#anyway cool episode! the concept is literally so funny like.

[upon-the-snow]

✨ thoughts and prayers ✨

[sskk-manifesto]

Ep 5!!!

[whatudottu]

Something about Altered Loyalties CYLAS just really makes me want to include him in the first place but also makes me really really REALLY think that with the more supernatural elements of AL based off of the original TFP pilot (or just first episode/s?) that CYLAS as a ‘dead man walking’ would actually let him stay around longer AND also be a very significant contributing factor to Megatron’s downfall in Decepticon favour!

Of course it’s not as if I have the pieces of the TFP rewrite au firmly put into place, CYLAS in canon shows up just over halfway into season 2, and many of my most established changes occur in the first like… including all the parts of ‘Darkness Rising’ 8 episodes of season one; I have no idea if the environment CYLAS presents himself in is the same one canon CYLAS does.

But with the dubiousity between s1 e8 all the way to s2 e19, I’ll establish the basic context… I think in story mode maybe…

Looking at the general timeline for the Aligned Continuity, it says that the first contact of cybertronians on Earth is dated to about 500 years before the show, give or take a decade. I’ve been listing Skyquake’s little EHP pitstop to have existed at least 50 years before the war reached our planet, but what if I pushed it all the way back to 500; if a vorn is 83 years, that’d be about 6 years on an entirely different planet not knowing truly if your twin is going to make it, a planet which by the way presently has no established radio systems that it’s horrifically quiet for a terrestrial environment.

That means that Skyquake’s EHP Comms Array has been transmitting a signal long before humans had developed radio, which also means that what might’ve been blatantly an anomaly in the system if discovered 50 odd years previous to 2012 (which would’ve been in the 60s give or take which would not have been good in the literal middle of the cold war era) has been going for centuries because it had always been there, there is no anomaly because it is a signal that has existed ever since humans were able to manipulate radiowaves into sending messages and translate them into detectable noise. It helps that cybertronian language and code (both code lang and like literal programming code) is a system unknown to humans developing their own language.

And you may be asking, why did I divert this post from talking about CYLAS and how he’d outlast his canon alternate to radio shit? Well, if you were a paramilitary organisation who is pretty good at erasing signals and you discovered a signal that has been actively running for the entirety of human radio has suddenly been silenced, what would you begin to suspect at that?

Aliens may potentially be a stretch but MECH didn’t just name themselves after the cybertronians fighting war on their planet, and once the cybertronian conflict touched down on Earth, the Decepticons hadn’t a need for an intergalactic communications array and in fact was specifically instructed to switch it off in an effort to prevent the Autobots from using it. That would’ve been about maybe 6 years ago for the show (wow just enough equivalent time to match what Skyquake felt he spent grounded to one radio tower look at that) and though MECH would not encounter their first cybertronian until ‘Convoy’ (haha wait that’s s1 e9 the next ep to cover - if necessary - for Altered Loyalties lmao), they would’ve had 6 years to find that missing signal and stumble across some very definitely alien technology.

That is one of the reasons why the rewrite of ‘Masters and Students’ which is less masters and students focused - rather the point is Skyquake, a team of Nemesis stationed vehcions and Starscream investigate the comms array and set it up manually - why the radio tower wasn’t switching on from a remote position.

The other reason was because the Guardian unit stationed at the comms array - the very ones that had accompanied Skyquake all those stellar cycles ago - had gone missing. Why?

Because of Megatron’s flagrant use of Dark Energon.

Points 1 and 2 listed above leads to the explosion of the comms array, the death of Skyquake, and MECH either being alerted to the point of alien contact or just in general going to the site for more study only to find a dead specimen. After the discovery of the Autobots with the body of Skyquake, MECH begins their initial study and dissection of cybertronian physiology, though without a live subject they couldn’t exactly see what parts function in what way, especially the t-cog.

The discovery of Skyquake led to the discovery of terrorcons which lead to the discovery of how to take down a cybertron and how to take it apart without it screaming. MECH would learn the programming of a cybertronian through vehicon terrorcons since, even with DE corruption, their processors are still somewhat being maintained. While probably not able to access memories (they are fickle things, memory centres, easy to damage storage or to corrupt files) there are still systems responsible for pain and other more processor based responsibilities that aren’t centred in a physical organ that reads in fine print it’s function.

Breakdown being MECH’s first fully functional living mecha for their study is so exciting for them (even if Breakdown is very much less enthused) because they can put what knowledge they’ve pieced together to be far more efficient with their time and focus on the elements they could not decipher from either corpse or zombie and potentially try and prod at Breakdown’s brain for some cohesive coding. Good think Bulkhead still shows up when he does even with Breakdown walking away with the dreadful thought of ‘how the hell do these fleshies already know so much’ boring into his head… mainly through the optic that was still drilled out-

Whether or not MECH needs to get another living cybertronian to get caught up in their understanding of the biomechanics of them (aka would 'Operation: Bumblebee' take place as it does) or they skip right onto making a remote control Prime having gotten a headstart on their knowledge and scaring the scrap out of any bot unlucky enough to be unconscious around them, eventually Silas gets smooshed and MECH scientists are reliant on their alien dissections to get the human puree back to the land of the living.

I'd assume that this was the case in the original since if Silas' biomatter was able to be collected from a pile of robot drone induced rubble the RC truck would've been able to be recovered as well, but MECH discovers that using Nemesis Prime as a lifesupport system does not work given all it's functionality is focused on visually replicating another cybertronian, rather than using it to create life. There's a lot of parts and systems to a cybertronian's biological ecology that wasn't put into consideration for a mimic toy that prove detrimental to creating a suitable ah... skin suit essentially for Silas' blood pudding, but MECH has an abundance of corpses ready and raring to be used just so long as they piece them back together again.

Amid MECH's collection would no doubt be a mass of vehicon bodies - some untouched by energon others taken down explicitly by MECH because they were terrorcons - some terrorcons made up from the bodies of the previous conflict pre-show (and not just a hypothetical ancient war, but explicitly the conflict that culled a lot of Autobot and Decepticon officers amid the show expected vehicon death), and the very first cybertronian sample they started studying, Skyquake himself! Being at the origin of the blast at the EHP Comms Array he wasn't kept in perfect condition for one, the arm he loses as a terrorcon in the Shadowzone is still lost - it's been buried under rubble after being severed with radio tower pieces - and the monochromatic glass over his optics has long since been shattered so you can see the 'pupil' aka sensor, but seeing as how CYLAS makes Breakdown's corpse somehow look worse than what Airachnid left it as MECH probably has to suture that fucker back up because there's not way his organs have been left untouched!

And once CYLAS has been successfully integrated into his new cybertronian shell (some sort of arm, either being a loaner from another corpse or straight up just one MECH invented, it could even be a copy of the missing arm but where's the fun in that) instead of getting all high and mighty about 'being of a superior species' Silas actually bloody thinks on MECH's plans going forward. With a literal army of paramilitary personnel, from the scientists that melded human flesh with cybertronian wires to the average grunt soldier fighting between the battles of iron giants, CYLAS has something that Megatron (at least the Altered Loyalties Megatron I have written previously) has wanted from the start of the series...

