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aahsokaatano · 4 years

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King I would love that essay about Changing Channels

Fjdjshjdhdjd thanks for reading my tags Jesse you're the real VIP here.

Okay SO "Changing Channels" is the 8th episode of the 5th season of Supernatural. I give this information bc it's important in looking at the context of the episode - now I've complained a LOT about how SPN is terrible at giving us canonical timeframes within the episodes (y'all i was SHOCKED to discover the first season is supposed to cover a little over a year's worth of time, I thought it was like... 4 or 5 months) so I can't say for sure how long before and after the other episodes happen in-universe around "Changing Channels" BUT

The episode before is "The Curious Case of Dean Winchester" where Dean and Bobby bet years of their lives in a game of poker with a witch. The episode after is "The Real Ghostbusters" where Sam and Dean end up at a fan convention for the in-universe Supernatural novels.

Why am I pointing this out? Because it's important, please, no audience participation, this is like a Brian David Gilbert panel.

[under a cut bc this got...... STUPID long. Who knew I still had this many opinions about SPN in 2020?]

Okay first of all I wanna talk about the cinnamon topography of this episode - I love the way the first 5 seasons are shot because you really feel the americana gothic horror aesthetic they were going for (I have a whole ‘nother rant about the first 5 seasons vs the last 10 but thats for another time). Everything is a little washed out and grey-toned, the camera angles generally serve to make Sam and Dean appear even taller than they actually are (larger than life - again, another post for another time), and there’s honestly a LOT of shots from the ‘monster’s’ perspective, which is really neat! I’ve said it before (on another blog - YES i have a dedicated spn rant blog, don’t @ me hdjfhfjfh) but the episode that really got me hooked on spn back in the day was the second one, about the w*ndigo. Yes, it’s a racist, culturally appropriating shitstorm, but the way its SHOT is fantastic. I’m honestly not a horror fan, but that episode could have easily relied on jumpscares and they DIDN’T and it was scary as all fucking hell and just - fuck okay getting off topic.

In “Changing Channels” we get that distinctive grey-washed tone in the beginning and the very end of the episode, but the middle? When they’re in TV Land? Everything is bright. Almost comically so, I mean - okay look at these two shots of Sam (apologies about the crappy phone pics, netflix won't let me screenshot)

This one is from the start of the episode, in the "real" police station

And this is from a little later in the "TV" hospital

Ignoring that my phone is washing him out a lot in both pics, you can still see the warmer tones in the hospital shot as compared to the cold greyness in the police station one

Okay, now look at this picture

Dean inside the Impala, and those warm tones are back. Why? Because even though Sam and Dean believe that they’re back in the “real” world, they aren’t - so instead of the grey-washed shots that we’re used to, its the bright and warm shots that we see in “TV Land”! So the viewers pick up, even if its just subconsciously, that the boys aren’t out of the woods yet - everything is still too bright to be the in-universe reality we’ve come to expect from SPN by season 5

Which is also why i love this shift so much

These shots are literally SECONDS apart. The first is in "TV Land" and the second is in the "real" world. I have some red strip lights behind my bed, which are reflecting off my laptop screen - notice how much brighter they seem in the second picture? That’s because literally all of the warm colors have been drained out of the shot. As soon as Gabriel snaps them all back into “reality,” things get so much colder.

Okay, so the second thing I want to talk about is some of the very pointed dialogue choices within the “shows” the Winchesters take part in. Not between Sam and Dan and Gabriel, but from the, for lack of a better term, NPCs within the shows.

In the hospital, Dr. Piccolo tells Sam that he is “the finest cerebrovascular neurosurgeon I have ever met - and I have met plenty! So that girl died on your table; it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. Sometimes people just die.” Standard cheesy soap opera dialogue - but lemme just swap some words here and -

“You are the finest hunter I have ever met - and I have met plenty! So that girl died on your hunt; it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. Sometimes people just die.”

Or even -

“You are the finest hunter I have ever met - and I have met plenty! So Jessica and Mary died above you; it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anybody’s fault [but Azazel’s]. Sometimes people just die.”

Keeping in mind that the NPCs are basically Gabriel’s mouthpieces, its easy to see why so many people ship Sabriel. I’d actually love to see a fic that explores them talking about this moment in particular later on and the kind of gentle forgiveness that Gabriel can give Sam... getting off topic again.

In an abrupt about-face, the herpes commercial (much meme’d within the fandom) is straight up Gabriel shaming Sam. Because if you replace “genital herpes” with “demon blood” it’s.... dark. And very intentional.

So that’s what I did! (I combined all spoken lines to make the message easier to read, rather than splitting them up across 3 speakers as in the episode)

“I’ve drank demon blood. I tried to be responsible... did I try. But now, after being forcibly detoxed, I fight my addiction every day to reduce the chances of passing back into that toxic mindset. Ask your loved ones about a demon blood intervention today. [...] I am doing all I can to slightly lessen the chance of drinking demon blood again. And that’s a good thing.”

Like... the subtext throughout this episode sure is. Something.

Okay this is getting ridiculously long so I wanna wrap up by talking about The Best Scene In The Whole Goddamn Show

I’m talking, of course, about Gabriel’s Confession

“Max,” you might be saying, “there are so many better scenes out there, even within the first five seasons!” and to that i say, again, no audience participation, please. Also, you’re WRONG and here’s why!

Gabriel’s confession hits every goddamn emotional chord that the fandom begged for on this show - fear, rage, grief, pain, guilt, and even, yes, absolution.

Okay, here’s the scene again for those of you who don’t think about it at least once a week like me

youtube

Now this video is missing some of the conversation, but most of it is there, enough for you to see what I’m talking about. Gabriel up to this point has been, essentially, a nameless antagonist - this is the third episode he appeared in, and before this, we didn’t even know he was going by Loki. He was just referred to as ‘The Trickster’. But here, not only do we get a name (a real name at that), but we also get a glimpse of his backstory and a hell of a lot of character development in less than 5 minutes. I mean, Sam didn’t get this much character development throughout the entirety of season 1! There’s a good reason Gabriel has been a fan-favorite for a very long time, and I think a big part of it is this particular scene.

Because here, we get to see Gabriel being vulnerable. And we even see Dean show a little vulnerability, as he can empathize being the third party to explosive arguments between the two people who mean everything to him.

I mean... okay, it will never see the light of day, but I wrote a little bit of a Reverse ‘Verse fic (because I’m a sucker for Reverse ‘Verse) and this was the scene I started with. Not s1e1, not even the resurrection in s4e1, but this scene. Because this scene, more than any other, is critical to the way not only Gabriel’s (first) arc plays out, but also to how Sam and Dean conduct themselves for the rest of the season (and maybe a bit beyond, it’s been a hot minute since I watched s6 and later). Dean is angry but determined, he has a point to make, he is going to save Sammy and if he can’t do that, then he’s going to damn well die trying. But Sam... it’s after this episode that we start really seeing how bone-achingly tired Sam is. It’s after this conversation - where one of the other archangels, one of the few beings who can truly understand how powerful Michael and Lucifer are - says that there’s no other way around this that Sam seems to start inching towards giving in. Saying yes.

