her genuine gesture reinvgorates him and reminds us of who he is “I’ll find it if it takes another 40 years”> Scrooge may be bitter, mean and selfish a lot of the time.. but deep down, he’s a good man and one who will not give up, and a momentary setback can only stop him so long as long as he has his family to remind him of who he truly is.. and what’s truly important. It’s genuinely sweet and to me is also a reminder of why 87 Webby is a good character: Shes’ not perfect, her main personality trait is often Girl Sterotype”.. but she’s a genuinely sweet small child with a huge heart. It’s telling that while 17′ Webby is almost completely diffren,t and far better, that heart remains her biggest strength. Sure her reboot self could kill a man nad no one would ever find the body, but it’s her heart and empathy that makes that possible and makes her Webby.  That inherent loving nature is what makes Webby webby wether she’s a toddler having a tea party or a tween getting ready to intergoate a guy with a meat tenderizer while saying ‘Cute girl stuff”. 

Gene Genie Let’s Himself Go:

It’s a few days later and this is the point where it REALLY becomes obvious this was written as a bunch of episodes. Though to the film’s credit while it does ake this feel like a compliation movie as a result... it dosen’t hamper the film’s quality, condiment from Rush Limbaghs’ hot dog stand does that just fine, but once you notice it it’s impossible to unotice it. Weirdly though it seems chunked up into four episodes rather than the usual five, likely cutting down an episode, though I can’t see where they cut out material frankly if they did and i’ts just as likely they woudl’ve had to make one to fill in the space.

So Scrooge is in a mood, being grumpy with his secretary Mrs. Featherly, quackfaster in all but name, and having to be sent home. So while Duckworth goes to fetch him Webby polishes her treasure at long last readying for a tea party, something the boys roundly reject because their sexist little twits and swo were the writers or executies who assumed all little boys act the same. It’s easily my biggest pet peeve with the series as a whole: anytime this crops up with the boys it turns them into the worst dicks imaginable. It’s telling this, being mean about her wantin ga tea party with her surrogate brothersi s TAME. Normally they’ll say she can’t do things because she’s a girl or mock her hobies outright instead of just be mildly dickish. And while she dosen’t look much younger Webby is VERY CLEARLY, in this series anyway, supposed to be say 5 or 6 to the boys 8-10. 7 at most. SHe’s a small child and while it is realistic for older kids to bully younger ones, it’s not fun to watch. It’s why I get annoyed at all the big sibling bully characters.. some work, but most aren’t fun to watch because there’s nothing funny or intresting about it. It’s the same deal here. 

Thankfully that quickly goes away as the lamp moves when Webby rubs it and does so again to prove it did move. Huey finishes it and we’re introduced to Gene, the best part of the film.  Gene is a Genie and he takes a second to dart around before messing with the appliances in the kitchen, as he was last around during the time 1001 Nights Came About. Cleverly though, and so we thankfully don’t have 80 dozen fishout of water jokes that have already been done before. As you can probably guess i’m not a huge fan of time travel fish out of water stuff. Now from another dimensoin or planet, i’m on board with with Star Vs, Steven Universe and Sym-Bionic Titan being great examples of this, as is the comic resident alien. (Despite having the wonderous Alan Tuduk the show sounds way more mean spirited and misses the entire point of the comic as given by the author in the credits, i.e. that the alien is supposed to NOT be a threat and just be gently waiting for a ride) The inverse is also good with Amphbia and owl house, taking a human and plopping them into our world. But time travel stuff just usually runs the same beats of “look at the shiny thing” and what not. The only time i’ve sene something SIMILAR work is with thor where their society is SIMILAR to vikings time but still it’s own thing.. it also gave us a classic gag in..

So yeah i’m glad they dropped this and instead had a clever way around it: Gene reads the encylopedia at the mansion. Granted it’s Scrooge so I don’t know how current it is and given this came out in 1990 thus HOW racist it is. It’s not a questoin of IF it was, but how much.

