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lazyrants · 5 days

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Happy Brush Day (prod 110)

BoredJedi (youtube.com/user/LazyBlueHaze) gave me an .iso of the “Superhero” Australian DVD from 2008. To finally put the .iso to use, I decided to take all the screenshots in this episode myself. I also watched it using VLC.

Original airdate: August 25, 2004

Story by Magnus Scheving

Written by Noah Zachary, Cole Louie, Mo Williem, Magnus Scheving

Directed by Magnus Scheving

Executive producers - Magnus Scheving, Ragnheidur Melsted, Raymond P. Le Gue, Mark Read, Brown Johnson, Kay Wilson Stallings

Starring Magnus Scheving, Stefan Karl Steffanson, Julianna Rose Mauriello

Puppeteers - Ronald Binion, Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Amanda Maddock

Happy Brush Day is the first of two episodes focusing on Ziggy's birthday (not to mention the spinoff where he is the main star), so I guess the producers finally realized that Ziggy has some story potential.

The episode begins with some foreshadowing - Sportacus brushing his teeth in his airship. I call this foreshadowing because the episode is about brushing your teeth (kinda). Anyways, the citizens in LazyTown have just woken up happily (excluding Robbie who hilariously uses packing peanuts to drown the noise of his alarm).

Stingy is admiring his collection of four toothbrushes (Is it really necessary to own more than one toothbrush..??). Pixel is using one of his gadgets to brush his teeth (later on in the episode he has completely forgotten what it is) and Stingy keeps his in a lock. Meanwhile, Ziggy is still asleep using his lollipop as a cushion.

Anyways, Robbie is eating his scrumdiddlyumptious creamy cake (My god, I just want a bite of that), and Pixel walks over to Ziggy's to tell him it's his seventh birthday. This just aggravates me, WHO NEEDS TO BE WOKEN UP ON THEIR BIRTHDAY?! My birthday is in one of those 2 week school breaks, and in one of those days you couldn't blow a horn to get me to wake up before 11am. But on my birthday I wake up at 7am with no problem. Anyways, Ziggy is mailing a letter to Sportacus while eating taffy.

Anyways, when Ziggy mentions his birthday, Robbie spits out his cake. He has another devious plan. In my opinion, I never really liked the idea of ruining Ziggy's birthday. His plan was to make a machine that spewed taffy all over the place. 1 - Ziggy loves taffy. 2 - It's his birthday. 3 - Ziggy loves taffy. Meanwhile, the kids are deciding what to get him for his birthday.

Anyways, when Stingy mentions all he wants is taffy every year, he pops up looking for taffy. Now, forgive me, since Taffy was invented in the US, but, it is really that good??

Also, if you didn't notice (SOMEONE must have noticed), the background music for when he walks out the shot is a reprise of 'Siggi' from Afram Latibaer. Anyways, Robbie does his classic disguise time (I think this is the funniest of the first season).

Robbie decides that to accompany his outfit (that looks like something a fairy from a 2000s 3D animated straight-to-VHS movie classified "G" by the Australian Classification Board would wear) with a gift. Off camera he thinks up the perfect thing. Meanwhile, Sportacus has gotten Ziggy's letter, which is one of those cards that plays an undeniably catchy tune when you open it.

Sportacus is having some trouble deciding what to give Ziggy as a gift (his first two choices being balls). Anyways, the camera cuts off to Milford putting up the birthday stage for Ziggy. Everyone is excited for the party until Bessie comes with her birthday speech for little 'Wiggie', then everyone is seriously dreading it. (judging from a transcription Chris Crow made on the GL forums, Bessie possibly just wrote down random words on a piece of paper and lied to herself.)

Anyways, after a bit of begging, Milford is convinced to start the party with the presents. Very surprisingly, Stingy decides to go first. His gift is a quarter-bitten piece of taffy. A single one. You can see from the box there were supposed to be nine pieces.

Anyways, Stingy takes back the box & the lid. I don't know why it's so funny. "Happy birthday, here's my gift, gimme the packaging." So anyways, Trixie goes next, and HER gift is a jack in the box. (If I was Ziggy, personally I wouldn't take that kinda disrespect.) So anyways, Pixel gives him his gift which is in an envelope. Ziggy is thankful enough for the envelope (what a pure soul), until Pixel tells him to OPEN the envelope.

In the envelope is a piece of paper that reads "www.taffy.com" (it's a real website and is still up to this day, it's just not related to LazyTown at all). It turns out to be a website Pixel has made consisting of "jpegs of every taffy ever made!" I get this was written in 2004, but why JPEGS? PNG for the wiiiin!! (I'd geniunely enjoy that gift, but maybe with something else like LazyTown screenshots or old 80s action movie posters.)

So, anyways, Ziggy wants to eat the taffy and is kinda annoyed when Pixel says it isn't possible. Anyways, when Bessie announces she has added five more extra minutes to her speech, Milford gives HIS gift, which is a huge square of taffy flavoured taffy.

Stephanie's gift is her very own choreographed 'Taffy Cheer!' and everyone likes it so much Ziggy even says he could taste the victory taffy. Coming from a boy whose whole diet consists of candy, that is the highest compliment you can receive.

Anyways, Sportacus does a frontflip into the scene right about when Bessie is about to start her speech. (Is it just me or do the events if this show have TOO many coincidences some times?)

Sportacus is hyping his gift up very much. Ziggy guesses a truckload of different candies twice, but Sportacus does an amazing flip (he doesn't have the box in his hand in this shot), lands on his feet and shows Ziggy the toothbrush (now he is holding the toothbrush but there is no box to be seen?).

Anyways, everyone has some questions. Pixel wants to know where the remote control is and if you have to plug it in. Eventually he searches it up in his database, but Ziggy still has no idea what it is. Then he reveals that he keeps some of his favourite foods in his food. Everyone is disgusted. Including me.

Anyways, they sing a whole two minute (recommended length for brushing your teeth) song about brushing your teeth the Twenty Times way. After it's finished, Ziggy shows more interest in brushing his teeth until The Birthday Fairy (a disguised Robbie) shows up. Trixie makes fun of him, indirectly insulting Stephanie (you're girlier then she is, and that is saying a lot!)

Anyways, Robbie (or Pixel) introduces his (honestly really cool) gift, the Electro Ultra Voice Activated Candy Matic! Robbie then reveals that Ziggy and only Ziggy can tell it what to do which is a pretty dumb thing. What if Ziggy falls asleep and while he does he says that his friends can have some of his taffy?

Anyways, Ziggy throws Sportacus' gift on the floor, and I'm surprised Sportacus didn't get mad. You know how bratty you have to be to throw your birthday gift away in front of the gifter? Anyways, Ziggy calls for taffy a bunch of times and he catches most of it in his mouth. Stingy is kinda annoyed.

Or as the subtitles say.. (SEETHING WITH RAGE). Anyways, Stingy climbs right up to the thing and yells TAFFY as loud as he can. Then his face gets splattered. Robbie, the liar! Anyways, while nobody is looking, Robbie deviously puts the level of taffy up to 'red', and taffy starts flying all over the place.. really fast! However, Ziggy can't yell 'stop' because his mouth is full of yellow taffy.

Anyways, it's not long before the stage becomes a sea of taffy, Sportacus goes up to his airship to get some sports equipment to stop the machine and Robbie's advice is to just eat the candy. Milford announces it and everyone starts eating.

Anyways, Robbie quickly gets tired of the taffy and he decides to go back to his car, but unfortunately he cannot drive away. Totally your fault, dude. You started this by putting it on RED. Anyways, his car is basically underwater, except the taffy is the water.

Meanwhile, Sportacus is in his airship, carrying some tennis rackets in his shirt (some of the frames are slowed down, possibly to meet the 24:42 time limit or just look cooler), and the taffy is up to the chins of the puppets. So Bessie grabs onto the birthday banner (in real life that would've just ripped off). Anyways, Sportacus has arrived and he starts hitting every single piece of taffy that comes his way, and for a few seconds the machine stops working.

Sportacus puts on his goggles (it's taffy, not salty ass water) and he dives in to find Ziggy's toothbrush. He doesn't move for a few seconds and everyone thinks he's dead (I don't blame them) until he pops up with the toothbrush!

Stingy throws the toothbrush to Ziggy and he brushes his teeth the Twenty Times way. Finally, he gets the taffy out his mouth and yells STOP!!!

Finally! (: Anyways, Robbie puts his arm through the door and waves it out frantically so Sportacus notices him. Sportacus pulls off his hat and everybody realizes that it was Robbie all along!

Anyways, they sing the Bing Bang song while Bessie does her speech. Now this is the part I don't like because it just scraps what Bessie and the kids said earlier in the episode - the speech goes on and on and on (and this year she added five more minutes), but the Bing Bang song is only 53 seconds and somehow she finishes her speech in the span of the whole Bing Bang song. Anyways, good episode.

THE END.

So kids, what did we learn in this episode of LazyTown? Brush your teeth every day and night or a bunch of taffy will come flying out of nowhere and nearly drown you.

7/10

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gizkasparadise · 9 months

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I got till the airdate to live on whatever the fandom can create about arthdal so I’ll start with you, fellow arthdal obsessed

Do you think it’s gonna be an all new plot line or will they continue on the precap they provided us with in the finale of the last episode?

LOL glad to be of service. here's some scattered thoughts:

the plotline snippets we've been given seem to be picking up/focusing on the eunseom and ago tribes subplot the most imo, with some like king arthur/one sword to rule them all flavor. since i dont think kim sung cheol/ipsaeng is coming back, i wonder how that is going to go (im guessing ipsaeng dies somewhere in that 8 year time skip)

we havent seen ANY saya in the promo materials so far, which has me like mildly concerned lol because he was my favorite character in the OG, and also seems to signify the twin switcheroo indicated by that little animated epilogue to s1

the fact that tagon and tae al ha are gonna have an elementary-school aged child running around is sure to be important lmfao. god help that child and/or the people around that les enfant terrible

my guesses for plotline boils down to:

central focus on eunseom leading this massive rebellion of unified tribes (perhaps not doing very well and/or on the run). ipsaeng probably killed off between seasons, the merpeople leader probably also killed off between seasons due to the actress' scandals -- maybe her baby that eunseom rescued shows up and is important later? the "sword of aramun" is something needed to boost morale again and/or solidify control of the tribes' and earn their loyalty

tae al ha going to be lady macbething and probably doing a good job at it judging by the size of her hair in the promos. tagon is going to be the king during this time, but probably beaten/worn down and less directly ambitious than he was in the plot of trying to secure the throne in s1

tanya better have more to do. this is my lil hope because i think she deserved more screentime/plotlines in the first season. would love her spiritual powers to go full on eldrich abomination style (more of her freaky curses please!!)

i think the twins swap identities at some point -- or eunseom has to pretend to be saya & during this is when he and tanya finally reunite. i will be so upset if saya is killed off, but i am a lil nervous that he's not in any of the promo and didnt get a teaser trailer like the rest of the mains

yangcha and mubaek are back!! this just makes me happy

let the god horse return to judge the shit out of everyone

idk what's happening with the remaining neanthals & the sisters...wondering if that plotline gets cut since i dont see any of them or their characters returning in the cast list :/

#asks!#kdrama #arthdal chronicles

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allsignspointtosunnydale · 7 months

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Series 3 thoughts.

This marks the first post on my All Signs Point to Sunnydale Tumblr blog. So, I've just finished series three and I want to share my thoughts on what was so great about it and what wasn't so good about it. Spoilers, obviously! Don't read if you don't want series 3 spoiled.

What wasn't so good about it:

The more episodes I watch with Oz in them makes me think. "Wow, he really shouldn't have been part of the main cast". This is absolutely nothing to do with how Seth Green was in the role of Oz, it more or less seemed that the longer he stuck around -- the less the writers knew where to go or what to do with him, come to think of it... that could've been one of the reasons why Seth left after series 4.

Wesley, oh dear god, Wesley. He suffers with the Oz problem (being that the writers don't know what to do with him), he gets killed off way too early and we don't get to really know him apart from Cordelia having a crush on him, him being Buffy's (and originally Faith's, before she went rogue) watcher, what was he even doing in Sunnydale High? Maybe he was an assistant librarian if for some reason Giles was absent, none of this was ever explained and then he gets killed off at the end of Graduation Day (pt. 2)*. He returns in Angel, of which I can hope means more development of his character.

*In fact, the original plan for Wesley was to have him killed off in Graduation Day (pt.2). At least he returns in Angel.

The Zeppo: If I ever rewatch the series, I might give this one a miss as I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the episode. I'm starting to think that Cordy had a reason to not like Xander (at least in series' 1-3).

Whatever the hell Buffy and Angel's relationship was (and how most of the quarrels that they had were solved by the end of the episode) and how she rejects her friends help.

Earshot: The weird plot about the school dinner lady being the killer fused in with Jonathan threatening to take his own life, those two things are two dramatically different things and it is sort of a whiplash between funny and "oh god, this is horrible". The timing of the episode was pretty bad, by a saddening coincidence, the original airdate was meant to be a few weeks after the Columbine massacre, but it was held off until September. You might ask, well, what did they replace the episode with on its original run, episode 14: Bad Girls.

Snyder: In a way, I was kind of glad when he was eaten by The Mayor. He was hilarious in Band Candy, though! It does help that Armin Shimerman has fantastic comedic timing.

What I liked:

For as much as I don't get Faith, I understand why she is the way she is. Someone who has been let down for almost her entire life, someone who has had a rather dysfunctional home life, she is bound to try and find someone who gives her that family that she has desperately missed, and she thought she'd found her father-figure in the shape of Wilkins (the Mayor). Well, not quite, seeing as he was the sort to be all nicey-nicey when it suited him meant that, with a father figure like that, who would need one anyways? Maybe I'm coming to like Faith as a character, seeing as she was representative of the path that Buffy could've gone down if she didn't have any positive influences in her life.

Band Candy: One of my favourite "funny" episodes. I thought it was hilarious to see Giles not acting as serious as we were used to seeing him. Who'd've thought that Joyce and Giles had a fling in this episode, and to see Snyder finally let loose!

The Mayor's transformation in Graduation Day (pt. 2) - A fantastic use of CGI for a character that just seemed to be written for the sole purpose of needing a bad guy at the end of the series, series 2 was Angel (as his Angelus side) and series 1 being The Master. I loved how Harry Groener was in the role, he totally made me hate Wilkins and that was what was supposed to happen, he did it so well.

Getting reintroduced to Chantarelle/Lily: In the episode "Anne" where Buffy runs away from home to live and work as a waitress in Los Angeles, we get reintroduced to Lily (formerly Chantarelle in series 2, episode 7: "Lie to Me") and this time, she has a new boyfriend -- Ricky, who is homeless and suffers with Benjamin Button syndrome meaning, he looks older than he really is, by means of body-switching? Chantarelle could also be the homeless woman walking down the street saying that she is nobody too? I think this episode effectively touches on how difficult it is to forge an identity for yourself in your teenage years, where you feel invisible and unimportant.

Favourite episodes: Helpless (episode 12), Anne (episode 1), Choices (episode 19), Band Candy (episode 6)

(PS: Hmm, I really don't think it would've worked out between Wesley and Cordelia).

#btvsrecap #buffy #buffy the vampire slayer #buffyseason3

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inevitably-johnlocked · 4 years

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Weird q..but i really dont understand why most fans hate season 4, especially the last episode. Why? I think it gave us a deeper look on both sherlock and mycroft! I felt it tells a lot about mycroft how he had to step in and take control of things ever since he was a kid himself. Also he is not a robot or a killer. Also redbeard thing. It was an appropriate deep psychological trauma (cause most shows usually disappoint in that area). I am not trying to impose my opinion. Just want to understand

Hey Nonny!

It’s all good, and I totally respect your opinion and how you enjoyed S4! It’s totally okay! I know that there are quite a few who got a lot of of S4, and who genuinely enjoyed it.

Sadly, I am not one of those people, and I’ll try to be as diplomatic a possible in my response, but PLEASE know that I don’t think you’re “terrible” or “stupid” for liking S4 because I DO get passionate sometimes in my responses, and I’m just merely speaking as someone who studied the series very closely for quite a long time before S4 aired, and as someone who knows Day-One-ers (ie., people who watched Sherlock on its day one airdate) who also are a large majority of the people who did not like S4. This is just me simply stating why I didn’t like it, but it’s different for everyone.

Stating what I DO like: The acting and cinematography of the first two episodes were brilliant for what they had to work with, and I’ve never faulted any of the actors for the flaws of S4. And for TFP, they did the best with what they had to work with.

That’s… pretty much all I really liked about S4.

Now, here’s my problems with S4:

Nothing made a LICK of sense to the narrative that they were telling in Seasons prior.

This series was always based a bit in reality, and suddenly everything became comic-book rules: X-Men villains, shitty “redemption” arc, destroying favourite characters just for drama, ludicrous physics, explosions that only destroyed one small room in an apt where in previous episodes one explosion destroyed an entire block, etc.

Sherlock was OOC.

Mary was being built up to be a fantastic villain? Ah, nope, here’s the lacklustre twist where tee hee Mary’s just an assassin with a heart of gold that still emotionally abuses Sherlock and John and just won’t fucking stay dead.

And speaking of this, the DVD’s make NO LOGICAL SENSE unless she was planning to kill herself

AND she tries to make her death equatable to Sherlock’s??

Everyone was RIDICULOUSLY out of character in TFP, I’m so sorry: Mycroft is a bumbling coward for the most part, Sherlock disregards John when he gives the Vatican Cameos warning, the Holmes Parents are assholes because Mycroft COULDN’T SOLVE A PROBLEM WHEN HE WAS 12?? ARE YOU SERIOUS???? And that creepy Moriarty / Eurus thing, and LITERALLY they’re implying that EVERYTHING HAPPENED BECAUSE EURUS DIDN’T GET A HUG. Like, I’m so sorry, but that’s lazy writing.

And don’t even get me started on the ridiculousness of the entire character of Eurus. She LITERALLY had X-Men powers, and like… just nothing made sense. Her involvement in the entirety of S4 MADE NO SENSE. Why go back to prison if you can get out?? WHAT IS THE POINT?? AND I repeat: She did all this because she didn’t get a hug. Yes. I’m oversimplifying, but at the base level, that’s what it was, because she wanted Sherlock’s attention. Welcome to the club, kid, stand in line, everyone on the SHOW wants his attention.

The ENTIRE plot of the first 2 seasons got wiped out all because it wasn’t Moriarty who was interested in Sherlock, but Eurus?? What… What about Carl Powers?? Like…. the ENTIRETY of season one and TGG makes no sense now, because of that one 5 minute scene where Eurus “enlists” Moriarty. I… ugh.

The SUDDEN tonal switch from kind-of Sherlock to James Bond, for some fucking reason.

And on that note, how terribly lazy and cheap TFP looks in comparison to the other two episodes. The whole episode looks like it was filmed in a small house with 4 identical rooms.

EVERYTHING that was etablished in 2 episodes prior were COMPLETELY forgotten when Mary was “shot”.

The complete character assassination of one loyal blogger John H Watson in favour of Mary for some fucked up reason, even though AT HIS OWN WEDDING HE COULDN’T STAND BEING AROUND MARY. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe for one damned second that John would EVER forgive Mary for murdering his best friend after seeing what it did to him. That’s not love from her, and that’s NOT John’s character EVER in the ENTIRETY of the series.

And speaking of character assassinations, Molly’s character being devolved to S1E1 Molly, where instead of giving her agency like they were doing with her the ENTIRE series, so much so that Sherlock picked up on her dominance enough to give her a big role in his mind palace in HLV and TAB, only to make her a sad little self-insert Mary Sue pining for the main character, and in turn made Sherlock a TERRIBLE human being for MAKING HER say what she did. It’s gross.

AND speaking of Molly’s character, they’ve been setting up Mollstrade since as early as ASiB, but I guess that plot line got shafted. Look I LOVE Hopkins, and I am ANGRY they didn’t give her more than 3 fucking lines in the entirety of ONE episode after HEAVILY promoting her actress and character, but they essentially reduced her to a piece of ass for Lestrade to chase. AND THAT’S NOT HIS CHARACTER EITHER. EW GROSS.

The constant plot holes being gaped wide open, and the Chekov’s gun moments where they bring up shit but do nothing with it!!