Sure, in the actual episode, he seems outraged by the idea, practically scoffs at it - “you want us to say yes to those sons of bitches?” - but it’s after this where Sam really seems run down.

I mean, look at the episodes before and after (HAH you thought I forgot about that first point I made at the very beginning of this post! I did, briefly, but I’ve circled back to it, thanks for being understanding). In “The Curious Case of Dean Winchester,” Sam behaves much as he did since the start of s4, which is to say, ‘annoying little know-it-all brother tossed into the middle of the apocalypse and just trying his best’ and it works well for the mad scramble for any scrap of information that’s happening in s4/early s5.

But in “The Real Ghostbusters” it’s different. This is another funny meta episode - except, while Sam and Dean are technically aware of the joke, they aren’t as amused by it as the audience is. And it’s not because of the ghosts. It’s because they’re just... done. Especially Sam. Dean has that nice little moment with the cosplayers at the end of the episode, but Sam... threatens to shoot Chuck. Sam ‘goes darkside’ more often than pretty much any other character in the show, but that moment is different. It’s a flat promise, not a threat. He’s not being an asshole, like he is after losing his soul. He’s just... done. And it’s obvious to see.

Gabriel’s confession is the turning point for Sam in s5, and it informs a lot of his behavior through the rest of s5, and possibly beyond! Like I said, I haven’t watched past s5 in a very long time, so I don’t feel confident enough to analyze that specific sort of character line, but I feel confident in saying that hearing one of the most powerful beings in the universe basically say “it doesn’t matter what you do - your destiny is unavoidable” and then he’s proven right (Sam says yes to Lucifer, and Dean eventually does say yes to Michael down the line!)... like, that’s really gotta fuck up your world view that was built on free will and throwing off the shackles of fate. Sam managed to avoid his ‘destiny’ in s2... but then it turns out that that wasn’t ever his destiny. Lucifer was his destiny.

Talk about an obscured view of the inner self.

#thebisexualmandalorian #jesse #max answers #spn #naturally super #changing channels #im having some THOUGHTS yall

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anneapocalypse · 5 years

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RTX 2019: The RvB Panel

Burnie’s unfortunate remark about Tucker aside (and I learned a long time ago to take nothing Burnie says at panels seriously--for real guys, don’t “Burnie said” people about RvB canon, he’s just talking out his ass most of the time and I say that with love), I enjoyed most of the RvB panel! (It’s on youtube thanks to EruptionFang if you missed my last post). @calliecat93 has already written up a solid rundown of what was discussed at the panel and you can read that here, so I’m not going to cover everything or even close to anything, just talk about my favorite and most noteworthy bits.

The 15-17 arc hasn’t really had an official title yet, but Miles referred to it as “this time travel trilogy” and I think the Time Travel Trilogy is a great name and we should adopt it.

It was pretty cool to see Jason’s enthusiasm for specific characters come through when talking about his work. He said it was exciting when taking on season 17 to take characters he’d grown attached to and give them the treatment he wanted--in particular he mentioned Donut, whom he said he wanted to “put in my pocket and show him the world.” It was sweet, and I’d say that enthusiasm shows with other characters as well.

The panel confirmed that this season had a smaller budget than the previous ones. This doesn’t surprise me, but it was also pointed out that this meant they had less animation budget and needed to write a mostly-machinima story. Season 17 went through a few different treatments before they settled on this story, and there were ideas that Jason liked but just wouldn’t fit the budget.

Miles said that keeping the time travel continuity straight was a feat. I can only imagine. They referred to the part of the timeline where Wash was existing as both his injured and un-injured self as “Schrodinger’s Asshole.”

I do wish they would stop referring to Wash and Carolina’s conversation late in 17 as “saying goodbye.” He’s not dead. He has a disability that’s going to change his life and affect his relationships, but he’s not dead. And they go on to acknowledge this later in the panel, with Jason even saying he thinks it’s cool to have a Blue Team leader with a disability and his friends all supporting him in different ways, so... I don’t know, it’s just weird that it keeps getting framed that way, both in canon and outside of it.

Miles directly compared Locus’s “pacifist kneecapping” to Batman logic, wherein if you didn’t see a character die onscreen they’re probably fine. That gave me a laugh. It’s also not the first time Batman has been referenced jokingly as an influence on RvB. (See also: Sharkface being called a “Batman villain.”)

Jason was inspired to have Chrovos present female in this season because he really liked Kalirama last season, but then she didn’t end up doing a whole lot, and he liked the idea of a female villain. A lot of fans seem to have felt similarly, so I thought that was neat, even if neither character really did it for me personally.

Jason commented that he really loved Kaikaina. "I love Sister's character, she's just so filthy, and it's like--Tucker has grown a little, so you can't always give him those jokes anymore, you know?" Miles went on to add that Tucker and Kai have very different personalities despite their similarities:

Tucker uses his, like, seemingly perverted and kinky side as... definitely a way of coping with his tremendous amount of insecurities, where Sister’s like, completely owning it and is just like, ‘I know exactly who I am and like, my lifestyle, and you can either get on board or you can get out of my way.’

I think Jason does get Tucker pretty well--I think that’s evident in his treatment of him in 17, and though season 16 Tucker is probably always going to sting a little for me, I can be generous enough to say that the intent was probably there to get at Tucker’s insecurities as the root of his more inappropriate behavior, even if I really dislike the execution of it. I think Jason has a much better understanding of character growth than Joe, and I wouldn’t be disappointed if he ended up staying on for another season.

There was pretty much no mention of Grif, or of his dropped character arc from season 16. There was no mention of Carolina outside of the context of talking about Wash, and her Labyrinth scene didn’t really come up. If I’d been around this weekend and the panel had been streamed, I probably would have tweeted out some questions, but I wasn’t and it wasn’t and I’m not sure they would’ve had the time to address those things in a satisfactory way anyway. If they do another AMA on reddit, maybe I’ll ask there.

A more cogent comment from Burnie was that he felt they jumped into Halo 2 a little too hastily, and he likes the amount of time they took to get comfortable in Halo 3. Everyone seems excited for the armor in the upcoming Halo: Infinite, which has a simpler design more akin to Halo 3.

Where the show goes next will depend a lot on what they have to work with in the new game, but there doesn’t seem to be any question at RT that they’ll be making more RvB.

I still have deeply mixed feelings about season 17 and the things I feel negatively about didn’t really come up in the panel, but watching it did help to remind me of some of the things I liked about it.

