#admittedly only watched the first ep of this season . LOL

[wuntrum]

that one pic of guillermo. <3

[helluvapurf]

First-Impression thoughts on Hazbin Hotel's "official" first ep, now that I checked it out on YT-

*Spoiler warning below for those who didn't see it yet-*

-Great to see Charlie & Vaggie again, still a wholesome lil supportive pair whilst having their own quirks/things to do on the side. Esp with Vaggie spending the whole time back at the hotel reshooting a whole commercial for Charlie's sake, awww :3

-Pleasantly surprised by the twist of Charlie's mom being the figure she was most inspired by to make her dream come true, along with her love for singing. Curious to see where Lilith's whereabouts could be if she's been away for so long?

-The new voices were... a mixed bag, I suppose? Mainly in the line/tone-deliveries for certain characters (& I guess I'm still moreso used to the OG pilot's portrayals lol), but I can see the good attempts made from those like Charlie & Alastor.

-I... don't know how I feel about the way Lucifer's backstory was handled? Like, yeah its interesting hearing of him & Lilith genuinely connecting over their "rebellious" natures (& thus fleeing from Heaven's wrath/staying in Hell to be together). But then, the whole thing with Lucifer apparently being some "doofy, misunderstood dreamer who only wanted the best for Humanity, got bullied by those mean ol' angels, and didn't meaaaan to spread Sin all across Earth~ 🥺🥺" ...ehhhhh, felt kinda lame imho 🤷‍♀️. Not that I mind giving nuanced/sympathetic angles to a character's development now & then... but with someone like Lucifer (who mind you, is meant to represent the "Ring of Pride" on top of his Hell-ruling duties), I guess I kinda expected more... "bite" to his portrayal, I guess? .3. But idk, maybe that's just me... (*Tho admittedly, one could argue that perhaps he and/or Lilith were simply lying in that storybook to make them look less "bad"... idk, given HB's track record with Stolas' writing and since both shows are made by the same people... part of me can't help having my doubts ^^; *)

-Adam... ooooooh boi .x.;; Ever since I saw his leaked design I've always been rather... "mixed" about him, and now seeing him on-screen & talking I... don't really get the concept behind him? I mean, yeah I'm all for a fun, chaotic-jackass type when done right (hell I still consider Blitz among my faves to this day lol). But with Adam apparently being the big leader behind Heaven's army, AND was even the "original" Adam from biblical times... how tf did he get the chance to be allowed in Heaven if he not only helped curse humanity to sin (aka: sharing Forbidden Fruit with Eve), but on top of him currently being a horny, misogynistic loudmouth? 🤨Discounting that is also the fact that his whole design vibe just... doesn't really give me "holy army leader" vibes, but more-or-less just Blitz in some weird angel cosplay lol 🤷‍♀️. No shade to those who genuinely do like Adam though (and I'll admit his song was surprisingly catchy lol), I just... feel like his whole personality/design vibe could've probably fit better to a fallen angel-type character (or even a demon-angel hybrid if you wanna play more into the Heaven vs. Hell conflict), someone who only takes up the "Adam" title as an ego trip to enact his revenge against Hell... or, something like that idk; my brain's tired lol. (*His sidekick Lute seems pretty cool tho, she kinda reminds me of Tempest Shadow from MLP in a way .3.*)

-Nice to see more of the old Hotel gang again, esp those like Nifty she was a cute :3 (her whole reaction to the camera honestly being a whole mood lol)

-Did not expect to see Brandon Rogers pop up voicing Katie Killjoy of all people, buuuut I guess I can see the amusing comparison potential to that one CEO persona of his lol

....Aaaaaand yep, that's about the gist of my first-impression thoughts atm .3. Dunno if I'll be sitting down to watch the whole season of Amazon's Hazbin atm (*'cause like, I do have Amazon Prime, buuuuut I rarely ever use that to watch shows (save for some classic cartoons here & there lol) .w.; *), but I'd say it was still generally a decent watch for what it is imo👍(+any chance to see my girl Vaggie again, the better~ x3💜)

[quackle]

How would you rank the first 8 episodes of season 2 if you had to?

hmmmm, i'd have to go in this order, from best to worst: 7, 4, 2, 3, 1, 5, 6, 8. long rambling reasonings below cut:

7: because holy shit this ep was so fucking funny for no reason. definitely a perfect ep. to me. we got mkulia looking soooo real here. we got peak damien finding the immunity idol. we got a hilarious challenge with that whole hilarious ass hunger games-esque segment. we got ripaxel (and lost them, which... pfft sorry i laughed a little even though i also felt bad). and we got OWEN!!!!! like.... idc this has been the best ep by farrrrrr.

4: hated the elimination so much but everything else was kinda sorta really perfect. the challenge gives this ep soooo many bonus points like i LOVED learning character lore. and that cheating plot? the internal struggle within team skunk butt?? especially bowie's internal struggle after lying to his boyfriend??? CHEF'S KISS. also ripaxel made me cry laughing so there's that.

2: i also really loved this challenge. like when julia joined the clogged toilet with raj, wayne, and bowie, and she was like "SOMEBODY. HELPPPP ☹️" or every time someone hit the damn basketball rim. or wayne's laugh at julia's scream. or when chris counted the bear as a point for team skunk butt, just because. ugh it was soooo total drama. i love this show.

3: ok the rat faces + that whole ripaxel moment were admittedly less interesting here to me, but i loved the cheat vs no cheat side of skunk butts. it was SO enjoyable to watch this unstable ass team, and the intro to bowie's dilemma was sooooo good. and those mkulia moments... ugh fun fun fun!!!! (also nichelle ladonna slayed and my fav rare pair duo damichelle was born sooooooo yippee!!!)

1: this ep was a nice intro to the season. drama was at an all time high. granny ax was an absolute icon. nichelle ladonna GAGGED EVERYONE. so fun. (also i'm personally biased to this ep because i'm always thinking about the short lived parallel between scary girl and nichelle in particular, but that's a topic i can ramble about elsewhere lol)

5: FUCK THIS ELIMINATION (hashtag i'm biased). otherwise an okay ep. team rat face was sooooo found family here. to me. and the cheating plot was once again fun to see unfold. and this was quite possibly the only time we got to see ripper participate with his team without axel as a distraction and... i kinda wish we got to see that more from him? but alas.

6: i... personally don't care much for the priya/caleb plot? and a lot of this ep had that. so. eh. damien got immunity tho and that whole "juliaaaaaa, i'm your partnerrrrr 😈" bit from wayne had me rolling and that rajbow moment where they carried the canoe was sooooo cute. so it gets a bonus point for all that (hashtag i'm biased).

8: i... didn't really care for this challenge at all actually. and once again, a lot of priya/caleb. like. most of this ep had me going "oh. miscommunication incoming. how fun. 🫤" did i wish caleb went home instead of zee? uh. yes actually, if only to escape miscommunication! if i could cut a plot point this season, that would be number one. but that's another ramble for another time.

[everlastingremorse-blog]

So I just finished watching season one of Overlord, and honestly, severely disappointed.

And to be fair, I’ve been pretty tired of shonen anime/manga with overpowered protagonists for awhile now, but it’s more than that.

In contrast, I really enjoyed That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime. Admittedly, I wasn’t tried of the overpowered mc, but I still enjoyed it significantly more than Overlord.

So let’s compare the first season (13 ep) of Overlord with the first 14 ep of TTRS (end of the orc invasion arc).

Now I did have fun with overlord. The key moments was when Ains was annoyed by the angel, when he crushed Clementine, and when he started equipping items in his fight with Shalltear, and any time Cocytus was in frame. That was pretty much it. Everything else was mediocre in my opinion.

Now it’s been awhile since I saw TTRS, but if I remember correctly, I had fun in these places: Rimuru’s interactions with Veldora, his fight against the dire wolves, his interaction with the dwarves king, his fight with ifrit, the death of Shizu, his fight with the ogres, that time Gobta fucked with Gabiru, any time Gabiru was on screen, orc cannibalism, and the defeat of Geld. Besides that, I was pretty amused when watching the rest of TTRS. I enjoyed the rest of it even if I thought it was stupid. I’ll get more into that later.

Now something significant is that I wasn’t as annoyed with TTRS as overlord, specifically with the fan service. I’m gay, so I’ve always found female fan service kind of annoying, but fuck off Overlord. Albedo and Shalltear’s rivalry was dumb and annoying whenever it was on screen, and starting the show off with some mild groping was barely bearable. And don’t get me wrong, the fan service in TTRS is also annoying. But Shuna and Shion suddenly getting bigger boobs isn’t as focused on (if I remember correctly) as shalltear’s underwear getting soaked. Seriously overlord, fuck off.

Now the fights in Overlord was boring and tedious to get through. I get it’s the trope of naming your abilities and stuff, but it really takes away any of the spectacle of their fights. Like even though I know both Ains and Rimuru are going to win, at least the fights in TTRS is interesting to watch. Overlord is basically just “I’ve got my shield that can block anything.” “Lol, it can’t block this,” over and over and over again. Even if Rimuru is just dodging and running fast, at least it’s something to watch.

The parts of Overlord I enjoyed was basically the “there’s a bigger fish moment.” I find it fun when the antagonist suddenly realizes they messed with the wrong person. But there was nothing else drawing me into Overlord.

As for TTRS, I actually cared about the characters and character drama. Like when Shalltear gets brainwashed in Overlord, I had NO reason to care about her. The only character trait she’s shown is that she’s horny for Ains. And unless you’re horny for her, SHE’S BORING TO WATCH! Unlike TTRS, where I can get invested in the Ogres as victims in political machinations. Sure, you can be horny for Shuna, or Shion, or think Benimaru and Souei are badass, but they have more to their characters than just aesthetic appeal.

So, like I said, even though TTRS felt stupid at parts, it never felt tedious. Gabiru’s hype squad: Dumb as shit, fun to watch. The king of the forest is a giant hamster: The joke is that it’s supposedly cute. Just dumb.

TTRS has some interesting themes about sentient beings treated as subhuman because they aren’t human.

Overlord hints to that with the Slane Theoceacy, but does nothing with it. I know season 2 deals with Lizardfolks, but I doubt I’m going to watch any more. And Overlord has some interesting monsters! Cocytus as an Isopod warrior is fucking cool! That rules! TTRS doesn’t have anything that isn’t vaguely human shaped, and all women have got to look sexy. That’s boring, that’s annoying! But at least they explore what that means in a way overlord doesn’t.

In conclusion, overlord is meh and TTRS is alright.

If anybody who likes Overlord can explain why/ if it improves, please do so.

