#I mean the trump parallels were on point this season

[goldyapper]

That ending with that score. My god. TV does not get any better than this does it?

Homelander being accepted for the piece of shit he is so fucking horrifying.

[haleigh-sloth]

Do you believe in the theory that Tenko was born quirkless and was given his quirk by AFO while Deku was born with a quirk and quirk was stolen at a young age? I know the latter sounds kind of far fetch, but it's a weird theory I have while on the other hand I do actually believe Tenko was born quirkless. Do you think Tenko and Izuku will both lose their quirk at the end?

Gonna say a Hard No to the Izuku being born with a quirk and it being stolen. Nothing substantiates that and it contributes absolutely nothing to Izuku's arc thematically or sensibly. I mean, in any way whatsoever, it adds nothing. So no I'm definitely not sold on that one.

But I'm gonna say that while I was on the fence about it for a long time before, I now am convinced Tenko was born quirkless and given decay.

I have one main reason backing up the idea that he was indeed born with it, but it's not enough to trump the reasons I think he was quirkless. So I'll just put it at the very end.

I was always on the fence about it because it could honestly turn out either way. If he had been born with decay, well, that sucks. It all still happened the way it did. If he wasn't and AFO gave it to him, then that sucks even MORE and adds more fuel to the fire. But either way, the story with Shigaraki would have played out to the same ending regardless.

But now I do really think we will find out that Tenko was given decay.

I say this because I always found it weird that in MVA it was pointed out that he didn't have a quirk. I feel like if he was really born with decay and there was nothing more to it, there wouldn't have been any need to make it A Thing that he was quirkless beyond the age expected to gain a quirk. Kotaro could have just said "no heroes no ifs ands or buts" regardless of quirk, like he did with everyone else in the family, and it didn't necessarily have to be a thing worth mentioning that he had no quirk at the time. I know that's like, nitpicky, but things are done intentionally in a story.

And then of course the mysterious man in the hat that dropped Tenko off at home at the beginning of his flashbacks, and then that same man in the hat picking up Touya's burnt body (who we know is AFO) in chapter 350--further tying AFO to his hobby of watching, manipulating, and eventually kidnapping of vulnerable kids.

Then even more--parallels to the MC. There are a few parallels already, and their stories don't parallel perfectly because they're meant to intertwine rather than run parallel, but this only adds more to it.

Then this is where I'm less keen to rely on the anime, but can't ignore a detail that it gave us--Tenko's eyes and hair. I always thought he just had naturally red eyes, and then his hair turned white from stress (yes I know it doesn't work fast that way but this is anime). But--I like the theory @helga-grinduil has about how when the decay quirk activated, that's what changed his eye and hair color. I mean I guess in bnha land, anyone who manifests a quirk could and would change appearance. But again, there is other evidence to support that his appearance changed because of a quirk that he was not born with. His eyes were originally gray, then changed to red. My biggest hold up with this though is that we are relying on the anime for this detail--and at that, season 5 of all seasons. Where I really am not sure if I should trust any detail they put in at all, honestly. But I don't want to ignore it. It's possible that's a clue. It's not like we would know by reading the manga.

Now I'm gonna walk into strictly prediction territory meaning I can't cite canon for this, where I can't say this is for sure a thing but something I definitely think is going to happen, very very likely so. Izuku seeing Tenko's memories. At first it was just a desired idea, a fanfic idea. But this is bnha, where fanfic ideas become canon quite often. And it just so happens that as things play out more and more, this idea seems more and more plausible and likely. For so many reasons that would make this post longer than necessary--but the main one being that this is literally the best way for us, Izuku, and Tenko both to discover where decay came from. Revisiting the memories once again, and seeing something that Tenko may have shut out before but Izuku sees it when he gets in there. Again--an idea and a prediction, can't say for sure this will happen. But it feels likely, at this point.

The biggest reason I think it wouldn't be that AFO gave him decay is strictly to disprove Redestro's take that quirk affects personality and makes someone act a certain way. He accuses Shigaraki of being destructive because of his quirk. Shigaraki retaining his quirk, having been born with his quirk, but still proving that he isn't destructive in nature would hold up as a powerful idea. "My quirk doesn't define me". And him having to learn to live with decay and everything that comes with that would hold up in the end as a good message. Great, yeah! But also the idea that he's destructive in nature can be disproved just as easily by showing that he never had that quirk in the first place, never wanted to hurt anybody initially. Not as powerful a message on the quirk front (cuz like, whoever had decay isn't inherently destructive you know?) but I am not entirely sure that this little detail is necessary in disproving that he's a destruction incarnate.

The entire thing with the Shimuras will disprove that he's a destruction incarnate and all will be well. But that's just me keeping my mind open to the possibilities.

Also, idk if Shigaraki will end up quirkless, but I'm convinced Izuku will. I'd like them both to tbh. But whether they both do, or one of them does, or neither of them does, isn't a deal breaker for me.

[duran-duran-less-official]

Thoughts:

I agree with the takes that say we likely won't see a return to 2005-era Russell T. Davies television. My point of reference would be something like, 2005-2008 Rusty is like a parallel to 2010-2013 Moffat, and 2023-onwards Rusty is more likely to parallel 2014-2017 Moffat. There's a clear split there where Moffat ditched some of his more egregious excesses as his showrunning matured (helped by dealing with cranky old professor Capaldi instead of... well still a nutty old professor, but trapped in the body of a 20-something Matt Smith) and I have a feeling Rusty will have developed in the same way.

Judging by what Russell has done since Doctor Who, I DO think the coming seasons will be gayer. How that will manifest, I'm not sure.

I've noticed a not-inconsequential number of people saying "ugh, not just another white man but THE SAME white man?? Truly shows the BBC's lack of creativity in this department". To which I say, you nincompoops. The success of the show hasn't been measured by the showrunners identity credentials, it's been measured by how much they love the show. A black woman might be a fantastic showrunner in general terms, but if she doesn't care deeply about the history and legacy of this show in particular, then it will never work. Not for Doctor Who. Steven Moffat didn't survive 8 years of the most vile hatred a showrunner has ever received (maybe apart from, fittingly, the Supernatural fanbase) because he was white. He survived it because he genuinely loved the show, and only now that we've seen the alternatives to his reign have people started missing what he brought to the show. Russel didn't return because the BBC will only hire white guys. He returned because he loved the show and he has the combination of work ethic and passion to make it succeed. The only truly alarming thing about this news is how few competent showrunners there are within the BBC network who care about Doctor Who.

It really is a tragedy how much of the public perception of the Doctor Who fandom is still tied up in Superwholock to this day. It has far, far too much legacy behind it, and likely a future ahead of it, to be lumped in with the other two. It deserves better.

I'm also seeing a lot of people calling out other people for saying that Doctor Who will no longer be "woke", and I think that speaks to a sharp divide in what those two groups mean by that one word. As I say, I fully expect RTD to embrace LGBT rep in the show in one way or another, but at the risk of No True Scotsmanning, I doubt most fans would think not to expect that. What they DO object to, I think - certainly what I object to - is the way that political content I could 100% have handled in the days of RTD and Moffat was executed under Chibnall. Rusty never had a character go "I'm gay by the way! Did I mention how gay I am? *dies immediately*". Moffat got preachier in later seasons but Capaldi's speeches were passionately delivered and relevant to the characters in the scene. Nobody ever turned directly to the camera to speak to the audience. Understanding Capaldi's speeches made you feel smart; Whitaker's made you feel smarter than the writer thought you were. Not one of the characters was ever so obviously a fictionalised version of a real political figure as The Donald Trump Character from Chibnall's tenure. Walking away from serious racist conflicts to hammer home the message that humans are the real monsters was never part of the Doctor's M.O. under Rusty. It's preachy, it condescends to the audience, it betrays things that the characters should stand for, and above all it's just not very intelligent or imaginative writing. That is what people object to. The hope is not that the Doctor will stop destroying Capitalism or Orwellian Regimes or Slave Labour ("Oxygen", "The Lie of the Land", "Planet of the Ood") to become 'un-woke', the hope is that RTD will actually be able to craft relevant political subjects into actually entertaining sci-fi stories again.

If even RTD can't make Doctor Who work for modern audiences (unlikely but possible), then we have some idea of who REALLY made post-2005 Doctor Who work, and that is Murray Gold.

[mindibindi]

Beyond disappointed in Ted Lasso. What were they thinking?!

The writing is a complete betrayal and insult to Rebecca’s character and Hannah’s skills as they’re being seriously underused. It’s also insulting Sam’s character.

Hoping someone pulls Rebecca’s head out of her ass tbh. Sam shouldn’t be getting caught in the crossfire of her looking for romance. I know he showed up at her doorstep but she still should’ve turned him away, and not even messaged him in the first place.

Hey, I'm with you, Anon, though we do seem to be in the minority. Sam is definitely not blameless here, he is also in the wrong. But if one of them is more in the wrong, it is Rebecca. I can't speak to whether her head has left her arse as yet because I have quit watching (at least for now). I hear she called it off with Sam in the most recent ep, though not because of any major crisis of conscience or because anyone in her inner circle expressed any reasonable reservations in response to her bad behaviour. And to be honest, I'm not sure we should need to hope and pray that Rebecca's precocious god-daughter, her slimy ex-husband, or the brutal British press will act as a moral compass on this ill-advised relationship. Both Rupert and the press have been set up to some extent as the villains of the piece. And a 14 year old should never have to school her elders on what is and isn't acceptable. Nora's needs have already been neglected by Rebecca for far too long.

If a moral position is to be taken on this, it needs to be taken by the show (because stance matters) and/or by its characters. But the show has for the most part depicted this relationship as ill-advised but ultimately hot, sweet, funny and romantic. As for the characters themselves, Sam has shown at least once that he has some moral backbone but seems to be adorably clueless when it comes to fucking his boss who keeps trying to set boundaries with him. Meanwhile, Rebecca's whole arc in s1 was about learning not to misuse her power for her own selfish ends. In season one, she misused her power within the club in order to exact revenge. In season 2, we have seen her misuse her sexual power, though I still cannot see to what end. I'm a bit at a loss as to what exactly she gets out of this 'relationship' but then I'm a grown woman so I have absolutely no interest in sleeping with a Harry Potter enthusiast barely out of his teens. I couldn't think of anything less sexy and more ick. I was certainly hoping for better character development for her this season.

As to what the writers were thinking, obviously I was not in the writer's room, but I would guess that they were thinking that any drama is good drama, people are stupid and fan devotion will trump any meaningful critique. In other words, they were thinking exactly how every other television writer thinks, despite the fact that this show posited itself as 'not like other TV shows'. This, to me, is where the blame really lies. Not with the characters or with the actors who are doing their best to sell this ludicrous turn of events. It must be noted, however, that both actors were completely blindsided by this relationship that had supposedly been so cleverly foreshadowed. Newsflash: if the people actually living these stories did not see this coming then you haven't foreshadowed shit. Sure, there were a handful of people that paired Rebecca with Sam but this does not constitute proof either. Fans have free-range to imagine and re-imagine characters. In some cases this may extend to imagining relationships between characters who have barely, if ever, interacted. There may be little to no evidence that these characters have even clocked each other's existence and some fans will still ship it. The existence of a handful of shippers does not legitimise such a problematic and divisive plotline making it onscreen.

But wait!, you might argue, this may not be a case of a popular show seeing just how far they can stretch fan devotion. This may not be a case of fan service to a handful of shippers. After all, the creators mapped out the entire three-season arc of Ted Lasso before they even pitched it to Apple. This was their brilliant plan all along! To which I would say: then maybe they should've rethought their second act based on people's strong reactions to their first. Ted Lasso was touted as the show we all needed in 2020. The writers and creators have all marveled at the chord it struck considering it was conceived prior to the pandemic and all the chaos it wrought. And while there is something to be said for having/sticking to a creative vision, there is also something to be said for being flexible and responsive to your audience and the cultural zeitgeist with which you're engaged. Season 1 of Ted Lasso told its story so gently, without creating distrust, division or unnecessary anxiety. It did not treat its audience like a gaggle of stupid lemmings to be led over a succession of narrative cliffs. THIS is what I mean when I say the show has broken with its brand. And look, this whole dark forest thing would be okay if the narrative arc was as well-crafted as s1. Season 1 gave us meaning, cohesion, comfort, sense in a senseless time. It was an almost perfectly crafted season of television. And I kept the faith for 6 episodes, despite the first half of s2 being pretty damn wobbly. But the follow-up to this stellar debut has been less than extraordinary so yeah, perhaps they should've thought a little harder about what made s1 so special before throwing it all out the window.

But wait!, I hear the faithful say, you don't know how things will pan out yet! Wait until the season is over and everything will make sense! But -- wearily and once again, I say -- we should not need to wait until the end of the season to understand what the hell is happening. By this point (over halfway through the season and show) we should have a v clear idea of the show's themes and the characters' arcs. And tbf, from what I can tell there are some fab things happening in other aspects of the show that I wish I could watch and enjoy. But my biggest fear at this point is that they are going to use Sam to solve Rebecca's childlessness. That, like Rupert (because the parallel cannot be avoided), she will become pregnant with a young fling and the show's attitude to this relationship will ultimately be: oh well, it was a bad idea and didn't work out for them but it was all for the best in the end cos who can be mad about a cute lil baaaayyybbbeeee??!! If they do go down this path then I will definitely be abstaining from the rest of the show. I will simply recall my repeated viewings of s1 with fondness tinged with regret at just how badly they fucked up a good thing.

Ultimately, Anon, I think this may be a case of there simply not being a diverse enough perspective in the writer's room. I am not saying that every single woman or every single person of colour will necessarily object to this relationship. I am simply saying that women and people of colour will be more sensitive to the issues of gender and race that are relevant here but that have not been fully or sensitively acknowledged in the writing of this plotline. Neither am I saying that Rebecca is the first woman to sleep with a man much (much, much, MUCH) younger than herself or indulge in an ill-advised relationship. But the comparison with Rupert both works here and doesn't because Rebecca is not being written like a white woman, she is being written like a white man. Realistically, only a white man can engage in this kind of hugely imbalanced relationship seemingly without any major moral qualms or societal ramifications. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this kind of relationship is reserved for all the Bills and Joes and Brendans and Jasons out there -- not for the Rebeccas and definitely not for the Sams. We are way beyond the point in feminism where we believe that liberation is simply the right for a white woman to behave as badly as a white man. The truth is that whatever wealth, power and privilege Rebecca has, the rules are different for men and women. She will not be treated the same as Rupert if and when this affair is uncovered. She will be treated far more savagely than Rupert ever was and Sam will be treated far more savagely than Bex was. This is not an argument for the equal treatment of these two relationships. It is an argument against how the relationship between Rebecca and Sam has been envisaged, i.e. through the wrong perspective. In writing from a 'neutral' white male pov, the show has invisiblised all the many issues activated by this storyline and revealed a blindspot that was always there.

As much as I loved and still love season 1 of this show, it has definite blindspots when it comes to representations of race and gender. There are at least two moments in s1 that stand out for me as being so obviously written by a man. Not necessarily because of what they do but because of what they don't do: what is missed, absent, unacknowledged. I was willing to overlook such minor failings in a debut season for many reasons. But s2 seems to have exacerbated these minor flaws rather than correcting them. And here I can't help thinking of Tina Fey speaking of the diversification of the writer's room at SNL during her tenure as co-headwriter. This notoriously male-dominated environment only began to shift and produce better work when a greater diversity of minds, voices and persepectives was allowed in the room. In this richer environment, she notes, different jokes played differently. Different sketches made it to air. Different perspectives were represented and different performers were celebrated. I can't help wondering if this plotline would have made it to air if there had been a female writer, a writer of colour or both further up the chain of command to challenge the ideas of the straight white dudes in charge.