#rtx 2019 #rvb panel #red vs blue #rvb17

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fatui-harbingers · 5 years

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Soooo episode 4 is just... Weird.

I'm especially tired of hearing about Jon supposedly being a better ruler when he and Daenerys seem to be about the same. Everyone just wants Jon on the throne bc they know they can manipulate him (I love him but he is easy to manipulate sometimes). People don't want Daenerys bc they can't control her and they're mad about it now that they know they can't.

I saw some people saying that Daenerys was manipulating Jon but like I saw none of that coming from her. She was like the only person that wasn't up to no good. Every single one of my family members is manipulative so I know it when I see it! And also bc I do a little manipulation of my own to survive capitalism as a jobless teen so I know what it's like to be manipulated and to manipulate! Daenerys wasn't doing that but trying to prevent more problems for everyone, including Jon.

I was a bit disappointed in Jon but I don't hate him it anything. I just don't think he's quite used to sharing feelings and speaking his mind. I did wish he has said “I love you” back to Daenerys. And obviously, I know things are gonna be a little off till he fully makes peace/comes to terms with his true parentage bc I'm pretty sure he loves her all the same. And I'm happy we got to hear him say that Daenerys is his queen and nothing would change that.

I want to smack some sense into Jon! You don't have a furry friend and then NOT pet them before you leave! And you sure as heck don't just give them away! Leaving pets for even a few hours is terrible for me so that scene just made no sense to me whatsoever.

Let me just say I am as tired of watching dragons die and I am of all the misogyny in this shows writing. As an animal lover, it wasn't hard at all to fall in love with the dragons bc they just seem so realistic and they have personality. So watching them die is terrible. Especially bc I know how it feels to lose a nonhuman creature you see as your child. It's horrible, as anyone that's ever had that bond with an animal knows. And knowing that Drogon is all alone without his brothers now is just heartbreaking! Poor sweet baby only has his mama now and no dragon bros to wander the skies with 😭😭😭

Jaime leaving Brienne made me so upset. She doesn't ask for much but she wanted him to stay and he couldn't even do that for her. I do understand that it's hard to get out and let go of toxic/abusive relationships bc there's usually so much that went into them but I really thought he had left Cersei for good. But hey, this season seems to be about stupid decisions with zero logic behind them!

I'm just sick of Sansa this season. I don't want to be but she's been written so horribly I can't ignore it and make excuses anymore. I think Bran is the only true-born Stark I actually like at this point bc he's chill. And I really don't understand Arya leaving Winterfell after all that family talk.

I OBVIOUSLY hated how Sansa and Sandor talked about Sansa’s rape. I can't think of any rape victims being glad they were raped and abused but what can I expect from misogynistic writing. What a disappointment.

I'm pretty disappointed that Sansa shared Jon’s secret and has put Daenerys (and even Jon!) in danger (which I suppose she would be happy about since she's a petty manipulator now). I understand why Jon wanted her and Arya to know bc I hate keeping secrets from people I love and trust too, it doesn't feel good. It feels a lot like lying. But I do think he should have listened to Daenerys and not told anyone or just told Arya since she is trustworthy at least. I just can't believe the writers would make Sansa do such a thing and still try to make Daenerys look like the villain (which I don't see bc I understand people and feelings and enjoy actually learning about human behavior however I can).

I ugly cried when Missandei died bc she was so pure and intelligent and just perfect. And obviously bc I love her so much. The world didn't deserve her! That was so horrible I can't even believe they did that to her. Especially considering she was the only woc left on the show! I did love her last words though. I just can't believe she died in chains 😭

I don't see what everyone is talking about in terms of Dany going “mad”. I see a human woman reacting to loss after loss, betrayal after betrayal in such a normal, human way. I honestly feel like I actually am going insane and I haven't suffered anything compared to Daenerys! Missandei was clearly the last straw and I don't blame Daenerys for anything she does now (I probably wouldn't anyway bc I do understand how war works and don't blame the strongest woman for it first chance I get). Like seriously, her haters’ internalized misogyny is showing!

I officially hate Cersei now bc she had Missandei killed. That is not something I can look past just bc she's kinda relatable or used to be anyway.

And I'm so done with Varys. Tyrion seemed pretty cool this episode so I don't hate him atm. He was trying to defend Daenerys at least.

I just don't like the brutality of this episode. Some deaths make sense but some don't (and I mean in the series as a whole, not just this episode)! If all I wanted was blood and gore and murder I would watch nothing but John Wick type movies and play games like Call of Duty. I love fantasy. I love magick and I love romance and I especially loved how this fantasy in particular managed to still seem realistic with dragons and direwolves and magick and all the neat stuff we don't have in the real world (well, except magick, we do have that). I only play Nintendo games for a reason! I'm gonna have to force myself to get back to reading the books now just to get to know the real characters and all the storylines that were left out.

I honestly feel betrayed after watching this last episode. I've never been so invested in something like this and I probably won't be again tbh bc I don't think anything could compare. The way things are playing out upset me as a woman and as a feminist, especially knowing this is a global thing! You find want to be sending the wrong messages when everyone on Earth is watching.

I feel played! I guess that's what I get for being optimistic about something for a change. I always get tricked into looking on the “bright side” only to be disappointed yet again! And almost always by men or humanity as a whole. I much prefer expecting the worst and not being disappointed when it happens. Though I seem to always hope for the best and prepare for the worst so I guess this is going to be an endless cycle for me, lol.

Not sure why I'm always surprised when straight white guys disappoint me, especially when they're in charge of telling the stories of women and poc or even just anyone that isn't a straight white cis guy. I suppose we can only imagine how different (and probably better) this show would have been if there were more female writers, especially woc!!! Gosh, I bet the show would have been 10x better. Oh well, I guess.

I think that's the end of my personal rant over episode 4, lol.

#got season 8 #got spoilers #got s8e4 #game of thrones #sorry for the long post but i needed to get it all out

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 6 years

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Episode 94: Greg the Babysitter

“We all gotta grow up sometime, right?”

Right off the bat, this episode’s greatest weakness is that we don’t see Baby Buck and the Baby Pizza Twins as we do in Lamar Abrams’s promo art. How dare we not have more baby teens?

Lack of infant variety notwithstanding, this is a great episode, if not a subtle one. Greg is no stranger to hammering out the lesson of a story, but here it’s made so explicit so often that it threatens to weaken the actual plot. Fortunately the plot does a good enough job of showing that it makes up for all the telling, but still, it’s so on the nose that Vidalia calls Greg out when he belatedly repeats the moral it in response to an unrelated statement.

(But to be clear, this is a story about growing up. Growing up is what this episode about. Gaining maturity is valuable. Emotional development is important. Taking responsibility as you age: good. Staying a kid forever: bad!)