[oswlld]

Eight (8) Shows to Get to Know Me

tagged by @talays-portkey ♥ ty for tagging me and having me walk down memory lane for the past few days (spent too much time in all the tags microdosing on my upbringing)

DISCLAIMER: i wanted to showcase defining eras in my life/made an impact in a substantial way; i’m also recommending an ep to watch with each one, which isn’t part of the tag format but imma do it

--

i. LOST (2004-2010)

this was my whole world for my entire hs existence and into my early college years. half of the shows listed here stems from my first love of the ensemble cast, their interwoven yet clandestine storylines, and the mystery box. at my first sdcc, half of the cast was present when they debuted p1 of the series finale (you’d think i was dead the whole time fksfsk;lv)

the jessi special: The Constant (04x05)

ii. Fringe (2008-2013)

yes, i faithfully followed jj abrams into another insane show. i think it actually altered my brain chemistry, rewired something in me, devoured a piece of me. once LOST was over and Fringe brought in the alternate universe, i dove in head first and never resurfaced

the jessi special: Making Angels (04x11)

iii. Doctor Who (2005-Present)

i think it was technically winter 2010 when i started binging this show because s6 was my first time catching it live (was young and naïve, i caught it on bbca lol) ive been on hellsite for almost two years at the time and fully became a fandom blog, so it was inevitable i would love this series. i think it was the first show i made gifs/edits for???

the jessi special: The Doctor’s Wife (06x04)

iv. Lizzie Bennet Diaries (2012-2013)

oh look, my dna makeup shifts again. i actually started watching this show the week leading up to Darcy Day and can still vividly remember the migraines from binging 8-10min eps times 60ish worth of content. this show got me into writing my first fic, running an rp blog, creating instrumental playlists, making a DWxLBD blog, AND eventually flying my ass back to CA to meet the cast and beloved mutuals at VidCon

the jessi special: A New Buddy (ep56)

v. Orphan Black (2013-2017)

happy international women’s day to this show and this show only! i think of all the shows listed here, this is the first time since LOST i caught all the eps in real time from the very beginning. this was filling the hole Fringe was about to carve deep in me. but if you cut me open, you will find the beth-shaped hole that nothing/no one has been able to fill and likely will never fill til the end of time

the jessi special: The Collapse of Nature (04x01)

vi. Shadowhunters (2016-2019)

im willing to admit that the reason i got into this show was because of the wedding kiss haha i saw the clip, signed the adoption papers on the spot, and went on to write a 100K+ wip series. admittedly, i confess that this was a DNF and never finished the last season... i abandoned my boy.gif

the jessi special: Of Men and Angels (01x06)

vii. Sense8 (2015-2018)

a show about eight children than i gave birth to, that i raised on my own, that i will defend on my death bed and beyond??? that show sense8?? yes that show sense8. fun fact, when they did the screening of the finale in Chicago, the cast ended up sitting three rows behind me in the theater and i could hear them talking in between scenes the entire evening. wish i could bottle that feeling up

the jessi special: I Have No Room in My Heart for Hate (02x07)

viii. Bad Buddy (2021-2022)

and we finally made it to the current decade! its nov 2021, im fresh off leaving my previous job and still getting situated in my new position, yet this show was a siren calling to me in the dark mist of my life. i ended up saving the binge watching for the week of my bday and my whole life shifted again. it must have been so alarming on the outside, seeing me go from making 1-2 edits a month to 1-2 edits a day for almost THREE MONTHS. the fact that i still cont to avg two edits/week since then... oy lol

the jessi special: Ep10 (shocked pikachu.jpg)

and ill also throw some honorable mentions too: Chuck, The Good Place, Vice Versa, Twenty Five Twenty One, Once Upon a Time, and Elementary

--

now tagging @pranink, @icouldhyperfixatehim, @noxclara, @curious-earth (no pressure tho!)

[kaiowut99]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episodes 82 & 83 Subbed (Finalized)

(Previously: Episodes 80-81 Subbed [Finalized])

(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)

82: Misawa VS Manjoume -- The Assault Cannon Beetle

As a consequence of being the only one uninvited by the Society of Light, Misawa anxiously wonders if he is being thought of as weak.  He confronts Saiou himself, who says that he will leave the island if beaten in a duel, but Manjoume duels Misawa in his stead.  Manjoume fuses his three new Union Monsters to summon “Assault Cannon Beetle” (ATK/ 2800), using the Ojamas as bullets to reduce Misawa’s LP down to 1600.  Misawa’s intellectual “focus ahead” plays get him far, but...

83: Hell Kaiser Ryou VS Master Samejima

In search of a powerful, locked-away deck, Hell Kaiser Ryou pays a visit to his old Cyber Style Dueling Master--one Principal Samejima--and the teacher and student duel.  Ryou summons Cyber End Dragon right off the bat, but Samejima defends himself with a copy of his Monster.  Playing to the “soft and fair goes far” proverb, Samejima’s Cyber Ogre absorbs the ATK of Ryou’s Monster, its own ATK reaching 4000, but Ryou evades that using Cyber Laser Dragon.  Samejima snatches Ryou’s Cyber End Dragon with a Trap Card, leading to his final decisive moves...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Episodes 82 and 83 are now finalized! Misawa’s anxiety over the way he’s perceived leads him to join the Society of Light, while Ryou decides he’s come as far as he can with just Cyber End and visits his dojo-master-turned-Principal Samejima for some secret cards.  Manjoume’s Beetrons were actually neat, and while I’m sure I was doubtful of how Misawa joining the SOL made sense years back, I do think it does now given the context of Misawa’s wanting recognition and not being the odd man out (and Ed’s putting it into words also puts a different lens on his early Season 1 self).  For 83, admittedly the Cyber Style stuff does come a bit out of nowhere (the Japanese blog I reference for lines occasionally also thought so lol), but it’s believable enough for GX, and does give us some more background on Ryou’s childhood to juxtapose with his current “I only need victory, respect be damned” self.  Samejima finally making his return after Season 1 as his dojo master was also a bit cool, ngl, and hey, turns out he was working on our upcoming tournament arc!

Had a few animation/card and other quality-of-watching fixes I handled for each episode, hence the slight delay, and for 83′s hardsub, I also translated an article Shou was reading about Ryou’s rise as Hell Kaiser.  Details below the cut, as usual, for the curious.

Enjoy, folks--with these done and the GeneX arc about to start, I think the next release will just be episode 84 to set it up and also take a light breather, and then I’ll resume my catch-up double-releases with 85 and 86, which’ll coincide with an update to the OP (plus, that way I also don’t leave half of Judai vs Manjoume or Judai vs Asuka hanging on a cliff later lol).  Stay tuned!

Fixes/Edits! (82)

After Manjoume defeats Misawa’s three Ra Yellow dormmates, we see the Ojamas floating and lamenting how off Manjoume’s become--but after Ojama Green wonders what’ll happen to them now, there’s a quick frame as Ojama Black moves and crosses his arms in contemplation where his head from the previous frame is frozen in place on top of his now-moving head, before it’s gone and the shot’s normal again.  Fixed in Sony Vegas by holding the third frame, the first as Black starts to move, over the errored frame.

As Misawa confronts Saiou at the White dorm, after Saiou asks if he’s aware of what dueling the Society of Light would mean, Misawa acknowledges that he would join upon losing, but as he moves while asking what he gets for winning, he moves up in the shot and some of the background is visible under him (a similar error happened in ep. 60 as Asuka activated Ritual Weapon, where her hand slides into the shot but seems to float in front of her).  I fixed it here first, using the fix for the episode’s preview in 81, by just cropping the shot in Vegas such that none of the background is visible under Misawa.

Just before Misawa and Manjoume’s duel begins, Ojama Yellow tells Black and Green that they should cheer Misawa on.  The two are surprised, but there’s a quick frame, featuring a repeat of #1, where Black starts to move but his head is frozen in place above his now-turning head, and then in the next frame both Black and Green are turning.  I fixed it by holding the first linked frame here above the error frame in Sony Vegas; this holds Black and Green still for an extra frame, then has them move together in the frame after the error.

After Misawa draws for his second turn, he looks at the card he drew as he thinks about how good Manjoume’s deck has become with Saiou’s cards, but it actually looks like he’s holding two cards when he only drew the one.  Fixed first in Photoshop by painting over the line separating the “two” cards, then worked it into the footage in Vegas.

After summoning Assault Cannon Beetle, Misawa assumes Manjoume’s trying to play defense, only to have him slide in on a split-screen to say he’s activating Ojamandala--but before their split-screen splits to show Ojamandala activating, the shot first jitters to the left, and then as the split occurs, the split separation is a bit uneven with Manjoume’s side being further off the screen than Misawa’s in the quick frame before they’re both gone.  Fixed this in Vegas by first copying the first linked frame, just before the jitter, over it to hold it still, then I fixed Manjoume’s side of the split so that it was more even with Misawa’s.

As Saiou contemplates Misawa’s strategy and his having set cards to counter and deflect an attack from Manjoume’s Assault Cannon Beetle, Assault Cannon Beetle’s DEF-Mode card under it is reversed with the name box facing Manjoume’s right.  Fixed it in AfterEffects first by applying a proxy with it facing correctly (name box facing Manjoume’s left) on the first frame of the panning shot, masking ACB over it as needed, then taking that into Vegas and keyframing the fix into the footage over most of the 80 moving frames before holding it there until the second side of the split-screen with Misawa’s face-down cards covers it.

After Misawa thinks that he’ll win with a direct attack on his next turn, Manjoume draws for his turn, but there’s a quick few frames with Assault Cannon Beetle on his Disk being in Attack Mode by accident; it’s still in Defense Mode.  Fixed in AfterEffects by applying my proxy over it in Defense Mode.

As Judai and co. are running to the Duel Arena, we flash back to part of their conversation with Ed about Misawa, but during the un-Gaussian-Blurring transition into it, there are odd green bars surrounding the frame until the transition is done.  Fixed in Sony Vegas by slightly cropping the scene to keep the green bars out.

After a cut back to the duel, we cut back to the tail end of the above flashback, where Ed elaborates on why he thinks Misawa would still lose given the chance to win, but as the flashback ends and we Gaussian Blur things up to transition to more of Judai and co. running, a repeat of #8 occurs with more green bars appearing during the blurring around the frame.  Fixed the same way in Vegas by just cropping the scene. (Went to check, and the dub did fix these two similarly, too.)

Fixes/Edits! (83)

As Ryou and Samejima begin their duel, they slide in on a split-screen as their LP counters appear, but while Samejima slides in, it takes Ryou’s three frames to start sliding in.  Fixed in Vegas by editing and timing Ryou’s slide-in so that it slides in evenly with Samejima’s.

Two bits as Samejima notes the importance of Cyber End Dragon in the Cyber Style and Ryou’s earning it at just nine years old: first, as he then mentions that Ryou is the dojo’s rightful successor, Ryou slides in on a split-screen--but the shot of Samejima starts to move left first, then Ryou’s side starts to slide in in the next frame with a fair amount of it already visible.  Fixed in Vegas by first starting Ryou’s slide-in right as the shot of Samejima moves--taking the shot of Samejima and re-moving it for those few frames of the slide-in so that Ryou could slide over it--then sliding Ryou in a bit more evenly over a few of the frames until the split-screen is complete.  Then, the split-screen ends, but Samejima’s side is fully off the screen a frame before Ryou’s is; fixed in Vegas to time it evenly with Ryou’s.

