#You get one thing going on in each episode and 9/10 times it gets resolved in that same episode

[turbocao]

Yo I've started Hunter x Hunter (idk why) and I'm actually enjoying it quite a lot? (also idk why)

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Mame is fielding one of my favorite shows, what is the world coming to?

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

(This was gonna be ready yesterday and then I realized I'd missed 2. Sigh. I'm doing well.)

Feb 2025 Week 2

Ongoing Series - Thai

ThamePo (Fri YT) ep 10 of 12 - SHUT UP. I love them more than anything. I love how nervous and hesitant Thame was the next morning. Def the younger boy who bagged the experienced older dude. This show makes me go “aww” a lot. I do hate this part of the plot though. Because I loathe parasocial fandoms with every fiber of my being and this is why.

The Boy Next World (Sun IQIYI) ep 6 of 10 - The plot has gone wildly off the rails, like into Days of Our Lives waffle iron territory. It is utterly absurd. But I'm still watching it.

The Heart Killers (Weds Gaga) ep 12 end - I love Style so much. The perfect Brat but he is playing Petruchio not the shrew! Ironic and very kinky twist on the original. I also love how most BLs are like “we’re gonna separate them for 2-5 years in the final ep” and Kant & Style were all “fuck that noise.” 

Summary

Jojo directs this action romcom about assassin brothers (Khao & Joong) meets tattoo artist ex-booster (First) and very flirty mechanic (Dunk) conmen. I dithered over how to rate this. It felt like an 8 show wearing a 9’s britches. There were dropped threads, forgotten characters, and unfinished plot lines even with a particularly long run time. And, for me, it doesn’t have significant rewatch potential. But it was fun (when one applies no expectations or logic) and I enjoyed the wildly unhinged relationships and, weirdly, music. I mean nobody claimed that we needed Taming of the Shrew only with gay Thai hitman, but we really needed it. And no one asked for Petruchio as the gayest brat ever to strut his perfect skin and copped-top across our screen, and yet we loved him for it. Sure it didn’t make sense, was utterly absurd, but it was terribly earnest and sexy about it. IN the end this goes hand-in-hand with all these other absurd crime pieces we’ve been getting since KP, and frankly I like this one the best from Thailand so far. 9/10 but I’m slightly uncomfortable with that decision.

Perfect 10 Liners (Sun YT) ep 16 of 24 - It’s cute. They were cute. I enjoyed it. But I am still mostly just looking forward to the next couple.

Sangmin Dinneaw (Sun iQIYI) ep 7-8 end - I forgot to watch this one for over a week, goes to show how engaged I am. Anygay, ep 7 amnesia trope is ago. A lot the ep was fuss in hospitals so I went ahead and watched the finale as well. It was fine.

Conclusion

Given its charmingly simple premise and a solid lead pair, this could’ve been quite an tidy little BL, but it went all weird and slapstick and overtly sexual (and I enjoy high heat). It was a little bit like YYY meets modern Thai BL but mixed with early Japanese pinks. All very strange. I ended up being half bored half annoyed half confused half embarrassed. And if that’s too many halves for you, now you know how I felt. 5/10 

Flirt Milk (Sat YT) ep 4 or 10 - Umm plot? Where are you?

Ossan‘s Love Thailand (Mon YouTube) ep 6 of 12 - Workplace harassment, form of... Thai BL. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

When it Rains it Pours (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 6 of 10 - Is the live-in boyfriend meant to be perceived as a psychopath or just a controlling monster? I love how blunt Sei was with him. Such and honest little bean. Ah, controlling monster.  Well, I really hope they can resolve this in the final episode. Despite all of the pain I’m enjoying it, it's being true to itself.

This is JBL doing its thing and toeing the Tokyo in April party line. I don't know why anyone would expect anything different. Go watch Eternal Yesterday and drink me later. This is what Japan DOES with BL at least half the time. The more JBL we get, the more of this kind of show we get with it. It's a numbers game - just add bruises.

Heart Stain (Korea Weds IQIYI) eps 3-4 of 8 - I have to admit that the only reason I even tolerate love triangles as a trope is because of K-dramas. But I still don’t like it. That said, I do like all of the honesty and conflict that's built into this story and frankly dealt with because of the trope. And I love how massive Woohyeon is so baby girl. The lap sitting was extremely cute. The teacher finding them lap sitting was also cute. And the handhold drag afterwards was cutest. The whole scene was adorable. 

FC Soldout (Korea Thurs iQIYI) eps 5-6 of 8 - Tiny idiots. Every. Single. One. (@heretherebedork you must be loving these boys.) Give me a sec to talk to a character: Captain. Sweetcheeks. You know there are better ways to exhaust your adorable boy-toy late at night than forcing him to do physical labor, right? Or, at least, not that kind of physical labor.

Eternal Butler (Taiwan Fri Gaga) eps 9 of 12 - Oooo. emotional Ever 4. Poor baby. I did want to see him kick ass. Hopefully that’s the beginning of next week’s episode. 

Impression of Youth (Taiwan Weds Viki) eps 6 of 9 - Very little happened in this episode. Lots of flashbacks. And stuff we’ve already seen.

Fight for Love (Vietnam YT) ep 2 - Ooo 2 timing? Coils within coils, tongues within tongues, my goodness these boys are getting around. It’s all very messy gay drama llama ding dong but... comedy. It’s a new one on me. But sooner that than Thailand’s Only Friends version.

Exclusive Love (Taiwan Fri Gaga) eps 1-2 of 12 - Shy aspiring singer inherits funeral business. Nice to have something more from Taiwan to watch. But this is extremely odd, and somewhat extreme behavior, given the premise. That is a lot of personnel and sunglasses just for one guitar-playing influencer. Even if I agree that he shouldn’t be allowed to play. Surreal that it’s a mafia funeral business, although I suppose it makes sense. It’s not creepy, but the creep-factor is high with this show. It's also v thirsty already. I kind of like the sides, but they seem to be in a different BL. So far, mostly whiplash but I'm not mad about it.

Checkered Shirt (Korea YT) ep 2 of 8 - It remains awkward and cute, but a little boring for a short. 

Teenager Judge (Vietnam Sat YT) ep 19 of 20 - Today in: how to tell your suicidal stepbro you wanna d**k him out. 

It's airing but......

Gelboys (Thai Weds iQIYI) ep 1 of 7 - I’m immediately terrified by the fact that he’s carrying a guitar around. It’s slow with that dirty gritty high school authenticity thing from OG Love Sick. Which is not my favorite style of any show, let alone BL. I always get Kids PTSD. I think I’m gonna give this show a pass. It’s just too far out of my wheelhouse. I don’t have patience for this right now.

The Last Time (Thai WeTV) trailer - from 2024, not sure about this one, looks dark. Since it's also difficult for me to get hold of I am giving it a pass until I know about the ending.

Speaking of which...

In Case You Missed it

I Will Turn Back Time (China Gaga) 6 eps - Spies report it does not end well. Stepbrothers trope = yeah! but all other messaging = boo. I'm not gonna bother.

End of year wraps are here!

2024 Trend Report

MY BEST & WORST BLs of 2024

Best Kisses (and sex scenes) of 2024

BL's 2024 Quirky Awards

2024 Awards - Quick Picks

Next Week Looks Like This:

2/21 Bali Hai (Thailand ????) no MDL listing, only rumors, unsure on deets.

2/27 Secret Relationships (Korea iQIYI) - Stars Wei's Kim Jun Seo. Adapted by Cradle Studio (Kakao). About clever and resourceful Daon who has worked hard to overcome being poor. His cheap ways annoy his coworker, Sunghyeon but after “an incident” with his parents, Daon grows closer to him. But Daon also has feelings for his former tutor. This has the signs of a classic Kdrama all over it: Office setting, love triangle, lead suffering for his self-actualization. I’m optimistic about a longer treatment.

2025 Line Up

BL Announced for 2025 - PART 1

BL Announced for 2025 - PART 2

20 BLs Announced for 2025 That I'm Really Excited About

GMMTV 2025 Line Up - My Totally Biased and Wildly Flawed Feels

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENT

Got nothing. Frankly you're lucky this came in a somewhat timely manner, with any screen caps at all. It's chaos 'round these parts.

(last week)

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

[charmac]

Unspoken tension ahead of Charlie Work, a wound left open in Family Fight

The Production Order (the order in which the episodes are written) always seems of some value to me in Sunny, but 10 I find especially substantial. With half of the scripts of the season written by RCG, 4 are back-to-back (with their 5th one, Psycho Pete, being 2nd in order).

The run begins after The Gang Spies like U.S. Going off that into Charlie Work, as opposed to into that off Charlie Work, paints a very different narrative for the timeline.

We leave the reveal that Mac and Dennis are jerking off together into an episode that starts with high tension between Mac and Dennis. Dennis is frustrated that Mac isn't being direct, won't look him in the eyes, he's avoidant, timid. That's interesting, because Mac isn't usually any of those things, he's direct and abrupt and loud. Off 9, fully establishing Mac is gay, juxtaposing his closeted behaviour to Country Mac's openness, 10 focuses hard on the fact that Mac's confidence is continually battered as he refuses to step out of the closet. The Gang is tired of it, but Dennis is frustrated. His words maybe cut even deeper than the scratch, "Come to me like a man. Talk about being tough all the time, can't even look me in the eyes."

We leave CW and go into Family Fight, written right after, also by RCG. This episode has big focus on Dennis' obsession with public perception of himself, and the Gang. Though he can initially handle masking his demeanor, his tone of voice, what he can't mask are his words. He's smiling, he's 'joking', but there's deep truth in what he’s saying. He's frustrated, though his frustration in the moment is intended for Frank, Mac feels it directed at him. There's a fresh wound between them, because Mac fully understands what his feelings for Dennis are now, and that’s irreparably shifted their dynamic.

Misses the Boat is the last RCG-written episode of the season. From Charlie Work, where we’re kinda first faced with the fact that Mac is now overly-concerned with how Dennis perceives him, to Family Fight, where Dennis' masks slip completely and he has a public breakdown, they both veer hard to straighten themselves. Mac, very quite literally, goes straight, and Dennis resolves that he needs to cut ties to get back to being ‘cool’, he’s going to be a cool guy who has a cool car and hangs out with a babe and is cool.

But what we learn in Misses the Boat is that how they think the world views them, or should view them based on how they believe they present, isn’t who they are. They can’t actually function well in these situations. Dennis, untethered, somehow can’t control his rage as well as he can when he *is tethered* to the Gang. Mac, well, he isn’t straight, and he realises pretending to be into women is miserable.

Dennis gives him the offer: Do you want to go back? (To not addressing it, to a standstill.) And Mac quickly, excitedly takes it. Looping back to where they are in Charlie Work, back to where they settle for too long: Mac, absorbed in himself, clawing for approval from Dennis, and Dennis lashing out, tired of telling Mac what to do.

