#I feel like i could have drawn out this *whole* episode for how many good moments there are...but alas...

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Counterspell

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[genericpuff]

The Extended Mishandling of LO's S3 Midseason Finale Premiere

Alright, so I had mentioned leading up to the release of the newest LO episode that my feelings regarding LO returning were pretty "meh". Not hyped, but not completely back of mind either. Just sort of a weird calm before the storm type feeling that could go either way.

I'm glad I got to have that moment of calmness because good god, this episode was an absolute shitshow. And honestly, I'm not surprised, for several reasons:

Rachel has never been good at maintaining a buffer, even back at the start of the series she only ever had 2-3 episodes ready ahead of her schedule which is NOT an ideal buffer for an originals series.

Rachel has never been good at writing, she's very "draw first write later" and has stated as such in interviews that when she gets 'stuck' on what she's writing, she'll just start drawing and fit the pieces in later.

Four months is NOT enough time to both rest, attend massive conventions, and work on improving a project while also getting buffer episodes ready.

Because of the FP episodes remaining locked over the hiatus, technically Rachel only needed to have ONE episode ready upon return for the newest FP release, not multiple like she'd usually need like in the past during the S2 midseason hiatus or the season finale episodes which would unlock those FP releases like normal - so for all we know, she could have drawn this episode literally last week, especially when the promo material was so last minute. Frankly I think it was REALLY stupid for whoever it was who decided to keep these FP episodes locked (whether it was her or WT, it was more likely WT) but you can read all I have to say about that in my review of the midseason finale episodes.

All that's to say, no, there was never any guarantee Rachel was going to somehow "turn around" the ride we're currently on. I know that many of the critics were hoping for that to happen, but with the circumstances of the hiatus mixed with Rachel's bad habits of putting her best efforts into the procrastination projects that aren't her actual comic (ex. the few original pieces and LO sketches she put out during the hiatus) it just wasn't in the cards. This is where the comic is at and this is where it will remain until it's over.

I want to also point something out about this episode that was... really glaring to me.

As with all of these hiatus returns, LO got priority advertising in the first two banner slots and push notifications AND a popup ad within the app. This is unsurprising, Webtoons is still trying to milk this thing for what it's worth.

I know a lot of people are gonna focus on the art, or the fact that WT is continuing to shill LO, but I wanna point out the part that WT implemented specifically - "NEW SEASON".

This is literally just false. At best I'd like to think some intern just messed up and thought this was a new season, but it's literally not, the episode designation still says "S3". Note that the creators only design the banner art, the actual labels on top are put there by Webtoons.

But at worst, this feels like blatant lying to continue to hide the fact that LO is ending. Mind you, Rachel and Webtoons have still not put out official posts stating that this is the final arc. There is NOTHING from either of them to communicate to the audience that the comic is ending next year. It feels like they're trying to avoid the topic altogether out of fear of losing the fanbase they still have, rather than hyping up the comic's end for those who have stuck around to see how it all wraps up. And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case, considering they're now trying to funnel the fanbase into Penguin/Inklore with new marketing deals and the whole Rachel Smythe Presents thing. They're trying to make this seem like the beginning of something "new" when it's really just a quiet shifting of management (Penguin House).

But all that aside, let's actually get into the episode. It's one episode after 4 months, which is not standard for LO's hiatuses, typically FP episodes release on schedule (meaning free readers start hiatuses 3 weeks after FP readers do), the only time this has been an exception has been with the 2 week breaks because the whole point of those was to build a buffer (which you can't do if you're going ahead and releasing the FP episodes anyways). For extended hiatuses like these, usually free readers still get their FP episodes, but that wasn't the case here. That means Rachel technically only needed one episode ready for the comic's return, and it shows. It really fucking shows.

FROM HERE ON OUT THERE WILL BE FASTPASS SPOILERS REGARDING EPISODE 254. DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED !!!

As per tradition, we get a title that means nothing at all. It just says what we already know.

Our collective husband Zeus is dying, no thanks to the poison cupcake fed to him by Apollo. For those who don't remember, Apollo had tricked Zeus into eating the cupcake by making him believe it was from Hebe. We are fully aware that it was Apollo who poisoned him. Remember that for later in this review.

Right off the bat we're off to a hilarious start, both with a cryptid appearance from Apollo in the background (lmao) who is, for some reason, ALREADY returning to the scene of the crime he just committed because... who knows at this point. Apollo and Psyche know it was Apollo at this point, I might add, but I have no clue why Apollo is actually returning to the scene of the crime when he has no idea Eros and Psyche know.

Moving on from that, can we talk about this hilarious dialogue?

"We have to call a doctor! Let's call Asclepius!"

"No, we can't trust him! Gosh darn it, why are we only bothering to think of ONE doctor in this universe where we've seen more than one doctor?? Guess Zeus is just gonna die! What a horribly contrived situation this is!"

And that's literally how I can best describe most of this episode. Contrived. There is a LOT of manufactured drama in this that makes ZERO sense even on a surface level.

And what do you mean exactly, Eros? "What a terrible system!" Is this supposed to be a joke? Lampshading? We've seen Persephone go to the gynecologist. There are non-god doctors who tend to gods all the time here.

Eros just doesn't seem to be that pressed over this, he sounds like Ned Flanders and that's NOT a good way to open up a scene like this... let alone an episode people have been waiting four months for.

Anyways, after a few pointless reaction panels (again remember I have to cut a lot of what I show here for Tumblr image limitations but I promise you, I'm keeping as much important stuff as I can in this, there's just THAT MUCH filler at this point), Eros and Psyche confront Apollo and he is... good god.

There is... so much to unpack here.

First of all, remember those theories about how Rachel was clearly trying to write Apollo as this "secret twist villain" the whole time but it doesn't work because Apollo is simultaneously written as both a 'conniving villain' and a massive dumbass at the same time?

Well, I finally have a more appropriate term for him. He's your average red pill redditor - someone who thinks he's smarter than everyone else when really all he does is sit on reddit all day using big words incorrectly in arguments he gets himself into with a bunch of equally-air-headed dumbasses.

"You can't possibly understand the nuances of the Olympian political system," Apollo said proudly, a man who had, ironically and obliviously, run for president in a monarchy. The union of kettle and pot is eternal.

He's the Slappable Jerk but instead of it being a painfully hilarious impression, it's just painful and hilarious for all the wrong reasons.

this is so stupid because it's 1.) Eros pointing out how obvious Apollo's plan was, despite Apollo acting smart two seconds ago with a goddess who, mind you, has been a goddess for ten years, and 2.) patricide isn't even intrinsically linked to politics, there's nothing 'political' about a guy trying to kill his dad except in, idk, a monarchy, which again, Apollo has spent ten years trying to rise to power in as a president which is a completely different form of government.

If I wanted to be really granular with this, I'd like to think Apollo is making some kind of point about the critics who call out LO's whack as fuck political system (especially in the trial arc) - as if he's saying "well you're just a stupid reader and this is fantasy where you don't understand exactly what political system we're using, so shut the fuck up you stupid twig" - but I don't think it's meant to be that deep. I think it's just Rachel trying to write a smart character and then failing at it because she, herself, is not a smart writer. And I'm really inclined to believe that more than the theory about this being some kind of meta-narrative about the critics because this entire plotline is contrived and stupid down to its core.

I did not cut anything out here, that's the pacing. Leto literally just appears out of nowhere and uh oh spaghettio's, she has Kassandra! Remember Leto? The character we were led to believe was truly "pulling the strings" until she disappeared from the story completely after she realized that Apollo and Persephone weren't a thing, even going so far as to call out her own son for being a fucking dumbass? Well, she's back and once again she's being involved as some kind of "double agent" in this whole thing, even though we literally haven't seen her since halfway through S2.

"Mm yes, you're so stupid, falling into my trap! Even though you had no reason to remember Kassandra anyways because she's literally a mortal woman you just met and you yourself have committed acts of violence against mortals without a shred of care! I'm so smart! My plan is all coming together!"

We've never seen Apollo do anything except cry and poop his pants, the closest he got to being "powerful" was his attempts to murder Daphne (who he seems to have forgotten about in this "master plan" of his) but ultimately he's literally just a piss ant baby and there's no reason to believe that he could somehow outmatch the God of Love who can literally manipulate people's emotions and states of mind with his arrows. But yeah sure go off, you're so powerful and smart.

The worst part is, I can't even buy this as the narrative trying to be like "see how manipulative and conniving he is?" because it's just silly. We've SEEN this man cry with his victim complex, we've seen him say and do the DUMBEST things that don't lend to any amount of "intelligence" he may have, it comes across less as him being "smart the whole time" and more as him trying to sound smart but ultimately sounding incredibly stupid. And I can't even immerse myself into it and buy that maybe that's the point, because it doesn't feel like the point, it just feels like inconsistent writing, he doesn't feel like a 'threat', he's just monologuing.

Bad art and Apollo literally just repeating what Leto already implied so this is a waste of the audience's time.

This is the funniest panel in the whole episode because I can't tell if Apollo is supposed to be in the background (for some reason, despite him literally being in front of Eros and Psyche two seconds ago) or if he's in the foreground and just REALLY small for some reason. This is so off-putting. And of course, it's just Apollo explaining what we're ALREADY SEEING ONSCREEN.

You see, in addition to this episode being contrived, it also talks down to its audience a LOT by explaining exactly what we're seeing onscreen. It's like Rachel saw the criticisms about her not including enough to depict what's actually going on in her head and so she thought the solution was to spoon feed information over pictures that are already doing the job of explaining what's going on. Rachel really doesn't know how to write and even when she tries to implement changes that reflect criticisms that have been made of her writing, she somehow makes things worse because she completely misses the point of what those criticisms are trying to get across.

Anyways, without even trying to resist (for some reason) Eros and Psyche get sentenced to horny jail.

They're now trapped in a basement that Leto somehow has in her home. How do we know that?

HAHAHA FUNNY LAMPSHADING SO FUNNNYYYYYYY

Leto claims that they shouldn't try to escape because the dungeon is "enchanted", but she doesn't even bother to explain what that means. So they literally don't bother trying. They don't try to call her bluff, they don't try to teleport out of there, they literally just go "well shoot", shrug their shoulders, and accept their fate. Just like with the whole "we can't trust the only doctor we bothered to think of" situation, Eros and Psyche are turning out to be some of the stupidest, lowest-effort characters in this comic who literally can't be bothered to try because that would require too much brain power.

Notice how much time we've spent on this and we haven't gotten back to where the cliffhanger of the last episode left off? Well buckle up because there's still more to cover.

So it turns out Hebe was still inside with her dad, in FULL VIEW of what was going on through glass which is somehow COMPLETELY soundproof, and when Apollo steps inside, she just has no idea what happened. She never bothered to even look outside to see what was going on with Eros and Psyche, she's just been sitting on the floor staring at Zeus' dead face for what was likely several minutes, unless Rachel is seriously trying to convince us that conversation and hostage negotiation from earlier only took 2 seconds. The timeline is such a mess at this point that characters basically freeze in place as soon as they're not the focus of the scene.