Two bits after Ryou notes that he’s only here to duel for the Reverse deck: first, Samejima shouts out at him in frustration, and Ryou slides in on a split-screen to change the subject to his turn, but the first frame as his slide-in starts already has him mostly visible; fixed this in Vegas to more gradually slide him in over a still Samejima, accounting for the flame behind him with a masked-in recycled animation loop.  Then, as Samejima moves to activate his Cyber Shadow Guardna Trap Card, Ryou’s side of the split-screen takes longer than usual to slide off (usually the slides last 7-9 frames at most, from what I’ve seen); fixed this by first holding their split-screen for two frames (over where the slide-off started originally), then letting the slide-off play as it originally did for eight frames before then resuming the original video as Ryou’s side is 90% off-screen (doing this also let it match the SFX here a bit better).

As Samejima resolves his Scrap Fusion to grab Ryou’s Cyber Dragons from his Cemetery, the Cyber Laser and Barrier cards on his Disk look like this initially (note the black space next to Cyber Barrier’s card in Monster Zone 4 on the right); as soon as his Disk’s Cemetery slot lights up for the effect, the cards jitter to look like this (note that Cyber Barrier’s card looks good now, but there’s now a black space along the middle side of Cyber Laser’s as it’s now shifted a bit off-center).  Fixed this in Vegas by applying masks to use both cards’ best positions and keep them consistent, the first for Cyber Laser and the second for Cyber Barrier.

After Cyber Esper attacks and gets negated, as Samejima declares an attack with Cyber End Dragon, there’s a quick frame where the background behind him changes to the one being faded into in the very next frame.  Quick fix in Vegas by just holding the first linked frame over the errored frame so that the transition starts with the fading frame.

Ryou activates Ruthless Destruction (Denial) and explains its effect over a distant shot of him holding it from behind Samejima--except it’s not Ruthless Destruction he’s holding, but a Monster Card (I couldn’t tell which one at first, assuming Cyber Barrier since it’s about to leave the field, but in looking at it now, it does look like Cyber Esper).  Fixed first in AfterEffects by applying a proxy into his hand, masking on his fingers, then keyframing and moving that fix within the panning shot.

For the hardsub, as highlighted here, I took the article Shou was reading about Ryou’s rise as Hell Kaiser at the end of the episode and translated it. (You can read the full unobscured text of what I layered on in the linked post)

One animation error that’s outside of my “skillset” occurs as Samejima thinks about his plan were Ryou to try and get Cyber End back through Compulsory (Creature) Swap, as noted by Yugipedia (listed under Mistakes in the Dub, but it’s there originally too): he envisions Cyber End back on Ryou’s field, but Cyber Barrier is there with it--even though Ryou would’ve needed to put it on Samejima’s field in order to get Cyber End back, lol.

[icecoffee90]

Top 9 Shows

Thank you for tagging me, @jerzwriter!

Okay, this list was so hard to narrow down and I'm sure I still forgot some, lol.. I was addicted to TV shows at one point (it all started with House and Heroes in about 2008 and lasted for years), I've barely watched anything in the past couple of years, though. Alright, let's get to it! I'll TRY to keep this short..

1. Will & Grace: Smart humor, top-notch physical comedy, amazing cast.. Is it perfect? No. No show is. I once saw a video in which Megan Mullally said something along the lines of "our worst episode is still funnier than the best episode of other comedy shows", which I respectfully disagree with, but it's definitely high quality entertainment! The reboot (or the last 3 seasons, whichever you prefer) admittedly wasn't that enjoyable, but the original finale sucked, so at least the characters got the ending they deserved!

2. Pushing Daisies: I love procedurals and I love shows with a supernatural aspect, so a combination of the two is an absolute win! This show deserved much more than just two seasons! I should rewatch it for a third time soon..

3. Sherlock: What can I say? I got hooked immediately with "A Study In Pink", I rewatched it at least 4 times while waiting for episode 2 to air in my country.. Welp, I couldn't wait, I binged the next 2 eps the next day, lol. To this day "The Reichenbach Fall" remains the best episode of any show I've ever seen and that's the reason why, despite the abomination the final season was, Sherlock made my top 3.

4. The Last of Us: Do I even need to say anything?! I doubt there is anyone who missed everyone and their mom singing the show's praises after each episode, lol. Episodes 5, 6 and 8 were pure television gold! The only reason I didn't put the show higher on my list is that we've only seen one season so far and it's still not clear in which direction season 2 is gonna go.. 🤷‍♀️

5. Only Murders in the Building: Another show that got me hooked with the series premiere already! Of course, the main reason I started watching it was the main trio of actors, but the show is about so much more. I love getting to know the character's backstories as we're trying to uncover the killer.

6. Schitt's Creek: Okay, what can I say about this show? Like with Will & Grace, the first season may not have been "all that" (just my opinion), but from season 2 onward it became a comedy gold! The characters quickly grow on you and make you care about all their highs and lows.. And Moira f**king Rose is hands down one of the best characters on TV ever!

First, a little fun fact nobody asked for: I've finally gotten around to watching this show when covid started and my timing couldn't have been worse - I binged the entire thing within a week, I had one episode left the day the penultimate episode aired and then I had to wait a whole week for the finale! 😩😂

7. Person of Interest: A great procedural with an interesting "twist" (for a lack of better word).. But again, aside from the 'cases', you care about the characters as well. I remember there were at least 2 eps which made me cry.

8. Young Royals: Am I a little too old to be enjoying this show this much? Maybe. Do I care? Hell no! But I'd argue that rather than a teen show, it's a show about teenagers. I originally had no intention to watch this show, but I read a fan review which was very positive, so I figured that I might as well give it a shot and if nothing else, I'd at least pick up some Swedish (Boy, was I naive, lol! The opening scene already showed me that I'll be lucky if I learn 2 words.. 😅). Ahem, sorry, to the point - all I know is that no other recent show had me looking up release Dates and actually worrying that there won't be another season. The show just sucks you in. And it is about so much more than the main romance arc! But apparently I'm partial to the "idiots in love" trope, lol.

9. White Collar: Did I mention that I love procedural dramas? Lol. The main reason I started watching this show was that I fell in love with Matt Bomer's character on Chuck and I simply wanted to see more of the actor. Little did I know how much I'd be enjoying it, even though I didn't agree with each and every of Neal's decisions. Although, if I remember correctly, it was also starting to run out of steam toward the end. I know everyone was hoping for a reboot, but now I'm not sure it would be the same without Mozzie.. 😔

Honorable mentions: Chuck, Monk, Abbott Elementary, The Good Wife..

I'm sure I'm still forgetting many others but this is probably enough.. 😅

They may have already been tagged, but I'd like to see what shows are on @dr-colossal-pita's list (feel free to ignore!)

[f-ngrl]

Artist recommendation: Posadic!

He is a rapper of the crew FD (they have 5 other members or so but don’t do much promotion, idk) and his style is singing rap. His concept is “chill” which the music is, but there are nice melodies.

I first heard of Posadic last year, probably when he released the collab album “yt4*chill” with yovng trucker. It’s a nice album and their voices go well together, as well as their similar singing rap styles. Later I admittedly only paid half-attention to his then new album, “Chill Boi Season“. I listened maybe once and then forgot about it. It features 365lit and Ourealgoat, but they have tons of featurings :D

Some weeks ago, Posadic pre-released the single “How can I stop” from his now new album and I fell so much in love with the song!! It’s so good, I‘ve listened to it for hours. Then I went back to “Chill Boi Season” and listened to it a lot, and then suddenly!! His new EP “In My Mind” dropped! I’m so lucky lol anyway it’s really really good. It has only one featuring by Meloh. And you can watch him perform his part in 일어나 remix. He goes well with the (top of?) underground rappers.

imo, he has the potential to follow in Skinny Brown’s and/or Ourealgoat’s footsteps. Good vibe and nice melodies! He just needs to keep working hard. I feel like he could do well on the next smtm. I’d say an artist to look out for in 2022!

Spotify | IG | soundcloud

“Rarri” MV | Raphouse on air performance 2020

[chalkrevelations]

Huh.

Well, this is not the next episode reaction you were expecting, but a while back, in the middle of the night, while I was ready to cry from working on a pharmacology paper, out of nowhere, Youtube threw up Street Dance of China S3 Ep1 at me. And yeah. I am, admittedly, f’kn weak for a dance show. (There are enough SYTYCD episode reax on my old Livejournal that I feel there’s no point denying this.)

So – no, actually, wait. FIRST of all, I do NOT believe the “towel vote” we ended up being given for the opening routines from the four captains. That was the most blatant bit of bullshit chicanery I’ve seen in my LIFE, and I say this as a person with a ton of SYTYCD episode reax on my old Livejournal, and I also say this not because Wang Yibo ended up last (well, not entirely), but because I saw Wallace Chung’s routine. As someone closer in age to him than to the other three captains, I have to give him props for trying, but come on, man. The critique that Yibo got from random contestants – if the subtitles are to be believed, so I realize this needs a grain of salt - basically boiled down to “it was too good for the stage lighting.” :hands: Also, I saw your face at the reveal, Wallace, and you were as shocked as I was. No way you got more towels/votes than Wang Yibo. Not unless there’s some super wild undercurrent of nostalgia propping you up, which, I guess could happen, because literally all I know about pop culture in China, current or otherwise, is filtered through Tumblr and Youtube, both notoriously suspect, but … anyway. There’s got to be a TON of behind-the-scenes manipulation going on for Yibo to be rock-bottom with last pick of teams but then also to end up with THAT pool of possibles. Are you kidding me with this?

ANYWAY, what I wanted to say is that I actually really like Wang Yibo here, and it’s not just because he’s the only captain I have even a sliver of familiarity with, and it’s not just because Lan Wangji was banging Wei Wuxian. I do realize all of this is influenced by whatever edit they’ve decided to give a particular captain or contestant, but I’m impressed with the way Yibo immediately starts team building by getting his group into a warmup, getting them dancing together, getting them dancing with him before they have to worry about dancing for him. (I mean, come on, Jackson Wang. The way to get people to stop being nervous is not to say “Stop being nervous! It will make you fuck up!”) The way Yibo immediately recognized and responded to his group’s concerns about that one dude copying someone else’s routine probably also bought him a lot of return investment. He’s dressed to work it, in his sweats and his flannel (what IS that fake-leather TAC vest and random leg holster-looking thing, Jackson Wang?). He’s convincing me he really loves to dance, he can’t hold still while he watches the contestants, he’s wandering over into other captains’ turf when it sounds like there’s a dancer performing who he might like to see, he’s being the best Yibo he can be, and I’m grooving along, wind in my hair, totally down for this ride. He’s also adorable at the beginning when all the other captains are like, my goal for this season is to slaughter the competition and dance on their graves! And he’s like, well, I’d like to … make some friends? And learn some new stuff? I don’t know if the perpetual Humble Student schtick is natural or persona, or whether it’s general or specific to dancing, but it’s working for you, my dude. This is also made better (read: ironic), by the fact that it’s immediately before the towel reveal, when he flips over to utter disbelief and gets all sulky for a while over the “fact” that his dance routine got the least votes.

Also, OH WAIT. This is where that clip of Yibo dancing with his crew ALL OVER HIM came from that I saw floating around a few months ago, isn’t it? You’re telling me those guys had never danced together before and had like, three minutes to throw together that routine? I’m even more impressed than before. Meanwhile, the towels symbolize courage and challenge, Mr. Emcee? OK, fine, cheesy reality show blah blah whatever. Can we get to the dancing now?