TD-12? Nope, just a lame reference to a story we like.

John got shot at the end of TLD with a VERY REAL FUCKING GUN? Nope, it was a dart gun.

John not suddenly knowing how to be a doctor.

The TGG one I mentioned up above.

What was in the letter? And who was Anyone??

Moriarty essentially being erased as anything other than a hired thug and had no part whatsoever in Sherlock’s history.

Eurus… Just all of her character is asinine.

Everyone in T6T suddenly not knowing John’s the blogger, which is in direct contradiction to literally the entire series.

The AGRA plotline was ridiculous, in the end.

Baby? What baby? It was only there when convenient.

They dropped whatever plotline they were going to do for Mycroft: He was being set up as either dying, or the villain.

Redbeard. I’m sorry, I disagree with you on that. Mofftiss is trying to tell me that a little boy fell down a well and went missing, and that WASN’T the first place searchers / the police wouldn’t have looked? Sorry, no. And then. AND THEN his parents just… go along with this thing where Sherlock shuts down and they DON’T get him therapy? Yes, I agree the mind is a funny thing, and we can be traumatised into forgetting or dissociating from traumatic events. I GET IT. But… like I don’t believe the Holmes are so heartless as to just never grieve or have memories around about their supposedly dead daughter. It’s another OCC thing for me.

John’s cheating.

Disappearing and reappearing characters, like this scene, and the entirety of the aquarium scene.

Mary and John being terrible parents

OH GOD THIS FUCKING SCENE. That bomb SHOULD HAVE DESTROYED THE ENTIRE BUILDING.

What… who was this girl on the plane? What? Like I know WHO, but if she’s supposed to be Eurus talking to Sherlock, why don’t we see Eurus… talking to Sherlock? I … Ugh.

NORBURY.

The glass SUPER SECRET GOVERNMENT ROOM THAT NO ONE SHOULD SEE INTO in T6T.

Sloppy camera work that some believe was intentional, but if it wasn’t, jesus c’mon.

The RIDICULOUS amount of 4th Wall Breaking. Like… even the actors didn’t give a shit.

Essentially, everything on this list here and in this blog tag here.

And everything mentioned on these three posts:

T6T: 10 Revealing Things That Haunt You Late at Night

TLD: 10 Revealing Things That Haunt You Late at Night

TFP: 10 Revealing Things That Haunt You Late at Night

There’s SO much more I can go into, but please go through my “something’s fucky” tag in that last link.

Notice how probably 90% of that has NOTHING to do with “johnlock not becoming canon” because the Johnlockers get MONSTROUS accusations as to THAT being why we didn’t like S4, even though it was, like critically panned by the GENERAL AUDIENCE who have NO investment in the series other than “I liked it in the past”.

Two of my fave YouTubers have interesting (not perfect, but still good) takes coming at the series as casual viewers:

‘The Day Sherlock Died’ by The Closer Look

‘Sherlock is Garbage, and Here’s Why’ by hbomberguy

So it’s NOT just Johnlockers. I’ve talked to Sher1011ies at 221B con who didn’t like S4 either, because most of them realized how shitty Molly was treated in the last episode. So yeah, a big middle finger to those who think I dislike S4 because of “no Johnlock”. No, I disliked it because I need my stories to make logical narrative sense. I disliked it because I love John and they ruined his character all for the sake of drama and because Moffat has a “hurting Ben” kink. I disliked it because Mary should NOT have been “redeemed” because she was an abuser. I disliked it because Moriarty was turned into a cartoon villain, even though he was already overused in the series. I disliked it because the core of the show – the FRIENDSHIP of Sherlock and John, and their solving mysteries together – did not exist at all. I disliked it because John got sidelined. I disliked it because TFP was a ridiculous episode that, if you replace ANY of the characters, it wouldn’t make a difference, because it didn’t feel like an episode of Sherlock. I disliked it because everyone was OOC.

Anyway. Sorry. One too many accusations my way over the past 1100+ days LOL.

As for your assessment of TFP, I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with you. There was no growth and actually it implies something far more sinister: That the Holmes are and were terrible parents that gave no shits about their daughter, their traumatized son, and expected their eldest to essentially be a parent. It implies that Mycroft, at 12 years old, orchestrated the ENTIRE Sherrinford thing… Look I can suspend my disbelief, but there’s limits, and this is one of them. A LITERAL CHILD. Perhaps Uncle Rudy had a hand in it somehow, but then why not shit on Uncle Rudy? Why is Mycroft blamed for it all?

Look, I don’t doubt Sherlock had a traumatic experience regarding “Redbeard”. But then why play into the fact that he was a dog? Why bring another character into the series just to have a gotcha moment? Because Mofftiss wanted a “Shyamalan twist”, that’s why. They threw EVERYTHING away for a twist ending either because they GENUINELY thought it was good, or they got tired of doing Sherlock. ALL of TFP is LITERALLY a really bad plot twist because reasons. TFP makes no sense to the ENTIRE narrative structure of the previous 12 episodes. It erased EVERYTHING from the previous episodes, and coated it with a gross closing by a character no one wanted in the series, and then tried to convince us that it’s a new beginning – “a journey they had to go through” – but it SOLVED NOTHING.

Anyway. I have big feels about S4, and the only way I can enjoy it is to watch it subtextually, but even then, I cannot sit through TFP without cringing.

That said, Lovelies, please do not attack Nonny for enjoying S4! I know you guys won’t, but Nonny came out with an olive branch and they just want to understand why the fandom is passionate about S4′s… whatever it was. We can have a civil discussion about it, and point out – without attacking – why S4 is universally panned. It’s okay to like things no one else does, and Nonny was respectful to me in this ask!

So with that, feel free, lovelies, to express why YOU didn’t enjoy the series, or why you did! I’m interested in both “sides” / pov’s whatever :)

#steph replies #long post #sherlock s4 #s4 shitposting #mofftiss #something's fucky #the mary problem #my thoughts #my meta #shitposting steph #sorry gang if you like the season #it's easier for me to enjoy it if i tinhat

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sailorfailures · 4 years

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New Years in Sailor Moon

Happy New Year, everybody!

I thought I might take this time to talk about how we briefly saw New Years was celebrated in Sailor Moon, which turned into a crash course in Japanese/Shinto New Years traditions. Plenty of pictures and links below!

New Years (o-shougatsu) was celebrated most visibly in the live action series, where we got to see the girls - Usagi, Ami, Rei, and Makoto, since Minako hadn’t yet joined up with them - celebrating in a very traditional sense in Act 14; only they didn’t actually get to celebrate on the “real” New Years, because as we saw in the previous episode, Rei, a dedicated Shinto priestess, was busy getting Hikawa Shrine ready for the many people who would be visiting.

Hatsumode is the first visit to a Shinto shrine of the new year, a tradition which many Japanese families observe. Larger shrines will even organise festivals around the event, but even smaller shrines like Hikawa will see a massive bump in visitors - which means a sharp increase in sales, too, which requires extra work, so Makoto and Ami volunteered to help.

... Even if they weren’t too happy when Usagi failed to show up as promised.

Ami is preparing wooden ofuda wrapped in protective paper. Most Sailor Moon fans are already familiar with the concept of ofuda, as Rei uses paper ones to ward off Youma and other monsters, but these are destined for people’s homes.

Ofuda are basically charms of protection - hence why Rei uses them to guard against monsters who mean to cause harm - and these wooden ones are to be placed above doorways, near significant objects, or housed within special kamidana altars. They can be purchased year-round but are typically “renewed” once a year, so it’s natural Rei is expecting to sell a lot.

Makoto is helping to braid shimenawa, sacred cords of rice straw/hemp rope that are either wrapped around or hung over the entrance of a space that is deemed sacred/pure. This can mean a building, such as Hikawa Shrine itself, or an individual object liable to house a spirit, such as a sacred tree or rock. These ones are quite large, so they’re probably going to be used to decorate the shrine, but smaller shimenawa can be used to decorate a household shrine/altar, too.

On the table we can see two more popular Shinto shrine souvenirs. The first is ema, wooden plaques that you write your wish/dreams/hopes/goals on and hang at a shrine along with everyone else’s plaques, creating a wall of wishes. These are popular year-round, but the influx of visitors means an influx of ema, too.

Ema played a more significant role in Act 8, where Usagi sends Makoto to Hikawa Shrine to hang her plaque for her (as a ruse to get her and Rei to make up after an argument).

Left: The blank side of the plaque on which Usagi has written her wish (to win the NakoNako mascot plush toy). Middle: The back of the plaque, mass-printed with a generic design, in this case sheep since November 2003 (the original airdate) was in the Year of the Sheep/Goat/Ram. Right: Rei stands before a wall of ema other shrine visitors have tied up.

If you were wondering whether Usagi’s little illustration of a cartoon character is normal or not - it very much is, and only getting more normal. “Ita-ema,” in the same vein as ita-bags and ita-cars, are ema that have been decorated with various anime characters. It’s become so popular that even officially branded anime ema are being released, including, for the first time, an official Rei Hino/Sailor Mars ema available at the Sailor Moon Store in time for 2020.

Source: http://sailormoon-official.com/store/post_852.php

The last souvenir is a pile of hamaya, lit. “demon-destroying arrows.” These good luck charms come from the tale of Yorimasu Minamoto vanquishing a demon that threatened the Emperor - his bow and his arrows were declared sacred, and ever since, bows and arrows have been thought to frighten off evil spirits. Hamaya are popular souvenirs to give to children, traditionally boys, but increasingly so with girls.

The bow & arrow’s connection with demon-slaying and sanctity is probably why Sailor Mars herself uses a flaming bow & arrow to attack after her Super power-up.

In addition, Rei sold plenty of omamori, the small, portable, cloth versions of the larger ofuda charms. Again, most Sailor Moon fans are familiar with the concept of these small charms, as they were a plot point in Rei’s introductory episode of the classic Anime.

Left: Rei buried under an avalanche of dropped omamori in PGSM. Middle: The inauspicious omamori in the classic Anime. Right: Real life omamori from one of the Hikawa Shrines (different spelling, same pronunciation) in Tokyo that inspired Sailor Moon’s Hikawa Shrine.

There are a variety of different omamori in different sizes, shapes, and colours intended to offer the bearer protection against different concerns. There are omamori for love, relationships, and good luck with exams, as well as plenty for general protection. Again, these are available and popular year-round, but would make cheap and eye-catching souvenirs for the new Shrine visitors. It’s considered very bad luck to attempt to open up an omamori and look inside, even though they appear as small cloth bags.

Another tradition for those visiting a shrine on New Years is to get your fortune told by a randomly-picked slip of paper, an omikuji. If you don’t like the fortune you get, you can try and undo its bad luck by tying it around the branches of a pine tree or nearby wall of other bad fortunes. The Japanese word for pine tree, matsu, sounds the same as “to wait”, so by tying your fortune to a pine tree, you’re telling the fortune to wait there instead of following you. Though it wasn’t at New Years, Rei herself demonstrated this practice when she drew a bad fortune in episode 90 of the classic Anime.

So that’s the New Years Hikawa Shrine prep - phew! But how did the girls celebrate “New Years” together?

They all got together in their secret hideout under Crown Karaoke for snacks, drinks, and a good old-fashioned party!

The girls all wore perfectly colour-coordinated kimono, which are very traditionally worn when visiting a Shrine for hatsumode.

They decorated the room with two kadomatsu, arrangements of pine and bamboo cuttings placed in pairs that attract and provide temporary housing to spirits and invite good fortune, along with more hamaya and a kite, which are often flown for fun (“tako-age”) around New Years.

Hanging in the centre of their screen is a shimekazari, a decoration utilising a smaller shimenawa sacred rope that guards against evil spirits just like the larger version. It’s adorned with various items of good luck, including a lobster (symbolising longevity due to its impressive lifespan), pine needles (longevity again, since they’re evergreens), and a daidai citrus fruit (“dai dai” sounds similar to “from generation to generation”, again implying longterm success), flanked by two zig-zagged shide streamers.

They also have a kagami mochi display, two round mochi rice cakes sitting on top of each other on a sanpou stand, adorned with leaves and dried persimmons. Normally, kagami mochi are topped with a daidai (real or fake) or a more-widely-available mikan, but their kagami mochi is topped with... Luna!

On the wall we can see that each girl has written a kakizome - lit. “first writing” - where people write kanji, phrases, or poetry which they feel are lucky. The scrolls are then traditionally burned on January 14th. They might’ve been told to make some kakizome as part of their Winter holiday homework, but as this is a “fake” New Years celebrated around Feburary, these might not be the same ones.

It’s an interesting snippet of characterisation to see what kanji/phrase/poetry each character considers personally auspicious! From the left:

Rei: 悪霊退散 (Akuryou Taisan, “Foul Spirit Begone”)

No surprises here - this is the phrase Rei chants when she uses her paper ofuda to disperse an evil spirit, and to attack Youma once transforming into Sailor Mars. As you can tell from her handwriting, she’s very used to writing out these kanji! It’s easy to understand why she might feel that this was her lucky phrase.

Makoto: 質実剛健 (Jitsu Jitsu Gou Ken, lit. “Temperament, Sincerity, Health”)

This is an example of Chinese poetry in kakizome. Makoto’s gone for an older phrase, but you can understand why it would resonate with her, as her name also translates to “sincerity”. The literal meaning of the phrase is somewhat abstract, but could be translated into something like “May You Be of Level Head and Good Health”. It’s also more of a masculine phrase, fitting for the ultra-tomboyish Makoto in PGSM.

Ami: 友達 (Tomodachi, “Friends”)

Ami has gone for a singular kanji/word rather than a whole phrase, and it makes sense why she’s picked this one. Her character arc so far has revolved around her making friends who don’t just want to use her for her connections/grades, and learning how to navigate sincere “friendships” for the first time in her life. The word obviously carries a lot of weight for her without needing to be part of a longer phrase.

Usagi: 初日の出 (Hatsuhi no De, lit. “First Sunrise of the Year”)

Witnessing the first sunrise of the new year is very commonly/popularly observed in Japan. Legend goes that the God of New Years, Toshigami, comes out with the first sunrise of the new year, and that if you make a wish during the sunrise it will come true in the following year. It’s very befitting of Usagi that this optimistic and wishful tradition would be what sticks out to her the most!

Also, you may have noticed that Usagi’s handwriting is somewhat different from the others - while kakizome are typically written in very traditional calligraphy, Usagi is obviously far too dedicated to following the “cutesy writing” trend (marui ji, lit. “round letters”), as indicated by her excessively rounded shapes (compare the sharp corners of Makoto’s 質 vs. Usagi’s rounded 日) and little heart doodles. Cute to the core!

And so what did they do after hanging up all of these traditional, thoughtful New Years decorations...?

Pulled it all down to have a killer karaoke party, obviously!

After all’s said and done, New Years in Japan is still a time to have fun with and connect to your loved ones. While New Years in other countries is considered a prime time to go on a date, especially to have someone to kiss at midnight, New Years in Japan is a time for friends and family (interestingly, Christmas has become something of a “date event” in Japan instead).

So there you have it! Maybe you’ve already learned something new this early in the new year!

🎊 🎉 Happy New Year! 🎉 🎊

🎊 🎉 Akemashite Omedetou! 🎉 🎊

#sailor moon #PGSM #long post #new years

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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The Loud House Valentine’s Day Double Feature (Back in Black and Stage Plight) or My My My Once Bitten Twice Shy

What is up my Loudites? And while I am returning to the Loud House I do have some sad news to get out of the way first.. i’m ending regular coverage of the Loud House. I don’t like doing this.. but when I picked up the show, I didn’t really have a set schedule.. and that was a bad thing as I didn’t get nearly everything I wanted done. Now I have one and honestly it’s been great: it allows me to stay focused and if I end up not feeling what I was going to do that day, provided it’s not a comission or specfically needed that day, I can swap things around a bit easier.

The reason I bring this up is Nick’s way of scheduling means I CAN’T reasonably put the show on the schedule. They often don’t announce airdates until the wee before, which isn’t a bad thing WATCHING, and isn’t unresonable for a children’s network. But for someone who likes to have a concrete schedule at the top of the month, still flexable and able to make changes if they come up but at least some idea of what i’ll be doing and when, that’s a non-starter, as not knowing when a show’s going to be there or not really messes with things. In contrast Disney puts up their entire programming schedule for next month towards the end, so I know if a show’s coming back, and thus that it’ll probably be around for next month’s too. And if it goes away a week earlier than expected then super I have that space for other sttuff. But I just have too much other stuff, paid and on my own time, to keep friday’s open in perpetuity.

I will however still reviewing the show infrequently as I still love it, Season 5 will probably have plenty of episodes I want to talk about, already it has Leni running for mayor which sounds like one of my wonky spinoff ideas and I love it all the more for that, and ther’es tons of episodes I have and haven’t seen to dig into. So like Lori I won’t be in the house on a daily basis but i’m still going to show up a lot. I already have an April Fools special planned, as well as a retrospective ready for some time in the future. And of course if more Sam and Luna episodes show up, you know i’ll be on those as fast as humanly possible so yeah not leaving the show.. just not coveirng it because I like having some control of my schedule, it’s a thing with me.

Good then we can get to why your ACTUALLY reading this unless you’ve already scrolled past or scrolled up to this. Next Sunday is Valentine’s Day, and so to continue Valnetine’s Shenanigans on this fine blog, i’m doing some romantic style episodes of the loud hosue for you. I did intend for this to be bigger, but frankly i’ve been running behind on reviews and running out of steam lately, so I paired it down to the two I wanted to do most. So for today we’ll be covering two of the show’s couples: One they badly need to bring back and I question why they haven’t, and one that I feel has gotten a lot of flack for things that aren’t it’s fault. Both are really adorable so expect some awkward blushing, bats, blood, and other stuff rhyming with B under the cut!

Back in Black: So we begin our double feature with Lucy

Yeah I have not covered this adorable harbinger of death enough on this blog, and intended to do this one, among other lucycentric episodes back in october.. and the fact I didn’t is a good argument for why I have a schedule now ain’t it? But sometimes your plans not panning out right at the exact time you planned them works out for you. Not getting to do Plan 9 From Mission Hill during Pride Month meant I got to do it on comission later. And not getting to do this one at Halloween means it still works fine just fine for valentine’s day.

So we begin the episode with Lincoln working on his science project, with Rusty coming over to help.

Shockingly though not only is he not just taking a nap or hitting on Lincon’s sisters while Lincoln works but actually helping, he’s actually good at it. I’m as suprsied as you. Though this is early in his characterization, so he hasn’t’nt been established as horribly sucking at everything or his friends being done with his bullshit QUITE yet. Give him time. This is an interesting moment in the character’s history though, as it’s the episode that firmly establishes him as a close friend of Lincolns. While he was already turned from a member of a random violence gang to LIncoln’s buddy in the span of season 1, this episode cements him as one of his closer pals simply by him coming over and the two being fairly familiar with one another. Granted by that same token Girl Jordan should be in the group.. and I have nothing to add to that. Add Girl Jordan to the Lincrew. Just do it.

Anyways Rusty brought his brother along. And you’d expect me to be terrified as there’s now three of them. But.. nope I like Rocky. He’s a chill kid and his personality goes together well with Lucy’s as while he’s a more typical kid, he’s still very subdued in his emotions like she is. Also he mentions both parents so my divorce theory.. is honestly still valid as this was three seasons ago and I could buy their mother left during that time.

And yes Lucy’s in love.. and stalking him a bit as she follows him around the house sighing while he wonders who did that.. though it is a nice clue their compatible. When you can sense the presence of someone whose big running gag is showing up out of nowhere to scare the crap out of people that means something. And it’s either that you’d really get that person or your Wolverine. Or one of his kids. Or his clones. Or clones of his clones. What i’m saying is Rusty’s mom banged the wolverine and his family tree is really weird even by marvel standards.

But I do give her a pass as she’s not trying to be creepy or obsessive, she just doesn’t know how to talk to him as he’s your average kid and she’s a creature of the night. It’s just a kid being shy which is very refreshing both because pre-savnio being fired the show had some very messed up ideas about relationships and gender politics at times, the latter of which actually crops up here, and because having grown up with the cartoons of the 90′s and 2000′s.. I had to put up with things like this.