An undying force.

For as large as cybertronians physically are their numbers can never match the scale of humanity, I can't remember if the books mentioned only thousands of the dead or up to a million over the course of like... a long fucking time but, that's not even the number of the human population if you're caught up with the number (nearly 8 billion alive today). And with the dead of previous battles already roaming the Earth, in a world where Megatron still being only like one dude can't command a planet wide population of zombies, the only reason he doesn't turn his blade to the weakest denominators of his forces in his plagued state is because their conscious decision to serve him is worth more than mindless servitude.

CYLAS introducing himself and MECH as a solution to this issue, and providing a show of bountiful body horror, makes not even the Decepticon high command quite as safe as they had been; not that it's been proven to be safe standing by Megatron's side given his track record of wanting his SiCs beaten or killed but...

The fact that CYLAS just so happened to have given and then promptly brutalised Dreadwing's hope that Skyquake may have been actually alive, just severely damaged (and, bond weakened from distance and prior injury, clinging to the last shreds of 'my spark didn't kill me with him' reasoning) and broke him out of the spell of blind loyalty to his once great leader.

CYLAS in this version has a little bit more longevity to his existence within the Decepticon forces, not actually a Decepticon soldier as the canon CYLAS pledged himself as but 'The Human Factor' the episode so calls itself akin to the way the American government and the human children are to the Autobots, but being able to physically go toe-to-toe with cybertronians. Megatron might be a little tired of dealing with independents after Airachnid's escapade (I do intend to make her more into a poacher/torturer type character than another Starscream so she might act out a little differently), but Silas isn't one for licking boots anytime soon and as CYLAS, Megatron is no different; you'd think he wouldn't have even done that in the first place given he's already an ex-military 'take-no-nonsense' bitch, but the Breakdown in him probably made him a lapdog...

Anyway that's a whole big post about Altered Loyalties CYLAS... or at least the in depth reasoning behind why he could still integrate himself into the story and why he'd probably have more opportunity to lasting- i prommy it's not bc i like torturing skyquake likers *wink*

I guess this is now a canon event or at least I'll try to make it canon ;)

[simptasia]

Tell me all about LOST all I know is from Dane Cook

that is. such a funny sentence

aw shucks, its tempting, but i don't wanna give ya spoilers. and there are truly things in lost that must be experienced by your own flesh

...yes im aware of what my blog is like

so i guess i'll give a vague spoiler free overview

so. a group of plane crash survivors find themselves on a mysterious island and have to deal with the strange happenings + their weight of their individual traumas

the show is serialized and one ep more or less flows into another, so literally no ep can be skipped (no matter what anybody says) or else you'll miss something

its a large ensemble cast, ranging from the 13 to 20s range, all in all i think theres like 35 main characters

the show follows a flashback structure, each episode dedicated itself to a main plot on the island intercut with flashbacks to one character. we call these centric episodes. eg. this is a jack centric episode. sometimes an ep will have multiple characters have flashbacks in one ep. while this show didn't originate the concept of a large cast or flashback storytelling, it did popularize it in the early 2000s. so a lot of post 2004 shows wanted to be lost so bad and it shows

at first lost was a survival show but they gloss over this very quickly and its more about the weird shit going on. as time goes on, plots and mysteries stack up. this is to create intrigue, as the shows main focus is an endless parade of character studies. with the added bonus of some cool and twisty shit going on too

but because lost had so much plot, over time it got accused of being confusing and convoluted and Not Answering Questions and well. your mileage may vary. but i think its confusing if you watch it too slowly. like, it aired over a 6 year period, no wonder people got confused. its better to watch nowadays, way easier to handle

the genre of lost is: drama mystery action paranormal sci fi romance with a dash of comedy. lost is full of the saddest fucks you'll ever meet but the show contains enough levity and great colouring to make it not a huge misery fest

pretty decent racial diversity. next to no LGBT rep. more women than the average tv show. then and now

the score FUCKS

not a single bad actor in this entire show, the performances on display are fucking outstanding. and every emotion is like up to 11, which is great for my autistic brain

for those of you who find sex scenes to be tedious, i have a bit of trivia for ya: all sex in LOST happens off screen. not a single sex scene to be found. pre sex, yes, post sex, yes. making out, yes. but sex itself? footage not found. i'm neutral on the concept, i just thought that was something to point out

i highly recommend lost to, like, anybody. ever. its a masterpiece of television. even the low points are better than most shows. sometimes i take lost for granted and then i watch any other drama series and im like "oh right, lost is incredibly good"

its my third favourite show. and thats only cuz star trek and doctor who exist, and nobody is beating those fuckers

anyways do you like to see beautiful people cry and scream but it isn't cringe?* well, i've got a show for you! *okay there is some cringe. as a treat. the leading man of this show has the social grace of a cold pancake (affectionate)

thank you for your time

[oscconfessions]

Tbh I really want to do a rewrite of Object Terror. I used to be a fan of it through like 2019-2021. I'm not a fan anymore because I realized just how bad the writing is. I feel like it could have potential if it wasn't so edgy and it actually fleshed out the characters.

Like wdym this new co-host, S'mores, is a demon? Wdym he's collecting souls for mf Satan himself to “prove his worth?” Why is he targeting these random ass contestants of an object show? Why not just go out and collect random stranger's souls off the streets? WHY ARE THERE DEMONS IN YOUR OBJECT SHOW?? And furthermore why is the elimination area hell itself? Why? How? Does this mean when the characters are eliminated via falling spikes they ACTUALLY die? That can't be because one of them, El Nudelo Spider, comes back. Unless S'mores somehow brought him back because they became friends in hell? Why? Does Satan know about that? Does S'mores have to get a pardon? Will he get in trouble if Satan finds out he brought a soul onto earth? There's just so much shit happening for no reason. It's unnecessary.

Don't even get me started on the characters. Literally half of them can be removed because they add NOTHING to the show. Plus they have like zero personality. We don't know a single thing about Skittle besides that she's nice and silly. Dude half your cast is nice and silly. Also this may be nitpicky but why is it such a sausage fest on the show? Out of 25 characters 19 of them are dudes. I'm not saying it has to be 50/50 with the gender but it's really noticeable here how unbalanced it is.

There's no reason for the show to have gore, either. The creator actually responded to this complaint with that the whole show takes place in another world and that the sentient objects aren't objects. Just ugly little creatures. Okay cool concept but 1. You don't have to have so much gore it makes the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise shudder, and 2. What?? If that's the case why does Beer shatter like a beer bottle should? Why does Magazine rip and tear like a paper? Why is it when Coffee Cup quite literally explodes, it's coffee? If they're ugly creatures shouldn't they just be flesh and stuff? Why does it change between objects dying like objects and them dying in the most gruesome ways?