I’m going to put the rest of this behind a cut, because it got super long, because it turns out, when you watch in 5-minute increments, it takes two and a half weeks to get through a single episode, but you actually can see and have opinions on all 5,328 contestants, plus every single one of the captains’ battles. Meanwhile, I’m trying to convince myself this is not going to be another series of episode reactions, but 1) I do have the benefit of not having a ton of hometown media giving me a next-day play-by-play, so even though this is six months old, everything’s a surprise; 2) I am, admittedly, f’kn weak for a dance show; and 3) it’s easy to watch in 5-minute increments between researching drug interactions in hypothetical hypertensive patients with stable ischemic heart disease, erectile dysfunction, and seasonal allergies. So, I guess we’ll see. It’ll be slow going, though, because I don’t ever have two and half hours to sit down and watch an ep cover-to-cover – if it happens, it will likely keep happening in 5-minute increments. Meanwhile, there is a metric shit-ton of nattering below the cut, so caveat lector. No, seriously, I kept adding to this little by little until it became a monster. Hashtag long post (remorseful).

OK, I am generally out of my depth here, as this is not at all my area of dance not-really-expertise, but some reactions:

Team Wang Yibo: I can see why he didn’t want to choose between Colin and Dian Men – Colin might have been a touch better technically and a better showman, but Dian Men didn’t seem to have a single wasted move – but, also, my dude. Yibo. You maybe should look a little bit less stunned and overwhelmed by the mere presence of Colin, it’s giving me ideas about your taste in men. Continuing with the powerhouses, I probably shouldn’t even attempt to critique Klash, but I did feel like he was a bit stiff in some of his footwork; that final V kick, though, shit, that’s what having that kind of upper-body strength is for. Bouboo … I mean, excellent flexibility and control, of course, but mainly I’m just terribly amused that Yibo got last pick of teams but somehow ended up with the guy who’s literal world champion, and who’s just as useful for getting into the other captains’ heads – without even trying – as he is for his talent. And then there’s a montage of Yibo giving out towel after towel after towel, and my dude, you cannot keep up this pace. There are still too many dancers to see, and you don’t have that many towels. AAANNNND Towel Battle #1 (See Footnote 1).

Team Jackson Wang: I do like Gai Gai, although that may be influenced by the fact she’s working in the twilight area between hip-hop and contemporary that I have more familiarity with - but also, I suspect she’s pretty good in her genre. I thought Xiao Jie was inconsistent and didn’t stick the landing on his initial attempt, so I have to give you that hesitation, Jackson, even though you’ve somehow ended up the villain in my inner narrative for this show, for no particular reason I can yet discern. Maybe it’s that you’re the direct competition for Yibo’s team in the towel battles. Good enough. Anyway, Xiao Jie definitely stepped up his game for the battle with Bingo, so I can kind of see why both of them got a towel, but we’re not even halfway through this, and most of y’all are giving away towels like you have an endless supply. Yang Kai is a fucking menace with fantastic musicality, and I’m just gonna say it and take the fallout - I think he gave a better performance first time out of the gate than any of Yibo’s powerhouses did. Whatever power Klash has got, whatever skill Bouboo has got, Yang Kai feels more explosive and engaging, at least in these initial showings. He’s going to be one to beat, I’d hug him too, if he was on my team and was going to help me WIN. Yibo’s probably lucky that happened during his little stroll over to check out the competition, so that he can see they’re definitely competitive and be prepared for it. Also, Jackson, I have to admit - that face you made when Chao really kicked in? That was the same face I made, because wt actual f, you have a literal secret weapon – secret because he CAME FROM NOWHERE and NO ONE EVEN KNOWS him, how is that even possible, how did he get that good – fluid, creative, controlled, incredible musicality - without anyone having any idea who he even is? And then there’s a montage of Jackson just giving out towel after towel after towel, and my dude, you need to slow down. You can’t just be like, “THEY LOVE DANCE WITH ALL OF THEIR WHOLE HEARTS!!!!1111!!!!11!” I get it, but everyone there loves dance with all of their whole hearts, and there are not enough towels to send all of them on to the next round. ANNNND, Towel Battle #1 (See Footnote 1).

Team Lay Zhang: lol at how diplomatic you’re being, Lay Zhang – your team’s fierce roar startled you, OK. At this point, I suspect you’re the street most likely to have a knife fight break out before this is all over. I do like Alex, I think he’s got a lot of interesting, super-clean details in his moves, and he’s engaging - I cannot BELIEVE you made him battle that dude whose moves were so mushy, Lay Zhang, it leaves me doubting your ability to judge this thing. At first I thought maybe you were just looking for an excuse because you wanted to see Alex freestyle, but then you actually said something about both dancers being equal, and my estimation of you plummeted, and also sadly, my sound dropped out for the actual battle, including the part where the clearly inferior dancer fell over and then accidentally POPPED ALEX ONE IN THE EYE, and I TOLD YOU SO. I do agree it’s a good idea to make dancers in the same genre do some battling, so you can kind of plan out your towels and put together a team with broad strengths, instead of giving out towels like you’re making it rain for the first 20 contestants, and then you have 1,375 more people to get through, with 3 towels left, as EVERYONE ELSE seems to be doing, so it’s nice that at least one of you guys is thinking – if not actually acting - strategically. That was clearly not even a contest, though, GIVE ALEX HIS TOWEL and send him to the next round. Xiao Bao is hilarious, with his concern that his team captain, who’s into krump, which is “beating,” isn’t going to appreciate his waacking, which is “slapping.” I also don’t know a whole lot about waacking, so thanks for the primer, Xiao Bao, and don’t worry, your performance is just as engaging for those of us who don’t know what we’re watching as you are generally. You deserve that towel for your ability to interact with and engage your audience, alone. Lingo is a good solid performance, although he’s got his team captain strategizing edited over some of it, and here’s the thing: we are 1:56:00 into this, at this point, with another half hour to go, and all of you are starting to disappear into the sea of dancers who are very good at what you do, but at generally the same level? Anyway, Lingo, I approve of your ability to interact with your audience (read: your captain) to ensure engagement, too, so keep that up. Annnd, we actually haven’t seen that much of you guys, but it’s time for Towel Battle #2 (See Footnote 2).

Team Wallace Chung: I’m glad Su Lian Ya insisted on performing, I thought she started off slow but warmed up, and that ending was creepily fantastic and had me spontaneously grinning at the screen in delight. Then we lose sight of this group for a really long time, actually. We go back to find Wallace putting through a couple of urban dancers who we barely see, but who apparently claim to have some choreography experience, and he really likes that. TI shows up, and they’re solid, but honestly, not as good in this performance as they were in some of the stock footage the show threw up to introduce them, but Wallace remains super-excited about the idea of choreography and sends at least choreographer Zhang Jiang Peng through to the next round. And then, we really haven’t seen that much of you guys, either, which maybe doesn’t bode well, but it’s time for Towel Battle #2 (See Footnote 2).

FOOTNOTE 1, aka TOWEL BATTLE ONE, Team Yibo vs. Team Jackson, 3V3 freestyle: First of all, I have to say, I love Yibo - Mr. I Just Wanna Make Some Friends And Have Some Fun - being all, “I have three crappy white towels I’m stuck with for coming in last place that I can’t use to send dancers to the next round and that I DO NOT DESERVE, and I am getting BACK the colorful towels that ARE RIGHTFULLY MINE. I am coming for whoever is in my way.” Team Yibo is Bouboo, Klash, Dian Men, and OK, given what we’ve seen so far, that’s the safe choice, but honestly, I think we’re just taking some things for granted right now, and I’m not sure they actually have given the best performances so far. Yeah, I said it. Team Jackson is Yang Kai, Chao, and Xiao Jie, and … ok, on that last one, I think you probably could have substituted Bingo, but all right. Yang Kai is a definite yes. Chao will be great if he can stay out of his own head and not psych himself out, but given what we’ve seen so far, he’s an obvious pick. First round, Yang Kai vs. Klash, and Yang Kai is still a fucking menace, with super lines. Klash definitely stepped up his game for the battle, and I can’t get over the upper body strength he’s got, to get that kind of airy bounce in his moves, but to be honest, I can’t even be mad the first round went to Yang Kai and Team Jackson. Second round, Yang Kai is still … y’all, the beautiful lines from this guy in his poses, I can’t get over them, but I think he doesn’t have the stamina, his footwork is getting sloppy. Bouboo also steps up his game for an actual battle, his fluidity and control is amazing, and yeah, round to Team Yibo. Round three, Xiao Jie gives it a decent effort, but the polish isn’t there; meanwhile Bouboo is still in champion mode, and I was kind of surprised this was a split vote and went to another round. Xiao Jie absolutely surprised me, coming back stronger on his second try, although I suppose a more familiar genre helped, but Bouboo continues in champion mode. Round four, Chao looks like he’s going to throw up right before he steps out there, and then as soon as the music starts, it’s like, he doesn’t even think. The music just moves him. I feel like his dance vocabulary is more limited than Bouboo’s, though, and Bouboo’s flow is amazing at this point, so I feel like the judges just want to drag this out and see more dancing when we go to one more round. Strong effort all around, but yeah, round four and two towels to Team Yibo. I can’t really complain about that. I do feel like Yibo’s powerhouses have been holding back until now, though, and I’m not sure how I feel about THAT.

FOOTNOTE 2, aka TOWEL BATTLE TWO, Team Zhang vs. Team Wallace, 3V3 w/ captain: lol, Team Zhang really wants someone to pick the Sailor Moon song because they know Xiao Bao and his waacking will tear it up. Anyway, Team Zhang includes Lingo and Xiao Bao, who does not get his Sailor Moon song and continues to be hilarious in his disbelief about being chosen to participate in this battle, when he’s not looking almost as sick as Chao from Team Jackson before HIS performance. Team Wallace includes Su Lian Ya – and honestly, despite how I’m getting ready to bag on him for the entire rest of this battle recap, I like that Wallace put one of his female dancers up there for the battle - and some dude named Ba that they haven’t given us any footage of, up ‘til now, at least that I can remember and who I … don’t even know has been formally given a towel and sent on to the next round, yet? Oh wait, he must have, because there’s talk in the pause for choreography about somehow using the towels during the battle. Wallace relies on Su Lian Ya and Zhang Jiang Peng to choose Ba, and then Ba ends up choreographing a lot of the performance, at least from the edit we see. I continue to feel you may be in over your head, Wallace. This feeling … is not assuaged by your performance in the first round, which is fine, but not really up to the level of almost anyone whose name I’ve bolded so far in this entire recap. Also, using the towels was a cute idea, but it doesn’t translate well, and Team Wallace has a lot of wasted time throwing the towels around instead of actually. You know. Dancing. Lingo gets a credible solo during Team Zhang’s performance, and even though Xiao Bao is clearly lost during a good bit of his backup dancer duties, he manages not to throw up, which – given this team’s general skill level – should be enough to give them the first round, EXCEPT SOMEHOW Team Wallace gets the point from the judges, who then try to justify this inexplicable decision by saying Team Wallace had better interaction, I guess because of the hot mess with throwing the towels around, but adding that Team Zhang was more scattered, which what? More scattered than the hot mess with the towels? I’m not buying this. I can’t tell if they’re propping up Wallace or fucking with Lay Zhang’s head, but I’m having bad acid flashbacks to the many and varied ways dance show judges will try to gaslight you, telling you that things you just saw with your very own eyes did not actually happen when it’s right there! On camera! Visible, despite whatever edit bs you’re pulling! ANYWAY, they’re definitely managing to fuck with not only Lay Zhang’s head, but Xiao Bao’s, and Xiao Bao still doesn’t seem to have his choreography down, but they manage to pull it together enough to take the second round, which to be honest is kind of a muddled mess on everyone’s part. The only one who really stands out to me on this go’round is Su Lian Ya, but OK, Team Zhang might have had it slightly more together as a unit. And then, yeah, OK, I think they were fucking with Lay Zhang’s head, because we then find out that, holy shit, the song the show powers-that-be chose for the tie-breaking third round is that gd Sailor Moon song, and we can all see the writing on the wall. Poor Team Wallace is no match for Xiao Bao, who frankly, carries this entire round on his shoulders without breaking a sweat and barely needs any backup dancers to do it. There’s some ridiculously dramatic reveal of scoring, with the judges dragging out their decisions like this was any actual contest - I’m beginning to suspect that some of them grew up with Wallace Chung posters on their bedroom walls - but finally, round and towel to Team Zhang.