And I think this is why I love 10 more than anything, it finally addresses the issue the audience knows. With Charlie, Dee, and Frank, too. They’re going nowhere, spiraling in circles because they refuse to address the roots of their issues, and Misses the Boat makes them, themselves, fully aware of that fact. They’re miserable together, but they’re worse off alone. And they go into 11 and beyond knowing this, and all kind of resenting each other for it, until 14. Where they acknowledge it again, and decide they’re going to keep playing the game even though it’s set.

[cbsghostsmetasandtrevor]

Been thinking about Pete, Carol and her death:

First, I think they really needed a season that had more episodes if they were going to do an arc like this because it needs more time and attention to fully work through.

Second, if they always wanted to kill her, there's a few things they should have had on a "what needs to be addressed if you kill the living wife of one of your main ghosts" list.

On said list:

1. Address talking a new ghost through their death and what the ghosts know about ghost living.

2. Have Carol seek Pete out and talk to him about the last 40 years since he died.

3. Have Carol figure out that Sam's weirdness with the scout book and the wedding was due to seeing Pete.

4. Deal with Laura thinking the BnB is likely cursed for her family (I mean seriously BOTH parents died there???)

5. Have Carol realize what her death means for Jerry, Laura and little Pete, have her talk to Pete about how he dealt with knowing his family moved on while he was stuck there.

6. Have a confrontation with Pete and Carol about the cheating - maybe have (and I don't believe this is real but I saw it on HIMYF and I think some people out there might agree even if I don't) a discussion on "good cheating". Have Carol be faithful to Jerry and Pete be upset because "why wasnt I enough for you?"

7. There should be a storm out, so when they come back together to talk it out, Carol and Pete talk about how their marriage was one of their bad decisions. They did love each other once but they got married because she got pregnant with Laura and it was the right thing to do (pure HC for me). This is resolved by them both admitting that divorce wasn't something Pete would have ever followed through on and that at least they both found happiness in different ways. Pete and his Troup and Carol/Jerry.

8. Carol acknowledges that cheating was the biggest regret of her life. She meant her apology a couple of years before and she means it now. Loving Jerry for 40 years meant it was a good thing even if it wasn't fair.

9. Either a) Pete tells her that he needs time and would like some space - which explains why she ends up in the shed or basement - or b) Carol forgives herself for what happened and gets sucked off.

10. If it's A) Pete goes through a bit of self reflection and works out the situation allowing them to become friends again, if it's B) Pete figures out that maybe forgiveness is the answer and works out what he needs to forgive to move on himself. (B takes a whole because hes a Main Character in the series. Perhaps his power leads him to push it off so he can explore.

Related to that, he and Carol can be disappointed that he hadn't figured it out sooner so he could have been there all that time.

Thoughts?

[twilight-of-the-cardinals]

What we know about how old every Cobra Kai character is

Recently, lots of questions have come up in the CK fandom about how old all these people are supposed to be and when their birthdays are. The short version is that the writers don't care enough to keep things consistent and have contradicted themselves many times. For the (very) long answer, see below.

If you notice any errors or any additional information that I missed, please let me know.

Thanks to @demetriandelibinaryboyfriends for consulting on some of this.

First, it's useful to pin down when each movie and season takes place, as well as some major events within each one. (Much of this is taken from or duplicative of this timeline, but I'm more willing to speculate.)

The Karate Kid takes place between August and December 1984. (Strictly speaking, I don't think the films ever mention a year, so the first one could just as easily be set in the fall of 1983, when it was filmed, as in 1984, several months after its release, but Cobra Kai is very explicit on numerous occasions that Johnny and Daniel fought in 1984, so let's go with that.) The Halloween Dance was presumably close to Halloween, Mr. Miyagi started training Daniel shortly after that, and the tournament was on December 19.

The Karate Kid 2 picks up on the evening of December 19, 1984, then flashes forward six months to the summer of 1985. It seems like events in Okinawa unfold relatively quickly, so the whole movie might be over by the start of July, but it's hard to be sure.

The Karate Kid Part 3 takes place about a year after the first film, so fall and early winter 1985, concluding with another tournament in December. I've seen some attempts to pin down when specific events happen (eg when Daniel starts training with Terry and when he leaves), but I'm not fully confident in them and they aren't very relevant, so I won't get into them.

Cobra Kai Season 1 starts in August, right before school starts, and concludes with yet another tournament, this one on May 19. From the All-Valley merchandise, we know that the tournament is in 2018, which makes the season's time period August 2017-May 2018. Time within the season is a thornier matter. Things start off pretty clear -- episode 2 is the start of the school year, episode 3 is around Halloween -- but then episode 5 begins with Miguel's training montage, which seems to take place over the course of several weeks, and judging by the decorations in one shot overlaps Christmas. However, later in the episode, everyone else is still reacting to the events of episode 4 as if they just happened: Johnny and Shannon are still debating Robby's living situation, Kyler is spreading rumors about Sam in retaliation for her dumping him, etc. The main ways of resolving this are a) the montage actually took place over about a week and Miguel just improved ridiculously quickly (not too much of a stretch in this show); b) parts of the montage are actually set before episode 4; c) it took weeks for the consequences of episode 4 to play out for some reason. In any case, the cafeteria fight most likely took place in January or early February, with Cobra Kai getting a rush of new students shortly afterward and the rest of the season playing out over the spring of 2018. As noted above, episode 10 is on May 19, 2018 (although that was a Saturday, while the weatherman Sam is watching earlier in the episode says it's Sunday); since Daniel, Johnny, Sam, and Miguel still seem to be wallowing in the immediate aftermath of episode 9, it seems likely that it was the day before, May 18 (although as noted above, things sometimes seem to play out slower than would make sense). This would put the destruction of Johnny's Firebird in episode 8 on the night of May 17. Before that, things get murky.

Season 2 picks up immediately afterward on the night of May 19, 2018. Daniel and Robby spend May 20 fixing up Miyagi-Do (on my first watch, I assumed that montage took place over at least a week, but their outfits never change and time in the rest of the episode clearly doesn't progress that far. I guess Robby's shoulder healed near-instantly from the ambient Miyagi magic). The first post-tournament Cobra Kai class presumably takes place on Monday, May 21. Valleyfest in episode 3 is probably around the Fourth of July, while most of the rest of the season plays out somewhat uncertainly over the course of the summer. Episode 10 is the first day of school (generally mid-August for LA public schools) and episode 9 is once again the night before.

Season 3 starts two weeks after the school fight (so late August or early September 2018). We see Sam's phone right before the laser tag fight in episode 5 displaying the date as October 20, which lines up with the dates on Robby's emails earlier in the episode. Demetri's arm is healed enough to resume karate by episode 8, so that's probably at least a month later, probably into December. The Christmas party, the house fight, and Johnny and Daniel's confrontation with Kreese are generally assumed to take place on December 19, 2018, though as far as I know there's no evidence for this beyond the title of episode ten. In the final scene where Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang start their first merged practice, the kids' injuries from the house fight have started to heal but not made much progress, so it's probably December 20-22.

Season 4 picks up in the middle of the dojo merger scene (so late December 2018). The tournament in episodes 9-10 is on May 18, 2019. Filling in the time between is tricky, but Devon says she's been training for six weeks, which would put her recruitment in episode six somewhere in early April, and thus the MD-EF schism of episode 5 probably in late March.

Season 5 takes place an amount of time after the end of season 4 roughly equal to how long it takes Miguel to get from LA to Ceuta. Google Maps suggests it's about a 20 hour drive, so depending on whether the bus had any stops, detours, or layovers, we're probably looking at something in the neighborhood of May 19-21, 2019. The rest of the season occurs during the summer of 2019, with few cues as to when anything is happening. Episode 10 seems to take place before the start of the school year.

Season 6 opens at the start of the 2019-2020 school year (probably August again). In episode 4, Miguel and Demetri get early admissions decisions, which usually come out in mid-December. The timing of the Sekai Taikai is ambiguous, but the show definitely gives the impression that everyone hopped on a plane to Barcelona a day or two after captains were selected. Allegedly Daniel's phone in a Barcelona scene says that it's April, but this seems way too late in terms of both college acceptances and personal relationships (it doesn't seem like Robby has been spending months wondering where Tory is, or that Demetri and Eli have been feuding for that long). The most likely explanation is that that scene was filmed in April and they just didn't bother to fix the date. It then takes Terry a few months to convince everyone to resume the tournament; Miguel says Stanford let him in during his fight against Axel, so that would probably make it March or early April, although such decisions sometimes come at other times. The stuff near the end of the last episode where the kids young adults are heading off for various summer programs are presumably in May or June 2020. The scene where Daniel mentions Anthony competing in the All-Valley is a little confusing, since we don't know if he's talking about the 2020 or 2021 tournament; it could be in May 2020, in early 2021, or even in fall 2020 if the AVT committee had their hands full running the Sekai Taikai and needed to push the local tournament back a few months.

With that out of the way, let's try to pin down as many character birth dates as we can:

Johnny Lawrence: He graduated high school in the spring of 1985, so he was probably born some time between the fall of 1966 and the summer of 1967. August 20, 1967 is the commonly given date, but no one has ever given a convincing source for it. My best guess is that someone just invented it and added to a wiki, and everyone else went, "yeah, that sounds right."

Conclusion: Sure, let's go with August 20, 1967. This would mean he turns 50 around the start of the show and 53 just after the end.

Daniel LaRusso: From the first movie, we know that his birthday is December 18, the day before the All-Valley. His year of birth is more contentious. His birthday in the first movie is clearly intended to be a 16th birthday party, since he talks about getting his license and according to the script (screenshotted in the timeline linked above) his cake has sixteen candles in it, which would put his birth year as 1968. However, I have seen frequent unsourced claims that his birth year was later retconned to 1966, which is when you would expect someone in his high school class to be born.

Neither answer works very well. To accept the 1966 date, you need to believe that:

Not only did he compete in an under-18 tournament at the ages of 18 and 19 (which could be attributed to Miyagi and Silver shenanigans to sneak him in, or just flexible tournament rules), he didn't even mention at any point that he shouldn't be eligible

Daniel willingly spent his 18th birthday at the DMV, when there were 729 preceding days which were not his birthday when he would have been eligible to get his license

Mr. Miyagi got the number of candles on his cake wrong

On the other hand, the 1968 date requires you to believe that:

Daniel graduated high school at age 16 despite not seeming as exceptionally booksmart as that would require (maybe it was a side effect of all the moving around he did? New York state is unusual in allowing kids to start kindergarten at age 4 as long as they turn 5 before the end of the calendar year, so if we baselessly speculate that his family lived in NY in the fall of 1973 before moving to Newark later on, he could have started school early. He would then need to gain one more year somehow in the transfer to New Jersey, the transfer to California, or by skipping a grade at some point)

Mr. Miyagi wanted to cosign the lease for his bonsai tree shop with a 16 year old in the third movie (Mr. Miyagi was never really the type to worry about silly little laws like that, and we have no evidence Daniel's name actually ended up on the lease)

Lucille was willing to leave her high school graduate but not yet adult son in the care of a man she had met less than a year ago for the entire summer and fall of 1985 (it was the 80s, and Mr. Miyagi has very trustworthy vibes)

To make matters worse, Daniel says at some point in the show that he's the same age that Mr. Miyagi was when Daniel met him, which would be 59 if you believe the gravestone and even older if you have more sense than that (see below). I'm inclined to think Daniel and/or the writers just miscalculated there and he's actually at least a decade younger than that.