Apollo rushes inside, acting shocked over the situation, and when Hebe asks where Eros and Psyche are (again, she could have just looked out the window at any time), he's just like "dur idk they just left lol" which Hebe just... buys, I guess.

That's just Persephone but yellow. She's even missing her beauty mark.

See how Apollo put his hand on Zeus' chest/shoulder by the way?

Apparently, despite Mr. Smarter Than Everyone Else trying to pretend it wasn't him, he's able to discern that Zeus is dying from a toxic and rare poison just from touching him. He doesn't even really seem to use his powers, he just touches him and goes "welp he's dead i guess lol don't bother asking me how I know that".

But oh nooo remember that note from before? Well gasp Apollo's gonna use it to frame Hebe! In front of no one else at all!

Hebe of course says she didn't write it, but Apollo continues to try and frame her anyways, even though, again, there's no one else present here, and so it effectively just becomes the most absurd form of gaslighting I've ever seen.

Again, THERE IS NO ONE ELSE HERE IN THE SCENE. He's just trying to claim she did it to absolutely no one at all, in the hopes of... what exactly? That she'll just take the fall for something she knows she didn't do? That she'll somehow be convinced? It's not like Hebe has the same thing going on as Persephone where she has a 'wrathful dark side' he could pin it on, this is just a criminal who just robbed a building pointing at the first person they see and yelling "YOU DID IT!"

All I'm saying is that Apollo would be really bad at Among Us. He'd be the type of player to kill someone, hit the report button, then claim yellow did it which, even if he DID convince the rest of the team, would still get kicked anyways as soon as yellow was proven through the eject to not be the imp and everyone would go "okay cool so yellow wasn't the imp, that means obviously it's purple self-reporting." It's a trick that doesn't even work anymore because of how old it is. Hebe isn't a child here, she's an 18 year old woman who should be fully capable of raising an eyebrow and wondering why Apollo is this quick to accuse her - almost like he's trying to hide the fact that he did it.

But Hebe can't catch onto this, just like Eros and Psyche, she has to act stupid for the sake of the plot.

At first I thought maybe Rachel was trying to do some "whodunit" scenario, but that doesn't work here because we already know who did it. And while there are stories that exist like that that pull it off (ex. Knives Out) the problem with trying to do this the way Rachel did is that the person being framed has to have this thing called motive. The reason why Knives Out and Glass Onion work so well is because the person who was murdered (or conspired against) is someone who is being targeted by multiple people who could all be the murderer. It's quite literally called out in Glass Onion as a form of smart lampshading. "It's like putting a loaded gun on the table, and turning off the lights."

But it doesn't work here because Hebe does not have motive. If you're going to attempt to frame a murder on someone, it has to be someone who would have reasonable motive to commit that murder, even if they didn't actually commit it.

And who among Zeus' children has motive?

What about the war-mongering bloodthirsty god of war who has been regularly sentenced to time in the Mortal Realm to fight in wars in which he's been regularly injured?

What about the chaos-seeking wrathful goddess who would do it to get revenge on the parental figure who cast her aside, or even just for the fun of saying she did it?

Why try and pin it on Hebe, the doting daughter of Zeus who's only had a collective of maybe 20 panels in the entire comic?

But then I realized... it's not Knives Out, it's the fucking Lion King.

Which is just as contrived - if not more - than the assumption this was gonna be some attempt to frame Hebe. It's not. He's literally just trying to keep her from assuming it was him. He could have just as easily played dumb without calling attention to the note but he intentionally went out of his way to try and be Scar from The Lion King , while completely missing the point of why that scene worked in the original movie.

Scar wasn't trying to 'frame' Simba for Mufasa's murder. He was trying to hide the murder, while also attempting to get the only heir to the throne out of the picture, so he passed the guilt of the death onto Simba - a child who, unlike Hebe, wouldn't have the ability to rationalize or realize his uncle his a scumbag - who then ran away from home because he was too terrified to face his family for what happened, assuming that it was all his fault when it wasn't.

That's not how this is panning out here. Hebe is the now 18 year old daughter of Zeus, and not one of his only children. She doesn't even fit into the whole "sons overthrowing their fathers" prophecy like Aries would. Apollo is literally just being a big idiot here by saying "well I'm gonna give you a headstart to run away, because if you stay, I might hurt you" (which btw, should be MORE of a smoking gun that Apollo did it??)

And again, it's all so contrived so that the plot can move forward. "Well I'm going to frame you for this murder, but y'know, you should just leave, I'm not gonna try and press it further lmao"

Again, Apollo is a fucking idiot here, because he just attempted to frame someone who has NO MOTIVE to harm Zeus, to absolutely NO ONE at all who would side with him, only to let her go which would leave her to question why Apollo would try to accuse and harm her in the first place before considering other options. And through ALL this he claims he's the smart one, which I can't even be bothered to "love to hate" because it's written so poorly.

And really it all comes down to how everyone else behaves in relation to Apollo that makes it so stupid and unbelievable. Apollo, you're not smart just because all the characters around you are intentionally being written to be as stupid and non-confrontation as possible. If you can only write a smart villain by making everyone else stupid, you haven't written a smart villain, you've written a dumbass whose victory only happens due to contrived plot convenience. It's not even done well like in Glass Onion, it's just bad writing, full stop.

And who does he call to report this emergency? The satyr police? His son the doctor?

No.

The media. Literally just "hello, the media?? I need your best journalist here stat!"

I need you to understand, even if he were calling a tabloid magazine like The Weekly Nark, you don't just... call a journalist to report a murder. These are not the actions of someone who's trying to absolve himself of guilt, these are the actions of a complete dumbass trying to get news coverage of his trophy kill who would be better off just playing dumb instead of trying to play smart. Even Walter White wasn't this fucking stupid despite all the times he fell on his own sword, Apollo is literally just instigating suspicion towards himself for no reason at all. He's self-reporting so hard and worst of all, you can't even take any of this seriously because of how corny it is. There's no dramatic tension, no stakes, it's just a bunch of characters performing in a really bad stage play and reducing every conflict to "well I guess Zeus is just dead now because no one's bothering to make an effort to stop Apollo or ask questions lmao"

It's truly the epitome of "this plot wouldn't exist if characters would just talk to each other."

But finally, FINALLY we mention the thing this episode is named after, the transition point to Persephone.

Just like with the midseason finale episode, there's a lot to cover here, so I'm gonna get more into it in a part two post.

That said, you can see already this is the messiest, most contrived bullshit to ever wind up in LO. It's trying so hard to be smart and it just comes across as a bunch of toddlers in the world's worst stage play rendition of Clue. None of what was done here was in any way dramatic or tense, it's just a bunch of characters infodumping shit we already know, trying to set up new plot threads that don't make any sense, and allowing one another to get away with what they're doing because they don't bother to even try.

It's completely manufactured, contrived nonsense. It's not "smart", it's not "so dumb it's brilliant", it's just dumb.

[doctorhelena]

I can't believe it's canon that Steve becomes an obsessive workaholic with no self-preservation instinct in every universe where he's separated from Peggy or loses her. Scratch that, I CAN believe it's canon, I'm just deeply concerned for Steve and his 'my wiwwwfie wife is running an espionage agency/saving the world/went through a wormhole and i miss her' work ethic

Good news, I don't think you have to be worried! I'm pretty sure your first instinct, not to believe it's canon, was in fact correct.

Let's examine the Steves we've seen thus far. We have:

1) MCU Steve. Who yes, lost Peggy (twice, once when he was frozen, and once when she died of old age). But, I don't think we can say that his self-sacrificing streak and his not feeling like he can stop working comes from not having Peggy.

a) His self-sacrificing streak showed up well before he even met Peggy in CA:TFA. He was always picking fights he couldn't win, risking serious injury for people he didn't even know (eg. the fight he got into in the alley after telling that guy to shut up at the movies during the newsreel), and he risked jail time by applying to the army using false information, multiple times (after being previously rejected for being medically unfit) because, despite having a ridiculous number of medical reasons why he shouldn't, he wanted to go do his part to fight in Europe against the Nazis.

b) He hadn't only lost Peggy when he woke up nearly 70 years in the future. He'd lost everybody. Almost everybody he'd ever known and loved, every friend, every casual acquaintance, everyone he looked up to, everyone he disliked, EVERYONE. And the very few who were still there (including Peggy) were very old, and maybe, like Peggy, not completely there. The world was very, very different. He'd lost his cultural touchstones. He'd lost his sense of how he fit into the world. He was, quite literally, a man out of time. (And yeah, maybe he could have adjusted better to his new circumstances, but Steve is a very stoic guy, who is the type of person to tell himself that he's not doing so bad, that others have it worse, that he doesn't need help. That he can figure this out on his own, and if he can't, then he might as well keep helping others. And how many other WWII veterans were never quite the same again after the war? Were haunted by their experiences and who found that the world they came back to, their family and friends, had changed too, over the time they were away?) When Steve went back to 1949 at the end of Endgame, he wasn't only going back to Peggy (although of course, yes, he was going back to her), he was going back to an entire world that he'd lost.

2) Hydra Stomper Steve. Yeah, this Steve dealt with the loss of Peggy by teaming up with Bucky to try to wipe out the rest of Hydra. But - so did Bucky. Bucky was with him the whole time, they both put their lives on hold to fight Hydra. And after eliminating the last known Hydra base (the mission on which they believed Steve had died), Bucky moved on, got married, had kids, became Secretary of State (all of which we know happened after Steve was captured, because Steve didn't know that Bucky had settled down until Peggy told him in the What If S2 Winter Soldier episode). But, despite what Steve told Peggy in that episode (that he didn't see much point in "a wife, kids, the whole white picket fence life" if it wasn't with her), we don't know what he would have ended up doing after wiping out Hydra. We, and he, never had the chance to find out.

3) Rogers Hood. Yeah, this Steve was drawn to Captain Carter, another universe's version of his lost Lady Margaret, and she was drawn to him. But I wouldn't say that, before Peggy showed up, he was "an obsessive workaholic with no self-preservation instinct" in this universe. He actually seemed to be having a pretty good time stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, living in a cool treehouse village with his buddies/band of merry men. I guess you can say he lived on the job, but - would you call Robin Hood an "obsessive workaholic"? I wouldn't.

4) Zombie Steve. No real data here. We have no idea what his personality was like before he was zombified (we only know that he was a member of the Avengers).

5) Steve Dressed as Christmas Elf. This guy was a very cheerful version of Steve. Yeah, he looked a little concerned about the soccer moms cornering him, and unknown to him he was about to get socks for Christmas from Tony, but he was really excited that he'd correctly identified Happy Hogan in purple monster form! I don't think there's any real evidence that this particular universe's Steve is "an obsessive workaholic with no self-preservation instinct".