As with Annoying Steven early in the series, this lesson is achieved by presenting us with Douchebag Greg. Douchebag Greg slums around and mooches off a single working mother, depriving her of her own food and taunting her for working to feed her child. When tasked with babysitting, he does what he wants instead of focusing on what a baby might need, and when the kid goes missing, his search includes a pit stop to the arcade to play video games.

This is the second episode where Greg is awful for the bulk of the runtime, and the first, House Guest, was so bad that it earned my inaugural “No Thanks!” rating (a brutal assessment, I know). By that metric you might think I’d dislike Greg the Babysitter as well, because boy oh boy is Douchebag Greg unlikable. But the key difference is the level of intent: even looking past the age and maturity gap between these two Gregs, the Greg of House Guest chooses to lie to his son despite seeing how hard Steven takes it, while Douchebag Greg’s actions stem from sincere cluelessness. Neither is great, and younger Greg is still old enough to know better, but ignorance is far more digestible than purposeful shadiness from this character.

Both House Guest and Greg the Babysitter stay somewhat true to Regular Greg by making him driven by love, whether it’s paternal or romantic. The problem of House Guest is that this emotional core is tainted by him wronging Steven in a way we’ve never seen before or since (compare his feigning of an injury to his negligence in Maximum Capacity, where he instead makes a mistake and is immediately regretful). Nothing in Greg the Babysitter diminishes any sense of authenticity about Greg’s feelings for Rose, because for all his flaws, he doesn’t take advantage of Rose or their relationship.

Moreover, I appreciate that his flaws come from the same character traits that kicked off this relationship, which so far has dominated his flashbacks: Greg is a dreamer and a romantic, which works great in Story for Steven, and he takes the relationship seriously, so he matures on that front in We Need to Talk, but now we see that he’s so focused on Rose that he’s ignoring every other element of life as a functioning adult.

This episode works because Greg is realistically irresponsible. His head has always been in the clouds, and now he’s in a relationship with someone that’s literally magic, so he has no incentive to reflect on himself barring a dire situation. But this episode excels because Greg’s decision to grow up has nothing to do with Steven. We get the groundwork for Rose wanting a kid, but Greg getting his act together is something he does for himself. It would’ve been so easy for this shift to be prompted by impending fatherhood, but it’s far more satisfying to see a character improve himself because he wants to, rather than out of obligation to others. It allows the moment he takes agency to be triumphant without being mixed up in a sense of begrudging acceptance of his duties.

Finally, while I still think it’s ridiculous that the Crystal Gems treat him like a total flake in Laser Light Cannon given his clear improvement since the Douchebag Greg days, it does make a little sense that beings unaccustomed to change would have a hard time getting past this first impression. If you go back and watch the second season of the series after Greg the Babysitter, it’s not hard to imagine which Greg they’re talking about. It’s a stretch, because they’ve seen plenty of evidence to contradict this impression, but if you’re looking to explain their behavior then it’s the best reason I’ve got.

Greg the Babysitter marks an unspoken milestone in the series: this is the last time we’ll ever see Rose Quartz before her web of duplicity begins to unravel. In just four episodes, we’ll learn that she bubbled Bismuth away and lied about it to everyone. In another three, we’ll hear that she shattered Pink Diamond. The veracity of that second part is irrelevant, because the truth only further proves her capacity for deceit. We’ve seen already that Rose wasn’t perfect, but this is her final appearance before the dominoes begin to fall. One last happy memory that directly leads to the creation of our show’s title character, in an episode that emphasizes how dreaming is nice, but reality will always force people to make a change.

We see way more of Rose in this swan song than we did in Story for Steven or We Need to Talk, and like Greg, her mistakes here can be attributed to cluelessness. She admits how confusing humans can be for her, particularly babies, so it’s hard to blame her for not taking good care of Sour Cream. It’s especially hard to blame her considering how excited she is for him to exhibit independence. And it’s impossible to blame her, at least for me, when she references one of my favorite dumb Simpsons jokes in regards to watching him.

The Pink Diamond revelation adds new layers to her explanation that Gems are made for specific purposes, but the funny thing is, it doesn’t add that many new layers: even before learning just how high up Rose was, we still knew she was rebelling against what she was made to do. I think the more interesting aspect of her speech is how it lines up with Bismuth’s repetition of her insistence that Gems could break away from their intended roles. Seeing Rose talk about it here, less than twenty years ago, is made fascinating by knowing she was saying the same thing thousands of years ago. For a Gem that’s interested in change, she hasn’t really changed that much. It’s one thing for her to know that and talk about it, but it’s another for us to see it in action.

I love how an episode that’s this unsubtle (about being a story about growing up, in case you didn’t catch it) manages to quietly explain why Steven exists. We see a baby, and we see Rose loves babies, and we see Rose admires the human capacity to change, and we’ll soon see that Rose herself stagnated there a little bit, but we leave it at that. Judging by the age difference between Sour Cream and Steven, it’s a few years until she and Greg make an actual decision, so it makes sense to not reference it too explicitly this early, but it’s still a direction the episode could’ve taken and I’m very glad it didn’t.

I’ve made no secret about how much I love Brian Posehn voicing Sour Cream with his regular grown man voice, so obviously the best part of this episode is his further use of that voice for Baby Cream. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, and by itself ensures that Greg’s dickishness can’t pull the episode too far down. As with Onion Friend, the strange connection between Sour Cream and Steven is left unspoken, but it’s wild to consider that this side character is a big reason why our protagonist exists. While I’d be fine with this continuing to be a quiet part of the backstory, I can’t say I wouldn’t be interested in seeing Steven and Sour Cream talk about it one day, even as a small gag.

Onion Friend was also the last time we spent any meaningful amount of time with Vidalia, and it’s neat to fill in some gaps between her debut cameo in Story for Steven and her modern iteration. Marty’s flakiness is further proven by her being a single mother from the start, but she’s clearly risen to the occasion and loves the hell out of her kid. Her patience with Greg is tested by his awfulness (and honestly makes said awfulness hard to watch, given how much is on her plate), but it speaks volumes that she’s so welcoming to the ex-friend of her ex. She’s probably the only human Greg knows in Beach City at this point, and I honestly wish we saw more of their modern relationship when we have such a vivid image of their history.

I Think I Need a Little Change might not reach the rocking heights of Comet or What Can I Do For You, but it’s catchier than either and has that wonderful twist on the double meaning of “change.” The wordplay speaks for itself, but it’s a cool trick to reveal that this musical montage is as diegetic as the other two songs: this is something he’s actually singing to people. We get a hefty break from songs after Mr. Greg, so that might be meddling with my opinions, but I think this is my favorite of the three. Puns beat electric guitar, and the song crystalizes Greg’s similarity to Steven come Change Your Mind.