Cut to a little bit of Next Time On, and wow, the first two-and-a-half-hour episode is over, and we aren’t finished with the initial round yet. It’s gonna be Christmas before I make it halfway through this season.

[lucyllawless]

The first season of Why Women Kill is really good too! Definitely a good choice to watch it! It follows 3 women living in the same house in 3 different decades and they're all wonderful (and very attractive)!

Admittedly, I only started watching this season for Lana, but I am enjoying more than I thought I would. I’m going to watch it in between the new eps so the wait won’t feel as long.

Lol I don’t need much more encouragement than hearing the words “very attractive women”

[spookyrobbins]

thinking abt s9 again and it still pisses me off how much of az's experiences and disability is viewed from callie's pov (like literally at some points). like disclaimer here bc i understand that the people around an amputee are affected by it too and i understand that (esp at the time) showing callie's pov and struggles was extremely novel. but callie's pov should have been a supplement to az's, not replacing it?? bc literally every single one of az's ig accomplishments?? 1/8 – darkness anon

are seen from callie's pov. it even goes into the way they film certain scenes. (note that i am not like a professional filmmaker but i did take courses on art interp) comparing two scenes - the scene where az walks across the apartment to the door w her prosthesis and like trips and breaks shit along the way vs the "i got back up" scene which are very different scenes that occur in the same location - i noticed smth rlly interesting abt the way the audience is positioned 2/8

in the first one. there is only one portion of the scene (lasting maybe one second) where we do not see arizona in frame. in fact, most of this scene, we see arizona from her side, and at the end, we see her facing forward, toward the camera. and that's significant bc when they do that, we don't see things like the character sees it. we see it like an audience. we literally don't see az's perspective even when she is the Only character on screen. the closest we get to that in this 3/8

is the split-second frame of the vase breaking and one of the outside of the apartment, pointing to where the files bailey promised should have been. what the scene conveys isnt necessarily az's experiences, as a result, and instead is showing us the results of bailey's plan to get az walking again, which is linked back to callie's feelings abt az's response to the amputation and,, yeah. admittedly though, this scene is probably one of the most arizona centric scenes in the season. 4/8

comparing a scene with similar setting - the i got back up scene - is super interesting though, because we can see that the directors are filming az's scenes the way they are on purpose. bc that scene starts from callie's perspective and stays there for the rest of the scene. we start with the camera behind callie as she stands outside the door of the apt, and then cuts to a side/frontal angle so we can see her expression at the sound of az giggling behind the door 5/8

then she opens the door and we cut to a frontal angle so we instantly see callie's reaction to smth behind the camera and then turn around and show us what she's reacting to. compared to how they framed az opening the door in the 9x06 scene (they focus on the empty floor first and then pan up to az, emphasising the importance of the empty floor over az's reaction). and even when the camera is focused on az and sofia, it's callie's voice that we hear first and she asks if az 6/8

had a good day and then az reveals oh well i fell down and then we cut back to callie for her reaction. and then az responds w "i got back up". but the "i got back up" part? literally lasts less than a second before we cut back to callie again. and after that the cam cuts between focusing on callie and watching az and sofia from callie's pov (u can argue that the focus on callie is sofia's pov but i dont think that makes much sense? idk) but yeah. its like really weird too bc 7/8

in the same ep, they have the scene where az actually falls and its filmed so similarly to this scene in some ways and even though some of these techniques are used on az, it emphasizes alex's pov more than it does az and ugh idk. s9 irritates me in both the storyline and filming ig is the conclusion here. and uhh just realised how super long this got so like. feel free to not,, respond? like i get that this is like ridiculous and im sorry my dude 8/8

no no but you're so right. i've said it before (i think) and i'll say it again: the show disproportionately favours callie's pov over arizona's (it does this with other characters, like meredith's over derek's, but to a slightly less extreme i think) - part of this i think is bc callie was there first and arizona is written as a love interest exclusively. but the whole amputation storyline really showed this to an extreme

i also think that the amount of time spent in callie's pov is part of the reason that the cheating felt so extremely ooc/cheap emotional payoff. i've seen various places where people have said that cheating can be part of depression/ptsd/trauma (and i fully agree/believe that) and that could fit in arizona's storyline - except the audience never really saw her dealing with that. there was the stuff at the beginning of the season and then arizona seemed fine? and the challenge of arizona i think is that she's very internal and taking away teddy and mark (to an extent) sort of limited her external processes, which left the viewer thinking that arizona was doing okay. but the effect of not showing us arizona's pov is that it comes out of left field (which is you were writing not filming from callie's pov could work bc limited 3rd person) is that it just seems out of character and tawdry and you have to create miscarriages to explain her behaviour

the way they filmed/wrote 95% of calzona's scenes in s9 were focused on callie and her feelings. even scenes that on the surface seem to be about arizona are really centered on callie. like for instance the shoes before bailey's wedding. arizona is struggling with self-worth and beauty and this would be a perfect moment for arizona to have ownership in her journey - instead we get callie yelling at her about how "everything is about the leg", which i think does a disservice to arizona and also to callie's character, which has often been based around empathy (don't get me started on callie's empathy and how it relates to arizona lol) like you said, every one of arizona's moments/accomplishments is not really about her. and that was a problem with arizona's character from the start - it's never really about her - it's about other. for example: her telling callie about tim was about reassuring callie's feelings versus it being a moment to add depth to arizona's character

one more thing: i think the writers majorly screwed themselves with the amputation sl/how they approached it. in the same way that the plane crash dominated like 4 seasons on a wider scale, arizona's leg and amputation did on a smaller scale, but they set it up so poorly that it was almost unsalvageable. they wanted the pat on the back for having a disabled character, but they mismanaged the storyline so atrociously that by the time s10 rolled around they were sort of screwed and didn't know what to do with callie and arizona. it's also notable that by like what? s11 they just stop talking about arizona's leg entirely

lol my part got long too so i'll leave it here

[letterstothemidnightsociety]

Previously On Supernatural Season 3, we had a really rock solid trio of episodes to kick us off right, so what does SPN do next? It’s gonna lay the groundwork for some spicy character development that may or may not pay off by the end of the season. Let's find out!

To be honest, I felt the next three episodes just sort of plateau? There’s enough nuggets in these three eps - “Sin City”, “Bedtime Stories”, and “Red Sky at Morning” - that it does feel like they’re setting up for something big but it’s taking too much time. If the season had been longer, I don’t know that I’d be complaining, because there’s SO much potential introduced with these character developments, but I know it’s gonna get cut off at the knees in the very near future. 2021 Me has been trained on what to expect from a short season, so half of my brain wants to give the show slack for Unexpected Circumstances, but the other half of my brain is shouting YOUR NOT DRIVING THE BUS FAST ENOUGH, YOU’LL NEVER MAKE IT TO THE END OF THE LINE IN TIME!!!

And that’s maybe unfair because there really are some great nuggets in here. We’ve got “Sin City”, which is Dean’s episode. I mean, they’re ALL Dean’s episode, but this one more so than the other two in this post. Dean gets trapped with a demon who turns out to be...kinda...nice? In kind of a Stockholm Syndromey way I guess? She let’s Dean in on the fate that awaits him when his year long contract is up and it is NOT great. This isn’t the first time we see that there’s more to the demons than SPN has shown us in the past (hello, Ruby), but it is the first time Dean chills out enough to actually have a conversation with one. Dean doesn’t really get it, like he’s still not interested in getting out of his deal, but the fear gets planted, it just needs some time to grow. Oh, also, the Colt Ex Machina is back in action, so that's important.

This dumb bitch thinks he can fool us with that devil-may-care side glance but he caaaan't

But then we get “Bedtime Stories”, the Sam episode, where Sam learns...to let go? That’s the point of this episode right? It’s about letting go of someone before that person becomes too toxic and dangerous? At least, that’s the lesson that Dean wants Sam to take away from this case. But Sam will NOT learn this lesson, so instead he tries to cancel Dean’s deal by killing the crossroads demon who wrote it. Spoiler Alert: it doesn't work.

And then we get “Red Sky At Morning”, which opens and closes with some heavy emotional baggage, but then is stuffed full of fun. Like, this episode ricochets wildly in terms of Feelings, but then that’s probably what we should expect from SPN. I mean, what show have I been watching for 3 seasons now?

Fun Facts guys: I’m a tired Millenial, and swapping DVD discs was too much work so I switched over to watching this season on Netflix and GUESS WHAT???? THESE EPISODES COME WITH A SUICIDE WARNING!?!?!

They're not wrong.

And like, if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about this season I don’t know WHAT will. Cuz Dean is absolutely suicidal and I am surprised (??) I guess (???) by how much the show acknowledges that. Or I guess, surprised by how much Netflix acknowledges that. It’s something that I did not...pick up on the first go around on season 3, possibly because I was 19 and I was an idiot and found this sort of emotional vulnerability to be endearing. Listen, I know there’s a lot to be said about the producers of the show making...umm…poor decisions in regards to character developments? But if the target demographic of this show was anything like me - and I suspect they were - then the viewers were also...probably...responding inappropriately to some of those character developments. And here’s the thing - I’m looking at this from 12 years in the future, with 12 years worth of real life drama that makes the heavy handed melodrama of television feel...well, heavy handed. Maybe irresponsible? Certainly a little uncomfortable. Big Me is having A Time confronting Little Me’s taste in TV Characters. It’s one thing to have a kink, Little Me, it’s another thing to romanticize suicidal depression.

