#I love my dad he comes up with the most insane plotlines for stuff

[mr-e-nigma]

Throwback to that time last year when I made my dad guess about Riddler making those robot henchmen in Arkham Knight and one of his guesses was that Riddler had a kid and was raising them to be his henchman. That’s such an idea. The implication and clarification after I stuck on that guess for a while was that the kid was in fact biologically Edward’s which just makes it even funnier.

[scripturiends]

law school episode 9 musings

warning: very very long post ahead. i have a lot of thoughts.

hey folks — how we feeling about episode 9?

given that there are so many plotlines in the show, i’m afraid i won’t be able to extend my analysis of the episode as far as i would like, but there are three characters who stood out to me the most last night that i’d like to talk about for now:

kang dan

there’s a lot that we got to uncover about her thanks to professor yang’s trial. if i’m piecing it all together right, the basic summary of what led to her disappearance goes like this:

she was a volunteer for assemblyman ko’s campaign, but upon discovering that he was spreading fake news about his opposition, dan reported him to the authorities (i’m guessing not just the police but also the media) and became a whistleblower. assemblyman ko tried to buy her off with money, but she refused, so he attacked her where she’s most vulnerable instead — by using her family.

i’m not completely sure about this (please feel free to correct me!) but it’s either byeol is (1) the twins’ half-sister, or (2) their stepsister? it’s so hard to tell, especially since korean terms can get lost in translation in the process (i watch on netflix, if that helps). but anyway, sol and dan’s mom married someone who was abusing her, and in exchange for dan’s silence (and her fleeing), the husband signs a contract that he would stop hurting his wife.

so that’s the backbone of dan’s story. however, this still doesn’t answer a lot of things, like where seo byungju or lee manho fits into the equation, the whereabouts of their mom’s ex-husband, or why dan was sent into boston in the first place.

i usually don’t like theorizing, but i do have one: there is an ivy league school located just outside of boston — harvard. (it’s technically in cambridge but you know, i’m taking liberties here.) professor yang said in passing one episode that he thought he saw dan when he went to the school for a seminar or a talk or something. could it be that assemblyman ko offered her an education at a top school in exchange for her silence? it could explain why she gave it up all so easily. what if she took that topnotch education as a chance to prepare, so that when she came back, she had much stronger leverage to take assemblyman ko down, given the knowledge and network of connections she’ll have earned in that school?

the theory’s plausible but i might be overestimating assemblyman ko’s kindness — unless he’s insanely desperate, he might not give a damn about dan’s education. it actually benefits him more if she stayed uninformed, but still. let me know what you think about it.

yoo seungjae

in this episode, we learned a little bit more about how yoo seungjae was able to hack into the professors’ laptops, and they also confirmed some of our previous speculations about him: that his wife yujeong was an ob gyn, and so was he, and that they were trying for a baby. unfortunately, i find it all to be a bit lacking in substance. i was hoping we could get down to the nitty-gritty of why he did what he did.

i say this for one important reason: i don’t know about you guys, but i would never make such a stupid mistake in undergrad, let alone in law school. seungjae has gone to med school, so we know that he knows the repercussions of his actions. why would he go to such lengths? sure, he found an opening, he was tempted, and he took it. but he didn’t just do it once, he did it multiple times, and those offenses add up (hacking, stealing exam papers, and cheating). surely he must know that something like this can ruin careers even before they even start, and not only would he get kicked out of the school, he would also get blacklisted from the industry once he implicates himself. so we understand why he’s so hesitant to testify (especially now that his wife is pregnant).

but why did he do that in the first place? we could say he’s insecure about his skills, but he’s survived med school. how much harder could law school be for him? i just don’t think that the payoff is worth the risk. what must be so important for yoo seungjae to do all of this for? what does he get in return if he successfully pulls it off and gets straight As during his entire time in law school? who is he doing for?

i hope it runs deeper than just wanting a ‘good future’ for him and his wife and their baby or something — because he could just as easily do that as a doctor. there must be another reason he went into law.

still, though, and this is just a personal opinion, even if i did find out his entire backstory, there’s no way i could ever defend him. we see in the show how his guilt builds up (from observing how kang sol A studies so well, to his conversation with jeon yeseul in the hospital), but at this point there is no more excusing what he did. not that i ever condoned it in the first place.

we’re still in the dark about a lot of things regarding yoo seungjae. hopefully by the next episode, we get something. but until then, he is still a shady, shady man to me.

kang sol B

her screen time in this episode was short, but i still wanted to highlight her because she is pretty much a ticking time bomb.

she’s in a tight spot right now because even if she testifies about having seen the sugar packet, the prosecutor will just twist the argument by saying she colluded with a murderer just to cover up her plagiarism.

and now, seo jiho needs her help, probably for something related to his case with prosecutor jin. in exchange, she puts pressure on him to ‘confirm’ that she didn’t plagiarize in middle school, since they were schoolmates and rivals.

there may be more to this plagiarism issue than meets the eye. who knows, we might find out later on that she actually didn’t plagiarize? but given what i know now, i have no reason to believe that she didn’t. i don’t blame her specifically for that, seeing as she has to pay for the consequences for something that her awful mom forced her to do. but now that the mess has been made, i want to see how she cleans it up.

kang sol B is a very elusive character to me. the scary thing about her is that she’s on no one’s side but her own. and that’s why i think she’s a ticking time bomb.

~

bonus: han joonhwi

so that’s all i have for the serious stuff. as a bonus, i’d like to talk about han joonhwi and his four (4) children jeon yeseul, seo jiho, kang byeol, and min bokgi.

one of my friends brought up how it’s so funny how he’s somehow just at the right place at the right time all the time. this happened when he ran into kang sol A when she was looking for yeseul (i still think they were on the phone with each other beforehand but this is just my shipper self talking — truthfully, if the focus was shifted towards that phone call without divulging who it was, i have a feeling it might be more important later on), and when seo jiho confronted prosecutor jin. adding his elevator conversation with kang sol B, i think it just solidified what we already know: han joonhwi is a very compassionate person. but he doesn’t sacrifice his own personality just to appease them — he recognizes that these individuals have agency, and he’s just giving them the little push they need to make them realize what they need to do.

i also felt the need to bring up kang byeol. the show does such a good job of ensuring that all the solhwi scenes that we get, no matter how indulgent and “fanservice-y” they might seem, actually have a deeper purpose. again, i could go on and on about what each solhwi scene has actually contributed to the development of the plot, which is exactly why i love them so much! because all of their scenes are so meaningful. but anyway, it’s nice to see han joonhwi care so much for his, ehem, future sister-in-law.

and for min bokgi — this scene was so short, but i absolutely loved it so much (i tend to pay attention to the throwaway scenes): min bokgi is going off about how yoo seungjae is acting weird, and he says to joonhwi, “hyung, you should call him.” and joonhwi responds with, “sure. eat your food.” it’s such a fatherly thing to do and it’s such a great contrast to bokgi’s dynamic with sol A, with whom he’s so loud and vibrant, moods that both match their personalities, but with joonhwi, who is more subdued, he’s like a little kid in need of rescue from an older brother, or even a dad. ah, i love it so much. min bokgi is such an underrated character. i wish he had more screen time. (if he doesn’t get a central ep, well, you guys know where i’m going with this, right? it means i’ll give it to him myself.)

~

so that’s it for now! i’m sorry i went on rambling again, but if there’s anything noteworthy in this post that you think is worth discussing, please do tell! if there’s anything that you found thought-provoking in the episode that i didn’t get to touch up on, let me know as well!

i personally don’t make any theories about the overarching plot myself, seeing as by the time the new episode comes out, we get fed information that renders the theory useless. still, that doesn’t mean we should stop coming up with our own ideas. sometimes, the theories are more interesting than the canon itself.

[angelhummel]

could you rank the degrassi next class characters?

gladly!! also sorry in advance if you love any of the characters im about to shit on lol

20. Frankie Hollingsworth. Almost had her second to last but. No. Klu Klux Fran?? The ZOO?? I can't even talk about her she's just so damn annoying and racist and omg. And she was being pushed as the new Main Girl which made everything all the more offensive and unbearable

19. Esme Song. Sorry but I do not think she had a single redeeming trait. She had nothing she stood for, no actual character beyond being an antagonist to every single other person on the show. Like she thinks Shay is stupid for being embarrassed about getting her period on her boyfriend's pants, and yet she calls Yael disgusting for having armpit hair?? So what's the truth? And people are like "well she's mentally ill" to excuse all she does. Well Maya is mentally ill and Esme makes fun of her too. So who's side are we on? Like I would've liked to see her get help and develop but we didn't get that so.