Conclusion: December 18, 1968, but I'm not happy about it. (So 48 at the beginning of the show, turns 50 at the end of season 3, and 51 at the end.)

Miguel Diaz: We get our first blatant contradiction within canon. Miguel's hospital bracelet, barely visible in some scenes early in season three, gives his date of birth as 3/14/2003. (It also lists his admission date as August 22, which is more than a week after LA public schools usually have their first day, but there are many possible explanations for that.) However, in episode five of that season (so probably October 20, 2018 per above discussion), Carmen says "he's seventeen", whereas the bracelet date would make him 15 at that point. Being born in 2003 would also make him young for his class year, but he's pretty smart and has moved around at least as much as Daniel did, so that's a smaller issue than his mother getting his age wrong. Assuming the hospital got the day and month right but the year wrong doesn't help much: March 14, 2002 would put him within the expected range for his high school class (fall 2001-summer 2002), but would still make him 16 rather than 17 in season three. March 14, 2001 would make Carmen right about his age, but possibly make ineligible for the 2019 All-Valley.

Conclusion: Early fall 2001 (so 15 at the very start of the show, 16 for most the rest of season one, turns 18 early in season six), but if you want a concrete date on which to celebrate his birthday, March 14 is your best option.

Samantha LaRusso: We only get concrete age information in the first two seasons, and unfortunately she seems to get over a year younger between them. Early in the season, she offers to drive Yasmine to the first day of school, suggesting that she was already 16 by then (or even older, given that California appears to be pretty restrictive about teens driving each other around), which would put her birth date in the summer of 2001 or earlier, unusually old for her high school class. Supporting this, in the second half of season one (early 2018) she says, "Eight years ago I was eight," suggesting she is already 16 at this point.

Meanwhile, in episode 8 of season 2, we see an invitation to Sam's first birthday party in Daniel's scrapbook, with the date given as October 14, 2003, which would presumably put her birth in October of 2002, unusually young for her high school class. Supporting this, later in the episode we flash back to Amanda pregnant with her at the LaRusso Auto grand opening in 2002.

Inconclusion: I have no idea. My best attempts to reconcile all of this involve temporal distortion fields.

Robby Keene: After that nightmare, we finally have one of the clearest-cut cases in the entire franchise: Johnny explicitly tells Miguel when Robby was born in episode three of season two. The only slight wrinkle is that Sid says in the first episode of the show (August 2017) that Robby is 16, when in fact he wouldn't turn 16 until the following February, but this can be attributed to Sid not knowing Robby's birthday and Johnny not caring enough to correct him.

Conclusion: February 4, 2002 (15 at the start of the show, turns 18 between episodes 10 and 11 of season 6)

John Kreese: He seems to be roughly college-age (though not in college) in the season three flashback to 1965. Otherwise I don't think we know much.

Conclusion: Mid-1940s probably (so in his early to mid 70s during the show)

Nariyoshi Miyagi: The only years mentioned in the movies are a) his first time on his father's fishing boat was 1927 (so he was alive then but still a child, probably a pretty young one) and b) his wife and newborn son died in November 1944. We also know he left Okinawa for Hawaii when he was 18, and he would have needed enough time after that to meet, marry, move to California with, and impregnate his wife.

His gravestone in the show lists his birth date as June 9, 1925, which would make him two on the fishing boat (seems a little young), leaves him less than year to court his wife, and, most ridiculously of all, means he moved from Japanese territory to American territory in the middle of World War II (IIRC Robert Mark Kamen raised similar objections to the CK creators). In season six, Daniel mentions that the documents he found list his birth year as 1918, but Mr. Miyagi was born in 1924, which may be an attempt to retcon this. If the end up making a Miyagi spinoff, possibly these issues will get addressed further, though given their track record they could just as easily be dropped entirely.

The deeper issue for any account of Mr. Miyagi's life is that, as I understand it, immigration from Asia to the US was nearly impossible between 1925 and 1965. Kamen based Miyagi on old Okinawan immigrants he knew as a teenager, who presumably would have come over in the 1910s, but Daniel is 20 years younger than Kamen, so most of those Okinawans were dead by his teens and later generations were not allowed in to replace them.

Conclusion: I'm partial to 1920, but there's a range of okay options, especially if you're willing to postulate alternate histories of US immigration law.

Tory Nichols: in season four (early 2019) she tells her aunt, "I'll be 18 next year."

Conclusion: Some time in 2002, probably the first 8 months given her class year (so 16 when she first appears, 18 at the end)

Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz: At the beginning of season two, right before the first post-tournament Cobra Kai class (so probably Monday, May 21, 2018), he tells Miguel he's getting his license next week (so somewhere between May 28 and June 1). This might suggest his 16th birthday was around then, but it's also possible he turned 16 earlier and just didn't prioritize getting his license as fast as possible. Before he joined Cobra Kai, he didn't really have anywhere to go except school, Demetri's house, and the comic book store, and afterward karate was taking up a lot of his time, which may have slowed things down.

His fake ID says his birthday is June 9, but I assume that's just a 69 joke, or maybe he stole Mr. Miyagi's birthday as a prelude to stealing the medal.

Conclusion: Probably late May 2002 (so 15 throughout season one, 18 at the end of season six), but could be earlier

Demetri Alexopoulos: His social media handle is DMan2002, so presumably he was born in 2002. In season four he implies that he's known Eli since kindergarten, which suggests he was born in the first eight months of 2002, rather than being born in the fall or December and starting school in New York before moving to California or starting a year behind Eli and catching up by skipping a grade. (They can't have both skipped a grade because then Eli wouldn't have been old enough to get his license in May 2018.)

Conclusion: January-August 2002 (so 15 when the show starts, turns 16 in season one or two, turns 18 in season six or right after the show ends)

Amanda LaRusso: In the third movie, Jessica appears to be fresh out of high school (so most likely born 1966 or 1967), and I get the vibe that Amanda is pretty close to her age, probably a little younger.

Conclusion: Most likely late 1960s (so late 40s or early 50s during the show)

Carmen Diaz: She says she was 18 when she had Miguel, which would put her birth year as 1982-1983 (if you believe me) or 1984-1985 (if you believe the hospital bracelet).

Conclusion: 1982 or 1983 (mid to late 30s during the show)

Terry Silver: Old enough to be in Vietnam in 1968, maybe a little younger than Kreese. The TKK3 novelization allegedly describes him as 40 years old in 1985 (so born 1945), but that seems a little old to me.

Conclusion: Some time in the second half of the 1940s (around 70 during the show)

Chozen Toguchi: In the season five flashback to 1972, he appears to be roughly ten, which would line up with his apparent age (early 20s) in 1985 in the second movie.

Conclusion: First half of the 1960s (so in his late 50s during the show)

Kenny Payne: In eighth grade in season four (spring 2019)

Conclusion: Probably somewhere fall 2004-summer 2005 (13-14 when he first appears, 15 at the end of the show)

Anthony LaRusso: In season one, Amanda references his conception ten years earlier. In season four, a year later, he's in eighth grade (13-14 years old typically), presumably because Griffin Santopietro aged three and a half years in that time and puberty made it hard for him to play much younger than he actually was. Maybe he skipped some grades? (He might be smart enough, but I have trouble imagining him applying himself in school nearly enough for that to happen.) Maybe he stole some years from Sam between season one and season two? Maybe Amanda couldn't remember how old he was because all her spare braincells were devoted to tracking Sam's rapidly shifting age, or maybe she was rounding severely?

Conclusion: Probably some time in 2005 (so 12-13 in season one, 15ish at the end)

Kyler Park: Season six reveals that he's actually been a year ahead of the main teens for the entire show and graduated in the spring of 2019, so he's at least a year older, possibly more if he got held back at some point.

Conclusion: Probably fall 2000-summer 2001 (16 at the start of the show, 19 by the end), could be even older

Devon Lee: Probably a high school freshman in season four (spring 2019)

Conclusion: Most likely fall 2003-summer 2004 (14-15 when she first appears, 16 by the end)

Kim Da-Eun: Under ten in the season five flashback to 1980 (the actress appears to have been 9 during filming).

Conclusion: First half of the 1970s (in her late 40s in seasons five and six)

Yasmine: Has a birthday party in episode 9 of season 1, which as mentioned above was probably on May 18, 2018, though it could have been earlier. We can be pretty sure that the party was on her actual birthday, because Demetri said, "I saw on your Facebook it's your birthday," and he's enough of an annoying pedant (affectionate) that if she was celebrating on a day that wasn't quite her birthday, he would have remarked on it.

That just leaves the question of which birthday it was. 16th would make sense for a high school sophomore, but California doesn't even give learner's permits to anyone younger than 15.5, and Yasmine was driving back at the beginning of season 1, nine months before the party. If she's turning 17 in episode 9, she could have had a license back in episode 1 (driving other teenagers around unsupervised would still be illegal, but she probably wouldn't care). However, this would probably require her to have been held back in school at some point, and I can't really imagine her parents allowing that. It's much more likely that they bribed the DMV or something to get her an early license.

Conclusion: Probably May 18, 2002 (15 at start of show, 18 at end), but a few days or a full year earlier are also possible

Aisha Robinson, Moon (Taylor?), Piper Elswith, Mitch, Chris, Edwin, Big Red, Abe, Dieter, etc: Seem to be in the same class year as the main teens (though Piper could be a year older, which would explain why she disappears after season four). Therefore they were most likely born in the fall 2001-summer 2002 range, but exceptions are certainly possible.

Brucks, Rory, AJ: Most likely in Kyler's year, one ahead of the main teens. Brucks is confirmed in season six to have graduated at the same time as Kyler, while Rory and AJ disappear after season one, so it's hard to tell and they could even be older than Kyler (though Kyler mentions Rory in season four, suggesting that he hasn't graduated yet or stuck around after graduating)

Conclusion: Most likely fall 2000-summer 2001

Bert: We see him walk past Miguel's locker in one scene in season one, suggesting he's already in high school at that point, which would make him only a year younger than the main teens. However, we know from season four that eighth graders are sometimes given tours of the high school. He definitely doesn't look like he's with a tour group, but we also know from Kenny's experience that kids sometimes get separated from their tours. Owen Morgan was 13 when season one was filmed, so if Bert was supposed to be in high school at that point, it's entirely possible he skipped a grade.

