#also i’ve only seen 5 episodes so this could be. y’know. subject to change

[rystiel]

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Top 5 Reasons Doug’s Pretty Great

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nine years since the first episode of S1 was released. I can still remember be a wee little lass first discovering it on youtube and becoming obsessed. At the time, I had no where to play it myself, so I watched as many playthroughs as I could until my family got an xbox. 

While the first episode in this series has a lot of memorable moments, the one that always stands out in people’s memories is the moment where you’re trying to escape the drugstore as walkers pound away at the door and windows, and you realize that both Carley and Doug need your help or they’re going to die. 

But... you can only save one, and whoever you don’t help, they end up being eaten alive by walkers and you get to feel bad about it for the rest of the episode. 

I bring this up because it’s interesting to look back nine years ago and see that... well, not a lot of people saved Doug. Which is crazy, because now the stats are pretty 50/50 with Doug even having a bit of an edge over Carley. That definitely wasn’t the case back then because the stats were more along the line of 20/80.

Why? Well, the writer’s didn’t exactly do the best job of showing how great Doug is in ep1, especially compared to Carley who has more interactions with Lee and more screen time.... which is even funnier because they did actually think they did a good job and were surprised by the results after the episode’s release.

Even back then they had a habit of making imbalanced routes then denying the imbalance... something they never grew out of. 

I guess they were a little butthurt about it since Doug is a favorite among the team given that he’s actually based on a real person, Doug Tabacco, an IT guy they worked with. This got to the point where Telltale never missed an opportunity to tell everyone to #SaveDoug over Carley.

I also love that they use the Stranger to guilt trip everyone who saved Carley by having him be like, “Doug was in a worse position! >:( You only saved Carley because she was a pretty girl!!” just.... real subtle, guys haha

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that more often than not, I choose to save Carley over Doug for many reasons, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate Doug and enjoy having him around in the off chance I do save him. So I thought it’d be fun to talk about Doug as a character and why he was pretty great as a little tribute, y’know? 

5. Doug’s a pretty funny dude

Now, I wouldn’t exactly call twdg a comedy, y’know? It gets dark, then manages to get even darker at times, but if the game was nothing but doom and gloom, it’d get boring and become unenjoyable. 

While other characters do get a laugh out of me from time to time, I enjoy the humor that Doug brings to the group, even if it’s not intentional and just the way he is. 

Even from the beginning, Doug had me chuckling with the fact that this nerdy dude didn’t want to bring profanity to Lee’s ears when talking about Larry, so he’s just like “ He's kind of a dick... pardon my french,” like Doug.... it’s okay, you can call him an asshole, no one will judge hahaha.

Then there’s the biscuit scene that I think we all know and love. Helps break the tension of meeting these weirdo’s who own a dairy and are totally not suspicious or anything. 

But it’s not even just that Doug is funny, he’s also a character that gets you to crack a smile when he’s talking about something he’s passionate about, or when he’s proud of the alarm he rigged up, or when he’s being adorably awkward. 

One of my favorites is in ep3 when Lee goes to ask Doug if he has any chalk, and he goes into this spiel about charcoal-- “You know, a piece of charcoal is a suitable alternative, depending on your marking surface. Since we're on the subject, did you know that while chalk is traditionally known to be calcium carbonate, what's often used in classrooms is actually made of gypsum, thanks to favorable domestic mining conditions?”

And Lee’s response is just-- “Doug, I did not know that.”

“Happy to be of service.”

It’s just really funny... and it makes you feel better after all the implications about Doug’s mental health in the episode... like you gave him a moment to flex his knowledge and get excited about it. 

But yeah, what can I say? Doug makes me laugh and he brings a bit of light to the groups constant shitshow. 

4. Doug saved the group’s ass at the St John farm

And he did so with a laser pointer. 

I always hate it when Doug/Carley leave the group at the St Johns and remain absent for most of the episode, though I chalk that up to the writers trying to make the different routes easier on themselves, y’know? 

But, at least they come back to save the day. 

In Doug’s case, he’s not comfortable with guns like Carley is, so he’s gotta get creative when it comes to getting Lee’s attention and stopping Andy from hurting Duck and Lee. 

That’s where his fancy little laser pointer comes in. 

We first see him with it during the walk to the farm, but then see it in action after Lee escapes the barn and is nearly blinded by the light. Doug claims he was doing morse code before Lee tells him and Ben that these assholes cut off Mark’s legs and tried to feed them to the group. 

Now, here’s the thing... If Doug and Ben had done what they were told and stayed at the motor inn over night, things probably wouldn’t have turned out so good for the group. Doug is the one who shines the laser pointer in Andy’s eyes when he’s got ahold of Duck, giving Lee the advantage of attack. Without that, if Lee tried anything, he would’ve ended up like dingdong Kenny with a bullet in his side. 

Also there’s just a lot of bravery from Doug, y’know? Like as soon as he finds Lee and knows the situation, the first thing he asks is what can they do to help, and he sticks around to do what he can.... even if it is just to point a laser in someone’s eye. 

No one gives Doug enough credit for savin’ the day, y’know? And if you have any doubt, even Lee says, “I never thought a laser pointer would be the thing that saved our lives.”

3. Doug’s friendship with Lee

Speaking of Lee, his friendship with Doug is underrated. The two have chemistry and work off each other well in the scene’s they’re in. While it’s not as strong as Carley’s in ep1, saving Doug and having around in ep2 & ep3 lets you see it at it’s best, y’know? 

After Lee saves his life at the drugstore, Doug is shown to mourn Carley and asks Lee why he would pick him, lamenting that he wished he had picked her over him and you can tell that Doug feels that he owes Lee a lot for saving him. Hell, he even says as much when Lee tries to give him food in ep2-- “Why don't you keep my share today. I know I said it didn't matter why you saved me and not Carley, but... I owe you a lot more than half a day's rations."

Also, I love this one line from Kenny when you’re on bad terms with him and they’re talking about going separate ways where he’s basically like “We all know Doug’s gonna stay with you because you saved him that ONE time >:(” and on top of it being such a bitchy Kenny line, it also shows that every can see that Doug is a loyal friend to Lee and would want to stick with him where ever he decides to go. 

One thing that I think people tend to overlook, though, is how concerned Lee is with Doug’s mental health in ep3. There are implications that Doug might be suffering with depression due to the situation of the walkers, bandits harrassing and threatening them, and believing that he isn’t useful to the group, stating that he feel pretty worthless. Lee asks Clementine if he seems sad, and hell, he even talks to Lilly about it.

In fact, speaking of Clementine, Doug is real sweet with her, too. Of course, he gives her those batteries for her walkie, but he also asks about how she’s doing as they’re leaving the dairy. Hell, 8 years later, Clementine still remembers him by name and how sweet he was when fucking dingdong Lilly can’t remember his damn name. That says a lot. 

Y’all know how important Clementine is to Lee, so he wouldn’t have grown as close to Doug if he wasn’t a genuinely good person who treated Clementine with kindess. 

I dunno, there’s a lot of trust and care between the two and it’s a relationship that I truly love. I just wish we could’ve seen a bit more of it but y’know...#2 happened. 

2. Doug saved Ben’s life

Yeah, I think we all saw this coming...

Look, doesn’t matter what you think about Ben, okay? Not what we’re talkin’ about. We’re talkin’ about Doug saving Ben’s life, which unfortunately meant ending his own.

Still haven’t forgiven Lilly for this one. Though I’ve always found the difference between Doug and Carley’s death’s interesting. With Carley, Lilly intentionally kills her after Carley tells her off. But with Doug, Lilly was aiming for Ben and even when Doug pulled him out of the way, she still fired the gun... even though she didn’t have a clear shot and ended up hitting Doug. 

Then she tries to play it off like it was an accident which, yeah I guess it was but that doesn’t change that you were intending to murder this 6ft tall child. 

It’s just... I dunno, man, it’s sad. I always feel more sorrow for Doug’s death, but more anger for Carley’s? Even though both make me angry, it’s just different characters, different things that led to their deaths, different feelings. This is the first real “Fuck you, Lilly” moment for me and she can spend the next 8 years wandering around for all I can. 

Doug didn’t deserve this shit. 

But, the reason I put this at #2 because it really says a lot about Doug as a character. The second he saw Lilly aim that gun, he yanked Ben out of the way. He could’ve gone into shock, he could’ve just yelled “no!”, or he could’ve gone at Lilly instead.... but no, his first instinct was to grab Ben and move himself in front and it really fucking sucks that that’s what killed him. 

And y’know this isn’t the first time Doug has put himself in danger to save someone. I already talked about him saving everyone at the dairy, but can we not forget how he and Carley met? She was gonna get eaten by walkers then our big hero Doug came in and saved her?? Didn’t know her or anything, just saw her and her crew getting attacked and did what he could to save any survivors?? 

Like... no one talks about that because it’s so played off and never brought up again and I need everyone to remember this, okay? 

Doug selflessly putting himself in danger to help those around him? Fantastic. Beautiful. Love that.

1. Look, Doug himself is just #1. His personality, intelligence, everything.

Wow, Doug’s personality being the #1 reason he’s so great? Who woulda thought?

Well, ME woulda thought because obviously.

Listen... in case you haven’t gather this from the previous four entries, Doug is an intelligent, awkward, caring, selfless, funny, and brave man, okay? He’s likable, he tries his damnedest to pull his weight for the group, he shows actual loyalty and kindness unlike some people, and when he tends to avoid the constant Lilly and Kenny conflicts, he does his best to step in when things take a serious turn, hence the Ben situation. 

No to mention the dude is smart. 

I mean, he really took a random remote and was like, “Oh it’s universal, let me just program it to work on ALL the random TV’s across the street as a way to distract these walkers!” like dude.... you just know how to do that, huh? 

Or his fun little bell trap that alerts the groups of strangers and walkers? Oh, and remember when he fixed the RV by hitting it with a fucking hammer and was like “It works now, drive!” 

And have I mentioned that he bested Andy St John with a goddamn laser pointer?? 

Oh, also wanna add that I really like his voice acting, as well. He’s voiced by Sam Joan, who does a good job at selling Doug’s soft-spoken but intelligent nature, and knows how to pull off “dorky” when needed... and I mean that in a good way, when he’s talking about charcoal Doug is being a dork and I love him.

I mean... what else is there to say?

All that’s left to do is pull a Telltale and--

#SaveDoug

---

Honorable Mentions

-Doug is a pie guy, going off of that time he named all the different kinds of pie he could thing of and I feel that.  -He’s a very fashionable person. I want that weird polar bear deer thing shirt he wears in ep1.  -also, you can’t go wrong with socks and sandals, my dude.  -He had a crush on Carley and honestly, I feel that, too. 

---

There it is, there’s my whole thing about Doug. What are your thoughts? When it comes to that choice in ep1 of s1, do you save Doug or do you save Carley? Do you agree or disagree with any of my choices for this list? Or have anything to add? I’m always down to chat.

Have any suggestions for future T5F’s? Feel free to send ‘em in! :D

—

Next week’s T5F

[orange-meringue]

Lost And Found Q & A

(The Q&A is here! Yeah, I’m not sure exactly how many of you ended up coming over from AO3, but I’ve decided to do the Q&A for my fic here -sorry to those of you who are uninterested in my writing life, I’ve been really invested in Lost And Found lately. 

The first question was submitted here on Tumblr, and the rest are all from AO3. I hope you’re satisfied with my answers, and if you have any more questions after this or just want some elaboration, please feel free to ask! I’ll add them on in a reblog! 

Anyway, enjoy! I’ll put everything beneath the cut) 

How does Donnie adjust to physical touch/affection in the future?

-Donnie is definitely touch-starved. No way around it. As mentioned in the fic, Draxum, Huginn, and Muninn never really gave him more than a few one-sided hugs, fist-bumps or handshakes. He’d never been fully hugged or held until he met his brothers, and it’s still very weird and new to him. But obviously his brothers (as well as April and Splinter, once you get to know them) are pretty touchy, but a few of them are better at picking up on Donnie’s thing with touch than others. Overtime I feel like they would be able to get him more and more acquainted with things like casual hugs and friendly touch, and the more he gets used to these things, the less they startle him every time. Though I do imagine he has a few relapses in the future (which I do plan to write about) where touch goes back to being startling and scary, and it takes him a day or so to warm back up to it. Mostly good things, though! Donnie truly does love the familial affection, though he’s not likely to admit it

When did the boys prepare Donnie’s room?

I imagine they made his room during the last chapter, after Splinter’s apology and after April and Mayhem left, when everyone began to split up to do their own things. The timeline is a little questionable, but I like to think they had a good hour in there, and most of the materials were already there and ready -the room was likely empty, too, and was acting as some sort of storage room that they never knew what to do with. I tried to make it obvious that they’d been pressed for time and hadn’t been able to do much, hence the hastily made bed frame and why there were only two other pieces of furniture

Will Donnie ever feel comfortable enough to remove his tech around the lair in the future?

I feel that, much like canon Donnie, wearing his tech is a bit of a habitual thing. He doesn’t really see a reason to take it off, even if he’s technically safe in the lair, especially because it was ingrained in him via Draxum that his tech is everything keeping him safe. His tech is his armor and his safety blanket, and even if he knows, logically, he’s not going to be ambushed in the middle of the lair, it’s hard to take it off. Eventually, though, I feel like his brothers help with that. At one point Raph probably starts trying to train him to build strength and muscle on his own so he doesn’t have to rely on his limb clamps, and, as Donnie gets more comfortable with his brothers, he starts feeling relaxed enough to remove his battle shell when lounging around with them

Would Splinter try to bond with Donnie and attempt to form a better connection with him?

Splinter really does love his son and wants to spend time with him! But...uh...as of the story’s ending...he doesn’t know very much about him. He knows he was raised by Draxum to be a soldier and is very good with technology, but other than that...next to nothing. But it’s a great motivator! Splinter 100% wants to know Donnie as well as he knows his other boys, so he pulls out every stop to try and bond with him, making sure not to rush him despite his curiosity and family-oriented nature, because Donnie is currently pretty skeptical of adults (even Splinter) for...obvious reasons. But he wants to get to know Splinter, too, and, yeah, he’s willing to sit through his 5+ hour Lou Jitsu monologues to let that happen

How does Donnie feel about the boys’ future plans to capture oozesquitos and sabotage Draxum? Does he still have conflicted feelings about humans?