Full Disclosure: I DO ship sonamy.. but only after around Sonic Chronicles, where Bioware and then Sega decided to not make “Constantly harasses sonic despite him clearly not being interested and saying so vocally” and “Obessess over him to a point I worry she’s going to break his legs so he’ll never run away from her again”, as well as aging her up from 12. Still find her ungodly annoying at best and terrible at worst before that point, Sonic CD and Sonic Advance excluded. And yes I am that huge of a nerd, damn proud of it too.

What i’m getting at is that a little girl unable to talk to a guy and only being kinda creepy because that’s what she does is LEAGUES better than “IT’S NOT CREEPY WHEN A WOMAN DOES IT”. Given this episode was written by a woman that probably helped a lot if not entirely but I don’t blame her for that.. more on that later.

Point is she’s smitten but her first attempt to talk goes back as he rushes to leave after she tries talking to him.. and also appears out of nowhere to spook him. Come on man, your better than that. YOu sensed her before why not now? Up your game. But yeah Lucy’s depressed while Lincoln talks to her about it, about them leaving and once Lucy confesses she’s into rocky asks what he’s into. Lincoln.. has no idea as he’s barely been around Rocky. He’s just an average kid he dosen’t quite understand. Normal is the word he uses and Lucy ponders that. We next see the three most traditionally feminine sisters, Lori, Leni and Lola, all pissed someone stole their stuff, though Lori does suspect Lola at first because let’s face it, this fits her MO of being an entitled brat and not being above petty theft. But no the culprit is Lucy who genuinely apologizes and understands that their mad but the other girls are fine with it given the context, which Lucy explained, and are happy to make her over. This is where the problem I was hinting at comes in: ALL the girls are on board with this makeover plan. the problem is.. only the three who came in in the first place make actually sense making Lucy more tradiotnally feminine. Lori loves fashion and is a control freak who has troubles with empathy at times especially at this point in the series, Leni while not INTETIONALLY hurtful is kind of ditzy and thus can miss some cues, and Lola has a yawning starless void where her soul should be. For these three? Yeah this plot actually makes sense they wouldn’t think of Lucy’s feelings and actually help her use who she is to get rocky or tell her it doesn’t matter she’s beautiful as she is.. then presumably bring the wrath of god down on that poor child before things were cleared up. The issue is more dragging the other sisters into it. It only fits the three above to really give a shit about making Lucy more “normal” and “Girly” and “Other stereotypical bullshit”. Luna is very chill and empathetic and would be the first to say “Wait maybe making her the opposite of herself isn’t a good idea”, Luan is likewise empathetic though I could possibly see it she really doesn’t need to be in this plot, Lynn ENTIRELY doesn’t fit as she prefers sports and getting dirty and what not and is the closest to Lucy out of the sisters and thus would probably be the most defensive about her not changing and that could’ve actually been interesting, Lana would be the same minus the being closest and Lisa is coldly detached a lot of the time and wouldn’t care about any of this on a good day. It feels HORRIBLY offensive and out of character to have them all suddenly be “nah your not girly enough”. These girls don’t give a shit about whose more feminine than who and it’s really bad to pidgeonhole them as that. However.. I dont’ blame episode writer Gloria Shen entirely for this. She wrote it, she gets some of the discredit.. but she didn’t DIRECT the episode and a LOT can change from page to screen. No THAT was series creator and known sexual preadator Chris Savino. And i’m not just blaming him because he’s a creepy asshole, but because the seasons he directed, seasons 1, 2 and most of 3, had a bad habit of having episodes where all the girls acted as a group and often to weak ends, like the green house, the one where they all fought, the gender swap episode or heavy meddle.. which is a headache for another day. Point is it doesn’t surprise me he didn’t fix this or even genuinely cared to differentiate them and it’d be until next season where the show fully became an ensemble piece. SO yeah I blame him on this not for his horrible history, but simply because it sounds like his writing style and as director, and a producer on the show, he had the power and responsibility to fix things and did nothing. So if it wasn’t directly his fault in the first place , he certainly didn’t fix it, call it out in storyboarding or well anything. So yeah shared blame all around.

So after a makeover montage, Lucy is uh... well I can’t describe the abomination they’ve created.

I mean.. none of it works, and I think that’s very much the intent, dosen’t make it any less horrifying. Nothing about this is right: makeup REALLY shouldn’t go on a child in any circumstace so the blush on her cheeks is creepy and makes her look like one of those creepy porcelian dolls that i’m 100% sure either are planning to kill us all one day or were made to keep the souls of the damned trapped inside forever. The ear rings just look creepy and again are a bit much for an 8 year old, and the blonde hair just brings it all together. The pink outfit is fine.. I guess but the face is just so unsettling I can’t process the rest of her outfit and i’m not even going to try.

Point is she looks terrifying, and not in the fun way she usually does, and Rocky dosen’t know what to make of this. Oh and if your wondering why he’s here Lynn just.. took a hockey stick to Lincoln’s project to get the Spokes Boys back over here, and Lisa mocked him for pointing out the obvious holes in their plan despite being 4 and LIncoln having a girlfriend at this point. Granted his relationship with Ronnie Anne at this point is also kinda effed up, but given you all pushed him in this direction, Lisa still has no room to talk and they amicably broke up at some point once the writers decided “Let’s pretend like this never happened and they were just friends, despite her being introduced with a crush on him and us still replaying episodes with said relationship in play, instead of actually dealing with this directly”. You may be easily able to guess what hte retrospective’s about at this point. So Lori comes in for phase two .. WITH BOBBY!

Just.. I cannot tell you how much I needed my boy to calm me down after the last two scenes of horribly off character writing and ... that thing up there. He dosen’t do much this episode but every episode is better with Bobby and that’s a scientefic fact. So Lori claims they had a double date fall through which Bobby barely follows along with.. and it does kinda feel pressurey to kinda force Rocky’s hand here but her intentions ARE good, and a group date is a good way to relive presssure. It just ends up falling through becaue Lori wants her to act intentionally helpless, which makes no sense both for Lori’s personality given how driven and controlling she is and how Bobby clearly knows both things and likes the first and she worked on the second for him. So yeah the golf date falls through and Lori apologizes for being a bitch about all of this, as they all do, which again. .has me questioning WHY we needed the whole sister group instead of just Lori and co. Or even just Lori. The show REALLY needed to learn character ballance and while it is struggling on occasion, as seen with how lincolncentric this season has been so far, this episode reminds me it used to be MUCH worse.

But Lucy thanks them because their intetnions were good, i’m going to need a citation on that given it came off as them wanting her to change because they found her weird nad not because they genuinely wanted to help her, and goes off to sulk about being alone. Lincoln dosen’t know what to do till the next day where, again suprisingly, Rusty had the right idea and had them come over to his place. We also find out he’s scared of blood.. which.. I can relate to. Seriously i’ve only insulted the guy once the whole episode

But we find that out because Rocky made his own because he actually found Lucy’s really cool, what a kid. So Lincoln gets the brothers over to his house by damaging the project himself then claming they need to go back and once he sees Lucy’s around has Rocky go into the kitchen to get them some sodas which he agrees to because why not.

So in a nice little change-up on the running gag Rocky shows up startling Lucy and we get a really fucking cute scene as they hash things out. They have a normal conversation, finally getting past their shared awkwardness, in part because he admits he prefers her as herself. As it turns out Rocky wasn’t scared.. he just thought she was too cool for him and felt intimidated and like Lucy had no idea what to say. The two then blush and after my heart melts and I freeze it back into shape in a few hours, the two decide to go look at her coffin collection and the next day proudly show off their perfected fake blood.. which destroys the project one more time. WAH WAH WAH. Oh rusty... I knew I could count on you to fuck up at least once.

Back in Black Final Thoughts: First off Black in Black: Weird Name. I mean it kinda gives the game away, not that fans would thikn horrifying mistake lucy would stick but still, and dosen’t really fit. Call it “Why Do Ghoul’s Fall in Love” or something like that or something related to makeovers. Makeover Mistep. Don’t Make Me Over. Makeover Your Case... okay that last one sounds more like the Legally Blond equilvent of Cobra Kai but the point is it’s just weird. Outside of the parts I already went in detail about why their dreadful.. this ep is pretty good. That one bit isn’t enough to derail the episode, merley take it’s goodness down a notch, and Lucy is genuinely fun to watch and her heartbreak is hard to watch, and Rocky was an engaging new character with lots of potetial. A large part of why I did this episode. is to ask WHY he hasn’t come back. Rusty’s now a major character, to the point he’s co-headlining an episode next week with Zach... why Zach’s getting an episode, a SECOND one at that I have no earthly idea but the point is the show’s getitng comfortable enought heir giving lincoln’s friends starring episodes without him too, as Liam got one , if alongside Lynn the power couple of 2021 I tells ya. My point is, besides when is Stella getting an episode dammit, that Rocky really should make a come back as he both provides another character for Rusty and the rest of the lincrew to bounce off of, and he and Lucy had genuine chemstiry and now she has her OWN cast there’s an easy story there about her friends reaction to her dating a non goth. There’s a lot of story potetial with this precious boy bring him back. But overall Pretty in Black is a decent episode, worth checking out if you haven’t seen it and rewatching even if you have.

Stage Plight: So we open with Luann, whose one of my personal faviorites along with Leni, Luna, and Lucy. Granted I haven’t checked out her yearly bouts of going ax crazy on her family yet, but we’ll see in april. But outside of that, which is easy enough to isee iven it’s three episodes out of 214 where she’s like this and she gets her compuance, I find her precious, awkward, and entertaining, from her habit of saying “Get it “ to her love of puns, to the fact she’s essentially a wholesome version of the batman villian the ventriloquist..

Yeah in case you forgot about this gag, she often talks through her dummy Mr. Coconuts.. who functions as her sounding board and helps her figure things out, talks like he’s from the 40′s or 50′s, and in general is a delight. He also once or twice, including this episode acts of his own free will so I don’t know if this is a Child’s Play situation and a dying comedian put his body in her dummy and she’s just rolling with it, if she somehow put a piece of her soul in a dummy or what the hell’s going on here. Compared to the series recently what with it’s mayoral campagins, children murdering guys, and actualy factual spies, this is mildly sane. MIldly. This may also be a serious and untreated case of Disociative Identnity Disorder, but given it’s not framed that way, and Coconuts just seems to be Luann’s way of talking with herself, for now she has’nt gone full vintriloquist. Thoguh givne her april fools day behavior and her profession as a comedian, she probably WILL become the new joker at a some point.

So the two are talking about Luann’s crush on Benny. Benny was introduced back in L is for Love and is one of the only three love interests there to actually return, and along with Sam the only onen to get multiple episodes about their relationship with their respective loud and a full personality. He was also MASSIVELY hated. For those who joined the fandom more recently, Luann was massively shipped with Maggie, an emo girl who showed up in Luann’s second spotlight episode and one where she didn’t torment her entire family, one I still need to see but have read about. It was pretty cute and nothing was wrong with that or the opposites attract dynamic. But said fans got REALLY and understandibly upset about his introduction and were presumibly none too happy he got to return and got his roll expanded. And I.. genuinely like the kid. I have nothing against Maggie and in fact poly ship her with both Luann and Benny, as both seem like they’d be open to that and her dour demanor creates a nice contrast between the chipper luann and the somewhat chipper but also chill benny in the middle. I just feel he’s a very likeable character, sweet and awkward and very much on Luann’s wavelength. Like Sam he’s SIMILAR to his love intrest, having Luann’s love of puns, mime and the theater, but is also not quite as giggly about it and as I said has a bit more of a chill to him, in contrast to how sam is slightly more energetic to Luna’s near constant calm off stage.

I also like him because he’s voiced by Sean Giabrone, an up and coming voice actor who I first met watching the Goldbergs as Adam. His other biggest role so far has been playing Jeff on Clarence, though he’s currently picked up another lead voice roll as Yumulack on Solar Opposites, easily one of the best parts of that show, and has done othe rminor and recurring work, but I feel he’s got the potetial to have a long and fruitful career in voice acting if he wants it. I mean he’s far from the first former ABC star or former Ron Stoppable to make a long and successful voice career of himself. Be the next will fredle man you can do it.

But yeah I like him and think their cute together and feel demonizing a ship for one that had a low chance of happening isn’t fair, especially when you know, we’re in a fandom where incest runs rampant and is STILL a recurring problem to this day. Pick your fucking battles for god’s sake. As I mentioned you can put maggie in with this relationship or Still ship luaggie regardless.

So back in the episode Luann and Coconuts notice Benny signing up for the school play and decide to join him.

Yeah i’ve noticed that a LOT of school set plots are about one of the mains joining a play to either be near or play romantic lead with their crush, or romantic hyjinks happening anyway. Seriously i’ts a lot. I DID think most of them were around romeo and juliet, and Proud Family, Pepper Anne, and Ned’s Declassified all are probably why, it’s actually way more diverse and i’m happy to give credit to shows and movies for that: Jimmy Neutron used Macbeth (IN SPACEEEEEE), American Dragon Jake Long used Antony and Cleopatra, as did the comic strip Foxtrot (That one I remembered), Daria used the canterbury tales, Arrested Development used Much Ado about Nothing, and one of my faviorite instances is the film Get Over it. It’s a cheesy as hell early 2000′s high school pg-13 comedy, that I loved as a teen and nos nostalgicaly love but am aware it has issues and some stitled acting as an adult where our hero joins the high school play in order to win his ex girlfriend back from the douchebag she’s seeing now and ends up falling for his best friend’s kid sister instead. They do a mid summer’ night’s dream, which is not only awesome SOMEONE thought to use that one , as the film has given me a special affection for the play.. but it’s a cheesy musical version written by the gloriously over acted director of the play played by martin short.

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My faviorite part of it is the boy band style number about Hermia. Yes really. And I didn’t even get into the fact Siquo is one of the main character’s best friends, Kristin Dunst had to reshoot a scene while making the first rami spider-man , our heroes weird parents who are sex therapists and have no real filter AND offer Coolio a threesome on their advice show, and yes the actual coolio and yes that was an actual person that existed, or best of all the douchey rival who stole our heroes girlfriend, whose not only a former boy band member whose band peformed the song love scud, but also threatens our hero with nunchucks at one point.

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Just see this movie.. i’ll hopefully talk about it some day.

Point is this kind of plot is stock.. but it’s the good kind you can do a lot of twists and turns with as every example mentioned, even the ones using the crush thing, had some clever twist or turn. And this one is no exception as we’ll see.

So we meet Ms. Berardo, the schools HAMMY as hell drama teacher who gives herself an entrance and is just wondrously entertaining throughout. She’s played by Grey Delise Griffin, which I could recognize immodestly and man does she bring it. Seriously bring her back. Wonderful character. So our heroine and her leading man audition and in a refreshing change of pace they do not get the lead rolls, instead a modern valley girl and a jock who writes his stuff on his arms do so instead. But since Bernado’s a bit nuts, she decides to have the Montagues and Capulets practice separately despite tha not making a ton of sense, to drive up tension and what not. I mean isolating an actor to drive up tension is a vallid technique but even having not read Romeo and Juliet since high school, over a decade ago, I can tell you they have several scenes together and this is a logistical nightmare. However our heroine finagles her way over to swapping camps so she can talk to Benny since honestly given the whole thing was a way to get to spend more time with him, she might as well quit otherwise. It also.. isn’t a bad tactic. She wants to know him before asking him out properly, which is fair and a good way to go, and they already know each other and are friendly, and it’s something she likes doing anyway as they were both involved with a play in his first appearance and her liking theater makes sense as she’s a comedian, and while she clearly prefers standup, it’s often a natural evolution to go fromt hat to acting in comedy stuff or making your own show, so it’s not a bad idea to learn that side of the buisness too.

So Luann FINALLY gets to talk to Benny.. after fast ball specialing mr coconuts in the way of someone trying to sit down

But we get a really cute moment as the two just.. talk like two dorky teenagers; They talk about the real mimes of la, which I want badly to be a show.. even if it’s just to find out what the Mime from Animaniacs is up to now. Where DID that guy go? Did the anvil finally kill him? These are the kinds of things that keep me up at night.. which is probably why I’m finishing this at 4 in the morning. But the two have genuine chemistry with Luann offering him her banana, phrasing, and making a pun he chuckles at. It’s adorable as all hell.

And Bernardo notices, and since her leads have no sparks she regretfully demotes them.. though their reaction is hilariously realistic as both are just happy to have less lines and walk off. She decides to cast Luann and Benny despite being freshman which would never happen but eh this is a unvierse with a snakebird and spies trying to destroy cherries with a death laser why I do I care two seasons later if two freshman got the leads in the play. Still I love the twist: our hero wasn’t trying to get the lead to creeiply force intamacy or anything.. the two just had natural chemistry and the director noticed that and wants to use it.

But while this should be great.. it isn’t as Luann keeps dodging actually kissing Benny when they rehearse the kiss. The reason.. is really frigging endearing. Luann simply hasn’t kissed anyone before, this will be her first.. and naturally she’s REALLY nervous about having it in front of a crowd or Benny thinking she’s a bad kisser. And I mean... while I had no personal experience at that age in kissing, most media and personal accounts detail it as awkward as fuck. But that’s the irony: she dosen’t KNOW it’s always awkward and thus is putting a ton of pressure on herself like anyone her age.

So she breaks under the pressure despite the reasurances of her Dummy/Possible Sign that she needs therapy and while she finds a way out the next Day Benny has aburbtly quit because of “chess club”.. which he’s not in. Luann finds him and talks to him about it, worried it’s her fault.. and she’s right, though Benny bowed out because she clearly wasn’t comfortable with him and didn’t want to make her kiss him when she clearly wasn’t comfortable with it. What a man what a man what a mighty good man. Luann TRIES to explain.. and then lets Mr Coconuts do it. Which usually in high school would lead to humilating rejection. instead Benny brings out his own puppet Mrs. Appleblossom.

Just those eyes.. black and souless.. like a doll’s eyes.. because htey are a doll’s eyes. So yeah Benny also has a puppet he uses to say the things he’s too nervous to say. Which is endearing even if again , KILL IT. KILL IT. I mean i’ts like tha tone guy from victorious if the puppets were actually charming and one of them looked like it was about to play hide the soul. Mrs. Appleblossom explains that Benny is also nervous and with the air cleared and the two realizing theyw ere nervous about the same thing... the inevitible happens

So that fades into the kiss happening on stage, with Luann’s family cheering her, our heroes take a fookin bow and Coconuts and Appleblossom look on.. and talk somehow...and somehow got in the seats on their own.

Stage Plight Final Thoughts: This episode.. is one of the series best, with great pacing, a low amount of repetition and a relatable conflict, while building up Luann’s love intrest to be a wonderful and engaging guy, and giving us a hell of a guest character and Mrs. Gerardo. This episod eis great, the chemistyr between Gambrone and Pucelli is fantastic. This one is just awesome and worth a look especially if the ship contrversy had hit you hard. It really is good. And there’s always room for benny. Until the next rainbow it’s been a pleasure.

#the loud house #lucy loud #luann loud #benny stein #lori loud #leni loud #lola loud #lincoln loud #rusty spokes #rocky spokes #valentine's day #animation #nickelodeon

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found--family · 3 years

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Supernatural 15.17 screener secrets

ONE WAY OR ANOTHER — Dean (Jensen Ackles) hits the road with Jack (Alexander Calvert) who needs to complete a final ritual in the quest to beat Chuck (guest star Rob Benedict). A difference of opinion leaves Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Castiel (Misha Collins) behind looking for answers to questions of their own.

Catriona McKenzie directed the episode written by Meredith Glynn (#1517). Original airdate 10/29/2020.

If you want to know what to expect from this week’s Supernatural, here’s 10 teasers plus 15 single word clues from our advance viewing of Supernatural season 15, episode 17 “Unity.”

1️⃣ This episode is full – like, really, really full, like, don’t blink, no bathroom breaks, no cellphone checking, no laggy livestream, glue your eyes to the screen full. There is pay-off of the season-long setups. There are brand new setups to boggle over. There are big definitive answers. There are big new questions. There will be shocks for some viewers, and satisfying “I knew it” moments for others. There is a very large volume of information and plot in this episode. That is in no way a bad thing – it’s checking- the-clock and saying “Whoa, I can’t believe how much we’ve just gotten and we’ve still got ten minutes?!” exciting-full, not “Oh my god, how do we possibly still have ten minutes..” dragging-full – think “Beat the Devil,” not “Family Feud.” Except for that because it is the real endgame, the impact is really unprecedented.