The writing is absolute garbage too. It started off as a comedy but slowly turned into an edgy bloodbath with some comedy in it. Good lord, the comedy. Half of it is just screaming, and the other half is outdated memes. I mean it had the fucking mlg air horn in the first episode. It also had Beer and Trowel in episode 5 making out for literally seven seconds before it cuts to the Carpet and Stapler finding out and being shocked which like. Was that an attempt at comedy? I didn't find it funny at all I was hella uncomfortable when I first watched it (and now that I had to rewatch it again to see how long that was.) First off, why? That was completely unnecessary and the make out happens with no build up. Second what the fuck are Beer and Trowel? They're written as friends but then have a random make out session for no fucking reason. Shit I'm with Carpet and Stapler I was shocked too.

This was supposed to be a confession on how I'd write Object Terror but it turned into me complaining about it. Uh. Anyways What I'd do is remove some of the characters (ie Honey, Fart, Mint), give the rest personality and interests, get rid of the gore and maybe the demon shit. I'm tired this show makes my brain rot whenever I try to understand it. The demon and hell shit is what's bugging me.

I'm sorry for this long ass rant lmao I bet the people who didn't watch Object Terror probably think I'm insane

.

[whatfamidoinghere]

The Umbrella Academy Season 4 Final Thoughts

I have opinions I need to share. Obviously spoilers ahead so… enter at your own risk?

Firstly, the positives

To give it some credit, this was a beautiful ending. It was technically the only way they could end it bc it was clear no matter what they did, the apocalypse would follow

I loved the reference to them saving the Eiffel Tower in an alternate timeline, like they did in the comics

…yeh, that’s it

Oh wait, I loved Klaus’ relationship with Claire. I love Klaus. I love everything about him. Thank you. End quote

Now for the negatives - this will be in no coherent order so bare with me

It’s embarrassingly clear that this needed its usual 10 episodes. I think I read somewhere that the director felt that 6 episodes were the perfect amount so maybe Netflix didn’t cut it, or perhaps he was trying to make the best of a shitty situation. But every scene felt like it was missing something.

Where was the family dance sesh???

Five and Lila. No. Just. No. They’re begrudging step-sibling and that is it. And even if they did want to go down this direction, even if I wasn’t so opposed to the ship, I just didn’t care. You can’t just time skip 7 years in 1 episode and simultaneously get me to feel invested in their relationship. They needed 2 episodes at least to make me feel the impact of those 7 years. I know for 5 that’s probably nothing compared to his time in the apocalypse, but to Lila, that would’ve driven her insane, and in her breaking point, that’s when she goes to 5, bit like how they did this. Not to mention, they come back looking the exact same. 5 is supposed to be, what, 27 at this point? I sure as hell don’t see it. I would’ve much preferred a scene where, once Lila releases they’re going back home, frantically tries to clean up and cut her hair to look exactly how she did before so that her family still recognise her. Ugh that entire point was just so shit

The baby shark gag was not funny

Why did Diego and Lila have to have twins as well. I get it, they’re tired parents who miss their glory days. But if you want us to feel really sorry for them, and later mourn them when Lila has to say goodbye, maybe let us see the family interact as… as well as family. I was so excited to see Diego in his real daddy era just for him to talk to his oldest daughter maybe once? ALSO why does Lila get that whole emotional goodbye to her children and Diego just, nothing? “Get the family out of here” umm hello, even if you didn’t like the in-laws, those are 3 of your fucking children that you’re saying goodbye to forever. I think I’m just upset that they reduced Lila to being a tired mother (to me anyway) and forget Diego was the father. I would’ve so rather seen him being the dad that he never had in his life.

Like putting the family on the Subway to nowhere. Literally. It’s not like she knew how the Subway worked so she was just sticking her family on the train and hoping for the best. They made it seem as though they had never found a world safe enough. Like truly the best place for them to stay was the fucking Greenhouse world, so how did she expect the family to survive, and with no powers mind you. And also didn’t thy know at that point that all ultimate timelines would be destroyed, except for the main timeline. Was she hoping they’d magicallly be taken to the main timeline orrr? I’m just so fucking confused man

The Subway. What a fucking missed opportunity oh my fucking god. Its only true function was to have all the Five’s meet up to tell Prime Five the super duper important convenient information that would bring upon The Finale. It was such a cool concept and we saw… none of it. Firstly, they made it wayyy to easy that Five just happened to find a journal his future self made that worked out the tunnel system. You’re telling me that in 7 years he never worked any of it out. Uhhh I just wanted to see how the Subway worked and we couldn’t even get that. AND they only showed us 1 world!!!! I think alternate timelines are such a. Fun concept because you can explore multiple worlds that are like your own but a little more freaky with little to no consequences in your own world. I LOVED seeing the Phoenix Academy so much but… that was it. Imagine a montage of Five and Lila visiting a ton of worlds like our own with messed up Academy. Can you imagine if we saw a comic accurate Umbrella Academy??? Omfg the ultimate homage. I’m tearing up just thinking about what we could’ve had.

Gene and Jean were rly fun but again, what waisted potential. I loved my quirky not-so-instance parents sm

Uncle Five? Uncle Luther? Gone. Maybe I’m misremembering but they always seemed so excited to meet Claire. Ik they’re pissed at Alison or whatever (but they’re literally not though) but you’re telling me we never see them interact, despite them being some of the only sibling to care about Claire??? Oh okay, okayyy

The powers. Does nobody care that some have multiple powers now orrr? So Lila had laser eyes but could still mimic everyone else. Also the running gag of not being able to control her eyes could’ve gone on for so much longer. And Alison. Was she just so powerful she could rumour ppl without saying anything now? And when her eyes went yellow, that was a completely new power, right? And did Viktor’s powers seem different to you guys or is it bc he absorbed Harlan’s powers last season. Me personally, I think they’re should’ve gone down the Tinkerbell: The Pirate Fairy route and swapped the sibling powers with each other or completely different ones

It would’ve been such a good plot twist if after learning that the Cleanse restored them to the one true timeline, they all think it’s their original lives as a misdirect and they the horror sets in as you realise that they’re actually part of an ultimate timeline. They just could’ve done so much more than that. I know with limited episodes they had to wrap things up quickly so after they learned they had to be erased they just kinda had to accept it but I would’ve loved an entire episode of them grappling with the fact and saying goodbye and reminiscing about their past and maybe even being in denial and self sabotaging or whatever (kind of in the style of that ep in s2 when they have an hour to meet up

Why was Jennifer in a squid??? Why? did she get all the durango? Why weren’t there 42 other kids who got ur? That could’ve been such a cool parallel like cmonnn

I always suspected Ben’s death to be connected to Reg in some way so I loved the reveal… but I hated Jennifer’s involvement. Like it just felt tooo convenient. And I understand why they did it from a writers/ directors perspective that they wanted to wrap everything up but I just felt it could’ve been done much smarter. ALSO I just realised that Klaus doesn’t know how Ben died. Diabolical. I will not stand for it

Reginald didn’t recognise his own wife??? Like when Fake Gene called him “love” and Reggie didn’t clock it???

Speaking of Reggie ARE WE EVER GOING TO DISCUSS THAT HE’S AN ALIEN ROBOT BITCH???

Soooo Luther never once asked Reggie about Sloane???