After the initial adrenaline and shock of everything subsides, I feel like it was Donnie’s idea to go after the oozesquitos. He probably wakes up in a cold sweat one night remembering oh yeah, Draxum and I unleashed a swarm of carrier bugs upon New York that are set on turning people into mutants and immediately feels the need to remedy his past mistake. So he builds a device to track the oozesquitos, which leads the boys to Big Mama’s hotel, and the rest is history (though slightly different than it was in canon, considering Donnie’s knowledge of Big Mama’s schemes and the Battle Nexus). But in terms of Draxum, Donnie would definitely be far more hesitant about trying to sabotage him. Donnie is still afraid of Draxum, after all -a small part of him feels like everything with his brothers is only temporary, and eventually he’s going to be stuck with Draxum again, and the further on his bad side he gets now, the worse it’s going to be when that does happen. He never directly challenges or fights Draxum whenever they run into him, and if there’s a way to avoid clashing with him altogether, he’ll take it

As for humans, Donnie’s definitely still conflicted about them. It’s been ingrained in him his whole life that humans are evil and selfish- that they forced his whole race underground and that’s the reason they now live in secrecy. And honestly, not even Splinter actually knows if that’s true. So Donnie remains skeptical, but overtime he’s able to do a lot more things around the city without fear of humans. They’re not actually that dangerous, he discovers, and maybe -just maybe- they’re alright. But there’s only one human Donnie grows to fully trust, and that’s April. In his eyes, she’s already proved her loyalty and compassion and, y’know, desire not to out him and his brothers to all of human-kind, not to mention she’s super badass and someone Donnie does not want on his bad side again. She’s a good friend, he realizes. He can definitely understand why she’s part of the family

How much does Donnie know about the Hidden City? Does he know about Big Mama and her hotel? How would the boys’ interactions with Big Mama change with this version of Donnie?

Considering he was raised with Draxum (who is apparently a well-known public figure in the Hidden City) he definitely has a fair amount of knowledge about the place, as well as a few ins and yōkai to go to when he needs something done. He’s very well-known himself, and actually has a reputation as a very intimidating soldier. He’s also well-versed in Big Mama’s tricks, because she and Draxum have done business before and she’s 100% tried to kidnap him for the Battle Nexus (emphasis on tried). Harking back to the question about Donnie’s oozesquito-capturing plan, the episode would definitely go differently with him there. It would be a great Leo and Donnie bonding episode, because neither of them trust Big Mama in the slightest, and Raph and Mikey would be far more cautious around her, though still intrigued by the concept of a mutant hotel and her apparent interest in helping them. But I think Donnie would manage to slip out with Leo before their brothers are captured, then it would be a race with a hilarious amount of arguing until they rescue Raph and Mikey, then everything would likely proceed as normal for the rest of the episode

Is Donnie jealous that April gets to attend school? What would his relationships with the Purple Dragons be like?

Donnie has no idea what school is. He’s heard mention of it in shows he’s pirated, but it isn’t until April comes to him one day complaining about her workload that he asks what she’s talking about. Once she explains it, he’s ecstatic! A place you can go to learn about math, science, history, and any other subject you could ever want? How much does it cost? ...It’s free?! He’s begging April to smuggle him in. She absolutely does not want to deal with that, but Donnie did make her a whole laptop and upgrade her phone a whole bunch, so how can she say no? She agrees to take him the next day, but it doesn’t fully occur to Donnie that the school is crowded with humans until he gets there. He’s on-edge the entire day, and it doesn’t help that he’s a weird green-skinned new kid no one’s ever seen before. I imagine it would be a great chapter for some good old fashioned Donnie and April bonding, and I’m 100% going to write it now, so anything else would be considered a spoiler

As for the Purple Dragons, I imagine their relationship wouldn’t be too different. The Purple Jacket episode would go relatively the same way, though I imagine Donnie would be a little more reluctant to actually join the Dragons, and way more irritating throughout the rest of the episode. But the plot and their feelings toward each other would likely remain the same

Does Donnie still eat bugs?

The whole thing with the bugs is basically...Draxum didn’t know what to feed Donnie as a baby, so he went to a local animal expert who recommended things like fruits, veggies, bugs, etc. So, considering that Draxum’s main priority was rebuilding his lab and he didn’t really have the resources to get food for anyone but himself (and maybe Huginn and Muninn- though they probably stuck to dumpster diving), Donnie’s appetite ended up consisting completely of typical turtle food, and only when he got older did Draxum started adding in things like nutrient bars and protein shakes, just to help him build more strength and muscle. So Donnie never really had anything else before he met his brothers, and it feels weird to him to jump straight from turtle to human food, so he slowly incorporates more of the latter into his diet overtime. He does still eat bugs, though. Splinter started getting him things like bug chips and seasoned bugs to make it less unsettling, but now he just eats those all the time and none of the others care for it. If a live bug happens to get in his way, he definitely won’t hesitate to eat it, and, yeah, sometimes it’s startling and almost made Leo throw up once, but it’s also really helpful if there’s a bug in the lair and none of the others want to deal with it. Donnie has eaten a spider before. The others just pretend it never happened

[sailor-cresselia]

Zi-O episodes 31 & 32 - AGITO TIME

Okay, I want to know how long this actually takes me this time around, so… I’m starting playback at about a quarter past midnight. (I got distracted earlier, when I told myself I was going to start. I’m not good at timekeeping.)

((also, as I mentioned in the previous liveblog, if you comment on any of the sections in here, I’d really appreciate it if you specify which statements you’re talking about. These recaps get really long, so… y’know, it’ll make it a little easier for a conversation.))

~cut goes here~

Bullet casings? In MY Kamen Rider? It’s more likely than you think!

(I haven’t seen Agito, but as with Ryuki and Blade, I’ve seen the History Of’s that Marcosatsu did. So, I… should be okay? Ish.)

But why do they want G3 units nationwide? Are they finally sick of all the yearly monster attacks, and doing something about it? … Okay, yeah, I don’t believe it either, but hey, we can speculate!

Ouch, rest in piece G3 user number 2. He got thrown so hard he’s stuck in the viewing window.

Another!Another Agito’s got some muscle on him.

aaaand this is the tribute arc where the Another Rider name scheme is going to be incredibly problematic, like people worried.

I get that there are six watches left to acquire – notably including Drive, since the one they currently have was brought back by Geiz. But would it have killed Toei to let the W and Kuuga watches be in-show? Would it? They had to make them appear in the movie? Specifically, the movie that the producer has said is only psuedo-canon?! 

Six left, and Sougo doesn’t want them to become Oma Zi-O. He wants them so he can stop Oma Zi-O, so that he can match his power. But, you know, the team kind of lucked into finding them, what with the Another Riders being created… or… hm. They get the Ride Watches because of the Another Riders. The Time Jackers are the ones creating the Another Riders, and they’re from the future, and know full well how Zi-O acquires his watches. The thing is, they initially said it was to ‘find a new candidate for king.’ We know that that’s not nearly so true as Heure and Hora were led to believe, since Swartz already had his candidate chosen. And we were led to believe that said candidate was Hiryuu, Another Zi-O. Except! “I’ll see you on the Day of Oma” wasn’t… exactly said to Hiryuu, was it? And then, we saw that an earlier version of Swartz was responsible for the bus crash, as he was looking for A Boy Who Would Be King. He found Sougo.

Sougo has been his choice all along. 

(un-Pause to hear Woz talk!)

“No, no, we just need to continue as we’ve been doing. The watches will show up.” … Well, you’re not wrong.

Junichiro rushes in, asking if they were watching. And, I mean, I don’t know Japanese, but I am pretty sure that under normal circumstances, people don’t usually use the English verb ‘to watch’ when referring to a news broadcast.

Come on, man, you just won me over in the last few arcs, don’t blow this.

Wait, the public knows about the G3 units?! Were they common knowledge in Agito? Or, at least, publicly available knowledge?

HAHAHA I didn’t even NOTICE that Woz hadn’t done his Recap yet! Oh man, I’m slipping! But no, now he does it, by Pausing the show, and incidentally casting everyone else in the room in shadow. … Wait, has he been actually doing that the entire time? Just? Pausing time for a moment to talk at us? I mean, I wouldn’t put it past him, the drama hog that he is. Also, where did you get the confetti, sir? And is that going to be in the actual room when time resumes?

Meanwhile, in… France, I think. “I must go. My planet city needs me.”

It takes four minutes into the episode to reach the Opening. It took me almost 20 to reach that.

Also, the shot of Zi-O II has been replaced by Trinity. I like how the pose they chose is basically a combination of all three of their styles. As a small note, it flashes over the faces in the order of Zi-O, Geiz, and Woz, before moving into a full-body shot. Also, I can’t remember if this change had been made last episode or not, but there’s no sign of the Future Note in the Kamen Rider Woz segment anymore. (I think it would have been a nice touch to have the Twilight Chronicle replace it in the background, but oh well.)

… and I just remembered that with Agito’s lore, that ‘my planet needs me’ quote isn’t nearly as out of left field as I intended when I made it a few minutes ago.

Okay, I know that we have the incredibly ominous “We really don’t know what Swartz is up to” discussion with Heure and Hora, and him interrupting as he is prone to do, and him being all “No, I’ve already got a plan going, as I am prone to do.” But what I’m stuck on is just how many sugar cubes he’s adding to his… well, I don’t know if it’s tea or coffee, but it’s far too many.

(Swartz has just joined Haruto and Kiriya in the ‘that can no longer be called coffee’ club.)

Damnit, Geiz, I wanted to make a crack about how ‘it’s less that the police are tracking the target, and more that the target is tracking the police’! It does make sense that this particular division would be fighting Another Riders, though, especially since they look even more like MOTWs than Kino did. Zi-O!Another Agito kind of has a toothy grin, too. I remember being weirded out by Kino!Another Agito’s design when I watched Gorider, but this is just. Eesh. Creepy.

Ohhh dear. If Tsukuyomi’s an amnesiac, that would explain her lack of last name. And since this is a time travel show, we’re all screwed! She could have been anyone! ...That sequence in the opening, with Tsukuyomi and the Time Jackers on the stairs, before they disappear and she’s alone is feeling really ominous right about now.

And this is a good arc for this reveal – since Agito’s Shoichi was an amnesiac protagonist. … hang on, wasn’t there a sibling confusion then, too, like in W? With… Philip… oh dear.

I have avoided shipping in this season at all costs, for precisely this type of reason. And because it’s time travel, to avoid whatever it was that happened in Den-O. (I haven’t seen past the first two episodes of Den-O. I’m working on it!)

OKAY! That aside! I’ve noticed that even though Tsukuyomi has the tablet, and pulls up all sorts of information on it, Geiz is usually the one to bring up who the past Riders were. He knew about Wizard, I’m dead certain there were other instances that I can’t recall off the top of my head, and he knows who the G3 unit is.

Okay, I love that we finally have officials trying to keep untransformed riders out of the battle field. It’s about time, and not just for Zi-O, it’s been lacking in the genre as a whole. I also like that the people in G3 armor don’t seem to trust the three Riders.

HEY! HOLD UP! SOUGO HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE OMEGA SYMBOL IS?! I thought you were terrible at math and science! Those are pretty much the only place you’d see that, these days – wait. Sougo’s a history buff; or, at least, that’s his only good subject. Or, was his only good subject, because he’s graduated. (Good for him!!!) Omega is Greek, maybe he actually could have picked it up in a history class!

Also, is this confirmation that Agito is supposed to be written using omega, like it its logo?

Mind you, it’s not as though anyone is going to be actually doing that, but still.

JESUS FUCK WHAT THE HELL DID FAKE!ANOTHER AGITO JUST DO? He tore off the chest armor, and ugghgh that sounded like he was trying to eat the poor man, but now said man is getting up, what the hell-

AAAAAGHAAAAGH! OH SHIT! OH SHIT!

Agito powers as zombie plague.

Kino was Another Agito because Agito is more of a powerset than a name.

It is now 1:10. I am ten minutes into ep 31.

This explains the excessively toothy mouth, at least.

Tsukuyomi used a Time Stop. With the same effects and sounds as the Time Jackers. And it was super targeted, too – it only hit the Another Agito that was attacking her and the officer. She didn’t know she could do that. Woz didn’t know she could do that.

It looks like Swartz didn’t know she could do that.

It looks like the time stop is an innate power.

Okay, okay, back to 9-to-5.

So, yeah, everyone thinks the Another Agitos are really weird. Sougo wants to try and find Kamen Rider Agito. Absolutely nobody is surprised that he has no idea how to follow through on that idea. “What if we try the internet?” Sougo, he was active in 2001, internet archives are terrible for going back to 2011, to say nothing of – Sougo.

Sougo. Kid. Why do you know how to get auto-correct to make the omega symbol? Did you actually learn that for a history class? I mean, good catch on the spelling of the name, and it worked, so. Points? I guess?

Okay, why is Woz’s voice echoing so much today?! I thought the first time I noticed it was because they were outside, but it’s happening inside, too. What gives?

Heure, no. No ‘proving you’re still useful’ to Swartz. Get OUT of there! Just go! It’s not safe for you! You just keep raising death flags!

But what Swartz is most interested in right now… is testing Tsukuyomi’s new power.

Sougo immediately asks if Kamen Rider Agito is in. Like the blunt little fool he is. His second try isn’t much better. Being Geiz is suffering.

But when the woman – Mana, right? When Mana recognizes the name Agito as a person, Geiz takes notice. Remember, boys, everyone else still remembers now, too.

Haha, see, Shoichi has the right reaction to the ‘he wants to be a king’ speech! Dumbfounded shock.

GEIZ! Why are you suggesting heading ‘overseas’ with the Time Mazine to find Shoichi? That’s! That’s Sougo logic! Noooo don’t let that be what rubs off on you!

Case in point, Sougo thinks it’s a good idea!

UGH Both Swartz AND Woz have had that stupid echo all episode, it’s driving me up a wall. It makes it feel like the audio’s balance is off or something.

So, creeper mc-purple-coat wants to… ‘test out’ Tsukuyomi’s power. Fair. She says that it’s none of his business, and that she doesn’t have any power, which is also fair. But I’d say that siccing one of the Another Agitos on her is overkill. And terrifying.

...wait, could Shoichi tell when enemies were appearing in his season? I legitimately don’t know.

(16 minutes in and 1 hour fifteen minutes later)

Okay, so, your choices here, boys.

Zi-O II. Good call, powerful, can read movements ahead of time.

Quiz. VERY good call. His powerset ‘asks’ the opponent to answer questions, or get electrocuted. Normally, I’m decidedly not okay with that, but from a tactical point, right now it makes sense. The rampaging Another Agitos are like, well, they’re Fast Zombies. They can’t answer questions.

BUT STOP USING REVIVE. I get why Typhoon is a good choice tactically. Like I said, FAST Zombies. Being even faster is a good survival strategy. But using REVIVE is a very BAD survival strategy.

Kudos for the touch of Sougo telling the cops to help their wounded – which they notably weren’t doing before he said that.

HI SPEAKING OF BAD CALLS! IN THIS CASE TRINITY IS A BAD IDEA!

Like Geiz says, you need NUMBERS.

Running Decade and Ex-aid would be a better choice right about now! That would give you two Zi-Os! ...and if Geiz gets Ghost, he can summon some of the parka ghosts to help, because they let THAT be a thing for the Ghost watch!