18. Hunter Hollingsworth. Terrorist. Not even interesting enough to be an actual school shooter. Just a waste of a character. Sexist, violent, had a plot about wanting to play video games at school. I'm so bored. Only not at the bottom bc I feel like he wasn't in my face as much

17 & 16. Baaz Nahir & Vijay Maraj. Thing 1 and Thing 2 to the would be school shooter. Clowns. They were a terrible group and I cringed any time they had a plot together. Annoying together, useless on their own. Hard pass

15. Yael Baron. The final member of the above group. Was mostly boring and annoying and especially dumb for being romantically interested in Hunter. Only gets bonus points for their coming out as nonbinary plot. After their makeover I was literally crying

14. Jonah Haak. Mostly disliked him for being in a relationship with Frankie. Like I'm sure they were only a year or two apart but he felt so much older than her. It was gross. And mostly he's just really blah. The attempt at a straight edge character at that point was. Hilarious. at least.

13. Winston Chu. Seemed harmless at first but idk all the boys were shifted high into clown mode when this show hit netflix. The incident with the geisha and Japanese soldier costumes? Defending Zoe against Esme? Then later telling Goldi maybe she should take her hijab off to cause less of a fuss? Bruh.

12. Saad Al'Maliki. Honestly I felt like he was the one with the most braincells most of the time. Probably pissed me off the least. But he was also in the least amount of episodes and didn't make much of an impression on me. Was mostly just boring. But I'll take boring over everything that came before

11. Lola Pacini. Degrassi has a knack for introducing the worst and most obnoxious characters and then eventually making you love them. Lola was not quite that. I hated her for the longest time but it decreased a bit near the end. I got emotional when she had her abortion. And when she gave Yael their makeover. And when she reached out to Saad and convinced him not to leave. I feel like I could've grown to like her more if the show went on, but again... Oh also I hate her and Miles together sorry

10. Grace Cardinal. Ugh Grace is confusing to me. I wasn't the biggest fan of her story with Zoe. I mean sure you're allowed to hook up with someone and then realize "oh that's not for me" but it was handled so awkwardly. Like she slept with Zoe just to be like "damn i hate when everyone thinks i'm a lesbian :/" like why. Idk she was fine but I'm not over the moon about her

9. Goldi Nahir. Ugh okay I feel like they didn't know what to do with her. Like she had the plotline about if she should take off her hijab or not. And she had to teach the poor whities about racism. That was about it? She was adorable and sweet and a bright spot in the show but ugh she deserved better than what she was surrounded with lol

8. Shay Powers. Again, it's not her fault she's stuck in a show written by 70 year old white people. But the black girl is completely oblivious to the racism of her friend? She has to ask her dad if a racist thing is really racist? She's never experienced racism? Ok Degrassi. They treat all their black girls like shit and I feel like I just stan them out of spite bc of that lol. But she's cool and a nice person and she's into sports so she's at least doing stuff

7. Rasha Zuabi. Another generally nice and cool character that I have positive feelings for. Also she was gay so yay. Loved her story with Zoe. I think there was just one moment where I was like "wtf are you doing" but compared to everyone else it's not a big deal

6. Zig Novak. I have to admit that all my enjoyment of his character comes from before Next Class. He was such a sweetie and then he left and came back acting dumb as hell. That was not my boy in Next Class. But ahhh he's still my boy sorry I love him <3

5. Deon "Tiny" Bell. Basically the same as Zig above. But I feel like he maybe had a few less moments of being an asshole? Also his promposal for Shay was cute <3 Wait didn't he also date Lola? Wasn't a fan of that either.

4. Zoe Rivas. She was the one dressed up as a geisha lol (: Oh boy Next Class was something else. Umm it was nice to see her process of accepting herself as a lesbian. I feel like it took forever tho. Which is understandable irl but this is a tv show lol. I didn't enjoy her sucking Zig off in the woods. Not fun. But her relationship with Rasha was one of my fave things about NC

3. Tristan Milligan. The amount of hate Tristan gets is faaaar too much. He's one of my favorites of the whole show honestly. I think he's funny and dramatic and a great addition to the show. But he gets knocked down bc I can't remember anything he did in Next Class other than BEING IN A FUCKING COMA FOR A WHOLE SEASON. He's already Owen's brother, he's suffered enough. But I love his relationship with Miles. And him helping Zoe accept herself

2. Miles Hollingsworth. Yes another character I wasn't fond of at first. Hated his relationship with Zoe and thought he was just boring. Truthfully I think I only became interested when he started dating Tristan lol. Plus omg with his family?? It's a miracle he got out at all. He went through so much bullshit and he was especially going through it in Next Class. He was kind of a hot mess but also I just care a lot about him. He deserves the world <3

1. Maya Matlin. Is Maya really my fave?? I guess so! Yet another character I wasn't fond of at first. Which is insane bc we just got to the part in our rewatch where she first shows up and I'm like !!! baby girl!! So precious!!! And I wanted to cry thinking of what she's about to go through. I feel like her character is treated with some of the most respect and care. Her motivations and mental health decline all make sense storywise. I just care a lot about her and got super emotional watching everything in her story, especially the later parts in NC

Wow this is a lot!! But I hope you enjoyed my ranking and explanations lol. Also like. Everyone was racist. Everyone was mentally ill. That was the whole show. It was a hot mess and truth be told I am not a fan. Even the characters I love, they were acting weird here. Like I said about Zig and Tiny and their character regression. And I think it was the same for like Tristan and Zoe and plenty of others too. Everyone was off, idk how to explain it. But that's my ranking for the hot mess that was Next Class!!

Thank you for the ask, ily <3

[hayjeon]

Practical Tips on getting your fics out there!

I’ve gotten an influx of these types of questions here recently, and the more i thought about what i was gonna add, it became really long :(  

disclaimer: a lot of the things i bring up are just from personal experience as a writer on this site, what my followers have told me they appreciate, and what i tend to look for when im looking for fics to read! If you don’t like these tips then pls move on :) 

although i’ll mention them, i’m also not going to be focusing on cliche tips like “write for yourself” or “grammar issues” cause those are pretty obvious!

1. accessibility of your blog 

when you’re trying to get your name out there, make sure that you’re creating an inviting experience for any potential followers! this includes:

a memorable url! be creative!

have some fun designing your blog’s aesthetic! (i love cute blogs because it reflects a bit of the writer’s personality), and (i prefer blogs with white backgrounds because it’s easier to look through/read, say, in contrast to a pitch black one where the words need to be white!) 

put your masterlist link in your bio (even better if you can link most recent fic! found this most helpful when i revisit authors that i like and can easily see if they’ve updated or not)

an organized and easy-to-navigate masterlist (personally, i prefer masterlists organized by band, instead of types of fics ie. i hate when i have to choose between drabbles, oneshots, and series masterlists; i really prefer to see them altogether!) --> see section 3 

organized tags (if you’re going to be posting a lot of non-fic-related content like pictures or videos, tag them properly so followers can sort through and find your fics easily!), or (if you’re going to be writing in different mediums like drabbles, or answering asks, make sure to use a unified #mine or #writing or #fics to centralize your content) 

2. get your name out there!

write write write! once you have some fics that show your talent, don’t be shy! 

join writing groups: when i first started out, I joined a bunch of groups that would reblog my fics in the midst of the content of much bigger writers; these blogs developed a following, and as a result of my content mixing in with bigger blogs’ content, so did my own tumblr! there’s been a stigma recently with these groups, but im sure you can find one thats supportive and not clique-y! 

send your fics to rec pages: what’s the harm? the only bad thing that can happen is that they ignore you! who cares! get out there! 

if you can do the above, i really encourage you to ask your fave writers for advice/to read your fic: again, the worst that can happen is that they say no or don’t respond or don’t have enough time, but it’ll be a good opportunity to get some feedback! i for one read (or try to read) every single rec that falls into my inbox. if i like it, i’ll #rec it, and if i don’t, unless the writer asks me for feedback, i move on!! 

utilize your tags!!: i’m not entirely sure if this is still the same or not, but from my memory, it’s the first 3-5 tags that matter the most? so utilize them well; push back the tags that aren’t really relevant (ie. #writing, #fics) and push more the main subject line of what you wrote (ie. jungkook fluff, bts smut, namjoon angst). these will populate your fics into the tags better!