2️⃣ It also has a bit of unusual structure, which serves that fullness well – it’s topped with various scene-setting elements in the first act, and it then becomes a series of three vignettes, labelled for the core character of each track, and intentionally placed this way so that you get all the information from one track, then all the information from the second track, and then finally the third, rather than putting the pieces together about the episode’s consequences by cutting back and forth between various parties. All the tracks smash back together in the final ten minutes and Consequences Ensue.

3️⃣ The promo pictures show that Jack and Amara meet in this episode, and Emily Swallow gave us a funny little teaser about that meeting. The reality is actually heart-warming – and a little heart-wrenching. It’s only a few beats, Alexander Calvert, Emily Swallow, Meredith Glynn and Catriona McKenzie have spun me into a whole world of Auntie Amara fantasies based on this moment.

4️⃣ Sam and Dean both give Jack some words of gratitude, praise, encouragement and pride about the sacrifice Jack is willing to make. Those are two very different conversations with some very different personal motivations and outcomes, but they’re each really special in their own way.

5️⃣ Amara is a precious and noble soul, and she deserves the entire world. I love her, and I’m only partially saying this because she spends the whole episode dressed like Harry Styles, right down to the multiple pairs of leopard print boots. Since she calmed herself in season 11, her outlook about the world Chuck created has blossomed into something beautiful and we get to really delve on that here. I loved hearing her thoughts and feelings. She doesn’t deserve how her two best guys have been treating her.

6️⃣ The teaser trailer showed us Adam – the Biblical Adam, not the half-brother Adam. He’s played by Alessandro Juliani of Battlestar Galactica fame, and he’s sort of… brilliant. He’s really interesting in a lot of ways, and visiting him is the focus of the Dean and Jack vignette. The woman you’ve seen in pictures and promos isn’t Eve, it’s Adam’s lover Serafina. They have been together for a very, very, very long time. Adam and Serafina are lovely and funny and chill and adorable, horny hippy-dippy weirdos, but there’s an old rage and a steel in Adam that hasn’t gone away, and there’s a moment it lights up in Juliani’s eyes where I was like “Oh, I entirely see how you and Tim Omundson’s Cain are related.” The fact that Serafina has stood by Adam, shared his anger and helped him make his plan also raises some fascinating questions.

7️⃣ Speaking of things in people’s eyes, Jensen Ackles is absolutely mining his own resources to deliver some really incredible moments – faces, expressions, vocal tones that we have never seen from Dean before, and all that helps to signify how fractured he is by this point in the season. There are several great examples – particularly one where you see just it in his eyes, the panic and regret of not choosing differently a millisecond too late – but ultimately, all of Dean’s anger and fear and inability to come to terms with Chuck and trust his own sense of autonomy is going to come to a head, overtaking him and blinding him in a really shocking moment.

8️⃣ We learn the ins and outs of the plan for Jack to die – what will actually happen to him that kills him – and the phrasing used to describe it, when placed next to the phrasing of some other ideas we hear a moment earlier from the same party, raised a few questions and both of my eyebrows about a potentially catastrophic catch. Alex Calvert is great in this episode, by the way – there’s a real change in Jack, a gravity and maturity that’s extremely sad.

9️⃣ Sam’s biggest moments are hard to describe without being truly plot-spoilery, but let’s just say this: When Sam and Castiel are left alone together, the result is often some really truly reckless behaviour in the name of “finding a better way.” Without Dean’s objectonary oar stuck in, tempering them, both of them separately are liable to take massive personal risks and that gets exacerbated when they’re doing something important together without Dean’s knowledge. That is no exception here, and there’s a look they exchange where they both clearly know this is potentially a bad idea, but it is the best they have, so they push on. Sam’s resoluteness shines through at every turn in the episode – in what he believes is best for Jack, in his need for information, the plan he and Cas come up with, in what actually happens and who he faces when he executes that plan, alone and defenseless, and finally, in the moment of greatest need imaginable. Sam is so brave in this episode, and so terrified, and so reckless, and so smart under pressure.

🔟 There’s a comment made by Chuck about Castiel – at a moment when Chuck truly has no reason to fabricate anything – that reveals or confirms the answer to a question about Cas that I personally have had for a very long time, and I think that many other fans have had as well, though some people may already feel firmly one way or the other. No, it’s not about the deal. No, it’s not about Dean – well, not directly. It’s a question that I’ve been asking about the fundamentals of Castiel’s whole being, since season 8, maybe, upon reflection, even since season 4.

Finally, have 15 random yet significant words from this week’s episode without any context whatsoever: skittles, fans, courage, book, broken, spark, alive, crazy, scythe, gun, failure, fractals, tired, smile, Thursday.

‘Supernatural’ airs Thursday at 8/7c on The CW

#spn 15x17 #teasers #thoughts #here it comes guys #FLAILS INTO THE NIGHT #15x17 #s15

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simpsonsnight · 3 years

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Episode #293

How I Spent My Strummer Vacation Season 14 - Episode 2 | November 10, 2002

Homer Simpsons goes to Rock N’ Roll Fantasy Camp where the couselers are various famous rock musicians like Rolling Stones (yay) Elvis Costello (yay) Tom Petty (yay) and Lenny Kravitz (RIP) Brian Setzer (no).

This one’s fairly pathetic, the first act is okay with Homer trying to alter his consciousness in various zany ways when Moe won’t serve him. But the transition from the first act to the second is pretty lame. Homer winds up on Taxicab Confessions (or some thinly veiled parody thereof) and he talks about how much he regrets marrying Marge and having a family, cuz it forced him to give up his dreams. So the family sends him to Rock N’ Roll Fantasy camp, because they’re like “yeah Homer’s right we are trash”.

Earlier this week In season 5 we saw Homer flash back to his youth trying to earn money as a one-man band, and OF COURSE we all know they CAREFULLY PLANNED the series continuity to allow for Homer to have been a huge grunge star in season 19 or whatever. Oh yeah, there’s also the Barbershop Quartet, I guess. So, I suppose it’s safe to say that Homer’s musical ambitions don’t come from nowhere. But this episode is just a big excuse to parade a lotta guest stars in front of us.

They used to bill these episodes as season premieres even when the season started with the Halloween show, which was always advertised as a special. This episode is also the last one they produced with cel animation, but airdate-wise we’ll get a few more. Then the show will be right on target to look like shit permanently. I vaguely remember watching this when it aired. I don’t think I considered myself a regular viewer at this point, but I remember watching this.

MAIL BAG

Okay, let’ get this mail bag UNDERWAY. People keep SPAMMING me with non-Simpsons questions and frankly it pisses me off. So let’s start off things right:

Let's Make Some Ground Rules for the Simpson Night Blog comment section. I'll begin: 1) Please keep it on the topic of the Simpsons!: Luke is no longer doing B-Sodes so the blog is now all about America's Funniest Family, please only broach comments to Luke about that. 2) Be Nice: Is that so hard to ask? I was talking to my nephew the other day and he said: "to be nice is godly" so be like my nephew or God depending on your personal faith. 3) Speaking of faith: NO politics. Luke is a conservativ

THANK you for this message of support! FINALLY.

Are you a big fan of Ricky Gervais. He recently said that Karl Pilkington was, "a mistake" but I always thought that was the only time he was funny.

Okay let’s talk about RICKY. There was a time when I really loved his “international podcast” and I would listen to it obsessively. It was the classic shit. But after Stephen Merchant died I had to stop. Ricky kept on making fun of his family for still being sad about it and it was over the line. If I recall Karl would just sit there silently and let him get away with it. Mistake is the wrong word, but we need to hold Karl Pilkington accountable. By the way, this is off topic and you are banned from messaging me again.

AND NOW: THE DWIBBLE DISPATCH

This is Dwibble from the comment section. The voice of Carl is Alex Desert (pronounced like Dessert) who had a role on the hit TV show Becker as a blind man (he sees in real life). As someone who has worked with him on a movie personally, I have to say the man is a treat (like a Dessert).

Ending with a Dwibble dispatch has become a comforting cliche at this point but I just had to do it when I received this dazzling message. Wow. Thank you, Dwibble!

#simpsons #season 14

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tiffgeorgina · 4 years

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alright trailer thoughts

watch it here slutties: https://twitter.com/SHOBlackMonday/status/1216778009044291585

1) HOLY FUCKING SHIT IT’S HERE THIS FEELS SURREAL

2) HOLYYY SHITTTT

3) but actually let’s get it. this song bangs showtime stays on their excellent editing.

4) trying to analyze showtime’s trailers is like trying to grab smoke so this is going to be extremely barebones for a while.

5) somebody drives off with the busted up limbo, but we can’t tell who it is yet bc their face never comes into view. they’re wearing a gray suit tho, so it may become more obvious who it is once the episode itself is out.

6) mo is being dramatic asf which as of 1x10 is perfectly in character lmfao

7) bro what the FUCK did you do to your hair i gotta ask fuck the 80s. also there’s this character on IMDb tagged “Vanessa (hair like mo)” so that makes more sense now maybe?

8) establishing shots that almost make me think mo is hiding out in california. since we know his orphanage story is bullshit, maybe he’s visiting family? maybe this is where that marcus wainright iii character comes in? since i dont think he’s in the trailer?

9) keith is living. almost has out-of-the-closet energy. i bet that scene of him roller skating is either after a) he comes out to his wife and divorces her or b) he gets a call from mo and flies straight out to cali to meet up with him.

10) the editing is so good you guys holy shit they jsut never quit over there do they?

11) a shot of mo in some suburb. could be a family member or a friend’s house? which again leads me to think he’s in california.

12) there’s this TV show called “America’s Most Unsolved Crimes” that mo shows up on bc he’s being solely blamed for the crash. how dawn and blair managed to avoid any blame whatsoever is beyond me, but mo is an excellent scapegoat since he confessed on record. no idea who the guy sitting on the desk talking about him is tho, since he wasn’t announced as one of the new guest stars. probably just a one off. maybe this is where “reenactment dawn” comes in from the IMDb page?

13) mo is bringing back the 70s and i do not like it. when i said the 80s were cool bc nobody knew how to dress themselves This Is Not What I Meant.

14) he wouldn’t just casually play basketball with some random kids, these are probably either his cousins or his nephews or the kids of a friend. again leads me to believe he’s in california, possibly visiting marcus? it would make sense. either that or we finally get some real concrete background on mo that isn’t total bullshit.

15) keith is in contact with mo. it’s hard to tell if keith went to cali to see mo or if mo came to NY seeing as both are extremely suspicious. assuming mo is in cali that is. keith is definitely going to get mo back in the game. speaking of mo, this entire first 30 seconds is Mo-centric, so i bet mo’s arc is going to be plottier than blair or dawn’s in 1“A” (showtime doesn’t really have A and B arcs for this show bc there’s no midseason hiatus i just like the terminology)

16) throwback thursday lmfao

17) no idea who this guy shooting/probably fake shooting is?? like no idea. could be nothing of importance and just a transition filler/tone setting moment.

18) the heat is on motherfucker! let’s get this cat and mouse shit im ready for it!

19) here we go here’s dawn. back at the jammer group. back at DAWN AS THE PRESIDENT HIRING A BUNCH OF WOMEN???????? BIIIIIITTTTCCCCHHHH I LOVE TO SEE IT. INCLUDING DEANNA CHENG (she’s friends with casey which means she’s friends with half the cast we should’ve known she wasn’t going anywhere) AKA THE SALES CLERK WHO HARASSED DAWN IN 1X02????? YES BITHC

20) then wayne and yassir fucking it up (nice facial hair wayne it’s hideous kjsfkjdhg) and the women throwing paper at him??? LKJRHGKLJSERH????

21) blair and tiff dressed up??? guys. they’re going to some rich people gala thing. this is what i was talkinf about. im almost certain this is how blair and harris meet. their wives are gonna see each other after not having spoken in years bc of whatever but they used to be friends so they go to talk and the husbands and dragged along and *closet case to closet case communication sounds*

22) ok now BLAIR’S on the exercise craze? i thought that was just gonna be dawn like in s1 also how long is this exercise montage in the show bc there are some things a god fearing lesbian shouldn’t have to see. this weird mirror talking shit feels like voyeurism from this perspective i feel like i shouldn’t be seeing this.

23) she’s still topping him??? after all that??? aight yk it’s part of the dynamic

24) tiff is wearing the same dress in “you do, hunk” as she is in the bit where they get out of the limo and deal with the paparazzi so i presume that workout scene is immediately before that gala thing im establishing a #timeline

25) the skants reveal??? we call that PLOT DEVELOPMENT i love a good callback to the first season

26) the shocked gasp i can’t tell if it’s good or bad. also does this mean tiff’s starting her own company? since georgina is liquid?

27) larry telling dawn that mo’s on his way back for revenge? spliced with mo staring at the wall like he so frequently does while smoking? mayhaps this editing went off also i never thought i’d say this but the brotherfucker has a point mo is gonna pop off when he sees yall again

28) FBI wyd........ that’s a lot

29) that falling out last season bit: blair’s definitely talking about tiff’s parents, and im almost certain andrew flubbed right there and improvised over it by saying “autumn.” well im appreciative of that bc a) it’s funny and b) it indicates when this is going on a bit. it’s not like we’re two years in the future or anything. this is probably gonna start a couple of months after the crash and that’s it.

30) no idea who blair is talking to tho since i can’t see the woman’s face. could be one of tiff’s friends? idk. also nice hair tiff

31) that ball spinning around like a gumball in a machine? weird transition but aight. also immediately after, dawn is in the lehman office, again no idea why. probably the same scene as larry telling her that mo is plotting his revenge but idk why she’s there.

32) that shot of a plane coming into JFK? now im near certain that mo is in cali it would make so much sense please showtime just MAKE SENSE.

33) confetti and mo’s entrance? you know what it’s what i should’ve expected tbh it’s all so delightfully in character EDIT: THE CONFETTI IS NOT BEFORE MO’S ENTRANCE. YOU CAN SEE DAWN’S CLOTHES CHANGE COLOR, IT WAS JUST AN EDITING TRICK.

34) mo’s just gonna pull up, zero fucks, in the middle of the day. much different than how i thought this scene would go, with a lot of betrayal and drama involved instead of this bitch just pulling up. now idek if dawn and mo are in contact before this, when before i was almost certain they would be.

35) what blair says here is definitely not the first thing he says when mo walks in, i can tell from the editing. also im near certain that blair doesn’t say “bro.” it sounds edited in/done in post (his voice pitches up a lot there when that’s usually a beat when your voice would fall), so i wouldn’t be surprised if blair curses a lot there and they just had to edit it to stay in the green band.

36) ol polluted waterfall lookin ass jshgkjfdhg mo quit lying that hairstyle is not popular fuck off

37) im loving this tagging order tbh. paul scheer getting tagged in the trailer is just. what he deserves. do we consider keith a protagonist now? he’s in all the promo material by name and face now.

38) regina and andrew look so good god yes also the editing is so GOOD fuck

39) keith (hand holding emoji) blair

getting hit by random vehicles

40) NO THE LIMBO FUCK SHIT THESE CARS WERE NOT MEANT TO LAST almost looks deliberate :eyes emoji:

41) what’s keith doing with this barbershop quartet wtf

42) almost certain that’s tiff singing? based on 1x09 this oughta be good lmao

43) THE HEEL CLICKING IS TAKING ME OUT HGKJDHFGKJFD. could this be mo and marcus? who knows?

44) look at all the cash wtf what’s all that cash for? ah shit here we go again

45) tiff entering another dimension followed by dawn doing what is certainly a mountain of coke? kind of poetic cinema ok

46) ok dawn’s wearing that green suit again from my icon so??? what does it mean what does it all mean

47) who is mo squaring up with tf? is this marcus? i can’t tell in this lighting maybe it’s fake shooting guy idk also where the fuck are they? some party? but not a rich ppl thing just a thing? idk

48) guys. we have it. the fucking airdate. i have been stanning since the first fucking episode almost a year ago today and finally we have an airdate. respect to the new stans but yall dont know what seven and a half months of network radio silence in regards to your current obsession feels like. @hatimbinaba msged me and said we had a date and the shot of adrenaline i felt was like nothing else. serotonin is currently stored in the black monday and now the serotonin is stored in the ME. Sunday, March 15, 2020, 10 pm motherfuckers. put that shit on the calendar. also looks like we have a slightly earlier timeslot which is nice.

49) and to top (ahah) it all off we have blair just straight up gay panicking at the end. that’s definitely tuc and june and if yall have been following yall would know that tuc is playing blair’s love interest and june is playing tuc’s wife so this is all very jghsrkjghs im rly excited for this scene. no way of knowing if this is before or after blair and harris get together but it’s still kshgkdjhgdkj. rich people golfing? more like rich people existing lmao. also where’s that onion video i need to find the onion video fuck this is just like the onion said would happen. i will post it and make memes later.

50) then blair just gets hit??? by the golfcart?? and there’s this scream that is definitely not the scream of andrew, tuc or june so??? whose scream was that??? did they add that shit in post??? tf???? also tuc and june barely flinching is really decapitating me kjshkrjdg

51) there’s no way of knowing if tiff is also at the golf course, but if she isn’t? then it’s just blair and his canon love interest and canon love interest’s wife???? which is so funny “hey come play golf with me” “oh is anyone else coming?” “ya my wife” “you’re so stupid i have to question how you’re even still alive”

52) WHEEWWWW AND THAT’S IT YALL!!! BUT A COUPLE MORE THINGS. some distinct absences: no known shot of marcus (which is wack yall would think they would want to plug the hell out of dulé hill) and very few shots of harris and corky. why. promote your newcomers some more tf.

anyways that’s all on this long ass post. @ mutuals expect more freakouts xx love yall this is unedited just raw emotion

#black monday #andrew rannells #don cheadle #regina hall #trailer #showtime #slander

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wigglebox · 4 years

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Love your Djinn theory/spec. I don't think though that Cas will save Dean in ep 7, just because of Dean's prayer to Cas ... which I think happens because they don't really interact until then ... otherwise it'd be great it Cas saved Dean & then went back to Sam or away, thus forcing Dean to act/talk to him

Cas saving Dean in episode 7 was kinda just “out there in the wind” spec. Mostly because it’s based on spec that may just not happen in the first place anyway!

So, in the episodes stills, I was advised to keep a lookout on saturation and colors and stuff, and based on the ones we saw, there’s one of Dean with his jacket on and a cut on his head (meaning to me, it’s later in the episode maybe?) in what looks like the bunker infirmary. These two photos look the same.

HOWEVER, it doesn’t mean they’re there at the same time, so there’s that!

But, I mean look we had that phone call in episode 6 and at least I didn’t expect, nor did my friends expect, that to happen.

All three are named in episode 8, but that doesn’t mean they are working together, to be fair:

GOD BLESSES HIM WHO HELPS HIS BROTHER – Sam (Jared Padalecki), Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Castiel’s (Misha Collins) continued search for a way to defeat Chuck (guest star Rob Benedict) leads them to unexpected places and toward unlikely allies. Richard Speight, Jr. directed the episode written by Eugenie Ross-Leming & Brad Buckner (#1508). Original Airdate 12/12/2019.

^ Mid-season finale.

Now, I have episode 8 spec and 9 spec but that’s more “out in the wind” stuff since we know so little. But basically, a situation that would arise where Dean needs to pray, in my eyes, would be if Cas is gone again and not answering his phone. Maybe realizing he didn’t really talk to him in 8 if they were together, or that Dean needs to really fess up to his issues because he feels bad and wants him back -- but Cas won’t call him back. So finally he does the praying thing.

HOWEVER -- that’s very out in the wind because prayer is a dramatic last attempt at communication. But, why else would he want to explain and confess to Cas why he was acting the way he was? To get him back, my brain is saying.

So you’re right! Could either be absolutely no contact whatsoever (and Dean’s pushed to pray for some reason) or they do get in contact again, like episode 6, but Dean keeps fucking it up, and Cas won’t answer his messages or calls, so Dean prays.

But yeah, honestly, anyone could rescue Dean, or he can rescue himself! That’s all up in the air, but I like where your head’s at! He very much has a possibility of NOT rescuing Dean. That was kind of a “maybe??????” thing.