6) President Steve! No real data here either. Okay, I guess leaders of countries are usually workaholics to some degree (well, they are if they take the job seriously, anyway), but we don't know whether this particular Steve has Peggy or not, nor anything about him, really.

7) Steve who was unfrozen by Fury after Hank Pym killed most of the other Avengers (and then who Natasha from the Ultron universe ended up fighting alongside after the Watcher didn't send her back to her own universe at the end of S1). No real data here either: we don't know much about this Steve except that he was fighting on a helicarrier at one point in his life.

In conclusion, I don't see evidence that it's canon in any universe we've seen so far that it's Peggy's absence alone that makes Steve into "an obsessive workaholic with no self-preservation instinct".

And I also don't see evidence that it's canon that Steve is "an obsessive workaholic with no self-preservation instinct" in every universe where he's not with Peggy, either.

It turns out that Steve Rogers is an independent, complicated, three dimensional character whose sense of self-preservation and ability to enjoy life are not, in fact, solely based on whether or not he's with Peggy.

Steve chooses Peggy in many of the universes we've seen him in. But it's a big multiverse. If you would rather see him be happy with someone else, I'm sure it happens! And if you do like him with Peggy, then that happens a lot too, over and over again.

Peggy and Steve love each other. They miss each other when they're apart. But they don't need each other in order to be whole people. (That said, they do choose each other, it seems, whenever they possibly can.)

[thebroccolination]

Behind the Scenes The Evolution of the Near-Punch in Between Us

Intro

One of my favorite things about any production is when I find out that there's been a collaborative effort in the storytelling and character-building. Between Us, directed by New Siwaj Sawatmaneekul, has a fantastic example of this: the evolution of the post-drowning scene in episode six.

So! Overall, there have been three iterations of the scene: the original in the novel, the pilot teaser released in February of 2022, and episode six of the main series.

Let's see how we got from A to Bee to Sea. (I'm not sorry.)

The Novel Scene

“Entering the pool without permission from an authorized person is breaking the rules. You can be kicked out of the club.” His fierce eyes were looking at the junior who was now very pale. “And if I had not noticed the light from the pool, which made me come to check, what would have happened?!” Win felt a chill in his heart. He had just walked past the club and had seen the lights. He thought he had forgotten to turn them off, so he came to check. But instead, he saw someone drowning in the middle of the pool. If he hadn’t come in time... “Answer me, Team! Why are you doing this?!” Win grabbed the boy's shoulder and forced him to make eye contact. “I wanted to practice.” “What?!” “I just wanted to practice so that I could get a good time tomorrow!!” “What fucking practice!!" Win shouted, his eyes redder than the person who almost drowned. "You almost drowned, you bastard!! you almost died in front of me, do you understand!” “I…” smack The senior punched him hard in the face with a force that caused him to sway. Team cried out and felt the taste of blood in his mouth. He wanted to make excuses, but when he saw the pain in the senior's eyes, he couldn't speak. “Hia, I...” “If I came one minute later. No, even if only thirty seconds later, you might have already drowned at the bottom of the pool, do you understand?” “I…” The boy hugged himself tightly. It was true. A few more moments and he would have... Team was shocked when his body was suddenly pulled and hugged, his face buried in Win’s chest. Win's whole body was trembling like a frightened animal. Team’s guilt was so overwhelming that he couldn't say anything, but he raised his hands and hugged him back. He gently stroked Win's wet back to comfort him. “Don't do this again...” “Mmm…” “My heart will break…” “Mmm…” Team hugged the senior more tightly as warm tears fell from his eyes. It was not only him who was hurt. Hia was, too. - Hemp Rope (Eng Translation)

To summarize, Team is nervous about the upcoming qualifying meet. He only got two hours of fitful, nightmare-ravaged sleep on his own the night before, so he decides swimming will help him sleep. He sneaks into the pool, doesn't stretch, and swims until his leg cramps up. He nearly drowns, Win saves him, berates him, punches him, hugs him, takes him home, etc.

In many ways, it's very similar to the scene we got in the main series. But it's different enough that I wanted to talk about it.

I've talked about my personal perspective on the novel scene before. Basically, I've drawn a line in my head between Novel WinTeam and Main Series WinTeam. Novel WinTeam are LazySheep's creation, so what they do and say and think and feel are primarily decided by LazySheep and her editor. Main Series WinTeam, however, were created through the close collaboration of Sheep acting as a scriptwriter adapting her work for the screen, New, and WinTeam's actors Boun and Prem. (And opinions and reactions from fans and professionals affiliated with the series have also likely shaped their development along the way.)

[Sheep drew and posted this adorable comic of WinTeam and BounPrem together the day Between Us was first announced on July 5th, 2020.]

Boun's Win has always had a casual, insouciant kind of charisma that feels inherently nonthreatening, whereas Novel Win sometimes feels more like a Dude. A Good Dude, but a Dude nonetheless. Then we have Prem's Team who is, simply put, sassy and adorable, whereas Novel Team is also, y'know, kind of a Dude.

Take the hookup scene as an example. In the novel, there's no conversation about consent, no careful check that Team's sober and aware of what's going on. It's just what you'd expect from two horny guys down to bone: some light banter and then Win gives Team a handjob while they're still outside. And that's fine! It's realistic! It's probably happening somewhere right now. <3

“What do you want me to help you with?” Win crossed his arms across his chest and looked at the junior who was clearly uncomfortable and looked like he was ready to slap his face. “If you leave it like this, it's torture, don’t you know? It'll be very uncomfortable. Just helping each other as friends, right?” He raised his eyebrows, challenging the junior. Team turned around and peered at the darkness around him. Only the sound of the waves from the beach hitting the shore and the laughing sounds of the other young men who were still at the barbecue could be heard. “What are you looking at?” Team gulped and asked tentatively. Win shrugged his shoulders, pulled the upper arm of the junior, and walked towards the dark corner of the bungalow and into the dense, quiet bushes. “Shit! Huh, really? Seriously?” Team, who had never let a friend help him jerk off, was feeling light-headed. The more he saw, the more he knew that hia was serious. Team was startled when he was suddenly turned to face the bungalow wall. “Shush, don’t make any noise. People in the next room will hear,” Win said while pushing his leg in between Team’s own legs to push them apart. Team squinted and stared at the senior with shock. So skillful! “Mmmm…” The boy could barely hold his breath when he felt the warmth on his back. His elastic pants were pulled down along with his underwear. He almost didn’t want to believe what he was doing right now. - Hemp Rope (Eng Translation)

This is just standard hookup culture. Team's hot, Win's DTF, Team makes the startling realization that he, too, is DTF, so they go off and F. After the handjob, Win goes to his room, then Team hesitates and follows him. No coercion, just like the series. We don't get the sex scene in detail, but we know from Team's narration that they did in fact have some good ole fashioned penetrative sex that night (with protection!). And then they don't have sex again. We're up to chapter seventeen of Hemp Rope, and so far, chapter one is the only time they've Done the Deed. [EDIT 12-16-2022: Chapter eighteen was released yesterday and -spoiler- there’s a note from the author saying WinTeam have sex there but she’s releasing the scene later on as bonus material.]

I bring this up to emphasize that these are different characters from the ones BounPrem are portraying. So when I read the chapter with the punch, I thought it fit. Because it's who they are in the novel. We don't really see Win's insecurities explored in Hemp Rope, so for me, punching Team came across as evidence of how frantic and primal his fear of losing Team was, and perhaps a bit of his role of club senior crossing wires in his brain with his role as Team's Surrogate Sentient Bolster Pillow.

It's also worth noting that Team sneaking into the club in the novel is framed as a bad thing that he knows he could get in trouble for.

He risked getting caught sneaking in. The tall, slim body of the intruder was standing on the edge of the pool, staring blankly at his reflection in the water. Initially, Team was determined to go back to his room, but after he thought it over, he was so nervous that he couldn't sleep. He decided to sneak into the club to practice for a couple of hours. It might help him feel more comfortable and sleep better. - Hemp Rope (Eng Translation)

He's sneaky about it. He doesn't casually tell Manaow or anyone that he's going. There's no plan to stay with Pharm, no DeanPharm date that stops him. He's just an ornery, sleep-deprived cat in a bad headspace, so he sneaks into the pool knowing it's going to get him in trouble if he's caught. In essence, he isn't framed as Team the Terribly Tragic: he's exhausted, sure, but he's also being irresponsible.

So to me, the punch in the novel felt like a, "You nearly died in front of me because you broke the rules to practice for a qualifying meet you wouldn't even have remembered in five years, you spectacular idiot." And because Win and Team being more Dudes' Dudes in the novel, that gave them an added feeling of Dudes Being Guys Who Punch. (See Also: PeteKao) It's not right or good of Win to do, but for me, the situation made sense for the characters as they are in the novel.

That brings us to:

The Pilot Teaser

The pilot teaser was our first visual of the scene, released in February of 2022.

According to behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, BounPrem practiced the punch with New on the set multiple times before they started rolling. So it was fully in the cards as something they were going to do.

But then, in the middle of the scene itself, Boun made a different choice.

Thing is, Win does hug Team in the novel. Boun just skipped the punch. When he was asked about it, Boun said he didn't feel like Win would ever hit Team.

And this is where I have a ton of respect for New and Sheep and their production: they listened to him. And then they actually incorporated his choice into the canon.

In the same pilot teaser where Boun literally pulled his punches, Prem cried after singing, even though the script didn't mention anything about Team crying. When Sheep asked him why, Prem said, "I just think Team would cry."

And again, they listened to him. They kept it.

Yesterday, Sheep did a Twitter Space talk with fans where she said Prem has been devotedly asking her if he's portraying Team correctly. She told him warmly that he knows how to play Team, and the version he portrays in the series is Team, but a Team who is fully his.

The thing with great adaptations is that they have to be allowed to become their own creation. Boun and Prem have lived with these characters in their hearts for so long that they have their own readings now of how they feel and breathe. Boun loves Win so much he said he felt empty when they unofficially wrapped up filming last month; Prem loves Team so much he's asked Sheep over and over to confirm and reconfirm that WinTeam get a happy ending (they do). They're not just doing this for a paycheck; this is a passion project. WinTeam gave them their spotlight, and they viscerally treasure these roles.

And to me, the fact that their feelings and thoughts were discussed and put into practice on the fly is really, immensely beautiful to me.

The Main Series

Now for the version we all saw yesterday.

I was so excited to see this scene. It's my second favorite in the novel (the first being the homophobia scene that we'll see next week in episode 7), and I was wildly curious about what else they'd added or adapted around Boun's punch-less choice.

First of all, the energy from both Boun and Prem is a lot higher than it was in the pilot teaser, and you can see the calm leave Win's eyes when Team gives his excuse.

The pilot teaser scene was great, and I think it fit the novel well, but the main series has been building up to Win's breakdown, so this scene really had to sell it. The script has been hinting at insecurities that are all yanked out for display in this scene.