And so we end Season 3, Act 2. We’ve had the aftermath of the Cluster, and we’ve had a series of slice of life episodes from this particularly magical life, but we’ll soon be back to the high-octane plotting of the Cluster Arc. It’s a bit strange that Greg the Babysitter comes between Alone at Sea and Gem Hunt, considering the Jasper of it all, but it’s nice to have this respite before we barrel towards the pivotal moment of Steven’s series-wide arc, especially when this respite tells us a lesson that’s about to become a lot more obvious in the coming storm:

Steven Universe is a story about growing up.

Future Vision!

Good thing nothing bad happened to Sour Cream, or else Greg would’ve had to pray that his space goddess's magic could bring people back from the dead. That would be a ridiculous power!

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

Vidalia got this top from the T-Shirt Shop where she works. This top has a collar. T-shirts do not have collars. It’s unresearched nonsense like this that makes Cartoon Network put this show on hiatus so often, come on people.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

While I do enjoy this episode and stand by it being great, I don’t necessarily love things that I critically find great. Greg the Babysitter doesn’t do quite enough on the emotional level to make me truly love it, considering how much time we have to spend with Douchebag Greg. I appreciate the importance of his douchebaggery, and the importance of this episode as a whole, but this isn’t an something I go out of my way to rewatch. Sorry, Baby Cream. I still like it!

Top Fifteen

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

No Thanks!

5. Horror Club 4. Fusion Cuisine 3. House Guest 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#greg the babysitter #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

27 notes · View notes

recentanimenews · 5 years

Text

THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH Gets A Sad Backstory In Episodes 71-77

It's time again for the Great Crunchyroll Naruto Rewatch! It's me, Carolyn Burke, and I'll be your host this week as we continue watching all 220 episodes of the original Naruto. Last week, we covered episodes 64-70, and we continue this week with episodes 71-77. Let's get started!

This batch gave us a lot of tragic backstory as we got a closer look at Gaara's sad origins and the possible reasons for some of his odd behaviors. Quite an emotional turn after all the fighting we saw last week. Of course, there were still plenty of scuffles to go around. We also got to see the Third Hokage in epic action and had tons of fun with a bugs versus puppets showdown.

Let's find out what the Crunchyroll Features team thought of this week's episodes!

So, the obvious elephant in the room is Gaara. He's ... not OK. But it struck me that he's very much suffering from mental illness, probably depression/PTSD and possibly some kind of personality disorder, from a very young age. He even reaches out for help, acknowledging his lack of understanding of pain and empathy, only to have that backfire greatly. How do you feel about Gaara's villainy before and after this backstory revelation?

Paul: Although I feel pity for Gaara's horrific, abusive upbringing, I think the metaphors of his mistreatment break down a bit when you realize that the everyday citizens of Sand Village (as compared to the assassins sent by Gaara's father) have legitimate reasons to fear him. As a child, Gaara can't control his powers and when distressed he injures and kills people at random because he can't distinguish friend from foe. I feel sorry for Gaara, but if I lived in Sand Village I would also stay the hell away from him for my own safety and the safety of my family.

Joseph: I dig Gaara's backstory, and while I agree the people of the Sand Village had good reason to fear him, it doesn't delegitimize it. If anything it makes it slightly more tragic.

Danni: Yeah I don't quite gel with the mental illness reading either for the same reasons as Paul. I was however very impressed by his backstory. I had already guessed that he'd had a caretaker try to assassinate him a while ago, but it was still very heartbreaking to watch it play out.

Kara: I mean, what happened very much affected him, and unsurprisingly so. If the last words of my one friend in the world were "Everyone hates you including me," I'd be messed up, too. I don't know how (or if) I'd class his reaction mental illness-wise, though. But yeah, it's a double-edged thing. I don't think people were wrong to fear him, but it sure did suck. I also think it's kind of neat how they peppered in things like him talking to the sand during his fight with Sasuke... which before was just weird, and now is something else entirely.

Jared: Like the others have said, it kind of goes both ways. The regular people of the Sand Village had enough reason to fear him since he could get out of control with his powers. That being said, Gaara was surrounded by some exceptionally crappy people. Which makes the whole reveal of why he's become who he is today make more sense as no one was willing to offer him any help. I certainly feel more for his character than when he was initially introduced as the murder death kill kid.

David: Gaara's story is basically "what if Naruto didn't have Iruka and also the Hokage wanted him dead," so I think it's ultimately more about the negative consequences of children left neglected and abused instead of mental illness. Still very tragic though.

Noelle: It's tragic, but it's a dual thing—unlike Naruto who can't touch the nine-tails at all, Gaara's powers are constantly active and he has no control over them. He is legitimately dangerous and people fear him for a reason. That being said, that nobody, not even his own family, has attempted to reach out to him genuinely makes my heart hurt a lot.

Similarly, what did you think about Naruto's realization about how close he could have come to following in Gaara's footsteps? I genuinely appreciate Naruto's ability to look on the bright side of everything and persevere in the face of terrible adversity.

Paul: I appreciate the parallels and I hope that this story-line eventually leads to Gaara's redemption, but I do wish Naruto didn't take so long to find his courage. Sakura defended Sasuke without hesitation armed with nothing but a kunai, after all.

Joseph: I'm with Paul on this one. I like where they're going with the connection between the two, but at this point, Naruto needs to start acting more impulsively in these life or death situations. This batch of episodes has already been not-Naruto-centric enough as it is!

Danni: I love it. Naruto's ability to relate to his enemies might be the most endearing thing about him to me. The conflict between him and Gaara is actually reminding me a lot of a recurring lesson in Mob Psycho 100 about how much our lives are shaped by those around us, so those blessed with good companions should be thankful for them and try to reach out to those without.

Kara: Naruto's a lot better than I am. I've been in a few "there but for the grace of God" situations myself, where I can see someone else has the same baggage as me but lacked the support system I had to survive the situation intact. I think we've all been there, just not with demon foxes and sand moms, you know? I've gotta admire Naruto for counting his blessings positively instead of just sitting there going, "Yikes."

Jared: As Danni said, it's real interesting seeing this play out with how Mob Psycho 100 is doing something very similar. I like that Naruto is able to recognize this and get why Gaara is the way he is since he just as easily could have turned out the same. It totally works with who he is. Although it was kind of funny seeing clips from the first few episodes and thinking "oh those episodes don't seem like they were that far back", except it was 70+ episodes ago.

David: I've said it before, but things like this really do a lot of work in selling Naruto's slow growth toward being a believable leader figure, making his ultimate goal of becoming the Hokage thematically fitting instead of just kind of nebulous. I always seem to like it when it comes up.

Noelle: I love the parallels, because it does ring true. Both of them internalized their pain in a different way, but what would have happened if Iruka wasn't around? People tend to give back to the world what the world gives them, and if Naruto didn't have a positive mindset or a support system, he definitely would've ended up way worse.