But having caught up the kids confront him with the fact he has to grant wishes. This lamp runs on what I now realize are Aladdin rules: Whoever currently holds the Lamp is the Genie’s master, they only get three wishes, and that dosen’t reset if it changes hands. The only big diffrence from the usual is Gene dosen’t have to TELL them about the wishes like Genie did, and Gene very begrudginly agrees to it. He also seem’s phsyically pained when doing so. 

So since all 12 know about him, each of the kids gets a wish though it seems unfair with HDL. Their one person, they shoudln’t get 9 wishes just because their brain is spread out over three bodies. 

This film continues the weird simliarties to Aladdin by attaching rules though they instead come up as a result of our heroes talking rather than the Genie just flat out tleling them: both share the “you can’t wish for more wishes” thing, a common rule in these stories and usually only broken nowadays as a clever twist as the rule is SO common place, not having it is a twist. But it is there for a reason: to limit the sheer power of a reality warping wish. The wishes can also only go so far. In a nice line, when Huey, Dewey or Louie suggests wishing for peace one earth, Gene says “No pipe dreams’ He can’t bend people or reality on THAT scale. He can bend reality as we find out, but it’s smaller scales like turning someone’s possesions over ot someone else, warping the bin into a castle, or bringing inanitamte objects to limited life. Still HUGE feats worth of a genie, so Gene’s power isn’t so nerfed it’s unusuable, but it does explain why his evil pervious ownder Merlock, more ont hat in a bit too, didn’t just wish to have eternal dominon over the earth or something. Gene can do just about anything but he can’t change the world on a fundemental level. 

And I do LIKE having rules in wished based stories like this, I chalk it up to growing up with Fairly Odd Parents... though they eventually went too far in the oppsoitie direction, pulling rules out of their ass to suit the episode, instead of simply having some very standard, very understandable rules that still pose challenges but don’t outright cheat so the episode can happen. 

So Webby does her first wish.. and wishes for a Baby Elephant, something Gene is against as he prefers they keep the wishes small: otherwise he gets found out, and the fight over him begins. So one of the boys wishes him away. Or Webby does. Point is it’s gone though not before Beakly sees it and Scrooge smells something is up. Our heroes try to hide gene, but gene thankfully simply dresses up like a modern kid and thus is able to pass as a friend of there staying for the night. 

So with the rules established and what not the kids find a clever solution: they simply go a ways away from the mansion into the woods, far enough from town to avoid any suspcion, and same iwth the mansion and just wish for all kinds of stuff: a giant bunch of ice cream toys, standard kid wish fufillment but it’s nice... in part because the kids treat Gene like one of them. Wihle they STARTED asking him about the wishes, this starts the bonding process. Soon he will be part of the hive mind.. SOON. 

Until then though after using another wish to make scrooge not mad at them for coming home late and missing dinner, that night we find out Gene’s backstory.... and it’s an utter tearjerker. As it turns out Merlock wants him back because he’s Gene’s former master and as you’d guess.. it was NOT a happy existnace, used contstnatly to do horrible things with no power to stop himself. Pompeii and Atlantis were both directly Merlock’s fault and it was only Collie Baba stealing the lamp that put an end to his hell. He also answers the two obvious questions botht he audeiince and the boys have: How the hell is Merlock still alive and shoudln’t he be out of wishes then? The first is simple. Unlike pretty much every DBZ Villian whose WANTED to do so, Merlock wished for immortality first chance he got, taking the Zamasu route instead and thus leaving him free. 

As for the wishes thing it turns out his amulet, in adition to shapeshifting, also gives him extra wishes becuase fuck it. 

But the boys sweetly offer to protect him. 

The next day, Apu’s Cousin let’s Merlock know the maps in the mansion and Merlock has him help sneak in with Merlock taking rat form. This backfires as Mrs. Beakley notices the form and chases after him with a broom

Meanwhile Webby has her tea party with Gene after he and the boys played cops and robbers earlier, and he’s bored.. though nicely not because it’s a girly thing, but because the stuffed animals aren’t alive and she naively has him fix that. This leads to 

Which sadly is jsut scrooge vs a duck toy but admit it, you want that movie for Disney Plus yesterday. Call Charles Band Disney. CALL CHARLES BAND! 