Conclusion: Could be anywhere from fall 2002 to summer 2004 (so 13-15 when he first appears halfway through season one, 15-17 at the end of the show)

Nate (Oh?): Doesn't appear in season one, but is definitely a high school student by the time the 2018-2019 school year begins at the end of season two. Bert seems to regard him as a peer, which likely means they are the same age and/or grade, but you never know. In season four, Bert dismisses the idea of a junior being romantically interested in Nate as ridiculous, which would be a little weird if Nate was a sophomore at that point (Sam dated Kyler when she was a sophomore and he was a junior, after all), but teens can get some pretty weird ideas about social norms (and one might headcanon that Bert had a crush on Nate himself and was trying to fend off competition by any argument he could think of, however specious).

Conclusion: Somewhere in the fall 2002-summer 2004 range, a bit more likely to be in the later half

Kwon Jae-sung, Axel Kovacevic, Zara Malik, Yoon Do-Jin, Maria Alvarez, Diego Aguilar, other Sekai Taikai competitors: probably in their late teens, given that they're competing in a youth karate tournament but are played by adults

Bobby Brown, Ali Mills, Tommy, Jimmy, Dutch, Susan, etc: Presumably somewhere in the fall 1966 to summer 1967 range.

Shawn Payne: already in a juvenile detention facility when Robby arrives in September 2018, released probably late summer 2019. This might suggest that he turns 18 after that, but some cursory research suggests that California sometimes keeps people in juvie into their twenties.

Conclusion: Probably in the same fall 2001-summer 2002 range as the main teens, but who knows

Louie LaRusso Jr and Vanessa LaRusso: We see Louie LaRusso Sr (who is supposed to be their father) die in late 1985 in the third movie at the age of 70, which provides a fairly hard lower limit to their ages, especially since he was very sick and probably in no shape to be fathering children for months before that. This is borderline-plausible for Louie Jr (Bret Ernst was born in 1972, according to IMDB, though he looks a fair bit younger than that), but Julia Macchio was in her late 20s when she first appeared at Vanessa, making it a bit of a stretch to believe she's old enough for Louie Sr to be her father. It makes a bit more sense to me to assume that Uncle Louie was actually their grandfather, which allows for a bit more flexibility.

Conclusion: Some time in the 70s or (more likely) 80s; no later 1985 (or maybe early 1986) if you accept their canon parentage

Kim Sun-Yung: The creators have said that he's around 100 in 2019, which would line up with him being a young man during World War II.

Conclusion: 1910s or 1920s

Mike Barnes: He's under 18 in 1985 for the tournament in the third movie (unless Terry paid some bribes to get him in), but he's already pretty firmly established himself as a national competitor, so he's probably 17 or close to it.

Conclusion: Most likely some time in 1968

Hector Salazar: He says he was close to Miguel's age (so late teens) when he married Carmen

Conclusion: Early 1980s

Kumiko Tanaka, Rosa Diaz, Shannon Keene, Anoush Norouzi, Raymond "Stingray" Porter, Sid Weinberg, Gunther Braun, Feng "Sensei Wolf" Xiao, Tom Cole, Armand Zarkarian, Homeless Lynn, Lyle the pawnshop guy, Nestor the Mini Mart guy, the All-Valley committee, the Fist, etc: Not much to go on beyond eyeballing how old they look (and considering the ages of their kids, in Rosa and Shannon's cases)

Trey, Cruz: We see them in adult prison in season three (fall 2018), and they generally seem a bit older than Robby.

Conclusion: 1990s, probably late 90s

Lia Cabrera, Zack Thompson, Slade Wang, Marcus: In Kenny and Anthony's class year

Conclusion: Most likely fall 2004-summer 2005

Counselor Blatt: younger sister of Ali's friend Susan, seems to have overlapped with Daniel in high school

Conclusion: Probably 1968-1970

[leashybebes]

2024 tumblr top 10

thanks for the tag @rcmclachlan

How it works: Share your top 10 tumblr posts from last year! Visit this site, scroll down to "Find your Tumblr Top 10," type in your username, and select 2024. When you get the results, simply click "Share to Tumblr" and you'll get an auto-generated draft for a post with links and previews. Make any adjustments you see fit.

1) my hurdle headcanon - 769 notes, oct 29th

ah the beloved liminal space between 8.05 and 8.06 when i was speculating on what the 'hurdle' might be. i was going to say i was pretty off base but actually in the broad strokes (tommy not thinking he's the forever guy, buck thinking that's ridiculous and completely out of left field) i was more on point than i realised (sad face). that said, i do enjoy this fic and think it's cute.

2) prompt fill for tommy being vulnerable with buck - 699 notes, nov 26th

exactly what is says on the tin - post breakup conversation fic where buck gets to say "shut up, stop making decisions for me, also i will throw baked goods at your head if you try to walk out on me again". a fun one, despite all the crying!

3) sick ficlet! - 486 notes, oct 13th

another from the pre-breakup era. if i remember rightly i was in the grips of the annual "higher education is a plague pit" bug and desperately craving some spicy noodle soup. this is cute and i should tidy it up for ao3 at some point. i feel like it would hit harder post breakup and makeup too - i imagine they would both have a LOT of feelings about tommy not asking for help and buck giving it anyway.

4) oh! this is the origin story for allying too close to the sun - 477 notes, nov 27th

basically, i am never not watching peep show, and saw the episode where sophie says "i mean have i lived enough? i've only slept with four men" and jez thinks "four?! jesus. i've had sex with more men than that, and i basically only sleep with women" and thought god, that is such a buck 1.0 line and so my beloved ridiculous baby was born.

5) not a fix-it, but the opening of a door - 405 notes, nov 9th

what if buck did call? baby steps in the direction of making up via a series of voicemails buck leaves for tommy. as with the sick ficlet, the intention was to tidy this up for ao3 at some point. i feel like this post is mostly going to be that!

6) crash! that! truck! snippet - 384 notes, nov 20th

i think the first snippet of this i posted, and it's almost a standalone quasi-drabble, but then i decided to do some sliding doors nonsense with the whole thing so, idk, full thing available sometime in the next four years i guess.

7) buck picks up tommy and sal from the airport - 370 notes, aug 30th

oh, i love this! it was a fuck it friday snippet from a dusty old wip for my you plus me universe, wherein i express my love and longing for LA via buck and tommy getting to know each other better in various locations. needless to say i do not love or long for the pick up area at LAX, but i do love backseat pilot tommy, and bitchy grumpy sal. i'll get to this at...some point.

8) back together in secret ficlet, my beloved - 341 notes, nov 27th

another one that needs polishing and putting on AO3 - from a prompt about them struggling to find time in their schedules to see each other - made all the more tricky by their decision to keep their reconciliation to themselves for now. resolved because Bobby Knows All, of course.

9) their sex life changes after they get back together - 310 notes, dec 13th

i refuse to believe that mr you'll break my heart, mr i can't be your last, mr self sabotage was completely open about his wants and needs about anything while they were together, never mind about sex, so here's a not-really-a-fic about tommy bottoming and vaguely subbing more and buck briefly getting in his feelings about it.

10) prompt fill for fluffy smutty makeup sex - 301 notes, nov 26th

again, does exactly what it says on the tin, although definitely more fluffy than smutty despite the fact they are actively boning throughout. post breakup, they physically and emotionally cannot get close enough, you can pry that from my cold dead hands. kind of like the fact that that ficlet and therefore this post officially ends ( as far as the dialogue goes, at least) with "i'm never gonna be done with you".

i have no idea who's done/not done this, but i am curious, so if you are too, consider this your tag!

[demigodofhoolemere]

The commentary for 3x06 "Pig in the Middle" with Robert Hardy, Carol Drinkwater, and director Michael Hayes was so lovely. It's wonderful to hear them talk about the series and their memories, and especially to hear Robert's voice. Some of my personal highlights below.

1) Commenting on everybody going for the whiskey at some point in every single episode.

~~~

2) When discussing bad weather during filming:

Michael: "Well, the great one for that, of course, is Terry Williams, and — I don't know if Terry Williams did any of All Creatures—"

Robert: "No."

Michael: "— but he got to be known as Wet Weather Williams; in fact—"

*Carol laughs*

Michael: "— I was filming in Yorkshire, I'm not sure if it was for this, but I was filming in Yorkshire, and it started to pour and pour and pour. And I said, ‘Gosh, Terry Williams must be filming around here,’ and by George—"

Carol, laughing: "He was?"

Michael: "— do you know, I found he'd been filming in the next dale."

~~~

3) During a shot of Siegfried riding a horse:

Carol: "You're so elegant when you ride, Tim."

Robert, off-handedly: "Oh, yes."

~~~

4) As they try to remember how things turned out with Siegfried and Margery:

Robert: "But what happened, how was it, uh, resolved?"

Carol: "You must have chucked her. She'd never have chucked you, darling."

The screen then happens to show a particularly lovely shot of Siegfried as if to illustrate the point that no one would choose to let him go, lol.

~~~

5) Talking about Donald Sinclair and his first wife Evelyn and second wife Audrey:

Robert: "[…] Because Siegfried, the real one, had married, uh, a young wife, who died."

Carol: "Oh, did she?"

Robert: "Tragically, and very soon. And, uh, Donald was in a, in a fearful hole. And then he found Audrey, later, and they married—"

Carol: "Mmm."

Robert: "— and they were the most devoted couple that I have ever seen; they couldn’t cross a room without holding onto each other somewhere."

*Carol laughs sweetly at the adorableness*

Robert: "I mean, they were just so—"

Carol: “Romantic.”

Robert: "— totally, totally in love, and I knew them into their 80s."

Carol: "Yeah."

Robert: "And they were just the same!"

Carol: "And died within days of each other."

Robert: "And died within days of each other."

~~~

6) Robert repeatedly shushing people when the ladies came onscreen:

Michael: *talking about how difficult it is to find period accurate cows*

Robert, suddenly: "Hush, hush, hush. Here comes Helen."

and later, shushing both of them when Mrs. Hall comes into the surgery tipsy

Robert: "Watch this, watch this."

~~~

7) They all spend a good minute discussing Helen's very floral hat. Carol couldn't remember it at all.

~~~

8) Pointing out Christie and then Robert saying that his current dog at the time is just like him.

~~~

9) They all share their love for dear Mary Hignett. You can tell how loved she was by everybody who knew her.

~~~

10) Apparently the cast would take turns deciding the menu of what food they were to have at the table each episode. Robert's go-to was apparently sausages and Carol remembers she repeatedly chose fish and they kept getting irritated with her for it because it would make the studio smell.

~~~

11) Robert talks about his multiple names and how he came to settle on Robert to use for acting.

~~~

12) Carol, while laughing the whole time: "I can remember being in that car with Chris once and the brakes went. We went hurtling down the hills, it was really scary! Especially because you know what Chris is, Chris was never the greatest driver, was he? He was always rather, hurtling to-and-fro."

~~~

13) The woes of filming. They didn't realize the spot they were trying to shoot at on location was right by an artillery range and had to go figure out what all the sudden BANGs were about during their attempts to film.

~~~

14) There was a lighting guy on the show who apparently wasn't very good at making sure everybody was properly lit and Robert was trying to remember who he was and called him "the prince of darkness" as a reference point for the others to know who he meant, as if that's a name they called him at the time!