Do you agree with Gaara's assessment that Sasuke is hard, cold, and hate-filled? He's pretty angsty, but I'd have to go with no, myself.

Paul: I think Gaara's correct in his assessment. Sasuke is driven by revenge and he's often contemptuous of others and overwhelmed by self-loathing, which are traits that I hope he will eventually leave behind. It's really just a matter of degree. If Sasuke's a six on the "hard, cold, and hate-filled" scale, then Gaara's an eleven.

Joseph: Gaara nailed it. I haven't seen much from Sasuke in these early episodes to indicate otherwise.

Danni: Oh, absolutely. He's changed bit by bit being around Sakura and Naruto, but he's still clearly driven by the desire to kill Itachi. I'm anxious to find out what downfall he suffers as a result, and I'm most disappointed by Kakashi, who seems to be encouraging it.

Kara: I can't really say Gaara's wrong. A few of our protagonists, starting with Naruto, have sort of back-burnered (but not abandoned) their specific goals in favor of learning and practicing their "Way of the Ninja"—which is a theme I love whenever it comes up. Sasuke is still stuck in his Season 1 Episode 1 motivation while others are growing and maturing. He's good at what he does, but I feel like that one-track mind is gonna get him in trouble.

Jared: I wouldn't say he's necessarily as fueled by it as Gaara is where it's basically his entire existence of living, but Sasuke can get up there with his desire for revenge. Again, I think it works because we see just how much of a parallel he has with Gaara, without the two of them being identical. Sasuke's been helped by being paired with Naruto and Sakura, but it hasn't necessarily quelled his intentions either.

David: Gaara is right but I'm not sure he really understands why. Sasuke is like an inverse Gaara—where Gaara lashes out against the world in its entirety, Sasuke is so filled with anger toward one person that he is numb to the rest of the world. As said it keeps him from really growing as a person, and from even recognizing that there are people who care about him at all. His assessment is ultimately on-point to me.

Noelle: I'd say Gaara is pretty spot-on. While Sasuke has come some ways in finding comrades, his entire motivation for being is still revenge. That eats away at you, whether you like it or not.

Let's lighten up the mood, shall we? We previously mentioned, almost unanimously, how awesome the bug jutsu is. What did you all think about the bug fight scenes and how effective they are as trackers?

Paul: I was honestly expecting something a little flashier from Ino's Chakra-devouring insect ninjutsu, but maybe it just appears a bit tame when compared to the visual lunacy of Kankuro's freaky puppet antics.

Joseph: I really enjoyed this fight, but that's a no-brainer because it had two things I love to watch: puppets and bugs. Pitting the two against one another is MUAH. I don't know that it's a totally awesome jutsu, but I like how creative Kishimoto gets with its implementation.

Danni: I never said it was awesome, only that it was powerful. I cannot stand bugs. The most terrifying thing that could ever happen to me is being swarmed by bugs. They are a near unstoppable jutsu because their existence is so terrifying.

Kara: One of my favorite things about Naruto is everyone's creativity. They learn these basic tactics and have their own styles, but it all comes down to adapting to your opponent and surroundings. I also like a fight where the zinger comes at the end: We've been focused on what's going on in front of us, meanwhile, something was planted waaaaay earlier and is just now becoming relevant. Puppet vs. bug is not a fight I thought I'd enjoy, but I admit to being wrong.

Jared: Getting devoured by bugs is like nightmare fuel for me, although that whole fight was coming up with clever ways to utilize them without it just being here's a swarm. I actually thought what was most interesting about that fight was the respect Kankuro and Shino give each other near the end where they're just impressed with the other's technique.

David: In the grand scheme of things it wasn't really an all-time highlight, but I certainly did appreciate getting a more traditional "weird tactics Naruto fight" out of this batch of otherwise huge-power battles.

Noelle: Action-wise, it isn't the greatest, but can an insect lover like me ever say no to this kind of stuff? Of course not. I had a blast.

Good segue here, I've been noticing a lot of interesting directorial decisions. I particularly liked the shot of the bugs crawling out of Shino's jacket and up his face. Any moments like this for you all?

Paul: I don't know if it counts as a directorial flourish, but I really enjoyed the torturous look of the Soul-Sealing Jutsu that the Third Hokage breaks out for his fight with Gaara. I also liked how Monkey King Enma in staff form would change not just length but also width and thickness during the fight scenes, which feels more authentic to his Journey to the West roots. That must have been a real challenge for the animators.

Joseph: The fight between Orochimaru and the Third Hokage was absolutely overflowing with top-notch directorial decisions. One shot that really stood out to me is simple at a glance, but I loved the angle chosen when the resurrected Hokages step toward the third and walk over their own coffins. Some really stylish visuals in the first three or so episodes here.

Danni: A decision that stuck out the most to me was keeping everything in the Third Hokage's perspective once the darkness jutsu had been activated. From the moment it was activated to the moment it was released we didn't see a single moment of that fight from outside his perspective.

Kara: A little thing I loved. In Gaara's flashback, when his whole situation fell apart and he realized he'd been lied to by the one person he cared about. The whole "glass shattering" motif is a common one for moments like this, yeah, but in Gaara's case it was reminiscent of when his Sand Armor shatters—that last little layer of protected he has.

Jared: The utilization of cinematic bars on Gaara seeing himself and his mom turn to sand was an interesting touch that I can't tell if it was more to make it seem more serious or set itself apart from the flashback. I also dug in Naruto's remembrance when he tries to look at his reflection and sees Gaara staring back, but headbutts what he's looking at and it returns to him with a shattered mirror and blood trickling down his face.

David: The animation in the first episode of this batch is so loose and fluid, really a joy to watch. I was very glad they finally gave a lavishly animated fight scene to a character that isn't Sasuke.

Noelle: As others have said, the Orochimaru vs Third Hokage fight really had some massively good animation direction. It's the first time we see something where we know how much power is involved, and that nails it.

And just in general, what were your highs and lows week?

Paul: The high point for me was the fight between the Third Hokage and the zombie resurrections of the First Hokage and the Second Hokage. The special effects animators really pulled out all of the stops there, and all of the elemental magic was especially impressive for something created within the constraints of TV animation. My low point was Naruto falling prey to Gaara's intimidation for so long; I like Naruto better when he takes bold, confident, heroic action, even if that means he ends up boasting or biting off more than he can chew.

Joseph: My high point was also the Hokage battle. The animation is through the roof here, and it was just a creative and exciting battle all around, befitting of its subject matter. Low point would be Gaara's transformation. It may look cool on the page when Kishimoto draws it but it looks really bad in the show, with his Boglin-lookin' ass.