WOZ NO. You don’t need to IWAE this! This is now a no REJOICE zone! Go directly to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

Although, now the cops are evacuating the heck out of there while Woz distracts the Agitos with his absurdity.

Unfortunately, he’s also distracting Sougo and Geiz with said absurdity.

Quick! Back to sanity! Tsukuyomi! We need you to be the impulse control for all three of the boys now! I’m so sorry, we kept Woz contained as long as possible, but this much proximity to Sougo at one clip has spread the cloud cuckoo lander traits.

“Oh, you don’t remember anything? Well, you’re probably better off not knowing, I suppose.” (F you too, Swartz.)

“Do… you know something?”

~The sound of a Legend Rider’s belt approaches from the shadows~

Kamen Rider Agito is on the scene.

And Swartz is smiling at that.

THAT! Is NOT how Bike Fu works!

OH LORDY the Power Knuckle buzzsaw and the spear’s… well, spear projections can combine into a massive, even pointier circular saw blade! Trinity really IS a fusion form, isn’t it?

“...wait, where’d the others go?”

It was! A distraction! And a very good one!

It is now 1:50. I’ve been at this for… one hour, 35 minutes. I’ve watched one episode.

Oh boy.

…

Time for ep 32!

Yooooo! Okay! So! Heure and Hora are stepping in because Swartz was ‘dragging his feet’, they weren’t invited, because he’s an ass. But Heure! Just! Pulled the Another Watch out of one of the transformed Agitos – not the main one, mind you, he’s ticked off now – and! He! Pushed it to Rider Agito, drained his power, and turned! The Another Watch! Into a real Ride Watch!

!!!!

Tsukuyomi stopped time to save Shoichi from Another!Another Agito… which is great! Good work! Except that it’s SUPER POWERFUL. She can move, but everyone else is completely frozen. COMPLETELY. ...Everyone but Swartz, who’s eyes are moving.

(click) AS IT IS WRITTEN HERE!

(GDI Woz)

(and with a SPOTLIGHT, too!)

(Theatre kid Woz confirmed)

Woz, you’re incredibly proud of Sougo for graduating, aren’t you? You mentioned that last Recap, too!

(insert 20 minute gap to take care of the dishes here, resuming at 2:20)

Huh! The title card came in from the opposite side of the screen this time! Interesting!

Heure, you can’t just put a regular Ride Watch into an Another Rider, That can’t be good for the poor host. And, oh, no, look at that, he’s just turned into a duplicate of Kamen Rider Agito. An exact duplicate. Appearance-wise, anyway.

WELP.

Okay, I rag on him, but Junichiro’s reaction to Professional Chef Shoichi complementing his cooking is great.

And then right back to serious, as soon as he leaves the room.

“I’m sorry… they took my Rider powers from me.”

“Which is really weird, since those are literally part of me. Trust me, things were weird in the early ‘00’s, kid. A whole bunch of us wound up being not entirely human.”

Hora? Hang on, can you clarify that? “Does that mean she’s a Time Jacker too?”

Are. Are you saying that being a ‘Time Jacker’ isn’t a group affiliation? That it’s the name of a powerset?!

… Just like how ‘Agito’ is?

Okay, so the current active party layout is:

Team One: Sougo and Geiz, dealing with a swarm of Another Agitos, while Heure and Another Agito Prime watch.

‘Team’ Two: Woz confronting Swartz about Tsukuyomi’s powers. Apparently Swartz is ‘the only one’ who can grant powers over time, which implies that he gave them to Heure and Hora. But he didn’t give them to Tsukuyomi, and he implies himself that the two of them are ‘cut from the same cloth’. Woz knows what that means.

Team Three: Shoichi goes to talk to Tsukuyomi. He’s the resident voice of experience on finding out you’re not who you thought you were, after all.

Well, him, Philip, and Sento, but the other two aren’t exactly here at the moment.

So, yes, as I thought he’d do, after bringing Tsukuyomi to the restaurant, he tells her about his past. About how Shoichi Tsugami isn’t technically his name. About how he tried to live his life the best he could, after losing who he was, and finding out he had powers. It worked out for him. And after all, hasn’t she already been doing that? The power is just a little more than she knew about.

And right after he says “Haven’t you already been doing that”, guess what starts playing?

The instrumental version of ‘King of Time.’

...Huh. It’s more noticeable with Geiz, who’s usually either frowning or exasperated. But… we never see Tsukuyomi smile, either, do we?

And then, with Sougo…

“I’m fighting to make the world better, and that’s what you’re doing too, right? So, does it really matter who you used to be?”

She responds with a smile. It’s a good look for her.

And of course, Woz shows up with bad news.

“So, fighting Agito’s a BAD idea, because once there’s one Agito, there can be countless Another Agitos. We are going to be overwhelmed. This is literally straight from Swartz. We’re screwed.”

“You better not be playing double agent agai-”

“Well, I mean, I already saw that was going to happen, so…. Besides, we don’t really have a choice in the matter, since we need to get that watch.”

““...fine...””

((It’s about 2:50 now, so I’m at… a little over two hours.))

Stop! Using! Revive! Unless you guys worked out how to keep it’s time compression from literally killing you a little more with each use, you! Need! To! Not! Use! That!

Unfortunately, Fury and Kikai make perfect sense here – the brute strength should help keep you two from getting too injured.

AAAND then they go for Typhoon and Shinobi for a speed-off. BOYS! Stop it! Although, I will admit, the flight and teleport spamming is pretty cool when you’re not using it on each other.

AHAHAH! Shoichi’s playing distraction in a G3 suit! That makes a LOT of sense! He can’t fight in his usual manner right now – on account of his powers being otherwise occupied. But the G3 suits were meant for humans to fight monsters on a more level playing field. AND the Another Agitos had been going after police facilities… which they haven’t mentioned again, but it sure seems to be drawing attention to him.

Tsukuyomi’s already got really good control, hasn’t she? The first time, she froze only the one Another Agito, and nothing else in the area. The second, she panicked, and was able to stop literally everything. Well, again, Swartz was slightly moving. Slightly. This time, it’s four Another Agitos, but Shoichi, who was right in the middle of them, is unaffected.

One direct hit from Zi-O II was able to knock the Ride Watch out of Another Agito Prime, and it rolled right to it’s proper owner. And for the first time, we get to see a Rider regaining their powers – the Ride Watch fades from existence, and Shoichi’s belt reappears on his waist.

“Transform!”

And then a (largely reluctant) transformation into Trinity. Geiz has had it up to here with Woz’s Announcements. You don’t have to do them every time, you know. You used to only make those when a new power was achieved. You guys have done this twice already.

(Tsukuyomi is in hell. That’s the only explanation she can think of.)

I like that ripple effect they used for Agito’s own Trinity transformation. I don’t know what sort of effects they used in 2001/2002, but it’s nice to see a nod to older FX in this incredibly flashy show.

(Tsukuyomi is definitely in hell. That’s the only explanation she can think of.)

Woz just has to do a proclamation. I don’t think it’s even part of his contract, I think he’s just THAT into this sort of thing. He was BORN to be a herald. Problem for HIM is, even Sougo’s had enough.

But!

He thinks this might work.

~Old catchphrases reappearing is actually my jam!~

~Who knew?~

...okay, everyone who’s been following me through this liveblog for the past… six months that I’ve been doing liveblogs for. Oh. Huh. I. Genuinely hadn’t realized it had been that long. I started doing these full reactions with the Gaim arc in November. Hm.

!

!!

!!!!

!!!!!!!!

Over-Time included LYRIC SUBTITLES!

Zi-O! Why! Why can’t you put the song credits in the credits!

I mean, that would have been an INCREDIBLE spoiler in this case! But! Holy shit!

It would be a huge spoiler because this isn’t one of Zi-O’s songs.

This is from Agito. It’s titled BELIEVE YOURSELF.

This is appropriate.

The Zi-O team hasn’t had a real chance to fight alongside their predecessors. Not really. Zi-O and Geiz fought ‘with’ Build and Cross-Z, but they had to bow out shortly through the fight. Same with Ex-Aid. Ghost and Specter only fought together, not with the boys. Quiz and Kikai don’t count – they debuted in Zi-O. They fought AGAINST Decade and DiEnd. The next people to transform… were Blade and Chalice, and they weren’t working together. Their powers were taken before they could have fought as a team.

This? A fight with the Kamen Rider having his powers intact? Not just intact, actually, but returned? And not rapidly disappearing?

This is what we WANTED. I mean, hell, this is what the SHT movies SHOULD have been.

And the choice of song is incredibly fitting, too. I mean, here. Here’s the page on the KR Wiki. Go check it out, and you just try to tell me that’s not appropriate for Zi-O as a whole, but especially for the events lately, and of this arc.

Okay, okay, back to the battle. Which is glorious.

For one, Zi-O using one of the Agito Drones to hold part of his sword while he removes the mask element from it, so he can attach said mask to the other sword, and combining the two while the drone is still slightly impaled? That’s CLEVER. And I’m pretty sure that’s Sougo at work, too – he’s done similar before, getting others to turn his belt and complete his transformation. And the Kings Slash grows and impales several more drones before he swings.

And, interestingly, when Trinity and Agito prepare their finishers? Another Agito Prime forces his way through the drones to be the one to take the hit – to the point of standing directly in front of the two Rider Kicks, and putting his chest out there. Asking to be hit.

And that Dual Kick is SOMETHING ELSE! Driving him all the way across the plaza, knocking over any drones they encounter in the line of ‘fire’, and digging a trench into the ground! THIS is a fight scene!

Yet another entrusting of the watch.

Tsukuyomi has found her resolve.

Woz has found a secret.

And next episode –

Wait a minute.

(checks the calendar)

VERY nice.

Sougo’s birthday episode? Airs on his birthday. Nice planning, Toei! And you checked a calendar correctly this time!

(But you couldn’t be bothered to check the year when you set Kazumin’s phone, could you?)

Also, it looks like they might be aiming a little closer to the first part of Hibiki for the tribute arc, with the kanji appearing on screen in the preview.

((so, it’s now… 3:45, so I wound up taking… let’s see. Started at 12:15, so a complete time would be three and a half hours, but there was that twenty minute gap when I went from 31 to 32, so… about three hours and ten minutes to watch 40 minutes of a children’s Sunday morning superhero show.))

((WORTH IT.))

[thegoodplacepodcasts-blog]

Ch. 2: Allison Jones and Ben Harris, Casting Director, Alan Yang, Writer

Ch. 2: Allison Jones and Ben Harris, Casting Director, Alan Yang, Writer Featuring the voices of host Marc Evan Jackson (MEJ), casting directors Allison Jones (AJ) and Ben Harris (BH), and writer Alan Yang (AY). Intro and outro features D’Arcy Carden (DC) as Janet, and Ted Danson (TD) as Michael. Clips from 1X2 of The Good Place include the voices of Kristen Bell (KB) as Eleanor Shellstrop, and William Jackson Harper (WJH) as Chidi Anagonye.

Ding!

DC: Hi there, I’m Janet. Welcome to The Good Place, the podcast.

TD: Janet, what is a podcast?

DC: It’s like the radio but there’s no music and literally anyone can do one at any moment about any subject. And, there’s a billion of them!

TD: Sounds great! Hope you enjoy this week’s episode!

[Opening music]

MEJ: Welcome to The Good Place, the podcast. I’m Marc Evan Jackson, I play Shawn. Today we’re talking about episode 1X2, “Flying”. In the aftermath of the chaos, Eleanor tries to avoid suspicion, Michael is distraught and believes he’s made a mistake in his first neighbourhood, Tahani puts together a group of volunteers to clean the neighbourhood, but anyone who participates will miss out on flying day, Chidi volunteers Eleanor, but Eleanor hides trash quickly in order to fly which causes a trash storm and ultimately Chidi refusing to help her. Eleanor feels guilty and cleans the entire neighbourhood herself so Chidi changes his mind. The cliff-hanger of this episode is Eleanor receiving a mysterious note under her door that she doesn’t belong in the Good Place. This episode features guest cast Allyn Rachel, Amy Okuda, Susan Park, Jorge Diaz and Steve Berg, and today my guests are casting directors Allison Jones, Ben Harris, and the writer of the episode Alan Yang. Allison Jones, Ben Harris, Alan Yang, welcome! Everything is fine.

AY: Thanks for having us.

BH: Yeah.

AJ: Thank you.

AY: Also just wanna say, amazing hearing Marc just read that intro. That, that was the first take guys, no editing on that just amazing elocution.

MEJ: I appreciate it, does it bring back any memories – do you now recall the episode?

AY: I recall that episode, also yeah thanks for that recap. I was just telling these guys, it feels like we did this so long ago, ‘cause since then we did the second season, I was telling them I remember the episode I directed season 2, and you know, I also work on some other shows… so I think since then we did season 2 of Master of None and season 1 of this Amazon show that’s not out yet but yeah so, so thank you for that recap, otherwise man, I would have no idea what was going on.

MEJ: Of course, of course, so I guess to get us started, Alan, you had been – you know, you were in the room for season 1…

AY: I was! I was there for a lot of it, so the way that sort of happen was – you know I’d finished season 1 of Master of None, which was a show I did with Aziz Ansari and then I came back to LA, you know, we shot the show in New York and I have a bungalow on the Universal Studios lot with Mike Schur, the creator of The Good Place and my good friend, so we were both writing stuff in the bungalow and he was working on a show and gradually, as we’d walk together to go eat lunch, de would start giving me bits and pieces about the show and he was, ‘like what do you think of this? What do you think of this?’ and I would give him an opinion here or there, and he was like, ‘oh that’s interesting, that’s interesting’, then he pitched the whole pilot to me and I was like, wow that’s really good, and then eventually he was like, ‘What if you helped out on it a little bit’ and I was like ‘okay’ and he was like, ‘what if you were in the writers room a little’, I was like ‘okay’ and he’s like, ‘how about you write episode 2’ and I was like ‘okay’ so suddenly I was on this – I was on the staff. So yeah, it was really fun and, and I was excited to help out.

MEJ: Now what were the marching orders following the pilot – because obviously, the pilot establishes a bananas world, and what was the goal of episode two? I mean, you know, you had to play off that she found herself there incorrectly –

AY: Well, the whole season I would say was kind of broken as this… very cohesive, almost movie-like single narrative, and that is – so much of it comes from Mike’s brain. You know he had the pilot, I believed he pitched not only the pilot but a good amount of the first season when he pitched the show, so when he came into the room it was a fun – just a fun group of people, a lot of old Parks and Rec people, you know I worked on Parks and Rec for the whole run of that show as well, so it was a lot of old friends and y’know, a lot of what was in Mike’s brain – so he sort of had kind of the ending, which is you know, crazy twist ending.

MEJ: Mmhmm.