headers!: when i’m scrolling through an infinite page of fics, the headers catch my eye the most; try being creative! you can find a lot of info out there on how to make ur headers super aesthetic, but i can share my tips too! --> see section 3

3. your masterlist 

here are some practical tips! 

organize by band, not type of fic/member/centralize your masterlist: i went onto a blog recently and clicked their bio mlist link to find a page full of 20~ish “JUNGKOOK MASTERLIST”/ “JAEHYUN MASTERLIST” and when i clicked on each one, they only had like 2 or 3 fics per member. i think it would’ve been better if she’d centralized all her fics! that keeps whoever is looking interested and more likely to click on another fic while browsing

add info about the fics!: when scrolling through a masterlist, it’s easy to get lost; try to add some snippets of info (ie. a short sentence you liked from the fic, a quick summary, a description of the au/scenario, or even a header!) this all gives some info about the fics you have tagged! 

headers: this isn’t a requirement, but i personally love a good header on fics i read and i love making them myself as i finish up a fic and get ready to upload it; here are free sources: unsplash for HQ stock pics, crop/edit/filter in VSCO, and then add aesthetic script with fontcandy) 

try to fill it up!: after i visit a blog after reading one good fic, i usually browse through their mlist to see if there are any more that i’d be interested in. if there’s a lot to look forward to, i’ll almost always follow; try to write as much as you can in the first few months to try and fill up your mlist and give blog viewers a reason to visit your blog again, follow, or even reblog your content!) 

4. try not to reproduce cliche fics: 

honestly tumblr’s writing community (and armys) has grown insanely these past few years and, unfortunately, even from my perspective, in the past 3-4 years, all the writers have sort of become blended together in my brain. but, i can say that the ones who consistently stand out are the ones who produce consistent content and think outside of the box! 

i tend to gravitate towards fics that have really interesting plotlines (ex. btssavedmylifeblr’s VOID is always a surprise to read because it’s sO unique! i usually don’t read ot7 fics but this one is legit my fave) 

I know it’s tempting to try and just write typical smut fics to try and gain some traction, but tumblr is already too overloaded by that kind of content; try to write something that’s special and unique! this will set u apart from the thousands of other writers here --> see next section

5. create unique fics: 

this is also personal to my writing style, but i get so bored writing just casual fics about the members, and it affects the fics i choose to read too; i prefer unique fics which you can achieve through: 

circumstance/au: create a fun au!; don’t just create an arranged marriage, create an arranged marriage in joseon dynasty, or between a werewolf and a hunter! (shameless self plug); don’t just give me friends to lovers, but give me spiderman!jungkook friends to lovers! (ie. cupofteaguk’s exchanges)

jobs: give them out-of-the-ordinary jobs; don’t just give me enemies to lovers, but give me rival!anchors who end up loving eachother! (ie. jimlingss The Newscasters)

fun dialogue: create good back-and-forth, (something i’m still working on!)! this will help your characters develop personality, and that way, readers will start to develop that themselves as well (ie. dad!yoongi from insemination wars by prolixitae is such a specific character that i love so much!, or obiwrites’ garden characters were so memorable!)

create memorable personalities: don’t give me a flat character, try to develop 4d personalities in all of your characters! (im still working on this too!) this way you can really make an impression on your followers! a great way to practice/recognize this is: “Ask my Character.” Can your followers ask a specific character a specific question, and would you be able to deliver an answer that is very specific to that character’s tone/voice/personality? If yes, then ur doing well! If not, try to think of ways that you can make tht specific character from a specific story, really unique and separate from your other characters.

6. some practical writing tips

be yourself, write for your own pleasure, blah blah blah; yeah you know already haha but here are a few more practical tips! 

grammar check: if you can, try and hone your grammar! makes for an easier read 

write like you: i personally LOVE this by obiwrites, but even the way she writes exudes her personality and is so specific; try not to be caught up in adding hundreds of synonyms and exquisite language; in fact, simpling it down and being more concise and honest with your writing is better than a superfluous sentence; this will also give ur characters so much more dimension and funk

use those commas/sentence variation: try to use more commas; this will feel like you’re the narrator to your own story; it also makes it more fluid to read in my opinion, over those short. clipped. sentences. (ie. “he came over, sitting down on the corner of your bed with an expression you’d never seen before” over “he walked over. he sat down, looking sad.”) 

half-half dialogue/narration: a fic with too much dialogue can get confusing, and a fic with too much narration can get dry; try to balance them out, and weave in and out of each! 

quality over quantity: don’t feel burdened to write a 30k word fic. in fact, i think some of the shorter fics (ie. any of versigny’s stuff) made a bigger impression on me over the longer fics because they were short, left me wanting more, and were just so high-quality in such small quantities. try out your hand at drabbles and one-shots, and don’t feel too burdened to try and develop a series right off the bat! 

abandon pigeon-holes: i’m guilty of this; i start series and then end up with no vision for the stories and they end up giving me writers block. its okay. just stop or discontinue them or leave them on a hiatus; it’s okay. your priority is yourself, and if abandoning certain works are part of that, then go ahead. it’ll help you progress more. 

and finally.......

i’ll add more as they come up! but if you liked this, then pls lmk! i’d love to give more tips and tricks; i think i started this blog 3-4 years ago when there weren’t as many writers here, but im glad you’re thinking of starting out/wanting to grow more! don’t feel intimidated! it’s not all about the notes/followers but creating a blog you’re proud of. 

so write what you’re proud of, or interested in, and keep going. i truly thoroughly had so much fun writing this post. if there are any writers who read through this and have some more advice, pls msg me! 

all the best to you! 

[0livec0w]

How was Sally Face chapter 5?

HJDGTVFH OKAY IT’S TIME TO YELL

(insane chapter 5 sf spoilers below. I’m gonna spoil the shit out of it)

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okay so all in all. IT’S ACTUALLY KIND OF AN EH FOR ME. I feel like it kinda got a bit of the fnaf treatment meaning that a once cool and dark plotline got too complicated for its own good. I would have loved for all of the cult stuff to have just been in Sal’s twisted mind and for him to have actually been off the shits. It would’ve been great seeing him so certain he’s correct, that he’s not mad, that he HAD to kill all those people, and watching that all crumble once he realized he had made it all up. I feel like Travis wasn’t explored enough. His character did a 180 degree switch in two seconds. We barely know anything about him. The first four chapters did an INCREDIBLE job with the pacing and the slow burn, but it feels like a million things got crammed as tightly as they could into this chapter. The first four chapters seriously were astounding at character development. I grew to love every single character and I feel like this chapter kinda brushed it off. Sal seemed generic. A hollow husk that you move around with no personality. One thing I thought was cool was the different style changes throughout the game. It was a little out of nowhere but I really enjoyed it! And the hexagon puzzles are my fav. OH. PUZZLES. CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW THAT TEMPLE PUZZLE TOOK ONE AND A HALF HOURS TO COMPLETE??? IT WAS BULLSHIT AND MADE ME ANGRY. all the rest were fine after that. I enjoyed the puzzles for the most part ^^ OKAY THE FINAL BATTLE SCENE. It was crazy, don’t get me wrong. But it didn’t feel like it carried any weight at all. The guitar battle at the end of chapter 4 was AWESOME. AND IT WAS ACTUALLY CHALLENGING! I had to try hard to win and the victory carried weight. This one felt rushed and hollow. Everything in this chapter felt rushed and hollow. The final battle lasted half a second and was too simple. I enjoyed the chaos of fighting through the other worlds, but it was too fast. (ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT LARRY FGDHTREGVDHS WIZARD LOOKIN MF DFGVHTREAW AHAHAHA HE LOOKED REDICULOUS) I thought that Larry’s dad’s plotline fell flat on its face. It had a lot of good stuff going for it but LArry didn’t even get to see him! WTF??? seriously dude. He shows up, says a million cryptic things, then we never see him again. I loved the ominous feel of Sal’s afterlife and how his model looked. It was a great atmosphere and design. The first time we see Sal in chapter 5 was probably my favorite part. The build-up was good at the beginning of the chapter but it quickly gains too much momentum and loses you. Also, Ashley’s arm? that was never really explained. It was kinda like “lmao Sal did you do this?” “yes.” “okay makes sense” NO IT DOESN’T. WHY DO YOU HAVE ALL THESE NOTES? HOW DID TODD FIGURE THIS OUT?? I would’ve loved to play through that note gathering phase and learn more about the ghost and cult on your own. speaking of the ghosts, where tf did they all go. They just all disappeared at the beginning of the 4th chapter. wack. I miss Megan. So all in all, did I have fun? yes. Did I have as much fun as the other four chapters? ehhhhh. I still adore Sal and everyone, don’t get me wrong. I’ll probably make a shit ton of fanart anyways even if this ending was a little underwhelming. I can’t pretend like the last chapter ruined the other four. They’re still as incredible as always. Thank you Steve! I’m sorry I ripped apart this chapter but you truly have made an impressive and spectacular game. I will cherish it for many years to come.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S3 Ep 1: Can We Just...Ignore the Apocalypse? Let’s Just Ignore the Apocalypse.