One of the reasons I didn't think Ted Lasso was for me was that it centred a straight, white, cis-het, able-bodied man who rose to a position he didn't earn. That is just not a pov I would normally choose for myself, especially now that there is such a rich array of alternative perspectives through which to view the world. But I think the show won a lot of females fans with its first season largely due to its portrayal of Rebecca. She is the first person we meet. She is arguably the protagonist of s1. And while she would have been figured as a villain in previous pieces, the show never took that stance with her (because again, stance matters). Other elements like the depiction of female friendships, all centred around Rebecca, made this show female-friendly viewing. But imo, the major reason this show won over female fans (this one, at least) is because, in this post-MeToo, post-TimesUp era, it stood up and said: domestic violence is not okay, we stand with women and all victims of abuse, we will defend you, we know words can hurt, we know it can happen to anyone, we know all about toxic masculinity, we do not take this lightly and we will support you in your healing. Needless to say, this is how women hope men will act when they speak of their most difficult experiences but it is not how they always do.

The shift away from Rebecca this season has however meant that the white male experience is more centred than it was in s1. Rebecca's journey to recovery, health and happiness has been trivialised and sidelined, reduced to a highly questionable sexcapade. Meanwhile, we get overwrought manpain at every turn. We get Beard wandering around London (no, I haven't seen it and no, I don't need to. We've all been raised on white dudes thinking they're genuises when they have a figurative wank all over our screens). We get NO queer represention at all. And the only other female characters on screen are in care/service roles to men. The father/son, mentoring and toxic masculinity themes are all still there but they're no longer balanced out by ANY other competing perspective. One of the reasons I was okay with Ted failing upwards in s1 was that he used his power and privilege to lift up others. He was the one in service. He used his enormous privilege for good, as anyone with such privilege must. (Admittedly, it could be argued that this is just another version of a white savior narrative).

My point here is that I'm not sure that peeking behind the mask at the sad clown is as revolutionary as some might believe. We love it because it's familiar. But this is a narrative with a long and problematic history. Do I believe in tearing down toxic masculinity in all its forms? You bet. Do I believe that patriarchy traumatises men as well as women and every other minority in existence? I mean...nowhere near as much, but absolutely. Do I believe in men expressing their feelings and going to therapy? Wholeheartedly. But I am also aware that 100 or so years ago, we were in a very similar place with our narratives. Everyone is looking for a recapitulation of modernism and frankly, this might be an indicator of just that. Whenever women and people of colour have demanded rights and recognition, there has always been a resurgence of tales about just how frickin' hard it is to be a white man. Minority genders and non-white people have never in western history been as visible or vocal as they are now. So forgive me (or don't, I don't care) if I critique a show not only for centering fathers, sons, boys and men but for blindly and boldly writing one of its only female characters and one of its only black characters as if their gender and race just do not exist. There are many other power differentials at play in this relationship, including age, experience, wealth and position, but race and gender are the two that patriarchy is most invested in invisiblising. So I don't care how brilliant they think they are, I will not trust the writing of a bunch of white dudes trying to tell me that race and gender are irrelevant.

[popculturebuffet]

The Owl House: Enchanting Grom Fright: Happy Valentine’s Gays

Happy Valentine’s Day owl ladies, gentleman and non-binary folks! It’s time to finish off this holiday in proper style with a LONG overdue review of enchanting Grom Fright and even longer overdue coverage of the Owl House.  The Owl House was one of the best debuts of last year if not THE best, only in contention because Close Enough also started last year and looks to surpass regular show in terms of quality. But with stunning animation, tons of representation, and colossal worldbuilding. And given how i’m on record for thinking Star Vs went so far down the tubes they bumped into where Cthulu is sleeping, it’s nice to have another magic based show that seems to be on the right track: carefully building i’ts world, supporting cast and for today’s topic main romance. It also rather than just obliquely hint one character was bi and the other pan, actually goes out of it’s way to have a bisexual protaginst with a gay love intrest. As my good friend @jess-the-vampire has brought up quite a bit, star had plnety of options. .but no willingness to actually campaign for any queer rep, the way Gravity Falls head Alex Hirsch tried to, he still gets credit for trying, and Owl House creator Dana Terrace gets full credit for. 

Terrace got her start working on Gravity Falls in line production before working her way up to directing for ducktales, being instrumental in how Webby was animated and how she moves and acts, and being the director for several classic season one episodes including “Woo-Hoo!”, “The Spear of Selene” , “Day of the Only Child!” which was one of my faviorites from season 1 and “The Beagle Birthday Massacre!”. And while I can’t 100% confirm she’s the only part responsible for starting Weblena, given she was director on an episode where a lot of the romantic subtext was in the visuals, she certainly helped so thank you Dana. Thank you a lot. Their adorable. Point is she’s a talented lady and wasn’t satisfied with directing, so she pitched her own show, combining tons of ides and stuff including of all things, Pokemon Red. I checked the article wikipedia had sourced, it was one of her happy childhood memories as it was one of the last things her dad gave her. Awwwwwww. That’s as sweet as it is painful. She’s also currently dating Alex Hirsch, something I was entirely unaware of but find also adorable. Point is i’m glad I looked into her as she’s a very nice person, and very much my kind of weirdo and i’m happy for her sucess and her singuarly weird show that sprung from that sucess. 

Now that part of it’s out of the way the episode itself was an uphill battle as you’d expect. As anyone familiar with this blog is aware, but just in case your new, you tend to hear me bitching about Disney’s handling of queer represntation a LOT

For the most part Disney’s pretty bad at it: There was the string of “FIRST GAY CHARACTER IN AN X” they had going for a while.. that consisted of a character I dind’t realize was gay, a kiss I didn’t see, and a talk with a character who I honestly wouldn’t of been looking for had disney not patted themselves on the back with some giant sized hands because htey saved some pym particles for that occasion. Ducktales was unable to have Penumbra come out as gay more clearly because I don’t know Ducks can’t be day.. but they can be IMPLIED to be gay or pansexual as hard as the crew possibly can so they win anyway. Pixar was able to have a gay lead character for one of it’s sparks shorts out and even focused on him coming out of the closet and it’s very good and something I WILL give Pixar credit for... but not Disney Plus who go out of their way to not mention the lead being gay.. despite the fact the short opens with a gay space cat riding a gay space dog out of a rainbow and then it being revaled our lead is in a relationship not long into the short. My point is the idiots who won’t watch this for having gay characters are just going to turn it off, who cares what they think, why are you like this Disney. They need to do better, and be better and i’m getting tired of this shit.

That being said... this episode is a step in the right directoin as despite having to get past one obstructive asshole, not her words but damn if it isn’t the truth, as the rest of hte execs were fine with having a gay character, Terrace fought hard for it and WON, having a clearly gay character, and a clear road to a gay romace as the lead one, all because she wanted some representation in her works. So to honor this, I present this review in honor of love, effort and saying screw you to not having represntation because money. Join me under the cut and allt hat. 

We open in the owl house, in the owl house, duck dodge push and shove, it’s how we show our love in the.. you get the point. Luz is learning yet another Rune, this time plant runes.. and already something I love about the series pops up: the fact Luz’s rise in skill is gradual but noticable. Each spell noticably improves in potency with time,  going from simple lights to shaping them into simple constructs, and learning to control or time her spells and glpyhs so they launch she she says so, with each one getting more powerful the more she learns. And on top of that osmething I just noticed on rewatch of this episode is her tecnique in finding them evolved, something I dind’t notice the first time because I hadn’t fully caught up and checked this one out to see if Disney would actually let them go through with it.. and they did. Point is her first spell is found by accident, her second by realizing how her magic works fundemntally, both require skilled deduction and on the fly thinking and casting, so she’s already pretty skilled.. but now sh’es ACTIVELY seeking out a new spell here for the first time. She knows how she gets them, she knows each school is tied to a form, and she likely got the plant from williow since that’s her thing and she’s a saint. A demon but also a saint. They can have those too. It’s what I assume relicor is. 

I miss that goblin demon bat man. Point is it shows an evolution in Luz’s thinking: while it’s a subtle thing she took a more proactive approach this time even if it took a lot of practice.. and it pay soff as by the time of her next rune, while it’s once again sorta handed to her she has less time to learn it, almost none, and finds it singed onto a ball.. and learns it effortlessly to the point where by the next episode it’s a crucial plot point. IT’s subtle but clever character progression, and stuff I really enjoy, showing our hero going from a bit inept but not helpless or incomptient.. to a force to be reckconed with and far more clever and strategic than yo’ud expect given her sometimes reckless and almost always happy go lucky attitude. 

Luz worries teaching King about the internet was a bad idea because he gets excited about a literal cat fight which .. yeah... it was a bad idea but not because of that.. but because next he finds someone saying the earth is flat and she wisely yanks it away. It’s.. very sad that the absolutley maddening and easily debunked flat earth theory is still RELATIVLEY more sane than the stuff we’ve had pop up during the trump era and the cornoavirus pandemic. 

But one of the main conlficts of the episode pops up as Luz’s mom messages her and Luz can’t bring herself to tell her anything and just sends a thumbs up.  I do think this episode helps even things from the pilot a bit as it was a bit lopsided: While I got that Camillia was genuinely struggling with how to deal with Luz, and was offered an out and had to take it... the fact she sees NO problem with the normalcy camp, which comes off intentioanlly or not a sa parallel to conversion camps or camps to make autistic kids “Normal”. And as someone whose both bisexual and autistic, I naturally relate to luz way more as someone whose intrests sometimes just don’t quite fit with everyone else, and who dosen’t get how bad some of their actions were.  THat’s why this episode feels like a necessary course correction: Luz is shown to genuinely love her mama and feel guilty.. but we see camilia genuinlely loves and supports her daughter a bit more. While it was clear from the pilot this shows it more, with her genuinely just wanting to know her daughter’s okay and checking up on her, and giving me the feeling that possible consequences or no if something bad WAS happening or she didn’t hear from her for a long time, she would’ve drove up there to get her. It feels like the writers realized the implications they accidently created and wanted to fix it, though I can’t say for certain. But if so good on you for course correcting, not every show does that. 

But King encourages her, telling her she’s doing the right thing by lying and to “trust the demon on your shoulder”. Keep this in mind for later, but that joke is great on it’s own. But soon i’ts time for school and Hooty.. barfs out Luz’s books for her. 

I haven’t been this disturbed since.. (Looks at the clock) About 2 maybe three hours ago when I watched a man have, if apparently shorter than the oriiginal cut as I wanted to see everyone else’s reactions dammit, sex with hiis car which was possesed by the mad ghost of his dead wife. Because that’s the kind of stuff i’m into when i’m not reviewing stuff. And before that Tinky.. just everything about tinky. 

I do not have enough time to get into TInky here or why he exestially horrifies me. Or why Jeff blim is a living god. I will save that for a proper review if I have the time tomorrow. Point is I saw a lot today and that still tops it. Willow and Gus are likewise grossed out and want to leave. 

Cut to school where Luz wonders what’s with all the decorations.. that remind me of this honestly

And frankly given the whole state of the boiling isles it REALLY wouldn’t surprise me if the decorations were indeed well cooked faces. But i’ts Grom time, which means elaborate gromposals (Some Dude asks Skara out with a beating heart and an elaborate medical proposal.. which.. points for effort. And for using an actual heart. Couldn’t get one for mine. ), dancing and someone being chosen for Grom Queen. WHich Willow hints isn’t as nice as that sounds. Before we can get into that though Amity bumps into them and gets into a tizzy before meekly greeting “Luz.. and Co”. which.. not going to lie.. is my faviorite gag of the season. Just htw way she adds them and just the way Willow and Guz both smile widely at it as if to say “That’s us!”. Amity drops a note and snatches it back. This will be important later, you all know why, point is Amity becomes Grom Queen.. and is heavily depressed with Luz following her to find out why.  At the gym.. she does indeed ifnd out why: Turns out Grom is not some mutation of an earthname but is based around a horrifying entity lurking beneath the isles, Gromethious the Fear Bringer, who emerges from his slumber once a year and must be fought back and brings out his target’s greatest fears. Just like groundhog day only with less time loops and rodent abuse. Amity is scared of hers, and i’ll obviously get into this more later, and Luz simply suggests asking bump to opt out and Amity appricates the support. Awwww. 

Luz heads home and we find out Eda is chaperoning and King is mcing. Eda is also rocking a suit. Just damn girl, damn. But Luz considers taking her place.. and gets laughed at, with Eda assuming she’ll have to save her and King just being kind of a dick. I mean he’s a loveable thoroughly cuddly dick but he’s still a dick... just more like a stuffed plushie of one.  So basically exactly like Tinky. Look I mention him more than once in this review he dosen’t put me in the bastard box. It’s a great system.  Naturally this makes Luz more determined than ever to prove herself and she finds Amity in the night, with Amity having been unable to get out of it.. and Bumps a resonable guy, he just wants a substitute and no one wants the job.. except Luz who galdly volunteers and insists ntohing scares her before the giant spider on the back of her head proves otherwise. Because of course it does, spiders are fucking terrifying. Kill then all.. except the pokemon ones. Galvaltula are sweethearts. As are Ariadoses. Sweethearts who can elctorcute or poison you but still. 

So the next way Luz begins preparing.. and by that I mean it’s time for training. Sadly we don’t get an episode of Luz and Amity getting trapped in an 80′s fashion montage... I mean yes Rise of the TMNT also did that plot the same year, but we had two diffrent plots about someone getting trapped in an eldtrich sitcom and a THIRD this year, all entertaingly unique. Though we do get Luz pulling out an otter suit that’s adorable and she sadly still hasn’t worn yet. “This one says i’m an otter, with a dark side”. She also got thrown out of a school dance for.. wearing an otter suit. Okay the other things we saw in the pilot were understandable but htis is just.. baffling. Who cares what you wear to a dance as long as it isn’t horribly racist of nothing at all. 

Damn you flanders and your glorious ass. Point is Amity shows up and threatens hooty’s life because.. he’s hooty. The fact he isn’t dead already is a testiment to how badass he is and how much money he’d cost Eda to replace. Owl Tubes don’t come out of a stygian hole in the unvierse every day you know. That’s only every three years. It’s basic styigan owl tube science. 

But Amity wants her to be ready and that she’ll have to face her greatest fear.. and cue hooty popping up, poking amity in the face and asking if she wants to know her greatest fear. Really he can clearly hear everything in the house given he heard that, so he heard the death threat he just chose to ignore it. That.. was a mistake. And by mistake I mean we get a hilarious cut to the outside of the house as Luz tries to stop her love intrest from murdering her second mom’s tube monster. The result is some bandages and an eyepatch. To be fair that last one was just flaring up from a  previous beating. 

For this solem task of training, Amity has brought in her local disaster bisexuals.. aka her twin siblgins Eldric and Elmyra, whose greatest fears are dying alone and being stuck with Eldric. Both understandable. They conjur luz’s greatest fears which are.. some of the funniest shit I heard all year.. and also very relatable. Human souls in cat bodies, which is genuinely terrifying good job Luz, Jerks on the internet who mansplain things, relatable, and soy milk. 

But Amity knows this is just the openign act. it needs to be something deeper.. so while Luz dosen’t realize it’s probably her mom issues she brings up her issues with her other mom: that Eda dosen’t think she can do this. Hence we get a giant eda putting Luz in a babychair. Before we can unpack how wrong that sentence sounded, Eda comes out, and marvels at how hot giant her is. But she’s quickly distracted from sex with a giant version of herself, which is not an easy feat, by the relization “Wait Luz is going to fight grom isn’t she.. fuck i’m going to have to save her”, though Luz holds firm on doing it to prove she’s fine and dosen’t need to be saved constantly. it’s a good conflict. Eda IS right that Luz is not ready for this alone, that she’s overcompensating and that Eda would, in normal circumstances be the one to rescue her. As we’ll see it’s not her who does it but still, were this any other foe she probably would be. But Luz’s motivations are equally understandable: She wants to help her friend not have to do this and she wants to prove she can do it. She just wants her mentor, the only person in her life up to meeting her that GNEUINELY supported her in magic to respect her. To have faith in her and actually see how far she’s come. And given how her own mother writes off her dreams, if not unrealistically, and before this she had no friends or support system to speak of outside her mom, it’s easy to see why this is so improtant to Luz: she just wants to make the one person in her life whose ever support her actually think it was worth it when in truth Eda already thinks it does and just dosen’t want her to die. 