I think Boun might have ad-libbed the "damn it" part, too, which made it my favorite line delivery of the scene. Win's voice not only breaks because he's so angry, it's also higher in tone than Win usually speaks, underscoring how out of his mind and beyond rationality he is.

Then we get to the raised fist.

And what I love about these three shots in succession is that we go from: fist, face, combination of both. The action, the emotion, the realization.

Then we see moment he realizes what he was about to do, and what he can't do.

And finally, what he chooses instead.

They took Boun's character choice and built on it beautifully. His raised fist in the pilot teaser is quick and angry and impulsive, but the main series shows him shaking and angry and terrified. He has the impulse, but he's a rational person at his core, and the sight of Team accepting whatever Win is going to do to him, because he believes he deserves it, is what snaps Win out of it.

Win's been portrayed by Boun in three different iterations now: 1) Until We Meet Again, in which he didn't have a lot of material to work with, so he let Win borrow some of his own personality traits. 2) The Between Us special episodes released in autumn of 2021. These aren't canon and were based on Sheep's social media skits that she just posted for fun. The episodes were produced as a symbol of gratitude to fans for waiting so long for the main series. As a result, the characterization in the special episodes is all over the place, and they were extremely aware of it. SWS staff and actors made a lot of jokes on social media about which scenes were BounPrem and which were WinTeam, so they're very much Grain of Salt content. 3) The main series currently airing.

Ever since Boun was cast as Win in spring of 2019, he's spent a little over three and a half years with this character, so it makes sense that the character's depth would become more and more multifaceted through his choices. Sheep started posting chapters of Hemp Rope back in or before 2017 even before the rights to The Red Thread had been sold to New and Wabi Sabi. There was no Boun, no Prem, no UWMA. Just a fun little hookup-to-lovers story with some trauma thrown in.

When Boun was cast, some fans of the novel complained that he was too thin and he looked nothing like the character. Putting aside my own very normal feral yet parasocial feelings of protectiveness for Boun and how much unnecessary pressure fans put on actors to look a certain way, there are indeed some superficial differences between the novel character and the actor. Physically, Win is drawn and described by Sheep as broad and muscular, even more so than Dean.

Team looked at him with a sharp expression. Then he moved his eyes to Win’s abs. Because he was a very attractive person, he did not like to wear shirts. He liked to show off his tattoos regardless of his roommate. Looking at those abdominal and chest muscles, Team grabbed his own muscles. Mm, pretty good. - Hemp Rope (Eng Translation)

Sheep was a little hesitant about Boun at first because of this, but New stuck by his casting choice. Once people saw Boun with his hair dyed, it's been said by older fans that the majority of the complaints ended. With this in mind, the Win we have now was always going to be a different version from his novel self purely because New and Sheep chose an actor by his skill and his chemistry with his screen partner rather than by a physical likeness to the character.

After Boun was cast as Win, and after Sheep got to know him and Prem, and after Between Us was green-lit, she continued writing new chapters of Hemp Rope with a slightly newer take on the characters. She's said on Twitter that she's struggled to separate BounPrem from the characters (mostly jokingly), and she was also adapting the script for the series at the same time, so a lot of character building was going on at this time.

In 2021, Sheep wrote a long, long thread on Twitter telling fans how anxious and afraid she was of getting Between Us wrong. Not for herself, but for BounPrem. For New. For the queer community. She's an author who truly understands, to a debilitating degree, the amount of influence her work has. She knew this is BounPrem's first major series as leading actors, and she clearly felt the stress of that responsibility as the scriptwriter.

This whole scene does so much to showcase their strengths and growth as actors. Just like the scene itself, they've evolved over the years and shaped the characters and their story.

Hemp Rope doesn't deeply explore Win's insecurities and flaws, but Between Us needed to because it shines a spotlight on both of them. To make this a full and complete series, they needed to add to the story LazySheep created, and I believe that Boun and Prem's contributions, delivered from a place of love for their characters, will be what elevates Between Us into a truly iconic series.

[fandomsandflyingstingrays]

Full Thoughts on TDP Season 5

Under the cut, because there are many of them!

Starting off with things I liked:

Rayllum! It was so good to see them on the same page again, and they have a perfect balance between deep, romantic devotion and the shared laughter and gestures of best friends. Their dynamic this season was my favorite iteration of them so far

Janai and Amaya were wonderful as well. I was really bracing for Amaya to leave for Lux Area without telling Janai and a whole bunch of drama to ensue, but no! They communicate! They trust each other! It's so refreshing!

Side note: Lux Area was gorgeous the detail in every shot of the city and Bookery was so good. I want to live there. I will take on the night creatures if need be

I hoped we'd get an apology from Amaya for Rayla, and I'm really glad they took the time to put it in the show instead of a short story or anything like that. It was also cool to see Amaya recognizing the similarities she and Rayla share and acting as more of a mentor to her, I hope we see more of them together later on

The reoccurring message that oftentimes the best way to be strong is by going to other people for help- first Amaya's story, then Rayla trusting Callum, then Zubeia's talk with Avizandum. It's a very good moral

That whole thing with Soren and Elmer! Breaking the cycle of cruelty! I love Soren so much

Callum using dark magic again. I thought I would hate it if that happened, since we've seen a corruption plotline with him and with Claudia already, but the way it was done sort of added a good sense of realism. I like that Callum isn't a Perfectly Moral Mage just because he can do primal magic; it feels deeper and more complicated if he has to recognize that the easier, darker choice is always there, and sometimes he won't be able to resist it, but he has to try each time anyway

So many little moments that I'll probably be going into in separate posts because the dynamic between the characters was on fire. It was so good to see the team really working together, their chemistry was so good

Things I wasn't as much of a fan of:

The problem with the show really relying on people to read all the supplementary material is still present. I was pretty confused about who Kpp'Ar was until I looked him up on the wiki, and again, people who didn't know about Soren getting sick as a kid from the Book 2 novelization really wouldn't have gotten his part of the dream sequence. It doesn't ruin the show or anything but it does make it a little confusing at times

The plotline with the coins is starting to feel a little drawn-out. Runaan's presence would bring up enough complications between Rayla and the rest of the group that he needs enough time out of the coin to give that the weight it deserves, and I'm really hoping he gets out next season so we can have at least season 7 to go into that. Also, Ethari needs his husband back

As good as it was to see rayllum back together, I do still think we needed a scene of them actually talking things through. I'm sure it'll appear in a Reflections story at some point, but again, you don't want your show to lean that heavily on the bonus material

This is more of a nitpick than anything else, but the characters' faces in the early episodes felt really stiff. They'd be having a monologue where you could really hear the emotion in their voices, but their faces just... didn't really move

And finally: too many crabs. This is not a flaw with the season this is just because I personally am freaked out by crabs and I've never been so horrified in all my life as when the true nature of Finnegrin's ship was revealed. It'll haunt me forever

Overall I liked it a lot, and I'm really excited to see where it goes next! Claudia feels like she's on the very edge of the point of no return, if she hasn't already crossed it, and it'll be very interesting to see how she reacts to the loss of her leg and (most likely) the loss of her father next season. I'm also very excited for the nova blade, that sounds like a gorgeous piece of weaponry and seeing whoever wields it (my money's on Rayla) fighting Aaravos is going to be epic. This season has definitely ratcheted up my investment in the show, which I'm very excited about

[serafilms]

thoughts on pjo series so far after episode 6:

(spoilers for ep 6 ahead!! minor spoilers for the books too but nothing much about the plot)

acting SLAYS. slays. i almost teared up like 3 times bc of percabeth in ep 4/5 ALONE. and sally!! and grover!!!! luke and clarisse too ugh!!!!

special effects SLAYYYY. the monsters look really good and just as i imagined, I’ll give them that.

sets and locations are also very accurately pictured and the vibes brought out are just like the book!

script sucks. the writing is soooo awkward most of the time and the conversation just does not flow well. it’s too serious and boring half the time and i can’t keep relying on the actor’s tones even if they’re doing well as child actors.

soooo much exposition in every single conversation my head is spinning. like i feel like there were better ways to contextualise info from the book?

i saw someone say this show could’ve been approached with a fleabag ish narration and while that sort of would be a bit unorthodox i feel like that or just having walker narrate over the top sometimes would’ve been a good way to nod to the books. it’s difficult to bring a first person series alive when the narrator has so much personality and stuff to say that affects descriptions and how we see it, but i think it could’ve been possible.

music is clunky sometimes in that like why r the vibes so heavy for nothing…. like when they were talking in the animal truck and when they were driving the taxi etc.

no action. like i don’t need it to be pumping out adrenaline all the time but they have fr barely done anything i’m sorry 😰 book trio would’ve ate them alive.

cutting grover out at the waterpark likeeee??? yeah maybe him w ares was important but also it was not. they could’ve gotten that info any other time without making him stay w ares.

lacking explanation where it matters. like the eeriness of the lotus casino and why there are people from all different eras. and their RESOURCES like they aren’t explaining where their money and clothes and stuff are like these kids are surviving off one backpack?? it reminds me of in a wrinkle in time (2018) how the kid’s shirt changes like every 10 minutes and it’s just never acknowledged.

speaking of the lotus casino it’s just so like… bland. they’re cutting out the best parts of the story. percy fighting the chimera was so underwhelming and the bus scene too!!! and the lotus casino like yeah ok let’s not promote drugs i guess but they could have and SHOULD have had fun. why did they waste that time on cgi for the roller coaster in the casino at all?? it wasn’t sinister enough bc the whole vibe of the show is just serious so there’s no contrast between them thinking they’ve found paradise and realising there’s something wrong. captured the vibe of the show tbh: they plateau along the middle line of fun and serious business instead of playing with it like the book does.

feels like the character relationships r poorly drawn out. i’ve already forgotten about the weak attempt to build a percy-luke friendship. and annabeth not letting grover talk to hermes in the casino felt badly explained. plus grover’s whole backstory?? why r we straying so far from how the books explained him like they’re separating him a bit toooo much from the others.

generally just too many plot changes like as much as there is good in this show there is also bad and we stray further and further from the plot every single episode (the SOLSTICE WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TIME PRESSURE??).

it’s somehow too low stakes and too serious at the same time. like they’re acting like the stakes are high but i’m not feeling the pressure.

i understand it’s a new iteration and an adaption almost never means it’ll be the same, but that doesn’t mean i like all the changes. i guess there’s probably tonnes of reasons why book to screen adaptions always change so much (actually harry potter and tbosas ate tbh but oh well), and in this case it’s been many years since pjo was released, so rick is just taking that chance to rewrite things as he would if he wrote the books now. and i accept that. but these are just my opinions and some of these things are just plain bad choices for a show 😭

but i do still hope it gets picked up for all 5 seasons + heroes of olympus like i’ll give u all my money i’ll watch it all i swear

[pebiejeebies]

Where I got info ^^^^^^

Four exhibits very surreal mannerisms, one of them is the screech to stun them.