Ray. Where’s Ray? Maybe the actor was working on something else and they had to get rid of his character

WE NEVER EVEN HEAD ALISON SAY “I HEARD A RUMOUR” NOT EVEN ONCE like I get she’s powerful enough to the point she doesn’t have to say it anymore but that line eats down every. Single. TIME!

Lastly and most importantly… the soundtrack. The songs didn’t slap. Simple as.

Final Statement

I think I covered all my points. I doubt I’ll make a part 2 bc honestly, the show isn’t worth my time and energy anymore. I just needed to rant bc I don’t know any ppl who watch this who have any lick of media literacy.

The finale was painfully underwhelming. It didn’t feel like the same TUA I’ve grown to love over the past few years. I can accept the ending but the journey to how we got there was one massive slap in the face. I’m going to ignore this ending ever happened thank you <3

[purplekoop]

How about a classic? Reverse Unpopular Opinion: TMNT 2012

oh god, okay, this really is easy mode, I gotta say nice things about TMNT 2012. I gotta hold off some praises for the long overdue Things I Love (paused my rewatch because I meant to make a season 1 post, never got around to that so I stopped because I didn't wanna watch more past that. oops. anyways,)

Theme Song! Very good! Very nice evolution of the classic theme that perfectly sets the vibe for the show. I don't think I need to specify that the Season 5 theme is also incredible. An incredibly random choice for an homage, but still an awesome intro that helps set apart the weirdo (affectionate) season.

Uhhhh god wanna keep these more specific so uhhh Leatherhead. Just him. the whole guy. Love his voice, LOVE his design, love how the show uses him as the "things are getting serious" backup in the earlier seasons. He's one of the characters I was always excited to see in episodes as a kid and that feeling hasn't really gone away.

On a related note of just saying a character, Fishface. Visually he's a great example of how 2012 will take a goofy concept and make it look and move as cool as possible, it's astounding a character proportioned like that fights mostly with his feet and doesn't look stupid. Well. Too stupid anyways. He's also a fun personality, enough a jerk to warrant being a bad guy but charming enough to where you almost wish he wasn't. Also, without spoiling any specifics, the way he exits the show still cracks me up. I think the whole Foot Clan villain gang is a great batch of mainstay baddies but Fishface is definitely the standout to me, especially as someone entirely new to 2012 (unless I'm unaware of some obscure comic character of the same name)

Tales of the Yokai. banger episode. Especially the big scene at the end. I don't need to specify what I mean, you know it if you know it.

The whole first half of season 3 is so fun. The classic farm house being turned into a setting of horror parodies is such a fun choice that they use for a bunch of great episodes that don't have to keep the main plot going after the big bang of season 2's finale.

Actually on that note, the canon explanation for Leo's VA swap is so funny, more shows should do that. I mean I guess in a way Doctor Who already does that... and like. Fugitoid in almost every sense but literal is basically a Doctor.

Speaking of

FUGITOOOOIIIIIIID THE BOY

Look I feel like it's not a shock at all I love a good overly formal robot character. Before his introduction in 2012 I already adored him from seeing him sporadically in a few 03 episodes I saw, so I was ECSTATIC to see him in this show too. He's also just great in general, maybe my favorite character in the entire show if not franchise, I love this little guy war criminal so much

Gonna stop there because this WILL devolve into me either incoherently rambling about almost every individual character or just an analysis about all the major show elements like the art style or humor or something. Again, this is easy, except in the respect I need to save something for the actual long post about the show.

Actually wait okay one more:

armagon.

shark :)

Okay now I'm done, thank you.

[prismartist]

thoughts on the michael palin episode of the torchwood radio series (with very minimal knowledge of torchwood or doctor who)

yes i'm only two episodes into doctor who and no i have not seen torchwood. if you're wondering why in the world i listened to the episode anyway, the answer is simply: michael palin.

this is very welcome to nightvale "a story about you" vibes and i love it.

three things i find very amusing: 1) michael palin canonically exists in the doctor who extended universe, 2) the destructive psychic being trying to take over the world is aware of him, and 3) the destructive psychic being trying to take over the world chose to impersonate michael palin voicing an ASMR self-help tape to try and rope people into their evil plan.

(addendum: just found out that monty python is canon to doctor who and the doctor claims to have come up with the name for flying circus. that's fun!!)

(do you think aliens are fans of monty python.)

everyone is indeed bisexual, including the evil michael palin self-help voice.

jack harkness is sooo fucking hot you guys even evil michael palin can't stop talking about how hot he is.

the voice's reaction to ianto kissing jack is so funny he literally goes "oh 😳" like i can imagine his face wahdhsjdhsf.

i'm assuming the labelling of the gang as certain brain aspects is accurate to their characters? because that's fun if so. they seem cool :D

you know at first i did think it was a general "you" and thought it was funny that the writers just assume the people who are listening are most likely to be anti-social, anxious, and stressed. and well, let's just say i ended up relating a lot to Y/N,

"inability to say how she feels" "she likes biscuits" same toshiko.

jack harkness died trying to get biscuits. i'm pretty sure evil michael palin was the one who killed him and it just lured Y/N to possess it afterwards but i also like the idea that jack harkness somehow got himself fucking killed while trying to get biscuits.

there's a rift???

i'm not gonna lie for a good while i was absolutely vibing with being evil bisexual michael palin's abused henchman.

on that note oh my goddddd michael palin being angry and swearing this is so!!!!!! this is everything to me <33333 like you have no idea he's popping the fuck off and i'm more than living for it i'm ascending!!

jack harkness is so sweet oh my 🥺🥺🥺🥺 is he always like this??

the worldbuilding is so cool by the way i love the way this all works in general, the weird mind palace psychic connection stuff. i'm sure part of it is an excuse to make michael palin play jack but it works and i'm obsessed. cool supernatural stuff for the win!!!

speaking of wins it actually is so sweet listening to Y/N push through and save the world and jack praising them…… i'm so proud of them/us <3333

which makes the ending all the more DEVASTATING. good god not the tragedy DDD: nooo evil michael palin i liked hanging out with you but not for eternity in the mind torture beach DDDD:

i'm choosing to believe the warped theme at the end was the gang finding and destroying the tape because i just want my lil self-insert guy to be happy :(

anyways evil bisexual michael palin was amazing the concept is so cool i was sucked in the entire time. looking forward to watching torchwood even more now!! that episode's now a comfort media for me <3 (still has not seen torchwood).