She’s just not good with talking to her or not condescending to her as her own ego is stacked sky high, probably because the whole curse thing meant Eda was an outcast by default and the system wants to either chain her to one form of magic and one only or shackle her to them as a hired goon. Her ego, while justified, is also a defense mechanism: a way to shield herself from the fact almost no one cares about her and one of the few people who DOES, dosen’t care what she wants or needs. Once the curse happened she lost just about everything and had to rebuild and thus build up walls around herself and kept everyone else at arms length till Luz changed her for the better. It’s just a tragic clash of two wills both with similar problems but both unwilling to talk about them. 

But with time up, our heroes need to get to the diggity dance. So they indeed do and we get some fun sight gags, Willow makes corsages,  that one girl with the cresent head somehow ended up with Mathomule and is not happy, as anyone who ends up with him should. And it’s time for Luz to face her destiny.. in a tux with a tutu because of course, and Amity likes it because also of course. 

IT’s time to rumble, with King getting nervous due to eda’s prodding about mcing since his co-mc gus is really good at it, and introducing our champion.

No wait sorry he’s still trapped in Mojoworld. no it’s still Luz who shows off a seasons worth of skill by easily dispatching the first few fears and saying to grom let’s finish it.. before grom puts a tentacle on her head. 

It’s to downlaod her fear.. which is Camillia. Granted we could all see it coming but still Luz obviously can’t fight her own mother or her own overwhelming guilt.. her mom did hurt her.. but she gets why and just loves her and wants her to be proud but dosen’t know what to do: tell her the trutha nd possibly loose a happy and fufilling life or wait until it all blows up. It’s a painful choice. So luz and king end up running. King runs first because he can’t handle it and Gus talks him back into the groove while Luz runs away because she can’t fight her own mom, understandable, and Gus encourages king to lead the crowd which he does. Amity and Eda follow Luz. 

So Luz is backed down, facing down a monster tha’ts going to go on to everyone else next if she fails... and Eda prepares to interfere.. but it’s AMITY who faces her fear and dives in. And we find out just what her fear was as grom turns into a humanoid shape and rips the letter in half.. it was a grom invitation. Though conviently the who it’s adressed to was ripped out. 

And yeah not going to save this one: It’s Luz. You know it I know it I didn’t even hide it in the intro. Even before the reveal in a bit it was obvious. But it also makes perfect sense. I’ve avoided talking about her character arc up to this point because I was waiting for now. Amity’s growth is the third major arc of the season behind Luz’s slow learning of magic and eventually induction into hexside and eda’s curse, which I lump in with Lilith chasing her since both were mildly entertwined and then entirely are once the reveal hits in the finale. When we meet her she’s an outright bully.. but we slowly see there’s more there. That she’s not really HAPPY or content, is contstantly under pressure by her family name, is outright bullied by her own siblings who don’t understand her. So Luz coming in, seemingly only being intrested in magic because i’ts neat.. understandably bothers her. She’s not a great person, bullying her old best friend because tha’ts what’s expected and being close with outright bullies because of that.. but it’s through Luz she starts to grow, realizing Luz is genuinely nice and genuinely sorry for any trouble she caused Amity, and evne then both cases were causaed by Amity’s own dickishness and outside forces, so it’s easy to see why she defrosts faster. Her siblings realize they’ve genuinely hurt her, and actually try to be good siblings from then on and help her, and slowly Amity learns to truth luz, trust in her, and accept her... and thus accept her feelings for her. There are gradual hints she’s growing attracted to her.. but her walls had to come down first, and it wouldn’t of worked from the outset. The show cleverly has the two build a genuine friendship, two opposities who work well together, so when feelings do happen it feels natural. It’s not “I’m in love with this person because I have to because you can’t be friends with someone your attracted to” bullshit or anything like that, cough star vs cough, it’s just well built catching feelings. I’ts how this kind of thing SHOULD go: niether went in intending for this to happen.. it’s just happening. 

And Amity’s reluctance is painfully understandable, as Luz is the ONLY friend and support she has. Sure she and willow are patching things up, but WIllow would understandably choose luz over her and she’s terrified of loosing the one good thing in her life. Of course Luz would either say yes, and probably will some day, or let her down gently, she’s nice.. but it’s also understandable to be afraid that someone won’t take the reveal well. I’ve been there trust me, it’s easier when you let it out even if you get rejected, but I get it being hard to let out because you don’t want to loose a friend. I did not, and niether would she, but I can see why she wouldn’t want ot take the plunge. At least not yet. We’ll see this summer hopefully. 

But we do get a shiptastic, gorgeously aniamted scene of the two dancing an fightin gin perfect synch, combinging luz’s new use of plant magic with amity’s mastery of abominations resulting in the two utterly decimating grom, likely in part because with two fast moving targets he can’t get a lock on and likely nees more fear and mass to attack multiple targets at once. Or just more tendrils. it’s a quick, beautful sequence that’s utterly glorious, being framed as romantic as any hetero scene of the type and rightfully so. A triumph and well deserving of this praise. 

Our heros have won, get crowns, and King gets praise. All is well.. except Luz drops the crown once she gets home because she feels like she failed and feels lost about her mom.. though at least king gets it “I’m king and queen, best of both things!”. You tell em sister. 

So we end with Luz genuinely responding to her mom, with some montage stuff as we see Gus and Willow poke a fear blob, willow fears bugs, understandable and Gus fears clowns... 

Also understandable. Though I didn’t put up a bug picture because

And Amity looks out folornly into the night. Camilla responds to Luz.. and mentions letters.. which while Luz brushes those off.. we see someone sent them. And by someone I probably mean king since we now know only eda and him had acess to the portal, and given he was actively encouraging her to lie.. yeah i’m supscious. But we’ll see next season. For now this episode is fan fucking tastic, showing off tons of character development, being representative and sweet as all hell.. and being really funny. Tons of great gags in this one including the turtle guy from an earlier episode being forced to be adisco ball.  This is easily the series best so far and if you haven’t checked it out, please do it’s fantastic as is this show. Check both out. Until the next rainbow i’ts been a pleasure. Tommorow more disney shenanigans this time with pete. And also more of this possibly we’ll see what I get done. 

Goodnight everybody!

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 10x17: Home Sweet Home - First Thoughts

All right, I can finally post my analysis. Actually, there will be several. So there’s a LOT to go over for this episode. As I usually do for episodes, I’ll just talk about broad themes I’m seeing today, and then I’ll do a details post tomorrow.

***As always, spoilers for 10x17 abound below. Don’t read until you’ve watched. You’ve been warned!***

It was all fabulous! It was a really great episode even independent of the TD stuff. Raises lots of questions about these new villains that has me super intrigued.

But let’s talk about the important stuff first!

So, there were the four mentions I talked about based on spoilers, and I was pleasantly surprised to find another that kind of trumped them all.

The two by-name mentions came in Daryl and Maggie’s conversation. I have no idea why the screener said Beth wasn’t mentioned by name. She totally was. Twice. Maggie first calls her “Bethie.” It’s when she says, “After Bethie died, Glenn and I talked about going there [to the ocean].” Then a minute later she talks about telling Hershel stories about his family. She says “Beth and Shaun and his granddaddy.” So yeah, two times.

Then there are mentions that we picked up from the spoilers, when Daryl says people are just gone and when Maggie and Kelly talk about their sisters. In the Maggie/Kelly convo, there’s not a huge smoking gun or anything. The thing that stood out to me was Kelly saying, “you had a sister too, right?” I feel like that’s a very blatant example of the writers reminding us of Beth. That Maggie once had a sister. But beyond that, they didn’t talk about Beth specifically.

The other one I noticed that trumped them all was during Maggie and Daryl’s convo about Connie. Maggie asks if Kelly’s sister is still out there and he says his “some people are just gone” line. (Which is obviously an exact callback to him saying this same line about Beth in 4x16).

And then Maggie says something that can really only be about Beth. She says, “even if you find them, you don’t always get them back.” Which is a reference to finding someone but they “die” anyway. And originally, I was thinking that this could point to more than one person. Glenn, Merle for Daryl, and the main reason to connect it to Beth is that they’re talking about Connie’s sister. 

But the more I think about it, it can really ONLY apply to Beth. Because while plenty of people have died, they were never really missing, either. Merle left, and Daryl went to find him, but just before his death, he wasn’t missing or separated from Daryl for a long period of time. Same with Glenn and everyone else they’ve lost. Maggie wasn’t with Glenn before he died, but she didn’t think he was missing, either. She didn’t even know he’d been captured until she saw him in the clearing. The ONLY person who was missing, found, and then lost again, was Beth.

So, we literally have Daryl and Maggie talk about Beth the night before, and then again the next morning with this convo. And then Maggie and Kelly reference her near the end. So great!

But that’s not by far all the great stuff in this episode. Lydia doing the voice-over recap at the beginning was super interesting. Most of it is just recapping the Whisper War, Alpha and Beta’s deaths, etc. But then at the end, she says, “But we were on the verge of something else. A bigger world.” And as it says that, it shows first Michonne on the boat, heading to look for Rick, followed by Eugene’s group being captured. So, both those storylines, in other words, are leading to this “bigger world.” We might have figured that with Rick, given the CRM and all that. But it kinda proves Eugene’s group is about to stumble onto some part of it, too. So bigger world for Michonne is Rick/CRM. Bigger world for Eugene’s group is Beth? Here’s hoping.

There were some minor changes to the opening credits, as we might expect. There is a burning ship in the background at once point. And at the end, when we see the walkers that have Whisperer masks on, there are a lot more walkers around them. Not all Whisperers or anything, but just a much bigger group of walkers. But I noticed the one that is a Whisperer was still there, which is interesting. And given that the Whisperers left a hole in the Alexandria wall when they left, we might have to deal with some stragglers at some point. Everything suggests they aren’t completely gone, even if the war is over.

Lots of great dialogue, most of which we’ve already mentioned from spoilers, but I’ll go over that more in my details post tomorrow.

So, obviously my TD brain was working overtime and I noticed a lot of sequential callbacks to earlier seasons. For one thing,  when Maggie and Daryl’s group is walking through the woods, it started showing them each walking in slow motion as they traveled. 

Remember in S5, when we got the slow motion walking from each member of TF throughout the episode? I think it was in 5x02. It reminded me of that. Like they might be calling back to that. So once again, it would just make sense if they’re doing this at the beginning and Beth shows up at the end.

There was a green preying mantis that was an obviously-placed symbol. I had to look that one up. Yes, we saw a preying mantis in Still. Or was it Inmates? It was around Beth either way. And check out this post on praying mantis symbolism. 

They actually use the term “stillness.” And of course it’s bright green. Yeah, I’d call that a purposeful symbol.

The cargo containers they stayed in overnight were very reminiscent of Terminus. Oh, but this is interesting. I’m seriously probably the only person in the fandom who would even notice this. There’s a sequence where a bunch of walkers are trying to come out of the container, but there’s tons of them and it would be bad for them to break out. 

So Maggie tries to hold the door shut. Daryl runs up to help her but here’s too many in there for just the two of them to overpower them. Finally, Elijah comes to help and there’s a super-gnarly moment where one of the walkers is pushing its head through the door and they squish it. But the point is they work together and actually do get the door shut and lock the walkers inside, so they aren’t overwhelmed.

Two things I think this calls back to. The first, perhaps most obvious one is 5x10, Them, when the entire group held the barn doors shut against the walkers. And once again, the music box woke up RIGHT after that. So it could be a harbinger of Beth.

The second thing it reminded me of was in 4b with the school bus. Remember Sasha and Bob tried to hold the back door to the bus closed but couldn’t and all the walkers got out? There’s a blond walker that falls at Maggie’s feet in that sequence and Maggie stabs her in the forehead. I always thought it was a Beth foreshadow. This almost feels like the opposite of that. In this case, they were able to get the door shut and didn’t have to kill all the walkers. So, if that sequence foreshadowed Grady, maybe this foreshadows the opposite? Things going better this time around? Just a thought.

Oh, Maggie hurts her forearm, though. I won’t say much about this except that we’ve seen other characters with this same injury and I’m sure it’s significant. I just haven’t entirely figured out what it means, yet. It’s not exactly the same as Beth’s because it’s on the wrong arm. But just keep it in mind. I’ll probably mention it again in the future.

When talking to Daryl, what she says about Georgie is interesting. I think we got most of it via spoilers and the Q&A. But she says Georgie went out west. I can’t help but wonder if she’ll be part of the New Mexico symbolism.

One thing the spoilers really didn’t do justice to is how upset Maggie is about what happened to the community she and Hershel were living in before. She’s REALLY upset about it and you can tell she’s barely holding it together. Daryl asks her what happened, but she says she can’t talk about it, yet. She told him the other stuff about Georgie, and says it’s nice to voice some of it, but she can’t voice all of it just yet. So whatever happened must have been pretty bad, because she’s really messed up about it.

I got the same vibe from Elijah. When he takes off his mask and him and Kelly bond, it’s because the Reaper sniper is hunting them. And it’s obvious that he’s terrified of these people (the Reapers). And that’s surprising because this is gray ninja guy who throws knives and had no trouble killing walkers and Whisperers, but he’s super afraid of the Reapers. We also know he lost his sister to them, so it may have a lot to do with that.

But still, I definitely want to know more about these Reapers. The sniper really is pretty creepy.

We see a lot of sunlight filtering through the trees. We had a small dark tunnel moment. Looking for Connie, Kelly is looking into the back of a truck and we see her from the inside, like someone looking out from the inside. Nothing really comes of it. She doesn’t find anything or crawl into it or anything. She’s just looking in as if to see if Connie is in there, but she isn’t.

In this same scene, she opens the cab of the trunk and looks into the front seat, which is empty. And then she sees a coat on top of the truck. That’s when Maggie and Daryl find her, and Elijah jumps up on top and throws some stuff down. The only other interesting thing is a little notebook (the one mentioned in the Q&A, I think). It’s not really a journal and there’s not much color to it. They don’t show us what’s actually in the notebook, but it’s obviously not Connie’s. I’m assuming it’s blank.

But think about all the callbacks there. This truck looks a lot like the one Bob slept on in 4x13, which was obviously a Beth parallel. We have an empty front seat. Now, we’ve mostly seen representations of a walker being in the front seat, right? And this is the opposite of that. So, much like Maggie managing to hold the door shut against walkers, I feel like they’re purposely showing us the opposite of what we’ve seen before, which just tells me Beth is about to appear.

There’s the notebook, which calls back to Connie, Beth, and the wolf trap in 5x16. The coat they threw down wasn’t a huge thing, but it looked vaguely blue. But the fact that it was on top of the truck (which was white) shows that someone slept up there. Also, when Judith and Maggie talked about looking at the stars, they specifically talked about going up on the roof to do it.

Oh, another interesting line that I’m wondering about. It’s back when Daryl and Maggie are talking about Connie. Maggie says the thing about how even when you find them you sometimes don’t get them back. Daryl says maybe it’s better that she doesn’t know that yet. (He means Kelly. Maybe it’s better if Kelly doesn’t realize that’s often the case.) And Maggie says no, Kelly should know. She says her daddy always said a wound couldn’t heal until air hits it. And Daryl says, “You know that’s not true, right? Medicine-wise?” And Maggie just kind of laughs and said her dad made it sound like it was.