Whelp Scrooge Still Sucks:

Scrooge takes for a turn for the obnoxious in the next part, but i’ts fine by me as it’s part of the plot. Naturally this reinactment of Cult of Chucky has lead to Scrooge finding out about the Genie. To his credit, Scrooge is tactical about his wishes. As said by the Duck himself “I could wish for a diamond, no the world’s biggest dimaond, no ten world’s biggest diamond, no a diamond mind, no the MINING INDUSTRY!”

The sheer power this gives him is TERRIFYING, both because of his status.. and because unlike the kids who all wished for simple kid stuff and used up their wishes quickly, he both gets how much he can do with this and could conquer the world economy if he truly wanted to. 

The obnoxious part comes in as he treats Gene as not a person, figuring he’s just there and forces him into the lamp despite the kids protests after Gene grants his first wish: Collie Baba’s treasure. It also dosen’t feel like the wishing nor him using the lamp to get the tresure back goes against his hard work ethos: for the former while he is getting all this magically, he’s still having ot use his wits to get the most out of it, and he did earn the lamp itself square. For the latter, he already earned the treasure square too and had it stolen. He’s onlyg etting back what’s by all rights HIS. Granted he plans on giving most of it up for a tax break but still it’s his by right. 

However the reason his assholery works is twofold: first it’s Scrooge. While he’s not a TERRIBLE person, in the comcis and this cartoon he isn’t a GOOD person either. He DOES have a good heart and will usually do the right thing, but his first instnct is always to get more money and to be a cantakerous old bastard to eveyrone and everything. While he’s subtly grew out of “I hate eveyrone and everyone hates me” as his guiding principal, it’s still his defualt reaction to most situations. But he first relents by letting Gene attend the party, part of why the Collie Baba thing stung so bad was that he’s told the historical society he’d get the treasure for years only to come back empty handed, if shrunken. But he still manages to have a good time while Asok and Merlock infiltrate.. well I’mRunningOutofINsultingNIcknamesCanYouTell steals the silverware. Yes... that.. that really happens. 

Look we’re almost done, i’m almost free of this racist mummies curse. Let’s continue. Gene sees melock and freaks and drags SCrooge with him and while at First Scrooge is cranky...

No but now I want a Donkey Kong Country crossover too dammmit. And to talk about those games. Another thing for the list. But Scrooge is righ tot be a bit surly...

Okay now your just pushing it. As Gene whisked him away without telling him anything other than vauge worries... but then he gets a full idea of why Gene’s so terrified when Merlock shapeshifts into a bear and starts breaking the door down. Eh, could be worse. 

Gene shrinks them to escape and Merlock leaves thinking they fled but leaves Skids Minus Mudflap to go look for them. Scrooge sneaks out but bumps into a cart running from the photo you see when you look up stereotype on google. I mean I assume.. let’s try it. 

Huh you know I HOPED but I never expected... 

So Google Proving My Point plans to give his lamp to the master because of his weird Torgo-Esque obession with helping a man who clearly wants to murder him but takes his sweet time doing so because plot, and Gene figuring this COULDN’T POSSIBLY go as bad as Melock getting him urges the dummy to keep him and make his own wishes.

This goes about as well as you’d expect....

Wiped Out With A Wish:

Scrooge returns home to find Watto has wished to take his poessions, fortune, everything and Scrooge gets thrown in jail for breaking into his own house. We get two great moments back to back. The first is Scrooge lamenting loosing his fortune in jail, and realizing the sheer power and risk of the lamp, especially since he worked hard to earn it, every bit of it.. and Sam Wilson’s 70′s Backstory came in and took it all in an instant. 

The second is Scrooge’s family coming for him, including Launchpad , Beakly and Webby obviously and bailing him out. Though Beakly is UNGOLDLY annoying in this scene, sobbing hysterically and adding nothing and it’s not nearly as funny as the  film thinks. Turns out Goliath getting buried wrapped in chains threw them out. 