Ah guys, we’re back, it’s a new season! Sort of! It’s a filler arc that probably won’t make a huge difference on anything in the plot but bro has promised is hella weird so lets dive into it.

Remember all the stuff we were talking about last season, and how I had to like basically carry around a notebook and take character notes like for the first time since my High School English class when we read Shakespeare? Remember how freakin complicated everything got?

Well the writers for this season decided to do a soft reset on all of that mess. Apparently they’ll get back to that crazy stuff we spent a whole season building up but with a new season they’d get a new audience of viewers, and maybe they didn’t want them to be confused. Because, lets be honest, nearly all of the latter half of S2 would be unwatchable if you did not know what was happening.

They also knew they had a problem, especially since they were waiting for the manga to catch up to the show at this point so they couldn’t accidentally step on the manga’s shoes and invent things that later negated the manga entirely. They had to edit. They had to stay as far away from the manga points as they could. And they did it in the most ridiculous way.

Y’all don’t even know this blog was *almost* a SeaQuest DSV blog. But it was pulled. So then it was almost a Kolchack the Nightstalker blog. But that got pulled. Yugioh was my third choice. Much like my dating life.

That’s right, we’re going to do a soft reset by adding a whole new set of characters! A whole new plotline to keep track of! To show us this tantalizing view of Kaiba island and then just.......detour.

It’s honestly, a welcoming thing for me, a reviewer, because I was getting hella lost and now it’s back to basics. Although, there are certain things they just...didn’t even address.

Cold as ice, Yugi. Cold as freakin ice, like way to appreciate your most interesting friend. Like maybe put that house fern where Bakura died or something. Anything.

What teenager finds out their other teenage friend freakin died last night and is like “well...that happens” and of all teenagers--especially Yugi Muto. Yugi is usually so freakin extra but he doesn’t really...seem to be freaking out. I’m so used to this kid having a melt down so often, that when he’s not having a melt down, I assume there’s something absolutely wrong with him.

Yugi kind of glazes over the more complicated parts of Season 2 in some flashbacks, and then the blimp starts shaking violently to get us right off course in both location and plot.

(read more under the cut)

We did not get a peek at anyone’s mirrors to see if the giant mystery purple bottles are still around. A shame.

Also, guess what time it is, just by looking at this image. Just guess in your head, knowing that all these people went to bed at like 3AM last night.

Yeah it’s canonically 5 AM. In grand Yugioh tradition, all these kids, mostly a bunch of really gross boys, who are still in clothes from the day before, who miiiight not have showered, are now going to continue their adventure, just piling on the gross as much as possible until this season ends. It’s like every little kid’s dream honestly.

Anyways, we’re gonna fly right into a plot dump that is maybe one of the most insane dumps this show has ever dumped--and y’all we’ve had some nuts dumps--but this one is especially weird because it actually makes sense within the continuity.

Just remember when you hear this that we are in Season 3. It is Season 3 and this has never once come up, not even once before. That one guy on the writing staff who really, really, REALLY stans Seto Kaiba apparently walked into work the day when they were making this episode and was he like “wow, everyone called in sick to work today and no one’s here but me and I can go home or I can finally just go NUTS.”

So this entire time, the Kaiba’s were basically the Patriots. OK.

I mean, it actually makes so much more sense as to why these children know how to ride a helicopter and why Seto randomly knows CQC. I never thought I would ever get a proper explanation for this but here it is. Kaiba was being honed to devote himself to the...war economy...but then he said “actually nah, because that’s too effed up even for Yugioh” and then to spite his father replaced every weapon with trading cards.

And then...accidentally weaponized trading cards in the process thus turning into his own Father. 

I guess that’s why people are legit dying in this tournament and Seto and Mokuba are like “Yeah? This is what happens?” since they were literally raised by some Hideo Kajima mini-boss. They probably have no idea what children’s games are supposed to be like, so when Yugi loses his nut and starts Shadow Realming they’re like “hm. Is this what kids are into? I’ll go along with it. See Dad? I am blending into kid culture real well. Really good at kid stuff.”

Like, it’s a good layer of irony that these two decided to bring peace and harmony to the whole earth by replacing weapons with games you’d play with children--but then they chose the one game that will absolutely end the Earth quicker than a weapon of mass destruction. Congrats. You did it.

This show, man, sometimes I’m not sure what it wants Seto Kaiba to be. Because, yeah, Seto just showed us a very nice thing he did as he randomly does--he’s basically won a Nobel Peace Prize by default--but he’s still a complete asshole. Like did he just feel like he has to show up Yugi again for saving the Earth last season by reminding us that Seto has already done that before this show ever started? That he dissolved the freakin Patriots before this show ever began?

Like Seto single-handedly fixed the entire plot of Metal Gear. Like this is the child that ended how many wars with getting rid of the ammunition? This is the child the writers chose? Seto freakin Kaiba?

And then he turned around and essentially put cards into a bunch of guns and you wear them on your wrist what the hell is even going on with this kid?

But don’t worry we won’t get even five seconds to register this plot dump, much like that time they told me that Seto freakin Kaiba has a dead soulmate from 5000 years ago who is now four separate playing cards and also probably his Great^nth Grandmother.

The Seto lore is rapidly getting more complicated than the Yugi lore and Yugi Muto is two people. Just saying.

Anyway, lets meet our new villain.

So the theme of this arc seems to also be a theme that the writers are currently wrestling with. You got Yugioh which has a very--INTERESTING background, it’s this horror manga turned effed up anime turned much more tame child’s anime and it’s like, that’s a lot of pressure for this team. Kinda feels like every time they try to do Yugioh there’s going to be people that are pissed off because it wasn’t like what came before it. And so this whole story of Kaiba trying to get out of his problematic Father’s shadow is almost like the entire writing team at this point just begging us to please let them do a thing without having to do 158 on-screen murders.

(JK, they’ll murder off more people in this very episode.)

And so this arc they decide to make this character who, as bro mentioned, is a throwback to Season Zero Kaiba, but with better hair. Sort of. Honestly, I mostly only see the white shirt as a reference but I can see what bro is getting at, especially since their hair shape and eyes are like...VERY Kaiba-ey. Anyway, I called it right away before we saw this kid that he’d be a distant relative here to claim his cut of the Kaiba inheritance pie so, because his hair is Mokuba blue-green, we’ll just make him a Season Zero green. Because it looks like no one else’s font color.

Honestly, hopefully that won’t get too confusing if he and Mokuba are speaking at the same time but I have changed Mokuba’s font color once already and now I might have to change it again...

They’re already kidnapped, right? Like all of these people on this blimp have absolutely been kidnapped by Marik and are at this moment at his mercy? (mercy meaning “he just doesn’t feel like it right now”)

So yes, Noah kidnapped them, but at the same time he’s just borrowing hostages from Marik for a little while. He’s just babysitting some other person’s kidnapees from how I see it.

Also, his name is Noah and he lives on a very big ship. That’s uh...a little on the nose there with the naming conventions, Yugioh. As far as villains go, at least this kid doesn’t live underground and get tortured with back tatts. But, with the way this show is going, I would not be surprised if all the Kaibas got Agent 47 serial codes on the back of their heads.

*I love a good Star Trek tractor beam, don’t get me wrong, but never in my life did I think I’d see a sci fi tractor beam being used on a freakin party blimp*

Marik, PS, is still standing here on top of this blimp saying “this will be very interesting to just let another villain waltz in here on my territory while I just chill on the couch for a little while. I am tired.” which was...actually pretty true to Marik. This kid will let anyone else do his job for him if given the opportunity. Such a lazy villain. In a show where all the villains have been pretty lazy.

Now, Noah insists that everyone get the hell off this blimp, but Seto was like “Really, honestly, I just want to keep one secret today. Just any secret. Lets just have this conversation in private and everyone else, please don’t mind my family issues. No need to call the cops, it’s just a light kidnapping, no big deal. Family, amiright?”