[hidingoutbackstage]

Okay I’m STILL procrastinating watching s15 bc I’m SCARED so here’s my extremely biased ratings/opinions on the episodes of s14 to help me procrastinate (episodes which are multiple parts of a single story will be condensed into one slot)

Room Zero: SO cute and good, I LOVED the animation style, it was simple and short but really well done with great colors, fun alien designs, and fluid animation, and I just like seeing the guys go on missions like that. It's a shame that the animated show never got picked up bc I would've adored seeing more of it. 10/10

From Stumbled Beginnings: Very cute and funny origin story for Simmons and Grif, and I love that they were p much always together since they enlisted lmao makes their dynamic rlly good and the humor actually got a couple laughs out of me. 8/10

Fifty Shades of Red: Sarge's humor never quite landed with me like is has for some people (my boyfriend lmao I literally have to pause episodes sometimes so he can stop laughing. Anyway) but it was a very humorous and in character origin for him as well. 5/10

Why They’re Here: Less interesting than the previous two, obviously just meant to fill in plot "holes" and to also show us the origins of the other characters. Also I am completely ignoring that one line from Tucker in the interview, just gonna chalk it up to the "edgy" humor it does not exist to me. 4/10

The Brick Gulch Chronicles: WONDERFUL stop motion, very fun and cute and entertaining, very wholesome and still in the vibe with what the show itself is. I appreciate the willingness to do stop motion for most of it. 10/10

Red Army Unit FH57’s Adventure: It was kinda interesting and kinda funny but I found myself kinda tuning it out cuz it just felt kinda whatever. The combo of the different animation styles was cool though and I thought the ship misunderstanding them was funny. 5/10

Locus and Felix: Okay I'm gonna be a black sheep for a second and say that I rlly don't care that much about Locus and Felix. I don't think Felix is a secretly deep sadboi whom I'm gonna spend an unnecessary amount of time thinking about, I don't think Locus as secretly good all along, and I don't care that much about their partnership and what they were like before Chorus. That being said, the animation here is absolutely gorgeous, this is probably my favorite animated story in the whole season, it looks awesome. The plot is nothing special but who cares like I said it's beautiful, 6/10

Fight the Good Fight!: VERY funny and well-executed propaganda video, short and sweet and nothing more to it. It does its job. 5/10

Meta vs. Carolina: Dawn of Awesome: Another one I really don't care for because literally everything leading UP to the fight between Meta and Carolina is a waste of time. Maybe some people really care about their weapons and stats, but I don't. And even then, you kinda know Carolina is gonna win the fight, the question is just how. 4/10

Grey vs. Gray: I don't know or care about the Game Grumps and the entire thing felt like a short gag that went on for way too long with a predictable ending. 2/10

Caboose's Guide to Making Friends: Again, ADORABLE art style and very cute having a story be told from Caboose's perspective. 7/10

Head Cannon: Kinda funny I guess. I wish we'd gotten it spread out more equally among the heads Omega jumped into. Ik he didn't spend equal time in there but who cares. Whatever, still funny. 5/10

Get Bent: I LAUGHED PROBABLY THE HARDEST AT THIS ONE AND THAT'S MOSTLY BC OF LESBIAN DONUT IT CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD AND IT WAS HILARIOUS (also hello, bisexual church?) 9/10

Red vs. Blue: The Musical: it was fine. it was creative. The dancing was well animated. Enjoyable. 5/10

Mr. Red vs. Mr. Blue: I haven't seen Reservoir Dogs but Kaikaina was in this which automatically boosts it to a 8/10 (I also like that they have movie nights it's cute)

RvB Throwdown: Fine but mostly forgettable. 3/10

The Triplets Story: REALLY interesting concept (y'all know I love the freelancers) that felt like it dragged on too long and only gave Ohio something to do. 4/10

Immersion: The Warthog Flip: I loved the costumes and the actual Warthog and it got a couple laughs out of me. 5/10

Red vs. Blue vs. Rooster Teeth: This was made for the fans/themselves. As someone who is neither, none of it was funny and I just kinda waited for it to be over. At least the animation of the armor irl looked rlly good

[utilitycaster]

Something I've noticed, and that I'd be curious to get your thoughts on, is that there's a subset of fans who were perfectly cool with FCG when they didn't follow a deity, but as soon as they decided that religion was something they wanted to have as a part of their life, these fans did a 180. As you said, it's fine if someone doesn't enjoy how FCG is exploring religion, but it seems to me like some people were a lot more attached to the idea of a goddless cleric than they were to him as a character who had the potential to grow and change

Oh absolutely I think this is the case, which is funny, because I initially could not stand that FCG was a cleric with no apparent source of power (and, to be clear, I am not bothered by clerics who have mixed or even negative feelings about their deities like Deanna and FRIDA, nor would I be mad about a cleric devoted to a concept rather than a god).

Like...this is also touching on what I want to talk about later but there are a lot of fans who just...hate that the characters (and, uh, by extension, the cast) have free will and are not just puppets to play out and validate their (the fans) own personal beliefs, but are instead here to tell a story, which is why they hate change (because they fixate on the characters most appropriate as these puppets in the first few episodes and so change obviously fucks with that perception and forces them to have to think).

I think it's just people who, as I said, haven't gone to therapy about their religious trauma or at least learned the basics of "how I feel about religion is not necessarily how other people feel, nor is it directly applicable to a fictional magical world" and who are mad that a character they believed would prove that they are right is instead exploring religion. Which already didn't make sense because even if FCG did remain godless, they probably would still have rushed in here. Not to tap the Brennan Lee Mulligan "personality pre-dates ideology" sign yet again but the martyr complex and the altruism both came well before the interest in the Changebringer for FCG. FCG already did not really trust himself to make decisions; he just now has a way to outsource it to someone else. Which makes their speech on the Grand Disc fascinating, because it is essentially FCG asserting that in the absence of a god, one must aspire to goodness on one's own. I mean...folks, that's literally humanism, in a world where gods objectively exist.

Speaking of Brennan, he told a great story on the WBN fireside chat this week. He said it was a Hindu parable although I haven't tbh been able to find it, but anyway, it's about an atheist who meditated constantly, with the mantra that the gods weren't real. Upon their death, they were taken to the side of one of the gods, upon which they said, essentially, "what the fuck is going on" to which the god replied "you never allowed the gods out of your mind. You are one of the most devout people who ever existed." I think about this a lot when it comes to people who are desperate to overlay their own atheism (which, I should note, is fully valid in the real world, just not in Exandria) because, truly, they are constantly thinking of the divine and trying to make stories about the gods being wrong instead of just hanging out and watching the story.

When we look at people who are taking out their religious trauma, they are often recreating many of the same harmful group dynamics of organized religion, just dedicated to ideals other than a deity. It's that old discussion of how ex-fundamentalists still practice so many of the same thought patterns unless they put in a lot of active work to relearn it; they think removing the religion will fix them when the problem was always the behavior that people used the religion to justify. It's why (for example), and this is getting rather harsh, people who would rightfully be horrified by conversion therapy will, without blinking, remark things like "wow, I hope Jester nearly getting killed will make her realize she's a lesbian". The problem is not a belief in god; it's the belief that one's sexuality can be changed; that only some sexualities are correct to have; and that it's completely reasonable to say that a way to change a woman's behavior to what you want it to be is to threaten her life. They have not unlearned any of those beliefs, and instead of making the slightest effort themselves to grow and change and heal they look for fictional characters to prove their own rightness in perpetuating the same harm that was visited upon them, just in a different direction. So yeah, a character like FCG, who is growing and changing and exploring religion in a nuanced and neutral manner is a fucking threat to them.

[otakween]

Digimon Tamers - Episode 27

This episode was really fun and it felt like a lot happened. Pretty bizarro conceptually. As usual, I have QUESTIONS! The digimon blind watching experience is full of questions.