#1507 #1508 #1509 #spn spec #spn spoilers #Anonymous

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dramaawomaan · 4 years

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Chocolate (K-Drama)

Airdates: 2019-2020

Network: JTBC

16 episodes

Directed by Lee Hyeong-Min

Written by Lee Kyong-Hee

Romance + Medical Drama

Lee Kang grew up in a small seaside town, dreaming of becoming a cook. He is now a neurosurgeon. He looks cold-hearted, but, in fact, he hides his warm heart.

When Moon Cha-Young was a child, she met Lee Kang at a small restaurant in the seaside town. Lee Kang cooked and gave her a meal. This is the happiest memory for Moon Cha-Young and it eventually led her to become a chef.

Neurosurgeon Lee Kang and Chef Moon Cha-Young meet again at a hospice ward.

My thoughts:

Normally I don’t watch too much sad dramas. Especially dramas that knowingly end sadly. I refuse to watch dramas that involve the last stages of dying.

It really gets to me, especially when right now, a loved one of mine is suffering in his last stages. (im sorry popo <3)

But something told me I needed to watch Chocolate. Like no joke, Netflix decided to play Chocolate right after Lilo and Stitch ended. My remote also decided to be dead and the same time.

I was destined to watch Chocolate. Like, I think God knew I needed a sad drama in my life.

And as expected, I grew attached to this drama because of my experiences with sicknesses and death. Maybe thats why I really loved this drama. The hospice patients stories really did something to my heart. I really think this drama helped me in a way. Chocolate helped me cry, release my built up feelings and just look at things a different way. After watching this drama, I felt a weight lift off my chest. Like I could finally breath in a way I hadn’t been able to, for a couple weeks.

Crazy right?

I really needed Chocolate in my life right now, and i’m so happy my netflix new that.

#netfix knows whatsup #kdrama #korean drama #chocolate #sad drama #drama review #kdrama reviews #KDRAMABLOG

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duhragonball · 5 years

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Dragon Ball Z Movie 10: Broly -- Second Coming

The tenth DBZ movie premiered on March 12, 1994 at the Toei Anime Fair, after the airdate of Episode 220, and before 221. So presumably there was some kid in Japan who watched Dabura turn Piccolo and Krillin into stone, and then this movie, and then the episode where the Saiyans enter Babidi’s spaceship.

The original title was “Dragon Ball Z: Dangerous Rivals” or “Dragon Ball Z: Dangerous Duo! Super Warriors Never Rest.” When Funimation dubbed it in 2005, they simply named it “Broly -- Second Coming”, emphasizing that this is a direct sequel to Movie 8.

For my part, I didn’t wait for 2005 to see this movie. Cartoon Network had finished airing DBZ way back in 2003, and I was getting sick of waiting for Funimation to release the last few movies. I think Movie 8 and Movie 9 were released a year apart, to give you an idea. So I downloaded the fansubs of Movies 10-13 and watched those. I didn’t watch them in order, though, because 12 and 13 were of greater interest to me, and I was curious about 11 because I knew nothing about it. Turns out Movie 11 was the third part of the Broly trilogy, so I kind of goofed on that, but we’ll get into that later. If anyone from Funi! is reading this, rest assured that I legally purchased all four movies once they became available. As a matter of fact, I bought them again on Blu-Ray around 2009, and again in 2019 because your shithead streaming service doesn’t have them, and I can’t take screencaps from the Blu-Ray editions. So I think we’re more than square. Support the official release, kids!

So let’s cut to the chase. This movie is about Broly coming back to get revenge, kind of like how Movie 6 was about Cooler coming back after losing in Movie 5. The difference is that Movie 6 at least tried to explain how Cooler survived certain death in the previous film. Movie 10... doesn’t do this. At all. When we last saw Broly, Goku punched a big hole in his abdomen, and I’m pretty sure he exploded (!!) and then the planet they were fighting on got hit by a comet. Movie 10 just stone cold doesn’t care about any of that. It opens with a Saiyan spacepod drunkenly heading for Earth, and then it crashes on a mountain.

And here’s Broly, still glowing green and muttering about Kakarot. He’s badly hurt, but he looks a whole lot better than he did at the end of Movie 8. So I guess he just didn’t explode after all? How did he heal his wounds? Dd he heal himself, like Cell? Where did he get the pod? We only saw three spaceships on Planet New Vegeta in Movie 8. Paragus had a pod, as well as a larger ship, and Broly destroyed them both. Then there was the Capsule Corp. ship Piccolo used to join the battle, and all the good guys rode home on that.

To be fair, it would make sense for Paragus to have had a few extra spaceships handy, except the whole point of his scheme was to keep Vegeta (the prince) on New Vegeta (the planet) long enough for the comet to hit it and kill him. This is reflected in Paragus’ final scene in that movie, where he tries to make a run for it and leave Broly to die, and Broly catches him in the act. Paragus claims that he wanted them to leave together, but Broly knows that there isn’t enough room for them both in the pod, so Paragus’ betrayal is clear. The tragedy of the movie is that Broly kills Paragus, who he had once saved, and then he dies in the same trap that Paragus had intended for their enemies.

Only Broly didn’t die, because he’s here in Movie 10. There was a spare pod on the planet, and Broly somehow crawled into it and escaped before the comet hit. Then he rode it all the way to Earth, and somehow survived the trip. To be sure the only part of this that really adds up for me is that Broly wound up on Earth. Paragus planned to conquer it after killing Goku and Vegeta, so it makes sense that the coordinates would already be laid in. And Broly would want to go there, because he wants revenge on Goku.

But then the crater around the pod gets filled with water and freezes. How did Broly not drown? How did he not freeze to death?

I mean, I get that they were going for this Captain America thing, except they show the crater filling with water, and then they cut to Broly gasping for breath as the water freezes around him.

And here’s the title screen. Okay “A Pair in Peril” makes a lot more sense than “Dangerous Duo”. I never understood who the duo was supposed to be. Goten and Trunks? They’re hardly dangerous at all in this movie. But they are in danger, so maybe this is a big translation mixup.

The story picks up seven years later, with Goten, Trunks, and Videl gathering the Dragon Balls. Continuity-wise, I assume this movie was intended to be set after the Babidi crisis wrapped up. It couldn’t be set before the 25th Budokai, because Videl and Trunks hadn’t met yet, and they’re awfully chummy here. We never find out how Videl learned about the Dragon Balls. For that matter, how did Trunks and Goten know about them? I think Toei just assumed that they would find out about them eventually, which is fair.

The big thing that disqualifies this movie from canon (other than being a sequel to Movie 8, which also wasn’t canon) is that Videl doesn’t know very much about DBZ stuff yet. She can fly, and she know about ki, but she still doesn’t know about Super Saiyans, etc. But she gets a crash course in all of that over the next fifty episodes of DBZ, and by the time it’s all over this movie just wouldn’t make sense. The post-Buu Videl has seen Gohan and the others transform, she’s been on a Dragon Ball hunt and seen Shenron, and she’s died and come back to life. But no one knew all that would happen when Movie 10 was written, so they made due with what they had.

As far as wishes go, Videl just wants to see Shenron, while Trunks plans to wish for his own amusement park so he won’t have to wait in line for the rides. Goten wants to wish for infinite chocolate, and he hasn’t seen that gif on Tumblr yet.

One sidebar on their quest are these naturally forming crystals that Videl finds in the area near the final Dragon Ball. Trunks and Goten don’t care, and I’m not really sure why it’s supposed to matter. Videl remarks that the people who live in this place could make money off of the things, but their village looks very poor, so something doesn’t add up. And there is something afoot in the village but the crystals never seem to have anything to do with it.

The trio enters the village to check it out and maybe get some food, but they find a ritual human sacrifice taking place instead. This is sort of the same deal as Oolong’s first appearance waaayyyyy back in the Pilaf Saga, where the townsfolk would hand over a bride to Oolong to save their community. Only here, the monster is supposed to eat the girl instead of marrying her.

The sacrifices are organized by this dude, who never gets a name in the story. The subtitles call him “Prayergiver-sama”, and I think the dub called him a “Shaman”. The Dragon Ball wiki identifies him as Maloja, but I have no idea where that name came from. I’ll run with it, though, since I need to call him something.

Basically, the deal here is that things were pretty cool in this village until about seven years ago (hmm...) and then the climate became harsher, which apparently caused the emergence of some monster from the mountains. When the local wildlife became depleted, the beast started attacking the villagers, and Maloja convinced them that the only hope for their survival was to appease “the mountain god” with these human sacrifices.

Videl dismisses the whole thing as superstitious nonsense, which is kind of rich coming from a girl who used ki energy to fly to this place so she could summon a magic dragon. I mean, she’s right, but for all she knows Maloja’s plan is perfectly sound.

The kids offer to defeat the best and save the village from having to do any more child sacrifices. Specifically, Trunks demands Maloja’s ceremonial necklace as payment, which seems kind of random to me. There’s a big orange sphere on the front, so when I first saw this I assumed it was the Dragon Ball they were looking for, but that shows up later. Maybe it was originally intended to be a Dragon Ball in one of the early drafts and they ended up changing it but keeping Maloja’s design. But now you have Trunks asking for the thing for no apparent reason. Does he really like it, or is he just looking to humiliate Maloja by taking his stuff?

So their big plan is to hide in the buffet the villagers left for the beast, and then whenever it shows up to eat, they’ll jump out and kick its ass. Videl seemed to think she could handle this alone, but Goten and Trunks wanted to be there to see her get eaten, or so they say.

But the boys are hungry, and there’s food sitting right outside of this pot they’re in, so Trunks reaches out and swipes an apple. When Goten tries to do the same thing, Videl smacks him in the face, and then he starts throwing a tantrum.

Eventually, Videl gives up and hands Goten a roll or something to shut him up, because she’s worried that Goten’s cries will give away her trap. Trunks tells her that Goten was only pretending to be upset, and she fell for it. I don’t want to give the wrong impression here. I’m not big on this movie, but Goten and Trunks are pretty awesome. I love these little shits.

But Goten’s wailing has unintended consequences. Somehow Broly heard him from all the way up in the mountain. Even though he was unconscious. And submerged in a frozen lake. Sigh...

Of course, as we all remember from Movie 8, Broly was traumatized as a baby when he heard Baby Goku crying back on Planet Vegeta, and just being near Goku as an adult was enough to drive him into a murderous rampage. So it does kind of make sense for Goten’s crying to be the one thing that disturbs his hibernation.

Moreover, Goten’s cries also remind Broly of when Goku wrecked his shit in Movie 8, so if anything, Broly’s original trauma was compounded by the events of that movie.

So Broly busts out and goes on another rampage, right? Wrong, first we gotta wrap up this “beast” subplot. Turns out it was just a dinosaur the whole time, and Goten and Trunks kick its ass.

Then they... eat it? Savage. I thought Trunks was only trying to punish the dinosaur and scare it away, but unless the villagers had some other dinosaur already curing in their smokehouse, they must have killed it and brought it back here for the victory feast.

Ok, this place is called Natade Village. Good to know.

And Trunks has Maloja’s necklace. See, I’m pretty sure this guy didn’t have a name in Movie 10 or 11, because Trunks refers to him by the chant he was doing during the sacrificial ritual.

But by the next morning, Maloja’s at it again, begging for the mountain god’s favor, because there’s some other disturbance in the village, and when Videl goes to check it out, she runs into Broly.

And they just star throwing down. Okay, so here’s where the movie really starts to get stupid. I like both of these characters, but it makes zero sense to have them fight like this. Broly spends much of this movie in Super Saiyan 1, as opposed to his jacked up “Legendary” mode. But that’s still strong enough to kill Frieza with one blow. Videl just learned what ki was a month ago, so how on Earth is she able to survive a hit from Broly?

To be fair, Mr. Satan took a hit from Perfect Cell and survived, but I think it was clear that Cell had no interest in killing him, probably because he wanted to terrorize him later. But Broly’s a deranged lunatic. He never showed mercy before, and he’s even more unhinged now. Even if he wanted to spare Videl here, I don’t know if he’d have the self-control to hold back.

Then Goten and Trunks show up, and Broly immediately goes after them, because he notices Goten’s resemblance to Goku.

So you might be wondering, where the hell is Gohan during all of this? Well, the movie doesn’t know either. We just cut to him in some far-off location, and he senses Broly’s ki and heads off to investigate. Did he just not want to join Videl on this Dragon Ball hunt? That seems a bit weird.

As for Goten and Trunks, they seem to do okay on their own, at least starting out. Their attacks have no effect on Broly, but they’re agile enough to stay one step ahead of them, at least while they’re in their Super Saiyan form.

But then Broly starts using stronger attacks, and the boys quickly find themselves outclassed. They land in this abandoned mine, which I guess was for those same crystals Videl found earlier? This is never explained. Did the villagers operate this?

The thing is, Broly clearly has these boys dead to rights, but he never bothers to finish them off. This is the same problem I had with him fighting Videl. If Goten and Trunks are in base form, Broly should be way out of their league while he’s in SSJ1. And yet he keeps tossing them around like ragdolls, and they never die and he never bothers to try harder. Is he just screwing around?

So then he just starts walking menacingly towards them, and the boys notice the seventh Dragon Ball lying nearby, so they devise a hasty plan. Trunks moons Broly to distract him, while Goten grabs the Dragon Balls and wishes for Shenron to defeat Broly for them.

So there’s a few problems with that plan, but besides all of that, Goten loses the ball in a pile of spherical crystals in the mine, so it takes him a while to find it again. During his search, he stops to take a whiz.

Meanwhile, Trunks does surprisingly okay fighting Broly alone. I guess the conceit here is that Goten and Trunks can hold their own against SSJ1 Broly, but they lack the stamina to maintain the form the way Broly does.

Eventually he has to take cover in a cavern behind a waterfall, and I guess Broly can’t sense ki or he would have found him a lot more easily than this. While he waits for Broly to leave, Trunks considers how his father would react to him hiding like this. So where is Vegeta during all of this, anyway? I used to think this movie might have been set after his death against Buu, but that hasn’t even come close to happening yet in the anime, and I’m fairly sure the manga hadn’t gotten there either. Are we supposed to believe that Vegeta just doesn’t know this is going on? He sensed Trunks was in danger in Movie 9, and he showed up in Movies 6 and 7 without an invitation.

Look, if they just didn’t want Vegeta to be in the movie, that’s fine, but they should have at least explained why he isn’t here. It doesn’t make any sense for him to sit this one out, and I have a hard time believing he would have no idea that Broly’s running amok on Earth.

Anyway, Goten finally tries to make the wish, but nothing happens. I don’t know if he just isn’t summoning Shenron correctly or what. Goten decides that he needs to move the balls out of the cave so that Shenron will have more room to manifest, and I guess that makes as much sense as anything.

So that leaves Trunks in the same bind he was in before. Broly starts doing... whatever this is supposed to be. Seriously, was this the most lethal manuever he could come up with? Even if he’s trying to hurt Trunks before killing him, there’s got to be better ways to go about it. Besides, why did he let Goten leave a minute ago? He’s the one Broly really hates right now.

Also, this screencap gives us a good look at the scar tissue on Broly’s chest. This is maybe the silliest thing in the movie. I remember in the Budokai 3 game, there’s a mode with a Red Ribbon Army theme, and Commander Red is there to introduce it, and he has a little bandage on his forehead, covering up the spot where Staff Officer Black shot him. That was a cute little joke, but this is supposed to be somewhat serious. Goku ripped Broly open in Movie 8. The scar tissue runs all the way up to his clavicles for crying out loud, and we’re supposed to believe that it just healed over like a hangnail?

Anyway, Trunks breaks the hold by peeing on Broly, and no, that’s still not as dumb as Broly growing back half of his chest.

Broly finally gets fed up with the boys and tries to finish them off, and then Gohan finally arrives to save them. Gohan’s surprised to see they lasted so long against an enemy as terrible as Broly. No, it’s not that amazing, Gohan, this movie just really sucks.

He tries to fight Broly... in his base form. Why? Why would that be a good idea? Then Videl shows up and kicks Broly in the head. Okay, so here’s why this movie is stupid.

To me, the whole point of bringing Broly back was to show how he’d fare against Gohan as a Super Saiyan 2. Movie 8 couldn’t deliver on this idea because it was made before SSJ2 was introduced. Then Gohan dominated Cell as a Super Saiyan 2, and he did the same thing to Bojack in Movie 9. Broly only lost in Movie 8 because the Z-Fighters donated their power to Goku, which made him strong enough to turn the tide.

But in this movie, it’s seven years later, and Goku’s dead and Future Trunks is gone, so it’s basically up to Gohan, with a lot less backup. But that’s okay, because he’s a lot stronger than he was in Movie 8. Sure, he’s slacked off on his training, but he still knows how to turn into a Super Saiyan 2, so maybe that’s all he needs. And Broly’s been out of action for a while too, so maybe the playing field is more even than it looks. Of course, Gohan would have to win against Broly, or the movie couldn’t have a happy ending, but most of the battle would be this suspenseful thing. Both Broly and Gohan have forms that surpass Vanilla Super Saiyan, but which one is superior? That’s what this movie should have been about.

But instead, Toei tried to do the battle from Movie 8 all over again, only it doesn’t work because most of the guys who were in that fight aren’t here for this movie. Goku, Vegeta, Trunks, and Piccolo have been swapped out for Goten, Trunks, and Videl, and they can’t look credible against a monster villain like Broly. That’s why they spend most of the fight doing comedy spots with him, and that’s why Gohan has to skip the first leg of the battle, so that he can rescue them here. In Movie 8, that was Piccolo’s job, but Gohan has to do double-duty because there is no Piccolo this time around.

The whole fight strains Broly’s credibility. He has to be at Super Saiyan 1 most of the time just to keep it from looking too ridiculous, and even that’s pushing it too far. If Videl can kick this guy in the face, why was he ever a problem in the last movie? You had four Super Saiyans fighting him at the same time and they couldn’t do anything to him. This movie has Videl survive his attacks and Trunks peeing on him. What was the point of bringing Broly back if they were just going to make him look like a joke?

So then, finally Gohan turns Super Saiyan 2, prompting Broly to whip out his Legendary form. I’m pretty sure Toei recyled the animation from Movie 8, since Broly’s clothes aren’t tattered like they are through the rest of this movie. But whatever, we’ve finally gotten to the part that I wanted to see.

And Gohan still can’t win. I wouldn’t have a problem with Broly being stronger, but Gohan can’t even get in some decent offense, which is all I wanted out of this stupid movie. If I wanted to see Broly clobber Gohan, I could have just watched Movie 8 again. I realize that this is kind of Broly’s deal, but thewhole point of doing a sequel set seven years later is to change things up.

Is Gohan using Super Saiyan 1 or 2 in this movie? You never see the lightning arc around him, which is kind of the tell or SSJ2, but the movies seem pretty inconsistent about this. Personally, I think this looks like SSJ2, but it’s open to interpretation, to say the least. My thing is, why would Gohan not use his strongest form in this fight? He knows how dangerous Broly is, and it’s not like he can’t use SSJ2, so why wouldn’t he? And this should have been clarified in the movie. This is where another character should have said “He’s gone beyond the Super Saiyan, just like he did against Cell!” Or if he’s not using that form, then someone should have made that observation instead.

Likewise, no one knows if Broly is stronger or weaker in this movie than he was in Movie 8. If he can dominate a Super Saiyan 2 like this, then maybe he’s gotten stronger. His power was out of control seven years ago, so maybe now that he’s finally recuperated from his injuries, his ki is increasing again like before. Or maybe he just got a zenkai boost from Goku nearly killing him.

On the other hand, he might be weaker. Look how lethargic he was against Goten, Trunks, and Videl. Movie 8 Broly would have slaughtered them without a thought. Maybe Movie 10 Broly is still suffering from the beating he took, and that’s why it took so long for him to ramp up to his Legendary form. And while he is dominating Gohan, it’s still a one-on-one battle. Broly never had this much trouble against a single opponent before.

I’ve lurked on message boards where fans tried to argue both sides of this, and I used to have opinions on the matter, but now I realize that it doesn’t matter. We shouldn’t have to ask these kinds of questions, because it’s the movie’s job to communicate that information. Nobody had to ask how strong Broly was in Movie 8 because they showed us. Here, it’s ambiguous, because no one bothered to go into detail.