So, I’m not sure what to make of that, but it’s obviously a purposeful line. And a medical reference.

Okay, so when Maggie gets back to her group, they’ve been attacked and scattered and two of them are dead, burnt to death in the fire. We had lots of X shapes in the burnt beams of the shack where they were staying. 

The two burnt bodies reminded me of the burnt walkers in 6x06. And as the episode went on, it occurred to me it was kind of a replay of the prison. This place burnt down and her entire group scattered. They were all out looking for each other in the woods. Also, the reason they knew it was burning is that when they got close, they could see smoke rising into the sky. It looked EXACTLY like the smoke from the moonshine shack in S4.

They eventually face off with the sniper guy. At one point, we see his one eye staring at them from where he’s hiding. Creepy, but also maybe a Sirius thing?

Maggie steps in a rope trap (one of those things that pulls you upward by one foot. The guy almost kills her while she’s trying to get lose. Daryl shoots him with his crossbow but drops it after that and goes after him with a knife. (This is why Kelly gets the crossbow. We don’t really see him drop it but I assume he did because the guy was really close to killing Maggie and he knew he didn’t have time to reload.) This guy is huge and throws Daryl against the tree like a rag doll.

Then we get this really interesting thing where we see the camera looking up at the sniper from Daryl’s point of view. We even seem the camera sort of “blink” which is supposed to be his eyes. And it’s interesting because 1) the guy is taking off his disguise. Yeah, this sniper kinda looks like a swamp thing when we see him. He’s covered in camouflage and that brown netting special ops guys wear to blend in with their surroundings. But at this point, he takes it off. I felt like it was him taking off his mask, as it were. 2) It’s blurry and in slow motion. That’s because Daryl is hurt from being thrown against the tree, but it just struck me as a foreshadow of something. We’ve always said that when he first sees Beth he’ll probably think he’s hallucinating. I have no idea if that’s what this is about, but it really jumped out at me as an intentional thing.

And about the Kelly/bow thing, it’s nothing. People were really freaking out about the picture of her with Daryl’s bow, but it was seriously small potatoes. Daryl recovers and Maggie gets free and they both attack the sniper at the same time, but then the rest of Maggie’s group shows up with Kelly. One of them shoots the sniper with an arrow before Maggie or Daryl can, and Kelly shows up holding the crossbow. I think she just picked it up from where he dropped it, but she doesn’t even shoot it or anything.

So then Maggie asks the sniper who he is and why his group bulldozed their community. He won’t answer her and then pulls out the grenade.

And this is another thing that’s really interesting. I almost want to connect this group to the Wolves. Not literally but symbolically. Because from what they said, this group didn’t just attack them to take their supplies or because they were bad guys who wanted to take over their community. After their community went down, they’re actually hunting them. Trying to pick them all off. Why? That’s weird. And the Wolves are the only other group I can think of that actually hunted people just to kill them.

The sniper does say, “Pope marked you.” I don’t know if that’s a name or a title, but it has religious implications. So, someone has marked Maggie’s group for death, but we have no idea why, and neither does she. See why I say this was a great episode even aside from TD stuff? It’s just very intriguing and raises lots of questions moving forward.

Then there’s little Hershel. Not only does he look like Glenn, but he’s practically wearing Glenn’s S1 outfit. Complete with blue and white shirt and baseball cap. So. Stinking. Cute.

Not tons to add about Maggie and Kelly’s convo aside from what was in the spoilers. But I will say that there’s a huge “coming home” theme in this episode. Maggie says she almost came home after Knoxville. Daryl asks her to come home. At the end, he asks if this means she’s coming home. (She says yes.) They just say it like half a dozen times through out the episode.

So, let me just mention my biggest takeaway from this episode. Hershel Jr. is a type of Beth or Beth proxy. It took me watching a couple of times to put this together, but here’s the short version. The building Maggie’s people were in that burnt down is a lot like the prison going down. Her group scatters into the woods into several small groups, much like TF did after the prison. And little Hershel goes missing. Now, Maggie doesn’t really think he’s dead or anything, but she just doesn’t know where he is or if he’s okay. Then, at the end, she finds him. It’s kind of a return, you know?

And once I realized that, I started seeing all kinds of parallels and callbacks. For one thing, when Daryl was tracking him, he recognized Hershel’s tracks because they were kid tracks, rather than adult. That’s a parallel to Beth and Daryl tracking Lizzie and Mica’s kid tracks in Inmates.

Maggie had a “we don’t know that” line, which is exact Beth dialogue. For Maggie, it was about whether or not any of their people were still alive in the wake of the attack. Beth said it about whether anyone from the prison survived in the wake of the Governor’s attack. And there are tons of those. But I’ll go over more of them tomorrow.

And finally, they find Hershel sitting in the tree. Tree/trunk is a Beth symbol, as @frangipanilove has show us. But the tree is also in the shape of a giant cross. So this isn’t just a return. It’s a Christ, resurrection symbol. See why it parallels to Beth?

So yeah, I’ll go over more template details tomorrow and later in the week. But there was SO much good stuff in this episode!

[mysterious-prophetess]

So, with 286 and 285 proving my two and a half year old prediction of “AfO is going to body snatch Shigaraki” (from April 2018) right-sort of since I didn’t have any idea as to how the details would work- here’s how and why I was able to predict All for One body-snatching Tomura.

1)that bit of dialogue I reference in the original post from the end of Season 2:

“Make him into the next me.” I took it like “oh...if that’s literal the potato will be taking that body”

2) All for One is the parallel for All Might in this story.

All Might is deeply selfless. He gives his all in heroics and for his students.

Which means, as a result, All for One would be inherently selfish in his goals and towards his “successor.” 

Whenever I saw All for One was giving Tomura all this stuff (via the doctor) I was thrown through a fucking loop because it contradicted my reading of the character and I had to reconsider if I’d misread him. Because that is possible. 

I mean, I’ve had years to hone this skill, but I can still miss a few clues here and there and make my reading end up wrong.

But 285 and 286 have actually informed me that I had read him correctly. 

All for One is so very deeply selfish and his will and his desires will trump even those of his supposed successor. 

Because while a lot of folks (myself included)because of Horikoshi’s love of Star Wars like to liken All for One to Darth Vader, he’s actually Palpatine. 

The powerful man who corrupts others for his own selfish means and ends and intends to rule forever and body-snatching is something he is willing to do to keep his existence, and his grip on the world intact.

If I were to keep the Star Wars analogy going, it all just kind of falls apart because the other characters in the story don’t have as strong a parallel with Star Wars, so I’m going to stop it there and go back to my main text based points and use other media for parallels.

So, now back to my main point. With what I’ve read from the various textual clues I’ve seen hidden throughout the manga, there was always going to be this result because All for One’s one goal was to get One for All back by any means necessary. When the doctor started giving Shigaraki all these things, the out-of-character generosity of All for One just kept throwing me. With these last two chapters now it reminded me of a quote Gandalf said to Saruman in The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring,

(transcription--Gandalf: There is only one Lord of the Ring. Only one who can bend it to his will, And he does not share power!)

And that above all is how I’ve always read All for One. Sure, he’ll give and exchange quirks for people,  but it was always in exchange for a favor for him. Which was a very Godfather-esque way of doing things. 

You know who else gave out gifts to get others to be more amenable to him? Sauron. 

After all, One for All’s half-base component quirk was a quirk that was forced upon the First because All for One wanted to control his brother. 

All for One’s “gifts” were also a means of control. 

So, everything he ever gave Tomura was always always a way to control him, and now, he’s taken it one step further.

[im-the-punk-who]

Can I ask your opinion on Woodes Rogers?

Oh boy. Oh boy, howdy. I mean you can.

So, uhhhh the first time I was really thinking about Woodes Rogers as a character besides just being a little bitch boy was after I read Sage Street’s meta where he talks about the ways in which Rogers mirrors James in the early seasons/pre-series. And that’s pretty much how I see him. 

(On a side note, while I don’t agree with everything he has to say, I highly highly recommend Sage’s meta because it brings up some really interesting parallels and scenic cues, and particularly the meta on the S3 finale just....makes me scream a lot. Some of the painting stuff can get a bit reachy because as someone who works in theatre and has friends in film, some of the parallels is likely more ‘the set designers thought this would be cool’ than a directorial choice but like, it’s still awesome to see.)

But back to Rogers. So, personally, I think he’s a little bitch boy, but that has more to do with the fact that the show sets him up as the upholder of civilization and oppression, in direct opposition to Flint - who seeks freedom and an end to persecution based on society’s morals and whom I personally vibe much more with. Character wise I actually think Rogers is pretty interesting in that, like all the Black Sails villains, he is a complex character. He is sometimes humorous, sometimes charming, and sometimes straight up unwilling to listen to anyone’s voice but his own - hello, Eleanor! (And, yeah, I’m aware that’s how a lot of people describe Flint. It’s purposeful.) While I don’t like him, I appreciate that about him.

He has a backstory that makes it clear what his motivations are and how he reacts when faced with adversity - he hates chaos and wants order and is willing to compromise his own civility if he thinks it will bring an end to those things. In my personal opinion the reason he wants so badly to bring Nassau back in line could be that he thinks it will help him get over the loss of his brother - who died in a random act of chaos and cowardly violence. (And whose name was Thomas....) Like Flint, he is fighting in the memory of someone he idolized. 

The show underlines the similarity between them when Rogers says “All I have done here is finish what you began. I am now what you were then. And without you there would be no me.” 

Here, he is setting himself up as the continuation of James McGraw. Which is super hella rad, since we know that Flint views himself as at least partially a wholly separate persona from James McGraw. And that we’re led to believe that ‘James’ died or was buried when Thomas was taken. While I don’t think Rogers knows the full story I think it’s likely he has a pretty good picture. I’ll direct you to this post where I bring up the fact it’s likely he and Peter were working together on the pardons(and also because I assume Eleanor told him about James being McGraw as she found out during the Charlestown plotline).

Also:

“Everyone is a monster to someone. Since you are so convinced that I am yours, I will be it.”

“If you insist on making me your villain, I will play the part.”

Rogers!! Stop!! Get your own lines!!

I know a lot of people like to compare him to Thomas, and while I think we were meant to see the parallels(hi, they’re both put in green!), I disagree he is meant to mirror what Thomas would have been. In fact, if anything, he is Thomas’ foil, even as he mirrors James. 

Flint even points out this difference: 

“No one is being hanged. No one’s even being tried. Just as you wanted. Just as Thomas Hamilton wanted. So what is it that you’re fighting for that I’m not already offering?”

“Thomas Hamilton fought to introduce the pardons to make a point. To seek to change England.”

Aside from the classic “I want my Thomas back you sonofabitch.” vibe of Flint’s full answer, this is the difference between Rogers and Thomas. While it would ultimately have the same effect as Rogers’ actions - to bring Nassau back to heel - I think it’s important to recognize the intentionality of both characters as it illustrates not just who Rogers is, but also Thomas.

The reason Thomas wanted to offer the pardons was to make a point that pirates are still men deserving of forgiveness. To “offer forgiveness to any man who would seek it.” He is not coming from a point of control, but of freedom. To offer to these men a way forward.

Rogers is offering the pardons as a way to bring Nassau and the pirates back into civilization but we never actually hear him offer a suggestion of what they’re to do afterwards. And indeed, with how he runs Nassau when he has it, it seems he’s much more concerned with keeping control than in offering any meaningful change to the people he governs. 

Rogers is, in essence, exactly what James was talking about all those years ago when he said “Put a man on an island, give him power over other men and it won’t be long before he realizes the limits of that power is nowhere to be seen. And no man given that kind of influence will remain honest for very long.”

This is underlined in so many ways, from his scene with Berringer about ‘dark men’ to where he wants to accept the pearls he knows are from the Spanish gold, to when he straight up threatens Madi with the death of someone close to her in order to try and force her into surrender.

So, I think he’s a really cool character in that he underlines things about so many of the other characters.

However, Rogers is also a little bitch boy and I hate him because he’s is both a little confused and does not have the spirit. :) 

He is everything Thomas and James were fighting against instilling in Nassau - the very thing Thomas realized isn’t the way a good leader should act. Rogers falls very much under that Hobbesian view of The Social Contract - that a monarch or person in power has absolute sovereignty without needing to give value to individuals needs or wants(literally every interaction he has with Max, hi!), whereas Thomas falls much more in line with John Locke, who says that in supporting the needs of the individual, we support the state by default.

(And I can and will go on another whole tangent about this view of Locke vs Hobbes and how it’s a theme throughout the whole show, I can, I will, please don’t let me.)

Rogers is a fantastic villain for S3 and S4 because he illustrates all the ways that civilization puts down revolution and keeps people in line - right up to how his actions ultimately cause Silver to betray the cause and sell out his own friends for a personal safety that is only marginally implied - and still leaves those on the outskirts oppressed! 

Wow! Black Sails! Stop!!

And even though he as a character was eventually defeated, Rogers’ motives and ideas were actually instilled by the very rebel leaders who fought against him! It’s his treaty Rackham and Silver get the maroons to sign! It’s his version of civilization that is imposed on Nassau and the Maroon island even as he himself is ‘defeated’. 

And isn’t that a kicker? 

That Rackham in particular thinks he’s victorious because they’ve defeated the bad guy, but then he goes ahead and uses his plans, proving that it wasn’t the revolution or freedom or Charles’ idea of living free he was supporting at all but his own personal narrative of victory! What a sellout! What a direct parallel to how even progressive-seeming leaders will almost always sell out the ideals of their constituents for their own benefit! Boy, howdy!!

And I know fandom likes to throw him under the bus as all that is wrong with civilization - call him a little bitch boy and cheer his defeat. I know that he and Alfred Hamilton(and Peter, to an extent) get to be the villains in the narrative so our ‘heroes’ Silver and Rackham and even Flint can be put in opposition to them but like - that’s not the point. That’s not the point, that’s not the point, that’s not the point!

The point is that these men were tools of the empire - tools that were incredibly effective! They succeeded! Rogers succeeded in bringing civilization to Nassau. And in doing so he forced the pirates to choose between their own loyalties - he divided the camps until victory seemed hopeless and that is exactly how history generally works in terms of continued oppression. 

Hell, that’s exactly how current political events are happening right now. It’s a tried and true method of oppressive governments to pin things on one particular person (Woodes, or, y’know, Trump?) and say ‘if you defeat this person, your revolution has been successful’ while silently just going ahead with the plans of those people’s ideals anyway. It’s not the people who are the villains. It’s the ideals they perpetuate. 

All this is to say that I don’t feel particular malice towards Rogers other than that I feel towards all the characters who ultimately uphold oppression because I think Rogers is another great commentary by Black Sails on how we get so distracted fighting for what feels good that we can ultimately end up becoming exactly what we thought we were fighting against. 

(”A man casts his vote for the same reason he does anything in this life. Because it feels good.”)

And finally, he’s definitely a little bitch boy for how he treats my girls Eleanor and Madi (and Max) and I would absolutely cross the street to punch him for that alone. :)

[woman-of-no-importance]

yes hello I just finished watching all four seasons of the handmaid’s tale and I have THOUGHTS. Spoilers below, obvs. 

Firstly, I have to say that watching this show post-recent Texas Supreme Court rulings and post-Jan 6 insurrection has been a whirlwind. Considering that the “inciting incident” that allows for the Gilead government to take over was a massive attack on Congress. 