~~~

15) Robert flubbing Carol's name for her character's for a second:

Robert: "Well, as Helen was saying, I mean—"

Carol, initially agreeing: "Yes." (then a millisecond later after she's realized what he said, now trying not to laugh) "Carol."

Robert, laughing: "Carol! Whatever [unintelligible]."

~~~

16) Talking about the filming of the cricket episode in season 6:

Robert: "It was one of those extraordinarily hot days for England. It was a hot week. I mean, it was in the 90s, and I got fed up so I 'passed out'."

*Carol laughing*

Robert, also laughing: "And they summoned a doctor."

Carol, through laughter: "I never knew you to use that ploy before! Not in my day, you didn't use that!"

Robert, amused: "I would do anything sometimes to stop going on."

Carol, barely speaking through laughter: "I know."

Robert: "But, um, they called the doctor. And I said, 'It's very good of you to come; I don't think there's anything wrong, really.'"

Carol, in a giggle fit: "Except I want to go home!"

Robert, with a laugh: "Except I want to go home."

~~~

This was great fun and I’m so miffed that there were only ever three episode commentaries recorded for the All Creatures DVD set. Truly a missed opportunity for more of Robert while he was still around and now I want them to do a rerelease with new commentaries on more episodes so we can hear lots more of everyone else while we still can.

[talenlee]

Game Pile: Arkball

In a distant future six generation ships drift through space on their way to ᴛʜᴇ Dᴇsᴛɪɴᴀᴛɪᴏɴ. Their ongoing war between one another, doctrinal disputes that led to a build up of warrior culture has been resolved, and now, instead of fighting with guns and lies and armour, the people of the ships do battle on the court, with the high impact, high speed game of Arkball, which mostly means they just put away the guns.

You and your friends are from one of these ships; a team that has some reason to hold together, to care about one another, even as you deal with the tensions that shape your life and your relationship to the team itself. You don’t know what’s going to happen next in your lives, but you do know this much:

Arkball is about Arkball, and Arkball is about everything.

The game comes with its own content warning, for injury, isolation, addiction and trauma. These are things that show up in player tables and mechanical systems, and they aren’t things the story glories in. If you are okay with these things happening to other people but don’t want them imposed on you (aside from, I guess, injury), you can probably play Arkball just fine, just choose to avoid those problems.

The heart of how Arkball works is you’re going to play out story segments leading up to a match of Arkball, played between a team from your ship (good, cool, heroic and scrappy underdogs) against a team from their ship (those assholes). But the match isn’t just the match, the match is the culmination of the story leading up to the match, and that match is driven by the story for the characters that the players all contribute to. If a player contributes to that instigating story, by adding something during this discussion, they get a point that improves their rolls when they make an important roll for their character at this point in the story (their ‘tension’ point).

What this structures is a series of narratives built around characters leading up to a science fiction super-sport game, whose conclusion is determined not by a dice roll in the game, but rather by the build-up to the game. The game is the culmination of the story, then the denoument is the aftermath of the game. It is an episodic game which uses the structure of a sports drama and the technology of an (honestly kinda utopian) science fiction travel setting, where people negotiate their experiences with one another, where they clash and argue and struggle with their own personal problems, and then it all comes to a head with something that metaphorises their opposition (in this case, an opponent team, those jerks). Which, by the way, that’s a joke, but it’s an extra level of complexity this game handles — because players don’t have to be people in the match, they can be people watching a match between two other teams!

It’s a 2d6 based system where rolling a 10+ is a success, 7-9 is a whiff, and 1-6 is a failure. The system is simple and fast, and I have no idea where it’s from. There’s no extensive discussion about the source, no need to provide bonafides in the mechanical section of the book. It presents information that players need as quickly as possible and gets otherwise out of the way.

For players, Arkball offers a character creation method that is extremely approachable, very fast, and also demonstrates a clear path of progress through a series of plot beats. It manages to be both very broad and very specific at the same time, which is a neat trick. The way a character works is a broad archetypal problem or point of narrative tension, but there’s a big list of them, and each of them is an evocative phrase, with an example of the event that resolves that tension. These are strong prompts, and there’s a set of them described ahead of time as starter character tensions.

What’s more, character creation isn’t a thing in this game, per se. Rather, it’s team creation, you’re making a member of the team, and then once people have their vibes and tensions, the players go around asking questions of each other from a randomised list (that you don’t have to even choose, you can roll two dice to do that). These are all leading questions — like which of you do I wish was or wasn’t team captain? — and then another player answers that question, and you have a reason to flesh that out between you. These interactions become points of pulse, and pulse is a way that you can help or hinder a character when they’re making a roll.

This means players are paying attention to each other’s rolls, they’re looking at one another in terms of their relationships, and they’re all invited to be mindful of one another and looking for ways to advance their own story in the narrative in ways that make sense. The rules don’t tell you how to get there, but they position you with a very simple gamble of trying to resolve your plot fast (and risk failing worse), and a way to make that resolution easier. You can do things that engage with other people, following your tensions and pulses and helping them with their tensions and pulses, all hoping to set things up so that it all resolves on the court.

Set up, develop, resolve, cleanup. A single episode a session, no elaborate rules or mechanics for the game of Arkball, just a focus on using Arkball as the important part of the episode that everything is focused on using to express its ideas. Because Arkball is about everything.

If you’ve been familiar with my writing about indie TTRPGs for the past year or so you might have seen me bemoan the way that games in this space seem to have weird priorities about what they present to their players. Sometimes it’s as simple as ‘the character creation for this game is on page 100′ or sometimes it’s about how the opening few pages of the book focus on stuff that’s mostly interesting only to other developers. I bring up this trend not to poop on those other games’ choices, but rather to make it clear that I am speaking from a position of some expertise about indie TTRPGs that make decisions I consider to be bad for engaging with the game.

What Arkball does instead, is kind of the exact opposite to these problems. Arkball, if I was going to level criticism to it, is a game pared down to a pure minimal value. I spoke about the (very good) Pine Shallows as an example of a great game in this space that uses its thematics to construct a mechanical space that serves its needs perfectly. But if Pine Shallows is a delicately small game that wants to present the image of a child’s view of reality, Arkball is a rocket sled made out of as few pieces as possible. Arkball is so easy to read and keeps its information so well positioned.

Part of what lets Arkball present information like this is that the game is building in a very well-understood story space, and all it’s doing is providing meaningful structure to that. You’re not making complicated mechanical systems for characters having deeply emotional blowups at one another during a tense moment before an Arkball match (the violence happens on the court, god damnit), you’re just setting up the story so the outcome of the match makes sense for how the story should go.

Arkball is available on itch.io. I like it, I think it’s got a good idea and it executes on it well, and it’s very cheap and approachable. If I could offer a greater praise for Arkball than I already have, it is a game that projects an absolute confidence in what it is and a certainty about what it’s representing. This game feels like it knows the genre it’s playing in, and like it couldn’t screw that up if it tried. Arkball knows what Arkball is about.

And it’s never just about Arkball.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[mywingsareonwheels]

What I wanted characters to say to each other this year so far...

(Spoilers behind the cut for: "Endeavour" series 9; "Shadow and Bone" series 2; "Good Omens" series 2; "Heartstopper" series 2)

Fred Thursday, to E Morse: I love you, you're my best friend and like a son or brother to me. I don't want to leave you behind, or neglect you. But I'm burned out, and exhausted, and scared, and you seem to be doing a lot better and meanwhile my son is disintegrating and my daughter is getting married and I am *so tired* and so terrified, so you can't be as much my priority right now as I'd like. It's hard for me to confide in anyone or let you help me. But I will try, and I do love you, so so much.

E Morse to Fred Thursday: I love you, you're my best friend and like a father or brother to me. I find it so hard to believe that you care about me, and I'm scared that everyone is leaving me behind yet again, and I'm hurt that you are, and I don't know how to help you. Please confide in me and let me try. I do love you, so so much.

Kaz Brekker, to Inej Ghafa: I love you, but I'm in a bad way and I don't know how I can be with you in a way that works for us both. But I do love you, so so much. Please come back one day.

Inej Ghafa, to Kaz Brekker: [actually she pretty much said it all, bless her] [but another affirmation of love would have gone well I think]

Aziraphale, to Crowley: we aren't going to agree on this, but I'm not leaving you behind because I don't love you. I think I'm doing the right thing. I'm scared and broken and everything is hard right now. But I love you, I ache for you, I know that you are good and kind and worthy and you don't need to be an angel for me to love you, *I will be back*.

Crowley, to Aziraphale: we aren't going to agree on this, but I'm not staying behind because I don't love you. I'm desperately worried about you and I wish I could change your mind. I'm scared and broken and everything is hard right now. I'm worried that you can't love me as I am. But I love you, I ache for you, I will try to trust you, *I will wait*.

Pretty much everyone in Heartstopper: ACTUALLY USED THEIR WORDS even if it took them a while, excellent, well played good gentlebeings. If Stephane Nelson can get his act together by s3 that'd be great (hey, Thibault has form for redeeming himself as a dad ;-) ), but Nick will cope if he doesn't. 9/10 at least for all the characters who aren't shits.

Disclaimer: this is not in any way a criticism of the writers of any of them except I think Endeavour, for I have... complicated feelings about that final episode, and whether doing That was actually really, totally necessary to set up Inspector Morse (I don't think it was, for at least two reasons, so it feels to me like gratuitous pain and the fucking up of a precious character arc tbh). But wrt Shadow and Bone and Good Omens? Fair play, that's brilliant storytelling, some things need to take their time, and romantic cliffhangers are awesome actually (provided they then get resolved at some point!). And Shadow and Bone has multiple awesome relationships, in some of which communication does actually happen. <3

But that doesn't stop me yearning for those characters to say those things, even though I think it's artistically better that the ones in S&B and GO didn't just yet. <3 Heartstopper is a different kind of show, where that would be less appropriate. But in S&B and GO it is actually brilliant. Just... ow. ;-)

Watching Heartstopper after the other three was rather a particular blessing tbh. :)

[hollyoaksmusings]

Rank John Paul’s love interests

I’ll probably be flayed for this lol

1. Ste - I know this is controversial haha, but he was my favorite at the time it was airing. They were both so desperate to help each other through some of the heaviest moments in each others’ lives, and I thought the extreme slow burn from literally hating each other to falling in love and their continued friendship has been nice. Also both just such legends on the show, which let them tap into aspects of their families and relationships in nice ways. Great acting. Some of my favorite episodes. I still watch the early episodes of McHay often (the Danny cover-up lol).

2. Craig - the man the myth the legend lol. What is there to say? Groundbreaking and character-defining for both characters and their respective families.

3. Spike? - in the grand scheme of things he wasn’t more than a recurring character so I feel weird even ranking him but he was so sweet and really shepherded John Paul into his first experiences as an out gay person.