AY: And then along the way it was very important to him, you know, some of the inspirations for this show – and I think he said this before – were some of these Damon Lindelof shows and these buddies were ____ (?) , so like Lost and The Leftovers and stuff like that, and so each episode it was important not only to establish the characters – and there’s a lot of character combis like there was in Parks and Rec, The Office, but a lot of cliff-hangers and so the cliff-hanger at the end of episode 2 was the start of many, many, many cliff-hangers to come.

MEJ: Oh my goodness yes, cliff-hangers including some brilliant cast that were discovered, found, searched for, gathered by Allison Jones and Ben Harris. Part of the magic I think of these people is that they weren’t household names prior, these were people I think specifically of the character of Jiayu – later Jason Mendoza – that’s a person we have to buy as someone who could be a silent monk, right?

AJ: Yeah.

MEJ: If that had been an actor that we’d seen on The Office or Parks, you’d go, ‘I’ve heard that person talk before, I don’t – ’

AJ: Yeah.

MEJ: He’s gonna talk eventually, right, he’s the gun over the fireplace (?) or whatever. Tell us everything that goes into finding geniuses.

AJ: The writing first of all.

MEJ: Okay.

AJ: It starts with the writing, period, in every, every occasion. Secondly, it is in pilots – there’s a lot of legwork involved where you’re meeting a lot of – you do what’s called a breakdown and you send out agents a description of the character and you read many, many, many people, hoping to find a new face in TV pilots. That’s always the best thing to do, Mike Schur loves to do that, Mike Schur loves a challenge.

MEJ: Mmhmm.

AJ: That one required a lot of leg work and a lot of pre-reading and a lot of guys, and I was not sure of many of the future actions of these particular characters, especially him being a silent monk…

MEJ: Right.

AJ: This one was fun because he was actually supposed to be an idiot, so it was really funny to read them and then have them do the stupid dialogue.

MEJ: Mmhmm.

AJ: Which was truly funny, we had about 5 great guys for that, Ben and I remember reading Manny in our office –

BH: Yeap.

AJ: And Jordan Rodrigues and all these good guys who once they opened their – they looked pious and serious

BH: Rene Gube.

AJ: Rene Gube… they looked pious and serious but then they could do the dumb really well.

MEJ: [Laughter]

AJ: Which is always a delightful thing to cast.

MEJ: That was the step of not only “I don’t always want to be a DJ in Jacksonville…”

AJ: Oh my god.

MEJ: “Maybe I’ll be a DJ in Tampa.”

BH: Yes.

AJ: Yeah we heard that a lot, yeah.

BH: A lot.

AJ: We heard a lot of those, I don’t know if you were in it, you weren’t in on the pilot initially…

AY: No, not for this show, for other shows I’ve been –

AJ: It was terribly funny, we went with a lot of different diverse choices blah blah blah blah, but you really want someone to believably be a Thai monk…

MEJ: Mmhmm.

AJ: And it was just delightful having to find someone who could get the comedy, and also do it without seeming fake.

MEJ: Now the – Alan, do you remember, at all, if you put anything in the stage direction at one point, still as Jianyu he comforts Ted silently, he comforts the character of Michael and sort of puts his reassuring hand on… Were there any thoughts that you offered the character, like what he means to be saying silently?

AY: I think there was a lot of stage direction for Manny because he doesn’t even have lines for a long time! We were putting stuff in the script to get him stuff to do but you know he also – he, he made that character something really great, especially y’know, after the reveal happens, and – and man it was really fun writing those dirtbag Florida lines. I know there was a lot, and later the Jacksonville Jaguars stuff.

MEJ: Oh the Bortle stuff.

AY: Yeah, the stuff that happens in season 2. It’s really funny because then the Jaguars got really good.

MEJ: They got good, somehow.

AY: But yeah –

AJ: – The budhole was my favourite –

AY: – yeah exactly! And it ended up in Many and Joe Mande going to Florida, going to Jaguars games and playoffs, which was great.

BH: Aw right!

MEJ: I saw that.

AY: But yeah just a delight to write for him, and – and man working with him on set was great. You know season 2, I was on set more so it was really, really great to work with him.

MEJ: The… it was it deserves lauding, his ability to you know, convey so much silently because it, it would be tempting as an actor, I tell you, to really ham up those lines and sort of be doing a lot of facial-ness as though you’re saying like, ‘this bank is being robbed please call the police’ you know, like trying to convey a lot with your eyebrows, and he was so subtle and great. About some of the other characters I – it’s my understanding from Mike that you saw everybody in the world for Janet, it could have been a child, it could have been an old person, is that true?

BH: Yeap, very much so. I mean just for – actually just for Mike we probably auditioned 50 people?

MEJ: Is that right?

BH: And that’s, you know, then we’d also pre-read, just Allison and I in our office.

AJ: It’s also years of trying to find funny women who didn’t have to be gorgeous. With all due respect to D’Arcy, ‘cause she’s pretty –

MEJ: Sure, she’s very pretty (?)

AJ: But we didn’t have to have the funny gorgeous woman. We didn’t have to have – we could just have the woman who was the funniest.

MEJ: But a very ef–

AJ: So we thought that would be easy, and it wasn’t easy.

BH: It was not it was actually the most –

AJ: No, ‘cause there were so many good women.

BH: – difficult role to cast.

MEJ: I can’t imagine.

AJ: Mmhmm.

MEJ: It’s my understanding that from D’Arcy that it the breakdown didn’t even include sort of a Siri or Alexa kind of thing.

BH: No.

AJ: They didn’t want anybody to know –

BH – that it was robiotic

AJ: – anything about those points

MEJ: Interesting.

AJ: Yeah.

MEJ: But often oftentimes the breakdown includes like, gender and an age range kind of thing, and that wasn’t – you were saying you were told to go find what?

BH: It was pretty all over the –

AJ: Funny.

BH: Yeah it was just, we were just looking for funny.

MEJ: That’s amazing.

AJ: And for us, that’s the dream.

BH: Yes, that is ideal.

AJ: So we were, like can we bring in 10 more women for you please, yeah. And out of that group we have cast a lot of the other people on the show too.

BH: – and I –

AJ: Because we, we’ve seen, Mike always remembers who he likes.

BH: – and I think –

AJ: And will use them again.

BH: – with the pilot, Mike had written dummy sides.

MEJ: Right, fake.

BH: Right, fake sides for –

MEJ: Little bits of script that aren’t really going to be in the show.

BH: – and with Janet instead of saying Alexa – I, he had her being a, I think it was like a ph- an operator.

MEJ: A helpline.

BH: Yeah a helpline, and that was I think how he tried to get the Alexa or Siri.

AJ: We even brought in JJ Totah, who then went on to star in NBC’s Champions.

BH: That’s right.

AJ: And he was hilarious and Mike was going to use him for something, but I believe that’s a part that possibly you got instead.

MEJ: Is that right?

AJ: Yeap!

MEJ: I like that.

AJ: One of the bad guys.

MEJ: I’m happy with the recasting.

AJ: [Laughter]

MEJ: So it’s my understanding as well that Jameela, I know that she was a BBC presenter but not an actor prior to this, what… how did you, or had you been aware of her prior?

AJ: Oh god no, that was a, that was a tough one.

BH: That was also ___ (?)

AJ: that had to, that was pretty specific, a British-Indian beautiful actress and so we did a breakdown and read quite a few women, and she came on a Saturday – ‘cause in pilot season you’re frequently working on Saturdays, you can read people on Saturdays ‘cause they’re not working on other things.

MEJ: Oh wow.

AJ: And she came in and she was this giantess, personality-wise and physically and –

MEJ: [Laughter]

AJ: I think she intimidated everybody in the waiting room.

BH: Very much so.

AJ: And she was, she was great, I think she freaked out everybody when she first auditioned, Mike’s like, ‘woah!’ and then it was basically, how do you say no to Jameela ‘cause she was delightful.

MEJ: She is, she is a force of nature.

AJ: Oh my god.

AY: It’s hard to know where Jameela ends and Tahani begins.

AJ: Yeah.

AY: Because in the show she knows everyone famous, and then in real life she like – I, I –

AJ: Same thing.

AY: I know! I directed this Jay-Z video last year and I was talking to Jameela about it and she’s like, oh I know Jay and Beyonce and then, and then this – I went to this, I went to this party that, this Oscar party that Jay-Z and Beyonce threw and I walk in and Jameela’s there and…

AJ: No way!

AY: Of course I’m like, oh there, there you are and she’s like, she knows everybody there.

AJ: I didn’t know that.

AY: Her boyfriend is James Blake the singer and like yeah, she’s regularly hanging out with these people so alright.

BH: And I believe she told me this, I think it was her first audition like for –

AJ: I think it was.

AY: Well, good for her!

AJ: I didn’t know, I don’t know what a presenter is.

MEJ: A host.

AJ: I always am asking my British friends ‘what is a presenter’ and ‘do you look down on them acting wise’ and they’re like, ‘yes we do!’

MEJ: [Laughter]

AJ: I asked this great British casting director Lucy Bevan, ‘Do you know Jameela Jamil?’ and she said, ‘I looked her up, I think she’s a presenter’ and I don’t even know, there are so many of them on British television…

MEJ: Right.

AJ: But she is instinct, her timing is incredible, her comedy timing is incredible.

MEJ: She’s also fearless, like I saw her interviewing Russell Brand and she mopped the floor with Russell Brand.

AJ: Yes, I’m sure she did.

MEJ: Which is not an easy task.

AJ: She has more of an Essex accent, like she has a great London, East London type of accent naturally I think, and so she – she caught the posh accent for Good Place and it really works.

MEJ: Mmhmm.

AJ: I forget what the reason was for why she has the British accent though, on the show, and nobody else does.

AY: There is some in universe lore for that, yes, there an explanation.

AJ: I know there is an explanation, yeah.

AY:  I think, I think it’s if you want to sound like that you can, I think the theory was she wanted to keep it or something.

MEJL It’s mentioned?

AY: Yeah, I think so.

BH: Yes.

AJ: Yeah.

BH: They address it.

AJ: ‘Cause we interviewed some great British actresses for that over there, and here there’s, there’s a number of them and they were great, but she was just a, a force of nature and funny and sort of shocking, and she’s pretty dirty in person. She’s pretty dirty-mouthed, potty-mouth, yeah…

MEJ: She’s a bit of a dude.

AJ: Oh, yeah.

MEJ: Yeah, I think that’s why we hit it off so well immediately. I mean all of these people are, are delightful. We, we talked before, we in recording, you know Mike has a policy – like Mike curates just great people, cast and crew.

AJ: Yeah, mmhmm.

MEJ: There doesn’t appear to be a lot of drama. William Jackson Harper, how did he come across your desk?

BH He was –

AJ: Same thing.

BH: Yeah he was out in New York.

AJ: Yeah, his agent taped him in New York.

MEJ: Did you know immediately?

AJ: No, never a shoo-in.

MEJ: Is that right – is that a, across any –

AJ: I have to say – that’s… to dispel that myth. For me it’s never a shoo-in.

MEJ: That’s fascinating.

AJ: They’ll say it is but it, it never is and if a director goes ‘that’s the one I want!’ then it’s probably going to tank.

MEJ: That’s the kiss of death, really?

AJ: I don’t think the kiss of death but I don’t, I don’t ever think someone is a shoo-in. I never would have thought he was a shoo-in for that.

MEJ: Interesting.

AJ: And Mike and Alan, you all see what you want – what you like in the character and then how you can fit that into the world you’re creating. William Jackson Harper was just a damn good actor when he came in. Really good. He had some stiff competition, too.

BH: I’ve said besides Ted and Kristen…

AJ: Yeah.

BH: Everyone else all those other roles that we would actually test and find a new face. They were all – it was not an easy decision.

AJ: No, Mike – Mike, he was tortured a bit.

BH: Yes, very much so:

AJ: Yeah, ‘causewe got some good choices.

BH: But after the test I think it was, you know, Mike was –

AJ: He had us over there one night to talk about it.

BH: Yeah.

AJ: And we couldn’t help him on that one.

BH: It was, it was a laden night.

AY: You might say a Chidi level of indecision.

BH: Yes –

AJ: Yes.

BH: – Very true.

AY: Agonising, it was causing chest and stomach pains…

AJ: Completely, absolutely.

AY: Yeah. William – William was as skilled an actor you know, he’s able to do the dramatic stuff and the comedic stuff and you know sort of working with him reminded me of Adam Scott on Parks and Rec where he’s really able to do the straight man stuff, but also be so – so funny and yeah he really, he’s really been great in the show.

AJ: Mike’s always been willing to see someone who is not particularly right for the part, and who may not knock you out at first, and then you think about it and he’s like, ‘that’s who I want to write for’. I have to assume writers look at this and say, ‘who do I want to write for?’

AY: It’s al– I always feel like the best stuff is when the actors own personality starts imbuing the character.

AJ: Yeah.

AY: And sort of informs the character.

AJ: Yeah, especially in comedy.

AY: Especially in comedy and especially in television where it’s a long developing role, and you’ve seen that in, in a lot of the stuff that I’ve worked on, stuff with Mike especially. but you look at how Nick Offerman informed Ron Swanson you look at how Chris Pratt informed Andy Dwyer and all of it, all of the actors on that show – but as you’re doing 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 episodes, you would be a fool not to draw from the characters experiences, and then that’s how it was on Master of None too and then and these are all sort of shows in the same family. But yeah, I mean those characters are just the actors on some of these shows so you just pull from them, their assets (?)

AJ: I know, I agree. And always in TV you find new faces, just don’t even – just find the new faces and the payoff is much, I think much bigger creatively and also for an audience.

MEJ: It keeps it from being one note I suppose, you can – especially playing someone dumb or you know an __ character like a grumpy separatist (?)

AY: But yeah, the specificity makes it real, right. The specificity makes it real and the realness makes it funnier, because there’s nothing better than the real stuff, man! There’s nothing better than the real life experiences, so I like meeting with actors and talking with them about their lives and it really informs a lot of the stuff I have written.

AJ: I try to have the role fit the actor, not the other way around. They don’t try to squeeze the actor into what they have in their head, they’re open to – I mean they ____ and Larry David and ___, Alan Yang, and Aziz (?) and Mike Schur and Greg Daniels, it happened in the past – in the casting and the pilot as well, they see what they have there and then how they can work them into the role, vice versa.

BH: Exactly.

AJ: They don’t care about line readings, they want someone who is going to be good to write for., who’s sort of fascinating to watch, and who’s just inherently funny – in any different way they find funny, inherently funny.

AY: We write, we write to the person.

AJ: Like William – yeah.

AY: We write to the person.

AJ: William Jackson Harper is not funny in the way Ted Danson is funny, but he’s funny.

MEJ: In a completely different – I think about Will that you, you believe he’s having a stomach-ache.

AJ: Oh god, yeah!

MEJ: He’s not playing – it’s not, it’s not something he slips into, like he looks tortured.