1. i wish that they had shown non-June related consequences. In the last season, it’s very June-driven, in terms that she’s always the one making all the choices and these choices often end up getting other people killed. I wish that they had separated that a bit. In the first season they did action-consequence thing a bit better, because they often left if ambiguous. We weren’t sure what the direct consequences were going to be, or whose fault it was. Later, it was just a ‘June makes a decision=people die’ which I thought got a bit boring as a formula. I wish that they had showed the other handmaid’s behaving less as ‘we’re going to wait for June to tell us what to do!’ and more independently. That would have made more sense, I mean why would they stay in the farmhouse and wait for June? I really thought that she was only holding out of the torture until they had enough time to leave. 

Having Moira at the exact place where June was to save her?? Cheap writing folks. Harrowing escape would have been better imo. 

2. June x Nick!!!! I really have come around on this ship because I roughly did not care at the beginning of the series but NOW I can’t get enough of them. I love the parallels between June and Luke and June and Nick in 4.9. It shows that he gets her more than Luke does, at this moment. He hasn’t lived through Gilead, he can’t imagine what she’s had to go through. 

It is interesting how the show has painted Luke, and I am excited to see where they’re going to go with this character in the next season. From the beginning showed flaws in June and Luke’s marriage and I am interested in seeing what’s going to happen with them. Unsure why that June x Luke sex scene was necessary...

3. As angry as it made me, I really did appreciate how the show treated Fred and Serena. It was a pretty accurate depiction of the international system. Of course the ICC would grant him immunity in exchange for information, they do this shit all the time. Them having fangirls in Canada, again, difficult to watch, but the close-ups of the white women?? a large chunk of Republican voters and Trump supporters?? the Amy Coney Barretts of everyday America? I M P O R T A N T point. 

4. I’m glad that they showed that some people don’t need/don’t deserve your forgiveness. Ever. No matter whether or not they ask for it. And sometimes, knowing that they don’t deserve that forgiveness and you won’t give it to them, can be liberating in itself. Forgiveness for those who hurt you is not the only way through a difficult situation. Sometimes, knowing that you’d never make those choices and confirming that those choices were bad is liberating enough.

5. where was Emily’s wife in season 4!!!!! 

6. I wish that they had titled episode 8 the handmaid’s tale, since there was the testimony, I mean what a lost opportunity. 

7. OMG AUNT LYDIA: ok so i love how they basically just made her like a female incel. she was like, one man didn’t want to sleep w me therefore i will be shaming over women for sleeping w men for the REST OF MY LIFE. I kind of wish that they would stop trying to rehabilitate her (i’ve read the Testaments, I know she’s an important part of the eventual downfall of Gilead but it’s annoying). 

Overall, very excited for the next season. 

[aion-rsa]

In 2020, The Deutschland Series is As Relevant As Ever

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The final season of the Deutschland spy series begins with an ending. In the opening episode of Deutschland 89, the Berlin Wall falls, giving East German citizens free movement to West Germany and beyond for the first time in decades. What follows in the eight-episode final season is a social study in how different people react when their reality is suddenly and fundamentally altered. In the year 2020, as the world continues to reel from the seismic changes COVID-19 has wrought, it’s an unexpectedly relatable experience.

“Deutschland 89 is really about how people have to reinvent themselves during a crisis,” says Deutschland series co-creator Joerg Winger. “So I think, in that way, it does reflect today, but that was not intentional.”

From the beginning, the Deutschland series—which launched in 2015 with Deutschland 83, continued in 2018 with Deutschland 86, and just concluded with Deutschland 89—has used history as a metaphor for contemporary politics. Because of this and because, as Faulkner famously wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past,” it has never been hard to find topical parallels in the Deutschland story, especially when the world skews unfortunately closer to the historic tensions depicted.

“I still remember when Joerg and I first started working on Deutschland 83, thinking, ‘Maybe we’ll have to remind people of the Cold War. Maybe they won’t remember any of this,’” says co-creator Anna Winger (who also co-created Netflix’s 2020 German-American drama Unorthodox). “And then the tension with Russia began again, and there was this sort of egocentric writer moment where you’re like, ‘Did I write it and make it happen? Why is this happening again?’ … Certainly, we couldn’t have predicted tension with Russia coming back, but I think that the polarization definitely, the idea that you’re on one side or you’re on the other side, and that there is this kind of way in which the world has become divided, we were definitely exploring that.” 

Deutschland 83 follows East German kid Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay) as he is forced by his HVA agent aunt Lenora (Maria Schrader) and his estranged father Walter (Sylvester Groth) to become a spy in West Germany. Using the real-life Able Archer incident (which some historians believe is the closest we’ve come to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis) as setting, the first season is a fast-paced yet complex cautionary tale of what can happen when we lose track of the bigger picture in favor of political allegiances. 

On a more character-driven level, Deutschland 83 is the story of a young man caught between a desperation to stay alive so he can return home to his ill mother and pregnant girlfriend and a desire to keep the world from erupting into nuclear disaster. Because of this, much of the success of that first season and moving forward relied on the casting of the overwhelmed yet capable Martin. When Nay read the script for the Deutschland 83 pilot, he knew he wanted the part.

“I think that the first episode of the whole series is a masterpiece in throwing you directly into something,” says Nay. “I think, dramaturgy-wise, it’s really brilliant. For me, as a reader, I was so addicted. I immediately wanted to know where it went and I so deeply wanted to play that part of Martin.”

Later, Nay would find out that Anna Winger had his picture on the wall during the writing process, imagining him as Martin, but Nay didn’t know that when he went for the part.

“I hadn’t played something of that genre, or anything comparable to that before,” says Nay. “So I don’t really know where she had the impression from that this could be a part for me, actually. The things I shot before were more like society drama, feature films. It was really, really, really different.”

Joerg Winger says that Nay was always their first choice.

“There was a discussion we had at a later point with the directors in 83, who were thinking, maybe we need someone who’s more of a conventional hero, like a young James Bond kind of actor,” says Joerg Winger. “But I think, for us, it was really important that he has something vulnerable since one of the tweaks of the spy genre in Deutschland 83 is that it’s a spy show combined with a coming-of-age drama, and Jonas has the vulnerability and almost the boyishness and innocence. He’s a very good, solid person. And that translates also, I think, into his performance.” 

The initial idea for the series came from Joerg Winger’s own military service experience during the 80s as a conscripted Bundeswehr soldier in West Germany, intercepting messages from Russian troops in the German Democratic Republic. But, for many people watching the series who were born after 89, a divided Germany may be hard to imagine.

“With young people, it’s almost like what you learn in school ends with World War II, and then you never really got to the Cold War,” says Anna Winger. “So, for a lot of young people, at least in Germany, they would say to us, ‘This is like science fiction.’ It’s like, ‘Imagine a world, and there’s a wall that goes down the middle of Berlin, and West Berlin is cut off from supplies, and you can’t get across it.’ And you know, if you were to describe all that to anyone who was born in Berlin since 1989, it would sound absurd. It’s like, ‘And the dinosaurs roamed the earth.’ It’s very crazy to them. So, in a funny way, I’ve always thought the show is a little bit like the past as science fiction.”

Nay, who was born in 1990, days before the reunification of Germany, is one of those people.

“I think there’s actually a lot that changed my awareness of close German history, in particular the 80s, of course,” says Nay. “I remember that when I read the first series, the first question that came to my mind was: ‘Were we really so close to a nuclear war? Would anybody have told me if it was so close? Isn’t that crazy that nobody told me before? Is it real or is it just made up, to increase attention?’ I was like, ‘OK, it seems a little odd to me that we were close before to a nuclear war and I never heard that before.’ I’m really curious now what is going on behind closed walls, what I don’t know about nowadays.”

While all three seasons of the Deutschland series explores many of the same themes, the three-year time jump built into the fabric of the show means each season gets a soft narrative reset for its characters and setting. When asked about the choice to have three-year time jumps, Joerg Winger said it was somewhat incidental. Because of Able Archer and some of the Neue Deutsche Welle music circa 1983, the Wingers knew they wanted to start their story in 1983. They also knew that they wanted to do a trilogy and that it should end in 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Because of this, of the three settings, 1986 is the most random.

“I think it’s a little bit like the Buddhist wisdom: wherever you dig, if you dig for long enough, you’ll find something,” says Joerg Winger of the 1986 setting. “We were a little bit nervous about the 86 question. When we started 86, we were like, ‘OK, so what are we going to find in ’86?’ But then there’s just so much.”

When we catch back up with Martin in Deutschland 86, he has been exiled from East Germany for three years, living in Angola where he teaches English at an orphanage. While the other two seasons in the story keep their focus relatively tight on East and West Germany, Deutschland 86 expands its Cold War scope to visit places like Libya and Paris, where geopolitical tensions are manifesting in different ways but are still part of the same global story.

“We started writing 86 the day after the Trump election,” says Anna Winger, “and I remember feeling really focused on looking at capitalism, because the story of 86 is kind of about the capitalist core of the engine that kept the communist regime going. And you see all these guys who are holding on to what they’ve managed to build at all costs, even though it’s all really coming apart.”

The Deutschland storyline comes to fruition in Deutschland 89. Three years following the events of Deutschland 86, the East German government is in even more dire straits. They are out of money, and the people are protesting. The final season is set against the backdrop of the collapse of the East German government.

“People didn’t know what was going to happen for a few months, and that is a very unusual situation,” says Anna Winger of the time period. “And also, for all these spies, they were really good spies, and suddenly, they had no country, the goals were completely unclear, and they were in the same place. The crazy thing about people in Berlin who live on the East side is they haven’t gone anywhere, but everything else has changed. It’s as if their country completely changed, and they’re still living on the same piece of earth, and that’s wild.”

The Deutschland series may explore East German life in the 1980s at different stages of Communist collapse, but the parallels to the experience of living in today’s crumbling capitalism are striking.

“I think as we came towards the end of the arc of the trilogy, certainly we got deeper and deeper into exploring late-stage capitalism and how that’s the patriarchy holding onto power in any sort of regime,” says Anna Winger. “We’re writing a show about late-stage communism or socialism, but it still has a lot of parallels to late-stage capitalism.”

In the midst of it all, is Martin Rauch, an audience surrogate for an everyday person just trying to live a good life with the people he loves amidst political and social turmoil. By Deutschland 89, Martin is understandably much more jaded than his 83-era self, but he has also somehow held onto his humanity.

“What Anna and Joerg always told me was that when they created Martin and how they wanted him to succeed, he should always have this moral compass that he’s following,” says Nay. “In a big contrast to all the people around him, like [his aunt] Lenora or [his father] Schweppenstette, that they are following rules given from somebody else or they’re following their idealism, their socialist idea. Martin had the chance of getting a pretty uncolored picture of East and West, of both the states and both the sides. He had to find his own [way].”

Martin’s ability to hold onto his humanity, to maintain some kind of admirable moral compass despite all of the things he has been through, is where much of the optimism in the Deutschland series ultimately lies. 

“I always saw it like Martin being in the middle and people from left and right trying to pull him in directions and he’s always trying to see or weigh out which is best for him and also for people around him,” says Nay. “He’s like, yeah, it’s a hero thing I guess. I don’t know. Yeah, Joerg and Anna wanted Martin to keep that. So it was kind of a challenge to, of course, let Martin grow up and let him harden and let him be very, very suspicious, more and more, not trusting anybody because what he learns is that, if he trusts somebody, he’s going to be betrayed so he has to keep it in himself. That is the development that he goes through through all the seasons. Then, given this little lovable touch of hero-ness and moral compass, not losing that. It was kind of a balance act I would say. I gave my very best.”

Ultimately, the Deutschland series ends as it told its story: thoughtfully, and with a fundamental empathy that doesn’t guarantee a happy ending but rather something better. The possibility of holding onto one’s humanity through pain and suffering and amongst forces so much larger than any one person. In 2020, that may be the flavor of happy ending we need most of all.

“In 89, the shit’s hit the fan, and it’s really over, and people are scrambling to redefine themselves,” says Anna Winger. “But I suppose, if there’s a message to the whole thing, it’s that there are possibilities in chaos. And this is truly something I think we can learn from Germany: is that maybe there’s the possibility of reinvention that is positive, that there’s hope in reinvention, and that maybe when things come apart, there’s a chance for something good to come out of it.”

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The entirety of the Deutschland series is now available to watch on Hulu.

The post In 2020, The Deutschland Series is As Relevant As Ever appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[rainbow-filmnerd]

Another Top 5 Favorite Sanders Sides Videos (3/5)

In honor of the one-year anniversary of me watching Sanders Sides for the first time and becoming a Fander, I’ve decided to count down ANOTHER Top 5 Favorite Sanders Sides videos! If you didn’t see a video you think I should have discussed, be sure to check out the first list!

#3 is... “Putting Others First - Selfishness v. Selflessness Redux”

GENERAL THOUGHTS

This one ranked a little lower because of two reasons. First, I was kinda missing Virgil, but that’s just me being picky about wanting my favorite Side to appear. And second, I had a bit of trouble processing everything after the video was over. So much has happened, and I couldn’t register everything from the first half of the video as I watched the second half. XD

However, despite that, it was such a great episode! A lot of emotional moments will likely be addressed in future episodes, and from my understanding, there’s only a couple left in this second season. I really did admire the fact that some of the scenes were parallels to SvS. Just overall, one heck of a doozy!

FAVORITE PARTS/LINES OF DIALOGUE (in no particular order)

That 8-bit video game art. John Stratman, that work that was put into this video to bring the video game aspect of it to life was AMAZING!

All the cameos of Leslie Odom, Jr. Now, I’ve never seen or heard Hamilton, but I think it’s cool that Thomas got him to be featured in this video.

All the “F” jokes and f-bomb teases. Also, I like the gold coin as the censor beep.

“I don’t want Thomas to croak! That’s my job.” *croaks*

Janus’s name reveal. Not something I saw coming, but what kinda threw me off was Roman’s reaction. But that was because I didn’t realize that it was “Janus”, the two-faced Roman God, and not “Janice”, the Friends character portrayed by Maggie Wheeler.

Janus snapping back wasn’t any better, but it was still an impactful moment.

“We should start looking into ways to PREDICT THE FUTURE!!!” “No!” And then whatever Roman said in that voice.

“Video games mean so much indoor time, that they should cause a little OUTDOOR time! Don’t you think?” “Ehhh…”

Patton hopping aboard on the “taking terms too literally” train after Roman asked Thomas who “gave him the jump” when his car broke down.

“Okay... I understand, now, that I have been.... a little-.” “Much?” “The mayor of Much-kin Land?” “... Sure.”

Patton and Janus’s interaction at the endcard scene.

Janus’s  “Ah, d-d-d-d-DOY!”

“Jesus Christ Superstar!” That just reminds me of my Dad, because he likes that musical.

“Roman... I only mean well when I say... that is the stupidest thing you’ve ever said.”

The 8-bit video game music. From the theme song, to the main score for the characters. I love that detail.

“He’s the actual snake on the plane! And I, for one, am tired of this MORALITY-FIGHTING snake on this METHAPORICAL plane!”

Patton calling out Thomas for not getting up sharp by calling it, “6am dull”.

“By the liquid lipstick of William Shakespeare...”

Roman’s cat-filled apartment scenario.

“Especially to Mrs. Snuffles. More like Mrs. Sniffles! Because of the allergy...”

Just the overall video game theme in this video. I got a few of the game references, but not all of them. I don’t really play video games. :P

“I mean... there’s an obvious right answer here.” “Please don’t tell me you’re going to wrestle Tony award-winning actor Leslie Odom, Jr. for a hot dog.” “What?! No! I’m going about my day!”

All the callbacks and references to Thomas’s works and the little cameos of his friends!

“Well, when is it enough?!” “.... Trees?” “No! Selfishness!”

Patton having his eyes closed when he says that “doing nothing is worse than doing something good for the wrong reasons”.

“Like, you’re such a Dad that it’s too much to handle sometimes.”

Janus’ entrance/reveal in this video. I think it’s my favorite entrance of his of the series.