4. Danny - maybe another controversial one, but despite the lies they really loved each other and you could tell, I felt.

5. James - on paper, amazing. In execution, just had the strangest storylines thrown at them and they I feel never got a fair shake. I liked when John Paul came back after James shot Mercedes and they hooked up lol. A little fwb thing kind of reignited their chemistry.

6. Scott - soooo sweet. I thought Scott was just really vulnerable and sweet during their relationship in unexpected ways, but John Paul was really not that into him and cheated on him basically immediately with James lol.

7. Lockie - ummmmmm. Also probably unpopular because people liked them together, but I was still holding on to residual McHay hope when they started hooking up and also??? Porsche was introduced so grandiosely as John Paul’s all-time favorite cousin so this betrayal felt so yucky.

8. Kieron - also unpopular!!!! But rewatching this as an adult, Kieron but a lot of pressure on a fairly young John Paul. Like a lot. It was too much. Like stop telling this 18 year old he’s the reason you left the church to try to get him to do things (like marry you?).

9. Doug - I’m going to be honest - I don’t remember their stint very well. I feel like it was defined by Doug still being in love with Ste. Love my fellow American though lol.

10. Carter - eh. Kind of a lot of potential? Amazing acting. Just didn’t quite resolve in a way that felt meaningful enough.

11. George - ACAB and also why is he even on here lol. Both an abusive asshole AND he couldn’t act? RIP.

[clonerightsagenda]

Station 11 Episode 10!!!

I will ponder some more and make a wrap-up post tomorrow probably, but takeaway is that this was really fucking good.

I was not expecting more Miranda! A delightful surprise. In my notes I jotted down 'will we get her going to the beach after all?'

Oh Jeevan's going to come help the conductor! He and Kirsten can meet up

"You're Gertrude." They're just telling us now in case we missed it. I'm not even mad though because it's clicking together so well.

Elizabeth: Thank fucking Christ. Nun: *death glare, head shake*

Miranda's in logistics. She gets things where they need to go, and that's not always the most direct route. Making her the one who keeps the passengers on board was a nice touch there, and of course it was the fucking plane that got me sobbing for real, that's always been the part of the book that haunted me. And she sort of got her beach, even if it was just in her mind.

Waiting too long to do the play was what wrecked things for Kirsten but we're waiting to do the play again, can we dodge disaster, can we stop the wheel from turning...

Screaming as Kirsten and Jeevan just miss each other

Kirsten seeing herself in Clark and not liking it, she can learn something from this life-changing field trip

I have nothing to say about the knife scene in the play, just, chef's kiss. Hamlet and theater and sometimes art does help us work through things even if it won't always save us.

IDK if everyone has this association but Tyler's overalls definitely make me think 'young kid' which I approve of thematically

Miranda asking "what message did you leave" like the phone calls in episode 1, like her comic... the people who wrote this script knew what they were fucking doing. I want to bite something

Honestly I'm surprised Jeevan recognized Kirsten when she was only 9 and now she's an adult, but still! Reunion!! I started crying during the plane conversation and was pretty much on and off for the rest of the episode

So... all the kids stood down? I'm not entirely sure how that happened, unless after Kirsten gave the comic to the one girl, she went and took it to all the others. Unless that was the only girl who had the landmines, Tyler claimed it was one specific girl's idea. Memetic power of a story, I guess, but this definitely feels like the one weak thread of the episode. Not sure exactly how that was resolved and communicated, but I'm glad there wasn't a child warfare scene.

And the airport is letting everyone else, and Alex is going with the prophet. No group was as bad as everyone else was making them out to be.

Where the fuck did Tyler get that many kids though for real

Kirsten saying goodbye twice because she never got to before...

I have a headache and I don't know if it's from too much screen time or the crying

As I said, wrapup post with more coherent thoughts tomorrow because I will probably spend my first contract day thinking about this while catching up on emails

[djeterg19]

Ok, so I was chatting on the bird app about why I generally hate third act breakups and it kinda inspired this post. First, conflict is necessary in any drama. The issue that comes up with many third act breakups is that they are often forced or contrived. Or the response is disproportionate to whatever issue comes up. Often it's caused by a lack of communication or a miscommunication.

I'm supposed to believe these two characters are in love but won't talk with or listen to the other person when they try to explain what happened or how they are feeling? Or they see or overhear something and, without speaking with the other person, jump immediately to wanting to break up and then refuse to give them a second chance. Or, and this might be the one I hate the most, they decide they know what's best for their love interest and break up because they don't want to hold them back. You should not be deciding what is best for someone else. People are capable of deciding for themselves what to prioritize in their life. You might think that specific job or going to school is the most important thing but someone else might think a family, friends, or love is more important to them. Because there are plenty of jobs or schools but family and love are irreplaceable.

And if they are so willing to throw the entire relationship away without communicating, how am I supposed to believe that the reunion or their feelings are genuine? Did they learn or grow from the situation? Or is it just cheap conflict to make the last episode have suspense? Why am I supposed to believe they are in love when they don't try reaching out to try resolving whatever the issue is? If your answer to the first big fight or issue your relationship encounters is to dump the other person and refuse to even talk to them...it just does not work for me character wise or plot wise. I can understand yelling and fighting in the moment but I cannot understand someone taking time to think and reflect and not even trying to patch things up or make things work with someone they truly love in most circumstances. And characters and relationships can be tested without forcing the characters apart through forced drama. They can have adult conversations where they can decide that they need to work on x, y, or x but won't cut all communication because they are important to each other. It can be outside forces that cause issues that actually strengthens their bond by forcing them to work together to overcome the odds. Or maybe one of them suffers a setback or struggles with something that is the big drama but they are there for each other and help each other through whatever comes up. Honestly my absolute favorite conflict in a BL was Kawi getting sick in Be My Favorite. It's realistic. It's traumatic. It produced drama AND utilized the time travel element in a great way.

Also the timing is frustrating. Because, with BLs especially, the third act breakup doesn't even happen in the third act. It happens in episode 11 generally. One episode is not the fourth act of a 12 episode series. For it to be a third act breakup, it would need to happen around episode 9 or 10 at the latest. But it almost never does and the ending is almost never satisfying because they have to cram too much into one episode to resolve things. I personally would prefer if such drama was done earlier so that the last episode could be reserved for seeing the happy ending that most of these shows promise. I don't want to spend 12 episodes with a pairing and only have 5 minutes showing them happy at the end. That is generally not satisfying to me.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Must you, Japan? has become Thank You, Japan

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

BL OLYMPICS! Week 3

This is my last week of passing out metals in various sporting events, as part of the weekly updates.

Aug 2024 Week 2

Ongoing Series - Thai

Century of Love (Weds Gaga) eps 9-10fin - There were a lot more unnecessary dramatic speeches than there was practical medical aid being administered. Very extra, boys. I wonder how long it took them to get that "birds meet hug" shot? Meanwhile, great grandpa‘s attitude that he knows best in every way is thoroughly annoying, and yet absolutely appropriate to his age. My great gramps (RIP), had he had the body of a 20-year-old, would behave in exactly the same self-righteous know-it-all way. The doctor is great. I would like him to get his own romance please? What happens when you are the villain in someone else's reincarnation story? There's a whole fanfic there. And yes I cried. I am a sap for this kinda thing.

Final thoughts:

This is a great little show about a young man who fell in love with a pretty girl 100 years ago, and when she died in his arms, he was cursed to live until he could meet her reborn self. Only this time around, she’s reborn into the body of a man. I love it when Thailand gets all up in its own historical business and reincarnation and shizz. I like this pair (it’s not DaouOffroad’s fault I didn’t enjoy most of their first series.) Daou’s wushu is pretty snazzy and we got a fun meet cute. (Erm... Remeet cute? Meet cute 2.0?) Plus this is a very PRETTY show. Despite some ham handed comedy moments, this ultimately has more in common with something like I Feel You Linger in the Air meets First Love Again, then (as one might expect) Until We Meet Again or The Director Who Buys Me Dinner. The leads turned in great performances, although Daou outclassed everybody else on that screen. It’s a good story and a great BL. I’m not sure this is going in my rewatch rotation, but I can’t find any major faults with it beyond a certain level of camp that is sadly endemic to lackorns. Also I’m going to give it credit as the kind of BL that one could safely recommend to lovers of melodrama and historical romance, without having to qualify it as “good for a BL.” It was, to put it succinctly, simply a VERY ENJOYABLE show. 

Under those auspices I really can’t give it anything less than a 9/10. 

Bronze in Fencing

My Love Mix-Up Th (Fri YT) ep 10 of 12 - It’s cute. They were cute. I enjoyed it a lot. I talk quite a bit about why they're using nai as a you pronoun here:

This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans (Fri iQIYI) ep 6 of 8 - Honestly the side couple is truly stellar in this show. I wasn’t sure about them at first but now I absolutely love them. Not sure how they are going to resolve such intense dislike (from JJ) by the end of the series. But I’m interested to see them try.

Meanwhile, there isn’t anything else airing right now that makes me laugh as much as the behind-the-scenes from this show. Highly recommended.

Monster Next Door (Thai Thurs Gaga ) eps 1-2 of 12 - Oh it is so much fun. I’m particularly delighted that our musician is a drummer and I don’t have to listen to him sing... I hope. I’ve been waiting for Big to lead a BL forever. I’m disposed to enjoy this. We can all be confident in one thing, the kisses are going to be great. I like the side couple too, very indulgent daddy. While I am disturbed by the tortoise in the tiny tank, I love the extrovert friendship group. They remind me of my own college crew. It is a cute premise, but I will need them to actually be together in the same room, looking longingly at each other a smooching within the next couple of episodes.

YouTube served me both episodes 1 & 2, and I don’t think it was meant to. So this may be next week's review as well.

The Trainee (Sun YouTube) ep 6 of 12 - I wasn’t wild about this ep or where this show is going. But I enjoyed the language play. 

Gold in Linguistic Gymnastics

(my new favorite sport)

Sunset X Vibes (Sat iQIYI) ep 9 of 12 - Wow. Sam admitted it just out loud like that! Right after a betrayal? Balls on that boy. Worked on Yo tho. Too well, actually. I wish Yo had made him suffer and dragged him over the coals for a while. But I guess Yo really really likes him back. Meanwhile, the GL side plot also moved quite rapidly. A lot happened in this episode.

I Saw You in My Dream (Weds Gaga) ep 4 of 12 - Them ALL jumping into the water was totally ridiculous. It’s still a little slow, because it is a pulp, but I’m rather enjoying it.

Knock Knock Boys (Thurs Gaga) ep 12fin - Almond and Latte were cute. The breakfast with the four of them was funny. I did laugh a lot. Almond getting "first time" advice from his two resident gay dads (or at least trying to) was super sweet. Also I got a lot of smiley kisses. Nice final ep.

Ultimately how do I feel about this show?