AJ: His agony is… yeah.

MEJ: He looks, yeah, his agony is palpable through the screen and –

BH: And while the roles of Chidi and Tahani and Janet, the – you know, those were all three had such stiff competition, but it’s very difficult to imagine anybody else now.

MEJ: Forget it.

BH: Yeah.

MEJ: I mean –

BH: You can’t imagine it.

AJ: Bad Janet is everyone’s favourite character.

MEJ: Oh, I I hosted an Emmy panel of – the other day and never got to this but on my list was to say that I adore D’Arcy, I love janet, I love love Bad Janet.

BH: Yes.

MEJ: I mean for her to get to sink her teeth into something like that…

BH: And I’m sure the writers love writing for Bad Janet.

AY: Idiots and mean people are always, always fun to write, yeah.

MEJ: I think it was in the episode of season 2 that you directed that we did a no– Shawn and Bad Janet did a no-look high five hand slap, that was pretty amazing.

AY: Oh yeah that’s right, we did a couple of oners too, that was fun. I remember getting Marc to do that.

MEJ: Pretty great. Alan, do you share Mike’s hatred for Florida and Arizona?

AY: I don’t know what’s up with that, man, I don’t know what’s up with that@ I think it’s, it’s fun because Florida’s one thing, but also just jokes about Arizona, you don’t just – you don’t just see that many of them, so it’s nice to, to get that, although I did watch this other thing this other day where Charles Barkley was making fun of the food at the Phoenix Suns Arena, it was very, very specific but yeah, no… I – it’s, it’s funny you know, like, ‘cause you, you wanna – I feel like one thing you wanna do is, is play some jokes where there ain’t. You know, ‘cause like Arizona jokes, but – Florida jokes may be lower hanging fruit but it’s, it’s more fun to do original jokes than to play on well tread ground.

MEJ: I feel like the audiences imagination could fill in some blanks after the pilot about how bad a character on earth Eleanor Shellstrop was. Was it difficult – what are the things did you consider, how did you arrive at her ditching her duties as a designated driver over and over again in these flashbacks?

AY: Yeah, that was a real push-pull ‘cause that’s the kind of thing that a writers room is good for, I think, because you wanna hear people’s opinions on how far to push the line, and you know that first season I think I always was pushing for Eleanor to be a little worse, a little worse, a little worse, you know, ‘cause there’s, there’s more comedy that way. You want – you know, also for the eventual twist where you want her to be really bad, so… But Mike has a really great instinct which I think was borne out in Parks and Rec and, and somewhat on The Office too you know, where he has this fundamental humanistic sort of optimistic generous view of humanity that I think comes through in all of the shows he’s created, and I, I honestly – like that has been influential on me as well. I’m a more optimistic happy person, as is all these guys now and so, so that comes out a lot but it’s not always comedy comedy, you know.

MEJ: Right.

AY: It’s the common thing to do in comedy, is to make your people real asholes.

BH: If they’re despicable, they’re despicable.

AY: Yeah, exactly, and it’s just, it’s just some… Somehow its, it’s a little easier to write sometimes to make people good people, so that I don’t know, there’s always a push and pull in the writers room about how far to push the line, right. It’s the same like how dumb do – do we make Andy on Parks or you know, it’s like that kind of thing where, where you talk about it.

MEJ: There’s a fun bit on the bottom of this episode 1X2, where it appears as though she’s learned her lesson and is cleaning up the neighbourhood in secret by herself, and then of course she’s instructed Bad Ja– instructed Janet to put the garbage in in someone else’s – Antonio’s bedroom or whatever.

AY: Yeah, yeah.

MEJ: Pretty terrible. Eleanor struggles to be a good friend to Chidi, as you will hear in this clip.

WJH: Tell me one fact that you know about me – and we spent the whole day together, you must remember something. What country am I from?

KB: Is it racist if I say Africa?

WJH: Yes! And Africa is not a country. I am from Senegal. Do I have any siblings, where did I go to college?

KB: Trick question, you didn’t.

WJH: I was literally a college professor! Do you not remember one single thing about me?

KB: Dude, things have been nuts around here! I bet you don’t know anything about me.

WJH: You were born in Phoenix, you went to school in Tampa, you were an only child, your favourite show was something called The Real Housewives of Atlanta and your favourite book is Kendall Jenner’s Instagram feed.

KB: How did you know all that?

WJH: Because you are constantly talking about yourself! You’re the most self-obsessed person I’ve ever met!

KB: You should see Kendall Jenner’s Instagram feed.

WJH: Okay, this is my fear about you, Eleanor. You are too selfish too ever be a good person.

KB: Well, I think you’re wrong1

WJH: What country am I from again?

KB: Sen…sodyne.

WJH: That is a brand of toothpaste.

MEJ: This clip comes from episodes found on Amazon, Google Play and iTunes, and watch recent episodes on the NBC app. Did you receive promotional consideration from Sensodyne toothpaste?

AY: Lifetime supply, baby! It’s just every day, grab it for lunch and dinner, Sensodyne.

MEJ: It’s such a, it’s got to be such a fun puzzle to try to you know, have her try to improve and fail so miserably over and over again.

AY: Yeah I mean that’s another thing that I think Mike is really skilled at doing, is you want there to be change in the characters but you can’t progress them so rapidly that you’re left with nowhere else to go, and one thing I think he’s been really good about doing is having characters grow and change over the course of the season, and then still having room to progress and that’s really difficult, and I think, I think season 1 you know they, it just – the plot moved, it moved really quickly and that is not easy to do so.

MEJ: It’s got to be difficult to accomplish because as you say you want them to progress not too fast but you still want to be ahead of the audience, you want to surprise them.

AY: Yes, and there are a lot of charts and graphs in the writers room.

MEJ: Is that right? How many writers are there, who’s in the room?

AY: Man, season 1 got… man, I can’t even remember, like 10 or so…? I could be wrong, I don’t remember how many exactly it was, some 8 to 10, something like that probably, and there literally was a graph of a chart showing the 4 main characters and, and just how they were torturing each other and because of the eventual twist that they were in the Bad Place was oh , how is each one specifically torturing someone else and there’s a lot of talk about you know, circles of hell and all that stuff which is really crazy. I don’t think it happens in a lot of sitcom writers’ rooms.

MEJ: Oh, I’d imagine that.

AY: Lot of talk about Aristotle and Jeremy Benthan and John Stuart Mill, John Rawls…

MEJ: And did you have any background in this prior?

AY: …so it was a lot of fun. I took a class or two in philosophy in college but I didn’t remember any of that. Who remembers what they did from college? I was a biology major, I don’t remember anything, so yeah.

MEJ: I would guess that Mike Schur remembers a lot of things from college.

AY: He was reading a lot of books, man! He was reading a lot of books, that bother. He gave me some packets, I was like, ‘yeah, I’m gonna read these.’

MEJ: What goes into casting the afterlife and when you’re, when you know at this point in the show’s trajectory, we all believed that that was indeed the Good Place and it was you know, a utopian society full of frozen yoghurt, so you want it to look like planet Earth presumably. What… what were you offered as guidelines for that?

AJ: Funny.

MEJ: Okay.

AJ: Funny and my – Ben’s and my instincts are always to go with people who could do more than what they’re given in the first episode, because these people do come back.

MEJ: Sure.

AJ: And they all sort of have a comic identity. Susan Park has her own identity, Amy Okuda has her own identity, Steve Berg, all good improv people, all – definitely good improv people, John Hartman, the one who plays the, the guy asking her for money in a flashback and she says smell my farts or something…

MEJ: Eat my farts.

AJ: Yeah, eat my farts, great because they have a lot of reactions to do as well, which is hard to do and everybody that Mike seems to pick that we like brings in – including yourself – is a great reactor as well, which I think also helps Kristen and Ted but it also defines the character and the afterlife. I think it was all sort of, I of course probably didn’t remember as much as Ben did, that they were actually demons.

MEJ: So you did know that at least.

BH: We knew.

AJ: Yeah, we knew, and I guess I, I knew and with a few lines somebody who can make a difference and somebody who is cheerful looking I literally really truly – cheerful looking…

MEJ: Yes, of course.

BH: Well, I think at this point –

AJ: ‘Cause Jorge and Steve both a cheerful couple, yeah.

BH: All, all – I mean Susan Park and Amy Okuda, I think, they are funny was first and foremost, I think. Second, at this point, the audience doesn’t know yet that they’re demons, right, and so I think we were looking – or I think Mike was probably looking for the, the positivity and you know levity.

MEJ: This happens later, but he definitely hits it with Tiya Sircar, you know she comes in and saying like, ‘Chidi don’t!’ then when he goes, ‘Vicky, stop’ like, she can turn and be like, ‘aw man!’

AJ: Yeah, definitely.

MEJ: It’s really satisfying.

AJ: That’s what D’Arcy can do.

MEJ: Oh, for sure.

AJ: Even in like episode 3, where she just – Michael had told her not to be flirty with somebody and she turns all pouty and nasty, it was hilarious.

MEJ: Yeah have, have you found that improvisation is something newer for the past ten to fifteen years in casting? That like, it, it’s a different skill set, it like –

AJ: 100%, yeah.

MEJ: It’s, it’s fairly recent, right?

AJ: I would say since I started working with Judd (?)  Judd sort of brought that into the fore in my, you know, career, I would say that used to be you could deliver a joke and if you went off the lines, people were horrified.

MEJ: Right.

AJ: Like, oh my god, he can’t remember the lines!

MEJ: That was the case in my – I’ve lived in Hollywood for about 17 years and I can remember I came from the second city, I came from an improv background and I would spice things as I saw fit and some people would go, ‘did you, were you handed new pages?’

AJ: Yeah exactly.

MEJ: In a ‘how dare you’ sense.

AJ: Yeah I was never – I never thought that was gonna transpire until I was doing one pilot where Amy Sedairs who was from (?)  Chicago and she ad-libbed and she was funnier than anything that was written, and the late great Chris Thompson said, ‘I like that girl. She’s funny.’

MEJ: Yeah.

AJ: And I was like, ‘but she didn’t stay within the lines!’ ‘Nope, she’s funny.’ And she got the part and that was probably 25 years ago, but I think Judd with the onset of hiring people like Steve Carell where they’re funnier than anything anybody could write definitely stated the trend, in my minimal casting section. Now everybody should – everybody wants to know if they can improvise, and most people can.

MEJ: Right, that’s so interesting.

AJ: In comedy.

MEJ: And I’m thankful for it because I think it does – and I can tell you as an actor, it’s a quicker way to showing the writers and producers and directors what I might bring to the role. Forget what’s on the page right now, but this is who, this is how I find funny and here’s something I hope you can rewrite to – at some point.

AY: Exactly and, and tying back to what we were talking about earlier about writing towards the actor, certainly for the larger roles on Master of None, we would have, we would do the scenes and then we would just have a scenario and say like, ‘okay you are hooking up with Aziz and the condom broke, now just improvise this scene and just do it for 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and…’

MEJ: See what you find.

AY: Yeah, exactly, see what kind of person that is, and then if you end up casting them like we ended up casting Noel we just hung out there a lot and tried to rewrite for her. So I think that’s just so valuable because you just know more about the person. It’s not, it’s not the case with every role, you don’t need it for every role necessarily, but sometimes if you got those – also if you got those Gatling guns, use them! You know you would be a fool not to let them go in some scenes, you know they don’t do it in every scene but some of the scenes where it’s like, ‘hey let’s do one where you guys are a little looser and you know they give us stuff that we again, could never have come up with on our own.

MEJ: In the writers’ room, did you have a lengthy and epic conversations about what heaven might be like? What perfection might be like, because I don’t know, that I feel that must be very universal because it definitely strikes a chord with me. I would love to fly.

AY: Yeah I think flying was always up there. .It was at one point – I believe the episode was going to be about gardening, and we were like no it’s not going to be gardening that’s crazy that’s –

MEJ: That’s not heaven.

AY: Yeah exactly, so whatever, it’s flying, everyone wants to fly so yeah I think there are some pretty… Look, the, some of the difficulties with a show like this where your world-building is man, there, there – because there are no limits, you can really talk about it forever. It can be anything so… so that in some ways, sometimes the constraints help you, right, because you can just spiral off into madness and so yeah I mean, totally.

AJ: Art direction and set direction. I mean, kudos to their art director…

MEJ: Crazy, right.

AJ: Yeah, oh my gosh, yeah. I would love to live in the place where they live.

MEJ: Me too.

AJ: I would love to live in – I would even take –

MEJ: A clownhouse?

AJ: Yeah the clownhouse, no, I would, I would…

MEJ: You mean the town square.

AJ: Take a lot of Jameela’s furniture – Tahani’s furniture, for sure.

MEJ: Oh I mean it’s (an) epic mansion.

AJ: Yes but as opposed to most television shows, this one is really a product of some incredible visual imagination.

MEJ: And Mike talked about that in the last episode of this podcast, to say that it was important to them – as in the writers room – to exploit the infinity possible, you know, that they wanted everybody to be in stripy clothing, to have giraffes walking through, and madness – shrimp falling from the sky because you have that ability so pull that trigger.

AY: Yes, it’s a kind of like the problems of the premise right, if you’re gonna do a show like this, you know, make use of what you have, otherwise it would just could just be another show of people sitting in an office or friends hanging out watching TV, so…

MEJ: And I think of another example of the brilliance of the balance in the show is that you have that you know, unlimited anything that you want and then the specificity of Eleanor’s thing that brings her joy being people puking on rollercoasters, or that you know, cups – to go cups where the lid fits so tightly it doesn’t leak at the seam, like that’s so earthbound and specific.

AJ: That’s my favourite thing in the show in three seasons, because like I come out of my favourite coffee place, Go Get ‘Em Tiger, and I have drips of coffee all here and I’m like, why can’t they figure out a coffee cup where the water doesn’t leak out when you drink it? It pisses me off.

MEJ: Right.

AY: I would say this –

AJ: And I thought that was genius – was that your thing?

AY I would say this – I don’t think that was, but there’s, but it is you know, a good balance of observational and absurd, right. Like you want, you want the imaginative stuff and you want the real granular Seinfeldian observational stuff so – by the way, great shoutout and slam of Go Get ‘Em Tiger.

BH: Yeah, that was what I was about to say as well.

AJ: Exactly.

AY: You love it, and hate it.

AJ: Yeah, but also for example, great slam and shoutout of season 8 of Friends too.

AY: Yeah.

AJ: That stuff is what’s great about that show.

MEJ: Another thing that I love about this is that early on establishes so much about Eleanor, I think that she is a person who would say ‘in my defence…’ and then say something about herself completely damning. You know like, ‘in my defence, I did it ‘cause I’m selfish’ right, ‘cause basically you know she kind of comes off as…

AY: Very little self-awareness. Also by the way, very different from Kristen Bell in person.