Scrooge takes a bit to rebound from all this.. but eventually realizes something: he knows the security of the bin inside and out. He had it put in after all. So it’d be easy enough to break in. So they gotta break in to break out the lamp, undo this nightmare, and END THIS MOVIE. Seriously this review has taken two days  as is I do NOT want to miss my invincible review. 

So they break into the bin, and it’s a tightly paced Scene, scrooge going in one way while the kids go the other and we even get a nice callback as the marbels come in handy to get past one of the traps. It’s just a good scene. it’s only real flaw is that Launchapd just sorta disappears as does Duckworth despite the fact their in a plane, and the bin later gets turned into a floating castle. Kinda a plot hole to not have Launchpad crash in to save htem just saying. 

Scrooge eventually does get to Djonn, whose been ignoring the imminent threat of Merlock while Gene sweats it out... and this backfires horribly as Merlock hitched a ride as a roach (Though there was a hilarious scene of him getting fried constnatly by lasers when Louie went through a laser hallway, as while Louie had the directions, it dind’t take into account passengers on your head. 

So Merlock remanifests in full gets the Lamp and unleashes his wrath on Tin Tin in the Congo and turns him into a wild pig. 

Not you sweetie. He then forces Gene to turn the castle into a fortress and float it back to his home in parts unknown. It’s a DAMN cool scene with impressive and horrifiing animation as the bin melts and crumbles into thte castle and the kids barely make it up the stares as they shift and disolve. Really top notch stuff.

Scrooge stands up to Merlock... and this naturally goes poorlyw ith Gene begging Merlock not to respond.. and Merlock having him blow scrooge off the top of the forgtess storm eagle style, though scrooge understands. And this is the true reason why scrooge being a dick didn’t bother me so much. Because it helps create a great contrast between him and Merlock. Both thought of Gene as a tool rather than a person.. but Scrooge grew to realize he was wrong and what he was dealing with wasn’t some magical goodies creator.. but a child forced to constantly grant wishes, in sheer agony to do so no less, likely so sick of it because again and again and again people used him as a slave to get what they wanted and to hell with what Gene wanted. He realized he was terrible for making this poor boy into his slave simply because that’s his job. In contrast Merlock could give no shits and is a malevolent monster who glefully uses Gene despite the pain the wishes put him through and his protests. It’s why Gene is the best part.. he’s  athroughly likeable, throughly inncoent character with tons of personality and a truly tragic and horrifying backstory and Rip Taylor acts the hell out of every scene with the guy. 

Thankfully the marbles come in handy one last time and Huey, Dewey or Louie snipes the lamp away and a struggle for it insues between Scrooge and Merloc mid air. it’s fucking awesome.. and it get sbetter in how scroogewins. He simply gets rid of Merlock’s amulet, taking it then throwing it. Grante dhe COULD’EVE used it for unimited wishes.. but it was too risky to do that and as we’ll see in the ending , Scrooge realized the Lamp was too powerful to keep around for much longer and too much of a tempting target for his rogues.. not that we see them this movie as the crew wanted it to bea ccesaible and thus kept hte cast to the main cast from season 1 and just made new vilians and a new supporting character, but still. 

He does use his second wish though to undue the damage Merlock had done and the bin and clan mcduck are returned to duckburg in good condition.

Time for our ending, which is genuinely and wholly touching. With the lamp too dangerous to use Scrooge considers just sending it to the earth’s core, which horrifies the kids as it’d mean Gene would be trapped there forever... if the molten lava iddn’t just outright destory the lamp and probably kill him. But Scrooge.. isn’t the bastard he likes to potray himself as. Instead he makes Gene into a real boy. He gives the poor kid HIS wish, which designrates the lamp and undoes all the spells... so Merlock is PROBABLY dead but he does return for some games so maybe not? 