And hey, I can’t deny that the character development for Dean makes sense. I actually appreciate that the show is thinking through the world and the relationship dynamics that they’ve built and the toll that these misadventures are having on their main characters. These episodes all get bookended by Impala Fights where Sam keeps pushing Dean to give a shit about his own life and Dean responds with an inability to care. That’s just where he is right now, and I get that. We’re early in the season still. But how will the rest of the season handle this? I honestly can’t remember but I also don’t want this to be a throw-away issue that they use to remind us that Dean’s supposed to die at the end of the season. I’m prob gonna come back to this throughout the season because I ~just~want~this~show~to be~repsonsiblllllleeeeeeeeeeee.

Lol, I know, that’s a lot to ask from the CW.

ON TO MORE FUN THINGS!!

Sam is gettin’ reeeeeallll bitchy in these episodes and #1, I love it, Bitchy Sam 5Ever, but also #2, was this supposed to be the sign that Sam was going darkside? Like, he’s snarky, he’s angry, he’s not pulling any punches and that could just be him reacting to his brother’s situation but it could also be….you know...him...becoming slightly...evil? For instance in “Sin City”, he kills the two demons who kidnapped Dean without even thinking. On the one hand, this is the Winchester MO, they kill demons, that’s their job, but on the other hand, Dean is actively telling Sam to stop. Same deal in “Bed Time Stories” - Sam kills the crossroads demon in cold blood (or maybe viscera). Again, we could blame this on instinct - the Winchesters were brought up to do exactly this - but 1) Dean keeps telling Sam not to and 2) that’s not Sam. This show spent 2 seasons telling us that Sam is the Good Brother, the White Hat, the Touchy-Feely One. This is not the Touchy Feely Sam who reasons with ghosts and falls in love with werewolves. Like, everyone else sees it too, right? Also, he is usually very nice to everyone but he is a REAL BITCH to Gertrude in “Red Sky at Morning.” Like, come on, Sam, she just wants to have a nice time. She is OLD. You really think she’s got what it takes to climb that tree?

Honestly, how tall are this lady's heels?

I know that there was a plan for Sam to start Turning in this season before the show’s episode order got slashed due to the Writer’s Strike. And man, I really would have liked to have seen this play out. Like, first season Sam is the Innocent, right? He’s our stand in for the viewer in those first few episodes and then he’s revealed to be kind of the only thing that went right in the lives of both John and Dean, so Baby Must Be Protected at All Costs. The fact that John ultimately lets Sam go off to college and doesn’t contact him for the next four years says to me that on some level, John felt the need to preserve that innocence, that kind of untouched quality Sam has. Dean is very similar - whenever Sam gets too into the job, Dean calls him out on it. So in the second season when we find out that Sam might be evil, it’s a real punch in the gut, for Dean most of all. But then the show admittedly got bored with that storyline and it didn’t really go anywhere. So whereas Dean has personality in SPADES that fluctuates and changes and develops/maybe just gets more intense as the show goes on, Sam remains that kind of blank slate that the viewer can put their face on. Except now we’re in season three, and if you’ve bought into this show, then you’ve bought into it, so the audience doesn’t need a Blank Slate Sam anymore. And if you start with Sam the Innocent and then introduce the idea of Dark!Sam and then just leave that concept hanging, then isn’t this sort of like Checkov’s Evil Sam? If you introduce Evil Sam in the first act you really ought to deliver on Evil Sam by act three, right? Wouldn’t that have been A+ and Wild? Wouldn’t that have made Sam’s arc and emotional struggles over the previous seasons have more weight?

Will this be resolved in later seasons? Maybe. I’m gonna be honest, this is the last season I watched all the way through and seasons 4 through...like, 8 were real touch and go for me. I know that Sam ultimately is revealed to be a vessel for??? The devil??? And Dean is ultimately revealed to be a vessel for??? Michael??? And then the two of them???? Fight to the death???? Point is, season 5 got weird guys and I’m not there yet.

Back to more fun things! You know what guys?? I think I ship Dean and Bela. I’m...almost ashamed to admit it? Like, I remember Little Me watching this season and just dumping on Bela, I HATED her, but this time? I am 1,000% On Board This Ship. Like, there is an alternate universe somewhere where these two got a spinoff show that ran for 6 seasons and I watched EVERY episode. And then, like, 5 years after it ended, they rebooted it with Dean and Bela’s grown up daughter as the lead and the whole OG cast makes cameos over the three seasons it stays on the air and it’s amazing. I’d own both shows on DVD.

What I like about Bela this time around (and again, I am WILDLY surprised about this development), is that she can dish it just as hard as the Winchesters can. Like, every line Dean throws at her she holds up a mirror to say, “Oh yes, I know the Kettle is black, but what color are you, Pot?” and I’m just continually thrilled. She is also just as damaged as Dean is but somehow channeling it into a healthier way? Like, she’s true Chaotic Neutral, which is not necessarily healthy, it’s just healthier than Dean. Or maybe it’s just that she’s better at managing it. In either case, they are HOT MESSES and I love it. I just love it. I know I complained about shoehorned romances but Ackles and Lauren Cohan just totally crush it in every scene and when Dean walks down the stairs all She’s All That in “Red Sky at Morning”, I yelled at the screen OMG just BONE already!!!!! And then like, 5 seconds later, Bela literally says “We should really have angry sex,” and it was probably the most vindicating moment I’ve had on this ride so far.

I just think they're neat!

WHY did we cancel her? WHY?? I don’t want to believe it was the Wincest again, so I’m gonna pretend that it wasn’t, but it was definitely fans. According to Kripke, Bela gets the axe at the end of this season because of the fan hatred of her. Now, I’ve already admitted that I personally held a grudge, but good Lord, what was wrong with us, as a Fandom? To be fair to me (and all of us), would we have felt differently if we had not been introduced to Jo a mere season earlier?? I'm gonna say yes. Although I had misgivings about Jo the first episode we meet her, by the end of season 2 I was certainly on her side. Working through season 3, I am remembering that, when we were introduced to Bela, I was immediately FURIOUS because WTF, WHERE’S JO? SPN just introduced to her. They just settled on a love interest for Dean and the writer’s just got me on board with that. Now they’ve completely done away with both that character AND that dynamic and you want me to get on board this NEW thing? And be excited about it??? So I'm gonna blame the love-interest-whiplash, combined with the fact that Little Me related my own personal self more to Jo than to Bela, that made me hate Bela in the first place. When you look at how quickly the show abandoned one character to introduce another character, it makes sense why fans got mad, but I’m also mad that we continued to hate Bela when she turned out to be such an A+ Frenemy. It makes me want to shout at the writers through the time void COMMIT TO A FEMALE CHARACTER YOU JAGWEEDS.

What’s wild watching this show now is just how Male it was, especially considering its audience was already skewed heavily female by this point in the series. If you made this show today, I don’t know that you could do that. Today, there’s a real push for balanced, diverse casts in programming, especially in sci-fi/fantasy and young adult. I think if SPN had started in 2021, they would have introduced the Harvell’s or Bela up in season 1, and that introduction would have been much more intentional. The benefit of having a shorter episode count as the standard is that there’s less of the “throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks” approach. Looking at it from 2021, reading snippets of interviews from Kripke, that’s definitely what they’re doing with the side characters in these seasons and you can feel that in Jo and Bela. A shorter season means that the storytelling has to be tighter, it can’t wander, so every decision has to be a load-bearing decision. On the other hand, one of the down sides of having a shorter episode count is the exact same thing - less room to throw stuff, less room to experiment. Heck, Bobby was technically a character they threw at the wall and he didn’t just stick, he became a tentpole character of the series. The only side character that actually made it into the series finale even!

So how much room should we be giving our television programs? I think it depends on the show, honestly. I think you have to decide up front if you want space to experiment, or if you have one, tight, compact story line that’s gonna drive viewers from episode 1 right through the finale without giving them the chance to catch their breath. You have to make the decision, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop making one style of show in favor of the other. Just because we’re in the Age of Streaming doesn’t mean there isn’t room enough for both.

[helluvapurf]

*claps* Just finished the newest HB dropped today, lets talk about it! :>

TL;DR version: Found it a... "decent" ride overall (prob among the "better" eps of the S2 lineup so far), though nothing really to write home about compared to other fave eps-

Longer Version: *warning ahead for spoilers*

So, positives out of the way first!

-Striker's back again... and YAY, didn't end up dying after all 🙏😭Was kinda scared with him going against Stolas they were gonna start watering him down to a "mwaha I'm macho~" cliche, but imo he remained pretty competent from start to finish (and even still carried that whole "f*ck the monarchy" attitude towards Goetias while interacting with Stolas (whilst simultaneously working under Stella)... which I really hope the show builds on more for any future appearances down the line)

-M&M themselves got to lead the show in chasing Striker/fighting him (no Blitz or Loona intervention whatsoever), which was also pretty refreshing! 👍 I enjoyed their antics in the Wrath ring and the eventual fight scene itself proved a fairly entertaining one too (*that music change midway though lol*)

-Ngl, I was kinda worried that with Stolas' "damsel" bit it was gonna get old quick... but I'm pleasantly surprised to see the guy actually bite back fairly strong in his own way (both with words and a bit with physical strength too like the stone-stare attempt). And with the inclusion of that "heavenly" rope voiding his powers, it helped offset him feeling too "woobified" compared to past eps .3.

-Blitz and Loona stuck together throughout their visit to the hospital, which proved sweet & funny to watch too ^^. Always nice to see some vulnerable sides in this girl aside from just being moody all the time imo.

-We finally get Andrealphus' canon debut, and he proved to be a fairly decent villain himself too. Being smart enough to recognize the risk in killing off Stolas too quickly (esp. while Via's still his only other heir), and seems to be generally manipulative in steering his sister in the "right" direction (while talking down to her at the same time like a ditzy child), which I'm curious to see played out as well as the season progresses further.

-Bit more of a "minor" point, admittedly... but yay! A Via mention~ 🥺Looks like she'll eventually be more involved in Andre & Stella's plot in the far future, so that'll be interesting to see~ :o

Now... for the negatives? ...Weeeell-

-Stella... just, *sighs*. What more can I say about her that others haven't done so before? 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️While I never really minded her being a bitchy villain tbh, I was expecting at least a little competency written in to her role trying to tear Stolas (+Blitz) apart... but, now? She's... literally just so one-tracked & immature onto wanting Stolas dead (not even reacting to Andre mentioning her daughter during their "plan"), that even her own brother is calling her out of how stupid she's being...? 😐Just... yikes, man...

And like, even all this I wouldn't so much mind if HB was a strictly comedic cartoon/Stella herself was just a one-off threat (like Martha & those old guys from the "Cherub" ep)... but with Stella clearly being framed as the new "big bad" of the series after first calling that hit on Stolas back in "Harvest Moon" (framed all dramatic-like both there and later on in "The Circus")... its otherwise embarrassing that Stella's about as complex as a slice of white bread... 😒😒

(*Heck, if you think about it I don't get why we couldn't have Andrealphus be Stolas' evil ex since he's clearly gonna be given more substance than his sister by the looks of it (esp if those potentially dangerous ice powers of his are any indicator)... but, idk I'm just rambling at this point lol >>*)

-I feel like some of the emotional beats didn't... quite hit as they should've, at points? Like, that last shot of Stolas browsing through his phone messages w/ Blitz seemed like it was trying to address what happened in "Ozzie's" (with Stolas even seeming to respect Blitz' boundaries better while their "deal" is still ongoing)... but then with the sad music playing and Stolas just turning away all sadly at the end, I wasn't sure whether to take that as hopeful or... just angsty, I guess? .-.