AJ: Oh yes, yes.

MEJ: For sure.

AY: That’s an example of a character being different from real –

MEJ: She is, she is fairly saintly.

AY: Yeah she is, you know she sets a good tone – her and Ted both really are just, just being super professional and generous and kind and you can’t say that about everybody, so really want to shout out those two. No slam, just a –

BH: No slam, only positive (?)

AJ: I want to shout out to you, Marc.

MEJ: Please.

AJ: Just as a as a (?) to Mike Schur’s appreciation of humour, you tested for – and I didn’t know you until we tested for the cop role…

BH: Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

AJ: In Brooklyn Nine-Nine pilot and you were outstanding, and it was another thing where he talked and he chidi-like talked and talked and talked, ‘do we go with Joe or do we go with Marc, do we go with Joe or do we go with Marc?’ Either way – and he, he basically extrapolated what your character would become in the first couple seasons as a cop and what Joe would become and he went with Joe for whatever reason but –

MEJ: Because Joe is Charles Boyle. I mean, it’s like he’s the Chidi of the – like there is no other way…

AJ: Exactly, but then he started using you all the time.

MEJ: Thank you, yes.

AJ: He did not remember you, and you were one of the rare things that comes in: someone who’s – you were not known before, you were in your early 30s or mid 30s and you freaking killed it.

MEJ: Thank you.

AJ: Yeah but it was a totally different version of the character.

MEJ: I would tell you that, that’s true, I tested for the role opposite Joe Lo Truglio for Charles Boyle on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and did what I can do like, that character was written as kind of sad-sack, kind of slobby. I am C3PO and cannot do that, it would be foolish for me to try.

AJ: And he said that that you were the opposite of how he thought of that role.

MEJ: Right, Mike Schur wrote the kindest email to my then-manager and said, ‘Just want to let you know, Marc couldn’t have done anything different or better, this – he, you know, was just 180 degrees from what, how the character’s written but we kept bring–‘ Like, and my manager wrote, forwarded it to me and said, ‘I don’t get these a lot.’ Like, Mike’s a special type.

AY: Marc, you are Mike’s, you’re like Mike’s favourite actor, you’re in everything he’s ever done. I’m pretty sure if he did a movie next year, it’s between you and Daniel Day Lewis, he’d be like Marc, man, Marc’s my man, Marc’s my dude…

MEJ: I’m certain. What movie are we doing next year? I’m available, I’m available.

AY: I don’t know, I bet he would though, I bet he would, man, he loves you.

MEJ: Oh that’s so kind, thank you.

[What’s good?]

MEJ: Thank you all so much for being here today, we like to finish off with a segment that we call What’s Good, something that makes you happy, a charity you support, the feeling of otters holding hands, that sort of thing. Anything come to mind and – something positive, something optimistic, something Mike Schur.

BH: My little niece, Mary-Ann (?)

MEJ: Oh that’s nice, how old is she?

BH: She just turned two.

MEJ: Very cool. Has she chosen a college?

BH: She… They’re, she’s between Harvard and Yale.

MEJ: Oh okay, she can commute (?)

BH: Let’s see if Alan Yang has anything to say.

MEJ: For you, anything come to mind?

AJ: Yeah, the instance where in the Harbour (?) fires just north of California recently, and that man jumped up and down and risked getting on fire himself to save the bunny.

MEJ: That little bunny.

AJ: That killed me.

MEJ: There was a video.

AJ: I thought that guy was heroic.

MEJ: It was on a roadside, he had gotten out of his car to rescue a wild hare right?

AJ: He couldn’t prevent himself, he saw the little hare in pain and he rescued it.

MEJ: I love that.

AJ: Yeah.

MEJ: Alan?

AY: I guess something way more indulgent (?) We were talking about – right before we started the podcast, there’s a restaurant in downtown LA called majordōmo that my friend Dave Chang does and Ben was talking to me about it so… yeah. Go there and get the lamb or get any of the large __(??) dishes, make yourself happy.

BH: Yeah, that –

AY: Do something good for yourself.

BH: Treat yourself.

MEJ: Allison Jones, Ben Harris, Alan Yang, thank you so much for being with us.

AJ: Thank you Marc Evan Jackson.

AY: Thank you very much.

MEJ: This has been The Good Place, the podcast, I’m Marc Evan Jackson. Now, go do something good.

[Closing music]

DC: Hi there! The podcast is over. I think what I’m feeling is… sadness.

TD: Oh, don’t worry Janet! This podcast is the most perfectly engineered invention since the paperclip.

DC: Fun fact, the man who invented the paperclip is in the Bad Place. For tax evasion!

TD: It’s available on Apple Podcast, and all major podcasting platforms, or wherever you get podcasts.

DC: Stop saying podcasts!

TD: Hosted by Marc Evan Jackson.

DC: Produced by Graham Ratliff (?).

TD: Written by Lizzie Pace.

DC: Music composed by David Schwartz. Yay!

Ding!

what’s good?

majordōmo 

A restaurant in LA serving California cuisine inspired by the different food cultures present in Los Angeles and the bounty of Southern California products. Located in 1725 Naud St. Los Angeles, CA, 90012.

[admittedlynotspartacus]

“Game of Thrones” Season VI: Episode 3 - Slay Queen

WARNING: SPOILERS for the latest episode below, so if you haven’t seen it and don’t know yet who dies, who fucks who, and how many costume changes Varys has, turn back now.

We begin July with a stop at my corner fire hydrant...

DRAGONSTONE

Remember back in Season 2 when everyone was like, “Wait a minute, how did Littlefinger get from King’s Landing to Renly’s camp to Highgarden in like an episode?” Well, everybody seems to have taken a hit of Littlefinger’s magic fairy dust because now they’re all fucking warping all over the goddamn place. Starting with J-Snow, who’s like -

and washes up on the shores of Dragonstone right from the get-go. And P-Dinky’s there like -

And J-Snow’s all -

While Michelle is just like -

Anyway, she makes the Dothraki strip-search J-Snow and co. and then she’s like -

But she keeps getting interrupted by Davos, who’s like, “Where ya from, girl? I couldn’t place your ACCENT.” Even though literally everyone on this show is like -

P-Dinky and J-Snow are catching up, giving recaps of their seasons since the show overtook the books and P-Dinky is like, “To be honest, I was drunk for most of it.” And D&D are like -

CUE THE DRAGONS, because remember? She has dragons. And they’re all like ROAAAAAR FLYING OVER HEAD and J-Snow is all, “NAZGUUUUUUULLL!!” But Michelle and P-Dinky are just like -

Cut to Melisandre creeping from above. Ya know, as she does. When she’s joined by Varys who’s using his newly-found confidence from his off-season Jenny Craig diet to rock this tight-fitting number that’s equal parts SS officer and... you guessed it...

They’re basically like, “You’re up to shit,” “No, YOU’RE up to shit” when Melisandre is like, “I think I’m gonna peace. See the world and all that. Oh and by the way, you’re totally gonna die.”

So we come to the moment we’ve all been waiting all our lives for - when D-Baby meets J-Snow. And it’s, like, fine. Michelle is like, “Paramount Pictures presents: Studio Canal’s presentation of a Fox Searchlight production, a film by Martin Scorsese, James Cameron’s Daenerys Targaryen.” And Jon is like -

Basically D-Baby’s like -

But he’s like -

It doesn’t go well. But at some point, Varys does run in like -

Later on, J-Snow is staring off a cliff like a Britney Spears music video when P-Dinky saunters over and is like, “I came here to brood. But I don’t brood as well as you.”

Basically, he wants to help. But J-Snow is being all -

And D-Baby literally can’t remember any of her lines except for -

so P-Dinky has to totally Dick Cheney the both of them into playing nice. After which D-Baby even seems like she’s kinda -

Again, she’s his aunt. Never forget.

KING’S LANDING

Uncle Freddie Mercury is PARADING through the streets like -

and everyone is so totally stoked to see him like, “Hosanna, heysanna, sanna sanna ho sanna hey sanna ho and -”

Because the surviving Sand Snakes are being dragged around and the crowd is basically the Internet. Like, at some point there’s literally a man yelling “YOU’RE THE WORST! THE WORST!” 

Anyway, he plops them down to Cersei, who’s instantly like -

Like, so much so that Uncle Freddie is already asking sex tips from Jaime (I believe he mentions butt play). Jaime, of course, is all -

Cut to Cersei wearing the loudest lipstick you’ve ever seen.

She’s rehearsing her Emmy submission monologue for Mama and The One Who Showed Her Boobs. And we’re all like, “Aight Cersei, enough talk, we all know you’re just gonna have Frankenmountain smash their heads in and rape them, right?”

But then Cersei’s just like so fucking turned on that she goes to The One Who Showed Her Boobs and is like -

And we’re all like -

But then we get it, ‘cause it’s poison. Except guess what? D&D don’t let us see The One Who Showed Her Boobs or Mama die. 

Oh, no. They’re going to keep Mama alive. So that at any moment... if we give them too much shit... they can bring... her... BACK.

At this point Cersei is wetter than a whore sweatin’ in church, so she goes to Jaime and she’s like -

And let’s just say it might look like Jaime’s the one who likes the finger up the bum, knowhamsayin? 

Anyway, they wake up the next morning (or something, time doesn’t matter anymore on this show), and Jaime’s like, “No one can see us.” But Cersei’s just like -

WINTERFELL

Meanwhile, Sansa is running around like -

and Littlefinger’s wandering around like the kid who can’t find a table to sit at in the cafeteria, being like -

And then he starts giving her like the most anti-Buddhist message of all time, like “Be stressed always.” At one point he literally says, “Everything that happens will be something you’ve seen before.” And I’m like...

But there’s no time for nostalgia, because somebody is at the gate! And we’re all like - OHMIGOD IT’S DEF ARYA, HERE WE GO! ...

It’s Bran.

Still, Sansa is like -

But Bran is just like -

Like seriously, Sansa is just trying to be all, “Sooo... how are thiiiings?” And Bran’s just like, “You had a really nice dress on the night you were raped.”

So of course, she’s like -

And he’s like, “K. I’m gonna stay by this tree, I guess.”

OLDTOWN

National Treasure Jim Motherfucking Broadbent is inspecting Daddy Mormont, who’s just like -

NTJMFB lets Daddy go, and Daddy EVEN GETS A NEW SHIRT. Seriously, he’s been wearing that yellow one since Season 1. But Sam is NOT out of the clear, because NTJMFB pulls him aside like -

And even though we’re still kinda like, “Wait. All Sam did was read the instructions and follow them and in all the history of Westeros no one at this super smart maester academy has EVER thought to do that?!?” Even though we’re still kinda like that, we really think NTJMFB is gonna expel Sam. When suddenly he’s like -

So then we think he’s gonna turn around and suddenly be like -

But instead he’s just like, “I need a shit-ton of copies.”

CASTERLY ROCK

P-Dinky’s monologue-ing as the Unsullied march on the Rock and he keeps talking about how it’s “impregnable,” but that somebody once told him when something’s “impregnable,” “impregnate the bitch.” And I’m like, “Whoever told you that (probably D&D) needs to wash their mouth out NOW, OKAY?!?”

Anyway, Barack’s there like -

And I’m like, “This is the end, my only friend - the end.” But lo, Barack sneaks in through P-Dinky’s whore tunnels and surprises everyone. And P-Dinky’s making us think they’re outnumbered, but Grey Worm is just like -

and lemme tell ya, he’s making. It. Work. He’s just like BAM KILLING BAM BAM but then he’s like, “Wait we killed everyone.”

HIGHGARDEN

All it takes is for me to see Jaime and the massive Lannister army marching while D-Rigg watches from her tower to be like -

Jaime takes the castle. Like really easily. Like too easily.

But whatever. Because all that matters now is D-Rigg. And lemme tell ya, she’s not leaving without one last bid for that Emmy.

First she’s ripping on him, him saying there’s always lessons in failures, and her being like, “Then you must be very wise.”

And then she’s like, “Hmm that’s a nice fucking sword you got there. Whose was that, your CUNT SON?!?”

And then she gets fucking real. She’s like, “Y’know Cersei?”

“And not only that... but she’ll be the end of you...”

So then, Jaime’s had enough, he’s like, “Drink your poison and be done.” And D-Rigg being D-Rigg, she doesn’t miss a beat, she’s just like -

And then. With one foot out of this life and one in the next, she’s like, “Oh yeah... I almost forgot to mention... 

I killed your son.”

“And I want Cersei to know.”

BODY COUNT: 2, plus loads of Lannisters, Unsullied, and Highgarden troops (RIP The One Who Showed Her Boobs and... of course... D-Rigg) BOOB COUNT: 1 pair EPISODE GRADE: B+

SER POUNCE’S STRAY THOUGHTS

Friendly reminder there are only TEN episodes left of Game of Thrones.

Melisandre says, “I’ve done what I set out to do. I’ve brought ice and fire together.” But she’s never really spoken of the war in the North in those terms before, has she?

Do we think she’ll be back this season? I would say she’s gonna need some time to go to Volantis and back, but she can probably get there in 5 minutes with these new warp capabilities.

And while we’re on the subject, the show’s depiction of time has ventured beyond forgivable into problematic. At a certain point around Season 5 it became clear that each story thread was operating under its own time rules; we’d jump forward to not see Jon travel from Hardhome and back, but the other storylines weren’t necessarily running exactly concurrent to his. However, now this is becoming a problem because everything is converging again. So if Jon can make it to Dragonstone in an episode, and if Jaime and Cersei hear the news of the Freys’ death in Episode 1 mere minutes after we’ve seen Arya kill them all, then it doesn’t really make sense that it would take Arya 4 episodes to find out that the Starks have Winterfell again. It’s refreshing to see the show moving quicker, but it also means that D&D can bend time to suit the needs of their plot, which is frustrating given the realism George brought to this world. On rewatch, this is going to be a very top-heavy series. The War of the Five Kings lasted three seasons, but Daenerys has gained and lost a whole host of allies in 3 episodes.

I don’t know why I actually expected Daenerys meeting Jon Snow to be this electric moment when Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington have been the least-nuanced performers of the cast for a long time (I think you could make the case they’re two of the least-nuanced leading actors on a highly-regarded prestige drama in history). Still, it was nice to see director Mark Mylod delay having the both of them in the same shot until the end of her speechifying.

Re: “I am the last Targaren, Jon Snow,” so those who have read the books know that there is this other Aegon Targaryen character who’s either legit or a fraud. Is J-Snow the real Aegon? I guess this matters more in the book, he would delegitimize the fake one, but he must have a Targaryen name right? He’s surely not Jon Targaryen.

D&D love their torture scenes, but the one with Cersei and Ellaria was interesting simply because the victims were just as ruthless as the torturer. I even found a small amount of empathy for Ellaria and Whatever Sand Snake That Is. And kudos to Ramin for that chilling reprise of Cersei’s end of Season 6 theme.