Notes:

Never thought I'd see a digimon riding a motorcycle. For a second there I thought we were getting a motorcycle digimon lol.

The "rider-less" bike reminded me of Stephen King. Evil/possessed vehicles is a pretty cool concept and combining that with this whimsical fantasy village was a new twist.

Okay WTF, digimon age now?? The Tsuchidarumon village had little baby Tsuchidarumon and elderly wrinkled Tsuchidarumon. This has never been a thing before that I can recall! Why would data-based creatures age like that anyways? Also, this brings me back to the previous episode. Are you tellin' me that there are "kid" versions of Jijimon and Babamon that look the same but are smaller? What about the previous forms for the Tsuchidarumon, do they digivolve from a baby form into a baby Tsuchidarumon or...? I'm definitely overthinking this, but I've gotten pretty deep into the franchise at this point and visually aging outside of digivolving was not a thing before!

That baby Tsuchidarumon barely reacted when its relative died lol. I guess they didn't need to make the moment that dramatic, but then don't kill digimon so casually!

Juri just eats dirt and likes it? Was that supposed to be her being polite or is she just a freak?

We got the doggo deva! I really like his design, probably one of the best yet (I could do a tier ranking at this point). Funny how most of the deva have that same, cryptic way of talking. Definitely a cult.

Jian and Jian alone looked off model this episode lol. They drew his eyes very rectangular for some reason.

Culumon's 2 seconds of screentime were completely pointless. The weird binary forest was kinda neat though.

I have a crack theory that Terriermon is aware he's in an anime. The fact that he's constantly like "meh, it'll work out" makes it feel like he knows he has plot armor lol

Choromon (lil baby metal mouse) was really cute. When they introduced him I was thinking "oh boy another baby digimon I'll have to raise in a video game eventually."

Excited for Beelzebumon, but he totally blew it when he was like "I'm Beelzebumon" at the end there. Who are you talking to? You look like an idiot now. Also, I had to double check that that was Impmon's digivolution because they didn't show it happening really (I know it's literally in the title, but still!)

Guilmon and Terriermon were extra cute in this episode. I love them so much! Juri was kinda cute too, she's growing on me. (Not that I ever disliked her).

[persephoneflowerpetals]

In the Percy Jackson books the author wrote Daedalus as a son of Athena, which makes Icarus a legacy of Athena and I was thinking how funny it would be if this concept was applied in the series, because to be honest Daedalus just doesn't He would say that he is the son of Athena and Icarus may not know it or he simply forgets that he is related to the goddess. Both Icarus and Daedalus are prodigious inventors, it would not be so far-fetched that they are related to Athena, although they possibly worship Hephaestus much more than Athena.

On the other hand, Athena would not be a present mother or grandmother, and she simply looks at Icarus and thinks how a guy like him could be related to her, however if any god said something bad about Icarus he would do anything to prove them wrong. .

Athena: or yes, Icaro is my grandson, whatever...

Athena after Ares insulted his grandson: My grandson is much more intelligent and creative than any of your children, and he will prove you wrong.

Athea appears in Icaro's room*

Athena: Icarus, get up, you will show Ares that he is wrong.

Omg I’m so pissed I had this big reply to this ask and tumblr glitched out and closed the app when I pressed “save to drafts” 😭 tumblr staff come fix your app! Lmao

Anyways, I hope this saves, but I was saying that I love this idea lol!

It does kind make sense to have Daedalus be related to Athena since she’s the goddess of wisdom. But I also agree that Daedalus and Icarus would probably worship Hephaestus more since he’s the god of the forge and that’s more connected to inventing, so it’d make more sense for them to be related to him, but yeah lol

I also agree Daedalus would totally forget that he’s related to a goddess lol! That just seems very Daedalus! I can totally see I arts eventually finding out because he hasn’t told him and Icarus is all like:

“WOAAAHHH! Okay, hold on, Dadalus! You’re tellin’ me that Athena is my GRANDMA!? COOL! Wait ‘til Herc gets a load of this! We’re beat demigod friends now!”

“No, son, you’re not a demigod. You’re mother is a mort-“

*Icarus is already running out the door to tell Hercules and Cassandra*

I can even see it being an episode too lol, similar to the Romans episode, Icarus thinks he’s a demigod because he’s Athena’s grandson and he tries to make himself better than everybody (especially Adonis) by making himself seem important lol (even though his best friend is literally the son of THE king of the gods and ruler of the cosmos lmao)

But I agree that Athena probably wouldn’t be a very attentive mother/grandmother which gives all the more reason as to why Icarus has no idea about him being related lol. I really do like the idea of her using Icarus to win arguments between her and Ares though lol, like she totally would get Icarus involved and be like:

Athena: *pulls up in her chariot*

Icarus: Hey, gra-

Athena: Get in. We’re gonna prove Ares wrong.

Icarus: ….Yeah! Okay!

[trax2115]

A SHOW IDEA THAT I WANT TO MAKE REAL ONE DAY (really long post)

this is gonna be a HUGE little rant thing because i love talking about my ideas, future ideas, concepts. etc etc

i just realized i never said anything about this but uhh, for months ive been dreaming on wanting to make this string (I've always had in mind) come true

at first it was going to be a joke play with the huge inspiration of gumball. hes based on this joke episode i made called "Lil H". a baku inspired series (by sethical)

at the first point, he was literally gonna be called Lil h, LITERALLY. but I thought of a different name for him, and i named him "douglas dinget". it was a stupid name. the first image is the first concept idea i had for him if i actually wanted to take his design seriously . (its uhm... pretty old!). second image is the actual concept drawing when i thought of him having his own show (not a serious design take obviously LOL)

for 2nd image, he's just sonic but with a square cap hat, long gloves, basically a frickin recolor/edit LOL. it was funny when I imagined how he would look if I animated him and the background is just a realistic school. and then i thought of making his name "douglas tucker". i think him having that name is pretty cool and funny

his inspiration is a mixture of a chibi figure (like gumball) and his animations would be peanuts esque. like the way how he would walk, run, slip, etc etc. BASICALLY how peanuts characters are animated. i really loved imagining that as a test animation for this design, never really did it tho. im still learning animation

now this is where i suddenly had a new idea. i imagined "what if douglas had a girlfriend and she was a cactus? because cactuses and hedgehogs are spiky.." and this is where the design comes in

her name is KATHERINE STERLING!!!!! OMLLLL!!! (also a HALF redesign on Douglas)

this was the third character i thought of tho. second character is a "My melody" rip off LOL. (which she WILL be redesigned soon)

and also heres a joke ass image i drew a while ago LOL (it says LIL H in japanese)

you see the mario right there? yea that was literally gonna be his design until i remembered nintendo going to everyone "uhm. FUCK YOU you arent allowed to use this character named "mario" or any other mario characters anymore! make up your own design or make your own creations!" and thats what i legit did (not rlly LMAO)

heavily inspired by the chowder mario (definitely changing his design somewhere later)

stupid name for him, it was on purpose too sense uh... JOKE SHOOWWW!!! this is still gonna be a joke show, and the first episode were legit pngs (like i said, baku inspiration.) and if i all of a sudden make episode 2 a huge gumball inspiration and have these art styles like THIS? oohhhhhooo that would be a huge glow up.

anyways im cutting to the main part. heres the main cast idea

i dont really got anything to say about claire, other than being a ocho rip off LMAO

well not really a rip off but like, she could overreact a lot. she doesnt do stuff harmful or anything, like causing damage and other stuff like that. shes not THAT aggressive basically. she MIGHT become a scrapped character. (unless if a team is formed for this show and someone knows how to put a 8 bit pixel character in a high resolution show, just like ocho)

okay now i want to show you the months that went by with DT's design, i just cant type any longer to show this i geniunely wanted to say all of that just so you can get on the path before i, PROBABLY, make this show a real thing

Huge glow up a little bit, right? hopefully you think the same as me with this design

constructive criticism is allowed btw. i would LOVE to hear more ideas from you guys if youre interested.

now heres his new design in line with the main cast

now i wanna talk about the

PERSONALITIES!!!