So because they’re getting shot at, they stubbornly get off the blimp.

And then Marik wrote himself right out of this arc. At least according to my bro.

So, in honor of blimp, lets give that blimp a good send off. One last time, for blimp

I will miss you, blimp.

So, down a hallway and in a room of so much bloom they run into...these guys?

I had to like really think for a while to remember who the hell these guys were, it feels like 10 years ago since that one-off MMO arc that I figured would never come back.

Apparently time doesn’t work the same, much like in Narnia, so the Big 5 are just straight up insane now. Got it. Really glad I get to try and keep track of the names of 5 new people, don’t hold me to it, I’ll absolutely forget the name of every one of these mini-bosses. Anyways, while they were strapped to Kaiba’s game for 2 months, they freakin died.

Yeah, what?

Wow Yugi killed 5 people and it’s not even Season Zero! Like this is a Yugi kill, right? Like Yugi did this entirely? Like that whole game would’ve been a lose if Kaiba wasn’t told exactly what to do by Yugi and Pharaoh? Nice.

And then they got...the digital version of Shadow Realmed.

Ah the digital space. We can go anywhere here. Any environment. Anywhere. lets see where they go.

Man this show and it’s obsession with island climates.

I say that, forgetting they’re all from Japan.

Apparently every season of Yugioh contractually has to have at least one reference to Tristan’s enigmatic ass. Thing is--assuming they’re all hooked up to sensors or whatever---is there just one that covers...farts? Like there’d have to be, right? Google, stop whatever weird self driving car glasses you’re making and get on that.

After Kaiba proves that you can’t actually touch anything in this universe, Tea immediately sees a great opportunity and just starts touching all the stuff that she can’t touch, too. So she goes over to the bushes and sees this looking back at her. From a bush.

This still doesn’t answer the question of why the hell there was a clone in the bush!

Anyway, apparently Kaiba has made hundreds of clones of himself so he could play cards since he had no friends growing up and that wasn’t even the weirdest Kaiba plot dump this episode. Kaiba and his Clone Wars just feels so tame now.

So they go over rules--it’s a lot of words all right. Whatever, we don’t go into duels here, but overall they have to choose a mascot whenever they play to act a King in chessboard. So if their mascot card dies, then they lose.

Honestly they could just kill everyone straight up but youknow, it’s Yugioh so we’re gonna throw some honor into this murder by making it card murder. It’s fine. Don’t think about it.

Ishizu just slept through everything, right? Like she looked outside, saw all this go down and was like “NOPE” and then went right back to bed? I mean...that is also sort of what she did for half of last season.

And no, Yugi never ever once mentioned that Bakura freakin died last night. Amazing.

[takaraphoenix]

Two things. One, where did you watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend? Two, Miraculous Ladybug?

Oooh. Oh, I have a very odd relationship to that one.

I definitely like it but I wanna strangle the people who were responsible for airing it? Like? The order doesn’t even make sense? And I had to consult three independent fanpages and their suggestions at viewing order to find one that suited me personally the best? And I hate that.

In today’s time and age, shows already have a hard enough time surviving. Why would you sabotage yourself by airing them in an order that doesn’t fit the timeline? It’s good that it were only minor things that messed it up, but if they had major plotline events out of synch, this could really hurt the show and I hope that they can get their act straight.

I was really very skeptical at first about this. I mean, a French-Korean cartoon? Whut? That is such an odd combination and I’ve never seen a cartoon from either country - well, French yeah, Asterix, of course.

But there was a cute guy in a literal cat-suit? So I had to at least try it.

Let me start this off with the love-square. (This show is a mess, really. Like, “Oh, love-triangles are sooo last year. Let’s mess it up even more!”)

Adrien is Chat Noir. Marinette is Ladybug. Neither knows the other’s identity.

Adrien loves Ladybug in a ridiculously adorable blushy fanboy way.(Approve. Adore. Ridiculously cute)

Chat Noir flirts with Ladybug in what would really earn him a sexual harrassment complaint if they were co-workers at literally any other job aside from superheroing. (Do not approve, because it’s highly unprofessional and no means no, Chat, get your act together, kitten)

Adrien sees Marinette as a non-sexual, non-threatening creature and a friend. (Understandable)

Marinette is... absolutely useless when she’s around Adrien because she’s hopelessly in love with him. (Nope. That girl behaves in exactly the way I hate girls acting when in love)

Ladybug ain’t having any of Chat’s silly flirting and is being professional and putting her foot down because they have better things to do. (Approve)

It’s a mess. A real mess. And when I started watching the show, I was really very annoyed by the love-story and wanted to stop watching because it was mainly Marinette making a fool of herself - I hate when girls are portrayed as those brainless morons who stutter and blush and can’t even when around the boy they like.

But then we got to see more of the love-square and I found the dynamics interesting and really adored Adrien.

And ths is why this show is a mess and why my relationship to it is so complicated. There are two characters, but four ship-possibilities between them and one of them is a NOTP while another is an OTP and something feels enherently wrong about that being A Thing That Exists.

So, my hopes for this show is that once the identities are revealed, they’ll even out into normal behavior on both sides - that is to say, Chat tunes down the aggressive flirting and Marinette tunes down the dumbness.

Though I have to admit, a huge part of why Marinette/Adrien is the angle of the square that bugs me the most lies in the flashback episode where we learn how she fell in love with him.

Until that point, I had assumed that she had been a fangirl way before they started attending school together. But to reveal in that flashback that when she first met him, they were behaving like normal human beings around each other and that she was Not Impressed by the pretty boy and had no idea that he was even a model - which, if that had stayed the angle and she had fallen in love with him in a normal way, I would have liked. But no. Instead out of some bogus little interaction, she suddenly falls head over heels in love with him and turns into a stalker.

I mean. Seriously. If he had been a celebrity she had been fawning over before meeting him, that would be a different story. But if you start putting posters up of your classmate and collecting photos of them, that is stalker-behavior. If you know that person personally, that kind of action gets insanely creepy.

Which brings me to another point where I’m confused about what this show does to me. I love Ladybug, but I really dislike all of Marinette. And, lemme repeat this just one more time, they’re the same person.

Ladybug is confident, brave, strong, even when faced with Adrien she behaves like the hero she is. She has that sense of duty that she puts even before that.

Marinette is... hopeless. She can’t even function like a normal human being around Adrien, she does ridiculous and very pathetic stuff due to her feelings for him. She’s so desperate but if she’d just act normal around him, she could already be so close to him. She also occasionally does things that I don’t approve of morally just for the sake of Adrien and wanting him.

It makes me feel weird to like half the main character? And I am really hoping that once she realizes the obnoxious kitten flirting with her is actually Adrien, she’ll callm the fuck down and start behaving normal.

Moving on from the love-square and the main character.

I like the side-characters. They’Re all ridiculously individual and the fact that the first season takes it slow enough to properly introduce all of them and give them all not just small roles but actual roles to shine and show what they’re worth and what they stand for is amazing in a world where TV is currently dominated by shows that are far too fast-paced and uses secondary characters more as props than real, fleshed out characters.

I particularly like Alya. She’s that sassy friend that just can’t be missed. I think that Marinette should have trusted her earlier to tell her about being Ladybug, because she’d have been an amazing sidekick and supporter and I feel like... this very long on-going lie between them should cause quite a rift once it’s revealed. I’m very upset about the spoiler for the coming season because it’s definitely not the direction where I wanted Alya to be taken. (If you know the spoiler, you know what I’m talking about. I don’t wanna spoiler those who managed to avoid it so far. Kudos to you)

I also like Chloé, not in the sense that she’s a good person, but she’s a good character. That bitchy antagonist at school who’s after the lead’s crush is... a very overused cliche, yes, but it’s that for a reason. Because it works in high school shows and movies. I’m curious to see where they take her character, because the best part about the antagonistic bitch is always her redemption arc where she ends up becoming the lead’s friend.

I really love the anime-feel of this show. It sets up those heroes in a way American heroes - DC and Marvel - would be set up, but it brings in all those anime-elements and I love magical girl animes to death and back. The adorable talking sidekick animals in Plagg and Tikki are so Artemis and Luna and I adore them. We got the costume change - but thankfully not as slow as in anime. The powers and color-coded different types of heroes.

And the fact that there are more. Honestly, what I particularly love about this cartoon is the big pay-off two-parter at the end of season 1 when we actually learn some about how and what is even going on here.

That there is the potential for a six-characters strong hero team is the most exciting for me. What I love about superheroes is not one hero heroing around on his own. I love the team-dynamics.