And so we end on two things: Gene happily playing cops and robbers with the boys finally free.. and Birth of A Nation grabbing all the loot he can in his patns and running off. Ha ha ha thank god i’m done with this prick. And no I will not be looking at his ducktales episodes unless I have to. 

Final Thoughts:

This movie is OKAY. It has a solid plot, gene is a wonderful chacter, the animatoin is pretty prettay pretty good, and the voice acting as usual is excellent, with Rip Taylor being the standout. 

But as my paragraphs of rage shoud’ve made Clear Djonn is just BAD. Easily the worst character i’ve encountered in my year of reviewing and some of the worst writing i’ve ran into. And that writing includes a goblin man voyerstically forcing two teenagers to make out, making jokes about santa renaming himself Clem the sceneafter he tearfully confessed to letting the elves and ms. claus die, accidental transphobia via the u-men, and Bryan Lee O malley thinking we needed more than one volume of Julie Powers being around.  This was disgusting, even by 1990 standards and especially by 2021 standards and it drags the film down considerably. Without it the film is okay.. with it the film is just VERY hard to watch any time he pops up.  He made getting through the movie a nightmare and while I pause a lot becaue it’s a bad habbit I did so more simply because as I said earlier in the review I could not stand him. 

It makes it a hard film to recommend. If you can stomach the racisim, then it might be worth it, but be aware of what your putting up with going in. But if you can’t.. there’s no shame in that, it’s carbombya levels of bad. Which yes was a real fictoinal country. It was so bad Casey Casem quit transformers over it. True story. So yeah, it’s an okay film, on par with the series at it’s best for the most part.. but Djonn just spoils it for me. 

If you liked this review, like it, share it around that sort of thing and if you want MORE disney movie reviews, in addiiton to the goofy movie one later this month, if you help me hit my 25 dollar stretch goal on patroen.com/popculturebuffet, i’ll do reviews of the Recess, Proud Family and Kim Possible MOvies (Well so the drama anyway), so help me out would you and i’ll see you at the next rainbow.

[roxas-has-the-stick]

I don't blame either Satoko or Rika after watching this last ep. Both could have done things differently ((I really want them to talk to each other before shit hits the fan...but I feel like something is gonna make this situation worse first before either get to do that. I feel for them both and the whole situation is so conflicting.

I can see why Satoko feels the way she does. Feels abandoned by Rika since she isn't her first priority, made new friends((with some horrible stuck-up people, I might add)) and Satoko feels isolated in an environment she never clicked with((The school just does not vibe with Satoko's personality and it makes sense why Shion also hated it and left)). But..she never wanted to lose Rika, so she was like, "fuck it! I'll go with u", but never expected them to part.. probably couldn't imagine it after everything they've been through. With Rika, I feel for her because after going through hell for so long, she can finally make her own decisions tht aren't just focused on survival or survival of her friends. Rika sees this as a new chapter and she deserves to live her life for her. It gets messy when both characters are trying to do what makes them happy, and their pieces just don't fit together.

The lack of communication between the two is fucking things up even worse. I get that Satoko thinks things will just go back to normal if she gives Rika time...but that's assuming, and when she notices that her assumption is false, after weeks of believing this, the exhaustion and stress from her situation isn't helping when it comes to how she's feeling(Especially if the syndrome is back)) I feel that Rika should have stepped up as well and talked to Satoko at some point during this time, instead of defocusing from her so things can continue to go smoothly for her own situation because she is happy with how her life is going...besides what is happening with Satoko. I know she wants the best for Satoko, but just hoping things will work out, and not attempting that important conversation, isn't the best choice and I feel Rika is doing that whether she notices or not.

Ik people are hating on either one of them, but personally I can understand where both are coming from, why they aren't just jumping towards tht important conversation that they need to. While it should be simple to do, sometimes our brains just do not help and can help make things seem more complicated so we brush off the idea of communication thinking we can handle things alone and things will just work out..but that doesn't stop negative emotions continuing to fester anyway. I wonder how this will all turn into a bigger shit storm in the future.