“Ooooh! Ooooh! Reptilian Rapscallion! Reptilian Rapscallion! We got a Code Yellow!”

Patton misusing “factoid”.

“People are being hurt by this reptilian with scallions.” “No.”

Janus before he sank out. I am still a little wary about him, but oh my gosh, he was a complete DORK in that scene.

“Don’t make me regret trusting you! I don’t want to be stuck with an evil snake boy!” “You’re not stuck with an evil snake boy.... You’re just stuck with a snake boy.”

Roman trying to read the text on Logan’s Lowdowns, but it goes by too quickly. Every gamer’s struggle.

“Sometimes, we get this.” “A bagel?!” What?! No. Maybe.” I didn’t realize it was a parallel to the Valentine’s Day video, but it’s still silly.

Logan’s Nietzsche impression.

“He does have a stu-uper duper unique mustache.”

Every time we get to see one of “Logan’s Lowdowns”. Felt kinda sad that he feels like he could be a bother, but it was still cute to see an 8-bit Logan (and Janus disguised as Logan).

“I think I understand what it means... Deceit being a part of me.” “That’s cool, talk about me like I’m not here.”

Roman’s exit is HEARTBREAKING!!!

Logan’s “I’m so f**king done” face when Thomas said he “wouldn’t be wrestling Logan for a hot dog”.

Patton’s breakdown. The entire scene and the transtitions.

“So, that rule trumps the other rule?” “Roman!” “Eh?!” “You know we don’t like to use the “T” word in this house.” “Oh, sorry!”

Roman mouthing, “behooved”.

“Three out of four of those are normal for me... Do I have hypoxia right now?”

Thomas’s score (80085) and time (limited/being lost/poorly spent), and the 8-bit portrait of Janus.

“I don’t want to make you think you’re some-.” “Stupid, dirty, rotten, filthy-silly, billy, no-good for nothing, uh, white, urgh, rat-scandrel b*tch!”

We can all agree that the “Rhythm Redux” was a bop. The visuals were amazing to look at, and man, Thomas’s vocals were on point.

Thomas screaming at Lee and Mary Lee and shutting the door at their faces.

“Leslie offers up a reward.” “What’s the reward?” “Leslie’s famous cake!” “Phrasing?” “What? Leslie’s literal cake that he baked! Oh my gosh!”

Roman reaching over the text bar and selecting “ignorant”, and him slicing through the giant text box after it hit Patton. That editing is just well done!

“He didn’t mislead you on purpose, Thomas. I don’t think the little guy-. Or the big frog is capable of that sort of thing.”

Thomas realizing his neck was stiff when he turned to look towards Janus.

“In my head, I’ll just feel this way.” “What way?” “The way a groom might feel if he just watched as his bride ran away.” “... But you’re gay.”

Janus laying down the severity of Thomas’s mental health and the overall message of self care.

Patton’s high-pitched “Right?” sounds like a little dog bark.

[vaguely-concerned]

the mandalorian episode 7 reactions

spoilers under the cut!

- during my rewatches I have been thinking ‘damn baby yoda has witnessed A Lot of murders/seen his dad get hurt even more’ and found it strange it hasn’t affected him more and little did I know they were saving it all to fucking stab me in the heart with one barbed wire-wrapped zweihander. the scared way he shakes his little green head while mando tries to reassure him fjskdfhaksd T___________T 

cara tho of all people. okay this is kind of a crazy idea but bear with me: what if baby yoda picks up a lot on mando’s feelings (in a wordless baby-with-a-Force-connection sort of way -- almost a metaphoric heightening of how babies actually attune to their caretakers in real life), and normally mando is a bit detached/dissociated around others but he’s starting to warm up to and trust cara and it’s bringing him a bit more online and the baby reads that engagement/excitement as danger because that’s the only thing he has to compare it to? like they’re clearly actually having fun but the baby wouldn’t know that because uh mando has never just had fun around him before and to the baby adrenaline seems like adrenaline no matter the source. that might be completely off base but it was what dropped into my brain right away so *shrug*

I’m so grateful mando doesn’t get mad at bb even when he gets scared like that though. it’s good for my soul. 

- cara and mando being bros is Life, is Love 

- but most of all CARA!!! I love her!!! and the effortless way mando put down his trump card.... “sorry got stuff to do people to beat up no can do my helmeted friend” “’kay. by the way we’re going Imp hunting” “:D:D:D when do we leave”

- KUIIL Y_____________Y actually I refuse (REFUSE) to accept it until someone finds his body and confirms he’s actually dead, I believe denial is my prerogative it’s almost christmas for goodness’ sake  

- when cara, greef karga and mando are about to leave for the town I actually SCREAMED at the screen “MANDO REASSURE YOUR CHILD AND TELL HIM EVERYTHING’S GOING TO BE OKAY BEFORE YOU LEAVE HE NEEDS SOME SAFETY” and then he didn’t and then I cried 

- pedro pascal did some Things with his voice in this one and it was mean and unfair and uncalled for and awful. the honest hurt and fear in his voice when he says “It tried to kill him”? END ME

- mando straight up doesn’t seem to know anything about the Force at all, or at least not in a way that lets him connect it to the baby. maybe he vaguely knows jedi were a thing but not quite what they actually were. I like that, an interesting showcase of the different perspectives through the galaxy. (maybe finding someone to help out with this is going to be the story arc for next season?

- I actually think this is the first episode where they’ve tried to cover too much in too little time and had to drop the emotional consistency as a consequence. it’s understandable since they need to get all the pieces set up right for the finale, but it didn’t quite work for me (by which I mean for the love of god I needed just one scene, however short, of mando and baby yoda connecting properly with nothing else going on to help me through the stress/reaffirm the bond so it’s unbearably fresh in your mind what this is all for. yes that’s right I wanted them to hurt me more that’s how I roll)

the stuff Kuiil was doing there with his droid story also felt slightly disjointed? out of tune with the rest of the episode? I like him very much and I think I see what they were going for but it felt a little off? mando gently being faced with the fact that droids are naturally neutral and that it’s people who decide what to make them/teach them (yessss go off kuiil!) deserves more space to breathe, this is definitely my least favourite episode so far  

- lol @ the empire dude. ‘yeah okay but apart from all the genocide what did we even do to anyone tho???’ in the end he seemed to earnestly admire mandalorian culture in an almost fanboyish way, which doesn’t really surprise me; there must be some decent overlap between people who believed in the empire and people who think the mandalorian tendency towards militarism and (periodic) expansionism is Cool. (which is why I traditionally haven’t cared much for them, incidentally, they’ve always sort of bored me as a warrior culture before this series added some mystical/more overtly religious overtones to the whole thing)

also loved how mando gave him  n o t h i n g  at all to work with and cara’s ‘who the hell is this guy??’ to the new bad guy lol

- mando averting the fight between kuiil and cara just by being soft and asking for help/reminding them of the kid ;___; I love him he knows how to deescalate a situation when he wants to 

also the parallell between baby yoda protecting mando and the droid hovering ready to protect kuiil... right in the feels man. also kuiils air of dignity and experience is so effective. pls be my gruff no-nonsense grandpa who helps me with my computer kuiil

if kuiil is actually dead (which I continue to REFUSE but if) I get the feeling that mando is going to have to Reevaluate some things basically out of respect to his memory, since the way he describes putting this droid back together is framed so heavily as parenthood and surely there must be some empathy for that at least behind that beskar chest plate at this point

I have been thinking that adding a droid to mando’s little uh ‘crew’ would be thematically appropriate so maybe that’s what going on? kuiil said he could reprogram it for childcare, perhaps we’ve found the babysitter we’ve been begging for

- the one-sided vendetta between mando and the very soft spoken, very conscientious, very polite droid is hilarious. mostly because it thus far has manifested mainly in mando presumably glaring behind the helmet and being slightly snippy in saying he won’t come down for dinner like a fucking teenage boy in a sulk fjskdafhsd (I am slightly forgiving of him because droids pointing guns at the kid must be trigger central for him and I can sympathize, it’d take some time to change)

- some other high points of hilarity: three blurrgs and four people in mando’s tiny rustbucket of a ship. “It’s trying to eat me!”. the fact that greef karga was ABSOLUTELY planning to double cross them from the beginning and admitting it openly, he ain’t ashamed (the ‘mando get better friends’ campaign continues). mando describing the spectacular firefight at the end of ep 3 as ‘a bit of a run-in’. baby cackling as he finally gets a turn behind the steering stick of the razor crest. the mysterious multiplying four storm troopers (‘you said four fucking storm troopers karga!!!!’) phenomena. “well there are more. what can I tell you”. mando, with perfect disdain: “on your wall”. the panicked force choke was upsetting but the fact that ‘we do not strangle our friends’ was the Mando Parenting Lesson of the day is undeniably kind of funny.  

- anyway I am here and ready to pass out from stress waiting for mando to lose his entire shit and go on a roaring rampage of rescue to save his kid in the next episode (I swear to GOD disney there better not be any between-season cliffhangers about this or I will fucking riot/possibly just die)

ETA: I FORGOT TO MENTION: credit where it’s due the flamethrower did pull it’s weight in this one, I still think he should invest in something more reliable but it did the trick this time and fair is fair

[toooldforfandom-liveblogs]

RWBY V07E02 - A New Approach

Aaand we're back! Last episode a dangerous band of vigilantes was arrested by the valiant Ace Ops. You can rest easy, citizens of Mantle, your streets are safe again. Or are they? Let's do this!

He was arrested for dumping world building on unsuspecting people.

Her ship? Winter? Ooh, that guy is dead.

I'm not sure I like the introduction of something as good as "better conditions in Mantle" coming from someone who the show is not taking seriously. Even the music is lighthearted.

...they are not being subtle about Robyn Hill being a reference to Robin Hood, huh?

Again, I'm not sure what's up with the tone. Why is _this_ the first impression we get of Robyn Hill's movement? Is it because Ironwood is coming and we need to see his side before Hill's thing is presented as something more serious?

I haven't commented on it but background Nora has been a delight.

The second time Blake speaks to Ruby this season. Ah, how times change.

This could be a "you're a making a great mistake" moment but I have faith in Ruby.

I was prepared to not see Penny again for _episodes_ but here she is. The RWBY Gods are generous today.

She missed her! I think? She's surprised but her expression doesn't exactly scream happiness... but then, she has smiled maybe twice in the show.

I like how Ironwood's both metallic and human side are represented by Penny and Winter. And how their demeanor usually represents the opposite, with Penny being a lot warmer and open than Winter's cold nature.

Aw, she really was worried about Weiss. And Ironwood in the back wondering what's wrong with his usually ice-cold, professional to a fault right hand.

Weiss's hugs are incredibly powerful, as seen in Volume 5.

They can even defeat Winter.

There's something very suspicious about how they in shadows. Penny looks almost menacing with the way her eyes shine.

Uhm. About that.

Huh, so she got attacked too?

Many volumes ago I thought that Penny was a candidate for being the Fall Maiden, but if the Winter Maiden has been in "stable condition" since before the Fall of Beacon, it'd make sense for her to actually be a candidate for that.

I just had a dumb thought. What if Pietro transferred her aura to Penny (with a scene somewhere saying how creating aura from nothing is impossible) because she was dying, and now the Winter Maiden is for all purposes brain dead. So, the Winter Maiden is "alive" but Penny maybe could have access to the powers?

It feels too complicated to be true but who knows.

Oh, she's old. For some reason I thought they were all young-ish but it makes sense that at least one would survive to an old age.

lol, too late

"Indeed. Also, who is this small child and why is he here in this classified meeting"

Okay, that's a _great_ idea considering how unbelievably vulnerable the old system was. But... doesn't Dust stop working in space? And, doesn't this smell like an orbital supervillain laser waiting to happen?

Ironwood wants to trust humanity when Ozpin didn't. Is the show going to validate Ozpin's beliefs about how the knowledge would only hurt humanity? Knowing could help everyone prepare for a future attack by flying monkeys and it could unify them against a common enemy... Huh, I'm not sure how to feel about this. It really could go either way depending on the writers.

I think she's lying because of the "destroy Salem" thing but I'm not sure why. Does she think telling everyone is the right idea and doesn't want to discourage Ironwood? Is she trying to dissuade Ironwood from using the relics until things are clearer? Maybe she's still reeling from everything that happened in Brunswick and doesn't want anyone to give up?

Her motivations are a bit of a mystery right now since we don't even know what their current goal is.

That sounds like Ironwood didn't quite believe Ozpin. Without the code word there's nothing he can do though.

A gesture of goodwill? But is it sincere or is Ironwood trying to get into RWBY's good side for a reason?

In theory he doesn't need them for any of his plans so I feel he's being at least partly genuine.

It's also a good way to keep RWBY in the inside track of the plot since they will continue being directly tied to it as long they have the lamp.

An excuse for the outifts change!

Okay, I love that woman.

The opening has a lot of scenes with RWBY fighting random Grimm so I was expecting something like this. It was either this or being hired as unnofficial huntresses.

AO3 is going to go nuts after this.

...is Tyrian inside that bag? Please tell me he is.

The hacker equivalent of calmly walking from an explosion.

That was a hell of an episode considering it was all setup. But what a setup! The show continues to give us pieces but there's still no way to know what they are going to mean in the future.

Robyn Hill moves from poster cameos to the hero of that dude who nobody, not even the show, takes seriously. I'm still not sure why _that_ was the tone they took for the introduction of what looks like a valid social unrest movement.

It feels too obvious if it was only to sell Ironwood's image as someone who is willing to make the hard decisions.

It'd be easy to go all paranoid and say the guy was planted by Ironwood to generate an early bad impression of the "opposition", only including everyone in his highly confidential plans and returning the lamp to Ruby as demonstrations of trust just to get their trust back for reasons unknown. But I can't see Ironwood playing the necessary 4D chess to get there. He seems genuine, even if he places too much trust in Atlas's military superiority.

And we don't know of any reason why that kind of subterfuge would be necessary since in his eyes RBWY are just a group of ragtag students that never graduated. They are not unique... unless he needs Ruby's silver eyes? Oh. I hadn't thought of that. Uhm.

Anyway, his plan is based in the assumption that they _can_ destroy Salem. Ruby and everyone else knows that's false. She _lies_ about Ozpin to cover up that fact. Which I think was the right choice, even if everyone else is probably going to have words with her at some point in the future (do the walls have ears in Atlas Academy?)

Ozpin's main problem is that he didn't trust anyone fully, not even his closest allies. Ruby trusts her friends and allies, but Ironwood is not that (yet?). There is a parallel between the two of them, but I feel it's more to show the difference between them than the similarities.

Unless Ironwood finds out (or already knows) they are lying and goes nuts, confirming that in the show honesty trumps all. Which I don't really agree with.

I'm curious about how the plan is going to work. Restoring global communications would be invaluable but Atlas having total control of that antenna feels like it's going against the spirit of the post-war agreement. It doesn't help that orbital stations always feel like they can host weapons.

Telling everyone about Salem could be the next "Fall of Beacon" if it's not handled well. Maybe Watts's plan is exactly that, manipulate things in such a way that the plan succeeds but it all ends up strengthening Salem's position instead of humanity's chances of survival.

This episode dropped so much information and possibilities! And we don't even know what's up with Jacques! Or the election!

I can't wait for the next one, until next time!

[kiss-my-freckle]

7x18 rewatch.

This will end up long because I”m gonna comment as I rewatch. 

I love this discussion about faith given Liz’s two leaps of faith and those two unicorn foreshadows from 6x20. Liz’s leap of faith in Red to save her daughter from Kirk in 4x6. Liz’s leap of faith in Tom to remarry him in 3x17. I really love this imam, his character overall. He impressed me a great deal in his scenes. 