DOUGLAS: Douglas is normal about almost everything. it would be VERY rare to see douglas scared. he is extremely calm about stuff. he is tough. he doesnt take his rage out on anyone. even if some people would try to start a fight with him. he's a strong teen and he KNOWS he would knock someone out with one punch. its rare for him to get angry because he knows how strong he is. Lets just say hes kind of the opposite of gumball. Gumball can sometimes get scared when someone is raging at him (mostly people he knows who are STRONGER than him.) hes basically a wimp LOL. douglas is the opposite of that basically. douglas just does his own without meeting any new kid unless if they want to meet him (its best for him to wait if someone wants to be friends with him first)

KATHERINE: Katherine Is a very nice and polite person. but she can overreact sometimes and get mad at douglas if he says or does something that she doesnt like at all, especially if douglas makes a joke compliment to her. she basically hits douglas multiple times on the head. usually when she does that to her friends it hurts them but douglas barely feels anything when she does it to him LMAO

HADIZA: She trys to act tough like douglas despite the fact that douglas doesnt even try to act tough at all. she basically has the personality of gumball a little bit. she trys to stand up and be a more "scarier" person, trying to scare the big character. but when the big character makes a furious noise back at her, she would bunny hop away from them fast

CLAIRE: like i said earlier, "She could overreact a lot. she doesnt do stuff harmful or anything, like causing damage and other stuff like that. shes not THAT aggressive basically."

JACKSON: Jackson Is, to put it in short, a bit of a asshole. LMAO. basically jackson is always tired and can sometimes have aggresive tones. its very common for him. douglas has gotten use to his aggressiveness because theyve being friends ever since they were in kindergarten. Jackson has been getting tired of the world throughout the years.but luckily douglas and jackson are always staying communicated everyday. they never missed a single day not communicating. they are basically BEST best friends.

THE CLASSMATES & TEACHER (W.I.P.)

dont really have that much to say about the classmates. i got 5 more designs to create till the number of students is completed. i dont have that much to say about the teacher either. but i do know its gonna be REALLY HARD figuring out how to animate her. but i REALLY want this show to be good whenever the next episode comes out. i REALLY want these guys to be animated in the style i want them to be animated in

and here are douglas parents!!!

heres some old concepts, ideas, and just some shit for fun LOL

i really love showing my stuff

welp uh. THATS BASICALLY IT! i really love ranting about my

concept ideas and stuff when i think it would be awesome if it was a real thing

if you actually read through this whole entire post THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING IT! it took me like 2 or 3 hours to make this whole entire post. hope i used good grammar and wording on this post

woohoo!!!

[raining-anonymously]

infodump to me please.

ok but as you may know i am hyperfixating on a dnd series that none of tumblr cares about. it’s 1 For All DND by Deerstalker Pictures on Youtube and it is so funny and chaotic and well-made. i think i saw in a behind the scenes video that they film with a black magic camera (which i have seen in practice before and it’s. like. very good and expensive) and edit with adobe premiere (my beloved).

anyway series concept is that there are four Guys—Patrick the DM and his three players Eva, Antonio, and Nicole. Eva plays a half-elf fighter called Evandra who is tough and cool and scary and also bisexual. she has a sword and armor. sometimes she’s the common sense and sometimes she is Not. is that not top-notch character design? also her hair gets progressively cooler throughout the series which is very amazing of her.

Antonio plays a human bard named Antrius, who is incredibly full of himself, flirts with everyone (including a villain he successfully seduced, two paladins, evandra, his rival bard, a vampire, a random knight, a dwarven couple whose child evandra murdered, himself, etc), carries a lute but also plays everything from a kazoo to an accordion. he once said, “There’s no I in team. There’s an A, though—which stands for Antrius!” before doing a silly dance.

then there’s Nicole’s character, a tiefling sorcerer named Nixie. she can be a bit on the oblivious side—her intelligence score is zero—but she makes up for it with FIRE. like. literal fire. she’s adorable and pink but also she has one plan ever and it’s FIREBALL. also she likes women. when she was a kid she accidentally burnt her whole family to a crisp, probably due to wild magic and repression. disaster.

then there’s Pat the DM. who just wants a nice campaign. he also plays Every NPC (excluding a few roles later on) regardless of species and gender. he has to put up with the party’s shenanigans, which are exhausting, but he clearly does enjoy what he does, which is nice.

of course, this alone is great potential for a series—but what really brings it in for me are the side characters. aka guest players. over the course of the series, there have been a LOT of those: Vlithryn the triton cleric who’s tired of the party, Annandale the warlock who everybody hates, Dargle-Bark the… eccentric druid, Lorienne the paladin (who eva and antonio flirt with both in and out of character), the catlike Rogue who Nixie flirts with and Evandra hates, Mogdar the pacifist half-orc barbarian artist, Godfreya the incredibly amazing paladin, and my personal favorite—Zephyr the air genasi bard, who a) is Antrius’s ex, b) is Antrius’s rival, c) flirts with Antrius despite all this, d) is a bit (read: a lot) of a prick actually, and e) is crushingly insecure and cries himself to sleep.

that last character appears in a one-shot and one full episode, but that doesn’t stop him from being my blorbo. i have also watched the episode and gone over each shot and frame so many times that yesterday i realized that there’s a mistake towards the end where his flute switches hands in the very last shot of him. because i’m at that point where i have to see every facial expression from every character in that (musical!) episode, including nixie and evandra’s glorious background actions.

there’s also another earlier musical episode, which happens to be the best-rated episode of the series. the party’s been captured, and antrius (mis)uses bardic inspiration to get them out of it—and it’s beautiful. it’s just beautiful. wonderful cinematography, wonderful singing, wonderful lyrics, wonderful acting, wonderful script, just wonderful.

the episodes are short which is great if you have a wildly fluctuating attention span like me. the characters are often terrible people but they’re somehow still likable and hilarious. tw for extreme fantasy violence and sex jokes, but it’s a great series with great humor and the rest of tumblr needs to watch it so i can see fanart and fanfic without having to make it myself. you guys would love annandale

[mermaidsirennikita]

Have you read Captive Bride by Johanna Lindsay?