A story about 4 boys of differing personalities who end up living together and pair up, falling in love. Slow moving and waffling, with some artificially generated family drama makes this a classic Thai pulp except that in general it's a smiley kiss of a show. It had plenty of good qualities like great communication and sexual rep (including toys, first time, safe sex, and sexual identities). The heat levels were on point and well executed, and the performances were good. It’s just that the script and the directing were lackluster, rendering it ultimately forgettable. Still, fine on a rainy afternoon with some camomile tea or whatever. 7/10 

Love Sea (Sun iQIYI) ep 9 of 10 - I’m getting some sort of PTSD from this show, It is making me feel like I’m the problem. Trash watch

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Cosmetic Playlover (Japan Tues Gaga) eps 1-2 of 8 - Anyone surprised by this jump in the standings? Yeah, probubly not. Anygay... this show is GREAT. Warped af but great. Lemme try to explain.

I actually said out loud during ep 1, "Well this is boundary pushing." By which I mean mine and everybody elses. But it’s Japan, *checks watch* it’s about time they turned out something edging into unpalatable and kinky. And because it’s Japan, I’m more forgiving than I would be were this show nested in the clumsy hands of say... Thailand. So actually this being me, and me being of questionable taste, I’m enjoying this show a lot.

You want me to list the ways? Sure.

Younger seme with grabby hands.

The younger one identified the elder gay as his personal property and it’s now: single motivation, on target, against all odds.

Uke cares about his work and not much else.

Seme cares about the uke and not much else.

Uke is gonna make this boy WORK for it.

That one particularly Japanese style of obsession that I actually adore.

Passes the sniff test!

I’m being reminded of that KBL Love Mate. Which I believe I enjoyed but no one else did. For exactly this set of tropes. Only Japan is better suited to handle them. For me this is a case of:

Must you,Japan? = Oh yes? Well, thank you very much, Japan.  

I Hear the Sunspot AKA Hidamari ga Kikoeru (Japan Weds Gaga) ep 8 of 10 - enter the evil girl character. Yawn.

Takara's Treasure AKA Takara No Vidro (Japan Mon Gaga) ep 6 of 10 - It is what it is. 

It's airing but...

Battle of the Writers (Sun YT) ep 2 of 12 - I did not catch ep 2 before they took it down from USA YT. I don’t know why it’s down. Either they got a deal for distribution off YouTube or there’s some sort of scandal. Frankly, I wasn't particularly impressed with ep 1 so I’m not rabid to find wherever it’s gone or why. Still, perhaps someone will let us know the sitch in a comment? It's a me problem. I'm figuring it out.

Sugar Dog Life (Japan Sun ????) 10 eps - OMG a uni student who looks too young and a... COP. GAH. The subversion and kink of it all. Why can't I find it? Do I have to go grey?

4 Minutes (Thai Netflix/Grey) - A rich boy at uni suddenly gains the supernatural power to see four minutes into the future. I have a source, but I've decided to hold off and binge if it ends okay, since it's only 8 eps. I depend upon y'all to tell me if it's safe.

Meet You at the Blossom (China) - it's your funeral (or, more likely, one of the main characters'). You can argue but... statistics. You know my feelings on this matter. MY BLOG, remember?

In case you missed it

The Time of Fever AKA Unintentional Love Story 2 (Korea movie) trailer IS COMING IN SEPTEMBER!!!! (Yeah this is gonna sit here until then)

Next Week Looks Like This:

Ooo, nice spread.

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

Still Coming This Month!

8/12 First Note Of Love (Taiwan Mon Gaga) 12 eps - About a singer with stage fright and his timid fan stars Charles (H4 the puppy one) and Michael Chang (the youngster in My Tooth Your Love), plus side couple featuring a Thai actor Jame (Koh in Gen Y) and Liu Min Ting (of Guardian fame). What a damn tean. I can't wait. With thier powers combined!

8/13 Addicted Heroin (Thai Tues YT) 10 eps - supposedly Jinlo with air this on their YT channel. Stars August (Love Sick) so I'm excited despite Jinlo's poor reputation. From the trailer it looks like it's following the original pretty closely... just Thai style. GIMMEEEEE!!!!

8/16 The Last Time (Thai Fri YT) ? eps - Convoluted story of loss and possible reincarnation or something.

8/22 The On1y One (Taiwan Thurs Gaga) 12 eps - announced in 2023 this one has a high school set stepbrothers trope and is reputed to be high heat. From Taiwan! It's made for me. Based on a novel Mou Mou from the Your Name Engraved Herein folks, so it could go dark. Still, I'm very excited.

8/22 The Paradise of Thorns (Thai movie) theater release - Jeff Satur is back but this does not look like a BL (the gay lover's death is the inciting event). More in Goodbye Mother vein. Looks dark and dramatic. He opposite and extremely well known actor Toey Pongsakorn who has never done gay before.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENT

Linguistic flirting trope! One of my all time favorites. FANTASTIC. (I did keep hearing Gun yelling Papiiiiiii! in my head tho.)

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

Sigh, Tumblr in its infinite wisdom doesn't like too many tags.

[destinysbounty]

I think one of the things that made the original series so compelling is how interwoven everything was. Sure, it wasnt always perfect, but each season brought to the table some new connections to the lore, some character growth, some advancements in continuity. Even if a character or subplot only lasted one season, you could still feel their influence on the story several seasons later.

Chen is my favorite example of this. He may have just been the villain of season 4, but his schemes introduced a lot of information about elemental powers, his defeat initiated season 5, and his impact can still be felt as late as season 7 (foreshadowing about Ray and Maya, elemental alliance stuff, etc.) In Way of the Departed theres even suggestions that Chen had Clouse use dark magic to corrupt the Time Twins, leading to their villainy and causing not just the plot of season 7, but also Kai and Nya's whole backstory. Clouse, having returned as a ghost thanks to season 5, is responsible for conjuring Nadakhan and starting season 6.

And on the note of season 5! That season introduced us to the Sixteen Realms and the Realm Crystal, which become important aspects of season 6, and Yang's temple, which became important in DotD and season 7. It also formally introduced Ronin and turned Cole into a ghost, which are *also* major plot details going forward. AND it planted the seeds for Wu's eventual character arc in seasons 7-9. This season's impact expands past itself.

A lot of times, not all the time but often enough, whenever lore gets introduced at some point in the og series, it gets utilized much later on. Captain Soto, formerly a one-off villain from season 2, becomes plot-important in season 6. The Golden Weapon is shot into space in season 2, melted into Golden Armor in season 3, then melted down back into the weapons to defeat the Oni in season 10. The Great Devourer causes Harumi's tragic backstory. Mystake, who started out as a background gag character, became a key participant not just in the show but the worldbuilding and lore. The love triangle and subsequent rift between Jay and Nya doesnt get fully resolved until season 6. The ninja return to the burnt-down monastery in season 6, DotD, and season 7, and eventually rebuild it in season 10.

See what i mean? Everything somehow ties back to itself. Its far from perfect, but there is a solid sense of continuity that connects everything in increasingly complex ways.

I think thats a big part of what makes Wildbrain feel so different. Dont get me wrong, i love Wildbrain and i enjoy a lot of it, but it definitely lacks the cohesion that had seemingly defined Masters of Spinjitzu. A lot of their Wildbrain adventures feel less like installments in a greater narrative, and more like a series of loosely connected sidequests. Exciting sidequests that are usually really fun to watch, certainly, but sidequests all the same.

With the exception of Seabound and Crystalized, you could probably watch Wildbrain out of order and not much would change. If Prime Empire or the Island happened before SotFS, none of those seasons would face any impact from that. They are largely episodic and detached from each other in ways the og series never was. But if you tried to shuffle up the season order in Masters of Spinjitzu, youd have to rewrite a lot of stuff to make it work.

I almost wanna say thats part of why Seabound and Crystalized feel like such a return to form, and why MotM is so well-beloved. MotM introduced us to Lilly, fleshed out Cole's backstory, gave Wu a lil character arc that built on what came before it (Wu feeling useless bc the past few adventures were done without him), and finally gave some kind of resolution to Lloyd's Harumi-related trust issues (not just referencing her, but actually giving him a character arc about it). Seabound introduced us to more lore about the world's history and the backstory of the FSM, gave Nya one of the most compelling character arcs in the whole show that builds on and satisfies her past arcs, even gave her name a backstory that ties into the lore, featured relevant cameos from prior seasons (Vania, Maya, the Keepers), and provided an ending that would have lasting repercussions on seasons to come. And Crystalized...well, i wont spoil anything, but you get where im going with this.

Now, obviously this isnt the only deciding factor of whether or not a season is good. Seasons 6 and 7 are a mixed bag in terms of quality, yet have very integrated lore and character arcs. But seasons 11, and 12, which many people dislike, are also the ones that most noticeably feel like theyre happening in a vacuum. Any effect they have on later seasons, or any effect prior seasons have on them, is not as significant or immediate as in other seasons.

With the original series, there was a sort of cause and effect, almost. Rebooted caused ToE, which caused Possession, which caused Skybound, and so on. Theres a clear and specific chain of causality, and the sequence of events has a large impact on the events themselves. The same cannot be said of Wildbrain.

Again, i do enjoy Wildbrain, and there are a lot of things i even think it did better than the og. But i definitely feel like it wouldnt be half as contentious among fans if it had the same cause-and-effect plot structure as the og. Like, something in ns11 being the inciting incident for season 12, and something in season 12 causing season 13...you get the idea.

Anyway brb i gotta go rewrite Wildbrain

[bestworstcase]

with only three episodes left, what do you think is in store for the rest of the volume? personally, i’m having trouble imagining a solid resolution fitting into such a small window. not that i doubt there’s a way to end this volume succinctly—rwby is always throwing curveballs i could’ve never predicted hitting, which i love—but i suppose the hangnail in resolution’s cuticle is that jrwby are all finally facing their lifelong, beaten-in worldview being turned on its head and that seems like the kind of thing (on top of neo’s untold ever after story) that needs more time to be resolved. in which case, ig we’re not looking at a clean wrap up? do you think they end this volume ascending the ever after? escaping back to remnant? (i ask those two questions separately bc i wanna say they might have different answers lol)

as a point of comparison, here’s everything (not necessarily in chronological order) that happened in the last three episodes of V8:

1 - ironwood vs everyone beat down

2 - winter heel face turn completed

3 - met ambrosius + staff of creation rules

4 - magic rules lawyered penny into a flesh body to save her from the virus with a side dish of horrible body horror robot body death scene and holy shit atlas is FALLING.

5 - creation of whacky portals for evacuation to vacuo

6 - emergency evacuation broadcast CANCELLED!

7 - cinder remembers the power of friendship and uses it for evil

8 - cinder recovered the lamp and scored the password and used the last question to spy on team oz which is fucking hysterical by the way, so she knows the entire plan

9 - YANG DIES?

10 - ruby and blake fall too. and neo

11 - the evacuation dumps everyone in a sandstorm so they can’t call for backup and also the exit is one-way (“oh dear. ambrosius \:” love that enthusiasm sir)

12 - HARRIET TRIES TO NUKE MANTLE?