Clearly the prospect of my death doesn't shake your faith.  How about we see if the prospect of yours shakes his. Keenler. Prospect of having to live without me must’ve been terrifying. It was.

What? Everyone knows wine is dehydrating. So much feeding back to The Apothecary, and I’m not sure why. Either he’s getting poisoned by the second Wicked Wolf, or they have plans with this direction. Maybe it’s not so much the storyline as it is the wine. There’s so much focus to wine. I’ll have to consider it more. Either way, this is the scene that acts as the bridge to Devane’s episode. 

Isolation and planting prints. More to my Tom domino theory. I believe Red framed him for Diane Fowler’s murder. Krilov in solitary. I believe Tom was the one who took Liz for that second memory wipe. Also Richard Game, tied to Tom, who was in isolation due to medical reasons. The mention of locked-door mysteries makes me question if there could be a parallel somewhere. I’ll look through scripts for that as well. 

Red’s successor. Vichyssoise is a creamy, rich potato and leek soup that's usually served cold. One story attributes it to the French king Louis XV, who was terrified of being poisoned and ordered so many people to taste his soup that by the time he ate, it had grown cold. I find this interesting, given my consideration to the Apothecary and Red being poisoned. 

As soon as ‭the transition is complete. What transition? Nothing like putting this into the context of transition when we’re talking about Katarina becoming Reddington, now talking to Liz about how his pregnancy was unplanned. 

You're also the daughter of Katarina Rostova. Believe me, ‭it's not what I had hoped for, or what I had planned for. Red’s collapse acting as the bridge for past and future. But as the good book says, man plans. God laughs. Tom planned, God laughed. 

What changed? I know that before everything changed - my father was kind and decent and beautiful.

Fate of Past, Rederina: Destiny. Fate. Me. You. Fate of future, Keenler baby: Destiny. Fate. Me. You. Red saying, “Perhaps it's time to mend that fence.” I now have visions of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. That’s how the false mother died in the film, and they ran balcony shots on Liz’s apartment twice. First with Aram, when they were discussing nannies for Agnes. Again, when Liz questioned the woman about Agnes’ drawing of the dead body. It also fits the reference of being impaled by a unicorn. 

Speaking of true love. Marvin in the toy section, talking about wanting kids with Becky - and negoation. Each has something the other wants. I just told you it's at the end of the aisle. 

Marvin: If you don't see it, we're either out or you're not looking hard enough.

Tom: Maybe he’ll be walking you down the aisle. Liz: Not if you’re at the other end of it.

You're holding me hostage. That would speak to Liz’s second memory wipe.  "Try and move the needle.” Makes me think of Red’s lethal injection. 

Seven-card stud, also known as Seven-Toed Pete or Down-The-River is a variant of stud poker. A nice stabbing in the prison. Gutted like Tom. 

Red’s scene with Al. “Imagine the trouble we'd find if you could stay up past nine?”

Red: But I want you to remember what your life really was with him, and imagine all that it could be without him.  Liz: I don’t have to imagine. 

Looks like Tom’s in a little bit of trouble and he’s gonna bring that trouble to you. So... be careful.

You are the devil on my shoulder, Ray. Back to The Informant. I’m the devil on one shoulder, and you’re the angel on her other. She’s in troubled waters, Harold. Please help her to navigate them. Because Tom is the devil on Liz’s shoulder. That’s why he’s there at his grave, talking to Liz. Her tiny island, Ressler. Help her to navigate them, so she doesn’t get swept out to sea.

I... I came as soon as I got Dembe's text. Liz at Tom’s warehouse. I got your message. What is this place? I'm in ‭a bit of a sticky wicket. Follow that with Liz. Your daddy just always taught me to be ready for a rainy day. I don't know. Don't know or can't say?

That bit can be found in 2x20, 2x22, and 5x8. They’re talking about a fingerprint at a crime scene while, as I’ve stated above, I believe Red framed Tom for Diane Fowler’s murder. 

Another mumbly peg like Pete and Caul. 

Maybe Gerard knows. I mean, if that mouthpiece knows anything, Reddington'll get him to blow. I think this was from Arioch Cain, but can’t be sure. 

I’m not gonna get into Ressler’s scene with Liz, I put that in my fate post. I will take note to Ressler seemingly flashing back to that scene, so he heard what Red said to Stark about his blood panel results. I’ll also take note to the “news” dialogues. That’s why they threw in a flashback for Ressler in Roy Cain. He’s gonna look into Red’s medical file for Liz. “Not on my watch.”

Red: You haven’t mentioned my blood panel results. Stark: We’ve been too busy. Red: Not for good news.

Liz: Because it's like I'm in the middle of a monsoon that's constantly threatening to drown me in bad news.

The reference to a telephone book. I’ll have to see if there are any parallels for that as well. Evergreen dip spit and nuts in a Cheerio.Interesting references lately. Dipstick to dip spit. Tuck tail and go, now nuts in a Cheerio. 

I don’t like the way this woman talks to Dembe before he goes to speak with his imam. It’s as if she’s getting off on this. Like she’s enjoying ever second of it. 

Dembe: A man's life is more important than a man's secrets. Imam: Some lives are built on secrets. And when they are revealed, the life they're built on ends as well.

The imam basically knows the difficult choice Dembe is faced with. Dembe is being forced to choose between Red’s life... and the imam’s. Revealing Red’s secrets will kill him, and the imam knows this. That’s why Red is so disturbed by Dembe’s choice. But I think Red has to start realizing that his secret shouldn’t trump a life like the imam’s. Ever. If it were someone like Floriana Campo, I wouldn’t care. If I let you die to save Raymond's soul, how will I ever save my own? The imam is trying to get him to understand it’s not his fault. It’s the fault of the woman, of Red, and of Liz. They put these two in a terrible position with their secrets. Dembe got me in this episode. Sending chills right through me with his tears. 

There are some scenes in this that I’ll be putting to gif, so I won’t bother commenting them. This woman speaks to Dembe “praying” on his decision. It takes me back to Liz at Tom’s grave. “Preying” on the emotions of those that love her most. I commend Dembe for his honesty. He could’ve lied to Red, said he wasn’t gonna tell her anything, but he admitted it. Ledger of a warden. Ledger of Ian Garvey. 

The discussion of a binary choice. I’ll have to see how that compares to a Hobson’s choice because it sounds much of the same. Red states as he did in Cape May. There’s always a choice. Yet later with Marvin, speaks to not having a choice - just as he did at the end of Cape May. You had no choice. It was me or Masha. Like Dembe leaving the imam no choice but remain silent about his abduction. Choices. 

Woman: I'm giving them a choice. Dembe made the right one. If it comes down to it, one day, I hope you will too. Liz: I thought I already had. Woman: You did. And it saved me. But there will be more choices for you to make. Liz: Between you and him. Woman: I don't think one of us can live while the other survives. And I think the outcome is in your hands.

Like Kate, the woman doesn’t feel they can co-exist. But I also find this interesting with regard to the Hobson’s choice Katarina made. Katarina coudn’t survive while Masha lives. That was the path she took. And Red understands Liz’s position because he knows she believes this woman is her mother. 

Marvin: You're giving a cop the keys to your kingdom. Red: Regrettably. Marvin: Why do it? Red: Because where she's going, she'll need it. Marvin: And where, pray tell, is our plucky heroine going? Red: To a very dark and dangerous place. She doesn't see it, or can't accept it, but her path is undeniable. 

“I’ve made many difficult choices in my life. Choices that at one point or another have brought pain and sorrow to everyone I cared about. That’s a heavy burden to bear, even if the path one chooses is the only one in sight.”

Marvin: You make it sound like she has no choice. Red: What did you say? Marvin: I said you make it sound like she has no choice. Red: I guess that is what I'm saying. Sometimes there is no choice.

Red’s dialogue about a dark and dangerous place reminds me of Liz under the table in Lady Ambrosia. It is a long journey through a country that is sometimes dark and terrible. But it’s really the darkness and the light that strikes me. I do believe they’re taking this back to Ruin. Don’t just go off and hide in the dark. Wherever you go, look for some light. Tom is dark, Ressler is light. That’s why Ressler met baby Luke. Light giving. He’ll want to save Liz just as Liz saved him. When it comes down to Liz making her choice, that’s when I think Ressler will tell her how he feels. How he’s felt for the past five seasons. 

I'm unsure of what Red is gonna do with Dembe because it's open to two interpretations. He looks at Dembe and tells Marvin, "Sometimes, there is no choice." He could be saying Dembe didn't have a choice, and because of that, will forgive him. Or he could be stating what Kate told us in S4. "Have no choice? Isn’t that the speech, Raymond?" Liz is basically placed in the same position as Dembe. Choosing Raymond over a woman she believes is her mother. 

Red assumes Liz has no choice. But she does have a choice. He’s simply forcing her to make it in the dark. Perfect time for Ressler to come in and shine some light. Whether or not Red kills Dembe, their relationship will never be the same. But it had to come down to this at some point. Your purpose is to protect Elizabeth, but mine is to protect you. If things get very bad, this will make that impossible. I do beileve the woman is gonna die in 7x19. Berdy is dead. Red is going after the brothers that faked her death because he knows she's alive. “Meanwhile, Liz must make a momentous decision.” And this woman is preparing for Liz to make her choice. I thought a lot about how most people's lives hinge on a few key moments. I think mine only had one moment, and then it was over.

The woman in Paris. If you won’t tell me her name, just tell me this. If we find her, will it end? That is our best hope. 

But when the time is right, when I have the answers, I will find you. Might be a week or a month, but I will find you. We will end this.

Keenler. Then we’ll deal with it. We?

And Ressler. where the hell did he go after talking to Liz about Stark and Red’s medical file? Perhaps he’s doing some recon, preparing to break in. 

[takaraphoenix]

35,18,3,7 (on the original Charmed)

Thanks for playing! ^-^

3. rant. just do it

Okay, here goes nothing.

Americans annoy me with their high hourse TV plot writing these days. Like, yeah, just as any other sane person, I know that your guys’ government putting human beings into cages and separating children from their parents and basically Third Reiching it up in there is really terrifyingly bad - as a German, I might even get that a little bit more than some others.

But I’m... I’m really tired of them doing this “what is happening right now is Really Very Bad and we will whack you over the head with that in your fun escapism TV show”.

Because look. If I’d... If I’d want to engage with this terrifying shit going on, I’d be right now watching the news. Not Supergirl. Not Legends of Tomorrow.

I, like many others, watch TV as a means of escapism. Especially shows about idiot timetravelers and aliens who are unrecognizable when they put on glasses.

That a show like Orange is the New Black that is set and grounded in this reality and actually deals with prison conditions and has tackled these type of injustices from the get-go addresses it makes a whole lot of sense and fits the theme.

But every single show turning into “we shouldn’t treat other beings who are just like us but have slight differences and may come from a different place like they are below us!!!” is... it’s exhausting.

Not everybody watching this is American. It’s not like we can do anything to help. And, let’s be really really clear: A show that is so damn heavy on feminism and LGBT themes has long since lost any of the viewers whose hearts and minds these kind of plotlines are meant to change. No Straight White Male Republican Racist is still watching a show with half the cast being POC and LGBT and female. The only people you’re reaching are the people who absolutely know that what is happening is wrong and terrifying.

And what makes it more frustrating was that Supergirl in particular was always very out of this world; quite literally. They opted, after Trump was elected, to put a female president onto that Earth. A reasonable, wise woman who works for the rights of others. And that made this show all the more wonderful and all the more escapism from this reality because it was literally presented as a better alternate Earth to ours. That they had to get her impeached to replace her with a Straight White Male Racist so you can hammer the metaphor of aliens = immigrants in was... not necessary, not on that world.

And especially not with the exact same message running course on three different shows that share one universe -  because yeah, the whole “metahumans are different than us and are being murdered” thing is the same tune, you just exchanged alien/magical creature with metahuman there.

I just... It’s too much. I get tight-chested every single time I have to face another horrible, inhumane, Hitleresque thing that Trump said or did. I don’t need you to whack me over the head with thinly veiled metaphors.

Especially since you’re not even doing it in a creative way. The bad guy is the Old White Man, while most of the aliens and magical creatures that are prominently features are played by actors of color, just in case anyone was still missing the metaphor. It’s... It’s not even clever writing.

And I don’t... I just... Honestly, I actually find it kind of offensive that writers think we need a metaphor where the immigrants are literal aliens. Like, humans do this shit to other humans. That you’re pretending that “oh no they are doing this to aliens while all humans hold together” is... even more unrealistic than the whole premise of Supergirl to begin with, to be quite frank.

It’d even be... fine. Durable. If it were one show only but to be whacked over the head with the exact same message on multiple shows running parallel is really tiresome actually.

I get it. I know what you’re saying. I agree. And so does the whole entire damn rest of the audience. Because if they didn’t get the whole point of Superman and Supergirl literally being refugees on Earth and them LITERALLY being created by Jewish men during WWII and if they weren’t racist enough to stop watching when two black men became superheroes and if they weren’t homophobic enough when one of the main characters came out as a lesbian and started very explicitely to have a relationship with another woman and if they weren’t transphobic enough to quit when you introduced a trans character to the main cast and if they weren’t misogynistic enough to just straight up quit this majorly female-led feminist show on season one, then honestly you’re barking up the wrong tree there.

7. opinion on… Charmed

THIS WAS MY FIRST BIG OBSESSION! *^*

Oh, I loved Charmed - literally all of my walls, including my ceiling, were plastered with posters of the show! I did the puppy-dog eyes at anyone who bought teen magazines back then, I got cut-out articles about it every time it was somewhere, I still have self-recorded VHS tapes with the entire show in my closet.

I even wrote my very first fanfiction for this show, back then ink on paper in a journal because we’re talking pre-Phoe-is-allowed-on-the-internet-age, I had my first next gen OC line-up for that show.

And it was, to date, the only ever where I actually also got invested in the actors. Particularly Alyssa Milano. And if I saw anything where Alyssa Milano or Julian McMahon were in, I watched it, not even caring what it was, because I loved them so much.

I mean, I’ve always loved witches, you know? But this show just hit everything for me. Back then I really related to Phoebe the most, because she was the youngest and thus most relatable for pre-teen me, she was kind of a screw-up who didn’t really know what she was doing. I always wanted big sisters like Piper and Prue.

Many of my favorite tropes were first introduced to me there. Seriously, this show is why I love a good “everybody lives together”. A team as a family, by blood and also beyond that.

Them killing off Prue killed me. I cried so hard so long back then.

And also this is like the only show ever where I got incredibly invested in the canon ships. Leo/Piper, Cole/Phoebe, Andy/Prue. All. The. Way. Obviously, canon broke my heart twice but that doesn’t mean I can’t live in eternal denial.

It’s also the first time I encountered a TV show overstaying its welcome, because that last season was absolutely unnecessary, start to finish. The season before that had the perfect finale - the sisters, getting to live a normal life, then that little wink by the door closing just like Prue’s powers used to close it, it put tears in my eyes and had me incredibly content. Then they had to add a blonde Mary-Sue to the mix and go on for another season and just nope.

And yes, you notice my focus on Prue. I love her. She still remains my second favorite after Phoebe and I will admit I never quite warmed up to Paige and would have preferred if the whole... actor fall out hadn’t happened and Prue could have continued on in the show. So, that’s my favorite part of it; back when Prue was alive and Cole was also still alive.

18. rant about your favorite musician

...At this point, I am thinking that maybe you should have asked each number in a separate ask because this thing is long.

But okay, I actually do have something to rant about there!

HOW DOES THE YOUTH TODAY NOT UNDERSTAND PUNK. URGH.

A few weeks back, my favorite musician was on TV. There was a music event, I think it was a benefit and also a peaceful protest, led by him, among others, and before it, he stepped up to the mic to say a few words and I was watching that with my grandparents and my brother and he just went “Urgh, that guy again. Why does he have to be everywhere? And why is he talking about this? It’s none of his business, he should just do music”.