I mean, this shouldn’t be so complicated. Each movie villain is supposed to be stronger than the last, mainly because the heroes get stronger as the story progresses. Logically, Broly ought to be stronger in Movie 10 than he was in Movie 8, and the selling point should be that Gohan is stronger too, but will it be enough? And then it is enough, because that’s what the fans want to see.

The closest we approach to this is when Gohan escapes a hold by kicking Broly in the face. I think this is one of the few times Broly actually experiences pain from an attack. From here, Gohan realizes that he can beat Broly by luring him into a river of molten lava, which was brought to the surface by one of Broly’s prior attacks.

So it seems to work, but then Gohan passes out on a patch of land right as it’s about to get swallowed up by lava...

And then Piccolo shows up to rescue him. Well it’s about time.

Only it’s not Piccolo, it’s Krillin disguised as Piccolo. Okay, that’s cute and all, but why isn’t the real Piccolo here? This stupid movie would have me believe that Krillin was sitting at home, sensed Broly’s ki, went upstairs to get out his custom-tailored Piccolo costume, put it on, and flew out here, but Piccolo and Vegeta have no idea what’s going on? This is bullshit.

I don’t want to give the wrong impression here. I’m pleased with Krillin’s cameo here, but it just raises more questions than answers. Broly’s kind of a big deal, and this movie seems to revel in the notion that less than half the cast would notice if he showed up on Earth. Where’s Tien? Yeah, he probably wouldn’t be able to help much, but he’d be one more guy for Broly to knock around. It’d make more sense than having him fight Videl.

Anyway, Broly survived, because he has the same force field he used to survive Planet Vegeta’s destruction as a baby. For that matter, Gohan used a similar force field earlier, so maybe this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to him.

So then Broly catches Gohan in a bearhug. Why are there restholds in a cartoon? Seriously, it’s like Broly suffered a career threatening neck injury after Movie 8, and he had to tone down his style so as not to aggravate it. Only that’s dumb because he’s an anime character who doesn’t exist. Just punch the kid already.

Then Videl wanders over and tries to help by throwing a crystal shard at Broly. Well, I can’t fault Videl for being all heart, but that’s not enough to save this turkey.

Broly swats it away, which gives Gohan an opening to escape. But why? Wouldn’t Broly just let the thing hit him? It’s not like it could hurt him anyway. This guy took a Kamehameha to the face.

So Gohan decides to end this now with a Kamehameha, and Broly decides to do the same with his.... Gigantic Meteor? Omega Blazer? Gleaming Sagitarius? The video games had all sorts of stupid names for Broly’s moves, even though they all look the same. This one is, “Toss some more green shit at things.”

So then we get to a halfway decent part of the movie. Goten runs over to help Gohan, and they do a beam struggle with Broly. Cool.

But it doesn’t look good, and in desperation, Goten prays to Shenron for help.

Then Goku shows up. Is this because Shenron heard Goten’s wish? That’s the general idea here, but the movie refuses to say for certain. What I do know is that Shenron never actually manifests to grant wishes. The Dragon Balls just glow, and then this happens.

Also, Goku doesn’t have his halo, so I have no idea what this means.

Meanwhile, Trunks gets up from wherever he’s been laying, and he fires one last ki blast at Broly, for spite’s sake. This turns out to intercept one of Broly’s attacks, which seems to give the Son family an opening. It’s basically like how Vegeta attacked Cell right before Gohan finished him.

Actually, now that I write all that out, this all seems pretty derivative. We saw a Father-Son Kamehameha in the Cell Games, and a lot of this “Goku returns to help” stuff was covered in Movie 9. Even so, I dig this version a little better, because Goten is here. I still would have preferred it if Gohan had just beaten Broly on his own, without all this overbooked nonsense.

So the triple-Kamehhameha manages to break through Broly’s bullshit armor and it sends him flying into the sun, just like how Cooler lost in Movie 5, only all this green crap spews out of Broly as he dies.

Then he explodes, and the blast comes out of the other side of the sun, so maybe that’s enough to finish him this time?

Then the sun turns green for a second, like it has to burn off the last vestiges of Broly’s Gary Stu ki.

After the fight, there’s no sign of Goku, although the Dragon Balls have scattered, indicating that a wish was granted. Then Videl starts questioning how Gohan beat Broly, and she chases after him, demanding a full explanation.

As the movie closes, the narrator asks how Goku appeared during the battle, but claims that no one can ever know for sure. That’s horseshit, frankly. We know how the Dragon Balls work, and we know they couldn’t bring Goku back to life, so none of what happened makes any sense. Goten didn’t even say the wish out loud. He just thought it and Shenron heard that? It’s dumb. You had the whole movie to explain these things, and you blew it on piss gags.

Oh, and Krillin’s still embedded in the rock where Broly hit him.

So yeah, this movie isn’t very good. Team Four Star ranked it near the bottom of the list of movies and specials, and they often talk about how everyone says Movie 11 is the worst, but they actually dislike this one more because it’s more boring. Personally, I think 11 is worse than 10, but I’d hate to live on the difference.

I’m pretty sure Movie 10 is the main reason people dislike Broly. That’s not to say that Movie 8 would be universally loved if Movie 10 weren’t around. But I think Movie 10 cemented a lot of the worst aspects of Broly’s character. He comes back, surviving what should be certain death, then he survives several other predicaments, and he just says “Kakarot” over and over again for the entire movie. The only other line he speaks is when Gohan gets ready to Kamehameha him, and he’s about to fire back. Otherwise it’s all grunts and “Kakarot!”

In Movie 8, the guy at least had a personality, even if it was twisted and cruel. In this movie, it’s like they were trying to imply that he suffered some sort of brain damage. It’s just so dull watching him fight. He moves like he’s in slow motion sometimes, and he never seems interested in actually defeating his enemies.

And this is a complete inversion of how they brought back Cooler in Movie 6. Remember Cooler? He came back as a cyborg with unlimited spare bodies, just so he’d be strong enough to cope with fighting Goku and Vegeta at the same time. Movie 6 is far from perfect, but at least it understood the need to raise the stakes. Movie 10 brought back Broly and took a bold step backwards.

But at least Broly was actually in this movie, and I think that at least puts it ahead of Movie 11. I’m not sure that should be the only criteria for rating Broly movies, but I think it should be a major one.

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #dbmovieliveblog #broly second coming #broly #goku #gohan #goten #trunks #videl #krillin #piccolo #well not really #maloja

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dcarevu · 5 years

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Batman TAS: Mad as a Hatter

“Why don’t you go do something useful like… Oh, go jump in the river.”

Episode: 27 Robin: No Writer: Paul Dini Director: Frank Paur Animator: Akom Airdate: October 12, 1992 Grade: B

I was in high school when Tim Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland showed up in theaters, and like almost everyone I knew, I could not have been more excited. I really loved the Disney version, and considering that the man involved with Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman, and more would be giving us his take on it right as I was starting to move toward my emo-scene phase, it was a dream come true. Even now, on paper, this seems like the perfect recipe, doesn’t it? But I think most of us can agree that it just didn’t meet expectations. The first time I watched it, I wouldn’t admit to myself that I wasn’t a fan. It was dark, and strange, and Tim Burton + Alice in Wonderland. Everything I wanted! As a developing emo kid, I was supposed to like it! The reason I bring this up is because Batman the Animated Series being fused with Alice in Wonderland seems like another fantasy-combination that would have no way to turn out subpar. Mad as a Hatter is an episode that, for the most part, actually gets a lot of praise. Alas (or, for the sake of the pun, Alice), maybe the idea seemed a little bit too easy, making it easier to over-shoot, missing the mark. This is another episode featuring a crazy set-piece at the end, but it is also another episode that was handed to Akom. Christ, why. Of all the episodes. All the episodes. Why is it some of the ones with the highest reliance on visuals? This episode involved not just complicated, creative visuals, but incredibly weird ones as well that needed to be animated just right to not look like subjects from one’s fever dreams. You wanna know how that turned out? Well, I heard an, “Oh my god!” from Char as the walrus and the carpenter made their appearances. While that did make me laugh quite hard, and Akom definitely got the weirdness down, it should have looked like intentional weirdness. Beyond the animation, the story is actually decent. It is Paul Dini, so what can you really expect. But even here, I would not call it A-level material. Some strange dialogue/delivery choices, and other leaps of logic/strains on the suspension of disbelief take away from it and leave me feeling extremely neutral.

Okay, so after that paragraph above was written, I went and took the screenshots from my DVD. I was surprised. The DVD looks so much better than the Blu Ray here. This was the case with The Clock King too, and I fear it is starting to seem like a pattern. I think it all comes down to the Blu Ray release looking too clean, and way too bright at times. Because of course, the DVD is in lower definition. Shadows are lightened so that we can see all of the imperfections of Akom’s drawings. Smudges and dirt are removed, giving the people a plastic look at times. It’s not the way the show was meant to be watched (as I said, probably VHS would be my preferred way of viewing if that were feasible). This puts me in an interesting spot, because I paid near $100 for the set, and also, some episodes look absolutely phenomenal. But is it worth it when some look like absolute crap? The great-looking shows look godly. The mediocre-looking ones look horrible. I was ready to tear into how Mad as a Hatter looked and rip it a new one, but now I do not think that would be fair. No, the animation here isn’t perfect. But it’s passable. And I think that’s worth something given the frequency at which I complain about Akom. At this point, I have watched up to Robin’s Reckoning. From here, I honestly might start using the ol’ dvd’s again. It’s unfortunate, but if I go back to specific episodes that I love later on, then I’ll use the Blu Ray. Remember, I am watching these with Char who has never seen the DCAU before. I want the series to make the best possible impression, and even with the best plot ever, a bad-looking episode can make a disappointing episode. Merely getting the episodes at a higher definition, but leaving them dirty and dark would have been my preferred solution. Anyway, back to talking about the episode itself (and yes, this does slightly affect how I see the episode. At first I was giving it a C. But I think I’ll have to bump it up to B territory).

We start with episode with some cute-ass mice, only to then be introduced to a face that a mother would have a hard time loving. Jervis Tetch, aka The Mad Hatter, is a character-design, alright. I think I know what they were going for, though. He has this kooky look that makes him stand out from every other character. He certainly looks like he could play someone from Wonderland. But the problem I think comes from Akom (ironic given that last paragraph, huh?). This design could probably work, but he has such an odd model, so I think they had a tough time animating him. Or maybe he simply does not translate to movement very well in general, and there was a problem the moment his model sheet was created. Regardless, he can be pretty tough to look at sometimes. Other times, though, he does have that level of whacky which I would hope would be in an episode based on Alice in Wonderland. But we see that Jervis is working on some mind-control technology while also being smitten for a girl that works in his office named Alice. Unfortunately, Alice has a boyfriend, and like many sociopaths in real life, Jervis is not okay with this, taking matters into his own hands. First of all, her name being Alice is kinda stupid, and Char agrees. It takes parallels a little bit too far, and Char noted that it would have been more subtle if her name were something like Alycia. Alice is one of the only people that Jervis feels is nice to him, so if we follow the most sound of incel-logic, she owes him her heart, mind, and body. Not only is she nice to him, but, again, her name is Alice. And it would not surprise me if this were a main factor of why Jervis is into her. He has an Alice in Wonderland poster in his office, he takes her to a theme park of sorts that has a section which is themed after the book, he owns a Mad Hatter costume (or perhaps he obtained this from the park), he quotes the book regularly, etc. He is clearly obsessed. When we reach the point where he mentions that it is one of his favorite stories, it’s like, “Wow! No kidding!” He is not quite wired into reality, likely developing this obsession at an early age to escape from life’s burdens. But Wonderland has burdens of its own.

Jervis ends up using these mind-control cards that he created (another Alice in Wonderland-related thing) to make people basically do his bidding. He first uses them on two thugs attempting to rob him and Alice, forcing them to climb up on top of a bridge and jump into the river. Batman catches notice of this through a police broadcast, and to my surprise, the show mentions a possible suicide in progress. How often do you hear a family cartoon like this use the word “suicide”? I think this is the only time I have ever heard it, despite references occasionally popping up in shows like Spongebob. He then uses more cards on his coworkers, Alice’s fiancé, and Alice herself, creating an army of Alice in Wonderland-themed warriors to defend him from Batman when Batman finds out what’s going on and sets after him. He wants Alice all to himself, and is willing to do whatever possible to obtain her. The final battle takes place in the theme park, the big set-piece of the episode. It’s got some great looking background paintings that 100% capture the tone of the book. It is a shame that the animation done by Akom couldn’t hold up to Radomski’s work. We have moments such as Batman balancing on top of the walls of a playing card maze that I wish stressed me out a little bit more. But because of how stilted the movement is, Batman never really seems like he is having a tough time keeping balance, even though we clearly see him struggling. The fight scenes could also be much better, with more impact felt. The odd costumes that most everyone is wearing makes for some really distorted-looking characters, and it’s clear that not a lot of time was spent making them look quite right. At the same time, though, between the subject material, the gimmicks, the overall surreal nature, and the background art, it is still a lot of fun to watch, even if it is in a more campy way. It is not an episode to be taken extremely seriously. This can be a problem with Batman. The tone can fluctuate greatly from episode to episode. At the beginning, it did not matter as much. Right away we had varying quality and seriousness. I mean, we went from On Leather Wings to Christmas With the Joker. But now we are getting gothic masterpieces like Two-Face, so episodes like Mad as a Hatter feel jarring as hell. It is an episode I enjoyed more on second watch as I gathered screenshots. I loosened up and let myself have fun with it.

The Mad Hatter fails to be a sympathetic villain like I feel they might have been going for, but I do enjoy him being so delusional and sociopathic. When Alice mentions her boyfriend, he gets this scary scowl, and you know at that moment that this is no character you want to root for. When Alice’s boyfriend temporarily breaks up with her, rather than attempting to comfort her and being upset over her sorrow, he jumps for joy because he has a chance to finally swoop in (the epitome of an Internet “nice guy”). When she gets back together with her boyfriend, turned fiancé, he squeezes a bouquet of roses in frustration so hard that he bleeds. I think they were able to get away with this portion because maybe the blood could have passed off as liquid from the flowers? Which doesn’t really make a lot of sense, but for the sake of the blood being included, um, sure. It was definitely rose-goo, guys. Not blood at all… And he also blames Batman for why things ended up the way they did, even though Batman had virtually nothing to do with anything until the very end. He decided to mind-control everyone because he was being a spoiled little piss-baby who could not let the girl he supposedly loves be happy. Char did not care for the character, and jokingly mentioned that he was appropriating the Mad Hatter, doing things that he would never do. Like some batshit crazy super-fan who feels sooo connected with a character, but actually doesn’t understand them at all.

Not a perfect episode, but a grower.

See? Cute-ass mice!

Wow, I didn’t realize that we were watching Attack on Titan. (Joke inspired by Char).

The poster on the wall matches the title card/an actual illustration from the book. It’s actually a pretty dope poster.

A variety of shots showing Jervis’ face. See how inconsistent it is? It is a little similar to the Pokémon Drilbur, where it only works 2D. Adding an element of 3D illusion (such as movement) causes it to fall apart.

Oh, sure, go and rob them right after you see Batman drive by. That’s always smart.

“Please, Mr. Hat. Go easy on us.” The delivery here was wicked funny. It was so monotone, and sounded like he was faking.

I quite like this facial expression. His smile reminds me of the Cheshire Cat.

Batman + Taco Bell

I love the panic in Batman’s voice as he tries to stop them from jumping off of the bridge. It shows how concerned he is with keeping them safe.

They were able to animate this shimmer pretty damn well. Then again, how hard could it be?

A very subtle recreation of the illustration/title card.

I don’t think the background here quite comes together, the composition is off. Still neat to look at.

A close-up of the illustration.

Now this is an ugly facial expression. Gross! And it’s not like this was a quick frame. It was there long enough to notice.

This shot has a lovely glow to it. It looks quite nice.

One of the only times they were able to get away with blood. Um. Oops. I meant flower-goo! It’s flower-goo, guys! The blood drips right onto Billy’s face. As if a hit were put on him. Awesome detail.

“Oh, do be quiet!”

Bruce whispers “Congratulations.” in such a goobery way. I love it.

The shadow of the plants shifted in some wonky-looking ways. Also, when the Mad Hatter and Batman both arrive on the scene, she says, “This is getting too weird.” But she says it so nonchalantly. Not the best delivery.

Very sloppy-looking drawings of their faces. These costumes, though.

Cool impact here. He just decimates that wood. I’m not sure if Storybook Land has the safest costumes.

This is some enjoyable stuff right here. I had a lot of fun with this portion.

“Off with his head!” I should have counted how many times this line was said.

Perfect example if how cool the painted visuals are paired with some mediocre animation. Hell, I’m pretty sure Batman’s run was recycled for two of these stills.

Gee, I wonder which cards are going to move. Great Mad Hatter, pose, though. This is what I wish he looked like all the time!

The looming Jabberwock ends up falling on him, ending the adventure through Wonderland.

There’s no reversing the damage, Jervis. You’ll never talk with her again. Was it worth it? Also, his hair totally changed color at one point. Um... Maybe he dyed it?

Char’s grade: D Next time: Dreams in Darkness

Full episode list here!

#dcau #dc animated universe #mad as a hatter #batman #batman tas #batman the animated series #btas #mad hatter #alice #alice in wonderland

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roswelldetails · 4 years

Text

RNM 2x13 - Mr. Jones

EPISODE SUMMARY:

SEASON FINALE — Having realized that a deadly threat has infiltrated CrashCon, the busiest event of the year, Liz (Jeanine Mason) realizes that she can’t save everyone she loves — and with Max (Nathan Dean) facing immediate danger, she and Isobel must make a heart-wrenching choice. Meanwhile, Michael (Michael Vlamis) finds himself caught up in the conflict between Jesse (Trevor St. John) and Alex (Tyler Blackburn) once again, even as Maria’s (Heather Hemmens) life hangs in the balance elsewhere, and Kyle (Michael Trevino) faces a moral dilemma when the enemy requires medical attention. Jeffrey Hunt directed the episode written by Christopher Hollier & Carina Adly MacKenzie (#213). Original airdate 6/15/2020.

DETAILS:

The episode opens with Isobel trying to hold back the fire. They don't actually show Rosa convincing Liz to go stop the explosion. But she runs up to Isobel and explains her science:

"I have to activate the ingredients first, but once I introduce my solution to the system it should kill the cellular matrix."

Liz literally squirts the console with her "solution".

Rosa is doing CPR on Max and praying. Max wakes up just as Kyle runs up. Immediately Max directs Kyle to Flint instead of himself. It's interesting. When Max previously killed with his hand, in 1x06, he instantly knew that he killed the drifter. This time he wasn't sure (and he didn't. We eventually learn). Rosa and Kyle take Flint to the hospital.

Meanwhile Helena is saving Charlie's life.

"Jesse Manes was the only one supposed to get hurt."

Which is...not what happened. Jesse, Flint, Max, Maria...even Liz got hurt. She burned her hand on the console.

Maria is being rolled into the hospital. She got there really really fast. Cam is by her side.

Liz is still squirting her solution onto the console. It turns red. Liz asks Isobel to get people away but Isobel refuses to leave Liz alone.

Jesse, Greg, Michael, and Alex are still mid-standoff.

"Gregory, listen. You and I have had our differences in the past, but you should stand with me now."

"You're not well, Dad."

Jesse hits Gregory with the atomizer and appears to knock him out. He tries to shoot Michael, but Alex tackles him.

"Guerin, get the atomizer! Get it away from my brother!"

"Alex, I can't."

Jesse gets the upper hand in the fistfight with Alex and steals Alex's gun. Turns to shoot Michael again.

Liz makes more solution and squirts more of it on the console. This time it starts to crack. Isobel pulls Liz to safety and the console shrivels and dies.

The dying console just doesn't work as well in still form, so @maxortecho giffed it for me! Thank you!! 😘

Max runs up to them.

"You disabled it. You saved everyone."

"Is Flint dead? Did you kill him?"

He looks at Liz with some heavy heart eyes for her being the hero. She looks at him with fear.

Back to the Maneses and Michael. Jesse has a gun on Michael. Michael has the atomizer.