13 - ironwood murders jacques

14 - eleventh hour harriet heel face turn also zeki dies because atlesian tech goons thought the nuke needed to be plugged into the IOT for some reason god bless

15 - PENNY???

16 - and winter becomes the winter maiden

17 - TEAM RWBY TOTAL PARTY KILL!!

18 - jaune also

19 - salem and cinder playing chicken over who is going to blink first like they don’t both already know that it’s going to be salem

20 - ATLAS OBLITERATED FOREVER

that’s a lot of things!

now, it’s a lot easier to set up and execute a dense, tightly-paced climactic spiral of disaster than bring a lot of interconnected emotional crises to satisfying resolution in the same amount of runtime—but on the other hand, V9 has a lot less going on. it doesn’t FEEL that way because the emotional development has been so rich and done so, so well, but there honestly are not that many narrative threads to tie off. basically, the big ones are:

1 - ruby’s emotional crisis

2 - jaune’s corruption

3 - neo

4 - how do we get home?

5 - what do we do once we get there?

compared to the sheer amount of dominoes V8 had to juggle, handling this stuff is a nice little walk.

the key thing to remember—& this has been true for every one of rwby’s climactic sequences and also counts as writing advice—is that none of these major threads are truly discrete. they’re all interwoven with each other and bound together with all the smaller filaments (like the cat’s arc or little’s arc or the framing device of ‘the girl who fell through the world’ and what really went down with alyx and the tree), so you don’t have to resolve them separately and indeed you can’t because it all has to happen at once. what this means, from a writing standpoint, is you layer up and make every scene work towards the resolution of two or three major threads and however many minor filaments you can fit comfortably so that everything is doing work for everything else. if you’re efficient you don’t need a lot of time to pull off a stunning climactic sequence, and efficiency is something rwby has always been very, very good at. this is true even of V1 even though V1 feels laughably inefficient by the standards of V8; which is to say, they started off good and got much better.

the other piece to bear in mind is that V9 is not meant to be self-contained; it is not a character-focused breather volume to let the protagonists heal up before returning to remnant to carry on as they were, it is The Answer. when rwbyjn go home they are not going to return to the story they fell out of at the end of V8. that story is OVER. it ENDED. the final word was checkmate and the world they knew is GONE FOREVER. salem WON. the ever after is an epilogue to that story and the prologue for another; it isn’t building towards a resolution so much as it is building a hook.

(<- remember V3 “beginning of the end” and “end of the beginning”? this story-within-story device is something rwby has utilized before; this show is a singular contiguous narrative in the literal sense, but it’s structured as a trilogy.)

so V9 needs to be a satisfying farewell to the middle book and also make the case for continuing on to the third and final story—which very much works to its benefit here, because the sweeping emotional changes being developed actually SHOULDN’T be resolved. a clean wrap up would critically weaken the narrative structure. the immediate crises need to be realized—there must be a moment of peace, of closing one book and beginning the next; a hopeful glimpse of the story to come, of what it could be—and then they go home. and the new story begins.

in the figurative sense you could call it ascension. in the literal sense, no, i don’t think any of the remnant characters are going to ascend because i don’t think they can (frankly i’m bemused as to why so many people seem to believe otherwise; it seems to me that the cat has made it very clear that ascension is closed to non-afterans). but the idea of ascension? oh, yes, they’re carrying that forward with them.

as for whether they’ll return to remnant—yes. i think the probability that they don’t find their way home by episode ten is zero. how they return is an open question but also not a question at all, because the tree is the question and their answer is the door; this has been spelled out, explicitly, albeit in wonderlandish terms. what we don’t know yet is what this will look like, because the tree is also the blacksmith and the ever after runs on wonderland rules. it’s not going to be literal. (<- unless abstraction is less absurd than the literal option, which is possible given the likelihood that the ever after itself is fictional.)

[ridley-was-a-cat]

Winter 2023 Anime Roundup

Anime of the Season – Tsurune S2

I hadn’t watched season one, so I did not plan to watch this show this season, but all the gorgeous screenshots and gifs on Tumblr got to me, and I watched the entire series during the last week of the season. Hilarious, honestly, that the show I wasn’t even going to pick up ended up being my favorite of the season.

As good as the first season was, this was an upgrade on pretty much every front. All of the intersecting relationships between the characters at different schools made for more interesting and more grounded drama than the previous season. The art and animation both absolutely sparkled, and the sound design made you feel like you were watching in person. In particular, the spat between the two cousins/best friends on the team made for one of my favorite episodes this season. Something about how realistic their disagreement was, pushing each others’ buttons like only lifelong friends can do, and the way they resolved it by tiring themselves out in a tense archery duel that ended with a fit of the giggles, just thoroughly charmed me. I adored all of these characters, and I hope we’ll see more from the franchise. 9/10

First Runner-Up – Tomo-chan Is a Girl!

I had my doubts about this early in the series, with all the boob jokes and efforts to make Tomo girlier, but they were all gone by the end. It was just a solid romcom about a loveable group of lunatics that actively affirmed that Tomo was perfect the way she was. 8/10

Second Runner-Up – Buddy Daddies

The hitman content was not as good as the stuff about two single men in their twenties suddenly grappling with the minutia of parenting a five-year-old girl, but I was entertained week after week, and thought they did a good job sticking the landing. 8/10

IDOLiSH7 Third BEAT! Part 2 – Idol shows have a reputation for being harmless vehicles for hot guys/girls, but wherever that idea came from, it absolutely does not apply to this show, which repeatedly punched me in the gut and made me feel. Ryu is a top-ten hateable villain, for sure. 8/10

Play It Cool, Guys – I believe this was pretty popular in Japan, as it’s also getting a live-action drama, so I hope that means we can look forward to more relaxing, lightly amusing shows about cute guys doing cute things in the future. I just really enjoyed watching a handful of fairly normal dudes bumble around. 8/10

Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro S2 – As much as this series is a comedy first and foremost, I just really love the relationship between Nagatoro and Senpai. Their dynamic is so playful, and they have great chemistry along with a genuine friendship. 8/10

The Vampire Dies in No Time S2 – Season 1 was a little uneven with the jokes, but this season was consistently funny, episode after episode. The character interactions hit better once you’re more acquainted with everyone, and the silly situations were just better this time around. 8/10

In/Spectre S2 – The end of season one dragged quite a bit with the Steel Lady Nanase arc, but this series was made up entirely of shorter, three-episode arcs that made the best use of the medium and the characters. Kotoko is the tiny, thirsty queen we need in these troubled times. 7/10

“Ippon” Again! – For years now, I’ve been wanting a serious girls sports anime that wasn’t an anodyne cute girls doing cute things show, and this pretty much gave me what I was looking for. The judo matches had a nice level of tension and excitement to them, and the girls were free to get intense, work hard, and not look particularly pretty while doing it. 7/10

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale – This sat at the top of the chart for me this season, until the final episode had me ready to take my earrings out and square up. The infuriating story decision isn’t necessarily irredeemable, so I will watch part two this summer to see what they do, but my expectations are low. 7/10

The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague – This was more of a vibe than it was a story, but I enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of a bunch of yokai who are otherwise bog-basic office workers interacting with their human coworkers. 7/10

Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun S3 – My love for Iruma and all his friends knows no bounds, and I’m really hoping for a season four, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say the harvest festival arc felt really padded and dragged out in this season. 7/10

My Hero Academia S6 – This season had some pretty epic fights and story developments, including a resolution of sorts for Todoroki’s family situation and a boiling point for Deku’s self-destructive selflessness, but it was a little uncomfortable to watch the angry citizens portrayed as ingrates. It had a whiff of “Blue Lives Matter” to it. 7/10

Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari – In many ways, this is just a basic off-brand action shounen with a blunt main character taking his anger out on everyone he fights on a quest for revenge, but I think the female lead and her retinue of tsukumogami adds enough novelty to keep things interesting. I look forward to watching part two. 7/10

Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte – I enjoyed the unusual approach to otome isekai in this, where two players in the real world became connected to the characters inside the game, who heard their voices as though the gods were speaking to them. It was nice to get a full adaptation of the source with multiple ships setting sail, but it started stronger than it finished. 7/10

Handyman Saitou in Another World – With the exception of two poorly paced episodes in the middle of the season that centered on a hideously animated monster in a group battle in the dungeon, this was a highly entertaining and refreshing take on isekai, with a cast of loveable characters. 7/10

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV Part 2 – If you stripped out all of the titty harem business, or just focused on building a genuine romantic connection with Ryu, this would shoot to the top of my favorite action/adventures. All of the dungeon exploration and fighting is just fantastic, with high stakes that get your blood pumping. 7/10

UniteUp! – It was feast or famine with this show. The first episode was straight up the best premiere I watched, and there were several excellent episodes where characters struggled with their families or with adjusting to working as an idol, but there were multiple production delays, some of the voice acting was fairly wooden, and there were several episodes that were merely okay. I wanted more Kacchan content! 7/10

Revenger – I can’t really argue with the people pegging this as an edgy revenge story, but I thought the main character had an interesting internal conflict, the fights were creative, and the guys were all easy on the eyes. 7/10

Kaina of the Great Snow Sea – The 3D CG animation wasn’t fantastic, and the second half that focused on a war between two remaining kingdoms was a little blah, but the setting was imaginative, the backgrounds were gorgeous, and the two leads had great chemistry. 7/10

The Fire Hunter – On the one hand, I really love the world building and all the intersecting plots going on in this post-apocalyptic fantasy. On the other hand, a number of questionable artistic choices mingle with straight up sloppy work to make the visual presentation an extremely mixed bag. 7/10

By the Grace of the Gods S2 – This is one of those shows that I can’t quite bring myself to call “good”, because the animation and art are just meh and the story is barely a story, but the vibe is so chill and the characters are so nice that watching it every week felt healing. 6/10

Giant Beasts of Ars – This is one of those fantasy shows that entertained me while I was was watching it, but I will likely never think about again. It had some creative world building, I enjoyed the adventuring party that formed around the main characters, and the voice acting was solid. 6/10

Ningen Fushin: Adventurers Who Don’t Believe in Humanity Will Save the World – If they didn’t decide to tie one of the main characters’ backstories to a false accusation of sexual abuse by a spiteful child, I would have enjoyed this fantasy adventure series about a party united by their histories of being betrayed by those they trusted a lot more. 6/10

Trigun Stampede – Having enjoyed the original anime and everything else this studio has done, I expected to enjoy this. While I didn’t hate it, something about the story and characters just didn’t click with me, and I didn’t like how they animated the characters’ faces when they were talking. 6/10

Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement – I am sort of in awe of the author’s sheer audacity in taking the colonialist power fantasy subtext of modern isekai and making it bright, glowing, neon text. Not a good show, but an entertaining one. 6/10

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady – I really wanted to love this one, but I thought the writing was a bit of a mess with inconsistent characterization, elements introduced then quickly forgotten about, and a underdeveloped romance that felt unearned. 6/10