-In terms of the humor this time, while def a step-up from the last couple eps... I feel like some of the jokes didn't land as strongly compared to others? Like, for every decent bits like Striker (then later Millie lol) telling off the annoying music band, others like the... erm, "endowed" Striker statue & the karen fight Blitz had at the hospital just felt a bit too... "on-the-nose", I guess? 🤷‍♀️

-While I don't really mind this being a shorter episode, pacing-wise I feel like got a bit rushed at certain points (Like, I'm surprised Andre just kinda randomly showed up right at the first few seconds with how "hyped up" his initial concept was lol). Which could easily be fixed by just tweaking down some of the unnecessary filler bits imo.

[tiffgeorgina]

do you have any favourites parts of season 2? (I agree that the plot has been.... Thin? Non-existent?) But what are the things about this season that you've enjoyed?

hello anon! a few things i’ve enjoyed are:

-the new guest stars. watkins, hill, and raphael are knocking it out of the park. we waited longer than i wanted to to see june and dulé but hey, at least they’re here now! im already kinda attached to their characters and im pretty sure all of them are gonna get fucked over so im scared fjgkjhfdg

-just seeing all these mf characters again. ive missed them so much kjhgkdfjh i could watch them watch paint dry and i’d be okay with that bc i just MISSED THEM

-CONNIE. RESURGENCE. OMFG. i saw xosha roquemore (the actress who plays her) credited for 2x05 a couple weeks back and i FREAKED. OUT. god why do i love this narc. acab except for connie because i like her and she’s pretty (seeing her in full color and 80s style was a REVELATION)

-mo coming back ugh i missed him at the jammer group. seeing him complacent and beaten down HURT. im ready to see him fuck blair up i love blair but he’s walking away in handcuffs this season if mo has anything to say about it

-blair/harris. ok they’re cute i said it (plus they’re easily getting the most screentime out of all the couples this season which is nice bc their relationship is so much less established than the others)

-mo/dawn flashbacks mo/dawn flashbacks mo/dawn flashbacks mo/dawn flashbacks mo/dawn flashbacks!!! i knew we would be seeing their backstory but i didn’t expect it to be the first thing we saw all season!!! i love mo/dawn and i love getting backstory since i was waiting to know more about their past for so long and!! it’s here!! now we know everybody at the jammer group used to work for leighman and that’s why they hate them and we know mo and dawn go back a decade and!! it’s just so satisfying to KNOW i love to see it

-the entirety of Fore! (2x04) yassir. fucking. killed. that. shit. he was the sole writing credit for that episode, and when i saw that on the imdb page i simply knew it would be god tier. and it was! admittedly a little plotless, but that’s par for the course this season, plus it was early enough in the season to get away with it i think. the twist at the end. corky’s entrance. blair/harris. blair being an idiot. blair being a high idiot. yassir x being the king of feminism. yassir lester writing andrew’s emmy reel like that. we haven’t seen season 2B yet but 2A peaked with fore!. period. try to disagree with me. you can’t.

-ofc the 80s aesthetic that we all know and love. i saw somebody describe black monday as a period piece once and it seemed kind of ill-fitting bc it’s not set in victorian era england but yk what? it’s totally fitting. this is a period piece. the 80s slap.

-blair being the villain that we know he is. i wish they would quit stalling on this because it’s making all the characters seem monotonous and non-distinct, but i like those moments where blair snaps (“WE ARE DOING THIS” and “i am the only family you need now. just me”) andrew’s such an excellent actor and it’s fun to see this side of his range since he’s usually played really nice and wholesome (or at least not downright villainous) characters. he’s sending chills down my spine with some of the shit he’s doing and saying this season. andrew. emmy. nomination. now. GIVE IT TO ME NOW.

-momentary mo&blair resurgence (even if it’s fake). i miss mo&blair as father-son so fucking much anon you don’t even know. finding out that they were the ones clicking their heels in 2x06? i could’ve CRIED

-being right. ok this has a bit of lore but i have been STALKING the imdb page for black monday for MONTHS. bc they’ll add episode titles, or screencaps, or cast members all the time without telling anybody, and everything’s been accurate so far (so it’s not some troll lying on imdb we know that lol). specifically, in 2x09, there’s a character credited as dr. gabe egon. the tl already had suspicions that he had smth to do with conversion therapy bc there’s this one picture that sho released where you can see all this shit mo’s written on this board, and it DEFINITELY SAID CONVERSION THERAPY. and this episode comes around and roger is walking out this door that says “dr. gabe egon ~ therapy for the religiously erect” or whatever and i was like !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and then roger blurts out that it’s literally CT and i !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this shit is in different areas for better or for worse and even if im confused and bored at the same time being pulled along for the ride is fun as hell

-the naming scheme for the episodes. i literally had no idea what they would do for the episode titles this season since there’s no countdown to black monday, but i like how it’s shit that the characters say/write. bc then a character says the episode name and you’re like !!!!!!!!!!! jfhgdfjk. plus it kinda tells you what’s going on--i knew 2x06 would be about a ponzi scheme before blair even proposed the idea in 2x05 bc the ep is titled Arthur Ponzarelli. and i knew fore! would be the episode where blair and the harrises are golfing and blair gets hit by a golf cart since “fore” is a golf term. and i know that 2x07, “who are you supposed to be?” is the weird halloween party ep where everybody looks ridiculous and ppl are def gonna be getting into it. 2x10 is titled “i don’t like mondays” and idk what that means but i bet mo says that line in the show. and 2x09 is titled “at that time” and im so scared bc that episode has a blair flashback and WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHAT DOES IT ALL MEANNNN

-more women and more women being relevant to the plot. good. it was getting a little obnoxiously man-influenced here. cmon the majority of the cast AND the majority of the directors AND the majority of the producers AND a majority of the writers AND both the creators can’t ALL be men. like pick a struggle.

whew that list was longer than i expected it to be! thanks for the ask anon! what are y’all’s favorite parts so far?

[sasukerevolution]

Any chance you have a list of Naruto episodes that mainly focus on Sasuke? I kinda want to rewatch, but only remember the arc with Sasuke vs 5 kage/Dei/Ita/Danzo.

Not right on hand, no, but I can comb through and let you know which parts I tend to watch when I miss him! You only listed eps from Shippuden but I’ll include original series anyway ^^ I organized this by arc; beginning part has my commentary and then just a list after. I bolded the ones I actually do rewatch a ton.

This got really long so here’s a tl;dr for the parts I recall/can be bothered to find and the rest is under the cut.

ORIGINAL SERIES: 3-5, 6-8, 10-15, 16, 19, 22, 24, 28-30, 33, 39, 66-68, 75-76, 81-85, 101, 107-110, 128-135.

NARUTO SHIPPUDEN: 1, 51-53, 113-114, 115-118, 121-126, 135-beginning of 139, 140-141, 143-144, 152, 202-203, 204, 208-211, 212-216, 220, 331, 333, 334-335, 337-339, 341, 366, 370, 373, 474-479.

ORIGINAL SERIES

Prologue - Land of Waves

There’s pretty decent focus on him for the first part basically up until he passes out in the Forest of Death. Episodes I like to rewatch a lot for Sasuke specifically are 3-5, and 16, which is where Sasuke sacrifices himself protecting Naruto (I usually prefer to read the Zabuza arc bc I feel like the battles drag out too long in the anime). A more comprehensive list would probably be like… 3-7 (one of Sasuke’s first battles with the Demon Brothers is there), I really don’t like watching Zabuza’s battle with Kakashi in the anime but episode 8 has Naruto and Sasuke tag-teaming to help free him, episode 11 and maybe (?) 10 have Sasuke and Naruto eating a lot and training and etc., and then 12-16 cover Sasuke fighting Haku and Naruto eventually showing up to help. Sasuke wakes up and they ask Kakashi some insightful questions in 19.

3-5, 6-8, 10-15, 16, 19 

Chuunin Exams & Konoha Crush

I don’t really rewatch this one a ton but episode 22 is the Rock Lee Beats Sasuke’s Ass ep, 24 is the Sasuke Figures Out You’re Supposed to Cheat on the Chuunin Exams Test ep which I enjoy personally but also don’t really watch a lot, 28-30 for the Sasuke vs Orochimaru stuff in the Forest of Death, 33 for Sasuke going sicko mode on the Sound ninja, 39 for Sasuke using Lee’s jutsu to beat that one guy’s ass in the prelims, 66-68 is Sasuke vs Gaara but I don’t rewatch this a lot and prefer reading it in the manga bc the anime drags it out way too much imo, I actually don’t rewatch their confrontation in the forest much either but I think (???) it’s eps 75 & 76.

22, 24, 28-30, 33, 39, 66-68, 75-76

Search for Tsunade

I watch 81-85 a lot. That’s where Itachi returns to the Village and we get our first real bit of insight into Sasuke’s past– this is usually one of the first things I’ll rewatch when I’m missing Sasuke. He’s in a coma for the rest of the arc, though. I also watch 101 which is the Kakashi’s mask filler ep and doesn’t really focus on Sasuke particularly but it’s fun watching him freak out.

81-85, 101

Sasuke Recovery Mission

107-110 cover Naruto and Sasuke’s rooftop fight and Sasuke making up his mind to leave the Village. A lot of things about this piss me off a lot lol so I actually don’t rewatch a lot. 128-135 is Sasuke and Naruto’s battle at the Valley of the End. There’s a lot of Uchiha lore embedded here and I like his fight with Naruto so I rewatch this battle a lot.

107-110, 128-135

I don’t watch any of the filler after this.

So to summarize, the Sasuke parts of original series that I can recall are: 3-5, 6-8, 10-15, 16, 19, 22, 24, 28-30, 33, 39, 66-68, 75-76, 81-85, 101, 107-110, 128-135.

NARUTO SHIPPUDEN 

Kazekage Rescue Mission

The first episode teases Sasuke’s later return and is also just generally nostalgic if you’re into that. I also just like the opening for this arc lol.

1

Tenchi Bridge Reconnaissance Mission

Sasuke’s first appearance in part two and his reunion with Naruto are episodes 51-53. I don’t rewatch these a lot mainly just because I rewatched them all the time when I was 14 and got bored of it.