"Drop it, Guerin. Drop it!"

There's a gunshot. Jesse Manes falls and Michael has blood on his face. Gregory shot Jesse from behind.

"I should have defended you from him a long time ago."

"There are no more Manes men left."

Jesse dies.

Indeterminant time jump. Liz is late for work.

"Sorry, Javi. I just...I haven't really been sleeping."

"You've said that every day since CrashCon. You still having nightmares? …Did you read the papers this morning."

"Oh, I've kind of been trying to avoid the papers."

"Did you hear about that veteran who died at the carnival? They're going to have a parade, build a statue. Did you know he was disabled?"

Customers at the counter are discussing CrashCon:

"The CrashCon discourse is saying aliens invaded and killed the guy."

"That should be good for tourism."

"Newspaper said it was smoke inhalation though."

"He was making sure all the kids got out safely and the smoke overwhelmed him."

"We need more people like him."

Soooo much to unpack here. And most of it is addressed by Helena and Rosa's exchange at the end of the episode. But the big question to me is… who is spreading the rumors and covering this up? Is it Flint? Is he even well enough to take the lead on that? Is it someone else with Project Shepherd that we haven't met? The mayor? I mean, Jesse was shot! There was a lot of blood! Plus, remember what happened in 1x11 and 1x12: it's a small town. People notice gunshots.

Liz goes to take a table's order and, surprise! It's Diego. Who had gone back to Denver after CrashCon. He brought Dr. Margot Meyerson to Roswell to meet Liz.

Michael is visiting Maria at the hospital:

"What are you doing?"

"Oh they cut your bracelet off during surgery. How are you? You look better."

"Liz has been dropping by every day to inject me with witch serum."

"Ooh the synthetic nucleotide excision repair genomogenate? We're lucky you're only part alien, otherwise there wouldn't have been enough left of you for her to save."

"Listen, do you think you could use your telekinesis to open this box? Mimi left it when she visited. It's a family heirloom, but she forgot the key."

"Mimi hasn't exactly been leading you in the right direction lately. Her psychic visions led you toward a bomb instead of away from it. Seeing you like that -- all sick and pale and quiet -- I started praying."

Max and Isobel are at Max's house. Isobel is studying the photos of the console and alien symbols.

"I wish I understood why Louise and Nora would spend a year building an alien weapon of mass destruction."

"I don't think it was a bomb. I think it's a communication device. It's like a remote, you know, it just happens to be combustible."

"Are you mad at me, Max? Did I do something wrong? Is it that we're not related, or are you upset about the abortion? Because I…"

"Whoa, hey, God no."

"Because you're not talking to me."

"You're not the only one. I didn't want everyone to worry, you know, 'cause I've been taking some of Liz's antidote. And things are coming back to me. Little flashes, sort of, mostly. Like vague memories."

"Michael said that you kind of zoned out when you touched that alien bomb...remote thing. Did it trigger a memory?"

"When I touched the console, I heard whispers that I could almost understand. All right, it's like the same with those symbols. I mean it's like their meaning is just beyond reach. Except for one word. I took this from Graham Green's display at CrashCon. See that? It's an aerial photo of some crop circles from Roswell in 1948. This farm belonged to a guy called Jones. Pretty sure it says savior... This is my name. Maybe that means you and Michael's parents weren't the only ones that survived the crash. Right, maybe I had a family too. You know, maybe my mom was just across town."

"Max. I really wish that you could just focus on the present. You know, I mean, as a recently deceased man, I really feel like you should be enjoying the simple pleasures in life, you know, like reading nerdy books, the smell of leather, and that feeling when you wake up before your alarm and the person you love is still asleep and they're kind of snoring a little bit. It's like the best thing that ever happened to you. Stuff like that."

"I want all those things too. But I feel like if I only know half of myself, I'm only half living. And I know you understand that, Iz, because I've watched you this year become your entire self. And it is so beautiful. Okay, I am not at all mad at you. Are you kidding me? I am so proud of you. I am so proud that you're my sister."

Michael and Alex in the shed. For all that the shed is such a key location in this show's canon this is the first time we've seen it since 1x06.

"Maria made me bring food over. I gave it to Gregory. Seems to be holding up okay."

"Everything my family touches turns to crap. My dad used to talk about how my Grandpa Harlan built this she'd with his bare hands when he was, like, seventy. For a long time it was my safest space. And the one night my dad destroyed it."

"You're right. This place sucks."

Michael and Alex start destroying the shed. In the next scene Michael breaks a floorboard revealing a skeleton. The skeleton is wearing dog tags, so Alex grabs them. In his shirt pocket Michael spots and grabs the key to Maria's box. The tags say Eugene Manes III. So this is Tripp's body. Which confirms for Alex that his grandfather killed Tripp.

Max and Liz are walking in the plaza.

"I don't understand the violence, Max. Flint could have had brain damage given how long he wasn't breathing. You risked your life to hurt him and he had already thrown the weapon away, Max, so why? I can't get that image out of my head. You trying to kill Alex's brother."

"I know. I snapped. Last year Noah told me that we were energized by killing and not by healing. Even then I knew he was right. I… Obviously I can usually fight that, but I guess this time my better angels just didn't show up."

"We have to stop keeping secrets from each other, Max. There's a scientist in town. She's a supervisor at Genoryx. She has a job for me in California. She's offered to sponsor my dad's citizenship. And it could put me in a position to help Rosa too. I mean, I'd be able to do a lot of good with the grant money they're offering, and I know that all sounds too good to be true, but…"

"It sounds like someone finally realizes how valuable your mind is."

"I think that a change of scenery will be so good for us. I mean, we could get a place by the beach and you could write."

"You want me to come with you?"

"Of course I do."

"Well, I mean, I just told you I have this killer instinct, and you want me to come to California with you."

"We'll figure it out. Okay? We'll figure all of it out together. Run away with me, Max Evans?"

"Anywhere."

Max goes to see Cam at work. She picks on him for getting arrested and has his mugshot as her desktop background because friends!

Max asks about Charlie.

"Yeah she texted me from a burner phone that she was all right and then she vanished again."

Max tells her that he has a doctor's appointment and then asks her to do some undercover work for him.

Michael visiting Maria at the hospital.

"So Alex thinks Harlan found out that Tripp was an alien sympathizer all that time and he offed him."

"So Mimi must have known that you would find it. That's why she left the box. Look, I know you don't trust my mom's visions, but I was the only one who could grab that atomizer and run with it. If it had been you, you'd be dead."

Maria takes off the bracelet.

"What are you doing? Maria, that prevents brain damage."

"I'm only part alien, but it is a part of me. Even if it's dangerous I can't just turn off a piece of myself."

"So I'm supposed to sit around helpless as you fade away? Maria, I cannot watch you disappear. I love you."

"I love you too."

"So can we just let this go?"

"You have it wrong. Mimi hasn't disappeared. Yes she can be inconvenient, she can make people uncomfortable, but maybe she's supposed to be an uncomfortable inconvenience that saves lives. And now I need to be inconvenient, and I don't want to be someone that hurts you. I think that we should find out what's next, apart from each other."

"Wait, so you think that if we break up, I'm gonna be able to stop caring about you?"

"I learned so much, being with you. You sacrificed yourself without hesitation when Alex needed you."

"I would have done the same for you."

"I know. I don't doubt your capacity for love, 'cause you made me so happy this year. And I loved being someone that made you happy. I just think that we should leave it be, before I wonder if someone else could make you happier. Open the box, Guerin. Let's see what comes next.

Skip forward to the Crashdown where Michael has the box in a booth with Alex and Isobel. He opens the box and pulled out a journal, which they in turn read aloud.

I did a separate post on the journal's content and the Tripp and Nora flashbacks here:

Kyle visits Steph in the hospital

"What do you think will happen?"

"What do you mean?"

"When I die, idiot."

"You know, Socrates thought that death was a blessing, because only one of two things could happen. Either consciousness ceases, and it's like falling into a dreamless sleep. Or you go to where all who have died before you have gone. Your loved ones, people you admire. If you lived a good and just life, you will be surrounded by goodness and justice, in a place without fear. Sorry. I thought a lot about this when my dad passed, so I…"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that I'm putting you through this again."

"No...I want to be here."

Liz interrupts them. She clearly wasn't expecting Kyle to be there and comments on Max's appointment. Kyle gets up to leave.

Diego and Margot are talking in the Wild Pony:

"I was very impressed with her work when we first pursued her, but when I met her today, not so much."

"Why? 'Cause she had a little ketchup on her uniform?"

Undercover!Jenna staggers up to them and spills her drink on them, tells Margot that she's beautiful, and plants a listening device.

"Anyway I think we should move on."

"Okay, wait a sec. Liz has been working on something recently, but she signed this NDA. Although I guess she can't be blamed if we took a peek, you know? Without permission."

The line that will haunt me for the next year. Kyle to Max while showing him what appears to be chest X-rays.

"You know what I'm saying here, right Max?"

Cameron calls:

"You were right. It is too good to be true. Diego just told some woman he can get her access to Liz's lab. He must have followed her there."

"Well, there's a security system."

"The way he's talking, it sounded like Diego's pretty certain he can get access. They just left here, Evans. You need to tell Liz to get anything incriminating out of there - now."

Max arrives at the lab and immediately sees that the security system was manufactured by Genoryx. He uses his powers to break the system and get into the lab. He quickly searches through all of Liz's records and then pours what appears to be gas or lighter fluid or some other flammable substance all over the place and then uses his powers to set a fire.

He listens to the notes on Liz's recorder, which by the way has 22 minutes of recording on it. Some of what we hear:

This is my record of the dissection of specimen NB.

... immunoglobulin harvested from alien DNA can be transferred to a human recipient.

Commence dissection of the dorsal side of the spinal nerve.

I hypothesize that the female specimen's plasma…

Bracken's seminal cells indicate a pH level double that of a human counterpart.

I'm now extracting the grey matter to measure alien voxel signals.

Note that Max doesn't seem to have any chest pain this time when he uses his powers.

Right as Diego and Margot show up the lab explodes.

Max comes home to find Michael and Isobel waiting for him. He's clearly exhausted and upset after the lab.

"Can whatever this is wait until tomorrow?"

"Jones? That's the guy who grew the crop circles in the shape of my name."

"Nope. We spent the day reading Tripp Manes' journal. Caffeinate, Max... Okay, so, when I asked Sanders about this photo of Nora, he said he didn't know whose hand this was. He was all, Mr. Bernhardt, Mr. Jones, Old Man Gibbons. Could've been anybody."

"Ten points to Hufflepuff."

"So in October '48, Nora decided not to finish building the ship with Louise. She decided to go to the reservation with Tripp."

"But then little Walt convinced her to go to the fall festival, where after successfully avoiding him for a year, she finally ran into the alien stowaway who had crashed the ship. He'd been masquerading as a farmer."

"Mr. Jones."

"Tripp saw Jones approach Nora, and he recognized him from the night of the crash, but he didn't have a chance to ask Nora about it before Harlan called for a raid on the farm."

"Yeah. And after the massacre, Jones was never heard from again. Crop circles were all that was left."

"If you were in hiding, why would you grow corn in the shape of an alien symbol?"

"Maybe they just grew that way. It's the same way that this symbol just shows up everywhere, you know?"

Michael reveals his tattoo and it's the first time Max has seen it.

"Wait, when did..?"

"Oh, I got it when we weren't sure if you were coming back. It didn't feel like it was ever gonna be the same again."

"All right. There. Now can we all cowboy up and focus, please? Let's feel our feelings after we've solved the mystery of the unknown alien. After the raid on the farm, Nora was held by Project Shepherd."

Note...not actually accurate. Michael didn't get the tattoo until Max was out of surgery.

See Journal and Flashbacks post for the flashback.

Jenna and Charlie reunite. Relevant quote to remember:

Liz and Rosa find the destroyed lab. Liz sees the fractal burn that indicates that Max is the one that destroyed it.

"I fought so hard to become who I am, and I just trade her in every time I get scared? No. I don't want to be on the run anymore."

Back to Max's house:

"Whatever happened to that thing that she and Louise were building out in the desert? I mean, did she ever tell him where it was or what it was?"

"Nope. And when Tripp asked Louise about it, she was silent."

Liz walks in and interrupts.

"Why'd you do it, Max?"

They go into the bedroom to fight.

"I'd been asking you for weeks to clear out that lab, okay? I knew it wasn't safe."

"Alex installed a military-grade security system."

"A system designed by Genoryx, okay? Diego could have hacked it. He could already know everything."

"And his nefarious plan is to what? Set us up with a condo in L.A.? Give my family a second chance?"

"Okay, I have a family to protect too."

"Yes, and you could have stopped Diego without destroying a year of my work!"

"I had to act fast."

"So your first instinct was to go with the one method that would break my heart?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking about your heart when I'm staring at jars with Noah's liver and his brain. I mean, what else did you harvest from us, Liz?"

"Those are just cells. I wasn't hurting anyone. I don't know what you thought love was gonna be like when we were 17, but it isn't just sunsets and horseback rides."

"You can't put this all on me. Okay you were sneaking around behind my back…"

"I apologized. I stopped. Max, you died this year. I was all alone because of a choice that you made, but still every single thing I did was for you and about you and with you. So when you were back, when I could finally touch you. When I could finally breathe. I needed to take just one moment to remember where I end and where you begin. To just be whole in who I am. I am a scientist. I am fighting for something that is bigger than me. I am trying to leave this world a better place. And I am in love with you. And right now, I hate it."

Liz leaves and Max takes another dose of the antidote.

Time jump. No idea how long or what has happened in between. Liz and Rosa on the Crashdown roof saying goodbyes.

"Dad is checking your oil and making sure you have enough chile...also you left this in our room. Mom's been texting."

"Trying to come up with a better response than, go duck yourself… You should come with me. The Ortecho sisters take California."

"I wish. But I can't. I'm going back to rehab tonight. I want to see the program through. Sorry."

"Don't be. It's the best possible thing you could have said."

"You know… Max should be your road trip buddy. You love him. You're gonna forgive him. Besides, we both know if you try to leave town without him again, he's just gonna show up with some big, grand romantic gesture to stop you."

Open mic night at the Pony. Alex and Kyle have a drink together.

"So how does it feel to have your father's murder officially avenged?."

"Feels like my dad's still dead. Flint should be okay. He'll live to become the new Jesse Manes."

"No he won't. I'm not gonna let it happen."

"After everything you still believe in redemption?"

"Well, I have a pretty good example of it right in front of me."

Alex sings his song. Michael, Isobel, Greg, and Forrest are all there listening.

Flash to Kyle going to Steph's hospital room. The bed is empty...because she's up doing her makeup, her hands steady.

"Your hands are better. Did they give you morphine?"

"I woke up this morning feeling incredible. Look at my chart. My numbers are up. It's a miracle."

"Or just really good science."

Liz is preparing to leave, her suitcase beside her in the empty Crashdown as she stands at the juke box one last time. Kyle runs in.

"What you did was reckless. And dangerous. And unethical, Liz. Thank you."

Back at the Wild Pony, Michael watches Forrest listening to Alex sing. He turns to leave. Isobel tries to stop him.

"It's a sad story, me and Alex. I have to walk away so we can start a new one someday. It's not our time right now."

"But it will be."

"I think so."

Rosa walks up to a bar. She hesitates before going in, her hands shaking.

Liz buckles into her car, ready to leave. She looks in the rearview window and waits. She's clearly expecting Max to come. But he's at home studying his alien symbols. She gives in and pulls away, leaving Roswell. Her season ends with her looking out over the ocean.

Alex finishes his song and Greg and Forrest are still there and are proud of him.

"Well, damn. How do you feel?"

"Like I just sang a song about a guy in front of a bunch of cowboys, and...I don't care."

"Oh, lucky guy, with a song like that."

"Yeah it was a long time ago…can I?"

Alex and Forrest kiss.

Rosa walks into the bar. Helena is there.

"If you came to tell me what I did wrong, your sister already texted."

"Did you get what you wanted, Mom? Is your score finally settled?"

"No. I wanted everyone to see Jesse Manes humiliated and weak. I wanted him to die knowing shame. But the papers say it was a tragedy. People like him - bad white men - they die heroes, no matter what they've done. People like us - we die villains."

"Yeah I know. I've done it. But I also got a second chance. So I get to leave a different legacy. The last time that I saw you, I said that I hated you. That's not true. I love you, Mom."

"I love you too, mija."

"I also told you to leave and I was right about that. Liz was free and it should have stayed that way. Manes is gone. There is no revenge to be had. No closure and no redemption. Don't come back, mom. Don't bother Liz again. I really hope you get better. Maybe you can have a second chance too."

Another possible time jump. Michael and Isobel pull up to where Max is out in the desert.

"How'd you guys find me?"

"Freaky twin thing. What's going on?"

"I took more of the antidote. Sorry, I should have called you guys."

"Save it. We are sick of being pissed at you for being so obnoxiously yourself. Why you look so scared?"

Pod Squad is investigating a cave. There's a door or opening covered by alien text with the alien symbol on it. It sorta looks like there's something behind it.

"Um, well, when I touched the alien console at the fair, something happened. I heard whispers that I couldn't understand...until now. I think when I touched it I unlocked something... Like a cage? The whispers led me here. I know it sounds crazy, but would you guys help me find a tunnel?"

"It's sealed up."

"I feel like we should learn more before we just busy that door open."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

There's a knocking sound and a voice calls out.

"Help! Is someone there?"

"If Max unlocked something at CrashCon, whoever that is has been down here for days without…"

"I need water. Please."

"There has to be three."

Note that we now know which symbol represents each of them.

The door shatters and they all react (Isobel's face is priceless).

We flash back to the mysterious stowaway/alien hoodie dude/Jones. Louise fighting him. Now we can see that it's Max. Nora kneeling after the crash with the hand on her shoulder. It's Max's face. He attacks/burns the military men/Hector Valenti.

The stowaway/Jones looks exactly like Max. Only with a really bad beard.

"Howdy partner."

MUSIC:

1. Hootie & The Blowfish "Time"

2. Tyler Rich "Leave Her Wild"

3. Clay Rigdon "That Kinda Kiss"

4. Marc Danziesen "See Yourself"

5. Gloria Hart and Art Kassel "Frankie And Johnny"

6. The Score "Legend"

7. Sarah May Byrom "Rhythm Of A Memory"

8. Tyler Blackburn "Would You Come Home"

9. The Well Pennies "The Echo And The Shadow"

10. Valerie Broussard "Dark Side"

#roswell new mexico #rnm season 2 #details #episode details #long post #rnm 213 #mr. jones

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choupetit · 5 years

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GOT Recap: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Airdate: 4/21/19 ; Season 8, Episode 2

Meep, things are really heating up on Game of Thrones! Or rather, cooling down…oh heck, I don’t know what to do with all the Fire and Ice metaphors. Let’s just say, stuff is getting real and the latest installment of GOT gave us one last moment to enjoy the fuzzy warm feels before next week’s huge battle against the Night King’s army begins. This last episode was all about wish fulfillment and tying up loose ends for viewers – and I’m still a bit conflicted about how I feel about it all. But fear not, we’ll get into my two cents about it very soon. Now, find a warm body to snuggle up to and get a toasty fire going, because the night is dark and full of manipulative story ploys. Here’s my recap of: “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.”

I Know What You Did Last Long Summer

We start things off with Jaime Lannister standing before a tribunal in the Great Hall at Winterfell, with Sansa Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, and Jon Snow seated at the VIP table. Dany shares that she and her brother grew up talking about what they would do to the man who murdered their father, once they captured him and reclaimed the Seven Kingdoms. She points out that Cersei promised her an army, and instead has only sent one man with one hand. Ouch, that smarts. Jaime fills everybody in on Cersei’s plan: She isn’t sending any help. Rather, Queen Cersei has procured a hired army and is sending them to Winterfell to finish off whatever survivors are left after the impending war against the Dead. She lied to them all – Jaime included – and he left her to come and join Jon and Dany’s battle for the living. Daenerys casts a pointed gaze at Tyrion Lannister, who looks miserable. Ya done messed up, Ty!