I screech earbleedingly aswell, screaming and screeching is my middle name lmfao

Although Four seems to be calm most of the time, they do get angry in many episodes, but he does have good manners every now and then, plus they have a mysterious, sadistic and narcicist personality where they use their powers to harm the contestants just for their own fun.

I have that issue aswell, I’m very sadistic and narcissistic when it comes to my ocs.. sadly I enjoy tormenting them (mentally is my favorite way <33) and in the past when I was younger, I used to abuse my sisters for my own pleasure, since I thought I was the best out of all of them..

Four was shown to want a sense of dominance in the show

Me to my sisters.. the feeling of being under someone is so unbearable, I have to deal with that is school everyday, so being dominant towards my sisters is bound to happen..

When provoked, Four would show no mercy and would even do things such as dissemble close friends out of anger, even lacking remorse in the process. In "Four Goes Too Far", Four mistook Nickel's response to calling David and Roboty "the only two non-objects on the team" criticism (which they could not tolerate very well). Four threatens to zap Nickel, with A Better Name Than That's plan being the only thing stopping the attack.

Sooo if disassemble was like unfriend/block, and the criticism being taken personally is very relatable, in fact, when my sister ever tells me any constructive criticism I always see it as an insult to my hard work, which sucks.. And for the “disassembling” part, I can be very close to a friend but if they piss me off/trigger me just once in a bad way, it would definitely make me ignore/block them, plus if disassemble counted as hitting, In the past I used to really abuse my sisters which I guess fits

In "Enter the Exit", Four seems to be a lot calmer, friendlier, and humbler, most likely because the contestants recovered them. They were noticeably less violent than before. After their return, they didn't screech anyone until "Return of the Rocket Ship", adding onto how friendly they became, but still will not hesitate to zap those who bother them.

The change in hostile behavior is something that I really went through, and the fact that four still hurts when someone irritates them is something I still do (as I’m typing this I literally hit my sister because she said my XO board was drawn wrong lmfao,,)

Then this shows Four's personality in more depth as well as their possible motivations: they seem to be childish. They act like a control freak because they want everyone to stay with him forever, explaining their narcissism and cruelty when hosting the show. Four throws tantrums when things don't go their way and strongly dislikes being abandoned (possibly due to them losing their playthings) to the point where they cry and refuse to let X console them since they think that X will abandon them too. After the split, Four seems to be nicer to the contestants and shows more personality. Toward the end of the episode, after the split took place and Two took nearly all of the contestants, Taco tells Four that they lost over half of the contestants. Instead of being angry or sad, Four makes light of the situation by saying BFB has "advanced" to its final 14 contestants.

This whole thing is just me, specifically when something huge bad happens like the split, I end up just trying to see the good side of everything, specifically the fact that I’m a bit obsessed with the fact of being some sort of host for something 

In "Uprooting Everything", when it comes to Purple Face asking if he could be a co-host, Four immediately declines, stating they have a better co-host. Four was down about the last four contestants complimenting X's position and saying they were a "good host" than not recuperating the same to Four.

If purple face was my younger sister and my middle sister was the better co-host,, this would definitely fit, then the growing jealousy from the better co-host because of how much they’re liked irl is way too fucking relatable

In "Chapter Complete", it is shown that they have an insecure side. They become upset that the contestants do not want him as their host, and instead chooses to leave them forever. 

This ^^^^

However, Gelatin told him that they indeed like him, but it was just that they did not like being hurt and tortured for his own benefit. Hearing this, he has a change of heart. He starts apologizing to everyone and becomes nicer to them.

After I started to change this is what I did, I specifically apologized to my sisters, since they were the ones I hurt the most

In "The Great Goikian Bake-Off", Four reverts back to his pre split personality and acts chaotically again. This is most likely because he is still mad at the old contestants, or he is just doing his job to protect the hotel's food.

Mad at old friends or protecting my room, iPad or literally anything that’s mine

Wow I guess that just makes me the silly billy—

UURGEHJRUEJEHHRGEGHEJURUEGHRURUEHEURUUURHEHHRHHR YAYYAYYYY

NOT ME BIEING HAPPY THAT SOMEONE CARES???!!?

@scrollinonhere

YYEGAGHEHYAYYEYEYYAYYEYHEHEYYYEEE!!

[arthurtaylorlester]

whispers into your inbox "jmart was the worst thing that could have happened in tma; it wrecked Jon's character and is the most transparent 'how do we not have our mc become suicidal?' I have ever seen. TMA then falls into the hole of the only important or good enough relationships being romantic, discarding previous character development to throw everything into romance solves all ~ ♡ I hate it and I hate how much Jon is woobified and infantilized in the fandom to drool over Martin and I hate how everyone acts like their relationship is good, when I think either of them with 5 years of a normal life would realize how awful the relationship was for both of them." Anyway lol I expect no response or post of this I am just being spicey on anon

oh anon you thought i was gonna see a take like this and not post it?

i need you to out yourself to me because goddamn this is an interesting take!

look, i love jmart, but even with 5 seasons of development they still somehow managed to feel rushed?

i disagree in that their relationship being unhealthy is a bad thing for them, because like the appeal of podcasts for me is the fucked up relationships. fucked up characters = fucked up relationships, yknow? like john and arthur from malevolent, normally, they'd hate each other without much of a second thought, but that's not the point, they love each other despite that, and that kind of extends to jmart for me.

i also totally agree with the fandom criticism, woobifying jon is like the only tma content i see on twt and it is soooooo annoying.

my personal qualms with tma however is in part the lore decisions and how the fandom treats the lore (and also the whole podcast).

s1 is easily the best season, mostly because you have no fucking idea what's going on, but after s2 things really start feeling like they're being drawn out, at least to me? like i think season 3-4 couldve been one thing, and um. season 5 is fun if you like jmart and the eye ig. i know most of this is a gross oversimplification (not forgetting yall basira&daisy fans) but after the core cast of season 1-2 i could not really get the other characters being fundamental in the story (not georgie. i love georgie)

don't get me wrong, the not-sasha arc was amazing! but after tim died, and martin fucked off for most of a season being sad, i was a bit bored. the buried isnt interesting to me sorry.

and also they under-utilize basically every fear, including the eye, and the one that upsets me the most is the stranger. oh what is it? circus and clowns ig. LIKE OPEN UP YOUR EYES THE WORLD IS OPEN TO YOU THE UNCANNY VALLEY AS SO MANY NICHES PLEASE

and by the end of the show, it just feels like they keep rotating the same 3 fears, and the others just kind fade into the bg

and then there's the fandom. i'm sorry but some of you guys act like tma is the end-all-be-all of fiction horror podcasts. when it's just not. sorry, but the magnus archives, after s1, just isnt scary. you know what's going on, the fears! which are neatly tied into these categories of oddities!

and the show explicitly states that the 14 fears categorization is arbitrary and that they all bleed into one another, but the fandom just. ignores that? like i've heard so many people go to other podcasts and say ''oh x is so eye avatar-coded!!'' and then x just has some vague eye symbolism that isnt even the point (this is about arthur lester)

and like i don't understand how tma manages to be the most mainstream fiction podcast nowadays, when welcome to night vale is right there ! and yes, i am implying that wtnv is objectively better than tma, because wtnv despite running for 12 goddamn years has never bored me with an episode, and it has roughly the same amounts of episodes! they both have similar formats that could repetitive quick (radio show vs statements) and even though i'd say statements have more creative freedom, wtnv still manages to not be boring. this might also just be a fact of better and more varied authors but hey, this is just my opinion

i want it to be clear that i'm not trying to start discourse, i still like tma! the fanartists are some of the most talented artists i've seen, and the fics are just aughhhhhhhhhhhh /pos

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi raven! i really want to share my opinion with you about certain plot point in twst. welp i think the M*ckey is an bad plot point and seems very out of place in the game,while i'm not able to explain how it feel…shoehorned??as if yana is forced to include it (because she's writing for d1sney obviously,she gotta insert their mascot) but she's not sure in what to do with him,like what the point of his existence?wil he fight OB!Grim?(i hope not because it will look very unserious); and with the current story themes i cannot see how he could affect the course of events; it would've been a lot better if he remained as just an easter egg imo

But that's just my current feelings it might change later,maybe Yana will reveal the real plot of twst very late just like Black Butler!

Sorry for ranting!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

While I do agree that Mickey was kind of jarring to see at first, I think that’s only because his aesthetic clashes with that of everything else in the game. If Mickey were presented to us as another conventionally attractive anime boy (or, vice versa, if the TWST boys were drawn as simple anthro animal cartoon characters like Mickey), I feel like the fandom shock would eventually fade into the usual excited squealing 😅

I don’t think Yana was forced to include him because of Mickey being the face of Disney. His inclusion appears to be very purposeful and serves a role in the larger narrative. He doesn’t necessarily need to fight, but it’s very clear that Mickey is closely associated with the player character/Yuu, and that he may even be the key to helping them find a way home, or to understanding how Yuu ended up at Night Raven College to begin with. Just because we have vague details doesn’t mean the devs don’t know what to do with him; there have been many hints sprinkled throughout the game that will ultimately come together at the conclusion. When we get there, it will probably recontextualize all the breadcrumbs that have come along the way.

Firstly, I think Mickey can tie in with the story without necessarily adhering to its themes. Not every character has to exist to play into a work’s themes, because themes alone don’t define the entire work. One can argue that Twisted Wonderland’s themes are “the importance of friendship” and “even villains have their own tales/good sides to them”, but even then, that doesn’t tell the whole story. There are many smaller components which support the themes or are their own things that add to the world or narrative without necessarily supporting the theme. In Mickey’s case, I believe he exists to contribute to the mirror motif and to draw parallels between him and Yuu.

Mirrors (and, subsequently, their reflections) are vital in Twisted Wonderland. There are mirrors everywhere, serving different purposes—identification, teleportation, communication, etc. The fact that Mickey is speaking to Yuu through a mirror (an important object) already calls attention to him. Mickey is all Yuu can see, and Yuu is all Mickey can see; they are reflections of each other, living in different worlds and unable to cross into the other’s. They aren’t alike at all, and yet they were able to make this connection by happenstance. That imagery alone can sell someone on the mystery of it—and, if you look at it from a certain angle, that, too, connects to the themes of friendship in a less overt way. (Similarly, we see “opposites” reflecting each other in the presentation of other characters like Sebek-Silver, the twins, Kalim-Jamil, etc.)

Mickey ties in with the dream sequences that Yuu has between and within main story episodes. With how frequently it happens and how closely the dreams tie in with real world events, it cannot be a coincidence or just something hastily slapped in to stall the main story. We also get check-ins between Yuu and Mickey at the end of every chapter, which implies that they are building up to some kind of big reveal with him (not unlike what they’ve been doing with Yuu and Malleus’s brief meetings to build up hype and emotional stakes for episode 7). There are also other strange details that haven’t been fully explained but still feel weird to point out (almost like they’ll come into play again later): Yuu being the only one who can see Mickey, and both of them not being able to see each others’ worlds. What’s more, Mickey actually makes the Ghost Camera that Yuu received from Crowley in the introduction have narrative purpose.