Danni: The high point for me was definitely the Third Hokage's fight. The animation was fluid without being overly flashy. I enjoy flashy animation, but I really loved the simple fluidity of that fight. My low point would also have to be Gaara's transformation. Its full form looks alright, but the partial form just looks a bit goofy.

Kara: Agreeing with all of the above. The Hokage battle is so cool. For a while, we never really saw the Third Hokage as anything but the dude in charge who sometimes hands down uncomfortable news, but he is the Hokage. And one thing I've learned from anime and action movies is old dudes get old for a reason; I figured he was no slouch even now. And yeah, to echo everyone else, I could not take Gaara's transformation seriously. I need to check out the manga and see how it looked there.

Jared: The Hokage battle was real rad, especially getting to see the upper echelon of techniques and jutsu that we haven't seen before. I also enjoyed how they were able to give everything that was happening a good amount of time by switching back and forth between the Hokage battle, the hunt and eventual fight with Gaara, and what's happening in Leaf Village. It was a lot. Low point was as with everyone else, Gaara's transformed state. Hopefully, it looks more intimidating in the manga and not like a flesh blob as he does here.

David: Adding one to the pile of appreciation for the Hokage Rumble. Low point is on the other end of the episodes, the kaiju battle between Gaara and Naruto. Everything just looks and feels so silly, and at the same time the scale of everything has escalated so quickly (literally and figuratively I guess). It's just jarring really.

Noelle: Third Hokage vs Orochimaru and the zombie Hokages were just so good. I didn't enjoy it as much in the manga, surprisingly, but here it was stellar. Inversely, I really liked Gaara's slow monstrous transformation in the manga, but in the anime ... it looks cheesy, I'll say that.

COUNTERS:

"I'm gonna be Hokage!" count: 0 (23 total) Bowls of ramen consumed: 1 bowl (30 bowls, 3 cups total) Shadow Clones created: 16 (274 total)

And that's it for this week, folks! Feel free welcome to join us for this rewatch, any time. Especially if you haven't already watched the original Naruto!

Here's our upcoming schedule:

-Next week, on APRIL 5th CAYLA COATS takes the reigns for EPISODES 78-84 as we meet a mysterious new stranger.

-Then, on APRIL 12th NOELLE OGAWA will take a turn at the wheel for EPISODES 85-91.

-On APRIL 19th NICOLE MEJIAS will walk us through the legendary Sannin battle in EPISODES 92-98.

Thank you for joining us for the Great Crunchyroll Naruto Rewatch! Have a great weekend, and we'll see you all next time!

Have a question for next week's batch of Episodes 78-84? Drop it in the comments and you might find your answer in next week's installment!

----

Carolyn also writes for Bunny Ears and Cracked. Follow her on Instagram or Twitter.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

0 notes

popmitzvah · 8 years

Text

Now I Am Become Slut, Destroyer of Worlds

The host is alive. She is sentient. She is self-aware. And she knows you have programmed her to attack herself and the others.

Nope! Not a blog about Westworld! At least, most of it isn’t. I want to talk about The Bachelor and I want to explain why this show is the place to be, if you’re into the shock of watching creations outsmart their creator-controllers. The more I read this Bach season as a rumination on feeling fictional and clawing for “reality,” the more I was reminded of HBO’s ambitious series on gnosticism, humanity, and the function of storytelling. Might even go so far to say that these two shows share a soul; Dolores Abernathy would be right at home at a rose ceremony!

Please follow me, down into a fake mansion that houses a harem, where we can take a closer look at the things that made The Bachelor so distinctive in its 21st season: existential female anxiety, textual reflexivity, and the peculiar journey of Corinne, a single trope that managed to awaken and rewrite herself.

Born into an apocalyptic Trumpworld, this iteration of The Bachelor became something kind of dark, dreadful, and a little bit out-of-control. Of course, The Bachelor is always a circus, and that’s why so many people hate it: for a television fan, it takes a strong set of stones to follow something so vapid, so dependent on tired stereotypes and romantic wish-fulfillment, so misogynistic, so corporate and disingenuous. How many different ways can producers arrange 30 beautiful women in a Love Thunderdome as they compete for the affections of one bland white man? But there was something poisonous in American culture at large that made Season 21 into something else, something crazier. Perhaps the 2016 election left a vacuum of hope that encouraged The Bachelor producers to lean into self-destruction as an aesthetic. Perhaps we, the audience, are evolving to watch ourselves watching TV, and we prefer everything to be kind of about storytelling – ergo the timely popularity of diverse “meta” shows like Westworld, American Horror Story, Fleabag.

Either way, the new Bachelor was defined by these new and distinctive notes:

Contestants who bristled inside their assigned story cages and pointedly drew attention to the process of being written as characters.

The season’s primary “villain,” Corinne, who transcended the confines of the Bach with a Joker-like sense of chaotic sexuality and stunningly re-branded her arc as sex-positive feminist heroism.

An unwilling Bachelor whose weird charisma relied on his apathy, nihilism, and constant critique of the format. Nick undermined our reception of the Bachelor experience by positioning himself as a bored observer – distancing himself from the contestants and the ideological underpinnings of the show.

First, I want to take on Bullet Number One – the Westworldian crises of self that entered this season of the Bachelor early on and began the process of destabilizing narratives and the women forced to live them. Take a look at what happened to Jasmine G on Night 1. Now, it’s not unusual for Bachelor women to immediately recoil from the uncanniness of this environment – to be a Bachelor contestant, to be on a reality dating competition, is to be subjected to spirit-breaking. These women are tested every moment with the pressures of self-criticism, of being filmed, of being beautiful, of being charming, of systematically attacking and defeating your stunning competitors. But something about Jasmine G’s body language and wording struck me as a crisis of self, a dissociative episode which bespeaks her sudden awareness that she is performing and this whole thing – maybe any love-hunt – is theater without meaning.

youtube

“It doesn’t matter. It’s out of my control. There’s nothing I can do. Holy shit. Who the fuck am I? I’m blown away right now. Who am I?”

Night 1 would be the first of Jasmine’s many system failures, glitches in her personality and physical affect which provided an alarming counterpoint to the self-policing composure we’re used to seeing on these women. Nick eliminated her because of her unpleasant urge to question the “realism” of herself, of him, of the experience. And this was not the only instance of unusual meta-awareness amongst the women. Many of the others expressed a certain repugnance at the roles in which they were pigeonholed – at their status as storylines. Liz’s only mission, with mounting desperation, was to rewrite her way from Nick’s opportunistic ex-fling all the way to romantic legitimacy. Taylor realized too late that her Bachelor persona and “real” professional life were being mapped onto one another and she’d dug herself into the “bitch bully” hole (with the help of her nemesis Corinne). Taylor also literally theorized that some women are better-programmed for love! What could be more Westworld than attempting to parse the resident slut’s “emotional intelligence”?