I mean, I definitely don’t want this to turn full Sailor Moon where there’s only good girls and then there’s Tuxedo Mask. Adrien can’t stay the only boy. My personal hope had been for a male fox, because Adrien is a bit of a mischievous trickster and to have a buddy who’d also fit that description would be great (yeah, I wanted to ship them, leave me alone, I’m addicted I know I have a problem).

Taking the bee out too, the only ones remaining would be the turtle and the peacock. The peacock being in Adrien’s house, I’ll get into that later on, doesn’t mean it will never be used. And the turtle belonging to the master, well, the guy’s old and I could see him die just as he reveals something potentially very important - because it’d up the stakes if the newly introduced potential mentor dies. So yeah, that could be passed on too.

Not that we’re limited to the seven Miraculouses in Master Fu’s box, of course.

After all, when he introduces the Miraculouses to us, we see this compiliation that includes Heracles with the lion fur and that stag dude. So there’s two animals already that aren’t covered in this box. Implying there are more boxes with more Miraculouses out there, so potentially we could very well encounter an entire team of male-only heroes, a mixed team, a total cliche magical girl team. I love that they opened the world in such a subtle way, like “For now, let’s focus on what we have, but seven are quite a limit so let’s keep the option for if this show takes off well to include more potential heroes”. It’s clever. I like clever in my cartoons.

Now, circling back to the peacock in Adrien’s house.

My personal headcanon slash theory about this is that Adrien’s mom used to be the peacock and his dad is the hawk moth. They used to be a hero duo just like Ladybug and Chat Noir. But then she died. And he became... corrupted. Angry, desperate, something in between.

Maybe he just wants to watch the world and the heroes using the Miraculouses burn to pay for it.

Maybe... there’s a special kind of magic linked to possessing all Miraculouses. Maybe Hawk Moth is trying to steal Ladybug’s and Chat’s Miraculouses because he thinks that if he has them all, he can use their magic to bring back his wife. And that one would be my personal theory.

So yeah, at first glance this looked like a very simple hero show, but I love the detail that went into it and the world-building and I am definitely very excited about what the coming seasons will hold.

Though it is a little ironic that I came for the cute catboy in hopes of finding a hot guy to ship him with because gays are what I watch and read and write for, but ended up actually liking the straight main pairing.

[milquetoast-on-acid]

Final Cut, A Reactionary Post

Major Crimes S2xE01, Episode Review There's a new Bitch in Town

What this episode is about: Stroh's Trial Enter Emma Rios Emma Verses Sharon and Rusty What she like? Sharon handles Rusty Andy and Provenza, tales of growing older The Last Member of his academy class Why are you walking like a clown Sharon/Andy & Emma/Julio Parallels

Stroh’s Trial

Enter Emma Rios DDA prosecuting Phillip Stroh. Here's my question. If she's the DDA prosecuting Phillip Stroh...why is she involved in all of these other cases throughout the season? She seems to make a splash in very different ways. Julio is instantly in love. And follows her around like a little puppy dog throughout much of the season. She is also rather squeamish, which is an odd thing for a lawyer who works at the DA's office. 

She acts like she's very used to getting her own way. On cases and many other things. She's hard on Rusty. And has a hard time actually seeing people. People who have feelings. 

And I love the look Mike gives him.

Emma verses Sharon and Rusty

What's she like? I love this face that Sharon gives Rusty. Sharon is fantastic at not giving anything away. And skips right over the question. So when Sharon answers with "Lt Provenza and I will both be right there with you." He sees right through her.

"A Whorfin" So I get Emma grilling Rusty about things the defense may ask him. And being tough on him is not necessarily a bad thing. Because part of her is right the defense will be hard on him as well and he needs to be ready for that. But what's not okay is straight up name calling him. And it's bullshit for her to say it, it's bullshit for her to suggest that the defense is going to call him that. If you are a respectable lawyer you may may accusations and suggest things but you won't call the opponents names.

I love that Rusty called Emma an asshole. It's a nice comparison to when Rusty grows up some in season 5b. He's opposite Linda Rothman and gives her the middle finger. Rusty's still the same Rusty but his anger is tempered to what it once was.

"Don't interrupt me." So far Sharon has held her tongue but Emma has pushed just one step too far.  I get that Emma may think that Sharon's much too close to Rusty and that it puts the changes of winning their case at risk. But Emma's going to have to get over that. Because Sharon isn't ever going to let that boy go, unless he wants to, or it's in his best interests.  

The thing about Emma is that she doesn't see people, she doesn't consider or see their feelings. And Rusty is someone that she doesn't know. At this point, Sharon and Rusty have been living together for a year and Sharon knows him probably better than anyone else. Rusty is a willful and stubborn boy who is still at that point and could leave if pushed too hard. Not to mention that, Sharon is the only reason why he's even participating in the trial. 

And the other point I'd like to make out is that cases won't always go the way you want them to. And there are things you will have to work around or factor. They aren't always going to go so easily. Emma strikes me as a smart girl but someone who's also had everything handed to her on a nice neat plate.  

"What ever happened to professional distance and good old fashioned foster care?" I love how Sharon is first shown as someone who is very professionally distant and emotional detached. But as we get to learn more about her - that isn't who she really is inside. Sharon tries to be emotionally distant (for professional and personal reasons) but she's really someone who cares too deeply and ends up getting attached rather easily. 

My point being is that the emotional distant Sharon is a facade she uses to protect herself but it only works for so long. It's something we seen with Brenda and now we are seeing it with Rusty. Despite Brenda pushing Sharon away and thinking she was just being annoying. Sharon persisted and pushed Brenda to see that she needed a lawyer and that their was someone in her division she couldn't trust. And why? Sharon didn't have to push so hard. She could have just done her job at finding the leak and auditing her division. But it was because she cared for Brenda.

"Is that a knock on me wanting to interview your foster son today?" She's very much used to getting her own way on things. I feel like she started someone where in a smaller department and bulldozed her way through it. And now she's working on the big Stroh trial and Major Crimes and she's trying to prove herself but she's not going about it the right way. She's so confident that she's right about certain things that she has blinders on and miss things that others with experience can see.

"One of the nice things about me, DDA Rios is that when I'm really unhappy about something people never have to ask." Get set Emma. When Sharon is truly pissed it's not the yelling that you have to look out for. It's that deadly smile. It's the same smile Sharon gives Sharon Beck when she finds out that Sharon B. asked Rusty to prostitute for her. I think my favorite part of the scene besides the satisfaction of seeing Sharon wipe the floor with Emma. Is Taylor's reactions. 

His oh shit face. Then his little laugh of amusement.

"Take a lot of meetings at night?" Here we get another hint that Jack cheated on Sharon during their marriage.

Mike snapping that glove. Like he's going to violate the man. Like Mike is not a scary man. But I could believe that if  in an alternative universes that all of the squad were killers. Mike would probably come up with the most painful death. Like some crazy insane acid that would burn you from the inside out. 

Here comes Asshole Taylor

Let's threaten Sharon. Yet again. This time it's threatening her with removing her foster child from her home. Can he legally do that? Can he legally remove him from her home?

Sharon handles Rusty Sharon has had to learn out to deal with Rusty. In a way that won't scare him away. She has to treat him with kid gloves at times. She can't go in talking to him and telling him that if he doesn't talk he will be taken away. That will just shut him down. Instead she tells him that it's really about him doing the right thing. Even when it's so hard for him to talk about his life on the streets. "We don't just arrest people anymore. Emma. We help get them convicted." One thing that I did like about Taylor in this. Was him not backing Emma when she was so eagar beaver to go to trial.

Andy and Provenza, tales of growing older

I just love this shot. Who ever did photography in this episode. A+!

The last member of his academy class still on the job

Poor Provenza, he's feeling kind of lost I think. As the only one of left from his academy class still working. It's interesting Provenza later starts a retirement fund with his new printer. A fund for retirement that probably won't ever happen. 

Retirement has been a subtle thread for Provenza since this season. Although I think that Intersection is the only time I only felt it from him. That he could possibly retire. Like Andy, I don't think Provenza would know what to do with himself (or who he is) without his job. Even Andy calls him out on it. He'd be bored AF. 

"Why are you walking like a clown?" Gotta love Provenza! I don’t remember recalling Provenza saying that to him. Andy looks like such a dork walking around Provenza like that. But an adorable one. 

also...how could I have missed this line!?

"My doctor has a problem with my health I get my xray's touched up." haha! Typical Provenza! He's such a cheater.