This year I decided to try more old school historical romances

I haven't--I'm not yet sure that I want to go into sheik romances, tbh. Even for the project, where I'm going to intentionally read problematic books.

My next Johanna is going to be Prisoner of My Desire, which I actually think I did read at an outrageously young age. That one is pretty legendary, though it does have noncon and dubcon, enacted by both parties.

If you are looking for more old school authors, I would definitely recommend:

Julie Garwood--active from the 80's onward, just recently left of us. She writes a mixture of historical, romantic suspense, and I think contemporaries as well, and her historicals are all over the place in terms of time period and location. My favorite by her thus far is the verrrry classic "The Bride", which is an English/Scottish border marriage medieval. Has the classic "You call her mine" "I won't take you until you're wearing my plaid" Alec Kincaid. Technically a heads up for dubcon because Alec... gets the party started while Jamie is asleep (and not in a Sebastian St. Vincent "you're hard to wake up" way, in a "oh boy that is in there" kind of way). To be fair, she loved it. To be fair, I also loved it.

Judith McNaught--80's onward, known for her Westmoreland books. My favorite is A Kingdom of Dreams, another Scottish/English medieval but this time SHE'S the Scottish one, and is literally known as "the Merrick bitch" because she's a nightmare and basically emotionally terrorizes this man for most of the book after he kidnaps her. He does outsource his kidnapping! But by the time the king forces them to marry he's hauling her to the altar like "LOOK BITCH I DON'T WANNA BE HERE EITHER" and it's soooo funny. Heads up that she's like... a cool 17 (so is Jamie in the above book, I think, it was a different time) and there's some dubcon by way of coercion. But again, she loved it.

Jude Deveraux--80's onward, kinda writes a little lighter? And her genres are all over the place too. Still working. Did a delightful Trailblazer episode on Fated Mates. My favorite Deveraux is A Knight in Shining Armor (I have a hard back with the original cover and it is an AMAZING cover) which is a medieval time travel book in which the 80's era heroine is ditched by her fiance and his daughter with no money in the middle of nowhere, so she's like dramatically sobbing in this church or something and wishing for a knight in shining armor and one just APPEARS. But he's kind of the worst? And like tries to spend her money and shit lmao? ("Hero has no concept of money and keeps running bills up" is a microtrope I love.) Anyway, there is definitely some problematic stuff in this book and I haven't read it in a whiiile so no promises there, but I did enjoy it a lot back in the day. And it taught me a thing.

So those other three make up, with Johanna, the "4 J's". Other authors I'd recommend checking out:

Elizabeth Lowell. I guess the 90's romances are old school? But yes, I adore her Medieval trilogy--Untamed, Forbidden, and Enchanted. All of them involve pushy alpha heroes, medieval high drama, INSANITY, vague mysticism which is present more in older books. Enchanted definitely has a harder plotline--the heroine is recovering from rape, and some of the approach is dated but overall well-intentioned imo.

Anne Stuart--Just started reading her. DARK. A Rose at Midnight has noncon (past experiences, sorta the hero???), dubcon (with the hero), a very dark and murder-heavy backstory. It's a tough book, but I found it beautiful and super romantic.

[meherya]

Let's talk about The Brothers Sun :)

I think, my number one gripe with this show was that, I could see the potential... there were scenes where you could see the insane shit this show could have pulled off if it was written by literally ANYONE else

The first thing that really made me go 🤨 watching this show was the incessant references to #diasporaasiankidtingz.. I'd understand if it was here or there as some sort of comedy relief... But no it was literally every other scene if not every scene....

From a cop adjacent character eating buldak noodles at an active crime scene, to teaching a Taiwanese gangster the hidden asian mom language... it was just so... stupid? Is the only way I could describe it, it's like someone compiled a number of posts from Facebook's Subtle Asian Traits page and structured the story and dialogue around that? Thought it was kind of funny that they remembered "Asian" doesn't just mean East Asian when they threw in random brown girl from the morgue...

Actingwise, Justin Chien is by no means a bad actor, every scene where he speaks in mandarin his acting is a lot less wooden than when his dialogue is english and I genuinely believe it's because of the rigid way they wrote his lines in english... as for everyone else.... Sam Song Li was rlly putting his whole bussy into his americanized first gen immigrant kid schtick and like whatever...

I found the concept of this top Triad guy coming to LA to look after his mom and brother after an assassination attempt on their father to be intriguing... his mom was as cool as I expected (her own fight scene... ofc she should've been head bitch in charge!!!) but ofc his brother would be a whitewashed loser!! But you know, it could've worked!!! It could've been interesting if they didn't have Bruce emulating Marvel movie comedy all the fucking time... But if you think about it too hard you might go, why would the son/best fighter of this Triad leave the whole business behind to look after his mom/brother and not take back up with him?? Some math was simply not mathing... but we move on

There's just a lot of points that don't make sense plotwise? Like oh so now this random cop girl is actually childhood besties with Charles?... And the way they try to force some semblance of chemistry between the two with them hamfisting by them just going back and forth like "remember when-"... and their flirting was gag worthy bc they had her speaking huskily for no reason?? It was really lifeless sort of interactions and they were really trying for the star crossed lovers bit but it simply did not work sorry.... It was kind of fucked because the tension between Drowsy and Charles in like 1/4 of an episode was 10 times whatever the cop girl and Charles had going on.... Though I do appreciate it how the show does go "once a rat, always a rat" bc she really fucked that man just to get a bust on him like woah!!! Of all my grievances with that lacklustre romance I do appreciate them not being together and her being loner loser at the end.

But anyways... I think the show did decent job at showing how trying to live up to a parent's expectations can break you as a person and force you into a role you dgaf about, and how it's important to also put your needs first before you become a shell of a person... But also they could have done it without being corny as fuck...

I think the plot with this underdog group of anti-Triads would have been soo good, if it was integrated better? Also Grace randomly approaching Bruce like we all knew she was gonna be a traitor... And like!! She wasn't wrong!! Their group was wasn't wrong!!! Why should the Triads exist when all they do is profit off others misery??? Like we are supposed to cheer on the Triads why? Because that's who we follow largely, and because of Bruce's bitchass.... He pissed me off soo bad by the end it's not even funny...

Think the show could have had merit if Bruce decided to join Grace after seeing old bald dude get killed, and realizing how fucked his family is... Him snitching to a group of people who want to murder your family, claiming that was him trying to save his family from themselves.... And believing them when they say okay well we'll try not to kill them but no promises... How are you a pre-med when you're that stupid lol

I was gonna write paragraph of how I wanted to see this go and how they could have factored in Charles being ordered to kill Bruce (which was fucking insane by the way, my fave episode of the series) to be even more wild but like it's marketed as a comedy so whatever but man it was fucking corny as shit with random gaping plot holes that we really dont want to think too long and hard about .... I will say tho, kudos for not having white people in this as love interests or sidekicks so!!!! So 2/5

also curious what Taiwanese ppl think about that scene where Bruce just calls Charles Chinese... Ik Taiwan and China got some beef, idk the specifics of it but 👀