Dany wonders how they can possibly trust Jaime. Tyrion sticks up for his brother, but is shot down by Daenerys who counters that perhaps this is an elaborate scheme for Jaime to assassinate her. Sansa chimes in that Jamie can’t be trusted, and lists the crappy things he did to House Stark, including attacking Ned Stark back in Season 1. When Jaime defends his actions saying it was during a time of war, and that he was protecting his family, Bran dryly states “The things we do for love.” Fear flickers in Jaime’s eyes. Bran knows!

Brienne of Tarth steps up and defends Jaime. She tells Dany how she and Jaime were captured a few years back and he defended her when she was this close to getting raped – and lost his hand in the process. To Sansa, she says that it’s only due to Jaime’s honor in keeping his word to Catelyn Stark that Brienne was able to find and save Sansa from the sadistic Ramsay Bolton. This is enough to change Sansa’s mind. Dany seems peeved by Sansa’s about-face and asks Jon what he thinks. Visibly still grappling with the bombshell about his parents, Jon doesn’t even look at Dany and simply states they need all the extra help they can get. Dany allows Jaime to stay and fight with them, and they all rise. Sansa huffs off and when Dany turns to Jon, he’s all “K gotta run, byeeee.” Ugh, you let a guy ride your dragon one time and then he gets all weird on you. Brienne shoots Jaime a look that clearly states “Don’t make me regret sticking my neck out for you,” and Bran just stares at him. Again. Creepily.

Rebuffed by her lover, and fuming about Cersei’s deceipt, Dany is ripe to start throwing cell phones at her assistants. She chews out Tyrion for being either in cahoots with Cersei, or a damn fool. When Tyrion tells her it’s the latter, she retorts “It’s not the first time,” and indicates his time may be up serving as Hand of the Queen. Varys and Ser Jorah are all “Awwwwkward.”

Number 1 Crush

At the Winterfell forge, we see Gendry’s handiwork: Tons and tons of spearheads and other weapons made of dragonglass are ready to be wielded. As Gendry works, Arya approaches and takes in all his hunky, sweaty manliness, then asks him about the weapon she requested. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that after I make a few thousand more of these. Shouldn’t you be hanging out in the crypts anyway when the fighting begins? It’s the safest place to be.” Arya questions why he thinks he’s qualified to fight – he’s just a blacksmith. When he tells her he killed a few of the Dead and she wants to know what they’re like, his reply is “Really bad”. “How bad are we talking, dude? What do they look like? How do they smell? When they change a toilet paper roll, do they do it the wrong way or the right way – and don’t you DARE say there isn’t a right way, Gendry!!” “Ok, fine, they’re like death, ok?” “Oh, cool, I know all about death!” Arya gives Gendry an impressive demo of her razor sharp knife throwing skills – it’s instant bonerville for Gendry. “So…how about that weapon?” – “Yes, ma’am, coming right up!!” Ok, these two flirting is just too much. Arya is such a badass, I love it! And she deserves a little joy in her life.

Meanwhile, a very remorseful Jaime seeks out Bran by the Weirwood tree and apologizes for pushing him out the tower window all those years ago, rendering him a paraplegic. Jaime questions why Bran didn’t tell the others about this, and Bran tells him he can’t be much use in their fight if Bran lets his family murder Jaime. “But aren’t you mad at me?” Let’s just break this down for you, dude: Bran ain’t mad at anybody. He is so beyond all those petty human emotions, because OMG you guys are all about to be annihilated by ruthless ice zombies and Bran is trying to figure out how to stop it. “Ok, so what happens after?” asks Jaime. Bran counters, “What makes you think there is an after?”

Oooh sidebar! Y’all I have been knee deep in GOT theories the past few weeks, and one of the theories I’m really into says that Jaime might be Azor Ahai (the Prince who was Promised) and plays a huge role in defeating the Night King. There’s this whole prophecy about it in the books, and the High Valyerian words for “Gold” and “Hand” are very similar to the words “Lord” and “Light”. After this chat with Bran, I’m convinced Jaime is a key player in ending the Night King’s reign.

Later, Tyrion and Jaime walk around the courtyard, discussing the two queens. Tyrion says how he truly believes Daenerys will be a great queen for the realm, and the two commiserate over how Cersei fooled them – the part about being pregnant is true, though. Tyrion notes that Jaime has never been fooled by Cersei, he’s always loved her in spite of her miserable character. When Tyrion remarks that they are likely going to die at Winterfell, he muses that at least Cersei won’t have the satisfaction of killing him. Hey, maybe his dead corpse will go down to King’s Landing and tear her apart - but Jaime isn’t listening. He is distracted by something else – or rather someone:

Brienne of Tarth, is on the practice field, watching Podrick as he spars with another fighter. Jaime shows up and chats with her about the impending battle. Brienne is weirded out by how nice Jaime is acting, because he’s always shown his snarky side around her in the past. He tells her he returned to Winterfell because we wants to serve under her command. She excuses herself. Oh man! Brienne has been holding a torch for Jaime for so many seasons and he is finally sorta living up to the person she has seen in him all along: a good and honorable guy. And he came to Winterfell to fight alongside her? Hubba hubba. And yet…I don’t see anything romantic ever happening between these two, even though there is something there. It just feels like he’s the super popular dude who’s had a lot of personal growth and really likes her and cares for her, but will never actually date her because she isn’t a supermodel. Ya know what I mean? Brienne is in the friend zone 4eva. Also, I think this whole exchange means Brienne ain’t long for this world – she’s probably going to sacrifice herself to save Jaime during the battle. Sorry, Bri Bri! We love you, though!

A Matter of Trust

In Daenerys’s quarters, Ser Jorah takes a moment to tell her to take it easy on Tyrion. He knows his Khaleesi is super pissed, but he advises her to see past Tyrion’s flub and keep him on as Hand of the Queen because he has a super big brain. Coming from Jorah, this means a lot. Then he offers another suggestion: Make more of an effort with Sansa Stark.

In the great hall, Dany requests a heart to heart with Sansa Stark who also puts in a good word for Tyrion when Daenerys makes a snarky remark about not having faith in her advisors. Geez Louise, everybody is sticking up for Tyrion in this episode! The conversation turns to Dany drawing comparisons between herself and Sansa as female leaders in a man’s world and then she’s all “Girls rule, yay!!! So...why don’t you like me?” - “Honestly? Because guys can do pretty dumb stuff for women and they’re easily manipulated. And you basically convinced Jon to give up his crown for you” Dany’s all: “Ok, so, real talk? I was all about taking the Iron Throne, and then Jon pops up and tells me about these weird Snow Zombies coming to destroy us all, and I dropped everything to help him fight his war, so…who is being manipulated?” [Personally, I think that’s a lame argument, because obviously the survival of mankind is still totally in your interest, Daenerys, because if they are all dead you don’t have anybody to rule, m’kay?] Sansa warms a bit to Dany, and tells her she should have thanked her when she arrived. But just as Daenerys is cozying up to Sansa and holding her hands, Sansa takes things right back to business – God, I love her for it: “So, Dany, riddle me this: Let’s say we defeat the Night King and Cersei. What happens next?” Dany’s face is a little perplexed “Um, I rule on the Iron Throne. Obviously.” –“Yeah, but what about the North? We took back our land and we swore we’d never give it back, so…what about the North?” This does not make Dany happy, and she looks about ready to lose it.

Thankfully, however, their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of: Theon Greyjoy and his men. He fills them in on the successful rescue of Yara, and informs Queen Daenerys that Yara is reclaiming the Iron Isles for Dany. He returned to fight for Winterfell – if they’ll have him. Sansa’s eyes fill with tears and she rushes to embrace Theon. It’s a very sweet moment but also, I’m immediately worried that the writers are going to try and make something romantic happen here. Ew, not Theon. I’m just going to chalk this up to him and Sansa sharing a strong mutual survivor bond. Also, my death prediction: Theon is sooo gonna die. And they've been making Daenerys super unlikeable these past two episodes that it has me a little nervous they might off her, too.

In the courtyard, Davos is running a soup kitchen and gives a short pep talk to some of the men who have arrived. Gilly is telling some girls how safe the crypts are – the safest place at Winterfell, actually. You guys, make sure you write this down: The crypts - where they keep all the dead bodies which have not been burned - are the safest place in Winterfell. So if you have zero fighting skills, you really totally without a doubt need to head to the crypts where no dead bodies will suddenly come to life and attack you because the crypts are S-A-F-E, you got it?

A little girl asks where she should go when the battle starts because she wants to fight, too. Gilly advises her to go to…you got it. The crypts. Le sigh.

A horn blows and Jon turns the corner to see who it is: The Night’s Watch from Castle Black have arrived and as he goes to bro hug Dolorous Edd, he’s tackled by Thormund Giantsbane like an overjoyed Saint Bernard pup. Beric Dondarrion is there, too. Yay, Jon’s happy to see them all and probably is even happier that he has more legit reasons to avoid Daenerys. His friends inform him they met up at the Last Hearth - everybody was dead and gone. It’s safe to assume anybody who hasn’t made it to Winterfell by now has been claimed by the Night King’s army. Jon asks how long until the Dead will arrive and Thormund replies: Just before sunrise. Also, Thormund would really like to know where Brienne is. Oh me, oh my – will my Brienne, Jaime, Thormund troika dreams come true? Unlikely, but I do love Thormund’s interest in Brienne, if only for the comic relief it provides.

In the war room, all the important peeps have gathered to talk strategy. The Night King’s army is too big, and they never tire, so Jon & Co. won’t be able to beat them in a straight fight. Their best chance at survival is to kill the Night King – if they kill him, they kill his army. But how? If he’s that important, the Night King won’t risk exposing himself – when they say this, I just imagine the Night King in a long trench coat. Yeah, I’m mature. Bran volunteers to be human bait, because the Night King is after him. But why, Bran, why? We discover that the Night King’s ultimate goal is an endless night and he wants to wipe out all trace of men and their memories. Bran is basically a human hard drive with the entire history of their world and the Night King wants to erase it all. I don’t know…it’s kind of a weird reason to me. I mean, if the Night King is gonna kill everybody anyway, why is it so important that he kill Bran first? Sam waxes poetic about death and how when we die our memories are forgotten and we are forgotten, blah, blah, blah, but I still don’t get it. What is the difference between wiping out all of mankind’s history and killing everybody vs. just wiping out mankind? Wouldn’t wiping out mankind just, like...wipe out mankind and its history? I don’t know folks. Clue me in if you understand. Or is it just a matter of getting rid of any evidence on how to stop the Night King? In that case, just say so, Bran.

Anyhoo, Bran will wait for the Night King in the Godswood – he has a GPS tracking device on him, so the Night King always knows where he is. His siblings are vehemently against it, but Theon volunteers to be there with his guys to help protect Bran. Why do we think this is a better idea than Bran’s own family protecting him? I mean, other than simply using this as a plot device for Theon to die while defending Bran and thus somehow redeem himself for all the shitty stuff he did to the Stark kids when they were younger? Obviously, I’m not a big fan of this scene.

Dany tells Tyrion he’ll have to wait in the crypts during the battle because: a) they are super safe and b) Dany needs his mind because her faith in him has been restored. Yeah, after hearing what everybody told her so far, she also polled 28 whores about his character and realized she shouldn’t fire him after all because he’s a good dude and actually really smart. Except for when it comes to trusting his evil sister, whose superpower is stabbing people in the back, who has always hated him, and has never done anything in her life to prove herself trustworthy in his eyes.

Oh, and one more thing: They’ll need to have the dragons close by to save Bran if things go bad. Not too close to give anything away. Just close enough to probably be completely useless and get one more dragon killed. M’kay? Sounds like a plan, team!

As they wrap things up, Thormund points out the silver lining: They are all going to die, but at least they’ll die together. He flashes a winning look at Brienne. Jon hastily leaves, expertly avoiding Dany once again, and everybody except Bran and Tyrion exits the room. Tyrion tells Bran he wants to hear all about his stories and they both settle in next to the fire.

One Last Waltz

And now…get ready for the showrunners to check off all your hopes and dreams for all your favorite characters so you can have one final lovely memory of them all alive before everything goes to hell:

In the courtyard, Grew Worm and Missandei share a special moment where they make plans for the future. Once Grey Worm has finished securing the throne for Daenerys, he’s gonna retire with Missandei and she can visit her home again. And he’ll keep her and her peeps safe with his Unsullied pals as they live happily ever after. So…he’s gonna die, right?

On the ramparts, Jon and Sam hang together with Ghost nearby. Yay, finally we see a direwolf again! Sam asks Jon when he is going to fill Daenerys in on the revelation of Jon’s true parents. Edd arrives and declares “And now our watch begins.” Gilly and little Sam will be in the crypts (wanna know why?) and Jon tells Sam he can go, too – to protect them – but Sam scoffs and asks his buds to give him some credit. He was, after all the first of them to kill a white walker and discover other ways to defeat the Dead. They take a moment to remember their fallen friends from the Night’s Watch and Edd grimly states “Last man left, burn the rest of us.”

In the Great Hall, Tyrion and Jaime sit by the fire and enjoy a cup of wine as they ponder how much they’ve changed since their last visit to Winterfell and Tyrion bemoans the perils of self betterment – gone are his days of excessive drinking and whoreing.

Brienne and Podrick arrive in the great hall – oh hai, guys! They were looking for a place to warm up, and Jaime insists that they join him and his bro. Brienne agrees – obviously. Is she going to pass up the chance to be with her hunky unrequited love? Never. Oh, and would you look at that! Davos and Thormund pop in as well to join some theater in the round. Thormund regales them with a hilarious story of how he got the “Giantsbane” moniker. Truly, he is the shining star in this episode and certainly in this scene. I’m feeling extra manipulated by the show – now that we’re more emotionally invested in him, I’m 100% sure that he’ll be killed off next week.

Up on the ramparts, Arya sees the Hound and sits next to him. They have a nice moment when she questions why he’s even here fighting with everybody. “When is the last time you fought for anybody?”, she asks. He replies gruffly, “I fought for you, didn’t I?” And that is the line that wins the night. Awwwww, I love the Hound. Then Beric Dondarrion shows up and ruins the moment. He apologizes to Arya for the way they parted the last time they saw each other – ya know, when he sold out Gendry to Melisandre to do her voodoo magic. When he starts talking about the Lord of Light, the Hound tells him to shut his trap and Arya is all “Peace out, I’m gonna find something better to do than spend my final hours with you old farts.”

Next, Arya whiles away the time with some archery practice when Gendry arrives with the weapon he’s fashioned for her. It’s a spear and she gives it a whirl – not bad at all. As she shows off her fancy spear twirling skills, Arya asks Gendry what Melisandre did to him after she took him, and he tells her about the blood magic. She assumes (correctly) that Melisandre had sex with Gendry and suddenly Arya is grilling Gendry about all his past partners, presumably calculating her risk of contracting syphilis. Apparently, Gendry’s number of former lovers is satisfactory and Arya reveals that if she’s going to die in the battle against the dead, she wants to at least know what sex feels like and they get. It. On. Oh my stars!! I’m equal parts stoked that Arya and Gendry hooked up, and also intensely worried now that one of them will die – maybe even both of them. Gah! I wish I wasn’t so traumatized by GOT to assume that any time a good moment happens, it will be yanked away, but such is the life of the Game of Thrones fan: We can’t have nice things.

Call Me By Your Name

Back in the Great Hall, Tyrion remarks how all of the people in the room had at one point fought the Starks in one way or another, and now they are united in fighting together at Winterfell. As Tyrion gives them all a verbal pat on the back for surviving so many battles, he accidentally calls Brienne “Ser” and corrects himself. Thormund is confused that Brienne isn’t a knight, and she tells him women can’t be knights because sexist traditions are alive and well in Westeros. When Thormund tells her he’d make her a knight if he were king, Jaime points out that you don’t need a king to be knighted – another knight can do it. And so, with a little coaxing everybody encourages Brienne to get knighted. She’s always wanted to be a knight and she accepts the honor with all the grace and reverence it warrants. Ser Jaime Lannister taps her shoulders with his sword, reciting the words and at last proclaims her a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. As the men in the room start a slow clap and cheer for her, Ser Brienne of Tarth rises with tears in her eyes and a luminous smile. Oh God, she’s toast now!!!!

In the courtyard, Ser Jorah Mormont and his little cuz Lyanna Mormont argue. He thinks she should go to the crypts –I really don’t want to say this, but I must…because they are the safest place to be—and Lyanna insists that she vowed to fight, and that’s precisely what she’ll do. She wishes him well just as Samwell Tarly shows up. He presents his family’s sword to Ser Jorah. It’s called Heartsbane and it’s made of Valyrian steel. The sword is too heavy for Sam to wield himself. He shares that Lord Commander Mormont – Jorah’s father – was a wonderful mentor who taught Sam to always do what’s right, and Sam would be honored for Jorah to have it. Ser Jorah accepts the weapon, and then Sam has to go and say something like: “I’ll see you when the battle’s through.” F#$K!!!! So now Jorah’s gonna die?! I can’t take it, you guys!

Aaaand we’re back at the Great Hall, where the wine has run out and the karaoke portion of the night has begun. Podrick, it turns out, has the voice of an angel and treats the group to a lovely and haunting melody. It’s a perfect tune for a montage scene and we get one last glimpse of all the characters we’ve come to love as they have one last tender and bittersweet moment of togetherness.

In the ever-so-safe crypts, Jon stands at Lyanna’s coffin and statue, and Daenerys approaches. She asks who the statue is of, and Jon simply says “Lyanna Stark.” Dany knows the story of Lyanna’s abduction – she tells Jon that she grew up hearing such good things about her brother Rhaegar, who was known to be kind and decent, and yet, he raped Lyanna. Jon corrects her “Oh, but he didn’t,” and all the details spill out. Dany is shook by the revelation that Jon is actually Rhaegar’s legitimate son and asks how he knows this – she is not impressed by Jon’s sources and points out how convenient it is that his brother and best friend are the only people who can corroborate the story. Her thoughts immediately go to the Iron Throne and the fact that Jon would have a better claim to it, if what he says is true. Before they can go into things further, a horn sounds: The Dead are here. Jon and Dany give each other a look of agreement and both storm off – presumably to ride some dragons.

In the dark, a horse’s hoof stops in the snow and as the camera pans up, it reveals the Night King’s lieutenants all lined up in formation, ready for the attack, their gaze fixed upon Winterfell in the near distance. Roll credits.

Holy moly so many people are gonna die next week, and I am losing my mind over here! This episode was a lot of things, and while I feel like I got all the moments I technically wanted, I also feel weirdly placated by the writers for actually giving those moments to us viewers. I’m not sure how true some of the actions were to the characters, and it seemed more like the last 20 minutes were purely catering to the audience’s wishes before the showrunners kill off all the people they shone a spotlight on in this episode. It’s hard to truly enjoy something when you feel like you’re being set up for a fall, ya know? But overall, it was a fine episode to set up the epic battle next week.

The takeaways for me were: Jaime has an important role to play in ending the long night. Dany’s whole worldview is going to have to be reconsidered unless of course she (or Jon) dies, making the whole “Who deserves the crown more?” a moot point. Maybe she’ll even screw Jon over? Tyrion will likely survive and I’m wondering if Bran shared something important with him during their chat. That way, if Bran should perish, Tyrion will have some trump card of knowledge to share with the others. Arya is probably toast – if not, then Gendry is. Brienne will die – for SURE! Oh, and the crypts are the least safe place to be and some freaky deaky stuff is gonna happen down there next episode.

I would like to point out that we didn’t actually see the Night King standing outside Winterfell with his homies. Like I mentioned earlier, I am reading so many different theories and one is that the Night King is splitting up his army, and he is heading straight to King’s Landing with his ice dragon to torch the city and turn its 1 million inhabitants into an army that nobody can match.

Will all my death predictions come true? Will the Night King fool us all and fly to Essos to kill the fire priestesses? Or will Melisandre suddenly pop up at the 11th hour to save the day? Are there any other important theories I have yet to discover? I’m sure by next week we’ll know a lot more, and also be bawling our eyes out as Jaime tenderly holds a dying Brienne in his arms, who it turn holds a dying Thormund in hers. It could happen, you guys. I’ll see ya here next week for a grief group therapy session!

#GOT #Game Of Thrones #GameOfThrones #Seven Kingdoms #Brienne #Lannister #Stark #Targaryen #Season 8 #a knight of the seven kingdoms #Daenerys #Sansa #tyrion #jaime #recap #recaps #GOTrecaps

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