I don't think Satoko is going to completely lose her shit just yet. I think this is the beginning to what we know is to come..and at this point, I'm so curious to see what will happen next to make the gap between them wider and how this will play out in the next ep.

[pynkhues]

youve lost interest in ted lasso, is it ok to ask why? was there a specific thing that turned you off or just generally lost interest?

Of course, anon!

I'm popping this behind a cut though because I know a lot of my mutuals + people who follow me still love the show a lot, and I don't want to be a dick.

It's less that I've lost interest, and more that I've found season 2 extremely frustrating. I could give you a lot of reasons for this – ill-thought out conflicts, bad pacing, a lack of engagement with their own storyworld (the fact that football has barely featured this season is very strange to me given it's a show, y'know. Set in the world of football, haha), but really my frustration boils down to this:

The characters aren't making choices anymore, the writers are making choices.

What I mean by this is that every single development in the narrative has, to me, seemed like something that has happened because the writers have wanted it to happen, not because it feels like an organic evolution or regression of a character's motivation, needs or agency.

We've seen this over and over again throughout the season: from Sam and Rebecca's glossed over connection, to Jamie suddenly having feelings for Keeley again, to the lack of any sort of connection to Beard in a bottle episode that should've given us a firm and profound understanding of his character. It's become a season which, to me, has abandoned its understanding of character for the purpose of exploring certain plots and themes, but without those characters, those plots and themes don't resonate or feel earned, because they don't mean anything.

I think the thing people often forget is that stories aren't about characters, stories are characters. They're the beating hearts of them, and so a lack of clarity and investment in the characters ultimately breeds a lack of clarity and investment in the story.

The thing is, I actually like the overall arc of season 2. I like the idea of unpacking Ted's anxieties and trauma in the wake of his divorce, I like the idea of festering Nate's insecurities and hunger for power, and the idea of Roy navigating a career post-retirement and coming back to coach, but it feels like these are ideas that have been written up on a whiteboard during a writer's room and taken at face value, not explored in a deeper and meaningful way.

Nate's arc has been borderline caricature and frequently the inciting incidents for his moral decline are not present on screen (like saying Ted takes credit for his ideas in the last ep, which we've literally never seen), Ted's arc has been heavyhanded to the point I don't think it works at all, and don't even get me started on the contrived and repetitive conflicts in Roy and Keeley's relationship, or for that matter, both Rebecca and Keeley being reduced to romance plots (the fact that Rebecca's arc this season hasn't been about fixing everything she sabotaged in s1 is baffling to me).

Like I said, the writers are making choices for these characters without writing the circumstances and situations that would instead allow or force the character to make them.

I tend to say that the role sequels or follow up seasons have is to deepen storyworlds, not stretch them, and I think s2 of Ted Lasso has stretched so much that it's tearing at the seams unfortunately. It was an ambitious season, and it gives me no pleasure to say this, but I think they've failed on many levels.

Still - to end on a positive note, I do still enjoy parts of the show, and I especially think it really thrives when it's spotlighting its ensemble and the characters are together (I think separating so many of them this season was also a mistake, but we're being positive now, so I'll stop that thought there). There have been a few really great moments of that, and I hope they re-root in those characters, together and apart, in s3.

[bertyose]

ayo, tales from the dsmp theory time!!

heres a few things i think might happen or want to happen! a lot of it is just guesses and probably wont happen but it’s fun to theorise anyways :))

- tubbo and corpse interactions again, because yes.

- british fundy? again?? please???

- at one point i heard a mention of a train? i dont know if this is true or not but if so, i think it would be cool if the gang were either heading out to steal from the train and jump it or if they were going on some sort of journey through the wild west on this train for some reason. either way it goes bad, someone could set the whole train on fire or something due to being controlled by a certain red weed ;)

- if no train i think the story line might be like this: everyone is cowboys who are travelling the world/area. this leads onto a typical western story which goes onto a shoot out? horse races? idk what happens in wild west films tbh i’ve never watched them apart from that one doctor who episode. oh, please let it be like doctor who.