 Did we catch Jaime saying, “No,” as Cersei went in for him before their sex scene? Very frisky, D&D.

This was a much-needed solid Tyrion episode, although all of his plans from the last episode epic-failed. I look forward to the fallout. I’m ready for him to split with Daenerys already.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Sansa will be the queen at the end of all this.

Bran can see everything... except how to explain what being the Three-Eyed Raven means.

Although to be fair, I guess his speed-sync from last season before Max von Sydow died has left him with a fragmented manifestation of his capabilities.

Daenerys’ possessiveness of her dragons is being played up more than usual this season. Expect casualties.

If the Lannister feint seems familiar, that’s because it’s the same tactic Robb used in Season 1, leaving fewer troops to die against Tywin Lannister while leading the bulk of his men to kidnap Jaime. At first, I thought this was lazy writing. But it’s actually a really cool “Jaime learned his lesson” callback.

Oh, wait, there’s literally a line about this. My bad, I forgot D&D don’t trust us to figure things out for ourselves.

The Highgarden attack? Was it un-manned? Or was this just a case of they didn’t have the money to show a full-on battle here?

A note on Diana Rigg - truly one of the greatest assets of this show, and what an exit. Both D&D and her were so locked into that character - everything she said felt right and true. She will be missed. And hopefully Emmy awarded.

NEXT WEEK: D-Baby is done with clever plans, Theon with a boat, and dragons?!? I forgot she had those!!!

[kyuu-rereads-umineko]

Ep5, ???? (Part 2)

And so our detective declares that all the clues have been presented.

Okay, not quite, but still.

Battler reflects on having reached the “peak of Mount Purgatory,” then immediately thinks about how Beato’s “an idiot.” It was in Ep6 that Battler describes the two of them as “two idiots who failed to reach each other,” wasn’t it?

He wakes up in the cathedral, still impaled, and finds Beato snuggled up against him, only for her to dissolve when he tries to hold her.

I’ve always been inclined to read Beato’s death in the Meta-World here as a parallel to what happened on Rokkenjima Prime - Even though Prime!Battler got an opportunity to talk to Yasu face-to-face, and even though he reached her heart (as Tohya, years later), he was too late to actually save her. No matter what he says or does, in the Meta-World or in the aftermath of the disaster, nothing can change the fact that she died.

To be clear, I’m not laying all the blame for that on Battler. It’s not as if Yasu killed herself simply because he vanished for six years. In terms of the Rokkenjima Prime tragedy, I feel like - in many ways - he was essentially in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

In terms of Beato’s - Yasu’s - Meta-World death, though, I’m more inclined to label him as culpable. Again, though, it’s not as if the blame is entirely his - I feel that his biggest sin is just not thinking. In Tea Party 4, for instance, he’s not trying to solve Beato’s game so much as he’s just throwing out random ideas to see what sticks. He laughs off his infamous small bombs theory just as readily as Beato does.

Also, it’s only really in ????5 - as seen in the previous post - that he starts to think about why the fantasy scenes exist beyond “to convince me a witch exists,” or about what the implications of someone witnessing magic are. While Yasu might be at fault for making her riddles too hard - and I do understand where he’s coming from in saying that - Battler’s at fault for not thinking about what she might be trying to tell him.

At any rate. Battler cries and laments the fact that he was too late. “You believed so strongly, didn’t you...? That I’d... definitely reach the truth...?”

To be honest, though, the way he flips back and forth between “BEATO YOU IDIOT” and “IT’S ALL MY FAULT” feels very genuine to me. It’s an interesting contrast to his “YOU’RE THE MURDERER STOP BLAMING MEEEEEEEEEEEEE” spiel in Ep4.

Battler clutches the last piece of Beato he can reach - a golden butterfly wing - and swears to himself to “never again lose the truth.”

Meanwhile, in... the exact same place? META GONNA META

Anyways, Erika’s laughing at Battler’s corpse (charming), when the red longsword impaling him suddenly turns gold and he starts sputtering back to life. Bern thinks it’s a joke on Lambda’s part, but she’s just as awestruck as Bern.

Lambda accepts Battler’s request for a retrial, and acknowledges him as “the new Endless Sorcerer.” In terms of the Meta-World, Battler’s now the one holding the key to the catbox.

Battler is officially recognized as the new “territory lord” of the kakera, and by extension, as the new Game Master. Erika screeches, obviously not happy about having her title taken away from her so soon after earning it.

“...I can construct a theory with someone other than Natsuhi oba-san as the culprit. It may be that your truth is impossible to disprove... If so, that means your truth won’t be able to deny my new truth either!”

Dlanor steps forward. “...Battler, I’ve been WAITING.” i may not be able to stand erika but dlanor is soooo goood

“Lady Erika’s reasoning has solved the 5th GAME. No new facts exist which can overturn the truth created by this reasoning...!!” Battler counters with the catbox.

He then proceeds to lay out his theory wherein he’s the culprit, citing Rudolf’s weird behaviour in Ep1 and 5, and his inability to declare Asumu his mother in Ep4 as proof. Y’know, while the whole “Battler’s mother” plot point never really intrigued me that much compared to the rest of the story, I feel like the payoff for it was kinda underwhelming, at least in how it was delivered? Even from early on, it’s easy to see how Battler takes after Kyrie - if it weren’t for the narrative explicitly saying otherwise, I’d have thought she was his mother from the very beginning.

Having said that, to be honest, I really appreciate how the payoff isn’t something ridiculously convoluted, like Battler being Beato’s direct sibling or something (yes I know Yasu is his blood relative, but still). Rudolf’s babyswap is a lot more feasible than some of the other options.

At any rate, Erika steps forward and starts laying out the immediate problem with the Battler culprit theory - the time of the first twilight’s murders. “It’s only possible for the crime to have taken place between 24:00 and 1:00!! During that one hour, you were in the dining hall of the mansion!! [...] From 1:00 until the discovery of the crime, it was impossible for the crime to occur in the cousins’ room!!”

Battler counters with the proposition that they were still alive at the time. Episode 5 really is one of the rudest episodes to the reader, as such - not only is there the constant “detective’s viewpoint” trick, but there are things like Erika checking the cousins’ room without verifying the bodies. Coupled with how Lambda’s going crazy with the narrative, it’s incredibly easy to get lost and overwhelmed.

“How often do I have to say it?! The deaths of the four people in the cousins’ room have been proclaimed with the red truth!! Furthermore, those corpses were witnessed by a large number of people!! It’s already been proclaimed in red that no examination of these corpses would lead to a mistaken result...!! Take that, dead people!!!” EVERY TIME I READ THIS LINE I START LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY

Ronove appears and points out that the deaths were only announced at the opening of the trial - in other words, at the very end of the game, which leaves the “corpses” unverified for almost 24 hours.

“It may be true that all corpses would not lead to a mistaken examination, no matter who it was that checked to see whether they were alive... but it has never been said that there was a rule against something other than a corpse being called a corpse.”

Erika asks why Battler screamed if no one was dead, and Gaap appears with “Kinzo’s already dead,” undermining Erika’s theory on how the bodies disappeared.

One by one, the Stakes appear, declaring that none of the victims of the first twilight were moved after their deaths. Dlanor steps forward, declaring Knox’s 2nd in red, stating that Battler needs proof of Kinzo’s death to invalidate Erika’s theory.

“Presentation of evidence. I’ll present a corpse which could possibly be identified as Ushiromiya Kinzo’s...!!” Dlanor counters that he has to prove it’s Kinzo’s corpse for it to work, and Bern cackles at how he’s cornered - red truth’s been forbidden as proof, leaving him without anywhere to run to.

“How are you gonna prove that the corpse was Kinzo’s if the red truth is sealed? It’s impossible. It can’t be done...!!” “...With red or blue... right...?”

“I guarantee, without a doubt, that this is Ushiromiya Kinzo’s corpse!!” Dlanor concedes, while the witches (and Erika) are left speechless.

“...Gold truth, effective. The gold truth... can only be used by the territory lord of this world... no, only by the Game Master himself...!!”

Dlanor “elaborates” that the gold truth is woven “differently’ from the red, and that its strength is situational. I’m inclined - in no small part due to GRS, because I believe this is how they interpreted the gold truth as well - to view gold truth as... How to put it.

For one thing, gold can only be used on a topic if the person talking about it fully understands everything. Battler’s use of gold here is proof that he understands the entirety of Beato’s - Yasu’s - game and heart. In Ep6, when Elder Beato uses gold to declare that Chick Beato used magic to make the flower petal appear in the tea cup, it’s proof that she understands the true form of magic - how it manifests, who can use it, what its limitations are, etc.

As for what the difference is between it and red... While with red, you can’t say anything that’s patently false (e.g. Battler choking on “I was born from Asumu” in Ep4), the gold is less strict. To use Ep6 as an example again - in the context of the “real world,” i.e. no fantasy layer, Chick Beato would use sleight of hand to make the flower petal appear, so “she used magic” is a false statement. However, in the context of magic itself, she did use magic, so the statement is valid. 

Hopefully that makes sense. Anyways, Erika balks, pointing out that she’s still got points to argue on, “like Hideyoshi’s closed room, the seal on Natsuhi’s personal room, and the button in the closet.” The seal on Natsuhi’s room...? Am I forgetting something here?

“Because of this, Grandfather’s absence has been verified, and the dishonourable relationship between Natsuhi oba-san and Grandfather has been removed from consideration!! Natsuhi oba-san is pure and faithful! I won’t permit this vulgar tale you’re all so fond of!!” Aww, Battler... He then points out that everyone else’s alibis are null and void since the times of death are in question.

Dlanor knows she’s lost, but still confronts Battler on his theory, saying, “However, in the cousins’ room, you witnessed corpses which were impossible to MISIDENTIFY! Are you trying to say that was a FALSEHOOD?! Knox’s 7th, it is forbidden for the detective to be the CULPRIT! The detective is obligated to have an objective point of VIEW. Your theory violates this OBLIGATION!”

Battler responds that seeing Kinzo in the rain after solving the epitaph proves his viewpoint was subjective all along. As I think I mentioned earlier, the thing about Ep5 that I think trips people up when it comes to viewpoints and whatnot is that when Battler “sees” Kinzo, while it’s true he’s with Erika, she doesn’t see Kinzo herself, and she wouldn’t be likely to - it’s dark, it’s raining, and she’s focused on the chapel’s mechanism.

On the other hand, when it comes to the number of people in the parlour, there’s no such room for doubt - the chances of hiding in a room packed with so many people are slim to none... except for Yasu, of course. Anyways.

“So, once you claimed to have seen Kinzo, it was no longer misrecognition... but INTENTIONAL. In other words... this proves that the observer wasn’t objective... is what you are SAYING?”

Battler asks Dlanor to forgive him for his “crazy argument.” She replies, “If a man like you is in this WORLD... You will surely protect the fragile truth from any kind of ARROGANCE. You will surely protect the real truth from the tyranny of any plausible truth... that might claim to exist as the sole truth and try to exterminate all fragile TRUTHS!”

Like earlier, Battler doesn’t strike down Dlanor. “I’ve paid my debt. ...Let honour be to your father. The Decalogue was neither arrogant nor judgmental...!” 

And of course Erika screeches about how Dlanor has BROUGHT SHAME upon Knox and whatnot, and Battler basically tells her to stfu. this feels really good to read

Erika still argues back, though she hasn’t addressed the issue of the corpses disappearing. Bern snaps at her, and she hurriedly comes up with an “explanation,” apparently. i... kinda want to know what it is

Bern laughs at Erika’s “pathetic” reasoning, but Dlanor and Battler step in to defend her. battler’s a better person than i am because i don’t think i could do that tbh

“Because there has been no decision, the Illusion of the Witch still exists. The only one who will be permitted to expose that is neither Erika, nor the rest of you... It’s me alone! I won’t let anyone expose Beatrice’s illusion except me!!!” still possessive, battler ur kinzo is showing

Lambda declares Battler the new Game Master, and he challenges Erika one last time. Bern gives her one last chance to redeem herself.

“Just watch, Beato. ...I’ll take charge of your game!! And in this next game, I’ll prove that I completely understand all of your riddles...!!”

And that’s the end of Ep5. Closing thoughts...

Episode 5 is definitely one of the “rudest” episodes to the reader, with how it plays around with viewpoints and concepts like detective’s authority. I’m also inclined to place it as one of the more difficult episodes, if only because of how Lambda and Bern’s influences manifest themselves - The man from 19 years ago instead of Lion, Beato being portrayed as separate from the culprit, Erika’s presence, etc.

On that note, Erika. As much as I hate her, she’s a great character. She’s a personified reminder that searching for a solution isn’t going to get you anywhere. Don’t look for just what’s possible - look for what’s probable and work backwards from there. I don’t think I need to explain Dlanor as a character, because Ep5 is pretty blatant about her purpose.

In a way, while the first line of this post - about our detective announcing “all clues have been shown” - was meant in jest, it’s pretty accurate. Through the first half of the series, Shannon and Kanon are linked very strongly to each other and Beatrice, the nature of their existences and deaths are explored through Maria and Ange, “love” is suggested as a motive for murder on multiple occasions... Being “furniture” is made very distinct and far deeper than being a servant...

On top of that, we’ve not only had the man from 19 years ago formally introduced, but we’ve also:

Had him implied to be hiding among the 18 characters we’ve already met;

Had another motive for the murders provided (Natsuhi commenting that he must have “lived a very hate-filled life”);

And, while this might just be me, I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that falling from the cliff as a baby left him with a very grievous injury. Coupled with Beato talking about Kanon - a man - “crying himself to sleep” over not having a human body, and the way she attacks Kanon on an emotional basis compared to attacking Shannon - a woman - on a physical basis, I don’t think assuming that “furniture” refers to a physical condition of some sort is much of a stretch.

Really, almost all of it is there. While I can understand why Battler’s deduction and realization seems ridiculous to some people, I don’t feel that way myself.

Anything else... I suppose there’s the question of what actually happens on Ep5′s game board. Frankly, though, this post is getting long enough as-is, so I’ll write a separate post for that. After that, Episode 6! Time to see how good of a writer Battler is.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Tsukigakirei 6 | Kado 6 | Boku no Hero Academia 20 | Royal Tutor 7 | Grimoire of Zero 6

Apparently there weren’t 2, but 3 .5 episodes (i.e. series recaps) this week (although after Tsukigakirei and Kado, I haven’t found the 3rd series that was affected by such a thing)...with Boku no Hero Academia’s Hero Notebook, that makes a few recaps too many in one season. Still, it does (sadly) mean a break from Tsukigakirei and Kado for one week in regards to simulcast commentary, and it’ll be noted in the next commentary post’s title too (as I’ve done previously for Erased).