51-53

Itachi’s Pursuit Mission/Master’s Prophecy and Vengeance

Finally good stuff. Episodes 113-114 cover Sasuke killing Orochimaru– I prefer reading this in the manga to watching it so I don’t actually rewatch it a lot. In 115 Sasuke picks up Suigetsu and the episode is a bunch of filler stuff that wasn’t in the manga but it’s fun so I rewatch that one a lot. 116-118 are where he picks up Karin and Juugo and forms Taka which is *chef kiss* golden content. 121-122 are Taka looking for Itachi… I find this stuff kinda boring so I don’t rewatch it so much unless I’m in a particular mood. 123-126 cover Sasuke’s battle with Deidara, which is awesome, but I prefer reading it in the manga, and Taka taking care of him, which is very cute… 135-138 and the beginning of 139 are Sasuke’s battle against Itachi, which is also golden content that I rewatch a lot (though admittedly I tend to just type “Sasuke vs Itachi” into YouTube and watch it there than actually watch the episodes for some reason). 140-141 are Sasuke finding out the truth about the Uchiha clan– I think along with episodes 81-84 in the original series and Sasuke vs Danzou these are the episodes I rewatch the absolute most. 143-144 are Sasuke and Taka joining the Akatsuki– 144 specifically is the Taka vs Killer Bee fight which I watch a lot. 

113-114, 115-118, 121-126, 135-beginning of 139, 140-141, 143-144

Pein’s Assault/The Two Saviours

If I recall correctly, episode 152 is where Sasuke speechifies at Tobi and tells him he doesn’t care if people see him as childish, he wants to destroy the Leaf, blah blah. This speech is real good but I tend to read it in the manga– I’ll bold it anyway though because I read it a ton.

152

Five Kage Summit/The Assembly of the Five Kage

You mentioned this one in the original ask but since we’ve come this far anyway I’ll say the parts I like. I love this arc, it’s definitely one of my favourites in the entire series. I think 202 is where Sasuke fights all the Samurai, 203 is where Sasuke meets Gaara again and they fight (lmfao I opened the episode on Crunchyroll to check that I’m thinking of the right one and look where I stopped last time)

Maybe I like SasuGaa? Anyway, in 204 Sasuke ditches Taka to go after Danzou, then Danzou vs Sasuke and Sasuke’s betrayal of Karin is 208-211, which I mentioned above is among the like, top three things I watch the most when I’m missing Sasuke, along with Itachi vs Sasuke in both original series and Shippuden. 212-216 are Team Seven finding Sasuke again and Sakura trying to kill him and Naruto and Sasuke talking to each other in their heads and blah blah… the only part of this I tend to watch a lot is Sasuke’s interaction with Kakashi because I find this part really annoying. In 220 Sasuke gets eye surgery.

202-203, 204, 208-211, 212-216, 220

Fourth Shinobi World War: Climax/The Great Ninja War - Sasuke and Itachi

Crunchyroll’s not super great about breaking the next parts into seasons and I’m lazy so I’m basically just gonna talk about the rest of the war arc. I know it’s a million parts long but I just think of it all as “The War Arc” anyway.

Sasuke’s out cold recovering from surgery from most of the beginning of the War arc and doesn’t wake up til 331 (there’s also good Taka content in this ep– Suigetsu and Juugo looking for Sasuke, and Karin breaking out of jail). He catches up with Itachi in 333 - I rewatch this one a lot but I’m more likely to reread it. 334-335 is Sasuke and Itachi vs Kabuto, and 336 is too but it’s more Kabuto-focused. Focus comes back to Sasuke and Itachi for 337-339– and 339 is where Itachi says the “I will love you forever” line. I rewatch that episode a ton. In 341, he meets up again with Suigetsu and Juugo and brings back Orochimaru– I tend to reread this a lot in the manga but not watch it. 366-370 are when he gets Orochimaru to bring back the Hokage, but most of it is Hashirama talking, so the Sasuke-focused ones are 366 & 370 (I tend to rewatch this entire part a lot though because I love the Hashirama & Madara stuff). In 373 he joins back up with Team Seven and says he wants to be Hokage and blah blah blah. I think that’s basically the last episode of the anime I actually bother watching sometimes. I thought about combing for the Team Seven stuff where they’re fighting aliens and the prophecy and whatnot, but everything is really fucking scattered after this part and I tend to just skip around for Sasuke content in the manga because I can’t deal with the anime, especially because this is around where the anime famously released a new episode weekly for a year and only eight of those episodes weren’t filler. The Naruto vs Sasuke stuff is 474-479 and a whole metric ton of it is filler that makes me sick to my stomach so I never watch it, but I figured I’d mention it anyway.

331, 333, 334-335, 337-339, 341, 366, 370, 373, ?????????, 474-479

So to summarize, the Sasuke parts of original series that I can recall/bother looking for are: 1, 51-53, 113-114, 115-118, 121-126, 135-beginning of 139, 140-141, 143-144, 152, 202-203, 204, 208-211, 212-216, 220, 331, 333, 334-335, 337-339, 341, 366, 370, 373, 474-479 (which you couldn’t pay me to rewatch).

I love recapping so, tl;dr:

ORIGINAL SERIES: 3-5, 6-8, 10-15, 16, 19, 22, 24, 28-30, 33, 39, 66-68, 75-76, 81-85, 101, 107-110, 128-135.

SHIPPUDEN: 1, 51-53, 113-114, 115-118, 121-126, 135-beginning of 139, 140-141, 143-144, 152, 202-203, 204, 208-211, 212-216, 220, 331, 333, 334-335, 337-339, 341, 366, 370, 373, 474-479.

Happy watching!

[muthaz-rapapa]

Possible Precure Concept # 4

Phantom Thieves

As promised, here it is.

The idea popped into my head a few months ago. Can’t remember whether or not Yuni made her first appearance at that point yet but whatever.

So! Picture it. A Precure team completely composed of kaitou who go about purifying corrupted artwork/valuable treasure and fighting villains aiming to “taint” the world in desolate colors or something like that (is that too Smile-like? that’s too much like Smile, isn’t it?).

No, you are not wrong. It takes inspiration straight from Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, Saint Tail and maybe even a little bit of Persona 5 even though I’ve only watched like the first 6 episodes of the adaptation and never played the game (I can see why it’s so popular, though).

Anyways, I just thought it’d be cool to see Precure’s take on this concept. I wasn’t even deterred when StarPre brought out Blue Cat because it’s not like Toei doesn’t recycle stuff from past seasons.

However, there are several things I believe that can keep it off the consideration table. Like...

1) The one or two people who think it might suggest to kids to become criminals.

......Honestly? Honestly, if you steal only from the dirty rich, then I am absolutely FINE with that. Seriously, have your fun and EAT THE RICH!!

Ok, j/k, j/k except not really but the thing with phantom thieves (besides the fact that they are largely fictional) is that...there’s a sense of romanticism that sets them apart from other types of outlaws. At least the ones I came across, they mostly use trickery and cunning (and their charm) but rarely do they ever resort to violence or worse to get the job done.

And in some cases, the thief may have a noble motive for committing the crimes (like how Yuni did it to reclaim the resources for her home planet but donated everything else to the poor). I think that’s why phantom thieves are so compatible with the magical girl genre.

Because you know the MC is actually a good person performing a heroic deed but at the same time they’re operating well outside of what’s legal. And that’s what makes the story all the more thrilling to follow.

You want them to escape the police. You want them to steal the target. You want them to succeed because at the end of the day, they are not the villain.

That’s exciting, isn’t it? :D

...but hey, y’know...if the writers are afraid of the wrath of a few individuals who take a children’s anime way too seriously then that’s their call. :P

Pretty sure there’s no one that paranoid though...maybe... I dunno.

In any case, we can all agree it’s an interesting pitch, yea?

Yea. Next concern then.

2) It’s already been done.

On top of that, old favorites like KKJ and Saint Tail have the edge of nostalgia supporting them which will inevitably lead to the silly argument of “who did it better”.

Not that that’s ever stopped us before. I mean, look at KiraPre. At the start of its run, it drew tons of comparison with Tokyo Mew Mew but still became a very successful and beloved season among Precure fans.

So really, there is no issue there (in fact, the more magical phantom thieves, the merrier) because the story is likely always going to be different.

Which brings me to my next point...

3) Narrative

Among the majority (or perhaps, the more traditional?) of magical girl series, the plot is usually “normal girl obtains magical powers to fight evil and save the world”.

The plot is simple. The story isn’t.

The story is how you tell the plot.

Which makes comparisons between different series almost kinda pointless because no story progresses the same way as another does nor would they have details that are exactly alike.

Especially if Toei one day decides that it wants to take a shot at this idea for their cash cow franchise, then they already have a striking appeal the two aforementioned titles don’t: a team of phantom thieves.

Granted, that’s easier said than done.

Even though I’m proposing it, I can’t deny it might be hard to pull off well.

I dunno. I’m always under the impression that phantom thieves work better alone (their non-action accomplices aside). Less things to worry about on their end, less things to trip them up.

But why not take on the challenge? If you can manage to get a bunch of colorful personalities and/or headstrong egos to cooperate on big “heists” together, that would be pretty impressive.

Plus, let’s not forget that Toei has 16+ years of trumpeting the magic of “friendship and teamwork” under their belt with 50-so episodes spanning each year-long season to boot. Planning and writing fleshed-out character arcs and group development should be their forte by now.

Admittedly, they’re not always perfect at it but the point is, this is not unfamiliar territory for them.

Of course, there’s a lot more to a story than just its main cast and what razzle dazzle effects they can do. You also need good supporting characters, antagonists worth our attention, interesting (and in this case, clever) one-shot fillers, the usual one or two unexpected twists and perhaps most importantly, a solid narrative theme to work with.

“Phantom thieves” are a motif, not a narrative theme.

A motif is something that helps explains the theme (or message) the show wants to convey.

Like “hope versus despair”, loneliness, love (this one’s been broadly overused but yea, it is one), etc. Those are all themes.

Unfortunately, I can’t think of a theme that would correspond well to “phantom thieves” as motif at the moment.

Hmmm…maybe “justice”?

But what the heck, I’m not part of the writing staff. This is their job to think up, not mine! xP

…still, I think it’ll require a good amount of brainstorming if you really want it to turn out good.

Um…what else?

I guess, just smaller things like whether to use “Cure ______” or “Kaitou _____” because a stock trait of phantom thieves series is that they like to announce themselves as “Phantom Thief so-and-so”…so I’m wondering if the Cure title will even matter?

It feels less like a Precure show if the girls don’t actually call themselves “Cures”, doesn’t it?

Uuuuuuhhhhh…oh yea!

For every phantom thief, there is usually always a detective chasing after them and maybe even a rival thief that comes in later during the story.

I think it’d be a fascinating twist if the detective was a girl in the same class as the starter Cure(s) who ends up befriending said Cure(s) not knowing she’s (they’re) the same as the thief(s) she’s trying to catch. Then the reveal happens at the worse timing (ep 30ish) but she makes the decision to protect the Cure(s)…by becoming a Cure herself…and you can guess at what happens next but it’s pretty predictable. She comes to terms with it and drops her day job to become a magical girl and steal for the sake of good.

..Yea.

As for the rival part, I’m still really pushing for opposing Precure teams. Ideally, a two-against-two scenario where they (maybe one-sidedly) compete to see who can purify the most monsters until circumstances push them to see they’re better working together.

…lol, I dunno. It may not work with the principles of Precure in general but I’m just having a lot of fun right now thinking all this up. xD;

So yea, that’s another big one to add to my Precure wishlist.

If it becomes reality someday, I’ll…well, I’ll definitely not stop screaming for the next five years, that’s for sure. xDD;;;