- blood vines again? it wont be as a suprise as last time obviously but still super interesting to see! i’d quite like to see some blood vines as it shows how either a) they’re immortal and have been here forever festering on humans or b) they are forming/growing because of karl time travelling. more blood vines would be cool and would play into the story quite good.

- horses. pleaseee. please have horses. if there isn’t any horses i will cry.

im so excited for this episode anyways, it will be great. more karl lore will be amazing. also all of the people in this ep is great, it’s going to be so funny and im excited for connor and ofcs fundy ;)

[metamorphicrocky]

Just so you know black female fan of the show and look Simon is not the right. Simon's story was about trauma. Simon was unable to learn/grow because he was constantly re-experiencing tauma and being triggered while Grace was not. When you experience trauma/a trigger you shut down. You protect yourself and try to do anything to make the trigger go away. The people you were talking about are constantly seeking to do harm to others. Simon ep 1-8 was trying to go home with Grace.

so I only met to highlight the similarities between simon's bigoted beliefs and some aspects of the alt right. just like a general "oh this kinda reminds me of that, glad that there's a narrative here to show that letting these thoughts manifest into violence is not good," didn't mean to say simon was an exact replica of the alt right, my bad for not wording it right

simon's trauma upsets me. being abandoned HURTS and I know how he feels to be betrayed by the only people he trusts and for them to not trust in him anymore. I felt for him up until the end and I still feel bad that he never could be redeemed because he always had the potential for it. even after he hurt grace, he still had a chance to change. I wanted him to get better so badly, but I also do still like the way they took it

yeah, simon's trauma was a big part of his character, but he wasn't the only character with trauma. we all joke about the train being the trauma train, but that's literally what it is. if there's some sort of trauma that a person needs to work through, no matter how severe, the train snatches you up to learn how to grow and cope. we never found out what got simon on the train in the first place (I really kinda hope we find out later), but that wasn't what they were trying to explore with his character. simon's actions after he got on the train and his experiences were what they focused on. he got traumatized by samantha leaving him, and gosh does that have got to mess up a kid, but he isn't the only one hurting

grace's family life did not look too good. that seemed like some good parental neglect. being ignored and dismissed like that as a kid hurts, she just wanted her parents to look at her as a person and not a disappointment for embarrassing them and all that. that's a different kind of trauma from simon, but it still has LASTING effects. and then hazel. her mother figure was killed and then the only other person who stood up for her sided with the man who she feared was gonna kill her and she had to find out she was part turtle in a terrifying way. that's traumatic too. amelia had trauma from losing alric. tulip had trauma from the negative effect her parents' divorce left on her from the fighting as a kid. most people on the train have some form of trauma, and of course some forms are more severe than others, but simon wasn't alone

the show wasn't framing simon as being a villain just because of his trauma. true, simon and grace didn't share the same trauma and what happened with samantha was horrible. grace's bigotry came from a different place than simon's originally, but you can only use his trauma to describe so much of his bias against the denizens. samantha left him for dead albeit it unintentionally, it is valid for him to distrust denizens after one he trusted hurt him so badly like that. but he was presented with so many ways to healthily cope with his trauma but he refused it at every turn. and I know for a fact that not every denizen had to have treated simon the way samantha did, so he should have learned that she was an exception and not the norm, they're not all terrible, especially when presented with tuba and hazel and everything that happened this season. no matter how much trauma simon went through, it will never excuse his actions. simon became a villain when he chose to cope with his trauma by being violent and literally committing murder. simon's story is a warning that letting your trauma fester and fuel your bigotry for years will end up bad

simon ending up how he did is partially because the train is fucked up and you can literally die on it, but he also needed to take responsibility for his own mental health. and yes he was a kid who grew up without parents on a weird train, but not everyone on the train acts as simon does. his trauma was a big part of him, but he had opportunities to change. so I totally get where you're coming from, framing trauma victims as inherently malicious is very bad, but simon wasn't the only traumatized one on the train