We also cannot deny that Twisted Wonderland itself is heavily constructed based on Disney properties, which is highly suspect; Mickey’s inclusion could hint at more serious secrets regarding the nature of Twisted Wonderland itself. (For example, the “Twisted Wonderland is Mickey’s dream world, and Yuu’s dreams are Mickey’s world” theory.) It wouldn’t be too out of place tonally considering at how dark and existential episode 6 got (and implied 7 to be). m

If Mickey were left as just an easter egg, I think the main story I think the story would have a lot less intrigue to it (due to his association with Yuu’s dreams and their struggle to find their way home). He’s basically in the same position as Grim or Malleus; Mickey is a character that we meet early on in the main story, and someone who follows us throughout it. And just as we suspect an OB Malleus and a showdown with Grim, there’s no doubt in my mind that Mickey will be integral for whatever ending TWST has in mind for us.

[thefrogdalorian]

It's New Year's Eve and I just wanted to share some mushy thoughts about life and Mando and Din and how this year has been overall for me!!

If you don't want to read below the cut I just wanted to wish you a Happy New Year!! I hope you have a wonderful time, whatever you do to celebrate. I'm currently on a trip so I may not be terribly active, but if you're struggling and the emotions of the day are a little too much, please do message me. I've been there plenty of times. You're not alone. NYE should really be about looking to the future rather than dwelling on the past, but I know how easy it is to get caught up in that depressive loop of thinking.

But if you do want to keep reading, then strap in for some Oversharing Online and gushing about how much Mando means to me:

I first started watching Mando during the pandemic in 2020, I think the first episode released like 2 days after the UK went into lockdown or something. 2020 was an awful year for me, as I'm sure it was for so many of you. A lot of things happened to me that I'm still trying to process but I hope to start therapy in the new year and go some way to addressing it.

Anyway, The Mandalorian came to me at a time I dearly needed it. It was welcome relief from The Horrors I was experiencing. I was hooked pretty much straight away, who was this mysterious man? What were his intentions? Was he good or bad? OH WOW THAT WALK. THAT VOICE!!! I loved it, but it wasn't until The Believer that everything changed for me. It went from enjoyment to full-blown obsession. I couldn't wait until Season 3 aired, and I think the expectations I had built up in my head could never have lived up to the reality of what I felt upon watching it for the first time. I was pretty disappointed most weeks, but I feel so differently now.

This year has been pretty strange for me. I had some amazing highs (like being able to go to Star Wars Celebration where I got to see so many amazing Din and Mandalorian cosplays which was an INSANE experience and I still kind of haven't properly processed yet??) and also some difficult lows.

In June I finally got my autism diagnosis, something I'd been essentially waiting for for EIGHT YEARS. It was a huge shock but also not shocking at all. As in, I knew I was autistic since being a teenager but I was absolutely not expecting to be told right there and then at my assessment. So when the psychologist looked me in the eye and told me that I was autistic it was somewhat of a gut punch. Processing it was extremely difficult but during that time I found myself drawn back to Mando and particularly to season 3. I rewatched it again and again fell in love with a season that I'd probably felt on the whole underwhelmed with at the time, until the last two episodes, which I loved instantly.

When rewatching it, I noticed things that I'd missed before, which led me to become kind of obsessed with the idea of Din and Bo together. I know not everyone enjoys that but that truly is what I love about media, that we can all watch a similar thing and interpret it differently! I don't think I'm any more correct about the way I view certain interactions than anyone else. Shipping should just be a little fun, not ruin your mental health or dictate how you treat strangers on the internet. And it especially should not lead to any real world harassment of creators and actors.

So in September an idea formed and between then and November a 182,000 word fic landed in my lap. That's the best way I can describe writing it for me, I was so fixated on finishing it and the plot just kept coming the more I wrote. It is by FAR the longest thing I've ever written and probably ever will write, but the routine of writing it and publishing it helped claw me out of a spiral I was in after my diagnosis.

And it was publishing it on AO3 that gave me the confidence to rejoin a fandom space again. It was a big step for me to put myself out there but I'm so glad that I did because that's what led me here, to discover this wonderful community who adore Din and The Mandalorian just as much as I do. I'm so happy that I finally found my way here. It was way less intimidating than I ever thought it would be!

I know that I haven't been here for the longest time, I wish I just got over my nervousness and made a tumblr earlier in the year so I could have joined in with the hype before season 3. But also considering how poorly received the season was overall, maybe it was for the best that I wasn't here.

Despite my relative newness here, I just wanted to say how welcomed I've felt and that is a truly lovely feeling. Thank you so much to everyone who has interacted with any of my posts and especially my writing in any way, big or small. It means a lot to me! I cannot wait to be around for all the buildup to Season 4, honestly. I know it seems so far but after midnight we can say it's (probably) only NEXT YEAR!

I have no idea what 2024 has in store for me. That doesn't scare me, in fact I'm quite excited about not knowing what will happen. I

Of course, I have some goals I'd like to achieve for myself but whatever happens, I know that Mando will be there to endlessly rewatch and whatever comes my way, I'll always have Din Djarin. He's the only man to ever exist! That gorgeous tin can who instantly soothes me every time I get to watch his silly little exploits with his silly little son. Where would we be without him, eh?

Anyway, whatever you're doing tonight to celebrate and even if you aren't, I wish you all the best. Stay safe, enjoy yourself and I'm sending you lots of love and light for the year. May 2024 be a healthy, happy prosperous year for you and your loved ones.

See you in 2024!

Love,

Spud 🥔🐸

[achehex]

デジモンゴーストゲーム#36ご視聴本当にありがとうございました!!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for watching Digimon Ghost Game #36. This was the most titanic task I’ve been assigned in my admittedly short career. I handled 24 cuts of layouts and I think 14 cuts of 2nd key animation. I feel bad for leaving so much extra work, but the deadline was way too tight for me to be able to draw the remaining 10.  This time around I won’t post gifs of my scenes because it’s a whole 1:20 minutes of animation :’v But if you are curious I handled the bit when Kiyoshiro is being turned to stone, all the way to when the debris from the fight hits around Ruri. The more action packed portion of my section even made it to SakugaBooru if you wanna take a peak and don’t feel like watching the whole episode. I want to thank everyone again for your support, and as always some longer thoughts after the cut! Another thing I’ve been meaning to say is that my inbox is always open if you are curious about my work and all that good stuff.

I cannot even begin to describe how stressed I’ve been. I was constantly rewatching the episode preview just to have something to watch. There was only one time where we got to see the finished episode before it aired, and I understand it, it’s sensitive information, and they can’t just send it to any freelancer, even if not maliciously that kind of stuff can leak easily, but the problem on my end is that I’m left not knowing how my cuts will truly look. As you may know inbetweens are the drawings you add to your animation to smooth out the motion, but in anime production inbetweens are handled by a whole separate team, you can draw guides for them (both charts, and rough drawings), but since it’s not really your job, it doesn’t factor in the time that you have for said work. I drew as many IB guides as I could on what I considered the most important cuts, but a bunch of other ones I just did my best guess at what good timing and spacing would be. I still don’t have enough experience to do that in my head without seeing it, so there’s always a chance that a cut won’t look the way I imagined.  I was desperate to know if my cuts looked good, and I think they mostly do. I think that animation is my current skill ceiling in terms of action sakuga. It obviously could’ve been better, it always can, but at my skill level and within the deadline, I’m definitely more than satisfied. If you read my reflections after episode 18 you’ll recall that I was feeling depressed because I didn’t know if I had blown my one chance to draw a really cool action scene, but this time around I was given that chance again, and I tried so hard to not squander it. Maybe it’s weird or even immature, but I like being complimented for my work, so I wanted to draw something that was worthy of compliments. I’ve gotten a lot of impostor syndrome these past 2 months, this industry is just filled with so many incredible artists, and I can’t help but feel that I skipped so many steps that would’ve given me a more solid foundation to stand on, but at the end of the day, given the right circumstances, I can produce good work, and I’m happy about that. Oh also this episode was my first episode working as a full time freelancer on Digimon Ghost Game! So at least for the foreseeable I will work on 1 episode of Digimon every month-month and a half, so you haven’t seen the last of me there. Thanks for reading and for all the support, cheers!! Here’s a bonus drawing, my practice drawings for learning how to draw BettelGammamon, since I had never drawn him before. 

[bartholomew-junior]

2, 3, 4, sips exact same questions from my last ask sure we ball

ok i’m gonna throw in 2 freebie questions 4 this one for fun, if that’s alright, apologies if it isn’t ^-^ i was just eyeing this 4 sips and thought this was a good chance.

2 . you could probably find some1 in the fandom who could ramble and rave about sips’ personality, design, vibes, etc. for DAYS. and i am no different, really. the themes of his character are being lost in the world and trying to find purpose and learning to be vulnerable and heal, which speaks to a LOT of people, as well as his personality (that is kind of infused with dingo’s humor, quirks, struggles). also the way he’s drawn, shit-eating grin and generally being a prick gets a lot of people hooked. basically, his whole design and personality pretty much, but if i had to narrow it down, i would say his special kind of defiance and general prick aura.

3 . i feel like his base design without the croc arm could be spiced up a liiittle bit more and given a few more ornaments, but that’s just me. the combo of open vest and harem pants just reminds me of aladdin lol. but who cares i’m not his character designer and its just a nitpick lmao

4 . same kind of genre as erina, aka obscure old anime. i’d give his a few more shonen elements and jttw inspiration, and a different artstyle kind of like jojo’s bizarre adventure (LOL) with more crosshatching and messier lines, more distinctive atmosphere, and draw sips very similarly to how he is in the series. the original series has a kind of storyboard feel, especially in the later episodes, and i think dull/greyscale backgrounds with some bright colors could make things more visually interesting. also psychological horror

bonus. kind of:

7 . same headcanons they give to ohio jack, which is making him trans, autistic, etc. i do enjoy the more realistic takes on his design, like making him look like a whole ass macaque cuz i think it’s fun. i’ve drawn sips w top surgery scars b4, and i think it’s a cool addition to his character. also, i really, really like that at least this part of the fandom acknowledges that he’s aroace and doesn’t really ship him and instead focuses on his friendships, which i think does his character more of a service than shipping him with gothi. bit fandom will fandom, and i have nothing against shipping, etc. in short, i like this little corner of the fandom :]]

18 . i already wrote about gothi and sips, so i’ll do a different one this time. i wouldn’t say admire like at all, but this one is rlly interesting to me (and if you’ve been looking @ this blog 4 a bit, i do mention this duo), which is xanu and sips (and also the existence of xips). they’re foils, and have so many parallels like in the way they were both experimented on, hold their friends in high regard and everyone else is suspicious to them, etc., but sips seems more aware? which is a rarity when he’s contrasted with other people and both of them bring out a less seen side of each other, with sips meeting an actual Bad Guy and being less murderous compared to him, and xanu being especially annoyed and irritated by sips and kind of enabling him. agh. they should never talk to each other again. sorry 4 the ramble

summary: hehe funny little guy

comiclink: https://www.tumblr.com/dingodoodles/174215134831/doodle-of-a-scene-from-this-weeks-session-sips?source=share

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Spoiler alert for all of season 5 of BBC Ghosts and the first three episodes of season 2 of Our Flag Means Death.