So there was a significant change in the show here, in which the women’s grasp or ignorance of “being produced” was of paramount importance to how we perceived them. To compare these women to WW characters like Dolores and Maeve – remaining basic, guileless, and easily overwritten ensured a measure of success in the competition and preserved their classic Bachelor likeability factor.

So with that said, I’m dying to get back to Corinne. Here was a contestant who really jumped off the screen for reasons I’ve never seen an antagonist “pop” before. Unlike a villain such as, say, Season 20’s Olivia, Corinne worked to distinguish herself as a breakout character – not just through behavior but through actual world-building. Starting the show out by mentioning her current nanny Raquel was a stroke of genius; Raquel was a framing device that indicated Corinne inhabited a bizarre fantasy world inside and outside the show. In so many ways. Corinne deliberately ate endless blocks of cheese on camera. She feigned naps, eyes closed, smiling beatifically as she “dreamed” of Nick. She self-consciously and joyfully delivered dialogue she knew would light up the internet. Clutching her breasts and huffing, “Does this seem like someone who’s immature?” Staring soullessly into the lens and intoning, “My heart is gold, but my vagine is platinum.” Luring Nick into an inexplicable bounce house and toplessly dry-humping him with abandon. Corinne’s promiscuity, and her persona, were over-the-top but deliberately, defiantly, and delightfully self-choreographed. We know the floozy never wins, but when the floozy knows it, ignores it, and enjoys her role, she transcends happy endings.

And most interestingly, Corinne elevated her self-awareness and self-programming into a magnificent final act. During “The Women Tell All” (a reunion episode which airs before the finale) Corinne, in one fell swoop, ret-conned her entire Bachelor journey as a feminist rumspringa. “I was just doing me,” she demurely insisted, while the other contestants fought to defend her sexual agency. They leaped to defend the resident slut as the bravest and most authentic person amongst them. Corinne sat, resplendent, her eyes bearing no trace of the mischief and malevolence that had been her character cornerstones. She’d accomplished a rewrite akin to “it was all a dream.” Later, women sobbed while Liz declared her sexual encounter with Nick had not “defined” her, and they took turns praising their sister for her humanitarian work. The thematic tide-turn from “a search for true love” to “an inner journey toward female unity and empowerment” made for the most overtly political and topical episode The Bachelor has had, maybe ever – and it bespoke the malleability of reality fiction in a way the show has never previously approached.

In many ways, it was Bachelor Nick’s abdication of his role that allowed the TV text to refocus itself on the women “waking up” and growing through their relationships to one another. It’s hard, as a viewer, to engage with story about passive female players being driven toward romantic fulfillment, when the end-goal is a guy who’d be content to go home immediately and eat cold pizza. As we know, the guy had already been through two seasons of The Bachelorette and one summer of Bachelor in Paradise – his entire narrative was “last-ditch effort for love.” Nick made it his business to call out the fakery of The Bachelor, and the futility of it: “Let’s try to be as normal as possible in an abnormal environment.” “I’ve been in their shoes, and I know how much it sucks.” I certainly like Nick as a person – I like that he cries when he feels stuff, and I like that he hates being The Bachelor but loves being famous, and I like that he let women who were too good for him go, so they could fly and be free and be the first black Bachelorette. But if Nick did anything other than represent a neat resolution of the presented Bachelor narrative, he effectively denied our suspension of disbelief and exposed this particular season as “reality farce with no point.” Prince Charming was just in it for the international travel and the free food. I sympathize. And it’s fun to watch The Bachelor pretend that this isn’t a huge problem.

SO! I posit here that, at least for this season, The Bachelor evolved beyond the story of single women and their search for love. You might say that instead of being about singlehood, this show became about “the singularity” – that moment when program/character/trope/story/world comes alive and begins to adapt and change itself. I wonder: is it a better ride for the reality-consuming audience, when “we know they know”? At what point does watching a character with meta-awareness become confusing, or tiresome, rather than thrilling? And most importantly, what are the differences between watching reality television and prestige drama when we’re grappling with these issues? This question, perhaps, is of paramount importance for TV fans as we go forward; if there’s something in the water that’s poisoning every genre of narrative experience (or making it tastier), we have to put our fingers on it. Why do I watch so much television about women in traps, whose self-actualization and creative escapes are catalyzed by patriarchal violence? Why is it so easy to find that story?

I think it’s easy to brush aside shows like The Bachelor precisely because they are so heavily consumed, across political and cultural lines, and “mass appeal” television has the reputation of reifying harmful structures of power. For really good reason. But it’s important to locate these small moments of medium-transcendence within these TV texts. More and more, the characters we use and abuse are turning directly towards us. These fictional delights have real ends, and it’s never, never about the final rose.

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#westworld #the bachelor #corinne #nick viall #media studies #narrative theory

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recentanimenews · 5 years

Text

THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH Gets A Sad Backstory In Episodes 71-77

Let's find out what the Crunchyroll Features team thought of this week's episodes!

Joseph: I dig Gaara's backstory, and while I agree the people of the Sand Village had good reason to fear him, it doesn't delegitimize it. If anything it makes it slightly more tragic.

Do you agree with Gaara's assessment that Sasuke is hard, cold, and hate-filled? He's pretty angsty, but I'd have to go with no, myself.

Joseph: Gaara nailed it. I haven't seen much from Sasuke in these early episodes to indicate otherwise.

Noelle: I'd say Gaara is pretty spot-on. While Sasuke has come some ways in finding comrades, his entire motivation for being is still revenge. That eats away at you, whether you like it or not.

Noelle: Action-wise, it isn't the greatest, but can an insect lover like me ever say no to this kind of stuff? Of course not. I had a blast.

And just in general, what were your highs and lows week?

COUNTERS:

"I'm gonna be Hokage!" count: 0 (23 total) Bowls of ramen consumed: 1 bowl (30 bowls, 3 cups total) Shadow Clones created: 16 (274 total)

And that's it for this week, folks! Feel free welcome to join us for this rewatch, any time. Especially if you haven't already watched the original Naruto!

Here's our upcoming schedule:

-Next week, on APRIL 5th CAYLA COATS takes the reigns for EPISODES 78-84 as we meet a mysterious new stranger.

-Then, on APRIL 12th NOELLE OGAWA will take a turn at the wheel for EPISODES 85-91.

-On APRIL 19th NICOLE MEJIAS will walk us through the legendary Sannin battle in EPISODES 92-98.

Thank you for joining us for the Great Crunchyroll Naruto Rewatch! Have a great weekend, and we'll see you all next time!

Have a question for next week's batch of Episodes 78-84? Drop it in the comments and you might find your answer in next week's installment!

----

Carolyn also writes for Bunny Ears and Cracked. Follow her on Instagram or Twitter.

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