Sharon/Andy & Emma/Julio Parallels

I never noticed this but...

hmmm....

I always thought that Andy’s dopey look here was more Tony than Andy but now I’m not so sure. Seems pretty deliberate now. Especially now that I’m seeing so many parallels between the couples now. 

"Low low family discount of 5 cents per page." Celebrity threat division I love how Amy can drum up some really great bullshit the suspects/witness' buy right into. "How could I have forgotten that?" This guy's head is so far up his own ass that he didn't even remember that his wife was pregnant. Great dad there!

What I don't like: There really isn’t much that I don’t like about this episode. Nothing really comes to mind. 

What I like: I like that there is a new cast member and that she's female and a poc. There are not enough female characters on this show. I like them adding another antagonist. 

It’s a interesting enough case to start the season on. There is a lot of stuff going on with the squad. There are different plots and character storylines that get their subtle start here there run throughout the rest of the season (and some beyond). It’s nice that we get more plotlines here than just Rusty Beck’s life. 

Also that this episode was directed by a woman. That’s B’Elanna Torres to all of you Trek folks out there. Who got her start directing on...Voyager. ;)

[uman143]

How I would do Dragonball Super

I’m 40+ episodes into Dragon Ball Super on Toonami and it’s mostly not very good.  But there are some elements of it that I do enjoy, so I’m going to write down how I would do the series if I was in charge.

- I won’t get bogged down thinking about how I would do it from scratch, no one would want to read that anyway.  It’d just be fanfiction.  I’m going to use what we already have as a base. - The overarching thing connecting most of the plots in Super is the focus on gods and the higher workings of the DB universe.  This is a good idea.  There’s always been sort of an upward trend of that through the entire franchise, where we start thinking Shenron is a sort of god, then meeting Kami and Piccolo who are like god and the devil, learning how heaven works at the beginning of Z, and so on until we get to Supreme and Elder Kai.  This works especially because the power levels at the end of Z are so high that it feels right that we need to go into those higher strata and eventually into other universes to find higher power levels. - Starting from there, I’m going to go through the whole show and say what I would keep and not keep.

- So, for Battle of Gods, I like that Goku never actually matches Beerus’s power.  It sets a goal for him to continually get to throughout Super and it feels very cosmic.  What I don’t like is the lack of explanation about almost anything interesting that’s introduced here.  Heck, there’s explanations for things that we didn’t need, like how Beerus met Vegeta’s dad, but there’s no explanation on how the Saiyans have this insane ritual that lets them become gods. - Remember how Dragonball Z was much more serious than Dragonball?  Well, the change from DBZ to my DB Super is that a lot more is explained.  There’s more mythology, so we can explain where all these super high power levels come from.  They can’t just get away with having them go higher and higher with no real change in how they train, or no explanation for how Super Saiyan God works.  That’s one of the most annoying things about Super to me.  They just throw any real sense of progression out the window.  It’s almost like a challenge to the writers: So you want to make a new Dragonball series.  How do you justify having powers continually grow beyond their already insane amounts (there’s a hint of this in the Buu arc, where almost every powerup in that arc is due to magic)?  I think that warrants explanation, and I myself am explaining this choice a lot because I know it’s kind of controversial to think of DB with a bunch of exposition.  But think how much cooler Super Saiyan God would be if it got more buildup than “I heard this thing exists?” and then asking Shenron about it?  What if Bulma actually had to do some kind of intergalactic research about this, like she does a bit later in the show?  The Saiyans need to have some concrete connection with the gods in order for SSG to be a thing.  There’s talk in that arc about “Divine Power” and it seems to almost be different from regular power.  That’s never explored, but it’s interesting.  