I really enjoyed season 5 of Ghosts. More than I expected to, I think, because I’d thought it might be running out of steam. I didn’t find season 4 quite as good as the first three, I figured there’s maybe not enough in the premise to sustain it for all that long. But season 5 left me wishing it would keep going, there’s plenty more they could do.

I am glad we’ll have a Christmas special, as they left a lot of loose ends. Arguably too many loose ends for a season finale. They could probably have solved that by cutting the quite unnecessary “Pat and Robin fight over a weather presenter” B plot from the finale, and spending the whole episode on the main story. But that was probably the only storyline in the season that I didn’t enjoy. Even the baby storyline, which I anticipated annoying me ever since I realized last week that they’d inevitably do a pregnancy in the final season, was done nicely, I thought.

Aside from the baby thing, I like that they did avoid a few of the seeming inevitabilities. There is such a well-recognized formula to this sort of feel-good sitcom, and everyone is so familiar with it, that there were few things they could have done without being incredibly predictable. Everyone’s been assuming it would end with all or at least most, or at least a few, of the ghosts disappearing. So I found it funny that instead of doing that, they dedicated the second-last episode to parodying the fans’ certainty that it would happen, and then subverting the expectations. It was just enough of an affectionate jab at the audience and their expectations to be funny, not so much as to compromise the warm and nice tone of the show.

The characters are all really well drawn for a show with such short seasons, I thought. And I did like the closure we got on Kitty and the Captain in the last season. I mean, I’m disappointed that my theory didn’t come to pass, that it’ll turn out his name is Captain Ben Willbond (I would also have accepted Captain Adam Kenyon). But Regular Ben Willbond did a hell of a job in that dramatic scene. And Lolly Adefope did a hell of a job in hers. They all did, really. It’s just a really, really nice show. I’m glad Tumblr obsession with it got strong enough a couple of years ago for me to watch it. And definitely looking forward to the Christmas special, and hoping we get a bit of a time skip/epilogue that’ll tie up all the loose threads.

And on the other show that dropped a new season this week – the first couple of episodes had me rather disappointed that Our Flag Means Death seems to have given up on being a comedy altogether to be a drama, even if it’s a reasonably entertaining drama. But the third episode felt more like the first season, which was good. I didn’t absolutely love the first season as much as some did, but I did quite like it. It was low on female characters though (I mean, it’s a show about old-timey pirates, I’m not saying I blame the writers/creators for making it male-dominated, I’m just saying I’d probably have enjoyed it more if there had been more scenes for Leslie Jones and Claudia O’Doherty because they were both great characters), so it’s nice that season 2 seems to be quickly solving that. I like a lot of the new people. I’m not quite sure how much more the main two guys have to do from here, so I like that they’re bringing in other stuff.

[skylarmoon71]

Savitar (Flash) : Fanfiction - Chapter 1

There was a part of you that never thought such a thing would be possible. 

Barry Allen was not a villain. 

Far from it. 

He’d save so many people. So when this villain showed up, none of you thought this would be the result. The enemy you’d been facing for the last couple weeks was..

“Barry..”

His face was scarred, but it was him.

Your chest felt tight and the realization of what was to come hurt.

Savitar was going to kill Iris. Barry was going to lose the love of his life to a version of himself.

The tragedy of it all is that you weren’t like the rest of them. You weren’t a speedster. You weren’t any kind of meta for that fact.

The team was regrouping, because the day was here. The day Iris should have been destined to die.

You sat with her that evening as Barry and the others ran back and forth trying to figure out what to do.

“It’s a bit crazy isn’t it. I should be scared, terrified. But I’m more worried about Barry.” You smiled at the statement.

“Occupational hazard.” You joke.

Your knees were bouncing, and Iris could clearly see your unease.

“(Y/N), are you alright.”

You stopped the action, looking at her.

“I could be imagining things but you’ve been acting strange since we found out about Savitar. If there’s something you need to talk about you can tell me.”

Her words were good to hear, but you couldn’t bring yourself to say what you’ve been keeping to yourself since you became a member of Team Flash.

“I’m scared.” 

It wasn’t the whole truth, but it wasn’t a lie either.

“We’ll figure it out. We always do.”

That’s what she said.

For a moment you really did convince yourself that she was right. That magically everything would just work out. But faith was cruel. Because you all stood as Savitar held Iris in his hands, ready to strike.

His voice was like a tremor that just rocked your body with pain.

“You will feel the pain I endured losing my love, losing everything.”

Barry’s face held nothing but unfiltered despair, and you screamed out for Savitar to freeze, you were at the side, gun drawn. It seemed to egg him on.

“Do you think bullets will stop me?”

He sounds amused. Your hands were shaking, and Iris’s breath was unsteady.

“You say that we don’t understand how you felt. That it’s impossible for us to know what it’s like to feel so much for someone and never have them. But I do..I know..”

Savitar didn’t move, and you could see Joe on the roof, ready to fire if needed. No one was moving. Barry’s eyes moved to your form.

“I remember when we first met. I remember when I ran into you on that train and you spent the first five minutes apologizing. I barely heard a word because you were talking so fast. I should have been furious, you’d spilled my coffee all over the new suit I bought for an interview.”

The memory feels as though it’s clear as day.

“All I could do was smile at you and try to reassure you that it was okay. That everything was okay.”

Maybe he’s actually listening to the words you're saying, because his hand seems to lower.

“I know you’re a major nerd, and you would spend your afternoons watching every episode of Dr. Who if it were possible.” You move closer, lowering the gun in your hand.

“You once stayed up with me until two in the morning to help me study for my finals. Even though you were exhausted from taking tests all afternoon to pass your own exams. You sacrificed your sleep to help me."

The gun drops from your hand, and when you’re right next to Iris, you hesitantly reach for his hand. Iris moves to the side when you take his hand, and Barry is at her side in an instant, standing in front of her protectively. She dives into his arms, and when you know she’s safe, you turn back to Savitar. His suit is still glowing that dangerous blue. You should be petrified, but you haven’t released your hold on his hand.

“You would never hurt the people you care about, no matter how much you endured. I know you suffered a lot, but you need to realize that there is someone who still cares. Because regardless of what you’ve done. You’re still the nerdy guy I know. The guy that I..that I’ve always been in love with.” You confess.

The statement catches everyone off guard.

You’re shocked when Savitar takes a step back. Instinctively, you try to reach out for his hand, a desperate attempt to hold him.

Save him.

But he’s gone in the blink of an eye. 

All you feel is that pain that appeared when he first showed up.

[flutishly]

GGF rewatch, part 3 - Season 1 wrap-up

Note: I started writing this post a few months ago. Things have happened since which affected my ability to get this post out. I haven't picked up The Great Webseries Rewatch since, but I intend to, once things... settle. In the meantime, I'll wrap up this loose thread.

I didn't even process how quickly the end was coming up. I sped through the last batch of Green Gables Fables episodes with such ease that it just... happened.

GGF has aged remarkably well.

More than so many other shows, GGF has an excellent sense of environment and world. Its side characters exist in a way that makes them feel entirely alive and not just when they're on the screen for Anne-the-blogger's sake. There is a sense that Avonlea is richly populated, even beyond what Anne specifically shows us and shares with us. Things like the writing group, Anne having her friends show up on camera (as young people are wont to do), and the creative writing class project that has everyone doing vlogs (which really is unfair when everyone knows Anne already has a vlog, it's totally favoritism!) all give space for characters to exist on their own terms.

GGF also does one thing which at the time distinguished it from other amateur (and not-amateur webseries): It included an adult. The fact that GGF shows Matthew as a living, breathing, awkward character is delightful. It's lovely because it also shows that Anne's life and choices and mistakes don't exist in a vacuum. When GGF was airing, it struck me as "okay, that's nice" rather than something which actually helps make GGF an excellent adaptation.

There's not all that much effort to modernize, truthfully. GGF never strays too far from the original text (or its intention). Because Anne of Green Gables is still fairly modern itself (or at least still resonates fairly well with the modern reader, all things considered), there aren't needs for huge leaps in order to get the story to work.

Even the romance! Where a lot of the literary webseries needed to make sure that their characters were neatly packed off to relationships by the end (some of which didn't necessarily make sense and some of which were expressly changed so that they could make sense), Anne of Green Gables has no such demand. Anne and Gilbert have the ultimate realistic relationship, in terms of its ups and downs and complications. It's slow. It's powerful. It continues to enchant young readers. GGF sticks to the original script, which I think helps keep it feeling relevant and earned.

GGF also does an excellent job with... minutiae. Ruby remains one of my favorite adapted characters, in large part because she appears on screen as someone whole, who just happened to have not yet been featured and then continues to develop with the confidence and ease of a fully-drawn character. (She's also very well-acted.) Her vlogs don't amount to a subplot (in this season, at least) and they just give space to a human being. It doesn't feel like there's a message that needs to come across or a niche that needs filling (a la Maria Lu in LBD). This is evident in Anne's vlogs as well, where the ever-engaging Mandy Harmon sometimes vlogs about things that really don't fit to any expected plot points, but still give you a rich sense of the character and her world. It's good storytelling.

Ultimately, I'm left with little to say other than... yeah, this has held up. Green Gable Fables feels richer and smarter and deeper almost a decade after the fact than when it first aired, which I think is a combination of my increased appreciation for what it does so well, my better understanding of the source text (I actually hadn't read AoGG when I first started watching GGF and indeed read it because of GGF!), and the way I've seen other shows try to do what GGF is able to do so seamlessly here. I'm exceedingly pleased that I chose this as my second show for the rewatch project; it has held up so well and was just a wonderful rewatch overall. And if you've never seen it before? You're in for a great time.

[whoreviewswho]

Gratuitous violence, Philip Hinchcliffe and why Mary Whitehouse was right

There are some things, though not many, that the Doctor Who fandom seems to universally agree on. Everybody can agree that the Weeping Angels are a great villain. Everybody seems onboard with the notion that The Caves of Androzani is one of the best stories of all time. Everybody will attest that the Hinchcliffe era is one of the most consistent runs in the whole show. 

You can probably see where I am going with this. 