Like.

No.

Campino is a punk. Die Toten Hosen is a punk rock band.

Protesting the government and what is wrong with society is literally what punk does. Punk is only secondarily a music genre. First and foremost, it is a means to be loud and vocal about politics. So to organize a peaceful protest and to speak up about the mistreatment of immigrants in our country is literally what punk should be.

The fact that there’s younger people who don’t know that is terrifying. The fact that younger people in Germany just know Campino as an old musician and not as a punk is also terrifying. Go listen to DTH and study up on punk, please.

35. what does home mean to you?

Ah, finally a short one! xD (Just kidding, I do love ranting!)

Home is where I feel at ease, where I can be myself, where I’m happy. These requirements can be fulfilled outside of my own four walls - it’s like, when I am in London, this incredible sense of home fills me too, surprisingly enough. Gods, I wanna go back to London...

Unusual Ask Game

[popculturebuffet]

DWD Reviews: Negaduck or The Good, The Bad and Both are Darkwing (Commissioned by WeirdKev27)

The march to “Just Us Justice Ducks” continues as I bring on the bad guys! And it’s a twofer as we focus on Megavolt and Negaduck! And because the  show apparently wasn’t confusing enough in terms of continuity, this is a second Negaduck who was created before the one we all know, but whose episode aired after, but whose only episode was aired after several of the other ones and...

Point is Megavolt’s latest gizmo creates two darkwings, one a sacchrine goody two shoes and the other an ax crazy, trollish, nightmare of a being who wants to destroy everything. So basically insert your own Ned Flanders and Donald Trump jokes here. Review continues after the break

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Whelp after taking most of the week off i’m back.. in part because of another Kev Comission, and it’s not exclusive to him, anyone reading this can commission any animated episode I have access to for five bucks, 15 for a movie, he’s just the only one taking advantage of it.  But yeah plug aside i’ve been a bit distracted by the election, a new fridge and bunches of other stuff going on to really focus on my reviews, though I do have two planned for the future and regular coverage will rock on. So this was a nice little jolt back to reality and back to business as usual. And it keeps me on something resembling a schedule for getting to “Just Us Justice Ducks”. Given how many months it’s taken me to get as far as I have covering Tom Lucitor episodes that’s probably a good thing. So with all that settled let’s talk about Negaduck. Negaduck is an interesting one to talk about. It’s one of many episodes, such as the episode directly after it “Fungus Among Us” which I covered right before this one which very obviously takes place earlier in the series continuity but aired way late into the syndicated part of season 1. In this case instead of debuting a major character, it debuts the PROTOTYPE for a major character, in this case Negaduck. It’s fairly obvious to me from this episode what happened: This episode was made as a one off, a fun episode where Drake gets split into two people, a good one and a bad one, and Gosalyn has to take charge to stop him. But the Tronsplit Negaduck was such a delight to write and watch, and i’ll get into the why as we go, that they wanted to make him a regular character, but deciding his origins were a headache to deal with as they’d have to create ANOTHER origin story just to get a copy of Negaduck out of Darkwing’s head, they just decided to say screw it and gave the new version the simplier origin of being an evil mirror universe version of darkwing. Simple, opens up story possibilities, and prevents a headache. To Tad Stones credit though had their been a season 3, he had plans for Darkwing and the Second Negaduck to team up against the first one, so there’s that. So that’s how I assume we ended up with two different Negaducks..  and yes i’m aware the Funkos call him Negatron.. but it’s not a great name, nor the one he actually uses so i’m sticking with Negaduck. Point is we ended up with two and with this one being hte blueprint for the one debuting in Justice Ducks, I thought it’d be fun to use as Negaduck’s episode. 

And since i haven’t covered Megavolt, this one’s for him as well since he’s sitll a large part of the episode, and uttelry charming throughout. So with the setup out of the way, check out what I think of the episode itself under the cut. 

We open with Megavolt doing what he usually does: Rob a bank, this time using his new gizmo the tronspliter which spits something into positive and negative Trons... i’d make some joke about one Tron movie being better than the other but I only MILDLY prefer Legacy, as while both have Jeff Bridges being awesome, Legacy has great visuals, an utterly awesome soundtrack, decent performances and Gem, who i’ll embarrassingly admit to having a crush on because my dignity hasn’t gone into the basement enough over my life. But it’s not quite enough to call the other film outright bad, just not for me. Point is despite the obvious opening I got no tron jokes and I just wasted two minutes of your life so let’s move on. 

But instead of loot Negaduck finds a smoking bag! It’s Darkwing Duck.. in what I consider to be the funniest bit of the episode, and that’s not a knock on the episode as a whole as it’s a really damn funny episode. This bit just killed me. Darkwing coughs through his intro from the bag.. I THOUGHT it might be from dye but it turns out.. HE STILL DID THE WHOLE SMOKE BOMB ENTRANCE THING INSIDE THE BAG... despite no one being able to see it and it only making it harder. Just.. it’s such a simple idea but i’ts so brilliant. It’s why I love this show.. the jokes can be silly, but much like classic Disney or Looney Tunes shorts, especially the latter oddly, it’s rooted in the characters, and that makes it that much richer. It’s why i’m a sitcom guy, as long as the sitcom’s good and you know.. doesn’t plug for a transparent wannabe dictator. I like comedy that’s really rich in the characters and who they are. It’s why I like the Ducktales reboot as it has that in droves. It’s why I like either writing the cast in comedy scenarios or plugging them into other sitcoms for my chat: they just FIT there really naturally. I”m also praising the humor because I’m trying to find a balance between accurately representing how funny an episode is and not just going “a really clever gag” over and over and over. Needless to say, this episode is really damn funny and if I didn’t spotlight a joke, it’s only because i’m trying not to repeat itself. This show has aged well for a reason after all. 

We get another great gag I can’t glance over as Megavolt tries to escape and forgets their on the 97th floor. A fight breaks out, including Ball Bearings, but Darkwing easily trounces Megavolt.. until their guns crash, and it triggers the tronsplitter by accident. The result is our episode’s premise as noted in the intro:Double Darkwings! Both are also finely established with their first lines, with Negaduck, darkwing’s negative emotions, wanting to quit crime fighting for something more profitable, and Posiduck, take a wild guess, wanting to quit it for something safer.  The two halves make their way home just as Gosalyn and Launchpad are horsing around playing baseball with a bowling ball, with the predictable result of smashing “Dad’s favorite statue of himself”... again i’m barely into the episode but it just keeps coming up with bits like that. It reminds me of Simpsons, which given my referencing the series near constantly to an OSW Review level, it’s not a huge surprise, but it has the same rapid fire character based jokes as the Simpsons in it’s prime, which funny enough was around this time. It just keeps coming while keeping a compelling story. It’s good stuff is what i’m saying. Not all comedies can manage that  let alone way back when. 

Naturally both Darkwings have.. diffrent reactions. Posiduck just walks it off, kids will be kids, hippie parents stuff which only makes Gosalyn more paranoid he’s going to do something since DW usually isn’t THIS nice, or gracious about destroying his carefully branded stuff. Negaduck.. wants to outright murder her. Then both show up together...

Gosalyn naturally freaks out and given the sheer number of people that have impersonated her dad, and this is pre the second Negaduck, understandably assumes one’s an imposter. But HILARITY insues when the Muddlefoots show up. And this is the first one i’ve watched since I started rewatching to really involve them: They DO show up in Dry Hard, which i’ll get to, but i’ts mostly for Herb to do what he was born for and piss off Drake. Though while Herb was meant to be the Ned Flanders being his neighbor and everything, the passage of time and my recent binge of Schitt’s Creek has me comparing him more to Roland Schitt from that show: A slob of a man with a nicer, more attractive wife who thinks he’s the lead character’s best friend and insuates himself into his life and buisness with varying levels of obnoxiousness, either being a total jackass without realizing it or trying to help but still.. not exactly helping.  Naturally with that kind of parallel Herb is forcing himself in to watch the Pellican’s Island reunion.. but is it the one where they can’t adjust to life outside the island or the one with it turned into a resort after they returned and the Harlem Globetrotters? Point is normally Drake would be, understandably, pissy, but Posidrake, despite Gosalyn’s understandable attempts to clear the muddlefoots out, is more than accommodating. Negaduck.. upon hearing they were coming went to get his shotgun.. and upon seeing them yells at herb for eating his food again, which granted Posiduck gave it to them but given his track record with drake and the way he just barged into Drake’s house to borrow his TV without asking, I can’t blame him for assuming and when Tank, Honker’s brother and little asshole, tries hitting him over it, Negaduck threatens him. Are.. are we sure he’s the bad one? I mean he’s not wrong. Wanting to actually murder them and not just think about it is, but wanting them out of his house isn’t. Gosalyn however shoos him away and gives the Muddlefoots their tv.. they can get a new one but Drake can’t beat murder charges. She does keep Honker, her best friend and local nerd to help since she’s an 11 year old and a launchpad trying to keep Negaduck from killing Posiduck. They sucessfully tie up Negaduck and Posiduck, being a pushover, ties himself up. 

Honker, after examining both’s feather’s under the microscope, concludes what we already knew: Neither of them is fake, their simply positive and negative.. in the DWD universe, Poistrons are good particles and someone’s good half and the Negatrons are someone’s bad half. It’s even taught in school as Gos knows it. After some banter, Gos remembers Posiduck mentioing the tronsplitter and they figure they can be reunited. Naturally, Negaduck does not want that, and due to Goslayn getting a case of the stupids and not being able to tell them apart, despite Negaduck having some big angry eyebrows that make it obvious, frees him and he cons them into a closet and baricades it, sets his other self up for a dynamite filled death trap and runs off to raise some hell. Thankfully Posidrake ends up coliding with the barricade Negaduck put up, and while singed, is still alive because .. split in two or not i’ts still darkwing and Gosalyn drags him along with her and Launchpad to find Megavolt. 

I”m, ironically split a bit on the split darkwings. On one hand, the two don’t really evenly represent drake as neither really act like him, with the most Negduck does is clearly acting out Drake’s darkest impulses he usually mutters under his breath. On the other.. i’m willing to ignore that because it’s just too funny, with Negaduck being hilariously violent, again his recation to the muddle foots is “i’m getting my shotgun”. Not only am I awed a tv show could actually use that as a gag at one time and miss those times, it’s just so hilariously over hte top. That and I love that canocially, drake just had a shotgun lying around, which while making sense given he dosen’t have batman’s gun aversion and likely only uses gas because he’s not a murderer and this is a kids show, is still just a neat fact. The fact it’s not Darkwing branded is a genuine suprise, but it’s just as likely Negaduck couldn’t find that one. 

Negaduck hits up a theater to .. be obnoxious in a REALLY great scene, which I used for my screencap. While Negaduck’s final form is iconic, and we’ll get to it, I went with this simply because that shit eating grim is classic.. we also get Negaduck running into the screen to chase bunnies with a shot gun. Really this is the scene that i’m sure convinced them to find some way to bring this character back. Jim’s delivery, the petty dickey of Negaduck’s villiany here as he literally just drives into a movie theater and ruins everyone’s day for the hell of it, as well as assaults some rabbits with a shot gun.. i’ts just magic and it’s no wonder they’d retool the character to bring him back, nor that they’d put that refined version first. Jim Cummings is good at a LOT of things voice acting wise, there’s a reason he is a legend, but he’s especially good at playing a dickish, comedic villain who revels in being evil. While I didn’t really think about Negaduck at the time, he’d end up taking a LOT of the characters energy with him when he played Lord Boxman on OK K.O.! years down the line and if you haven’t checked it out and like Jim, do. It’s an amazing show. Point is cummings is amazing at this and I can see why they brought the character back. While Posiduck is fun, he’d probably wear his welcome out with more than one episode, while Negaduck had endless potetial and they used it. 

But once he’s done Cape Fearing, Negsy runs into Posi.. and uses him as a scapegoat for the angry mom after him, giving Negsy time to find Megavolt first while Posiduck gets positively pummeled despite Gosalyn and Launchpad’s best efforts.  Negsy finds Megavolt at the Dead End, a bad guy bar on the edge of town where Megavolt is drowning his sorrows.. by plugging a car battery directly into his socket. It’s just a fun visual gag and fit’s his personality and powers. Naturally Negaduck calls him out, and then wipes the floor with him but Megavolt is more than happy to help him once he finds out Negaduck was created by the tronsplitter, jubiantley yelling son and hugging him.. a great gag. Honestly I now see why Megavolt was one of the most popular and used villians in the Rogue’s gallery: he has a great gimmick, great powers, defined limits so unlike poor Liquidator he’s easier to work with, and  Dan Castellaneta really brings his a game here with a unique voice i’ve never heard used on the simpsons.. sorta like crusty but mixed with Bobcat Goldwait. It’s really good.  So while Father and Son bond and head to Megavolt’s place, Team Darkwing heads into the bar, where Gosalyn runs interference for both Darkwing and Launchpad whose just kinda.. there this episode. He really didn’t need to be here and feels like he only is because someone needs to drive the Ratcatcher.  Don’t get me wrong I love the guy, I just don’t get why he’s in this one especially since this is the first one since the pilot i’ve watched to really focus on Gosalyn. While she IS in Tiff of the Titans, it’s mostly in a supporting role. Here she really gets to strut her stuff and show why she’s awesome, intimidating men 4 times her age and size and getting the info they need.  At Megavolt’s, Negaduck continues his plan to just smash the thing but Megavolt doesn’t want one of his kids killing the other and yanks it .. and accidently shoots Negaduck with it while it’s on the merge setting. The result instead galvinaizes him giving him godlike destructive power. How the does this work in any way shape or form?

Negaduck, now above crime, goes to destroy the world with his dad disowning him while Team Darkwing Shows up. Megavolt agrees to help, and his reasons are both funny and work: If Negaduck destroys the city, where will he rob? Also of note is Negaducks new look, looking like a photo negative. There’s a reason besides Laziness it was brought back for the Funko Pops as a recolor, and that reason is DAMN it looks awesome. I get the switch to the easier to use Yellow and Black, but damn if this isn’t cool. 

Gosalyn cleverly gets the two grouped together by saying Negaduck’s abotu to step on a bug, but Negaduck swats Posiduck aside.. however since Posiduck is also made of ions or whatever nonsense this episode is running on that i’m just going with at this point because it’s entertaining and this review’s almost done. Point is we get a glorious sequence as Posiduck basically becomes a disney princess, summoning animals, moralizing that sort of thing. But unlike Gizmoduck this parody over overly sachrine heroes works, partly because it’s clearly amped up to 80 degrees. The two breifly fight before Posiduck holds his counterpart long enough to recombine them. Megavolt, naturally tries to betray everyone and has a zoom lense ready but Gosalyn beats him. Darkwing is restored, helpfully confirmed by his egotisim and Gosalyn hugs her dad despite him docking her allowance.. though i’m sure he reversed that once all was settled. Here’s hoping. Point is we have a happy ending. 

Final Thoughts:  This.. was easily my favorite of the ones i’ve rewatched so far which, along with the ones reviewed already, includes Beauty and the Beat and Dry Hard, which I’ll get to eventually. It’s got a clever concept that while used before in cartoons certainly is mostly used for parody here, gave us the blueprint for a great villain, and in general is just fun. Also as I didn’t realize earlier in this review this episode apparently AIRED earlier, but was put later in syndication because I don’t know. But this one’s a classic and an easy recommend to go to right after your done with the pilot. It’s fun, fast paced, and just packed with great jokes with only so many I could mention here. If you want this show at it’s finest, this is it. It was also a great introduction to Megavolt whose a great villain and I can’t wait to see him in action again. Overall a truly excellent episode and it was a joy to watch.  Until next time, Courage.