Surprise Note: Between the time I started writing this and the time I posted it, Toriyama actually tried to explain a little bit about Super Saiyan God in an interview, which is amazing.  However, the explanation is more related to the original SS form, and also is about as good as the one I come up with here, so I’m keeping the following in the post. The Saiyans are this race that are wildly amazing warriors, turn into giant monkeys, and get stronger every time they heal from injuries.  What if there was a battle-obsessed Kai a long time ago who made this race somehow, and SSG was invoking his spirit?  That doesn’t sound too complicated, right? - You can keep the ritual itself and especially Videl’s involvement, which is the most creative thing in Super thus far.  You can keep the cruise ship setting because that’s new and interesting.  You can even keep Pilaf’s involvement because why not. - We need to explain why Goku can still breathe in space and retain the god power after it supposedly runs out, or just have it not run out at all.  We need to change the scene where Beerus hits Bulma, because it doesn’t really amount to anything except another declaration from Vegeta that he loves his family, which we know.  That could easily be a smaller more subtle moment where he simply takes that hit for her without saying anything.  And we need to change those weird-ass energy waves created by Goku and Beerus clashing that threaten to destroy the world or universe or whatever.  Those were so stupid.  Where did they come from?  Why do we never see them again?  They’re unneeded because this arc should be about Goku proving himself and realizing how much further there is still to ascend.  And Beerus threatening to destroy the world is enough, we don’t need these energy waves. - One final thing we need to get into is what exactly being a Destroyer means.  I don’t mind them existing, but we need to get into what the Kais do that counteracts the destroying - do they create new worlds? - And we need to understand how it is that Beerus can seemingly stop destroying anything after this arc, when that’s supposedly his purpose.  In one of the more recent episodes that aired on Toonami, Zeno actually says that it is their purpose to destroy.  So why aren’t they doing it anymore?  Yes, it would be weird to have him still running around destroying entire civilizations in a show with a light tone like this, but that’s just something that needs to be reconciled with what we know about Beerus. We saw him destroying planets early on in the show, and that was also weirdly lighthearted when it should be a bigger deal.  You can’t just introduce a character who blows up billions of people every day and treat it like it ain’t no thing.  So just, figure that stuff out I guess. - I don’t have too many problems with the beginning of the Golden Frieza arc.  It’s fine to have a plotline focusing around Pan’s birth.  I would say the Mr. Satan stuff is unneeded - it’s yet another story about him being confused for being stronger than he is.  Just have him be more involved in the Pan storyline, he’s her grandfather after all.  Mr. Satan can be funny without doing that one thing. -I don’t mind that Whis trains Vegeta and Goku either.  It’s kind of a cool twist to have him be Beerus’s teacher, and gives you the idea that there’s stuff about the higher workings of the universe that still have yet to be explained (and of course, at this point, there are).  I think Beerus should also still be relatively hostile to Goku and Vegeta at this point, because I assume we don’t want to make him not a destroyer, so the other option is that he’s still planning to go around destroying at this point, which means he should be less quick to be friends with them.  This isn’t too hard to do since he’s a pretty ornery guy anyway.  But the training itself needs to be more interesting.  They get into this a little bit, with Whis teaching them to move without taking the time to sense ki and stuff.  There should be more unique methods and things like that - these are crazy levels of power, it has to be unorthodox.  Also, if we’re going to do Super Saiyan Blue in this arc (and I’m not sure that we will), hint at that a little bit beforehand. - Don’t show Champa and Vados so early though.  They distract from the main threat this arc, and sort of make you want it to end so you can see what’s up with them.  Or actually, maybe you could show them and...Hold on, I’ll get to this in a minute. - So, Frieza.  Some stuff about his reintroduction can be improved.  In Super, he just has some remnants of his army running around, and they use the Dragonballs to wish for pieces of his body, and then reform him using technology.  I just feel like this should be more hard-fought.  I see why the Dragonballs need to be used, so we can keep those.  But instead of his army just running around in a ship somewhere, we should see what it’s like still pledging your life to this dead empire.  What have they been doing in the many intervening years?  Are they space pirates?  Do they recruit people?  Are they viewed as something like a cult on other planets?  Let’s see how far they had to come to get to this point.  Then, after they use the Dragonballs, they shouldn’t just be able to get Freiza into tip-top shape just like that.  Maybe once they revive him he’s in a much weaker, almost emaciated state, and has to train harder than ever to even get back to how strong he was before.  And yes, we’re removing that stupid bit about Freiza never having to had to train before.  The dude had three different forms to conserve his power because he had so much.  You can say that he was born with some of that, but don’t say that he didn’t train at all.  Since he’s weak, we can also have him be a bit more grateful to the people that revived him, and I’m either-or on whether he should still shoot Tagama or not because I tend not to like it when villains hurt their henchmen, having seen it eighty billion times in One Piece.  So, now, instead of making a new form to conserve his power, he’s making a new form to attain higher power, which he’s never done before.  Of course, we don’t know about Golden Freiza until he transforms into it later, but we can hint that that’s what he’s trying to do.  I think we should see a little bit of his training, and that technology should be a big part of it.  Instead of it completely reviving him to his former strength, it can revive him into a weaker form and then help him get back to normal, and further.  He’d be like Ivan Drago from Rocky.  Golden Frieza would be a testament to the power of technology, that it could be used to get Frieza to the level of gods.  But if he comes back weaker, it could take him a long time to train.  Longer than it takes in the show, which is already awhile.  Maybe we could have something happen during his and Goku and Vegeta’s training.  Maybe something like...A Tournament? - Yes, I’m thinking about putting the Beerus Vs. Champa arc here, before Frieza comes to earth and before Super Saiyan Blue.  I don’t think it’s a terrible idea, though I’m not married to it.  Let’s just think about it. - You would lose almost nothing by doing it.  Don’t want to lose the surprise reveal of SS Blue during the Frieza fight?  No one said putting the tournament before it meant that Goku uses that instead of Kaio-Ken at the end.  Just make him use the Kaio-Ken with regular SS God.  It’s a Super Red Super Saiyan, and you still get your surprise reveal.  Frieza’s eventual comeback may only be made more interesting by having Frost show up before him (or before he comes to Earth in any case).  Seeing who is essentially a more powerful Frieza get put down easily by Vegeta shows you how far our Frieza has to go.  It’s not too important that Jaco’s introduction is when it is, he’s not that good of a character anyway.  Introducing the revelation of multiple universes and King Zeno’s promise of a tournament in the future might serve to make viewers impatient during Frieza’s return, but I’m pretty sure Goku Black doesn’t have much to do with the Tournament of Power either, so why not two arcs that don’t?  The Frieza thing is pretty short anyway. - I don’t really know if there’d be a net gain from putting this tournament where it is.  I think part of why I want to do it is so we can have more time with SS God before it stops being used completely.  And after the tournament arc, Goku and Vegeta continue to train with Whis and everything continues like normal.  So, it’s just something to think about.  I’ll get to what I would change about the 6&7 Tournament later.  First I have a few more things to say about Frieza. - I think the leadup to the Frieza fight itself should generally be more intresting but I’m not sure how.  It’s just a battle with a bunch of Frieza’s henchmen, and Tagama is the only one that really gives them any trouble.  Even just having the army attack a city instead of some random place would be more interesting. - Since it might seem like I’m being pretty hard on the series here I just want to say that a lot of Frieza’s dialogue is really good.  At least (maybe especially) in the dub.  He has a lot of really great and funny lines about how pissed off he is.  I hope Chris Ayres can recover quick and continue voicing the character because I know he shows up again.  I also like the hell Frieza was in.  That can stay also. - The main thing I want changed about Resurrection F is that it should be Vegeta’s big win.  Super tries to use Vegeta well, I can tell, but they still don’t use him the right way.  This second Frieza fight is his opportunity to have a real win, against the guy that destroyed his planet no less.  I know this is something some fans wanted when the movie came out, and I agree with them.  The whole time reversal thing is bullcrap the writers did so they could have both Vegeta AND Goku win, but that’s not really how it works.  Goku’s win is second, Goku’s win is final, so it’s Goku’s win in the end.  No.  Keep the time reversal and switch their roles, or do something else, I don’t know.  Vegeta should deal the final blow here. - Golden Frieza could probably be changed a bit.  Make him look slightly different, or make it so it’s made of nanites or something, like a weird upgrade of Cyborg Frieza.  I don’t mind the gold and purple coloring itself though. - Piccolo dying is a bit overdone, also.  Kill Kr- wait he died twice.  Kill Yam- wait he also died twice.  Kill Tien. - The arc isn’t that long so there’s not much more to comment on.  Moving on. - Okay, so let’s talk about the 6&7 tournament now that we’re at the point where it is in the real Super. - Surprise: I don’t mind Monaka.  This is actually pretty funny because I was under the impression that he was actually a strong fighter, because when these episodes first aired my friends showed me a picture of him on the wiki and said “This guy is supposed to be stronger than Goku!”  He’s a gag character and he doesn’t hurt anybody, so whatever. - But I really don’t like Zuno-sama.  The only saving grace of that whole episode is them randomly running into the dine-and-dashing frogman that Jaco was looking for.  The rest of the episode is mean jokes about Bulma being old and other uselessness.  Zuno lives on this weird planet that’s shaped like some piece of Japanese esoterica that makes no sense, and he knows all.  Why?  We don’t know.  He’s lame and Bulma can just learn about the Super Dragonballs some other way. - The Super Dragonballs are fine, though it’s a bit weird that they’re used this early on.  I guess they’ll probably be used again in the final arc?  And where did these things even come from?  It’s said that the Namekian ones were carved from these, but I thought that Kami created the Earth dragonballs - shouldn’t that mean Guru the Namekian elder created the Namekian ones, with magic or something?  This isn’t something I necessarily want explained, but it is weird. - Goku should use his other Super Saiyan forms more.  These are cool-looking forms, let’s see them.  Goku’s in base form for most of this.  Why? - I don’t really mind the fights and fighters from this arc.  The first guy could maybe be replaced with someone more interesting, but everyone else is cool.  Frost’s thing where he seems nice and turns out to be evil is good.  There are some pretty good wins for Vegeta this arc, though they didn’t quite satisfy me as I said previously.  The Cabba fight, especially, is another “Vegeta is cool/cares about stuff” moment that isn’t handled as well as it could be.  The audience actually thinking Vegeta might be turning evil again is so damn stupid.  I don’t really like the alternative - the classic battle shonen thing where the hero’s friends deduce his true actions and nod their heads and smile knowingly - but these people know Vegeta pretty well by now, it’s been like two decades since the Frieza arc where he started to turn good. There doesn’t need to be any real tension here.  This fight is like a break from the tension. - The Magetta battle is pretty good, though I have no idea if you were supposed to understand what he was saying most of the time.  I guess that’s a dub issue. - And then we come to Hit.  Hit’s cool, but his look needs an update.  He’s just a purple man in some clothes.  Give him some tattoos, or something.  Some indication that this guy has been through a lot.  Also, as the strongest man from his universe, assassin is a pretty interesting job for him.  He could be pretty much anything he wanted, so I wonder if there’s a story behind that. - And his ability is also pretty cool, but it was weird - he essentially uses it to close the distance between him and an enemy, right?  But when he’s going, like, half a second or one second, well, that’s probably more than it would take him to just fly to the enemy....I’m not really sure how it works.  Is it like King Crimson from Jojo?  Maybe just make this a little more clear.  Also have it so his body gets pretty effed up when he continues improving it near the end of the fight.  That’s gotta take a toll on him.  But I don’t really need an explanation for how he learned it or anything.  It’s just one of those weird abilities that a single character will have in Dragonball. - Goku’s way of winning the fight is fine I guess.  Though, it’s weird that he went Kaio Ken x20 when fighting Frieza, but now x3 or 4 is okay.  If we’re putting this arc before Golden Frieza, I definitely think that having him just do Kaio Ken with regular SSG is a better move than having him go Blue right there. - Grand Zeno can be introduced here, but maybe make it after the Super Dragonballs are used?  It kind of depends on which one you consider more important.  Just something to think about. - The Super Dragon should look slightly different.  Its design is fine but its arms especially are weird. At the current point, we’re one episode after that, which was a fillerish episode where Goku fought Beerus who was disguised as Monaka.  I don’t know if I would make that a full episode, but it’s not insulting enough for me to be mad about it or anything.  The show, to its credit, does try to involve side characters a fair amount.  It’s not surprising that this is the Goku and Vegeta show at this point, so I’m not going to complain that I want to see others more - I do personally wish Uub could have been in this series, but I understand why they set it when they did, too. Obviously though, there’s still one elephant in the room:  The show looks kinda bad most of the time.  It’s regular Toei crap, where even though they should be able to hire the best in the biz, they hire people who don’t seem to care that much.  It’s lame.  The show just looks kind of glossy most of the time which kind of hurts it.  The old anime had this sort of rough look to it that a lot of old anime have, and it might partially be nostalgia that I like that better,t surely they could have tried to be evocative of that here, in HD?  I don’t know.  The show could definitely look better and be better animated.  There should be effects everywhere to showcase the massive power levels.  And maybe, just maybe, the characters could.....look a little closer to their actual age.  Just a little, maybe!!!  I dunno.  That’s it.  Thanks for reading.