Tsukigakirei 6

Wait, there’s a 6.5? I don’t know about you, but a lot of times the .5 ep is a recap. With Tsukigakirei’s current track record of Very Bad CGI Background Characters, I’m not sure I need a .5 ep.

Kinako.

Aren’t there firearm laws in Japan? I’ve heard it’s the safest place in the world…

The piano here (I turned on the volume around here) is quite nice.

The mascot is part of Akane’s background. I guess I should’ve known.

Leaving out the fact Chinatsu likes Kotaro is going to damage you, Akane. That’s how it always goes in these sorts of shows…

I didn’t think Chinatsu would be so understanding…

I didn’t notice Hira had freckles. Or maybe someone added them by accident?

I wouldn’t recommend ditching friends who like the same guy as you (just as a pointer from someone who cuts off relationships a lot).

“Boxes”? Isn’t there a Box app out there or something?...There is indeed a Box app, but it’s for business and FTP. Boxes is then a parody of Dropbox.

I also wouldn’t recommend being sorry for falling for someone. If your feelings are genuine, then that’s all that matters.

Apparently there’s a LINE convo in the ED that changes every ep. I’ve never noticed it because I skip the ED of this show most times. This convo seems to be about finishing exams, at least for the top half or so, and it seems to be a convo with “Kanojo-san”, which could mean “Girlfriend” or just “Her/She” (more than likely the former).

Huh? Never seen this before, this “Sakura’s Fantasies”. It seems to be an omake, appended to the show itself. However, it’s kinda boring…Sure, there are good things about this show, but the show hasn’t actually tried its hand at humour until now (not to my knowledge) and this shows exactly why.

I keep forgetting who Roman is, so…Roman is pink-haired dude? Okay then.

Roman is definitely referring to a wedding dress, I know, but she’s already wearing a dress while looking at the mag, so the wording makes the joke fall flat for me.

Kado 6

Uh-oh. There’s a .5 episode on this show, as well…(it means we get more Kado, sure, but it may be a cost-cutting measure).

I found a guide on the Anisotoron language used for the ep titles while looking for spoilers (because I heard Shindo was forcefully promoted to a higher state of existence without zaShunina telling him…but since that’s an event that occurs in this ep, that doesn’t require a spoiler tag).

Well, it makes sense that those who are more “go with the flow”, like Shindo, would be able to…no, that’s not the right words for it. I think the key component of making a proper Wam is empathy.

Get your hands back on, Shunina. By the way, why’d you take Shindo’s Wam?

Note for later: Kado movement on Aug. 6th 2017. Kado is set in our current year…(I wonder what’ll happen if the anisotropic do arrive in our universe in the future? Would they laugh at zaShunina?)

Amplitude…after all of Kado’s physics, here’s one thing I happen to know about…if you don’t know about amplitude, check the explanation here). What does Kado have to do with waves…?

…Maybe it’s the amplitude of the ground…? That would explain why Kado can conform to a lake’s surface.

Notice there’s a red marking on the map for where Kado is and will be. Not sure if the demo cube is magentised…it’s definitely not velcro though.

Lookit Asano, sleeping on the fold out chairs…LOL.

There’s a box near the mother (on the counter) that says “Delicious Eggplants”.

For some reason, they chose to make the “visiting mother” scene in 2D, and…you know what I’m going to say, right? Knowing me and my gripes with CG? Yeah, you guessed it – it looks a lot better than if it were CG. It would’ve been costly to render the sunglasses and face mask too, I bet, and it seems to give the scene some gravitas due to the sudden contrast.

Octopus tentacles are meant to be snacks, in case you didn’t figure that out from the size of the serving.

…er, CGI Shindo drinking beer completely causes the gravitas to be lost. Welp, it was beautiful while it was happening.

I wonder what it means to show the origami turtles as a trio…it’s gt to be foreshadowing of some sort. Either it’s saying Shindo’s dad is dead or Shunina’s going to reveal how he breeds…well, those are my thoughts, but I heavily lean towards the latter as being true. (By the way, I always thought Shindo was a guy with siblings. Did anyone else think the same thing?)

I know your feels about having to get up early, Hanamori, but why were you running like you were trying to get away from Godzilla?

BVLCARI? Well, Asano’s watch seems to be roughly of that brand (as in, I may have gotten a letter or two wrong).

They’re going to drag Kado by the corner? I’d never think of that, but now that they’ve revealed this, Shindo made it (figuring out how to move Kado with least ground contact) seem a little too easy.

Kado spinning, with all those clouds around it, took my breath away…

Visually speaking, it’s interesting they showed kids on cube-like structures in a park. If I were an anime scholar, I’d want to analyse things like that. Unfortunately, there is no such title as “anime scholar”…

Geometrically speaking, it’s interesting they put Kado, a cube, next to a Ferris wheel, a circle. It’s almost like minimalist art.

*lowkey tries to stifle laughter* That’s not a brain! It’s an egg, or a pill or a lozenge, with brain-like designs in it!...Er-hem. Well, I knew this from the spoilers, but basically, what they implied with the “brain” was “Shindo hasn’t had to sleep since he got anisotropised (or whatever you call it)”.

Boku no Hero Academia 20

“Nabooh” is apparently a Star Wars reference. I hadn’t caught on to that sort of thing until my second watch through of the first season, where Deku cleans up Tatooin Beach and I thought, “That name is a little weird for an anime”.

Brainwashing. I’ve tried that sort of thing in stories before (it was in Conquest Dreams before it got deleted), but seeing the pros and cons of powers is something only the user can really see.

The static was a nice idea, visually speaking.

Ojiro, that’s not selfish at all…

Deku’s looking scary right now. Be careful not to become a villain, or else you’ll fall into the Nietzsche trap*! * - Nietzche once said, “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”

The judo throw seems to be a favourite of Deku’s, eh? We saw it in his fight with Bakugo in s1.

I think I get Shinso, actually. The power of stereotypes is a harsh mistress.

I see…Shinso was pointing out Midoriya’s gullibility, in a way.

If Shouto wants to win over his dad, he should face off against another ice user. That’s how these things work, y’know. I should know because I tend to write these sorts of things (see White Parasite for one).

There’s a person in a tiger onesie…well, their onesie kinda looks like a tiger.

Royal Tutor 7

Make sure to keep your torte properly, Leo, or else…ew…

Aw, Bruni. Sad though it is, I know exactly how you feel. I used to be good at a lot of subjects, and in the advanced classes for them, but now I’m average, potentially even struggling in things I thought I was good at.

I have fond memories of a certain show where they’d have home improvement stuff that I’d watch on Friday nights with my dad. It’s still going as we speak, but it’s a shell of what it used to be in my opinion. Why do I bring up this show? It’s because this flashback reminds me of that nostalgia.

Why does Viktor want to have a “backup” successor then, if Eins is so good?(!)

I could see that “I will not have you as my apprentice anymore” line coming, although the line straight after it roped me out of dropping the show.

Dat Bruno sleeping at his desk. That would be me, if I were capable of sleeping at my desk.

Yeah, silver-haired man. In the words of the Who, “Who are you?”

*does double take* Smirdy-what???

(when Dmitri’s drinking his wine) Why do I have the feeling something’s about to go very wrong?...(when Bruno is asked to go away from Granzreich) Yep, must be that dastardly Count…

So Mr Fancy Hat (Heine version) is Eins’ high steward??? You pulled me right back into watching for at least the third or fifth time.

Ooh-wee, Mr Fancy Hat. That’s some soft power, carrot Machiavellianism you’ve got going on there.

Wuh? An old man making a Sailor Moon gesture is funny, but it does make me question exactly how drunk he is. It also makes me question stereotypes again (see Boku no Hero Academia above for the first time).

Ah, Bruni. I don’t just understand you, I grok you (as much as I’d hate to admit it). Back when I was writing Ro.Te.O, the demon of envy (Skyrua/Astaroth) was the easiest to write…

Smirdy-man, you do know what “sophistry” is, right? For reference, here’s Google-sensei to the rescue.

Borscht? I heard of it once, through Cooking Mama…(LOL. Shows how much I suck at recognising cuisine.)

For one second, I thought Heine was a mini ninja, not a mini teacher.

*ROFLs* They’re actually using the live-action version of the ED??? That’s a surprise I never saw coming! (Note: Prior to this ep, I saw the teaser version of this ED on ANN.)

Grimoire of Zero 6

“Grimoire of Zero” is shortened from “Starting the Magic Grimoire From Zero”…or something along those lines…

Thirteen’s name is actually a title, “The Thirteenth”.

How does being an animal correlate with “Because I’m eating, I won’t die?”…?

The thing about the clash of ideologies is that both sides can be as correct as each other…

I have the feeling the final opponent Albus and Mercenary will have to face (I think they’ll regroup) is not necessarily Thirteen, but Zero herself…*shivers*

Ah, the Machiavellianism strikes again! (See Royal Tutor above for the first time.)

A woman (Taichi You) voices Albus, and Takehito Koyasu voices Thirteen…hmph. What a cast.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

1/2 Can I share a really unpopular opinion real quick? Episode 4 was my least favorite out of the four episodes. I didn't like almost ever character was pushed to the side for Clem and AJ. Also I feel like Clem getting bit wasn't necessary for the story. We still could've played AJ to maybe shifting the focus half way through the episode. I wanted to interact more with a betrayed/blind Violet and a mute Louis. I wanted to see what Assam and Omar said about the delta.

2/2 I wanted to see how Willy was coping with Mitch's death. I wanted to see how Ruby and Assam got together. I wanted Tenn to learn the truth about Sophie. I wanted Violet/Tenn to tell us more about Minnie. I wanted more cute Clementine X Violet or Clementine X Louis moments. Maybe I was just expecting something different and my own expectations got me let down. I just wanted to share my idea's with someone and hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading all of this :)

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Episode 4 is............. a complicated episode for me. 

Like, I love parts of it. I love all the clouis moments, I love playing as AJ, the James cave scene is flippin’ wild, and as much as I scream and whine about the trust AJ choice, I like how it was different than the previous choices we made in which we didn’t think it’d lead to what it did. I like how batshit Minerva got after getting bit to hell, even though I fucking hate her for what happens on the bridge. 

But I do think it is the one episode I have the most problems with, and the big one is what you said: Suddenly, everything was pushed aside to make room for Clementine getting bit. 

I love the Clementine and AJ moments, and I love how many there are, but I wish we didn’t have to sacrifice moments with Louis/Violet and the other we didn’t save, as well as the other kids. I get WHY the did it because really, Clementine and AJ are the core of the story but.... still. 

Y’know, I go back and forth on if they should’ve given us 5 episodes instead of 4, because then they could’ve given us all the things you mention here. BUT then what if it ended up being too drawn out and made the game less impactful?

 I doubt this because if they were given the proper time and budget and assets, I firmly believe they could’ve given us 5 excellent episodes where we could’ve interacted more with blind Violet and mute Louis. We could’ve talked with Tenn more and give him the truth of what happened to Sophie. We could’ve had more interactions with the other Ericson kids. We could’ve had more sweet moments with Louis/Violet. 

I’ve said this before, but I wish Clementine and AJ could’ve stayed with them for at least a week before they ran into Abel and everything Marlon did was revealed. If done right, we could’ve been presented with the first community we’ve seen that has good, solid structure and support... only to realize that it’s slowly crumbling and no one realizes it. This happened fairly quickly in what we got: We run into Abel, Brody freaks out, Marlon freaks out, truth is revealed, Marlon kills Brody, and we get the confrontation scene. 

This all happens in one night.  

Not only would spending a week at the school give us more time with Louis and Violet, letting the player get even more of a feel for the characters in deciding who they want Clementine to bond with, but we’d also get to see Marlon breaking more and more through time. 

Hell, if they were afraid of pacing and drawing it out, they could’ve come up with a way around that. Like doing a little montage of Clementine and AJ getting closer with everyone, showing little bits of her getting close with Louis and Violet in different ways as well as throwing in moments of Marlon getting more and more stressed out and snappy. I don’t know! I just don’t feel we were with them as long as we should’ve before the confrontation scene. It also would’ve added more weight to turning to Louis or Violet for help. I know it still has weight because they still help her even though they don’t know her, but you can totally argue that they’re not doing it entirely for her. Louis doesn’t want his best friend to murder Clem in front of everyone and Violet’s no doubt pissed about what happened to the twins. They both like Clementine, but..... it’s not entirely HER that motivates them to step up, y’know?

Also, like you said, I wanted to talk to Aasim and Omar about the delta. We couldn’t do that because of Clementine getting bit and the big reveal of her surviving. A lot was sacrificed for that and I don’t think that’s a good thing. 

Back before ep4 came out, my big theory was that James/Lilly was going to kidnap AJ and THAT was going to be our parallel to s1. I was KIND OF right since James tries to kidnap AJ so I WASN’T CRAZY Y’ALL. Haha the shit I got for suggesting AJ potentially getting kidnapped was nuts, but I WASN’T ENTIRELY WRONG OKAY

But, we could’ve made it back to the school with everyone, maybe still get separated, have the cave scene [except James doesn’t try anything at this time] and have the bridge scene, but Clementine, AJ, and Louis/Violet/Tenn make it back [James, too, if he’s there] and we think we’re finally okay until Clementine wakes up and realizes that AJ’s gone. 

Not only would this give us the despair of James being driven to betray us, but IT WOULD GIVE LILLY PURPOSE

Not some stupid “Love never lasts bleh!” two-second speech we get from her. 

This could also make Clementine reminisce about when the Stranger took her and what happened to Lee when he came to get her. We’d have everyone try and help us get AJ back, which would lead to us having a moment with the one we let get taken since they’re too hurt to go so they stay with Omar to watch the school or something. 

If this happened, I would’ve stopped AJ from shooting Lilly. I would’ve sacrificed James to get a final confrontation with Lilly after tracking her down. Hell, have it at the barn! Lilly’s still hurt and she’s got to rest, but she’s got AJ tied up or something! I don’t know, something! And THEN maybe we can switch to playing as AJ to escape!

I’m just throwing out ideas here! Maybe not everyone would be into it, but hell, I’m interested. In the very least, it’s fun to think about and discuss. 

While I’m glad Clementine ends up in a home and everything’s fine and dandy, I wish there was more, like you said. 

And while on this subject: What would you add to the game if given a 5th episode? Would you go with a kidnapping plot like I suggested, or would you go with something different? Like spending more time with the delta? Or maybe having James be our overall final antagonist? Or Minerva not getting bit and coming back to kidnap Tenn, and THAT’S our kidnapping plot? Or maybe the ending we got is perfect and you wouldn’t change anything? 

I’m interested in what you would want for an ending if you would essentially rewrite it. 

And anon, thanks for sharing! I completely understand your issues and dislike of the final episode, totally valid! At least we can take comfort in fanfics and art and other’s theories and “what-if”’s to help with any disappointment we felt during the game. It’s a beautiful game [the best of the 4 imo] and I love it, but it’s not perfect.