Let's take ourselves to 1977, before the beginning of the fifteenth season for Doctor Who. Season fourteen has finished airing in April and it has turned out to be the most popular to date with average ratings of approximately eleven million viewers tuning in each week. Tom Baker’s fourth incarnation of the eponymous hero was riding an enormous wave of success that had slowly climbed during the Pertwee era (seasons ten and eleven were raking in respectable figures of around eight million) and seemed to peaking under the current regime (figures were climbing by a million viewers a year until season fourteen). 

You would think it would be in the BBC's interests then to keep this current team of Tom Baker, producer Philip Hinchcliffe and script-editor Robert Holmes together for as long as possible. That would make sense even now. After all, this is the team that gave us two and half seasons of Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen. They introduced Leela, produced Genesis of the Daleks and Pyramids of Mars. This is the era that cemented Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor, as the most iconic of the original Doctors and still one of the most iconic of all-time, only rivalled by David Tennant and Matt Smith (to date). Even those who could never name him or know exactly what he looks like will know the silhouette off the floppy hat and long multi-coloured scarf. Doctor Who as produced by Hinchcliffe had become a powerhouse production and left an incredible impact.

However, the other thing that Hinchcliffe's run had had become with the public was controversial. Or, at least, that would seem to be how the BBC felt about it. During the mid to late '70s, the Doctor Who production team were under more fire than ever before from public critics (or perhaps it would be more accurate to say the fire of one, extremely vocal critic) for the increasingly horrific tone and excessive violent content deemed unsuitable for Saturday teatime family viewing. Mary Whitehouse, founder of the National Viewers and Listener's Association, has gone down in Doctor Who fan history amongst the like of Michael Grade as one of the show's most infamous detractors. Let me make it very clear that there are innumerable reasons to dislike Whitehouse. It is not without reason that The Goodies' response to receiving positive feedback from her about their programme was to craft an entire episode around a grossly unflattering caricature of her. I have no interest in delving any deeper than this into the beliefs of such a person beyond the confines of this silly blue box show but if you are unfamiliar with Whitehouse or only know her from her Doctor Who association, I implore you to undertake your own research to paint as full a picture of her as a human being as you see fit. 

I mention all of this to propose the simple conjecture that perhaps, despite my disagreeing with the foundational reasons of why she opposed programmes like Doctor Who (if she had any amount of media literacy, she would have realised that every aspect of Doctor Who was in opposition to her), she was, in fact, onto something. It feels apt to be writing this so close to my posting of my The Invasion review because there is a similar comparison to be drawn between the Troughton era and the Hinchcliffe/Baker years. Both have been held on a pedestal by the fan community at large as shinning examples, golden periods for Doctor Who where the stories were rarely ever so consistently good and their impact is still being felt to this day. In both cases, these things are somewhat true but it is also true that these periods are a lot more flawed than fans are comfortable to admit. Putting aside the very genuine criticism that Hinchcliffe era Who leaned too heavily upon classic literature and genre film pastiche, there remains a misconception that the show's willingness to portray violent and horrific content at this time equates with it being a mature and compelling drama programme. Torchwood should be all of the evidence you need that this is a fallacy. 

Doctor Who has always contained violence and action and it almost certainly always will. I do not object to this but it has to be said that an alarming pattern emerged throughout the Hinchcliffe years that, I think, would have proved detrimental to the show had it continued any longer*. From the moment the Hinchcliffe era begins, with season twelve's The Ark in Space, it strikes a markedly different tone of the preceding tenure. The story is moodier and unsettling in a way that the show had not been for quite some time. The combined efforts of the production team's sensibilities with Baker's distant and unpredictable performance pushed the show away from the innate comfort that had come from the later Pertwee years. The Doctor was no longer a paternal, authority figure and the threats had shifted from power-mad conspirators and identifiable systemic threats to Lovecraftian forces of nature. Right from the start, this run establishes itself as leaning into primal horror and physical threats with the serial's threat being a creature that uses human bodies as an incubator. It is a terrifying idea and one that a pre-watershed serial airing on the BBC should not have any business attempting to depict. 

But this is still a fantastical horror. Even if the effect did look good, it is still an alien experience. Mercifully, nobody in the real world has had a Wirrn lay eggs in them so the threat becomes a rather soft kind of scare. This is still a fun, for lack of a better word, form of horror and violence. Perhaps Mary Whitehouse agreed with me since her first notable move against the show came a few weeks later with Genesis of the Daleks which she described as "teatime brutality for tots". Season twelve was the last to have pre-production overseen by the outgoing team of producer Barry Letts and script-editor Terrance Dicks. Season thirteen was when the Hinchcliffe/Holmes duo finally found themselves with full creative control. And so, the Hinchcliffe era TRULY begins with the production of Pyramids of Mars (Planet of Evil was produced later though aired before). Now we see where things truly kick off with a distinctly gothic aesthetic, more graphic and realistic violence all in service of a classic film pastiche, The Mummy in this case. Season thirteen closed with The Seeds of Doom, a story Whitehouse strongly objected to; "Strangulation—by hand, by claw, by obscene vegetable matter—is the latest gimmick, sufficiently close up so they get the point. And just for a little variety, show the children how to make a Molotov cocktail". 

The violent depictions in Doctor Who were impactful, of course, The backlash is evidence enough of that fact. But was it necessary? After all, is violence not an essential component in the action-adventure serial? Eric Saward, somebody who would receive very similar criticisms several years after this, claimed that "the Doctor is involved in adventures that deal with violent people" and "that if you display violence you should show it for what it is. I don't think you should dwell on it, I don't think it should be gratuitous, but I think that when you do display violence you should show it hurts".

Regardless of how violence was handled in his own tenure as script editor, I am inclined to agree with this sentiment. If violence is to be portrayed in Doctor Who, or any drama, it should come with an impact on the narrative and the characters. The nature of that impact can wildly vary from story to story but the instant that violence is depicted without consequence, it becomes a gratuitous and unnecessary representation. To use an overdone but high-profile example from contemporary media, this is the problem with violence in Batman v Superman, for example. Characters engage in violent acts, the violence is graphic in nature but the impact fails to be felt by the audience because the acts themselves frequently fail to inform or challenge the characters and/or plot moving forward. Violence is essential to action and can be a very useful component of adventurer fiction but it can easily lose its impact and become unnecessary without proper consideration.

It is in this way that I would agree that the violence and horror throughout Hinchcliffe Doctor Who had started to become gratuitous and frequently unnecessary.

Take The Brain of Morbius, for example, which Whitehouse called; "some of the sickest and most horrific material seen on children's television". The character of Solon, as played in the serial by Philip Madoc, is wonderfully drawn. He is a fanatical and cruel sociopath. A malicious and pathetic shell of a man whose arrogance and obsession dominates his every action. I could draft this description from episode one alone. In episode four, he kills his assistant Condo by way of blowing a bloody hole in his chest with a pistol. The moment is certainly gory and it is a tragic end to the story of Condo for him to be killed in this fashion but the act itself, the depiction of a hyperrealistic blood-splatter coming out of this child-like character, ultimately adds very little. Nobody mourns Condo's death, the violence is hardly an escalation given that we know Solon practices dismemberment before the story even begins and it reveals nothing about who he is as a person. All that matters is that Condo tries to stop him and fails. The violent death is simply an aesthetic choice.

So let us get to season fourteen. The one where the final vestige of the Pertwee years, investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith, leaves the show to be replaced by a savage descendent of humanity's far future. A hunter and killer who travels armed with a knife and poisonous darts whose introduction sees her quickly chased down and hunted for murder. It has surely become clearly by now that yet another year on, the violence in Doctor Who has seen an enthusiastic uptick.

The Deadly Assassin is the story that killed the Hinchcliffe era and epitomises the problem that had emerged with violence in Doctor Who unlike any other. Despite being a political thriller set inside the Time Lord Panopticon, the entire third episode becomes a survivalist thriller seeing our hero shot at, dropped off of cliffs and bombed inside a virtual reality. Functionally, this means that an entire quarter of the serial is a deviation from the main plot into what is thrilling but entirely unnecessary surrealist horror and violence. The action exists simply to generate visual excitement in an otherwise very dialogue-heavy story and the acts of violence themselves never lead to any story developments or impact the Doctor or Goth in any meaningful way when it ends. It also has a walking emaciated corpse for a main villain for no readily justifiable reason. The Deadly Assassin troubled Whitehouse so much that her uproar led to the BBC censoring the third episode's cliffhanger for future broadcasts. 

Just as Michael Grade became infamous amongst fans for cancelling Doctor Who, Whitehouse would be similarly reviled for ending the most popular period of Doctor Who. After all, it is on record that it was her continued, vocal criticism that influenced the BBC's decision to move Hinchcliffe on from Doctor Who. After all, who else is there to blame? Her opinion was so highly regarded by the BBC that the Director-General offered a personal apology for how offended she was by The Deadly Assassin. As noted previously, season fourteen saw Doctor Who at the height of its popularity and a cultural phenomenon that was soon to be on a downward trajectory until 2005. I also observed that this particular run as a whole, the three seasons produced by Philip Hinchcliffe, has been revered by Doctor Who fans ever since it ended on the second of April 1977.

Given the decidedly different direction that Doctor Who was taken in when succeeding producer Graham Williams came onboard, it has become one of the big 'what ifs' to speculate on what Hinchcliffe might have done with another year on the show. Big Finish has attempted to answer that question with a handful of unmade scripts from his time being adapted with a full cast and an additional series of dramas whose plots were conceived by him. The answer is that he would have continued to produce very creative and compelling science-fiction adventure serials. No surprises there. Season fifteen saw a drop in viewership of around two million on average and season sixteen dropped even further. Perhaps it would have been great for the show to see Hinchcliffe's vision continue just a bit longer. Perhaps his time was preemptively cut short.

Or perhaps the biggest threat to Hinchcliffe era Who was the Hinchcliffe era itself. Perhaps I sound like a bit of a hater and I can understand that impression coming across but I must insist at this juncture that I do love this period of Doctor Who. I think that the consistency of quality at this time was absurdly good and many of the stories remain among my favourites as top-shelf examples of what Doctor Who is capable of. Like a lot of fans, I also wonder what might have happened if this team stayed on for another year and how different the timeline of the show would be. However, it is undeniable that like the earthbound format and the base-under-siege before it, the violent thriller pastiches would have tun their course with enough time too. In fact, I would argue that they absolutely did. in 1977, Doctor Who was in desperate need for a change, although it probably didn't know it, simply to save itself from becoming a victim of its own success. I shudder to imagine the six-part finale that is even more violent and even more macabre than what had already come before.

Then again, perhaps we don't have to imagine. We do have season twenty-two to know for sure.

*Even in the previous era, violence played a major role. After all, this was the time when Doctor Who was allying himself with the military. This is an important thing to mention though not strictly relevant to what I am talking about here. I will just explain for now that I think this violence serves a different purpose which I might get into in more depth in some later post. Let's just say that I have no doubt that Mary Whitehouse would have found less objection in presenting Mother England as a noble, defensive force than depicting disfigured nazi scientists.